546 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
Michelsberg, in Bamberg, had only a single recent work, the Meditations of Anselm. The Priifening library had a copy each, of Anselm, Hugo, Abielard, the Lombard and Gratian. Classical authors were common. The library at Durham had copies of Cicero, Terence, Virgil, Horace, Claudian, Statius, Sallust, Suetonius, Quintilian and other Latin authors.1 Sometimes the classics were catalogued by themselves as at Neumiinster.
Gifts of books were regarded as worthy benefactions. Peter, bishop of Paris, before starting out for the Holy Land, gave 300 works over to the care of the convent of St. Victor.2 Grosseteste willed his collection to the Oxford Franciscans.3 Gerbert, afterwards Sylvester II., says that the liberality of friends enabled him to buy a number of books in Rome, Italy, and Flanders.4 The admiring chron icler treats it as a claim to fame, that Theodoric secured, for his abbey of St. Evroult, the books of the Old and New Testaments and an entire set of Gregory the Great. Others followed his good example and secured the works of Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, and other Fathers.5 Peter the Vener able declared that at Cluny books, notably the works of Augustine, were held more precious than gold.6
Libraries were sometimes given with the stipulation that the books should be loaned out. This was the case with Jacob of Carnarius who, in 1234, gave his library to the Domin icans of Vercelli on this condition. In 1270, Stephen, at one time archdeacon of Canterbury, donated his books to Notre Dame, Paris, on condition of their being loaned to poor theological students, and Peter of Joigny, 1297, bequeathed his collection directly to poor students.7 In the following century Petrarch left his books to St. Marks, Venice, and
1 Edwards, p. 56. See also Sandys, pp. 500 sqq.
2 Hurter, III. 314. A list of books is preserved which the archbishop of far Northern Lund gave to the cathedral.
3 Stevenson, Life of Gross., p. 86. 4 £/)., 44 ; Migne, 139. 214.
5 Order. Vit., III. 3.
6 Libri maxime Augustiniani, ut nosti, apud nos auro pretiosioren sunt.
7 Chart. Univ. Pan's., I. 493. Translated in the Univ. of Perm. Transla tions and jReprints.
§ 89. BOOKS AND LIBRARIES. 547
Boccaccio willed his possessions of this kind to the Augustinian friars of Florence.
Manuscripts were sometimes offered at the altar or at the shrines of saints as offerings for the healing of the giver's soul, — pro remedio animce suce.1 On the other hand, in cases of emergency, books were put in pawn or sold. William of Longchamps, bishop of Ely, 1190, pawned 13 copies of the Gospels for the redemption of Richard I.2 The abbot Diemo of Lorsch, 1139, needing money to pay for military equipments, sold three books ornamented with gold and precious stones.3 Here and there, a tax was levied for the benefit of a library, as in the case of Evesham, 1215, and the synod of Lyons the same year adopted a like expedient.4 Prince Borwin of Rostock, in 1240, gave the monastery of Dargun a hide of land, the proceeds of which were to be used for the needs of the library.5
Of all books, copies of the Scriptures were held in highest esteem. They were often bound in covers, inlaid with gold and silver, and sometimes ornamented with precious stones and richly illuminated. Paul, abbot of St. Albans, placed in the abbey-library eight Psalters and two Gospels highly ornamented with gold and gems, as well as a copy of the Collects, a copy of the Epistles, and 28 other books. In 1295, the dean of St. Paul's found in the cathedral 12 copies of the Gospels adorned with jewels, and a thirteenth copy kept in a case with relics.6
Books were kept first in armaria or horizontal presses and the librarian was called armarius. About the fourteenth century shelves were introduced along the cloistral walls.7 As early as the thirteenth century books were fastened by chains to protect them from being stolen by eager readers.8 The statutes of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1350, required
1 Maitland, pp. 98 sq., 238 sqq. * Wattenbach, p. 582.
2 Maitland, p. 250. 6 Putnam, I. 159.
8 Wattenbach, p. 546. « Maitland, p. 242.
7 Clark, p. 24, and Gasquet, pp. 20-28.
8 Such chained books were, in the Sorbonne from 1289 on, "for the com mon use of the brethren" — in communem sociorum utilitatem.