Some idea of the riches of Archbishop Parker's library, be-
queathed to Corpus Christi, Cambridge, in 1574, may be gathered from a Guide to an Exhibition of Historical Authorities which the librarian, Sir Geoffrey Butler, has compiled (Cambridge University Press, Is. net). He observes that fifteen of the forty-three chronicles of primary importance for the eleventh and twelfth centuries are preserved at Corpus, and eleven of these are either unique texts or the most authoritative. The earliest and best text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the only copy known of Simeon of Durham, and the best text of Matthew Paris are among the twenty-four exhibits described. Sir Geoffrey Butler deals almost exclusively with the early MSS., but the Parker collection, of course, contains much historical material for the Reformation period. Like Pepys's library at Magdalene, it has been most carefully preserved.
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