The Care of Books

by John Willis Clark

I am able to reconstruct this library because I have had the good fortune to come across a very curious document[345] which gives sufficient data for the purpose. It is contained in a MS. volume, now the property of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, composed of several quires of paper stitched into a parchment cover. They once belonged to, and were probably written by, Brother William Ingram, who was custos martirii in 1503; and in June 1511 was promoted to the office of Pitancer. The accounts and memoranda in the book are of a very miscellaneous character. The part which concerns the library consists of a note of the books which were repaired in 1508. This is headed:

Repairs done to the books contained in the library over the chapel of our lord the Prior, namely, in new byndyng and bordyng with covers and claspyng and chenyng, together with sundry books of the gift of the aforesaid Prior, namely, in the year of our Lord 1508, and the year of the reign of King Henry VII., 23[346].

The writer goes round the room, beginning at the west end. He proceeds along the north side, and returns along the south side, to the point whence he started, enumerating on his way the bookcases and their shelves, the volumes removed, and, occasionally, a note of the repairs required. For my present purpose I will content myself with his account of a single bookcase, the first on the list. The writer begins thus: "From the upper shelf on the east side in the first seat (de superiori textu[347] ex orienti parte in prima (sic) sedile)." Three volumes are enumerated. "From the lower shelf (de inferiori textu)," two volumes. "From the upper shelf on the other side of the same seat (de superiori textu ex altera parte eiusdem sedilis)," seven volumes. "From the lower shelf (de inferiori textu)," five volumes. In this way eight seats, i.e. bookcases, are gone through on this side of the room. The writer next turns his attention to the south side, and goes through eight more seats, beginning with: "From the east side of the upper shelf on the south side (de textu superiori ex parte australi incipiendo. In parte orientali)." The examination was evidently thorough, and, as the same number of seats is enumerated for each side of the room, we may, I think, safely conclude that all were examined, and that the whole number in the library was sixteen.

The passages I have quoted shew that each of these bookcases had an upper and lower shelf on each side, on which the books stood, so as to be conveniently consulted by readers on each side; the books were chained; and, in consequence, there must have been a desk, presumably below the shelves on each side; and a seat for the reader. I have embodied these requirements in the accompanying sketch or diagram ([fig. 89]), which indicates a bookcase of the same type as those at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. If we may suppose that each of these cases was two feet wide and eight feet long like those at Merton College, we can accommodate eight cases on each side of the room ([fig. 88]), with the same interval between each pair as at that college.

Fig. 89. Sketch of the probable appearance of a bookcase, and a reader's seat, in the Library at Christ Church, Canterbury.

Let us now consider whether the library as thus arranged would have had sufficient shelf-room. Each bookcase being 8 feet long would contain 32 feet of shelving, and the 16 cases a total of 512 feet. The catalogue made in the time of Prior Henry of Eastry (1285-1331) enumerates 1850 volumes[348]. If we allow two feet and a half for every ten of these we shall require 462½ feet; or in other words we can arrange the whole collection in 14 stalls, leaving 2 over for the additions which must have been made in the interval between the middle of the 14th century and the date of Brother Ingram's researches.

If the sketch here given of the probable aspect of the library at Christ Church, Canterbury, be compared with the view of the library at Merton College, Oxford ([fig. 82]), a fairly correct idea of a great conventual library will be obtained. A very slight effort of imagination is needed to make the necessary changes in the shelves, and to replace academic students by Benedictine monks. Then, if we conceive the shelves to be loaded with manuscripts, many of which were written in the early days of the English Church, we shall be able to realise the feelings of Leland on entering the library at Glastonbury:

I had hardly crossed the threshold when the mere sight of books remarkable for their vast antiquity filled me with awe, or I might almost say with bewilderment: so that for a moment I could not move a step forward[349].