Lost Libraries: The Case of the Oxford Franciscans, c. 1330-1340

All medieval libraries are lost libraries, and there is a great deal of work to be done in discovering their dimensions. As is well recognized, the state of our knowledge of English mendicant libraries is particularly dire, the only thing approaching a conspectus being the famous 1382 catalogue from the York Augustinians. Here I seek, at least partially, to uncover the invisible to see what one can learn about what should have been the premier library of the Franciscan order, the one at Oxford Greyfriars. I offer only a snapshot of what might be inferred about library contents, not simply in this single place but at a particular time. In the main, my evidence is derived from the activities of John Ridewall, the fifty-fourth regent master to the Oxford Franciscans; he is recorded only during the 1330s.