the most ancient of which is a copy in Anglo Saxon of the four Evangelists, bequeathed to the cathedral by Athelstan, the last Saxon bishop of that diocese (1012–1056). The 2,000 volumes of the library are well preserved. Among them is Wyckliffe’s Bible, luxuriously bound; Gerroni “Opera,” 1494; Hartmani “Chronicon,” 1493; Higden’s “Polychronicon,” with additions by William Caxton, 1495.
Every volume is attached to a chain, of such length that the volume may be placed on a desk near at hand, provided at one extremity with an iron-ring for the insertion of a rod, closing with a padlock on either side of the bookcase. It is on the model of all the ancient libraries of chained books; but the exceptional preservation of the Hereford library is explained by the rigid rules of its management; and also, as the Abbé Dufour aptly insinuates, by the fact that Richard de Bury, the illustrious author of the “Philobiblion,” was canon of Hereford. The custom is as old as the fifth century, and prevailed until the last century, as there is a record of the gift to All Saints Church of Hereford of Dr. William Brewster’s library of catenati in 1715; although that is possibly as exceptional a case as the modern one of a chained directory or dictionary in a public place.
