IX
The Book-Makers of the Middle Ages.
Education controlled by the Church…All Books in Latin…Ecclesiastics the only Scholars and Book-Makers…Copyists in Constantinople…In Ireland…Charlemagne's Educational Policy…Copyists of France and their Work…The Scriptoriums of Monasteries…Errors of Copyists…Illuminators of Books…Bookbinders…Profuse Ornamentation of Books…Neglect of Books and Copying by Monks…Copyists and Book-Makers appear among the Laity…Regulations of the University of Paris about Copyists…Character of Medieval Books…Universal Appreciation of Pictures…General Use of Abbreviations…Paper Used only for Inferior Books…Rise of the Romance Literature…Its Luxurious Books…Book-Collecting a Princely Pastime…High Prices paid for Books of Merit…Fondness for Expensive Books retarded the Development of Printing.
With that of the boke losende were the claspis:
The margent was illumynid all with golded railles
And byse, empicturid with gressoppes and waspis,
With butterflyis and freshe pecocke taylis,
Enflorid with flowris and slymy snaylis;
Enuyuid picturis well towchid and quikly;
It wolde haue made a man hole that had be ryght sekely,
To beholde how it was garnyschyd and bounde,
Encouerde ouer with gold of tisseu fyne;
The claspis and bullyons were worth a thousande pounde;
With balassis and charbuncles the borders did shyne;
With aurum mosaicum every other lyne
Was wrytin.
From the sixth to the thirteenth century, the ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic church held all the keys of scholastic knowledge. They wrote the books, kept the libraries, and taught the schools. During this period there was no literature worthy of the name that was not in the dead language Latin, and but little of any kind that did not treat of theology. A liberal education was of no value to any one who did not propose to be a monk or priest. Science, as we
