Bibliomania in the Middle Ages

Frederick Somner Merryweather

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• Publié par: sheam
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bibliomania in the
Middle Ages, by
Frederick Somner Merryweather
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Title: Bibliomania in the Middle Ages
Author: Frederick Somner Merryweather
Release Date: May 28, 2007 [EBook #21630]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
BIBLIOMANIA IN THE MIDDLE AGES ***
Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes and the
Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.netBIBLIOMANIA
in
THE MIDDLE AGES
by
F. SOMNER MERRYWEATHER
With an Introduction by
CHARLES ORR
Librarian of Case Library
Publisher's Mark
NEW YORK
MEYER BROTHERS & COMPANY
1900Copyright, 1900
By Meyer Bros. & Co.
Louis Weiss & Co.
Printers....
118 Fulton Street
... New York
Bibliomania in the Middle Ages
or
SKETCHES OF BOOKWORMS,
COLLECTORS, BIBLE STUDENTS, SCRIBES
AND ILLUMINATORS
From the Anglo-Saxon and Norman Periods to the
Introduction of Printing
into England, with Anecdotes Illustrating the
History of the
Monastic Libraries of Great Britain in the Olden
Time
by F. Somner Merryweather, withan Introduction by Charles Orr,
Librarian of Case Library.
CONTENTS
page
INTRODUCTION vii
CHAPTER I 1
CHAPTER II 13
CHAPTER III 27
CHAPTER IV 61
CHAPTER V 93
CHAPTER VI 135
CHAPTER VII 151
CHAPTER VIII 157
CHAPTER IX 205
CHAPTER X 229
CHAPTER XI 247
CHAPTER XII 287
CHAPTER XIII 305
INDEX 315
HeaderINTRODUCTION
I
n every century for more than two thousand years,
many men have owed their chief enjoyment of life to
books. The bibliomaniac of today had his prototype in
ancient Rome, where book collecting was fashionable
as early as the first century of the Christian era. Four
centuries earlier there was an active trade in books at
Athens, then the center of the book production of the
world. This center of literary activity shifted to
Alexandria during the third century b. c. through the
patronage of Ptolemy Soter, the founder of the
Alexandrian Museum, and of his son, Ptolemy
Philadelphus; and later to Rome, where it remained for
many centuries, and where bibliophiles and
bibliomaniacs were gradually evolved, and from
whence in time other countries were invaded.
For the purposes of the present work the middle ages
cover the period beginning with the seventh century
and ending with the time of the invention of printing, or
about seven hundred years, though they are more
accurately bounded by the years 500 and 1500 a. d. It
matters little, however, since there is no attempt at
chronological arrangement.
About the middle of the present century there began
to be a disposition to grant to mediæval times their
proper place in the history of the preservation and
dissemination of books, and Merryweather's
Bibliomania in the Middle Ages was one of the earliest
works in English devoted to the subject. Previous tothat time, those ten centuries lying between the fall of
the Roman Empire and the revival of learning were
generally referred to as the Dark Ages, and historians
and other writers were wont to treat them as having
been without learning or scholarship of any kind.
Even Mr. Hallam,[1] with all that judicial temperament
and patient research to which we owe so much, could
find no good to say of the Church or its institutions,
characterizing the early university as the abode of
"indigent vagabonds withdrawn from usual labor," and
all monks as positive enemies of learning.
The gloomy survey of Mr. Hallam, clouded no doubt
by his antipathy to all things ecclesiastical, served,
however, to arouse the interest of the period, which
led to other studies with different results, and later
writers were able to discern below the surface of
religious fanaticism and superstition so characteristic
of those centuries, much of interest in the history of
literature; to show that every age produced learned
and inquisitive men by whom books were highly prized
and industriously collected for their own sakes; in
short, to rescue the period from the stigma of absolute
illiteracy.
If the reader cares to pursue the subject further, after
going through the fervid defense of the love of books
in the middle ages, of which this is the introduction, he
will find outside of its chapters abundant evidence that
the production and care of books was a matter of
great concern. In the pages of Mores Catholici; or
Ages of Faith, by Mr. Kenelm Digby,[2] or of The Dark
Ages, by Dr. S. R. Maitland,[3] or of that great work ofrecent years, Books and their Makers during the
Middle Ages, by Mr. George Haven Putnam,[4] he will
see vivid and interesting portraits of a great multitude
of mediæval worthies who were almost lifelong lovers
of learning and books, and zealous laborers in
preserving, increasing and transmitting them. And
though little of the mass that has come down to us
was worthy of preservation on its own account as
literature, it is exceedingly interesting as a record of
centuries of industry in the face of such difficulties that
to workers of a later period might have seemed
insurmountable.
A further fact worthy of mention is that book
production was from the art point of view fully abreast
of the other arts during the period, as must be
apparent to any one who examines the collections in
some of the libraries of Europe. Much of this beauty
was wrought for the love of the art itself. In the earlier
centuries religious institutions absorbed nearly all the
social intellectual movements as well as the
possession of material riches and land. Kings and
princes were occupied with distant wars which
impoverished them and deprived literature and art of
that patronage accorded to it in later times. There is
occasional mention, however, of wealthy laymen,
whose religious zeal induced them to give large sums
of money for the copying and ornamentation of books;
and there were in the abbeys and convents lay
brothers whose fervent spirits, burning with poetical
imagination, sought in these monastic retreats and the
labor of writing, redemption from their past sins. These
men of faith were happy to consecrate their whole
existence to the ornamentation of a single sacredbook, dedicated to the community, which gave them in
exchange the necessaries of life.
The labor of transcribing was held, in the monasteries,
to be a full equivalent of manual labor in the field. The
rule of St. Ferreol, written in the sixth century, says
that, "He who does not turn up the earth with the
plough ought to write the parchment with his fingers."
Mention has been made of the difficulties under which
books were produced; and this is a matter which we
who enjoy the conveniences of modern writing and
printing can little understand. The hardships of the
scriptorium were greatest, of course, in winter. There
were no fires in the often damp and ill-lighted cells,
and the cold in some of the parts of Europe where
books were produced must have been very severe.
Parchment, the material generally used for writing
upon after the seventh century, was at some periods
so scarce that copyists were compelled to resort to
the expedient of effacing the writing on old and less
esteemed manuscripts.[5] The form of writing was stiff
and regular and therefore exceedingly slow and
irksome.
In some of the monasteries the scriptorium was at
least at a later period, conducted more as a matter of
commerce, and making of books became in time very
profitable. The Church continued to hold the keys of
knowledge and to control the means of productions;
but the cloistered cell, where the monk or the layman,
who had a penance to work off for a grave sin, had
worked in solitude, gave way to the apartment
specially set aside, where many persons could worktogether, usually under the direction of a librarius or
chief scribe. In the more carefully constructed
monasteries this apartment was so placed as to adjoin
the calefactory, which allowed the introduction of hot
air, when needed.
The seriousness with which the business of copying
was considered is well illustrated by the consecration
of the scriptorium which was often done in words
which may be thus translated: "Vouchsafe, O Lord, to
bless this work-room of thy servants, that all which
they write therein may be comprehended by their
intelligence and realized in their work."
While the work of the scribes was largely that of
copying the scriptures, gospels, and books of devotion
required for the service of the church, there was a
considerable trade in books of a more secular kind.
Particularly was this so in England. The large measure
of attention given to the production of books of
legends and romances was a distinguishing feature of
the literature of England at least three centuries
previous to the invention of printing. At about the
twelfth century and aft