[56] About the year 1225 Roger de Insula, Dean of York, gave several copies of the bible to the University of Oxford, and ordered that those who borrowed them for perusal should deposit property of equal value as a security for their safe return.—Wood's Hist. Antiq. Oxon. ii. 48.
[57] Muratori Dissert. Quadragesima tertia, vol. iii. column 849.
[58] Astle's Origin of Writing, p. 193.—See also Montfaucon Palæographia Græca, lib. iv. p. 263 et 319.
[59] In the year 1300 the pay of a common scribe was about one half-penny a day, see Stevenson's Supple. to Bentham's Hist. of the Church of Ely. p. 51.
[60] In some orders the monks were not allowed to sell their books without the express permission of their superiors. According to a statute of the year 1264 the Dominicans were strictly prohibited from selling their books or the rules of their order.—Martene Thesaur. Nov. Anecdot. tom. iv. col. 1741, et col. 1918.
[61] Vita Abbat. Wear. Ed. Ware, p. 26. His fine copy of the Cosmographers he bought at Rome.—Roma Benedictus emerat.
[62] Nosti quot Scriptores in Urbibus aut in Agris Italiæ passim habeantur.—Ep. cxxx. See also Ep. xliv. where he speaks of having purchased books in Italy, Germany and Belgium, at considerable cost. It is the most interesting Bibliomanical letter in the whole collection.
[63] Cottonian MS. in the Brit. Mus.—Claudius, E. iv. fo. 105, b.
[64] Epist. lxxi. p. 124, Edit. 4to. His words are—"Cum Dominus Rex Anglorum me nuper ad Dominum Regum Francorum nuntium distinasset, libri Legum venales Parisius oblati sunt mihi ab illo B. publico mangone librorum: qui cum ad opus cujusdam mei nepotis idoner viderentur conveni cum eo de pretio et eos apud venditorem dismittens, ei pretium numeravi; superveniente vero C. Sexburgensi Præposito sicut audini, plus oblulit et licitatione vincens libros de domo venditories per violentiam absportauit."
[65] Chevillier, Origines de l'Imprimerie de Paris, 4to. 1694, p. 301.