Three Centuries of a City Library | Page 2

with the decline of monastic learning in Europe were the
revival of secular learning and the invention of printing, which gave a
great impetus to the collection of books, especially on the continent.
The sixteenth century was a dark age in the history of British libraries,
the iconoclasts of the Reformation ruthlessly destroying innumerable
priceless treasures both of books and bindings. John Bale, Bishop of
Ossory, who was educated at a Carmelite Convent in Norwich, and
became vicar of Swaffham, Norfolk, in 1551, wrote scathingly of the
literary condition of England in the middle of the sixteenth century, and
referred specifically to Norwich: "O cyties of Englande, whose glory
standeth more in bellye chere, than in the serch of wysdome godlye.
How cometh it, that neyther you, nor yet your ydell masmongers, haue
regarded thys most worthy commodyte of your contrey? I meane the
conseruacyon of your Antiquytees, and of the worthy labours of your
lerned men. . . . I have bene also at Norwyche, oure seconde cytie of
name, and there all the library monumentes are turned to the vse of
their grossers, candelmakers, sope sellers, and other worldly
occupyers." {2a}
In the early years of the seventeenth century many famous collegiate
and town libraries--i.e., libraries under the guardianship of
municipalities--were founded throughout the country, and in the history
of the latter Norwich has a unique place. So far as can be ascertained
from the published historical accounts of libraries, Norwich has the
distinction of having established in 1608 (six years after the foundation
of the Bodleian Library, and 145 years before the foundation of the
British Museum) the first provincial town library under municipal

control. {2b} The other earliest popular town libraries are those of
Ipswich (1612), Bristol (founded in 1613 and opened in 1615), and
Leicester (1632). Mr. Norris Mathews, the City Librarian of Bristol,
contends that "The claim to the earliest [public library] in England still
belongs to Bristol. This library was that of the Kalendars or
Kalendaries, a brotherhood of clergy and laity who were attached to the
Church of All-Hallowen or All Saints, still existing in Corn Street"
("Library Association Record," vol. 2, 1900, p. 642). In some notes
regarding this Gild of Kalendars in Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith's
Introduction to "Ricart's Calendar" {3} it is stated that "In 1464
provision was made as to a library, lately erected in the house of the
Kalendars," and reference is made to a deed of that date by which it
was "appointed that all who wish to enter for the sake of instruction
shall have 'free access and recess' at certain times, and that, lest the
books should be lost, three inventories shall be made, to be yearly
collated with the books, which books shall be chained in a room, and
for the loss of which heavy penalties are imposed on the prior. The
prior to be appointed by the Mayor." Mr. John Taylor in his article on
"The earliest English free libraries" ("Library Chronicle," vol. 3, 1886,
p. 156), stated that these regulations were made by an ordinance of
John, Bishop of Worcester, A.D. 1464. From the foregoing quotations
it is obvious that the Library was under the control of the Gild, and not
of the municipality, and therefore while, as a semi-monastic library, it
may be regarded as a prototype of the modern public library, it cannot
be justly claimed as the first public town library.
The following account of the first provincial town library and its
successor is in two parts: part I. deals with the Library established in
1608 and now known as the City Library, and part II. deals with the
Public Library, established under the Public Library Act of 1850.


PART I. THE CITY LIBRARY.
FOUNDATION AND HISTORY.

According to the judicious Norfolk antiquary John Kirkpatrick, who
accumulated vast collections of material relating to Norwich, "There
was a design of erecting a Public Library in this City, in the reign of
Edward the Fourth, as appears by this legacy, in the will of John
Leystofte, vicar of St. Stephen's church, here, A.D. 1461,
namely,--"Item. I will that, if a library be begun in Norwich, within two
years after my decease, I bequeath to the same, my book called
Repyngton." {4} Kirkpatrick was unable to say whether the legacy was
effected, and no record remains.
The first City Library of which there is any record was founded on the
3rd May, 1608, and by the following order of Assembly which was
then recorded, it will be observed that it had an ecclesiastical basis, like
so many libraries of previous centuries: "Ordered, with the consent of
Jerrom Goodwyne, sword-bearer, that iij chambers, parcel of his
dwelling-howse, which he hath by lease of the cyttie, shal be converted
to a lybrary for