550 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
of Jerome's commentary on Daniel the following words and claimed the prayers of the reader: —
Dum scripsit friguif, et quod cum lumine soils
Scribere non pofuit, perfecit lumine noctis.
" When he wrote he froze, and what he could not complete by the light of day, he finished by the light of the night."1
The price of books continued to be high till the invention of the printing-press. A count of Anjou paid for a copy of the homilies of Haimo of Halberstadt 200 sheep and a large quantity of provisions. In 1274, a finely written Bible sold for 50 marks, about 1170, when labor cost a shilling a day. Maitland computed that it would take a monk ten months to transcribe the Bible and that the labor would be worth to-day <£60 or X70.2 The prices, however, were often greatly reduced, and Richard of Bury, in his Philobiblic^ says that he purchased from the convent of St. Albans 32 volumes for £50.
The copyists, like the builders of the cathedrals, usually concealed their names. It was a custom with them to close their task by appending some pious or, at times, some witty sentiment. A line, frequently appended, ran, finite libro, sit laus et gloria Ohristo. " The book is finished. Praise and honor be to Christ." The joy authors often feel at the com pletion of their writings was felt by a scribe when he wrote, libro complete, saltat scriptor pede leto. " Now the book is done, the scribe dances with glad foot." Another piously expressed his feelings when he wrote, dentur pro penna scriptori ccelica regna. " May the heavenly reward be given to the scribe for his work with the quill." 3
The pleasures of converse with books in the quiet of a library are thus attractively set forth by a mediaeval theo logian, left alone in the convent when the other monks had gone off for recreation : —
" Our house is empty save only myself and the rats and mice who nib ble in solitary hunger. There is no voice in the hall, no footstep on the stairs. ... I sit here with no company but books, dipping into dainty
1 Maitland, p. 444. 2 p< 232.
8 Wattenbach., pp. 471-534, gives a number of subscriptions.
§ 90. THE UNIVERSITIES. 551
honeycombs of literature. All minds in the world's literature are con centrated in a library. This is the pinnacle of the temple from which we may see all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. I keep Egypt and the Holy Land in the closet next to the window. On the side of them are Athens and the empire of Rome. Never was such an army mustered as I have here. No general ever had such soldiers as I have. No kingdom ever had half such illustrious subjects as mine or subjects half as well disciplined. I can put my haughtiest subjects up or down as it pleases me. ... I call Plato and he answers " here," — a noble and sturdy soldier ; " Aristotle," " here," — a host in himself. Demosthenes, Pliny, Cicero, Tacitus, Caesar. " Here," they answer, and they smile at me in their immortality of youth. Modest all, they never speak unless spoken to. Bountiful all, they never refuse to answer. And they are all at peace together. . . . All the world is around me, all that ever stirred human hearts or fired the imagination is harmlessly here. My library cases are the avenues of time. Ages have wrought, generations grown, and all their blossoms are cast down here. It is the garden of immortal fruits without dog or dragon."
§ 90. The Universities.
LITERATURE : Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, ed. by H. DENIFLE,
0. P. and A. CHATELAIN, adjunct librarian of the Sorbonne, 4 vols. Paris, 1889-1897. This magnificent work gives the documents bearing on the origin, organization, customs, and rules of the University of Paris from 1200-1452 ; and forms one of the most valuable recent contribu tions to the study of the Middle Ages. — Auctarium Chartularii Univ. Paris., ed. by DENIFLE and CHATELAIN, 2 vols. Paris, 1893-1897. It gives the documents bearing on the hist, of the English "nation" in Paris from 1393-1466. — DENIFLE : Urkunden zur Gesch. der mittelalt. Univer sitdten, in Archivfur Lit.- und Kirchengesch., V. 167 sqq., 1889. —Engl. trans, of the charter of Fred. Barbarossa, 1158 ; the Privilege of Philip Augustus, 1200; the charter of Frederick II. founding the Univ. of Naples; the Regulations of Robert de Common, 1215, etc., are given in the Trans, and fieprints of the Dcp. of Hist., Univ. of Penn.—C. E. BUL^US (Du Boulay) : Hist. univ. Paris., etc., a Carolo Mag no ad nostra tempora (1600), 6 vols. Paris, 1665-1673. A splendid work, but wrong in its description of the origin of the university and some matters of its organization. — F. C. VON SAVIGNY, Prof, in Berlin, d. 1861: Gesch. des row. Eechts im M. A., Heidel., 2d ed., 1834, vol. III. — J. H. NEWMAN : Office and Work of Universities, London, 1856, vol. Ill of his Hist. Sketches. An exaggerated estimate of mediaeval culture. —
1. DOLLINGER : D. Universitdten sonst und jetzt, in his Akad. Vortrdge, Nordl., 1889. — * DENIFLE: D. Entstehung d. Universitdten d. Miltelalters bis 1400, Berlin, 1885, pp. 814. Marks an epoch in the