The Care of Books Part 20

The library is an interesting room of fourteenth century date, retaining much of its original open roof. The north side has eleven windows, each of two square-headed lights and perfectly plain.... [There are no windows on the south side.] The large end windows are late perpendicular, each of seven lights with a transom.

There are other alterations, such as the beautiful wooden corbels from which the roof springs, which are probably contemporary with the work of the cloister when the western stair to the library was built, and the room altered.

At Winchester a precisely similar position was selected between the Chapter-House and the south transept, above a pa.s.sage leading from the cloister to the ground at the south-east end of the church.

At the Benedictine House of S. Albans the library was begun in 1452 by John Whethamstede, Prior, and completed in the following year at the cost of 150[228]--a sum which represents about 2000 at the present day--but the position has not been recorded.

At Worcester, also Benedictine, it seems probable that the library occupied from very early times the long, narrow room over the south aisle of the nave to which it was restored in 1866. This room, which extends from the transept to the west end of the church, is 130 ft. 7 in. long, 19 ft. 6 in. wide, and 8 ft. 6 in. high on the south side. It is lighted by twelve windows, eleven of which are of two lights each, and that nearest to the transept of three lights. The room is approached by a circular stone staircase at the south-west angle of the cathedral, access to which is from the outside only[229].

At Bury S. Edmund's abbat William Curteys (1429-45) built a library, on an unknown site: but his work is worth commemorating, as another instance of the great fifteenth century movement in monasteries for providing special rooms to contain books.

At S. Victor, Paris, an Augustinian House, the library was built between 1501 and 1508, I believe over the sacristy; at Gronendaal, near Brussels, also Augustinian, it was built over the whole length of the north cloister (a distance of 175 feet), so that its windows faced the south.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 32. Library of the Grey Friars House, London, commonly called Christ's Hospital.

From Trollope's History.]

The Franciscan House in London, commonly called Christ's Hospital, had a n.o.ble library, founded 21 October, 1421, by Sir Richard Whittington, mercer and Lord Mayor of London. By Christmas Day in the following year the building was roofed in; and before three years were over it was floored, plastered, glazed, furnished with desks and wainscot, and stocked with books. The cost was 556. 16_s._ 8_d._; of which 400 was paid by Whittington, and the rest by Thomas Wynchelsey, one of the brethren, and his friends[230]. It extended over the whole of one alley of the cloister (fig. 32). Stow tells us that it was 129 ft. long, by 31 ft. broad[231]; and, according to the letters patent of Henry VIII., dated 13 January, 1547, by which the site was conveyed to the City of London, it contained "28 Desks and 28 Double Settles of Wainscot[232]."

I have recounted the expedients to which the monks of Citeaux were reduced when their books had become too numerous for the cloister. I will now describe their permanent library. This is shewn in the bird's-eye view dated 1674 to which I have already referred, and also in a second similar view, dated 1718, preserved in the archives of the town of Dijon[233], where I had the good fortune to discover it in 1894. It is accompanied by a plan of the whole monastery, and also by a special plan[234] of the library (fig. 35). The buildings had by this time been a good deal altered, and partly rebuilt in the cla.s.sical style of the late renaissance; but in these changes the library had been respected. I reproduce (fig. 33) the portion of the view containing it and the adjoining structures, together with the corresponding ground-plan (fig.

34).

The authors of the _Voyage Litteraire_, Fathers Martene and Durand, who visited Citeaux in 1710, thus describe this library:

Citeaux sent sa grande maison et son chef d'ordre. Tout y est grand, beau et magnifique, mais d'une magnificence qui ne blesse point la simplicite religieuse....

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 33. Bird's-eye view of part of the Monastery of Citeaux. From a drawing dated 1718. A, library; B, farmery.]

Les trois cloitres sont proportionnez au reste des batimens. Dans l'un de ces cloitres on voit de pet.i.tes cellules comme a Clervaux, qu'on appelle les ecritoires, parce que les anciens moines y ecrivoient des livres. La bibliotheque est au dessus; le vaisseau est grand, voute, et bien perce. Il y a bon fonds de livres imprimez sur toutes sortes de matieres, et sept ou huit cent ma.n.u.scrits, dont la plupart sont des ouvrages des peres de l'eglise[235].

The ground-plan (fig. 34) shews the writing-rooms or _scriptoria_, apparently six in number, eastward of the church; and the bird's-eye view (fig. 33) the library built over them. Unfortunately we know nothing of the date of its construction. It occupied the greater part of the north side of a cloister called "pet.i.t cloitre" or Farmery Cloister, from the large building on the east side originally built as a Farmery (fig. 33, B). It was approached by a newel-stair at its south-west corner (fig. 35).

This stair gave access to a vestibule, in which, on the west, was a door leading into a room called small library (_pet.i.te bibliotheque_), apparently built over one of the chapels at the east end of the church (fig. 34). The destination of this room is not known. The library proper was about 83 feet long by 25 feet broad[236], vaulted, and lighted by six windows in the north and south walls. There was probably an east window also, but as explained above, it was intended, when this plan was drawn, to build a new gallery for books at this end of the older structure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 34, Ground-plan of part of the Monastery of Citeaux.

From a plan dated 1718.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 35, Ground-plan of the Library at Citeaux.]

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 besongnie de courage En pierre, en bois, et autre fourniture Qu'apres peu d'ans acheve fut louvrage Murs et piliers et voulte et couverture.

Puis en apres l'an mil v^c et trois Y furent mis les livres des docteurs: Le doux Jesus qui pendit en la croix Doint paradis aux devotz fondateurs.

Amen.

We fortunately possess a minute description of Clairvaux, written, soon after the completion of the new library, by the secretary to the Queen of Sicily, who came there 13 July, 1517, and was taken, apparently, through every part of the monastery[238]. The account of the library is as follows:

Et de ce meme coste [dudit cloistre] sont xiiii estudes ou les religieulx escripvent et estudient, lesquelles sont tres belles, et au dessus d'icelles estudes est la neufve librairerie, a laquelle l'on va par une vis large et haulte estant audict cloistre, laquelle librairie contient de longeur lxiii pa.s.sees, et de largeur xvii pa.s.sees.

En icelle y a quarante huic banctz, et en chacun banc quatre poulpitres fournys de livres de touttes sciences, et princ.i.p.allement en theologie, dont la pluspart desdicts livres sont en parchemin et escript a la main, richement historiez et enluminez.

L'ediffice de ladicte librairie est magnificque et ma.s.sonnee, et bien esclaire de deux costez de belles grandes fenestres, bien vitres, ayant regard sur ledict cloistre et cimitiere des Abbez. La couverture est de plomb et semblablement de ladite eglise et cloistre, et tous les pilliers bouttans d'iceulx ediffices couverts de plomb.

Le devant d'icelle librairie est moult richement orne et entaille par le bas de collunnes d'estranges facons, et par le hault de riches feuillaiges, pinacles et tabernacles, garnis de grandes ymaiges, qui decorent et embelissent ledict edifice. La vis, par laquelle on y monte, est a six pans, larges pour y monter trois hommes de front, et couronne a l'entour de cleres voyes de ma.s.sonerie. Ladicte librairerie est toute pavee de pet.i.ts carreaulx a diverses figures.

It will be interesting to place by the side of this description a second, written nearly two hundred years later, by the authors of the _Voyage Litteraire_, who visited Clairvaux in the spring of 1709:

Le grand cloitre ... est voute et vitre. Les religieux y doivent garder un perpetuel silence. Dans le cote du chapitre il y a des livres enchainez sur des pupitres de bois, dans lesquels les religieux peuvent venir faire des lectures lorsqu'ils veulent....

Du grand cloitre on entre dans le cloitre du colloque, ainsi appelle, parce qu'il est permis aux religieux d'y parler. Il y a dans ce cloitre douze ou quinze pet.i.tes cellules tout d'un rang, ou les religieux ecrivoient autrefois des livres: c'est pourquoy on les appelle encore aujourd'hui les ecritoires. Au-dessus de ces cellules est la bibliotheque, dont le vaisseau est grand, voute, bien perce, et rempli d'un grand nombre de ma.n.u.scrits, attachez avec des chaines sur des pupitres, mais il y a peu de livres imprimez[239].

The plan of the substruction of this new library, as shewn on the ground-plan of Clairvaux given by Viollet Le Duc[240], is exactly the same as that of Citeaux (fig. 33) but on a larger scale. The library itself, as there, was approached by a newel stair at its south-west corner. This stair was hexagonal, and of a diameter sufficient to allow three men to ascend at the same time. The library was of great extent--being about 206 feet long by 56 feet broad--if the dimensions given in the above account be correct, and if I am right in supposing a pace (_pa.s.see_) to be equivalent to a modern _metre_; vaulted, and well lighted. The Queen's secretary seems to have been specially struck by the beauty, the size, and the decoration of the windows. The floor was paved with encaustic tiles.

It will be interesting to note how, in some Houses, the library slowly expanded itself, occupying, one after another, every coign of vantage-ground. An excellent example of this growth is to be found in the abbey of Saint Germain des Pres, Paris; and fortunately there are several views, taken at different periods before the Revolution, on which the gradual extension of the library can be readily traced. I append a portion of two of these. The first (fig. 36), dated 1687, shews the library over the south walk of the cloister, where it was placed in 1555. It must not, however, be supposed that no library existed before this. On the contrary, the House seems to have had one from the first foundation, and so early as the thirteenth century it could be consulted by strangers, and books borrowed from it. The second view (fig. 37), dated 1724, shews a still further extension of the library. It has now invaded the west side of the cloister, which has received an upper storey; and even the external appearance of the venerable Frater, which was respected when nearly all the rest of the buildings were rebuilt in a cla.s.sical style, has been sacrificed to a similar gallery. The united lengths of these three rooms must have been little short of 384 feet. This library was at the disposal of all scholars who desired to use it. When the Revolution came it contained more than 49,000 printed books, and 7000 ma.n.u.scripts[241].

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 36. Part of the Abbey of S. Germain des Pres, Paris.

From a print dated 1687; reproduced in _Les Anciennes Bibliotheques de Paris_, par Alf. Franklin, Vol. I. p 126.]

1 Porta major monasterii.

2 Atrium ecclesie.

3 Regalis basilica.

4 Sacrarium.

5 Claustrum parvum B. M.

7 Dormitorium.

8 Bibliotheca.

9 Dormitoria R. Patrum Congregationis.

10 Aulae Hospitum.

12 Refectorium.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 37. Part of the Abbey of S. Germain des Pres, Paris.

From a print in _Histoire de l'Abbaye Royale de Saint Germain des Prez_, par Dom Jacques Bouillart, fol. Paris, 1724, lettered "l'Abbaye ... telle qu'elle est presentement."]

A. Porte Exterieure.

B. Maisons de l'enclos.

C. Parvis de l'Eglise.

D. L'Eglise.

F. Saciristie.

G. Pet.i.t Cloitre.

H. Grand Cloitre.

I. Bibliotheque.