Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods | Page 2

than a sketch of so extensive a subject, and I fear that I must
omit the contents of the bookcases altogether; but I shall hope, by a selection of typical
illustrations, to make you realise what some of the libraries, monastic, public, or private,
that fall within my period were like.
I must begin with a few words about Roman libraries, because their methods influenced
the Middle Ages, and are, in fact, the precursors of those in fashion in our own times. The
Romans preserved their books in two ways: either in a small room or closet, for reading
elsewhere; or in a large apartment, fitted up with greater or less splendour, according to
the taste or the means of the possessor, in which the books were doubtless studied as in a
modern library. An instructive example of the former class was one of the first
discoveries at Herculaneum in 1754. It was a very small room, so small in fact that a man
who stood with his arms extended in the centre of it could almost touch the walls on
either side, yet 1700 rolls were found in it. These were kept in wooden presses (armaria)
which stood against the walls like a modern bookcase. Besides these a rectangular case
occupied the central space, with only a narrow passage to the right and left between it and
the wall-cases. These cases were about a man's height, and had been numbered. It may be
concluded from this that a catalogue of the books had once existed. In larger libraries the
books were kept in similar presses, but they were ornamented with the busts or pictures
of illustrious men, under each of which was a suitable inscription, usually in verse.
No ancient figure of one of these book-presses has been preserved, so far as I have been
able to ascertain; but, as furniture is apt to retain its original forms with but little variation
for a very long period, a representation of a press containing the four Gospels, which
occurs among the mosaics in the Mausoleum of the Empress Galla Placidia at Ravenna,
though it could not have been executed before the middle of the fifth century, may be
taken as a fairly accurate picture of the book-presses of an earlier age. It is unnecessary to
describe it, for it is exactly like a still later example which I am about to shew you. This
picture occurs at the beginning of the MS. of the Vulgate called the Codex Amiatinus,
which is now proved to have been written in England, at Wearmouth or Jarrow, but
probably by an Italian scribe, shortly before 716. The seated figure represents Ezra
writing the Law.
Bookcase in the Codex Amiatinus: from Garrucci, "Storia dell' arte Cristiana," iii. pl.

126.
To get an idea of one of the larger Roman libraries in ancient times we cannot do better
than turn to that of the Vatican at the present day. It was fitted up as we see it now--with
presses, busts, and antique vases, by Pope Sixtus V., in 1588. It is therefore, at best, only
a modern antique; but arranged so skilfully that an ancient Roman, if he could come to
life again, might imagine himself in his own library.
Interior of part of the Vatican Library.
The library-era, as we may call it, of the Christian world, began with the publication of
the Rule of S. Benedict, early in the sixth century. But, just as that Rule emphasized and
arranged on the lines of an ordered system observances which had long been practised by
isolated congregations or individuals living in solitude--so the part of it which deals with
study was evidently no new thing. S. Benedict did not invent literature or libraries; he
only lent the sanction of his name to the study of the one and the formation of the other.
That libraries existed before his period is proved by allusions to them in the Fathers and
other early writers; but, as those allusions are general, and say nothing from which either
their size or their arrangement can be inferred, I shall dismiss them in very few sentences.
The earliest is said to have been the collection got together at Jerusalem, by Bishop
Alexander, at the beginning of the third century. Another was founded about fifty years
later at Cæsarea by Origen. This is described as not only extensive, but remarkable for
the importance of the manuscripts it contained. Others are recorded at Hippo, at Cirta, at
Constantinople, and at Rome, where both S. Peter's and the Lateran had their special
collections of books. I suspect that all these libraries were in connexion with churches,
possibly actually within their walls. At Cirta, for example, it is recorded that during the
persecution of 303-304 the officers