Why did Henry Yates Thompson aim to collect exactly 100 illuminated manuscripts?

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Henry Yates Thompson’s goal of collecting exactly 100 illuminated manuscripts was rooted in the philosophy of "cabinet collecting." This approach focuses on gathering a small, curated group of the finest specimens available rather than amassing a large quantity of items.1

Thompson aimed to ensure that each of the 100 manuscripts in his collection was the best example of its type that he could find and afford. To maintain this high standard, he established a strict rule: new acquisitions were only to be added if they surpassed the quality of an existing manuscript in the collection, which would then be removed. While Thompson found this "stern ideal" difficult to follow to the letter, the collection—now held by the British Library—remains a prominent example of the cabinet style of book collecting.1