Books and their makers during the Middle Ages : $b A study of the conditions of the production and distribution of literature from the fall of the Roman Empire to the close of the seventeenth century, Vol. IPutnam, George Haven
History
Books and their makers during the Middle Ages : $b A study of the conditions of the production and distribution of literature from the fall of the Roman Empire to the close of the seventeenth century, Vol. I
Putnam, George Haven
Books -- History -- 400-1450; Copyright; Freedom of the press -- History -- To 1500; Manuscripts; Printers
Clark points out that the word _Library_ was used by the Benedictines
long before any special room was assigned in the Benedictine House as a
storage place for the books. He is of opinion that until the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries the books were for the most part kept in the
cloisters, the only portions of the monastery buildings, except the
refectory and occasionally the _califactorium_ (warming-house), in
which the monks were allowed to congregate. The books so stored in the
cloisters were shut up in presses, which secured for them a certain
amount of protection. The term applied to these presses, _armaria_, was
that used by the Romans for their book-cases. The monk charged with
the care of the books took his name not from the books themselves, as
in later times, but from the presses which contained them, and was
generally styled _armarius_.
In some of the monasteries where literary studies were pursued with
special ardour, the more persistent readers and scribes were provided
with small wooden compartments or studies called _carrells_. In the
book called the _Rites of Durham_ is given the following description
of these carrells: “In the north syde of the cloister, from the corner
over againste the church dour to the corner over againste the Dorter
dour, was all fynely glased from the hight to the sole within a little
of the ground into the Cloister garth, and in every window _iij_
Pewes or Carrells, where every one of the old monks had his carrell,
several by himselfs, that, when they had dyned, they dyd resort to that
place of Cloister, and there studyed upon these books, every one in
his carrell, all the after nonne, unto evensong tyme. This was there
exercise every daie.... In every carrell was a deske to lye there books
upon, and the carrell was no greater than from one stanchell of the
wyndowe to another, and over againste the carrells againste the church
wall, did stande certain great almeries (or cupbords) of waynscott all
full of bookes (with great store of ancient manuscripts to help them in
their study) wherein did lye as well the old anncyent written Doctors
of the Church as other prophane authors, with dyverse other holie
men’s wourks, so that every one did studye what Doctor pleased them
best, havinge the Librarie at all tymes to goe studye in besydes there
carrells.”[217]
In the _Customs_ of the Augustinian priory of Barnwell, written towards
the end of the thirteenth century, the following passage occurs: “The
press in which the books are kept ought to be lined inside with wood,
that the damp of the walls may not moisten or stain the books. This
press should be divided vertically as well as horizontally by sundry
partitions, on which the books may be ranged so as to be separated from
one another: for fear they be packed so close as to injure each other,
or to delay those who want them.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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