The Care of Books Part 15

In a similar strain a writer or copyist entreats readers to be careful of his work--work which has cost him an amount of pains that they cannot realise. It is impossible to translate the original exactly, but I hope that I have given the meaning with tolerable clearness:

I beseech you, my friend, when you are reading my book to keep your hands behind its back, for fear you should do mischief to the text by some sudden movement; for a man who knows nothing about writing thinks that it is no concern of his. Whereas to a writer the last line is as sweet as port is to a sailor. Three fingers hold the pen, but the whole body toils. Thanks be to G.o.d. I Warembert wrote this book in G.o.d's name. Thanks be to G.o.d. Amen[158].

Entreaties so gentle and so pathetic as these are seldom met with; but curses--in the same strain probably as those to which the Council of Paris took exception--are extremely common. In fact, in some Houses, a ma.n.u.script invariably ended with an imprecation--more or less severe, according to the writer's taste[159]. I will append a few specimens.

This book belongs to S. Maximin at his monastery of Micy, which abbat Peter caused to be written, and with his own labour corrected and punctuated, and on Holy Thursday dedicated to G.o.d and S. Maximin on the altar of S. Stephen, with this imprecation that he who should take it away from thence by what device soever, with the intention of not restoring it, should incur d.a.m.nation with the traitor Judas, with Annas, Caiaphas, and Pilate. Amen[160].

Should anyone by craft or any device whatever abstract this book from this place [Jumieges] may his soul suffer, in retribution for what he has done, and may his name be erased from the book of the living and not be recorded among the Blessed[161].

A simpler form of imprecation occurs very frequently in ma.n.u.scripts belonging to S. Alban's:

This book belongs to S. Alban. May whosoever steals it from him or destroys its t.i.tle be anathema. Amen[162].

A similar form of words occurs at the Cistercian House of Clairvaux, a great school of writing like S. Alban's, but whether it habitually protected its ma.n.u.scripts in this manner I am unable to say:

May whoever steals or alienates this ma.n.u.script, or scratches out its t.i.tle, be anathema. Amen[163].

A very curious form of curse occurs in one of the ma.n.u.scripts of Christ Church, Canterbury. The writer repents of his severity in the last sentence.

May whoever destroys this t.i.tle, or by gift or sale or loan or exchange or theft or by any other device knowingly alienates this book from the aforesaid Christ Church, incur in this life the malediction of Jesus Christ and of the most glorious Virgin His Mother, and of Blessed Thomas, Martyr. Should however it please Christ, who is patron of Christ Church, may his soul be saved in the Day of Judgment[164].

Lastly, I will quote a specimen in verse, from a breviary now in the library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge:

Wher so ever y be come over all I belonge to the Chapell of gunvylle hall: He shal be cursed by the grate sentens That felonsly faryth and berith me thens.

And whether he bere me in pooke or sekke, For me he shall be hanged by the nekke, (I am so well beknown of dyverse men) But I be restored theder agen[165].

On the other hand, the gift of books to a monastery was gratefully recorded and enumerated among the good deeds of their donors. Among the Augustinians such gifts, and the labour expended upon books in general, was the subject of a special service[166].

It is not uncommon to find a monastic library regularly endowed with part of the annual revenue of the House. For instance, at Corbie, the librarian received 10 sous from each of the higher, and 5 sous from each of the inferior officers, together with a certain number of bushels of corn from lands specially set apart for the purpose. This was confirmed by a bull of Pope Alexander III. (1166-1179)[167]. A similar arrangement was made at the library of S. Martin des Champs, Paris, in 1261[168]. At the Benedictine Abbey of Fleury, near Orleans, in 1146, it was agreed in chapter on the proposition of the abbat, that in each year on S.

Benedict's winter festival (21 March), he and the priors subordinate to him, together with the officers of the House, should all contribute "to the repair of our books, the preparation of new ones, and the purchase of parchment." The name of each contributor, and the sum that he was to give, are recorded[169]. At the Benedictine Monastery of Ely Bishop Nigel (1133-1174) granted the t.i.the of certain churches in the diocese "as a perpetual alms to the _scriptorium_ of the church of Ely for the purpose of making and repairing the books of the said church[170]." The books referred to were probably, in the first instance, service-books; but the number required of these could hardly have been sufficient to occupy the whole time of the scribes, and the library would doubtless derive benefit from their labours. The _scriptorium_ at S. Alban's was also specially endowed.

We must next consider the answer to the following questions: In what part of their Houses did the Monastic Orders bestow their books? and what pieces of furniture did they use? The answer to the first of these questions is a very curious one, when we consider what our climate is, and indeed what the climate of the whole of Europe is, during the winter months. The centre of the monastic life was the cloister. Brethren were not allowed to congregate in any other part of the conventual buildings, except when they went into the frater, or dining-hall, for their meals, or at certain hours in certain seasons into the warming-house (_calefactorium_). In the cloister accordingly they kept their books; and there they wrote and studied, or conducted the schooling of the novices and choir-boys, in winter and in summer alike.

It is obvious that their work must have been at the mercy of the elements during many months of the year, and some important proofs that such was the case can be quoted. Cuthbert, Abbat of Wearmouth and Jarrow in the second half of the eighth century, excuses himself to a correspondent for not having sent him all the works of Bede which he had asked for, on the ground that the intense cold of the previous winter had paralysed the hands of his scribes[171]; Ordericus Vitalis, who wrote in the first half of the twelfth century, closes the fourth book of his Ecclesiastical History with a lament that he must lay aside his work for the winter[172]; and a monk of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire has recorded his discomforts in a Latin couplet which seems to imply that in a place so inconvenient as a cloister all seasons were equally destructive of serious work:

In vento minime pluvia nive sole sedere Possumus in claustro nec scribere neque studere[173].

As we sit here in tempest in rain snow and sun Nor writing nor reading in cloister is done.

But, when circ.u.mstances were more propitious, plenty of good work that was of permanent value could be done in a cloister. A charming picture has come down to us of the literary activity that prevailed in the Abbey of S.

Martin at Tournai at the end of the eleventh century, when Abbat Odo was giving an impulse to the writing of MSS. "When you entered the cloister,"

says his chronicler, "you could generally see a dozen young monks seated on chairs, and silently writing at desks of careful and artistic design.

With their help, he got accurate copies made of all Jerome's commentaries on the Prophets, of the works of Blessed Gregory, and of all the treatises he could find of Augustine, Ambrose, Isidore, and Anselm; so that the like of his library was not to be found in any of the neighbouring churches; and those attached to them used generally to ask for our copies for the correction of their own[174]."

The second question cannot be answered so readily. We must begin by examining, in some detail, the expressions used to denote furniture in the various doc.u.ments that deal with conventual libraries.

S. Pachomius places his books in a cupboard (_fenestra_); S. Benedict uses only the general term, library (_bibliotheca_), which may mean either a room or a piece of furniture; and the word press (_armarium_), with which we become so familiar afterwards, does not make its appearance till near the end of the eleventh century. Lanfranc does not use it, but as I have shewn that he based his statutes, at least to some extent, on the Cluniac Customs, and as they identify the library (_bibliotheca_) with the press (_armarium_), and call the librarian, termed by Lanfranc the keeper of the books, the keeper of the press (_armarius_), we may safely a.s.sume that the books to which Lanfranc refers were housed in a similar piece of furniture. Moreover, in Benedictine houses of later date, as for instance at Abingdon and Evesham, the word is constantly employed.

I pointed out in the first chapter that the word press (_armarium_) was used by the Romans to signify both a detached piece of furniture and a recess in a wall into which such a contrivance might be inserted[175]. The same use obtained in medieval times[176], and the pa.s.sage quoted above from the Augustinian customs[177] shews that the book-press there contemplated was a recess lined with wood and subdivided so as to keep the books separate.

The books to be accommodated in a monastery, even of large size, could not at its origin have been numerous[178], and would easily have been contained in a single receptacle. This, I conceive, was that recess in the wall which is so frequently found between the Chapter-House and the door into the church at the end of the east pane of the cloister. In many monastic ruins this recess is still open, and, by a slight effort of imagination, can be restored to its pristine use. Elsewhere it is filled in, having been abandoned by the monks themselves in favour of a fresh contrivance. The recess I am speaking of was called the common press (_armarium commune_), or common cloister-press (_commune armarium claustri_); and it contained the books appointed for the general use of the community (_communes libri_).

A press of this description (fig. 19) is still to be seen in excellent preservation at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova in Central Italy, near Terracina, which I visited in the spring of 1900. This house may be dated 1187-1208[179]. The press is in the west wall of the south transept (fig. 21), close to the door leading to the church. It measures 4 ft. 3 in. wide, by 3 ft. 6 in. high; and is raised 2 ft. 3 in. above the floor of the cloister. It is lined with slabs of stone; but the hinges are not strong enough to have carried doors of any material heavier than wood; and I conjecture that the shelf also was of the same material. Stone is plentiful in that part of Italy, but wood, especially in large pieces, would have to be brought from a distance. Hence its removal, as soon as the cupboard was not required for the purpose for which it was constructed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 19. Press in the cloister at the Cistercian Abbey of Fossa Nuova.]

Two recesses, evidently intended for the same purpose, are to be seen in the east walk of the cloister of Worcester Cathedral, formerly a Benedictine monastery. They are between the Chapter-House and the pa.s.sage leading to the treasury and other rooms. Each recess is square-headed, 6 ft. 9 in. high, 2 ft. 6 in. deep, and 11 ft. broad (fig. 20). In front of the recesses is a bench-table, 13 in. broad and 16 in. high. This book-press was in use so late as 1518, when a book bought by the Prior was "delyvered to y^e cloyster awmery[180]."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 20. Groundplan and elevation of the book-recesses in the cloister of Worcester Cathedral.]

As books multiplied ampler accommodation for them became necessary; and, as they were to be read in cloister, it was obvious that the new presses or cases must either be placed in the cloister or be easily accessible from it. The time had not yet come when the collection could be divided, and be placed partly in the cloister, partly in a separate and sometimes distant room. This want of book-room was supplied in two ways. In Benedictine and possibly in Cluniac houses the books were stored in detached wooden presses, which I shall describe presently; but the Cistercians adopted a different method. At the beginning of the twelfth century, when that Order was founded, the need of additional book-s.p.a.ce had been fully realised; and, consequently, in their houses we meet with a special room set apart for books. But the conservative spirit which governed monastic usage, and discouraged any deviation from the lines of the primitive plan, made them keep the press in the wall close to the door of the church; and, in addition to this, they cut off a piece from the west end of the sacristy, which usually intervened between the south transept and the Chapter-House, and fitted it up for books. This was done at Fossa Nuova. The groundplan (fig. 21) shews the press which I have already figured, and the book-room between the transept and the Chapter-House, adjoining the sacristy. It is 14 ft. long by 10 ft. broad, with a recess in its north wall which perhaps once contained another press.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 21. Groundplan of part of the Abbey of Fossa Nuova.

To shew the book-room and book-press, and their relations to adjoining structures: partly from M. Enlart's work, partly from my own measurements.]

There is a similar book-room at Kirkstall Abbey near Leeds, built about 1150. The plan (fig. 22, A) shews its relation to the adjoining structures. The _armarium commune_ (_ibid._ B) is a little to the north of the room, as at Fossa Nuova. A room in a similar position, and destined no doubt to the same use, is to be seen at Beaulieu, Hayles, Jervaulx, Netley, Tintern, Croxden, and Roche.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 22, Groundplan of part of Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire.

A, book-room: B, _armarium commune_.]

The catalogue of the books at the Abbey of Meaux in Holderness[181], founded about the middle of the 12th century, has fortunately been preserved; and it tells us not only what books were kept in one of these rooms, but how they were arranged. After the contents of the presses in the church, which contained chiefly service-books, we come to the "common press in the cloister (_commune almarium claustri_)." On the shelf over the door (_in suprema theca[182] supra ostium_) were four psalters. The framer of the catalogue then pa.s.ses to the opposite end of the room, and, beginning with the top shelf (_suprema theca opposita_), enumerates 37 volumes. Next, he deals with the rest of the books, which, he tells us, were in other shelves, marked with the letters of the alphabet (_in aliis thecis distinctis per alphabetum_). If I understand the catalogue correctly, there were eleven of these divisions, each containing an average of about 25 volumes. The total number of volumes in the collection was 316.

Again, the catalogue of the House of White Canons at t.i.tchfield in Hampshire, dated 1400, shews that the books were kept in a small room, on sets of shelves called _columpnae_, set against the walls. The catalogue begins as follows:

There are in the Library at Tychefeld four cases to set books on; two of which, namely the first and the second, are on the eastern side. The third is on the south side; and the fourth is on the north side. Each of these has eight shelves [etc.][183].

Nor was this book-closet confined to Cistercian Houses. In the Cluniac Priory at Much Wenlock in Shropshire there is a long narrow room on the west side of the south transept, opening to the cloister by three arches, which could hardly have been put to any other purpose. It is obvious that no study could have gone forward in such places; they must have been intended for security only.

As time went on, and further room for books became necessary, it was provided, at least in some Cistercian Houses, by cutting off two rectangular s.p.a.ces from the west end of the Chapter-House. There is a good example of this treatment to be seen at Furness Abbey, built 1150--1200.

The following description is borrowed from Mr W. H. St John Hope's architectural history of the buildings.

From the transept southwards the whole of the existing work is of later date, and distinctly advanced character. The ground storey is pierced with five large and elaborate round-headed doorways with good moldings and labels, with a delicate dog-tooth ornament. Three of these next the transept form a group....

The central arch opened, through a vestibule, into the Chapter House. The others open into large square recesses or chambers, with ashlar walls, and rubble barrel-vaults springing from chamfered imposts on each side. In the northern chamber the vault is kept low and segmental, on account of the pa.s.sage above it of the dorter stair to the church.... The southern chamber has a high pointed vault. Neither chamber has had doors, but the northern has holes in the inner jamb, suggestive of a grate of some kind, of uncertain date.

The chambers just described probably contained the library, in wooden presses arranged round the walls[184].

To ill.u.s.trate this description a portion of Mr Hope's plan of Furness Abbey (fig. 23) is appended. Each room was about 13 ft. square.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 23. Groundplan of part of Furness Abbey.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 24. Arches in south wall of Church at Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire, once possibly used as book-presses.]

Rooms in a similar position are to be seen at Calder Abbey[185] in c.u.mberland, a daughter-house to Furness; and at Fountains Abbey there are clear indications that the western angles of the Chapter-House were part.i.tioned off at some period subsequent to its construction, probably for a similar purpose. As the Chapter-House was entered from the cloister through three large round-headed arches, each of the rooms thus formed could be entered directly from the cloister, the central arch being reserved for the Chapter-House itself. The arrangement therefore became exactly similar to that at Furness. Mr Hope thinks that the series of arches in the church wall at Beaulieu in Hampshire, two of which are here shewn (fig. 24), may have been used for a like purpose[186]. There is a similar series of arches at Hayles, a daughter-house to Beaulieu; and in the south cloister of Chester Cathedral there are six recesses of early Norman design, which, if not sepulchral, may once have contained books.

The use of the Chapter-House and its neighbourhood as the place in which books should be kept is one of the most curious features of the Cistercian life. The east walk of the cloister, into which the Chapter-House usually opened, must have been one of the most frequented parts of the House, and yet it seems to have been deliberately chosen not merely for keeping books, but for reading them. At Clairvaux, so late as 1709, the authors of the _Voyage Litteraire_ record the following arrangement: