handmaid of God, Diemudis, to the praise of God and of the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, the patrons of this monastery. But at what period she lived I could never discover, since, in all the books, (we charitably hope from humility,) she omitted to mention her name and the time when she finished.

57. Scarcity and Cost of Books

(Symonds, J. A., The Renaissance in Italy, vol. II, pp. 127-29. London, 1888)

The following short extract from Symonds gives the contents of two libraries in northern Italy, and the cost of books before the days of printing.

Scarcity of books was at first a chief impediment to the study of antiquity. Popes and princes and even great religious institutions possessed far fewer books than many farmers of the present age. The library belonging to the Cathedral Church of S. Martino at Lucca in the ninth century contained only nineteen volumes of abridgments from

ecclesiastical commentaries. The Cathedral of Novara in 1212 could boast copies of Boethius, Priscian, the Code of Justinian, the Decretals, and the Etymology of Isidorus, besides a Bible and some devotional treatises. This slender stock passed for great riches. Each of the precious volumes in such a collection was an epitome of medieval art. Its pages were composed of fine vellum adorned with pictures. The initial letters displayed elaborate flourishes and exquisitely illuminated groups of figures. The scribe took pains to render his caligraphy perfect, and to ornament the margins with crimson, gold, and blue. Then he handed the parchment sheets to the binder, who encased them in rich settings of velvet or carved ivory and wood, embossed with gold and precious stones. The edges were gilt and stamped with patterns. The clasps were wrought silver, chased with niello. The price of such masterpieces was enormous. Borso d'Este, in 1464, gave eight gold ducats to Gherardo

FIG. 9. A MEDIEVAL WRITER (From a manuscript in the National Library, at Paris)

The scribe is seated in a chair, with a writing desk attached. He holds a pen in one hand, and a knife for erasing in the other. The table before him is covered with bound books

Ghislieri of Bologna for an illuminated Lancellotto, and in 1469 he bought a Josephus and Quintus Curtius for forty ducats. His great Bible in two volumes is said to have cost 1,375 sequins. Rinaldo degli Albizzi notes in his Memoirs that he paid eleven golden florins for a Bible at Arezzo in 1406. Of these MSS. the greater part were manufactured in the cloisters.

58. Anathemas to Protect Books from Theft

(From Clark, J. W., The Care of Books, pp. 77-78. London, 1901)

In addition to chaining books with heavy rod and chains to their case, it was customary to inscribe an anathema in the volume, further to protect them against removal. The following are examples of such inscriptions.

(a) This book belongs to S. Maximin at his monastery of Micy, which abbat Peter caused to be written, and with his own labour corrected and punctuated, and on Holy Thursday dedicated to God and S. Maximin on the altar of S. Stephen, with this imprecation that he who should take it away from thence by what device soever, with the intention of not restoring it, should incur damnation with the traitor Judas, with Annas, Caiaphas, and Pilate. Amen.

(b) Should any one by craft or any device whatever abstract this book from this place (Jumièges) may his soul suffer, in retribution for what he has done, and may his name be erased from the book of the living and not be recorded among the Blessed.

(c) This book belongs to S. Alban. May whoever steals it from him or destroys its title be anathema. Amen.

(d) May whoever steals or alienates this manuscript, or scratches out its title, be anathema. Amen.

(e) May whoever destroys this title, or by gift or sale or loan or exchange or theft or by any other device knowingly alienates this book from the aforesaid Christ Church, incur in this life the malediction of Jesus Christ and of the most glorious Virgin His Mother, and of the Blessed Thomas, Martyr. Should however it please Christ, who is patron of Christ Church, may his soul be saved in the Day of Judgment. (1) Wher so ever y be come over all

I belonge to the Chapell of gunvylle hall;
He shal be cursed by the grate sentens
That felonsly faryth and berith me thens.
And whether he bere me in pooke or sekke,
For me he shall be hanged by the nekke,
(I am so well beknown of dyverse men)
But I be restored theder agen.

59. The Venerable Bede on Education in Early England (Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England; edited by C. Plummer, book IV, 1, 2, 20)

The Venerable Bede (673-735), a famous scholar and historian and the author of many books, was a lifelong student at the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Yarrow, in North Britain. In his Ecclesiastical History of England he has left us our chief picture of education in England in his time. The following selections are illustrative.

(a) The Learning of Theodore

Now there was in the monastery of Niridanum, which is not far from Naples in Campania, abbot Hadrian, an African by birth, well learned in sacred literature, and versed in both monastic and ecclesiastical discipline, and highly skilled in the Greek equally with the Latin tongue.

...

There was at the same time (668 A.D.) in Rome a monk known to Hadrian, whose name was Theodore, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, a man instructed in secular and divine literature both Greek and Latin; of approved character and venerable age, that is, about 66 years old. Hadrian suggested him to the Pope to be ordained bishop, and the suggestion was adopted.

(b) Theodore's Work for the English Churches

Theodore then arrived at his church in the second year after his consecration, on Sunday, 27 May (670 A.D.), and lived in it 21 years, 3 months and 26 days. He soon travelled through the whole island, wherever it was inhabited by the English race. For he was willingly received and listened to by every one, and everywhere in the company and with the assistance of Hadrian he sowed the right rule of life, the canonical rite for the celebration of Easter. And he was the first of the archbishops to whom the whole English church consented to do fealty. And because, as we have said, both were abundantly learned both in sacred and profane literature, rivers of saving knowledge daily flowed from them to irrigate the hearts of the band of pupils whom they brought together, insomuch that they passed on to their hearers the knowledge even of the art of metre, of astronomy and of ecclesiastical arithmetic, together with volumes of the sacred text. A proof of this is that even to-day (c. A.D. 731) some of their pupils are still living, who know the Latin and Greek languages as well as their native tongue. Never since the English came to Britain were there happier times than these, in which, under brave and Christian kings, they were a terror to all barbarian tribes, when the aspirations of all hung on the lately revealed joys of the kingdom of heaven, and every one who wished to become learned in holy Writ, had masters at hand to teach him.

Besides, they thenceforth began to learn in all the churches of the English the notes of ecclesiastical chants, which hitherto they had only known in Kent. The first singing master (except James whom we mentioned above) in the Northumbrian churches was Stephen Addi, who was invited from Kent by the venerable Wilfred, who was the first among the bishops of English birth to teach the catholic method of life to the churches of the English.

(c) How Albinus succeeded Abbot Hadrian

In the fifth year of King Osred, the most reverend father abbot Hadrian, fellow-worker in the word of God with bishop Theodore of blessed memory, died. Among other proofs of his learning and that of Theodore is this, that his pupil Albinus, who succeeded him in the rule of the monastery, was so advanced in the study of literature, that he had no small knowledge of the Greek language and knew the Latin tongue as well as that of the English, which was his native tongue.

60. Alcuin's Description of the School at York

(On the Saints of the Church at York; trans. by James Rai)

The cathedral school at York, England, was one of the oldest of the English schools. In 732 Egbert became archbishop of York, and the scholasticus of the school under him was Elbert or Ethelbert. He raised the school to a place of first importance. Alcuin, born about 735, entered the cathedral school as a child, was taught by Elbert, and later became master of the school himself. In one of his poems he has described the instruction under Ælbert. The whole medieval curriculum will be noted in this description.

Bide with me for a while, I pray ye, youth of York, while I proceed with poetic steps to treat of him, because here he often drenched your senses with nectar, pouring forth sweet juices from his honey-flowing bosom. Fairest Philosophy took him from his very cradle and bore him to the topmost towers of learning, opening to him the hidden things of wisdom. He was born of ancestors of sufficient note, by whose care he was soon sent to kindly school, and entered at the Minster in his early years, that his tender age might grow up with holy understanding. Nor was his parents' hope in vain; even as a boy as he grew in body so he became proficient in the understanding of books.

Then pious and wise, teacher at once and priest, he was made a colleague of Bishop Egbert, to whom he was nearly allied by right of blood. By him he is made advocate of the clergy, and at the same time is preferred as master in the city of York.

There he moistened thirsty hearts with diverse streams of teaching and the varied dews of learning, giving to these the art of the science of

grammar, pouring on those the rivers of rhetoric. Some he polished on the whetstone of law, some he taught to sing together in Æonian chant, making others play on the flute of Castaly, and run with the feet of lyric poets over the hills of Parnassus. Others the said master made to know the harmony of heaven, the labours of sun and moon, the five belts of the sky, the seven planets, the laws of the fixed stars, their rising and setting, the movements of the air, the quaking of sea and earth, the nature of men, cattle, birds and beasts, the divers kinds of numbers and various shapes. He gave certainty to the solemnity of Easter's return; above all, opening the mysteries of holy writ and disclosing the abysses of the rude and ancient law. Whatever youths he saw of conspicuous intelligence, those he joined to himself, he taught, he fed, he loved; and so the teacher had many disciples in the sacred volumes, advanced in various arts. Soon he went in triumph abroad, led by the love of wisdom, to see if he could in find other lands anything novel in books or schools, which he could bring home with him. He went also devoutly to the city of Romulus, rich in God's love, wandering far and wide through the holy places. Then returning home, he was received everywhere by kings and princes as a prince of doctors, whom great kings tried to keep that he might irrigate their lands with learning. But the master hurrying to his appointed work, returned home to his fatherland by God's ordinance. For no sooner had he been borne to his own shores, than he was compelled to take on him the pastoral care, and made high priest at the people's demand....

61. Alcuin's Catalogue of the Cathedral Library at York

(On the Saints of the Church of York; trans. by West)

On the death of Egbert, Archbishop of York, in 766, Alcuin was given charge of the cathedral library, then a famous one for its time. In a continuation of the preceding poem, Alcuin has left a sort of metrical catalogue of its more important volumes, which has been rendered into English verse by Professor West.

There shalt thou find the volumes that contain

All of the ancient fathers who remain;

There all the Latin writers make their home

With those that glorious Greece transferred to Rome, —

The Hebrews draw from their celestial stream,

And Africa is bright with learning's beam.

Here shines what Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary thought,
Or Athanasius and Augustine wrought.

Orosius, Leo, Gregory the Great,

Near Basil and Fulgentius coruscate.