Books and their makers during the Middle Ages

by George Haven Putnam

The libraries of S. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg have already been referred to.[244]

According to Savigny, there were before the time of printing no university libraries in Italy. The stationarii provided both instructors and students with such books as were prescribed in the courses, and the demand for others appears not to have been great. In Paris, on the other hand, a collection of books for the use of the students was instituted as early as 1270, the first benefactor being Stephen, Archdeacon of Canterbury. Stephen gave his books to the church of Notre Dame to be loaned to poor students of theology. In 1297, Peter of Joigny, in continuation of the same work, gave a collection of books in trust to the university directly for the use of these poor students of theology. The famous College of the Sorbonne probably dates from 1253. The librarium of the college was instituted in 1289, and it was specified that the books were for the common use of the instructors and students. The catalogue of this collection, prepared in the following year, is still in existence and contains 1017 titles.[245]

Each socius of the college had a key to the library rooms and was permitted to take guests in with him. The books were all fastened to the wall or to the reading-desks by chains, so that the risk of abstraction was not a serious one. The statutes of 1321 prescribed that of every work issued, one copy in the best form must be preserved for the Sorbonne collection. This is probably the first statute of the kind having in view the preservation, in a public collection, of copies of all works produced. It is to be borne in mind, however, in the first place, that it could have had reference only to books produced under the direct supervision of the college, and secondly, that there was here no question of original literary production, but merely of copies of the older works accepted as possessing doctrinal authority. The books in this library (and probably in other similar libraries) which were not protected by chains were called libri vagantes, and these could, under certain restrictions, be loaned out. Wattenbach is of opinion, however, that no books other than duplicates were placed in this class.

Another library of importance was contained in the College of Narbonne, which had been founded in 1316, and which was itself a continuation of an earlier foundation instituted in 1238 by the Archbishop Peter, at the time he was about to take part in the Crusade. The books were to be open for the use of students as well in Paris as of Narbonne.[246]

In the College of Plessis, the statutes of 1455 described that all books, with the exception of the Missals, must be chained, and that no unchaining should be permitted except with the authorisation of the master of all the bursars. In the College of the Scots, the loaning of books outside of the building was absolutely forbidden.

To the College of the Sorbonne belongs the credit of taking the initiative step in inviting the first printers to Paris. In 1469, the prior and the librarian made themselves responsible for finding work and support for two printers, called to Paris from Mayence. The fact that the Prior Johann Heynlin was himself a German was doubtless of influence in bringing to the college early information concerning the importance of the new art.[247] The first book which was printed in Paris was the letters of Gasparin of Bergamo, which appeared in 1470 (twenty years after the perfecting of the Gutenberg press), and bore the imprint in ædibus Sorbonnæ.

In England, the foundation of the Franciscans in Oxford took, early in the thirteenth century, active part in furthering library facilities for the clerics and the students. They appear to have had two collections, one called libraria conventus, doubtless restricted to theological and religious books, and one described as libraria scholarium or studentium, which contained a number of examples of the classics. It was to the Franciscans that Bishop Grosseteste, who died in 1253, bequeathed all his books.

The interest in literature of Richard de Bury, the friend of Petrarch, has already been referred to. He was the instructor of King Edward III., and exercised later, important official responsibilities. He served as a foreign representative more than once, and was for a time chancellor of the kingdom. At the time of his death in 1345, he was Bishop of Durham. He had a passion for the collecting of books, and with the exceptional advantages of wealth, official station, and knowledge of distant countries, he had advantages in this pursuit possessed by no other Englishman of the time. It is said that the other rooms in his house having already been crowded with books, these were massed in his bedroom also in such quantities that he could get to his bed only by stepping upon them. His library was bequeathed to Durham College in Oxford, which had been founded by himself. The college was discontinued by Henry VIII., and the books were scattered, not even the catalogue, which Bury had himself prepared, having been preserved. In confiding his books to Oxford for the use of the students, Richard gives various earnest injunctions as to the proper respect in which they should be held and the care with which they should be handled. A reader who should handle the books with dirty hands or while eating or drinking, could, in Bury’s opinion, be fitly punished with nothing less than banishment. The collection of Durham College was to be open not only to the use of the members of the college itself, but of all masters and students in Oxford, but no books of which there were no duplicates were to be taken out of the building.

The earliest university library of Germany was that of the College Carolinum in Prague, instituted by Charles IV. The next in date appears to have been that of Heidelberg, where as early as 1386 the Faculty of Arts had a library for itself in addition to the general collection belonging to the university. As before stated, there was also a collection in the Castle which was open for the use of all readers, students, citizens, or strangers. The university library in Vienna dates from 1415, and that in Erfurt from 1433. The town library in Leipzig had for its origin a collection possessed by the Augustinian monks in the monastery of S. Thomas, which collection was thrown open for the use of the public in 1445. Additions to the library were to be made only under the inspection and supervision of the monastery authorities.

The most noteworthy library which had no connection with any university was instituted at Alzei (in Hesse Cassel) in 1409. Its founders were Johannes of Kirchdorf, Prebendary of the Cathedral of Worms and chaplain of King Rupert.