Owing to disputes that arose between the University and the College to
which Cobham had belonged, the gift did not take effect until 1367. The
University Library was established in the upper room, which was used as a
Convocation House in later times; it is said not to have been completely
furnished until the year 1409, more than eighty years after the date of
the Bishop's benefaction. According to the first statute for the
regulation of Cobham's Library, the best of the books were to be sold so
as to raise a sum of L40, which according to the current rate of interest
would produce a yearly income of L3 for the librarian; the other books,
together with those from the University Chest, were to be chained to the
desks for the general use of the students. It was soon found necessary to
exclude the 'noisy rabble': and permission to work in the library was
restricted to graduates of eight years' standing. Richard de Bury had
warned the world in his chapter upon the handling of books, how hardly
could a raw youth be made to take care of a manuscript; the student,
according to the great bibliophile, would treat a book as roughly as if
it were a pair of shoes, would stick in straws to keep his place, or
stuff it with violets and rose-leaves, and would very likely eat fruit or
cheese over one page and set a cup of ale on the other. An impudent boy
would scribble across the text, the copyist would try his pen on a blank
space, a scullion would turn the pages with unwashed hands, or a thief
might cut out the fly-leaves and margins to use in writing his letters;
'and all these various negligences,' he adds, 'are wonderfully injurious
to books.
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