Dover Priory

The library catalogue of the Benedictine priory of St Martin at Dover was compiled by the precentor, John Whytefield, in 1389. It is the most sophisticated catalogue to survive from any medieval English library. One of a series of studies of British medieval library catalogues, this text acts as an introduction to this remarkable three-part document. The book explains in detail how each of the three parts of the document were intended to be of use to different members of the community. The first part is a concise list of the volumes in the library useful to the librarian in his role as keeper; the second part itemizes the contents of each volume for the catalogue browser; and the third part is an author and title indx useful to searchers for a particular text. Of special use to modern scholars is the inclusion of the incipits of texts, which make it possible to identify many anonymous or erroneously ascribed works, and often to establish the identity of books referred to in the same way in other lists.