Note 284 — The Library.

See page 114, ante. When Lysander talks, above, of the reign of Henry the Seventh being the "Augustan age for books," he must be supposed to allude to the facility and beauty of publishing them by means of the press: for at this period, abroad, the typographical productions of Verard, Eustace, Vostre, Bonfons, Pigouchet, Regnier, and many others ("quæ nunc perscribere longum est") were imitated, and sometimes equalled by W. de Worde, Pynson, and Notary, at home. In regard to intellectual fame, if my authority be good, "in the reign of Henry VII. Greek was a stranger in both universities; and so little even of Latin had Cambridge, of its own growth, that it had not types sufficient to furnish out the common letters and epistles of the University. They usually employed an Italian, one Caius Auberinus, to compose them, whose ordinarry fee was twentypence a letter." (MSS. in Benet College Library, lib. P. p. 194,) Ridley's Life of Ridley, p. 22. "Greek began to be taught in both universities: quietly at Cambridge, but ('Horresco referens!') with some tumult at Oxford!" ibid.