The Library at Titchfield Abbey

The monks of Titchfield followed the Order of Prémontré and were all ordained priests. They were therefore literate and educated, in contrast to many Benedictine and Cistercian houses, so it is not surprising that the abbey would have a library.

From accounts that we have, the library was well-endowed and 224 volumes were catalogued in 1400. It appears too, that Titchfield had a separate room, accessible from the eastern cloister, where the manuscripts were stored. There were four cases for books, two on the eats wall, and one each on the north and south walls, and each case had eight shelves. The first case held the Bibles and glosses related to various books. Case II held works of general theology and case III was occupied by sermons, legends, rules and canon and civil law. The fourth case was filled with non-theological works, such as books on medical practice, grammar, logic, philosophy and other subjects.

Books, which at this time were all manuscripts, were expensive, rare, and highly prized, and it is somewhat surprising that a middling house such as Titchfield should be so well endowed. One modern estimate of the "224 volumes" suggests that this might represent 1700 books. Naturally the books were well-protected and there were strict rules about the time and location of reading. No book was ever left unattended and it was always returned to its case when not being read. The librarian was known as the armarius, that is, the man who looked after the amarium, the case where the books were held.

At the time of the dissolution there was not a single book to be found in the abbey.When Sir Thomas Wriothesley took possession of the abbey at the end of 1537, it had been stripped of all assets and even left with an unpaid debt of £200. There is no record to tell us what happened so it must be presumed that the abbot and monks, knowing the fate of the house well in advance, took it upon themselves to cash in the assets of the house.