Epiphanius, published in 1544.
The parochial library of St Mary's Church, Warwick, was established in 1701. It numbers about 1,400 volumes, mostly on theological subjects, including nearly 100 volumes published in the sixteenth century and over 600 in the seventeenth century.
Amongst the books in this collection are several important Reformation texts, including:
- Thomas Gascoigne's Myroure of Oure Lady (1530), a devotional treatise in English on divine service produced for the nuns of Sion in Middlesex, who had learnt to sing and pronounce Latin without knowing "the meaning thereof"
- the first translation into English of Paraphrases of the New Testament (1548) by Erasmus, a commentary written as if it were in the voice of the original
- several books published in Paris in the mid-1500s by the French poet Joachim du Bellay, who together with his fellow poet Ronsard founded the French school of Renaissance poetry, including the copy of his Poematum Libri Quatuor (1558) owned by the English Calvinist poet and dramatist Sir Fulke Greville of Warwick (1554-1628)
- a first edition of John Donne's Pseudo-martyr (1610), his important personal contribution to the debate on how Catholics might take the Oath of Allegiance in good faith.