Books and their makers during the Middle Ages

by George Haven Putnam

It seems evident, however, that while a scattered trade in manuscripts was carried on both by the scribes in the towns and between the monastery scriptoria, the facilities for the production and manifolding of manuscript copies were hardly adequate to meet the demand or requirements of readers and students. As early as 250, Origen, writing in Cappadocia, was complaining that he found difficulty in getting his teachings distributed. A zealous disciple, named Ambrosius, secured for the purpose a group of scribes whose transcripts were afterwards submitted to Origen for revision before being sent out through the churches. It is further related that Origen became so absorbed in the work of correcting these manuscripts that he could not be called from his desk either for exercise or for meals.[318] S. Jerome, a century later, when he was sojourning in Bethlehem, found similar difficulty. He had among his monks some zealous scribes, but he complained that their work was untrustworthy.[319]

Abbot Lupus of Ferrières was obliged (in the ninth century) to apply to monks in York in order to secure the transcribing work that he required.

In connection with this difficulty in securing books, it became customary, when copies were loaned from libraries, to secure from the borrower a pledge or security of equal or greater value. The correspondence of the time gives frequent instances of the difficulty in getting back books that had been loaned, notwithstanding the risk of the forfeiture of the pledges. In 1020, Notker writes from St. Gall to the Bishop of Sitten that certain books belonging to the Bishop, for which the Bishop was making demand, had been borrowed by the Abbot Aregia, and that, notwithstanding many applications, he had not succeeded in getting even a promise of their return.[320] In Vercelli, a beautiful mass book which had been loaned by the Abbot Erkenbald of Fulda (997-1011) to the Bishop Henry of Wurzburg, was to have been retained for the term of the Bishop’s life. After the death of the Bishop, reclamation was made from Fulda for the return of the volume, but without success. During the years 1461-1463, the Legate Marinus de Fregeno travelled through Sweden and Norway and collected there certain manuscripts which he claimed were those that had been taken away from Rome at the time of its plunder by the Goths. He evidently took the ground that where books were concerned, a term of one thousand years was not sufficient to constitute a “statute of limitations.”

Louis IX. of France is quoted as having taken the ground that books should be transcribed rather than borrowed, because in that way the number would be increased and the community would be benefited. In many cases, however, there could, of course, be no choice. The King, for instance, desired to possess the great encyclopedia of Vincenzo of Beauvais. He sent gold to Vincenzo, in consideration of which a transcript of the encyclopedia was prepared. The exact cost is not stated.[321]

In 1375, a sum equivalent to 825 francs of to-day was paid for transcribing the commentary of Heinrich Bohic on the Decretals of 1375. In the cost of such work was usually included a price for the loan or use of the manuscript. A fee or rental was, in fact, always charged by the manuscript-dealers. Up to the close of the fourteenth century, the larger proportion of transcripts were prepared for individual buyers and under special orders, one of the evidences of this being the fact that upon the titles of the manuscripts were designed or illuminated the arms or crests of the purchasers. After the beginning of the fifteenth century, there is to be found a large number of manuscripts in which a place has been left blank on the title-pages for the subsequent insertion of the crest or coat-of-arms, indicating that in these instances the manuscript had been prepared for general use instead of under special order.[322]

As already mentioned, Charlemagne interested himself, not only in the training of scribes, but in the collection of books, but he does not appear to have considered it important that the works secured by him should be retained for the use of his descendants, as he gave instructions in his will that after his death the books should be sold.

One of the oldest illuminated Irish manuscripts is that of S. Ceaddæ. This was purchased, at what date is not specified, by some holy man in exchange for his best steed, and was then presented by him to the church at Llandaff. The manuscript finally made its way to Madrid and thence to Stockholm; according to the record, it had, before the purchase above mentioned, been saved out of the hands of Norman pirates.[323] It is certain that very many of the monasteries which were within reach of the incursions of the Normans were bereft by them of such books as had been collected, although it is not probable that, as a rule, the pirates had any personal interest in, or commercial appreciation for, the manuscripts that fell into their hands.

Gerbert, whose literary interests have been previously referred to, and who is described as the most zealous book collector of his time, tells us that he made purchases for his library in Italy, in South Germany, and in the Low Countries, but he does not mention whether he was purchasing from dealers or individuals. He was a native of Auvergne, and in 999 became Pope (under the name of Gregory V.). Abbot Albert of Gembloux, who died in 1048, states that he brought together, at great cost, as many as one hundred and fifty manuscripts.[324]

A certain Deopert records that he purchased for the monastery of St. Emmeran, from Vichelm, the chaplain of Count Regimpert, for a large sum of money (the price is not specified), the writings of Alcuin.[325]

Notwithstanding the very strict regulations to the contrary, it not unfrequently happened that monasteries and churches, when in special stress for money, pledged or sold their books to Jews. As the greater proportion at least of the sacred writings of the monasteries would have had no personal interest for their Hebrew purchasers, it is fair to assume that these were taken for re-sale, and that, in fact, there came to be a certain trade in books on the part of financiers acting in the capacity of pawn-brokers. In 1320, the monastery of S. Ulrich was in need of funds, and the Abbot Marquard, of Hagel, pawned to the mendicant monks a great collection of valuable books, among which were certain volumes that had been prepared as early as 1175 under the directions of the Abbot Heinrich. The successor of Marquard, Conrad Winkler, in 1344, succeeded in getting back a portion of the books, by the payment of 27 pounds heller, and 15 pfennigs.[326] Instances like these give evidence that a certain trade in manuscript books, in Northern Europe at least, preceded by a number of years the organisation of any systematised book-trade.