UBRARXn 230 LTBHAWltt
enau as a measure of safety, and they seem xx)t to same dhaptor put on record th* samM of the booli have been all returned to tneir owners when quiet and of those wno receive them." was restored. At the same time there is abundant J. W. Clark gives a summary of the airan^^ements evidence for the existence of a system of lending peculiar to the different orders. Both the Ciuniacs and manuscripts by one house to another among friendly Benedictines, he says, put the books in chaive of the monastenes, lor the purpose of transcription and precentor, often also s^led armariuSf and there is to collation. This latter process may often be traced be an annual audit and registration similar to that in the copies which still survive: for example, two of just described. Among the later Benedictines we our oldest manuscripts of Bede's *' Ecclesiastical His- also find a further regulation that the precentor is to tory" have evidently been collated, and the readings keep all in repair and personally to supervise the of one transferred to the other. ^ daily use of the manuscripts, restoring each to its The most famous libraries of the Carlovingian proper place when done with. Among these later period were those of Fulda, Reichenau, Corvey, and benedictine rules, as found, for exazbple, at Abing- Sponheim in Germany, and those of Fleury, St-Ri- don at the end of the twelfth century, firet appears the quier, Clunv, and Corbie in France. fThe library of important permission to lend booira to others outside Fulda, under the great scholar Rhabanus Maurus, the monastery on receipt of an adequate pledge. was regarded as the best equipped in Christendom, The Carthusians also maintained the principle of lend* and a contemporary speaks of the books he saw there in|^. As for the monks themselves, each brother as "almost countless . Even at the beginning of might have two books, and he is to be specially careful the sixteenth century the abbey still possessed nine to keep them clean. Among the Cistercians a par- hundred volumes of manuscripts, mast of which seem ticular official has charge oi the books, about the to have been destroyed or scattered in the Thirty safety of which great care is to be taken, and at ccp- Years' War. In the case of Reichenau we still pos- tain times of the day he is to lock the press. This sess the catalogue made by the librarian, Rcginbcrt, last regulation is also observed by the i^remonstra- before a. d. 831, which enumerates over 500 works tensians, who further require their librarian to take contained in 256 volumes. All the libraries just note of books borrowed as well as books lent. Il- mentioned owed directly or indirectly a good deal to nally, the Augustinians, who are very full in thdr the support of Charlemagne. In southern Italy the directions regarding the use of the library, also permit abbey of Monte Cassino, the cradle of Benedictine books to be lent outside, but insist much on the need monasticism, well illustrates the perils to which books of proper security (see Clark, *' Care of Books ", 58-73). were exposed owing to the wildncss of the times. The importance of the permission to lend consists. After it nad been demolished by the Lombards in the of course, in this: that the monasteries thus became sixth century, the monastery was rebuilt, and a new the public libraries of the surroimding district and Ubrary painfully brought together. But in the ninth diffused much more widely the benefit afforded by century came the Saracens, and when the abbey was -their own command of books. The practice no douM despoiled the library perished in the flames. None involved much risk of loss, and there was a dispositkxk the less, the monks set to work once more to acquire sometimes manifested to forbid the lending of books books and to make new copies, and this collection of altogether. On the other hand, it is clear that there manuscripts^ which still survives, is among the most were those who looked upon this means of helping remarkable in Italy. their neighbours as a duty prescribed by the laws 5 In Spain, at an earHer date, we gain some insight charitv. Thus, in 1212, a synod held in Paris passed into the ornamentation of a well-appointed library the following decree: "We forbid those who belong to from certain verses written by St. Isidore of Seville a relicious order to formulate any vow against lenmng (600-636) to inscribe upon the portraits which hung their books to those who are in need of them; seeing over his book-presses. Upon the door of the room that to lend is enumerated among the principal works were also displayed another set of verses as a warning of mercv. After due consideration let some books be to talkative intruders, the last couplet of which runs: retained in the house for the use of the brethren; but Non patitur quenquam coram se scriba loquentem; let others according to the decision of the abbot be Non est hie quod agas, gamile, perge foras. ^^nt to those who are in need of them, the rights of the 'a7k;«i, «,„,, K« ^^A^r.^\. house being safeguarded. In future no penalty of Which may be rendered.- anathema fs to Be attached to the remo^ of any A wnter and a talker CAut agree; book, and we annul and grant absolution from all Hence, idle chatterer; 'tis no place for thee. anathemas of the sort" (Delisle in "Bib. de I'Ecole Speaking of Western Kuropc as a whole, we may des Chartes", Scr. 3, 1, 225). It is noteworthy, aJso, regard it as an undisputed principle throughout the that in this same thirteenth century many volumes Middle Ages that a library of some sort was an essen- were bequeathed to the Augustinian house of St. tial part of every monastic establishment. "Claus- Victor, raris, on the express condition that they trum sine armario, castrum sine armamentario", ran should be so lent. No doubt most of the lending was the adage; that is to say, a monastery without a li- for the benefit of other monasteries, either for reading brary is a fort without an armourj'. In all the de- or, still more often, for the purpose of making a copy. velopments of the Benedictine Rule, regulations of Against the dangers thus incurred it would seem that some kind are laid down for the use of books. We some protection was soujjht by invoking anathemas may quote, for example, the directions given by upon the head of the faithless borrower. How far Lanfranc for the annual calling-in of librar}MX)oks on excommunications were seriously and validly enacted the first Sunday of Lent. The monks are bidden to against the unlawful detainers of such volumes is a bring back all ]>ooks to the chapter house, and there- matter of some uncertainty, but, as in the case of upon, "let the librarian read a document [breve] set- Asliur-])an-i-pars cuneiform tablets, the manuscripts ting forth the names of the brethren who have had of medieval monasteries freouently contain on the books during the past year; and let each brother fly-leaf some brief form of malediction against unjust when he hears his oa\ti name pronounced, return the possessors or detainers. For example, in a Jumie^^ book which has Ixjcn entrusted to him for reading, and oook we find: "Should anyone by craft or any device let him who is conscious of not having read the book whatever al)stract this book from this place [Jumi^ through which he has received, fall down on his face, gcs] may his soul suffer in retribution for what he has confess his fault, and pray for forgiveness. And let done, and may his name be erased from the book of the aforesaid librarian hand to each brother another the li\nng anrf not be recorded among the Blessed." book for reading: and when the books have been dis- But in general such formulae were more compendious^ tributed in ordor, hi the aforesaid librarian in the as, for example, the following foimd in many B%,
