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MEDIEVAL See also:PERIOD
During the first few centuries after the fall of the Western See also:empire, See also:literary activity at See also:Constantinople had fallen to its lowest ebb. In the See also:West, amidst the See also:general neglect
of learning and literature, the See also:collecting of books, C}au . though not wholly forgotten, was cared for by few. Sidonius See also:Apollinaris tells us of the See also:libraries of several private collectors in See also:Gaul. Publius Consentius possessed a library at his See also:villa near See also:Narbonne which was due to the labour of three generations. The most notable of these appears to have been the See also:prefect Tonantius Ferreolus, who had formed in his villa of Prusiana, near See also:Nimes, a collection which his friend playfully compares to that of See also:Alexandria. The Goths, who had been introduced to the Scriptures in their own See also:language by See also:Ulfilas in the 4th See also:century, began to pay some See also:attention to Latin literature. See also:Cassiodorus, the favourite See also:minister of See also:Theodoric, was a See also:collector as well as an author, and on giving up the cares of See also:government retired to a monastery which he founded in See also:Calabria, where he employed his monks in the transcription of books.
Henceforward the See also:charge of books as well as of See also:education See also:fell more and more exclusively into the hands of the See also: During the 6th and 7th centuries the learning which had been driven from the See also:Continent took See also:refuge in the See also:British Islands, where it was removed from the See also:political disturbances A/catm of the mainland. In the Irish monasteries during this
period there appear to have been many books, and the See also:Venerable See also:Bede was See also:superior to any See also:scholar of his See also:age. See also:Theodore of See also:Tarsus brought a considerable number of books to See also:Canterbury from See also:Rome in the 7th century, including several See also:Greek authors. The library of See also:York, which was founded by See also:Archbishop Egbert, was almost more famous than that of Canterbury. The verses are well known in which See also:Alcuin describes the extensive library under his charge, and the long See also:list of authors whom he enumerates is superior to that of any other library possessed by either See also:England or See also:France in the Isth century, when it was unhappily burnt. The inroads of the Northmen in the 9th and loth centuries had been fatal to the monastic libraries on both sides of the channel. It was from York that Alcuin came to See also:Charlemagne to superintend the school attached to his See also:palace; and it was doubtless inspired by Alcuin that See also: Nor were private collections of books altogether wanting during the period in which Charlemagne and his successors laboured to restore the lost traditions of
liberal education and literature. Pepin le Bref had indeed met of See also: The abbeys of See also:Fleury, of Melk and of St See also:Gall were remarkable for the splendour of their libraries. In a later age the labours of the See also:congregation of St Maur See also:form one of the most striking chapters in the See also:history of learning. The See also:Augustinians and the See also:Dominicans See also:rank next to the Benedictines in their care for literature. The libraries of St See also:Genevieve and St See also:Victor, belonging to the former, were amongst the largest of the monastic collections. Although their poverty might seem to put them at a disadvantage as collectors, the mendicant orders cultivated literature with much assiduity, and were closely connected with the intellectual See also:movement to which the See also:universities owed their rise. In England See also:Richard of See also:Bury praises them for their extra-See also:ordinary See also:diligence in collecting books. See also:Sir Richard See also:Whittington built a large library for the See also:Grey Friars in See also:London, and they possessed considerable libraries at See also:Oxford. It would be impossible to See also:attempt here an See also:account of all the libraries established by the monastic orders. We must be content to enumerate a few of the most eminent. In Italy Monte Cassino is a striking example of the dangers and vicissitudes to which monastic collections were exposed. Ruined by the See also:Lombards in the 6th century, the Monastic monastery was rebuilt and a library established, to libraries. ries(es. fall a See also:prey to See also:Saracens and to See also:fire in the 9th. The collection then reformed survived many other chances and changes, and still exists. See also:Boccaccio gives a See also:melancholy description of its See also:condition in his See also:day. It affords a conspicuous example of monastic See also:industry in the transcription not only of theological but also of classical works. The library of See also:Bobbio, which owed its existence to Irish monks, was famous for its palimpsests. The collection, of which a See also:catalogue of the loth century is given by See also:Muratori (Antiq. Ital. Med. Aev. iii. 817-824), was mainly transferred to the Ambrosian library at See also:Milan. Of the library of Pomposia, near See also:Ravenna, See also:Montfaucon has printed a catalogue dating from the 11th century (Diarium Italicum, See also:chap. xxii.). Of the monastic libraries of France the See also:principal were those of Fleury, of See also:Cluny, of St Riquier and of See also:Corbie. At Fleury Abbot Macharius in 1r46 imposed a contribution for library purposes upon the See also:officers of the community and its dependencies, an example which was followed elsewhere. After many vicissitudes, its MSS., numbering 238, were deposited in 1793 in the See also:town library of See also: The library of Sponheim owes its great renown to See also: These catalogues with many others' afford abundant See also:evidence of the limited See also:character of the monkish collections, whether we look at the number of their volumes or at the nature of their contents. The scriptoria were manufactories of books and not centres of learning. That in spite of the labours of so many transcribers the costliness and scarcity of books remained so great may have been partly, but cannot have been wholly, due to the scarcity of See also:writing materials. It may be suspected that indolence and carelessness were the See also:rule in most monasteries, and that but few of the monks keenly realized the whole force of the sentiment expressed by one of their number in the r 2th century—" Claustrum sine armario quasi castrum sine armamentario." Nevertheless it must be ' The See also:oldest catalogue of a western library is that of the monastery of Fontanelle in See also:Normandy compiled in the 8th century. Many catalogues may be found in the collections of D'Achery, Martene and See also:Durand, and Pez, in the See also:bibliographical See also:periodicals of See also:Naumann and Petzholdt and the Centralblatt f. Bibliothekswissenschaft. The Rev. See also:Joseph See also:Hunter has collected some particulars as to the contents of the See also:English monastic libraries, and Ed. See also:Edwards has printed a list of the catalogues (Libraries and Founders of Libraries, 1865, pp. 1.48-454). See also G. See also:Becker, Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui 1885). There are said to be over six hundred such catalogues in the Royal Library at See also:Munich. In the 14th century the See also:Franciscans compiled a general catalogue of the MSS. in 16o English libraries and about the See also:year 1400 John See also:Boston, a Benedictine See also: In the 48th See also:chapter the monks were ordered to See also:borrow a See also:book apiece and to read it straight through. There was no See also:special apartment for the books in the. See also:primitive Benedictine See also:house. After the books became too numerous to be kept in the church they were preserved in armaria, or chests, in the See also:cloister; hence the word armarius, the Benedictine librarian, who at first joined with it the See also:office of See also:precentor. The Benedictine regulations were developed in the stricter observances of the Cluniacs, which provided for a See also:kind of See also:annual See also:report and stocktaking. The Carthusians were perhaps the first to lend books away from the See also:convent; and the Cistercians to possess a See also:separate library See also:official as well as a. See also:room specially devoted to books. The observances of the Augustinians contained rules for the binding, repairing, cataloguing and arranging the books by the librarian, as well as a See also:prescription of the exact kind.of• See also:chest to be used. Among the See also:Premonstratensians or Reformed Augustinians, it was one of the duties of the librarian to. provide for the borrowing of books elsewhere for the use of the monks. The Mendicant Friars found books so necessary that at last Richard de Bury tells us with some exaggeration that their libraries exceeded all others. Many volumes still exist which belonged to the library at See also:Assisi, the See also:parent house of the See also:Francis-cans, of which a catalogue was See also:drawn up in 1381. No See also:authentic monastic See also:bookcase can now be found; the doubtful example shown at See also:Bayeux probably contained ecclesiastical utensils. At the Augustinian priory at Barnwell the presses were lined with See also:wood to keep out the See also:damp and were partitioned off both vertically and horizontally. Sometimes there were recesses. in the walls of the cloisters fitted with shelves and closed with a See also:door. These recesses developed into a small windowless room in the Cistercian houses. At See also:Clairvaux, Kirkstall, Fountains, Tintern, See also:Netley and elsewhere this small chamber was placed between the chapter-house and the See also:transept of the church. At See also:Meaux in Holderness the books were lodged on shelves against the walls and even over the door of such a chamber. In many houses the See also:treasury or spendiment contained two classes of books —one for the monks generally, others more closely guarded. A See also:press near the infirmary contained books used by the reader in the See also:refectory. By the end of the 15th century the larger monasteries became possessed of many volumes and found themselves obliged to store the books, hitherto placed in various parts of the See also:building, in a separate apartment. We now find libraries being specially built at Canterbury, Durham, Citeaux, Clairvaux and elsewhere, and with this specialization there See also:grew up increased liberality in the use of books and learned strangers were admitted. Even at an early date students were permitted to borrow from the Benedictines at St Germain-See also:des-Pres at Paris, of which a later See also:foundation owned in 1513 a See also:noble library erected over the See also:south See also:wall of the cloister, and enlarged and made very accessible to the See also:outer world in the 17th and 18th centuries. The methods and fittings of See also:college libraries of early foundation closely resembled those of the monastic libraries. There was in both the annual giving out and inspection of what we would now See also:call the lending See also:department for students; while the books, fastened by chains—a kind of reference department kept in the library chamber for the See also:common use of the See also:fellows—followed a similar See also:system in monastic institutions. By the 15th century collegiate and monastic libraries were on the same See also:plan, with the separate room containing books placed on their sides on desks or lecterns, to which they were attached by chains to a ' This subject has been specially treated by J. See also:Willis See also:Clark in several works, of which the chief is a masterly See also:volume, The Care of Books (1901). See also Dom Gasquct, " On Medieval Monastic Libraries," in his Old English See also:Bible (1897).See also:horizontal See also:bar. As the books increased the See also:accommodation was augmented by one or two shelves erected above the desks. The library at See also:Cesena in See also:North Italy may still be seen in its See also:original condition. The Laurentian library at See also:Florence was designed by See also:Michelangelo on the monastic See also:model. Another See also:good example of the old form may be seen• in the library of Merton College at Oxford, a long narrow room with bookcases See also:standing between the windows at right angles to the walls. In the chaining system one end was attached to the wooden See also:cover of the book while the other ran freely on a bar fixed by a method of See also:double locks to the front of the shelf or See also:desk on which the book rested. The fore edges of the volumes faced the reader. The seat and shelf were sometimes combined. See also:Low cases were subsequently introduced between the higher cases, and the seat replaced by a step. Shelf lists were placed at the end of each case. There were no chains in the library of the See also:Escorial, erected in 1584, which showed for the first time. bookcases placed against the walls. Although chains were no longer part of the appliances in the newly erected libraries they continued to be used and were ordered in bequests in England down to the early part of the 18th century. Triple desks and revolving lecterns, raised by a wooden See also:screw, formed part of the library See also:furniture. The English See also:cathedral libraries were fashioned after the same principle. The old methods were fully reproduced in the fittings at See also:Westminster, erected at a See also:late date. Here we may see books on shelves against the walls as well as in cases at right angles to the walls; the desk-like shelves for the chained volumes (no longer in existence) have a slot in which the chains could be suspended, and are hinged to allow See also:access to shelves below. An ornamental wooden tablet at the end of each case is a survival of the old shelf list. By the end of the 17th century the type of the public library developed from collegiate and monastic prototypes, became fixed as it were throughout Europe (H. R. Tedder, `` Evolution of the Public Library," in Trans. of and Int. Library See also:Conference, 1897, 1898). The first conquests of the Arabians, as we have already seen, threatened hostility to literature. But, as soon as their See also:con-quests were secured, the caliphs became the patrons of learning and See also:science. Greek manuscripts were Arabians. eagerly sought for and translated into Arabic, and colleges and libraries everywhere arose. Baghdad in the See also:east and See also:Cordova in the west became the seats of a rich development of letters and science during the age when the See also:civilization of Europe was most obscured. See also:Cairo and See also:Tripoli were also distinguished for their libraries. The royal library of the See also:Fatimites in See also:Africa is said to have numbered roo,000 manuscripts, while that collected. by the Omayyads of Spain is reported to have contained six times as many. It is said that there were no less than seventy libraries opened in the cities of See also:Andalusia. Whether these figures be exaggerated or not—and they are much below those given by some Arabian writers, which are undoubtedly so—it is certain that the libraries of the Arabians and the See also:Moors of Spain offer a very remarkable contrast to those of the Christian nations during the same period.2 The literary and scientific activity of the Arabians appears to have been the cause of a revival of letters amongst the Greeks of the See also:Byzantine empire in the 9th century. Under See also:Leo the Philosopher and See also:Constantine Porphyrogenitus the libraries of Constantinople awoke into renewed life. The compilations. of such writers as See also:Stobaeus, See also:Photius and Strides, as well as the labours of innumerable critics and commentators, See also:bear See also:witness to the activity, if not to the lofty character of the pursuits, of the Byzantine scholars. The labours of transcription were industriously pursued in the libraries and in the monasteries of See also:Mount See also:Athos and the See also:Aegean, and it was from these quarters that the restorers of learning brought into Italy so many Greek manuscripts. In this way many of the treasures of See also:ancient literature had been already 2 Among the See also:Arabs, however, as among the Christians, theological bigotry did not always approve of non-theological literature, and the great library of Cordova was sacrificed by Almanzor to his reputation for orthodoxy,. 978 A.D. The development of library arrangements. See also:Renaissance. conveyed to the West before the See also:fate which overtook the libraries of Constantinople on the fall of the See also:city in 1453• Meanwhile in the West, with the reviving See also:interest in literature which already marks the 14th century,, we find arising outside the monasteries a See also:taste for collecting books. St Louis of France and his successors had formed small collections, none of which survived its possessor. It was reserved for Charles V. to form a considerable library which he intended to be permanent. In 1373 he had amassed 910 volumes, and had a catalogue of them prepared, from which we see that it included a good See also:deal of the new sort of literature. In England See also:Guy, See also:earl of See also:Warwick, formed. a curious collection of. See also:French romances, which he bequeathed to Bordesley See also:Abbey on his death in 1315. Richard d'See also:Aungervyle of Bury, the author of the Philobiblon, amassed a noble collection of books, and had special opportunities of doing so as See also:Edward See also:IIl.'s See also:chancellor and See also:ambassador. He founded Durham College at Oxford, and equipped it with a library a hundred years before See also:Humphrey, See also:duke of See also:Gloucester, made his benefaction of books to the university. The taste for secular literature, and the See also:enthusiasm for the ancient classics, gave a fresh direction to the researches of collectors. A disposition to encourage literature beganto show itself amongst the great. This was most notable amongst the See also:Italian princes. Cosimo de' See also:Medici formed a library at See also:Venice while living there in See also:exile in 1433, and on his return to Florence laid the foundation of the great Medicean library. The See also:honour of establishing the first modern public library in Italy had been already secured by Niccolo See also:Niccoli, who left his library of over 800 volumes for the use of the public on his death in 1436. See also:Frederick, duke of See also:Urbino, collected all the writings in Greek and Latin which he could. procure, and we have an interesting account of his collection written by his first librarian, Vespasiano. The ardour'for classical studies led to those active researches for 'the Latin writers who were buried in the monastic libraries which are especially identified with the name of See also:Poggio. For some time before the fall of Constantinople, the perilous See also:state of the Eastern empire had driven many Greek scholars from that See also:capital into western Europe, where they had diiected the studies and formed the taste of the zealous students of the Greek language and literature. The enthusiasm of the Italian princes extended itself beyond the See also:Alps. See also:Matthias See also:Corvinus, See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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