This book is written to commemorate and celebrate the 500th anniversary of the opening of the Duke Humfrey's Library at Oxford University. The author discusses the history and construction of the Library which was started in the early 1420s to house several donations of books given to the University by Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester. It was not finished until 1488. He outlines the problems posed by the lack of adequate finances and by the elaborations of ambitious master masons. Gillam also discusses the subsequent refurnishment and redecoration by Sir Thomas Bodley in the last years of the 16th century.