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During the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-1541) many monastic libraries were destroyed. Goodness knows what we lost there – certainly many early Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. In the French Wars of Religion in 1562 Huguenots sacked the Abbey of Cluny which contained one of the richest libraries in Europe. Between 1640 and 1660 Cromwell in England order the burning of books and pamphlets. In the Great Fire of London, 1666, many booksellers moved their books into a stone crypt at the old St Paul’s Cathedral to protect them. I have now heard two stories about this. One was that when the crypt was re-opened the books were so super-heated they spontaneously combusted when the air poured in. The other story is that falling masonry broke into the crypt and the books were destroyed. In 1814 during the Burning of Washington, British and Canadian troops set fire to the Capitol Building destroying the original Library of Congress with its 3000 volumes. Once the British had withdrawn, former President Thomas Jefferson sold his 6700 volume library to the US Government to make good the loss.

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