in the royal collection.

In the same year that he became deputy keeper, Dury wrote the following
tract, one of a dozen he composed in 1650 on topics ranging from the
educational to the ecclesiastical. Among the latter was his introduction
to Thomas Thorowgood's book contending that the American Indians are
descended from the Israelites, a work that also served as promotional
material for New England colonization.

That Dury's _The Reformed Librarie-Keeper_ is part of his reform program
preparatory to the onset of the millennium is apparent both from its
setting and its content. It was published in 1650 along with two other
tracts (not reprinted here)[7] and Dury's supplement to his _Reformed
School_, which itself had appeared a few months earlier. _The Reformed
School_ was a basic presentation of the ideas of Comenius, Hartlib, and
Dury for transforming the nature of education in such a way that from
infancy people would be directed in their striving toward universal
knowledge and spiritual betterment. The _Supplement to the Reformed
School_ deals with the role that universities should take in preparing
for the Kingdom of God, a role making them more actively part of the
world.

Having placed educational institutions in the scheme of things
preparatory to the millennium, Dury then proceeds to place library
keeping and libraries in this scheme as well. Unfortunately, according
to Dury, library keepers had traditionally regarded their positions as
opportunities for profit and gain, not for "the service, which is to bee
don by them unto the Common-wealth of Israel, for the advancement of
Pietie and Learning" (p. 15). Library keepers "ought to becom Agents for
the advancement of universal Learning" and not just mercenary people (p.