Three Centuries of a City Library | Page 2

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 the use of the preachers, and for a lodging chamber for such preachers as shall come to this cittie, to preach on the sabboth-dayes, and at other tymes, in the common place, and