Bibliomania in the Middle Ages | Page 6

relate to the love of books in those times. I would show the means then
in existence of acquiring knowledge, the scarcity or plentitude of books,
the extent of their libraries, and the rules regulating them; and bring
forward those facts which tend to display the general routine of a
literary monk, or the prevalence of Bibliomania in those days.
It is well known that the great national and private libraries of Europe
possess immense collections of manuscripts, which were produced and
transcribed in the monasteries, during the middle ages, thousands there
are in the rich alcoves of the Vatican at Rome, unknown save to a
choice and favored few; thousands there are in the royal library of

France, and thousands too reposing on the dusty shelves of the
Bodleian and Cottonian libraries in England; and yet, these numbers
are but a small portion--a mere relic--of the intellectual productions of a
past and obscure age.[7] The barbarians, who so frequently convulsed
the more civilized portions of Europe, found a morbid pleasure in
destroying those works which bore evidence to the mental superiority
of their enemies. In England, the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans
were each successively the destroyers of literary productions. The
Saxon Chronicle, that invaluable repository of the events of so many
years, bears ample testimony to numerous instances of the loss of
libraries and works of art, from fire, or by the malice of designing foes.
At some periods, so general was this destruction, so unquenchable the
rapacity of those who caused it, that instead of feeling surprised at the
manuscripts of those ages being so few and scanty, we have cause
rather to wonder that so many have been preserved. For even the
numbers which escaped the hands of the early and unlettered barbarians
met with an equally ignominious fate from those for whom it would be
impossible to hold up the darkness of their age as a plausible excuse for
the commission of this egregious folly. These men over whose sad
deeds the bibliophile sighs with mournful regret, were those who
carried out the Reformation, so glorious in its results; but the
righteousness of the means by which those results were effected are
very equivocal indeed. When men form themselves into a faction and
strive for the accomplishment of one purpose, criminal deeds are
perpetrated with impunity, which, individually they would blush and
scorn to do; they feel no direct responsibility, no personal restraint; and,
such as possess fierce passions, under the cloak of an organized body,
give them vent and gratification; and those whose better feelings lead
them to contemplate upon these things content themselves with the
conclusion, that out of evil cometh good.
The noble art of printing was unable, with all its rapid movements, to
rescue from destruction the treasures of the monkish age; the advocates
of the Reformation eagerly sought for and as eagerly destroyed those
old popish volumes, doubtless there was much folly, much exaggerated
superstition pervading them; but there was also some truth, a few facts
worth knowing, and perhaps a little true piety also, and it would have

been no difficult matter to have discriminated between the good and the
bad. But the careless grants of a licentious monarch conferred a
monastery on a court favorite or political partizan without one thought
for the preservation of its contents. It is true a few years after the
dissolution of these houses, the industrious Leland was appointed to
search and rummage over their libraries and to preserve any relic
worthy of such an honor; but it was too late, less learned hands had
rifled those parchment collections long ago, mutilated their finest
volumes by cutting out with childish pleasure the illuminations with
which they were adorned; tearing off the bindings for the gold claps
which protected the treasures within,[8] and chopping up huge folios as
fuel for their blazing hearths, and immense collections were sold as
waste paper. Bale, a strenuous opponent of the monks, thus deplores
the loss of their books: "Never had we bene offended for the losse of
our lybraryes beynge so many in nombre and in so desolate places for
the moste parte, yf the chief monuments and moste notable workes of
our excellent wryters had bene reserved, yf there had bene in every
shyre of Englande but one solemyne library to the preservacyon of
those noble workers, and preferrement of good learnynges in oure
posteryte it had bene yet somewhat. But to destroye all without
consyderacion, is and wyll be unto Englande for ever a most horryble
infamy amonge the grave senyours of other nations. A grete nombre of
them whych purchased those superstycyose mansyons reserved of those
lybrarye bokes, some to serve theyr jakes, some to scoure theyr
candelstyckes, and some to rubbe theyr bootes; some