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
In the monastery of Pomposa, in Lombardy, Abbot Jerome brought together
in the eleventh century (in spite of certain grumblings on the part
of the monks, the ground for which is not clearly explained) a great
collection of manuscripts.[226] A certain Henricus Clericus, writing
in 1093, describing this collection to a friend, says that in no
church, not even in Rome, could so wonderful a group of books be found.
Henricus prepared a catalogue of the library, and at the close of
the catalogue he finds it necessary, as a matter of consistency, to
apologise for the abbot who had ventured to include in the collection
heathen books. The presence of such books, known at the time as _libri
scholastici_, was, however, by no means exceptional in monastery
collections, and in many of these were to be found copies of Virgil,
Ovid, and particularly Cicero. While this was more frequently the case
in Italy, it occurred also in Germany. An inventory made in 1233 of the
monastery of Neumünster, near Wurzburg, includes in a special list the
titles of a number of the Classics.
A similar separate catalogue of _libri scholastici_ was made in 1297
for the collection in the cathedral library of Lübeck.
While the principal increase in the monastery libraries had been
secured through the work of scribes and through exchanges, and
occasionally through purchases, a considerable proportion of the books
came to them through gifts or bequests. The gift that it was customary
for a novice to make on entering a monastery very frequently took the
form of books.
In 1055, the priest Richlof, in placing his son with the Benedictines,
gave as an accompanying present a farm and some books, and his mother
gave a copy of a treatise of S. Ambrose.[227]
Léon Maitre says that in Fleury, each new scholar was expected to
present at least two codices. Towards the end of the eleventh century,
a noble cleric, who entered as a monk the monastery at Tegernsee,
brought with him so many books that, according to the account, when
placed by the principal altar they covered this from top to bottom.[228]
In what was known as the Scottish Monastery, near Vienna, there
was kept in the thirteenth century a record of gifts, which record
includes a long list of presents of books. In the latter part of the
century, the monastery appears to have degenerated, the library fell
into disuse, and the presents of books ceased. In 1418 the so-called
Scottish monks were driven out, and the foundation was taken possession
of by Germans. From this date the record of gifts of books again began.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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