Bertram, fourth Earl of Ashburnham, who was born on the 23rd of November 1797, and died on the 22nd of June 1878, was one of the greatest and most ardent of English book-collectors. He developed a taste for book-buying at a very early age. It is said that his first purchase was made in 1814, when, a boy at Westminster School, he bought a copy of the Secretes of Albertus Magnus for eighteenpence at Ginger's well-known shop in Great College Street, and at the time of his death he had amassed a library which ranked among the first in the kingdom. Magnificent as was his collection of printed books, the library was even still more notable for the manuscripts it contained, which amounted to nearly four thousand, and were remarkable for their value and importance. In addition to those which he bought separately, Lord Ashburnham acquired in 1847 the manuscripts of Count Guglielmo Libri for eight thousand pounds, and in 1849 he purchased the Stowe manuscripts for the same sum, and those of Jean Barrois for six thousand pounds. Five years after the death of Lord Ashburnham, his successor, the present Earl, offered the manuscripts, for one hundred and sixty thousand pounds, to the Trustees of the British Museum, who were anxious to purchase them for that sum. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, however, declined to find the money for the entire collection, but the Stowe manuscripts were acquired by the Government for forty-five thousand pounds, and divided between the British Museum and the library of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. To the latter institution were given the Irish manuscripts and certain volumes specially relating to Ireland. It had long been suspected that many of the manuscripts in the Libri and Barrois collections had been abstracted from French and Italian public libraries, and when this was proved to have been the case, principally through the researches of M. Delisle, the Director of the BibliothÈque Nationale, it was arranged between the Trustees of the British Museum and the French authorities that should the former become possessors of the manuscripts, they would return the stolen volumes for the sum of twenty-four thousand pounds. As the Treasury refused to sanction the purchase of the whole of the Ashburnham manuscripts, this arrangement could not be carried out, and in 1887 the manuscripts, one hundred and sixty-six in number, stolen from the French and Italian libraries, were bought by Mr. Karl TrÜbner, acting as agent for the Grand Duke of Baden and the German Imperial authorities, for the same sum as the French had been willing to pay for them. The primary object of this transaction, says Mr. F.S. Ellis in his excellent account of the library in Quaritch's Dictionary of English Book-Collectors, 'was to recover the famous Manesse Liederbuch, a thirteenth century MS. carried away by the French from Heidelberg in 1656, the loss of which had ever since been regarded as a national calamity in Germany. For £6000 in cash and this precious volume, he handed over the 166 Libri and Barrois MSS. to the BibliothÈque Nationale. By a simple arithmetical process, we can conclude that £18,000 was the net cost to the German Exchequer of a single volume of old German ballads—the highest price ever paid for a book.' The stolen manuscripts which were not required to replace those taken from the French libraries, were purchased by the Italian Government.

Mr. Yates Thompson is understood to have purchased that portion of the other manuscripts in the library known as 'The Appendix,' for about forty thousand pounds, and after selecting those he required for his own collection, to have sent the remainder to the auction rooms of Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, where they were sold on May the 1st, 1899. There were one hundred and seventy-seven lots in the sale, which realised eight thousand five hundred and ninety-five pounds, five shillings. The choicest manuscript in the catalogue was an important text of the later version (1400-40) of 'Wycliffe's English Bible,' known as the 'Bramhall Manuscript,' which was knocked down to Mr. Quaritch for seventeen hundred and fifty pounds. Other fine manuscripts were a copy of the Historia Ecclesiastica of the Venerable Bede, written in the eighth century; an Evangeliarium of the twelfth century, with beautiful illuminations; Officia Liturgica, fifteenth century; and HorÆ BeatÆ MariÆ Virginis, written in the sixteenth century, richly illuminated. These realised respectively two hundred and thirty pounds, three hundred pounds, four hundred and sixty-seven pounds, and three hundred pounds. On the 10th of June 1901 and the four following days the manuscripts in the Barrois Collection, not previously disposed of, were sold by the same auctioneers. There were six hundred and twenty-eight lots in this sale, and the very large sum of thirty-three thousand two hundred and seventeen pounds, six shillings and sixpence was obtained for them, the choicest manuscripts fetching exceptionally high prices. The manuscripts were of great importance and much interest. Among them were to be found early copies of the Gospels and Epistles, and beautifully illuminated manuscripts of the Latin and Italian Classics, Books of Devotion, and early French Romances and Chronicles. The collection also contained a number of papers relating to Mary, Queen of Scots, and a valuable series of Anglo-Norman Charters, etc. The following are a few of the more interesting and valuable manuscripts, together with the prices they realised:—Roman du Saint Graal et Lancelot du Lac, on vellum, in three folio volumes, with beautifully painted miniatures and initials, fourteenth century—eighteen hundred pounds; Psalterium Latinum, on vellum, fourteenth century, with paintings attributed to Giotto—fifteen hundred and thirty pounds; Vie du vaillant Bertrand du Guesclin, written on vellum in the fourteenth century, with miniatures in camaÏeu gris—fifteen hundred pounds; La LÉgende DorÉe, translated by Jehan de Vignay, fifteenth century, on vellum, with a large number of very fine illuminated miniatures and ornamental initials—fifteen hundred pounds; Chronique Generale dite de la Bourcachardiere, by Jehan de Courcy, in two large folio volumes, on vellum, with large illuminations, fifteenth century—fourteen hundred and twenty pounds; HorÆ BeatÆ MariÆ Virginis, with very fine illuminations, fifteenth century—eleven hundred and sixty pounds; Histoire Universelle, on vellum, in two volumes, with miniatures in camaÏeu gris, fifteenth century—nine hundred and ten pounds; Dante, vellum, richly illuminated, fourteenth century—six hundred and thirty pounds. The collection of Anglo-Norman Charters fetched three hundred and five pounds, and the Letters and Papers relating to Mary, Queen of Scots, one hundred and ninety-six pounds.

For upwards of fifty years Lord Ashburnham availed himself of every opportunity of acquiring the finest and most perfect copies obtainable of the rarest and choicest books, and he brought together a collection of printed volumes which was well worthy of being associated with that of his manuscripts. It was especially rich in Bibles, and in Missals, HorÆ and other Service Books, and in the early editions of Dante, Boccaccio and Chaucer. Among the Bibles and portions of the Scriptures were a block-book, a copy of the Biblia Pauperum, regarded by Heinecken as the second edition of that work; vellum and paper copies of the Gutenberg Bible; a vellum copy of the 1462 Latin Bible; a perfect copy of Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch, printed at 'Marlborow' by Hans Loft in 1534; and the Coverdale Bible of 1535. Of foreign incunabula there was a large number; of Caxtons a very goodly list,[99] but comparatively few of them perfect; and the rarest productions of the press of St. Albans, and of those of Machlinia, Lettou, Pynson, Wynkyn de Worde, Copland, and other early English printers were to be found in the library. The collection of the editions of the Book of Hawking, Hunting, etc., attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, may be considered to have been unique, for it included the Book of St. Albans, printed in 1486, the extremely rare edition printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, the three editions printed by William Copland, those of William Powell and John Waley, and the only known copy of the first separate edition of Fysshynge with an Angle, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1532. Other rare English books were the first edition of the first Reformed Primer, printed in 1535; an Abridgement of the Chronicles of Englande, printed by Grafton in 1570, which belonged to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded in 1572, with an interesting letter written by him on the blank space of the reverse of the last leaf, shortly before his death; The Principal Navigations, etc., of the English Nation, by Richard Hakluyt, printed in 1598-1600, with the very rare map having the Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 1577, and that of Standish, 1587, and the original suppressed pages of the Voyage to Cadiz; the four Shakespeare folios, and the first five editions of Walton's Compleat Angler, in the original bindings (three sheep and two calf) as issued by the publisher. Books also worthy of special notice were the beautifully illuminated copies of Boccaccio's Ruine des Nobles Hommes, printed by Colard Mansion at Bruges in 1476; the Opera Varia Latine of Aristotle, printed on vellum by Andrea de Asula at Venice in 1483; and Heures de la Vierge Marie, also printed on vellum, by Geoffroy Tory in 1525. A catalogue of the more rare and curious printed books in the library was privately printed in 1864.

Although bookbindings did not form a special feature of the library, Lord Ashburnham possessed some remarkably fine and interesting examples of them. That on a tenth century manuscript of the Gospels, which for many centuries belonged to the Abbey of Noble Canonesses at Lindau, on the Lake of Constance, is one of the finest specimens of gold and jewelled bindings to be found in any collection. This beautiful work of art, the lower cover of which is of the eighth century and the upper of the ninth, is of gold or silver gilt, and is profusely decorated with jewels. It is described in the Vetusta Monumenta of the Society of Antiquaries, and was shown at the Exhibition of Bookbindings at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1891.[100] The collection also contained a particularly fine mosaic binding, with doublures, by Monnier, and many volumes from the libraries of Grolier, Maioli, the Emperor Charles V., De Thou, etc.

Lord Ashburnham's printed books were sold in three portions in 1897 and 1898 by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge. The first sale took place on June 25th, 1897, and seven following days; the second on December 6th, 1897, and five following days, and the third on May 9th, 1898, and five following days. There were four thousand and seventy-five lots in the three sales, and the total amount realised was sixty-two thousand seven hundred and twelve pounds, seven shillings and sixpence.

Very high prices were obtained for the books. The Biblia Pauperum block-book sold for a thousand and fifty pounds; the vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible for four thousand pounds, the largest sum paid for a copy of this Bible, and the highest but one ever given for a printed book (Lord Ashburnham's copy on paper was sold privately to Mr. Quaritch for three thousand pounds); the Latin Bible of 1462 for fifteen hundred pounds; and the Coverdale Bible and Tyndale's Pentateuch for eight hundred and twenty pounds, and two hundred pounds. The illuminated copies of Boccaccio's Ruine des Nobles Hommes, printed by Colard Mansion; Aristotle's Opera Varia Latine, printed by Andrea de Asula; and the Heures de la Vierge Marie, printed by Geoffroy Tory, realised six hundred and ninety-five pounds, eight hundred pounds, and eight hundred and sixty pounds.

Of the Caxtons the Life of Jason and the Dictes fetched the highest prices—two thousand one hundred pounds, and thirteen hundred and twenty pounds; the former being the largest sum ever paid for any Caxton book. Three hundred and eighty-five pounds were obtained for the 'Book of St. Albans'; one thousand pounds for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1498, believed to be the only copy extant; and three hundred and sixty pounds for the Treatyse of Fysshing with an Angle, by the same printer. This little book, which consists of sixteen leaves, and without the covers weighs about two ounces, sold for nearly forty-five times its weight in gold. The first edition of the Reformed Primer sold for two hundred and twenty-five pounds; Grafton's Chronicle, with the letter of the Duke of Norfolk, for seventy pounds; and a vellum copy of the Tewrdannck for three hundred and ten pounds.

The first folio Shakespeare, which was slightly imperfect, was bought by Mr. Sotheran for five hundred and eighty-five pounds, for presentation to the Memorial Library, Stratford-on-Avon. The second folio fetched ninety pounds, and the third one hundred and ninety pounds. Hakluyt's Navigations sold for two hundred and seventy-five pounds, and the set of the first five editions of the Compleat Angler for eight hundred pounds. At the Corser sale they realised but one hundred and forty pounds. The copy of Merlin with the Monnier binding brought seven hundred and sixty pounds, and a collection of early impressions of sixty-two prints by Albert DÜrer three hundred and fifty pounds.