1766 – Taylor library bequest

In 1766 the Revd Dr John Taylor, Old Salopian, eminent Greek scholar and Registrar and Librarian of Cambridge University, bequeathed his fine library of some 3,500 books to the School, more than doubling the size of the existing library.

His collection is particularly rich in works relating to Roman antiquities in Italy, Greek authors and English antiquarianism.

Taylor’s collection has always been kept together, and since 1966 has given its name to the whole Ancient Library.

His manuscripts were bequeathed elsewhere, with the exception of a remarkable Elizabethan town chronicle for Shrewsbury known as 'Dr Taylor's MS'. This is an Elizabethan town chronicle, dating from the late 1570s, penned by an anonymous Salopian using existing local annals, printed broadsheets and pamphlets, and drawing more widely for a fuller, more national – and indeed international – appeal.

In 2013, author Pauline Fisk made two visits to the Taylor Library and wrote about them in her blog, ‘My Tonight from Shrewsbury’, which was later published as a book.

http://mytonightfromshrewsbury.blogspot.com/2013/11/shrewsbury-schools-ancient-library.html

http://mytonightfromshrewsbury.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-shrewsbury-fragment.html – This describes Pauline Fisk’s second visit specifically to examine ‘The Shrewsbury Fragment’, part of a miracle play of about 1400 and the earliest example of a miracle play in English.