(Vol. viii., pp. 64. 153.)
Many inscriptions, comminatory or exhortatory, written in books and directed to readers, have been commemorated in "N. & Q." Towards the beginning of the present century, the most common epigram of the kind in the French public schools was the following elegant motto, with its accompanying illustration:
"Aspice Pierrot pendu,
Quota librum n'a pas rendu!"
Poor Pierrot is exhibited in a state of suspension, as hanging from the inverted letter L (Γ), which symbolises the fatal tree. Comminatory and exhortatory cautions not to soil, spoil, or tear books and MSS. occur so frequently in the records of monastic libraries, that a whole album could easily be filled with them. The coquettish bishop, Venantius Fortunatus, has a distich on the subject. Another learned Goth, Theud-wulf, or Theodulfus, Charlemagne's Missus dominicus,
recommends readers a proper ablution of their hands before turning the consecrated leaves:
"Utere me, lector, mentisque in sede locato;
Cumque librum petis hinc, sit tibi lota manus!"—Saith Library.
Less lenient are the imprecations commemorated by Don Martenne and Wanley. The one inscribed on the blank leaf of a Sacramentary of the ninth century is to the following effect:
"Si quis eum (librum) de monasterio aliquo ingenio non redditurus, abstraxerit, cum Juda proditore, Annâ et Caïphâ, portionem æternæ damnationis accipiat. Amen! Amen! Fiat! fiat!"—Voyage Littéraire, p. 67.