Bibliomania in the Middle Ages Part 18

[326] MS. Harleian, No. 627, fol. 8 a. "Liber Geneseos versificatus"

probably Caedmon's Paraphrase was among them, and Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.

[327] G.o.dwin Cat. of Bishops, p. 317.

[328] Will. of Malms. de Gestis Pont. Savile Script. fol. 1601, p.

256, _apud Lotharingos altus et doctus_.

[329] I use a transcript of the Exeter MS. collated by Sir F.

Madden. _Additional MSS._ No. 9067. It is printed in Latin and Saxon from a old MS. In the Bodl. Auct. D. 2. 16. fol. 1 a; in Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. ii. p. 257, which varies a little from the Exeter transcript.

[330] Bec is the plural of boc, a book.

[331] See _Dr. Lingard's Hist. Anglo Sax. Church_, vol. i. p. 307, who cannot deny this entirely; see also _Lappenberg Hist. Eng._ vol.

i. p. 202, who says that the ma.s.s was read partially in the Saxon tongue. _Hallam_ in his _Supplemental Notes_, p. 408, has a good note on the subject.

[332] Hist. Litt. de la France, ix. p. 142.

[333] Pet. Blesensis Opera, 4to. Mogunt. 1600. Ep. lx.x.xix.

[334] Ep. xxvi.

[335] Ep. lxvi.

[336] Ep. cxxvii.

[337] Ep. lvi. Yet we find that Charlemagne, in the year 795, granted the monks of the monastery of St. Bertin, in the time of Abbot Odlando, the privilege of hunting in his forests for the purpose of procuring leather to bind their books. "Odlando Abbate hujus loci abbas nonus, in omni bonitate suo praedecessori Hardrado coaequalis anno primo sui regiminis impetravit a rege Carolo privilegium venandi in silvis nostris et aliis ubic.u.mque const.i.tutis, ad volumina librorum tegaenda, et manicas et zonas habendas. Salvis forestis regiis, quod sic incipit. Carolus Dei gratia Rex Francorum et Longobardorum ac patricius Romanorum, etc., data Septimo Kal. Aprilis, anno xxvi. regni nostri." Martene Thasaurus Nov. Anecdotorum iii. 498. _Warton_ mentions a similar instance of a grant to the monks of St. Sithin, _Dissert._ ii.

_prefixed to Hist. of Eng. Poetry_, but he quotes it with some sad misrepresentations, and refers to _Mabillon De re Diplomatica_, 611.

Mr. Maitland, in his _Dark Ages_, has shown the absurdity of Warton's inferences from the fact, and proved that it was to the servants, or _eorum homines_, that Charlemagne granted this uncanonical privilege, p. 216. But I find no such restriction in the case I have quoted above. Probably, however, it was thought needless to express what might be inferred, or to caution against a practice so uncongenial with the christian duties of a monk.

[338] Ep. ci. p. 184. He afterwards quotes Livy, Tacitus, and many others.

[339] Ep. xiv. He was fond of Quintus Curtius, and often read his history with much pleasure. Ep. ci. p. 184.

[340] Ep. lxxvii. p. 81.

[341] Ep. xciv.

[342] Ep. xcii. and also lxxii. which is redundant with quotations from the poets.

[343] Ep. xciv. p. 170.

[344] Ep. lvii.

[345] Ep. xii.

[346] Ep. lxxvi. p. 132.

[347] Ep. cxl. p. 253.

[348] Ep. lxvi. p. 115.

[349] Ep. x.x.xvii. p. 68.

[350] Ep. cli.

CHAPTER X.

_Winchester famous for its Scribes.--Ethelwold and G.o.demann.--Anecdotes.--Library of the Monastery of Reading.--The Bible.--Library of Depying Priory.--Effects of Gospel Reading.--Catalogue of Ramsey Library.--Hebrew MSS.--Fine Cla.s.sics, etc.--St. Edmund's Bury.--Church of Ely.--Canute, etc._

In the olden time the monks of Winchester[351] were renowned for their calligraphic and pictorial art. The choice book collectors of the day sought anxiously for volumes produced by these ingenious scribes, and paid extravagant prices for them. A superb specimen of their skill was executed for Bishop Ethelwold; that enlightened and benevolent prelate was a great patron of art and literature, and himself a grammaticus and poet of no mean pretensions. He did more than any other of his time to restore the architectural beauties which were damaged or destroyed by the fire and sword of the Danish invaders. His love of these undertakings, his industry in carrying them out, and the great talent he displayed in their restoration, is truly wonderful to observe. He is called by Wolstan, his biographer, "a great builder of churches, and divers other works."[352] He was fond of learning, and very liberal in diffusing the knowledge which he acquired; and used to instruct the young by reading to them the Latin authors, translated into the Saxon tongue. "He wrote a Saxion version of the Rule of Saint Benedict, which was so much admired, and so pleased King Edgar, that he granted to him the manor of Sudborn,[353] as a token of his approbation."

Among a number of donations which he bequeathed to this monastery, twenty volumes are enumerated, embracing some writings of Bede and Isidore.[354]

As a proof of his bibliomanical propensities, I refer the reader to the celebrated Benedictional of the Duke of Devonshire; that rich gem, with its resplendent illuminations, place it beyond the shadow of a doubt, and prove Ethelwold to have been an _amator librorum_ of consummate taste.

This fine specimen of Saxon ingenuity is the production of a cloistered monk of Winchester, named G.o.demann, who transcribed it at the bishop's special desire, as we learn, from the following lines:--

"_Presentem Biblum iusset prescribere Presul.

Wintoniae Dus que fecerat esse Patronum Magnus aethelwoldus._"[355]

G.o.demann, the scribe, entreats the prayers of his readers, and wishes "all who gaze on this book to ever pray that after the end of the flesh I may inherit health in heaven: this is the fervent prayer of the scribe, the humble G.o.demann." This talented illuminator was chaplain to Ethelwold, and afterwards abbot of Thorney.[356] The choice Benedictional in the public library of Rouen is also ascribed to his elegant pen, and adds additional l.u.s.tre of his artistic fame.[357]

Most readers have heard of Walter, (who was prior of St. Swithin in 1174,) giving twelve measures of barley and a pall, on which was embroidered in silver the history of St. Berinus converting a Saxon king, for a fine copy of Bede's Homilies and St. Austin's Psalter;[358] and of Henry, a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Hyde, near there, who transcribed, in the year 1178, Terence, Boethius, Seutonius and Claudian; and richly illuminated and bound them, which he exchanged with a neighboring bibliophile for a life of St. Christopher, St. Gregory's Pastoral Care, and four Missals.[359] Nicholas, Bishop of Winchester, left one hundred marks and a Bible, with a fine gloss, in two large volumes, to the convent of St. Swithin. John de Pontissara, who succeeded that bishop in the year 1282, borrowed this valuable ma.n.u.script to benefit and improve his biblical knowledge by a perusal of its numerous notes. So great was their regard for this precious gift, that the monks demanded a bond for its return; a circ.u.mstance which has caused some doubt as to the plenitude of the Holy Scriptures in the English Church during that period; at least among those who have only casually glanced at the subject. I may as well notice that the ancient Psalter in the Cottonian Library[360] was written about the year 1035, by the "most humble brother and monk aelsinus," of Hyde Abbey. The table prefixed to the volume records the deaths of other eminent scribes and illuminators, whose names are mingled with the great men of the day;[361] showing how esteemed they were, and how honorable was their avocation. Thus under the 15th of May we find "_Obitus aetherici m picto_;" and again, under the 5th of July, "_Obit Wulfrici m pictoris_." Many were the choice transcripts made and adorned by the Winchester monks.

The monastery of Reading, in Berkshire, possessed during the reign of Henry the Third a choice library of a hundred and fifty volumes. It is printed in the Supplement to the History of Reading, from the original prefixed to the Woollascot ma.n.u.scripts. But it is copied very inaccurately, and with many grievous omissions; nevertheless it will suffice to enable us to gain a knowledge of the cla.s.s of books most admired by the monks of Reading; and the Christian reader will be glad to learn that the catalogue opens, as usual, with the Holy Scriptures.

Indeed no less than four fine large and complete copies of the Bible are enumerated. The first in two volumes; the second in three volumes; the third in two, and the fourth in the same number which was transcribed by the _Cantor_, and kept in the cloisters for the use of the monks. But in addition to these, which are in themselves quite sufficient to exculpate the monks from any charge of negligence of Bible reading, we find a long list of separate portions of the Old and New Testament; besides many of the most important works of the Fathers, and productions of mediaeval learning, as the following names will testify:--

Ambrose.

Augustine.

Basil.

Bede.

Ca.s.sidorus.

Eusebius.

Gregory.

Hilarius.

Jerome.

Josephus.

Lombard.

Macrobius.

Origen.

Plato.

Prosper.

Raba.n.u.s Maurus.

They possessed also the works of Geoffry of Monmouth; the _Vita Karoli et Alexandri et gesta Normannorum_; a "Ystoria Rading," and many others equally interesting; and among the books given by Radbert of Witchir, we find a Juvenal, the Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil, and the "Ode et Poetria et Sermone et Epistole Oratii." But certainly the most striking characteristic is the fine biblical collection contained in their library, which is well worthy our attention, if not our admiration: not but that we find them in other libraries much less extensive. In those monasteries whose poverty would not allow the purchase of books in any quant.i.ty, and whose libraries could boast but of some twenty or thirty volumes, it is scarcely to be expected that they should be found rich in profane literature; but it is deeply gratifying to find, as we generally do, the Bible first on their little list; conveying a proof by this prominence, in a quiet but expressive way, how highly they esteemed that holy volume, and how essential they deemed its possession. Would that they had profited more by its holy precepts!