I proceed next to the library at Clairvaux, a House which may be called the eldest daughter of Citeaux, having been founded by S. Bernard in 1115. This library was built in a position precisely similar to that at Citeaux, namely, eastward of the church, on the north side of the second cloister, over the Scriptoria. Begun in 1495, it was completed in 1503; and was evidently regarded as a work of singular beauty, over which the House ought to rejoice, for the building of it is commemorated in the following stanzas written on the first leaf of a catalogue made between 1496 and 1509, and now preserved in the library at Troyes[237]:
La construction de cette librairie.
Jadis se fist cette construction
Par bons ouvriers subtilz et plains de sens
L'an qu'on disoit de l'incarnation
Nonante cinq avec mil quatre cens.
Et tant y fut besongnié de courage
En pierre, en bois, et autre fourniture
Qu'après peu d'ans achevé fut louvrage
Murs et piliers et voulte et couverture.
Puis en après l'an mil vc et trois
Y furent mis les livres des docteurs:
Le doux Jésus qui pendit en la croix
Doint paradis aux dévotz fondateurs.
Amen.