The Care of Books Part 4

It seems to me that we have here an early instance, perhaps the earliest, of those presses in the thickness of the wall which were so common afterwards in the monasteries and in private libraries also. A similar press, on a smaller scale, is described by the younger Pliny: "My bedroom," he says, "has a press let into the wall which does duty as a library, and holds books not merely to be read, but read over and over again[96]."

It must not, however, be supposed that cupboards were always, or even usually, sunk into the wall in Roman times. They were detached pieces of furniture, not unlike the wardrobes in which ladies hang their dresses at the present day, except that they were fitted with a certain number of horizontal shelves, and were used for various purposes according to the requirements of their owners. For instance, there is a sarcophagus in the Museo n.a.z.ionale at Rome, on which is represented a shoemaker at work. In front of him is a cupboard, exactly like those I am about to describe, on the top of which several pairs of shoes are set out.

I can, however, produce three representations of such presses being used by the Romans to contain books.

The first occurs on a marble sarcophagus (fig. 13), now in the garden of the Villa Balestra, Rome, where I had the good fortune to find it in 1898[97]; and Professor Petersen, of the German Archaeological School, was so kind as to have it photographed for me. He a.s.signs the work to about 200 A.D.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 13. A Roman reading a roll in front of a press (_armarium_).

From a photograph of a sarcophagus in the garden of the Villa Balestra.

Rome.]

In the central portion, 21 in. high, by 15 in. wide, is a seated figure, reading a roll. In front of him is a cupboard, the doors of which are open. It is fitted with two shelves, on the uppermost of which are eight rolls, the ends of which are turned to the spectator. On the next shelf is something which looks like a dish or shallow cup. The lower part of the press is solid. Perhaps a second cupboard is intended. Above, it is finished off with a cornice, on which rests a very puzzling object. There are a few faint lines on the marble, which Professor Petersen believes are intended to represent surgical instruments, and so to indicate the profession of the seated figure[98]. There is a Greek inscription on the sarcophagus, but it merely warns posterity not to disturb the bones of the deceased[99].

The second representation (fig. 14) is from the tomb of Galla Placidia, at Ravenna. It occurs in a mosaic on the wall of the chapel in which she was buried, A.D. 449[100]; and was presumably executed before that date. The press closely resembles the one on the Roman sarcophagus, but it is evidently intended to indicate a taller piece of furniture, and it terminates in a pediment. There are two shelves, on which lie the four Gospels, each as a separate _codex_, indicated by the name of the Evangelist above it. This press rests upon a stout frame, the legs of which are kept in position by a cross-piece nearly as thick as themselves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 14. Press containing the four Gospels.

From a mosaic above the tomb of the Empress Galla Placidia at Ravenna.]

The third representation of an _armarium_ (fig. 15) occurs in the ma.n.u.script of the Vulgate now in the Laurentian Library at Florence, known as the _Codex Amiatinus_, from the Cistercian convent of Monte Amiata in Tuscany, where it was preserved for several centuries[101]. The thorough investigation to which this ma.n.u.script has lately been subjected shews that it was written in England, at Wearmouth or Jarrow, but possibly by an Italian scribe, before A.D. 716, in which year it was taken to Rome, as a present to the Pope. The first quaternion, however, on one of the leaves of which the above representation occurs, is probably older; and it may have belonged to a certain _Codex grandior_ mentioned by Ca.s.siodorus, and possibly written under his direction[102].

The picture (fig. 15), which appears as the frontispiece to this work, shews Ezra writing the law. On the margin of the vellum, in a hand which is considered to be later than that of the MS., are the words:

CODICIBUS SACRIS HOSTILI CLADE PERVSTIS ESDRA DEO FERVENS HOC REPARAVIT OPUS.

Behind him is a press (_armarium_) with open doors. The lower portion, below these doors, is filled in with panels which are either inlaid or painted, so that the frame on which it is supported is not visible, as in the Ravenna example. The bottom of the press proper is used as a shelf, on which lie a volume and two objects, one of which probably represents a case for pens, while the other is certainly an inkhorn. Above this are four shelves, on each of which lie two volumes. These volumes have their t.i.tles written on their backs, but they are difficult to make out, and my artist has not cared to risk mistakes by attempting to reproduce them. The words, beginning at the left hand corner of the top-shelf, are:

OCT.[103] LIB. REG.

HIST. LIB. PSALM. LIB.

SALOMON. PROPH.

EVANG. IIII. EPIST. XXI.

ACT. APOSTOL.

The frame-work of the press above the doors is ornamented in the same style as the panels below, and the whole is surmounted by a low pyramid, on the side of which facing the spectator is a cross, beneath which are two peac.o.c.ks drinking from a water-trough.

I regret that I could not place this remarkable drawing before my readers in the rich colouring of the original. The press is of a reddish brown: the books are bound in crimson. Ezra is clad in green, with a crimson robe. The background is gold. The border is blue, between an inner and outer band of silver. The outermost band of all is vermilion.

I formerly thought that this book-press might represent those in use in England at the beginning of the eighth century; but, if the above attribution to Ca.s.siodorus be accurate, it must be accounted another Italian example. It bears a general similarity to the Ravenna book-press, as might be expected, when it is remembered that Ca.s.siodorus held office under Theodoric and his successors, and resided at Ravenna till he was nearly seventy years old.

The foundation of Christianity did not alter what I may call the Roman conception of a library in any essential particular. The philosophers and authors of Greece and Rome may have occasionally found themselves in company with, or even supplanted by, the doctors of the Church; but in other respects, for the first seven centuries, at least, of our era, the learned furnished their libraries according to the old fashion, though with an ever increasing luxury of material. Boethius, whose _Consolation of Philosophy_ was written A.D. 525, makes Philosophy speak of the "walls of a library adorned with ivory and gla.s.s[104]"; and Isidore, Bishop of Seville A.D. 600-636, records that "the best architects object to gilded ceilings in libraries, and to any other marble than _cipollino_ for the floor, because the glitter of gold is hurtful to the eyes, while the green of _cipollino_ is restful to them[105]."

A few examples of such libraries may be cited; but, before doing so, I must mention the Record-Office (_Archivum_), erected by Pope Damasus (366-384). It was connected with the Basilica of S. Lawrence, which Damasus built in the Campus Martius, near the theatre of Pompey. On the front of the Basilica, over the main entrance, was an inscription, which ended with the three following lines:

ARCHIVIS FATEOR VOLUI NOVA CONDERE TECTA ADDERE PRaeTEREA DEXTRA LaeVAQUE COLUMNAS QUae DAMASI TENEANT PROPRIUM PER SaeCULA NOMEN.

I confess that I have wished to build a new abode for Archives; and to add columns on the right and left to preserve the name of Damasus for ever.

These enigmatical verses contain all that we know, or are ever likely to know, respecting this building, which is called _chartarium ecclesiae Romanae_ by S. Jerome[106], and unquestionably held the official doc.u.ments of the Latin Church until they were removed to the Lateran in the seventh century. The whole building, or group of buildings, was destroyed in 1486 by Cardinal Raphael Riario, the dissolute nephew of Sixtus IV., to make room for his new palace, now called Palazzo della Cancelleria, and the church was rebuilt on a new site. The connexion with Pope Damasus is maintained by the name, S. Lorenzo in Damaso. No plan of the old buildings, or contemporary record of their arrangement, appears to exist.

My only reason for drawing attention to a structure which has no real connexion with my subject is that the ill.u.s.trious De Rossi considers that in the second line of the above quotation the word column signifies colonnades; and that Damasus took as his model one of the great pagan libraries of Rome which, in its turn, had been derived from the typical library at Pergamon[107]. According to this view he began by building, in the centre of the area selected, a basilica, or hall of basilican type, dedicated to S. Lawrence; and then added, on the north and south sides, a colonnade or loggia from which the rooms occupied by the records would be readily accessible. This opinion is also held by Signor Lanciani, who follows De Rossi without hesitation. I am unwilling to accept a theory which seems to me to have no facts to support it; and find it safer to believe that the line in question refers either to the aisles of the basilica, or to such a portico in front of it as may be seen at San Clemente and other early churches.

A letter to Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons in A.D. 441, from a correspondent named Rusticus, gives a charming picture of a library which he had visited in his young days, say about A.D. 400:

I am reminded of what I read years ago, hastily, as a boy does, in the library of a man who was learned in secular literature. There were there portraits of Orators and also of Poets worked in mosaic, or in wax of different colours, or in plaster, and under each the master of the house had placed inscriptions noting their characteristics; but, when he came to a poet of acknowledged merit, as for instance, Virgil, he began as follows:

Virgilium vatem melius sua carmina laudant; In freta dum fluvii current, dum montibus umbrae l.u.s.trabunt convexa, polus dum sidera pascet, Semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt.

Virgil's own lines most fitly Virgil praise: As long as rivers run into the deep, As long as shadows o'er the hillside sweep, As long as stars in heaven's fair pastures graze, So long shall live your honour, name, and praise.[108]

Agapetus, who was chosen Pope in 535, and lived for barely a year, had intended, in conjunction with Ca.s.siodorus, to found a college for teachers of Christian doctrine. He selected for this purpose a house on the Caelian Hill, afterwards occupied by S. Gregory, and by him turned into a monastery. Agapetus had made some progress with the scheme, so far as the library attached to the house was concerned, for the author of the Einsiedlen MS., who visited Rome in the ninth century, saw the following inscription "in the library of S. Gregory"--i.e. in the library attached to the Church of San Gregorio Magno.

SANCTORVM VENERANDA COHORS SEDET ORDINE LONGO DIVINAE LEGIS MYSTICA DICTA DOCENS HOS INTER RESIDENS AGAPETVS IVRE SACERDOS CODICIBVS PVLCHRVM CONDIDIT ARTE LOCVM GRATIA PAR CVNCTIS SANCTVS LABOR OMNIBVS VNVS DISSONA VERBA QVIDEM SED TAMEN VNA FIDES

Here sits in long array a reverend troop Teaching the mystic truths of law divine: 'Mid these by right takes Agapetus place Who built to guard his books this fair abode.

All toil alike, all equal grace enjoy-- Their words are different, but their faith the same.

These lines undoubtedly imply that there was on the walls a long series of portraits of the Fathers of the Church, including that of Agapetus himself, who had won his right to a place among them by building a sumptuous home for their works[109].

The design of Agapetus, interrupted by death, was carried forward by his friend Ca.s.siodorus, at a place in South Italy called Vivarium, near his own native town Squillace. Shortly after his final retirement from court, A.D. 538, Ca.s.siodorus established there a brotherhood, which, for a time at least, must have been a formidable rival to that of S. Benedict. A library held a prominent place in his conception of what was needed for their common life. He says little about its size or composition, but much rhetoric is expended on the contrivances by which its usefulness and attractiveness were to be increased. A staff of bookbinders was to clothe the ma.n.u.scripts in decorous attire; self-supplying lamps were to light nocturnal workers; sundials by day, and water-clocks by night, enabled them to regulate their hours. Here also was a _scriptorium_, and it appears probable that between the exertions of Ca.s.siodorus and his friend Eugippius, South Italy was well supplied with ma.n.u.scripts[110].

These attempts to s.n.a.t.c.h from oblivion libraries which, though probably according to our ideas insignificant, were centres of culture in the darkest of dark ages, will be ill.u.s.trated by the fuller information that has come down to us respecting the library of Isidore, Bishop of Seville 600-636. The "verses composed by himself for his own presses," to quote the oldest ma.n.u.script containing them[111], have been preserved, with the names of the writers under whose portraits they were inscribed.

There were fourteen presses, arranged as follows:

I. Origen.

II. Hilary.

III. Ambrose.

IV. Augustine.

V. Jerome.

VI. Chrysostom.

VII. Cyprian.

VIII. Prudentius.

IX. Avitus, Juvencus, Sedulius.

X. Eusebius, Orosius.

XI. Gregory.

XII. Leander.

XIII. Theodosius, Paulus, Gaius.

XIV. Cosmas, Damian, Hippocrates, Galen.

These writers are probably those whom Isidore specially admired, or had some particular reason for commemorating. The first seven are obvious types of theologians, and the presses over which they presided were doubtless filled not merely with their own works, but with bibles, commentaries, and works on Divinity in general. Eusebius and Orosius are types of ecclesiastical historians; Theodosius, Paulus, and Gaius, of jurists; Cosmas, Damian, etc. of physicians. But the Christian poets Prudentius to Sedulius could hardly have needed two presses to contain their works; nor Gregory the Great the whole of one. Lastly, Leander, Isidore's elder brother, could only owe his place in the series to fraternal affection. I conjecture that these portraits were simply commemorative; and that the presses beneath them contained the books on subjects not suggested by the rest of the portraits, as for example, secular literature, in which Isidore was a proficient.

The sets of verses[112] begin with three elegiac couplets headed _t.i.tulus Bibliothece_, probably placed over the door of entrance.

Sunt hic plura sacra, sunt hic mundalia plura: Ex his si qua placent carmina, tolle, lege.

Prata vides, plena spinis, et copia florum; Si non vis spinas sumere, sume rosas.

Hic geminae radiant veneranda volumina legis; Condita sunt pariter hic nova c.u.m veteri.

Here sacred books with worldly books combine; If poets please you, read them; they are thine.