Bibliomania in the Middle Ages | Page 8

were to a remarkable degree."--Collier's
Eccle. History, vol. ii. p. 307.
[9] Any one who can inspect a library of ancient books will find proof
of this. A collection of vellum scraps which I have derived from these
sources are very exciting to a bibliomaniac, a choice line so abruptly
broken, a monkish or classical verse so cruelly mutilated! render an
inspection of this odd collection, a tantalizing amusement.

[10] Bale's Leland's Laboryouse Journey, Preface.
[11] The works of the Schoolmen, viz.: of P. Lombard, T. Aquinas,
Scotus and his followers and critics also, and such that had popish
scholars in them they cast out of all college libraries and private
studies.--Wood's Hist. Oxon., vol. i. b. 1. p. 108. And "least their
impiety and foolishness in this act should be further wanting, they
brought it to pass that certain rude young men should carry this great
spoil of books about the city on biers, which being so done, to set them
down in the common market place, and then burn them, to the sorrow
of many, as well as of the Protestants as of the other party. This was by
them styled 'the funeral of Scotus the Scotists.' So that at this time and
all this king's reign was seldom seen anything in the universities but
books of poetry, grammar, idle songs, and frivolous stuff."--Ibid.,
Wood is referring to the reign of Edward VI.
[12] Wood's Hist. Oxon, b. i. p. 81.
[13] "Gutch has printed in his 'Collectiana' an order from the Queen's
commissioners to destroy all capes, vestments, albes, missals, books,
crosses, and such other idolatrous and superstitious monuments
whatsoever.'--vol. ii. p. 280."
[14] Fuller's Church History, b. vi. p. 335.
[15] Wood's Oxon, vol. i. b. i. p. 107
CHAPTER II.
Duties of the monkish librarian.--Rules of the library.--Lending
books.--Books allowed the monks for private reading.--Ridiculous signs
for books.--How the libraries were supported.--A monkish blessing on
books, etc.
In this chapter I shall proceed to inquire into the duties of the monkish
amanuensis, and show by what laws and regulations the monastic
libraries were governed. The monotonous habits of a cloistered
bibliophile will, perhaps, appear dry and fastidious, but still it is curious

and interesting to observe how carefully the monks regarded their
vellum tomes, how indefatigably they worked to increase their stores,
and how eagerly they sought for books. But besides being regarded as a
literary curiosity, the subject derives importance by the light it throws
on the state of learning in those dark and "bookless" days, and the
illustrations gleaned in this way fully compensate for the tediousness of
the research.
As a bibliophile it is somewhat pleasing to trace a deep book passion
growing up in the barrenness of the cloister, and to find in some cowled
monk a bibliomaniac as warm and enthusiastic in his way as the
renowned "Atticus," or the noble Roxburghe, of more recent times. It is
true we can draw no comparison between the result of their respective
labors. The hundreds, which in the old time were deemed a respectable
if not an extensive collection, would look insignificant beside the
ostentatious array of modern libraries.
But the very tenor of a monastic life compelled the monk to seek the
sweet yet silent companionship of books; the rules of his order and the
regulations of his fraternity enforced the strictest silence in the
execution of his daily and never-ceasing duties. Attending mass,
singing psalms, and midnight prayers, were succeeded by mass, psalms
and prayers in one long undeviating round of yearly obligations; the
hours intervening between these holy exercises were dull and tediously
insupportable if unoccupied. Conversation forbidden, secular
amusements denounced, yet idleness reproached, what could the poor
monk seek as a relief in this distress but the friendly book; the willing
and obedient companion of every one doomed to lonely hours and
dismal solitude?
The pride and glory of a monastery was a well stored library, which
was committed to the care of the armarian, and with him rested all the
responsibility of its preservation. According to the Consuetudines
Canonicorum Regularium, it was his duty to have all the books of the
monastery in his keeping catalogued and separately marked with their
proper names.[16] Some of these old catalogues have been preserved,
and, viewed as bibliographical remains of the middle ages, are of

considerable importance; indeed, we cannot form a correct idea of the
literature of those remote times without them. Many productions of
authors are recorded in these brief catalogues whose former existence is
only known to us by these means. There is one circumstance in
connexion with them that must not be forgotten: instead of enumerating
all the works which each volume contained, they merely specified the
first, so that a catalogue of fifty or a hundred volumes might