Books and their makers during the Middle Ages

by George Haven Putnam

CHAPTER II.

SOME LIBRARIES OF THE MANUSCRIPT PERIOD.

THE following are some of the more important collections referred to in the records of the Middle Ages. In Constantinople the Patriarch had a library in Thomaïtes which was said to be of considerable importance, and the works in it are referred to very often in the transactions of the Synods. This collection was destroyed by fire in 780, but was speedily replaced. Many of the monasteries of the Greek Church possessed libraries, and in some of these libraries were preserved the oldest manuscripts known to the world. Among the most important of these collections was that contained in the monastery of Mt. Athos, some of the treasures of which have been preserved to the present day. During the time of Basilius Macedo (867-886), much work was said to have been done by the scribes of this monastery.[212]

In Egypt it is claimed that until the conquest by the Arab, there was a good deal of literary activity in the monasteries, and in the monastery of S. Catherine of the Sinai range were preserved some specimens of the earlier manuscripts, of which the Testament discovered by Tischendorf is the most important example.

The Library of S. Giovanni in Naples, from which many valuable Greek manuscripts were secured for the Royal Library in Vienna, was not an old monastery collection, but had its origin, according to Blume, with Janus Parrhasius.[213] The Augustin monks presented the collection in 1729 to the Emperor Charles VI., in order that they might not be disturbed in their seclusion by the visits of zealous scholars.[214]

The earliest of ecclesiastical libraries was probably that collected by Bishop Alexander, in Jerusalem, at the beginning of the third century. Fifty years later a library was founded at Cesarea by Origen, which is described as extensive and important.[215] Collections were also made at an early date at Hippo, at Cirta, at Constantinople, and at S. Peter’s and the Lateran in Rome. All these earlier libraries were apparently connected with the churches, and in most cases places had been found for them within the church walls. Clark quotes from a narrative of the persecution of 303-304 a paragraph saying that the officers “went to the church where the Christians used to assemble, and spoiled it of chalices, lamps, etc., but when they came to the library (bibliothecam), the presses (armaria) were found empty.”[216] From this reference we may conclude that the several vessels and the books were in different parts of the same building.

The library of S. Augustine was bequeathed to the church of Hippo, and the collection was preserved within the church building.

The regulations of the libraries in all the Benedictine monasteries were based upon the Rule of S. Benedict (see ante, p. [28]). As Order after Order was founded, there came to be a steady development of feeling in regard to books, and an ever increasing care for their safe-keeping. S. Benedict had contented himself with general directions for study; the Cluniacs prescribe the selection of a special officer to take charge of the books, with an annual audit of the collection, and the assignment to each Brother of a single volume for his year’s study. The Cistercians and Carthusians provide for the loan of books to outsiders under certain conditions, and the practice was later adopted by the Benedictines. The Augustinians prescribe the kind of press (armarium) in which the books are to be kept, and both they and the Premonstratensians permit their books to be lent on receipt of pledges of sufficient value. Even the Mendicant Friars, who, under the original Rule of their Order, had restrained themselves from holding possessions of any kind, found before long that books were indispensable, so that their libraries came to excel those of most other Orders. Richard de Bury, in his Philobiblon, says of the Mendicants: “These men are as ants, ever preparing their meat in the summer, or as ingenious bees continually fabricating cells of honey ... although they lately at the eleventh hour have entered the Lord’s vineyard, they have added more in this brief hour to the stock of sacred books than all the other vine-dressers.”

Clark points out that the word Library was used by the Benedictines long before any special room was assigned in the Benedictine House as a storage place for the books. He is of opinion that until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the books were for the most part kept in the cloisters, the only portions of the monastery buildings, except the refectory and occasionally the califactorium (warming-house), in which the monks were allowed to congregate. The books so stored in the cloisters were shut up in presses, which secured for them a certain amount of protection. The term applied to these presses, armaria, was that used by the Romans for their book-cases. The monk charged with the care of the books took his name not from the books themselves, as in later times, but from the presses which contained them, and was generally styled armarius.

In some of the monasteries where literary studies were pursued with special ardour, the more persistent readers and scribes were provided with small wooden compartments or studies called carrells. In the book called the Rites of Durham is given the following description of these carrells: “In the north syde of the cloister, from the corner over againste the church dour to the corner over againste the Dorter dour, was all fynely glased from the hight to the sole within a little of the ground into the Cloister garth, and in every window iij Pewes or Carrells, where every one of the old monks had his carrell, several by himselfs, that, when they had dyned, they dyd resort to that place of Cloister, and there studyed upon these books, every one in his carrell, all the after nonne, unto evensong tyme. This was there exercise every daie.... In every carrell was a deske to lye there books upon, and the carrell was no greater than from one stanchell of the wyndowe to another, and over againste the carrells againste the church wall, did stande certain great almeries (or cupbords) of waynscott all full of bookes (with great store of ancient manuscripts to help them in their study) wherein did lye as well the old anncyent written Doctors of the Church as other prophane authors, with dyverse other holie men’s wourks, so that every one did studye what Doctor pleased them best, havinge the Librarie at all tymes to goe studye in besydes there carrells.”[217]

In the Customs of the Augustinian priory of Barnwell, written towards the end of the thirteenth century, the following passage occurs: “The press in which the books are kept ought to be lined inside with wood, that the damp of the walls may not moisten or stain the books. This press should be divided vertically as well as horizontally by sundry partitions, on which the books may be ranged so as to be separated from one another: for fear they be packed so close as to injure each other, or to delay those who want them.”

The catalogue of the House of the White Canons at Titchfield in Hampshire, dated 1400, shows that the books were kept in a small room, on shelves called columpnæ, and set against the walls. A closet of this kind was evidently not a working place, but simply a place of storage. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the larger monasteries had accumulated many hundred volumes, and it began to be customary to provide for the collections separate quarters, rooms constructed for the purpose. The presses in the cloisters were still utilised for books in daily reference.

In Christ Church, Canterbury, where as early as the fourteenth century, the collection comprised as many as 698 books, a library at Durham was built about 1425 by Archbishop Chichele: the library at Durham was built about the same time by Prior Wessyngton. That at Citeaux, which was placed over the scriptorium, dates from 1480, and that of St. Germain des Prés from 1513. The collection of the latter foundation was one of the earliest in France, and as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, there is record of its being consulted by strangers. At the time of the French Revolution, it contained 7000 manuscripts and 4900 printed books.[218]

The Queen of Sicily, who in 1517 visited Clairvaux, one of the two great Cistercian foundations in France, describes the library as follows: “On the same side of the cloister are fourteen studies, where the monks do their reading and writing, and over these studies, one mounts by a broad spiral staircase to the new library. This library is 189 feet long by 17 feet wide. It contains 48 seats (bancs) and in each banc four shelves (poulpitres) furnished with books on all subjects, but chiefly theology; the greater number of the said books are of vellum and are written by hand, richly storied and illuminated.”

The phrase “written by hand,” indicates that the Queen was already acquainted with books produced from type, some of which had in fact been produced in Italy as early as 1464.

Another description, written in 1723 by the author of the Voyage Littéraire, speaks of “the fifteen little cells, all in a row, where the Brethren formerly used to write books, for which reason they are still called the writing rooms. Over these cells is the library, the building for which is large, vaulted, well lighted, and stocked with a large number of manuscripts, fastened by chains to desks; but there are not many printed books.”

The provisions of the statutes affecting the library imposed upon the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, were evidently borrowed directly from the customs of the monasteries. The statutes of Oriel College, Oxford, dated 1329, present an example: “The common books (libri communes) of the House are to be brought out and inspected once a year, on the feast of the Commemoration of Souls (November 2d) in the presence of the Provost or his deputy, and of the scholars (Fellows). Each one of the scholars, in the order of seniority, may select a single book which either treats of the science to which he is devoting himself, or which he requires for his use. This he may keep until the same festival in the succeeding year, when a similar selection of books is to take place, and so on, from year to year. If there should happen to be more books than persons, those that remain are to be selected in the same manner.”

A statute of Archbishop Lanfranc, for the English Benedictines, dated 1070, and based, as he tells us, on the general monastic practice of his time, gives the following regulation: “On the Monday after the first Sunday in Lent, before Brethren come into the Chapter House, the librarian [here called not armarius but custos librorum] shall have a carpet laid down and all the books got together upon it, except those which the year previous had been assigned for reading. These the Brethren are to bring with them, when they come into the Chapter House, each his book in his hand. Then the librarian shall read a statement as to the manner in which Brethren have had books during the past year. As each Brother hears his name pronounced, he is to give back the book which had been entrusted to him for reading; and he whose conscience accuses him of not having read through the book which he had received, is to fall on his face, confess his fault, and entreat forgiveness. The librarian shall then make a fresh distribution of books, namely a different volume to each Brother for his reading.”

It would appear from this reference as if Lanfranc’s monks were under obligations to read through but one book each year, which was certainly a very moderate allowance. It is also to be noted that the books appear not to have been distributed according to the preferences of the readers, but to have been assigned at the will of the librarian. There must certainly have been no little difference in the character and extent of the duty imposed of reading through one book (even with so long an allowance of time) according to the particular volume which the custos saw fit to assign. The worthy Archbishop writes, however, as if a book were a book and one as good for edification or as fitting for penance as another.

It is evident that there were two classes of volumes, one utilised for distribution for separate reading, and the other reserved for reference and placed in a separate room (first called armarium and later bibliotheca) where they were fastened with irons chains to lecterns or reading-desks.

In the various details concerning the distribution of books, the arrangement of the lecterns for the chained books, etc., the practice in the early colleges was evidently modelled on that of the monasteries. The system of chaining, as adopted in England, would allow of the books being readily taken down from the shelves and placed on the lectern for reading. One end of the chain was attached to the middle of the upper edge of the right-hand board or cover; the other to a ring which played on a bar which set in front of the shelf on which the book stood. The fore-edge of the books, not the back, was turned to the front. A swivel, usually in the middle of the chain, prevented tangling. The chains varied in length according to the distance of the shelf from the desk.[219]

In a copy of Locke’s Treatise on the Epistles, printed in 1711, Maitland found inscribed the following “advertisement”: “Since, to the great reproach of the nations and a much greater one of our Holy Religion, the thievish disposition of some that enter into libraries to learn there no good, hath made it necessary to secure the innocent books, and even the sacred volumes themselves, with chains (which are better deserved by those ill persons who have too much learning to be hanged and too little to be honest), care should be taken hereafter that as additions shall be made to this library (of which there is a hopeful expectation), the chains should neither be longer nor more clumsy than the use of them requires, and that the loops whereby they are fastened to the books may be rivetted on such a part of the cover and so smoothly as not to gall or raze the books while these are removed from or to their respective places.”[220]

Isidore, Bishop of Seville (c. 560-636), possessed probably the largest collection of books at that time in Europe. It was contained in fourteen presses or armaria, each of which was ornamented with a bust and inscribed with verses. The series of verses concludes with the following notice addressed ad interventorem, a term which may be interpreted a talkative intruder:

Non patitur quemquam coram se scriba loquentem;

Non est hic quod agas, garrule, perge foras.

(The scribe allows no one to speak in his presence; there is nothing for you to do here, chatterbox; you had better go outside)—a motto which would serve very well for a reading-room of to-day.

In Rome the Church had, from an early date, preserved a collection of manuscripts which related more particularly to church matters, but which included also some specimens of the Roman Classics. In 855, Lupus, of Ferrières, writes to Pope Benedict III., begging for the loan of certain texts from which to make transcripts. He specifies the Commentary of S. Jerome on Jeremiah, Cicero de Oratore, Quintilian, and Terence.[221]

In the centuries following, however, as the Roman Church sank into a condition of ignorance and strife, and Italy was continuously upset by invasions, the library in Rome and the collections which had been instituted in certain churches outside of Rome were either seriously lessened or entirely destroyed. As late, however, as 1276, a few valuable manuscripts were still to be found in the church collections. Wattenbach speaks of the collection in Verona, in the library of the Town Hall, as one of the most important of those in Italy in which old manuscripts have been preserved to the present time. Next in importance among the older collections, he mentions that of Hexham in England, which had been originally collected by Bishop Acca in the year 700, and which is referred to by Bede.[222]

With this is to be mentioned the library of York, which is first described by Alcuin.[223]

Among the earlier important library collections was that of the monastery of Vivaria, which had been founded by Cassiodorus; the writings were classified according to their contents, and were arranged in a series of armaria.

After the beginning of the seventh century, the most noteworthy collection was that of Bobbio, a portion of which remained as late as 1618, and was taken by Paul V. for the Vatican Library. Another portion found its way to Turin.

The literary activity of the monastery of Corbie has already been mentioned, and the library there continued in existence during the entire lifetime of the monastery. After 1350 the monks appear to have themselves given up the work of writing. Étienne de Conty is recorded as one of the special benefactors of the library. He collected books for it, and he employed special scribes to add to the collection.[224]

In Germany, the monastery of Reichenau was noted as early as 821 for its excellent collection of manuscripts. The librarian Reginbert prepared in 821 an exhaustive catalogue of the collection. Not a few of the manuscripts were, as appeared by the notes in the catalogue, the work of his own hands. Of these manuscripts, which he had prepared with so great zeal and labour, there have remained but five sheets of one book, with a portion of the catalogue.

Of nearly as early a date is the first catalogue of the library of St. Gall, previously referred to; in the catalogue of this there are beneath the titles various critical notes. There is record of the loan of books to the Emperor Charles III., to Frau Rickert, and to Liutward, Bishop of Vercelli.[225]

In the monastery of Pomposa, in Lombardy, Abbot Jerome brought together in the eleventh century (in spite of certain grumblings on the part of the monks, the ground for which is not clearly explained) a great collection of manuscripts.[226] A certain Henricus Clericus, writing in 1093, describing this collection to a friend, says that in no church, not even in Rome, could so wonderful a group of books be found. Henricus prepared a catalogue of the library, and at the close of the catalogue he finds it necessary, as a matter of consistency, to apologise for the abbot who had ventured to include in the collection heathen books. The presence of such books, known at the time as libri scholastici, was, however, by no means exceptional in monastery collections, and in many of these were to be found copies of Virgil, Ovid, and particularly Cicero. While this was more frequently the case in Italy, it occurred also in Germany. An inventory made in 1233 of the monastery of Neumünster, near Wurzburg, includes in a special list the titles of a number of the Classics.

A similar separate catalogue of libri scholastici was made in 1297 for the collection in the cathedral library of Lübeck.

While the principal increase in the monastery libraries had been secured through the work of scribes and through exchanges, and occasionally through purchases, a considerable proportion of the books came to them through gifts or bequests. The gift that it was customary for a novice to make on entering a monastery very frequently took the form of books.

In 1055, the priest Richlof, in placing his son with the Benedictines, gave as an accompanying present a farm and some books, and his mother gave a copy of a treatise of S. Ambrose.[227]

Léon Maitre says that in Fleury, each new scholar was expected to present at least two codices. Towards the end of the eleventh century, a noble cleric, who entered as a monk the monastery at Tegernsee, brought with him so many books that, according to the account, when placed by the principal altar they covered this from top to bottom.[228]

In what was known as the Scottish Monastery, near Vienna, there was kept in the thirteenth century a record of gifts, which record includes a long list of presents of books. In the latter part of the century, the monastery appears to have degenerated, the library fell into disuse, and the presents of books ceased. In 1418 the so-called Scottish monks were driven out, and the foundation was taken possession of by Germans. From this date the record of gifts of books again began.

In 1453, the monastery received as a bequest from Dr. Johannes Polzmacher his entire library. The library came to include a considerable list of works on jurisprudence together with a series of classics, including several copies of Ovid. The latter appears to have been a special favourite in the monastic collections. The books on jurisprudence were utilised for the profit of the monastery by being loaned out to the jurisprudence Faculty of the university. They were, it appears, also occasionally loaned to the students for transcribing. In the chance of the manuscripts suffering damage while out on hire, the borrower was compelled to deposit an adequate pledge in the shape either of money or other valuable property.[229]

The monastery in Bobbio received books from wandering Irishmen, as is indicated by the following inscription:

Sancte Columba, tibi Scotto tuus incola Dungal,

Tradidit hunc librum, quo fratrum corda beentur.

Qui legis ergo, Deus pretium sit muneris ora.[230]

(Holy Columba of Scotland, thy votary Dungal has bestowed upon thee this book, whereby the hearts of the brothers may be gladdened. Do thou who readest it pray that God may be the reward of thy labour.)

In the monastery of St. Père-de-Chartres the Abbot Alveus, who died in 955, presented to S. Peter a book Pro Vita Æterna.[231]

Dietrich Schreiber, a citizen of Halle, who, notwithstanding his name, is said not to have been a scribe, gave, in 1239, for the good of his soul, to the preaching Brothers of Leipzig, a canonistic manuscript, with the condition that either of his sons should have the privilege of redeeming the same for the sum of five marks, in case he might require it in connection with his study of the law.[232] Robert of Lille, who died in 1339, left in his will to his daughters a certain illuminated calendar, with the condition attached that after their death the calendar was to be given to the nuns of Chikessaund.[233]

It is also the case that bequests securing an annual income were occasionally given with the specific purpose of founding or endowing monastery scriptoria and libraries. The Abbot of St. Père-de-Chartres ordered, in 1145, that the tenants or others recognising the authority of the monastery must take up each year for the support of the library the sum of eighty-six solidos.[234]

His successor, Fulbert, instituted a new room for the collection and kept the monks themselves at work, so that in 1367 a catalogue, inscribed in four rolls, gives the titles of 201 volumes.[235]

Also in Evesham, in Worcestershire, England, a statute enacted in 1215 provides that certain tenths coming into the priory should be reserved for the purpose of buying parchment and for the increase of the library. During the following year the amount available for this purpose was five solidos, eighteen deniers.[236]

The account books of the monks of Ely showed that in the year 1300 they purchased five dozen sheets of parchment, four pounds of ink, eight calf-skins, four sheep-skins, five dozen sheets of vellum, and six pairs of book clasps. In the same year they paid six shillings for a Decretal and two shillings for a Speculum Gregor. In 1329, the Precentor received six shillings and seven pence with which he was instructed to go to Balsham to purchase books. In the same year, four shillings were paid for twelve iron chains (used, of course, for fastening the books safely to the reading-desks). Between 1350 and 1356, the purchases appear to have included no less than seventy dozen sheets of parchment and thirty dozen sheets of vellum.[237]

Prince Borwin, of Rostock, in 1240 presented the monastery of Dargun with a hide of land, the proceeds of which were to be used for the repairing and preservation of the books in the library.[238] Adam, treasurer of the Chapter of Rennes, in 1231, presented his library to the abbey of Penfont, with the condition that the books were never to be diverted from the abbey, and that copies were to be lent only against adequate pledges.

In 1345, a library was founded in the House of the German Brothers of Beuggen, near Rheinfelden, through the exertions of Wulfram of Nellenberg. He directed that all books left by deceased Brothers throughout Elsass were to be brought to this library, and the living Brothers were also earnestly urged to present their own books to the same collection.[239]

The great library of the monastery of Admunt was catalogued in 1380 by Brother Peter of Arbonne. The Chapter of S. Pancras, in Leyden, received in 1380, through a bequest of Philip of Leyden, a collection of eighty manuscripts, the catalogue of which has been preserved.[240]

As before indicated, the Monastery Reform, which was instituted with the beginning of the fifteenth century, exercised a very decided influence upon the interest in books and upon the development of libraries. In Tegernsee, where the once noted library had fallen into ruins, the Abbot Casper (1426-1461) reorganised it, restored such of the old manuscripts as were still in existence, bought new codices, and put to work a number of hired scribes. His successor, Conrad V., carried on the work actively and purchased for the sum of eleven hundred pounds heller no less than 450 volumes, in addition to which he secured a number of gifts or devout presents.[241]

In Salzburg, the Archbishop Johann II. (1429-1441) caused a new library building to be erected, and collected for it many beautiful manuscripts. In the monastery of Bergen, near Magdeburg, the Abbot Bursfelder (1450-1478) organised a library, and utilised for his books an old chapel. In 1477, the Prior Martin instituted a library in Bordesholm, and Brother Liborius, who was a professor in Rostock, gave over, in 1405, to this library, for the good of his soul, his works on jurisprudence, with the provision that they were to be placed in chains and to remain forever in the reading-room. A catalogue of this collection, which was prepared in 1498, and which contains more than five hundred titles, has been preserved.[242] The library of the Benedictine monastery of St. Ulrich, near Augsburg, retained its early importance until the invention of printing, and in 1472, as before mentioned, a printing office was instituted in connection with the monastery, by the Abbot and the Chapter, in which active work was carried on. Abbot Trithemius presented to the monastery of Sponheim, in 1480, the sum of fifteen hundred ducats for the enlargement of its library.

As before stated, the Brothers of Common Life planned their collections of books expressly with reference to the service of the students in their schools, and these libraries contained, therefore, a much larger proportion of books in the vernacular than were to be found in other monasteries. In some of the Brotherhood Homes, the library was divided into the collection for the Brothers and the collection for the students. It was ordered that at least once a year all books that were not out on loan should be called in and should be inspected in the presence of the Brothers.