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
The Duke of Bedford found time, between his frequent campaigns,
to interest himself in the collection of manuscripts, and more
particularly of works which were beautifully illuminated. He purchased,
for 1200 francs, a portion of the library of Charles V., which had been
captured, and, these books being taken to Oxford, finally found place
in the Bodleian collection.
Philip of Cleves, who died in 1528 and who was connected with the
Burgundy House, shared the passion of his relatives for magnificent
manuscripts.
An inventory of Margaret, Duchess of Brittany, contains the descriptive
titles of eleven books of devotion and four romances, “all bound in
satin.”[254]
The name of Anne of Brittany, the wife of King Charles VIII., and later
of Louis XII., has long been famous in connection with her fondness for
books of devotion and with the great collection which she succeeded in
making of these. An inventory of 1498 gives the titles of 1140 books as
belonging to Anne’s collection.[255]
In Italy, it was not until the time of Petrarch that there came to
be any general interest in the collection of books. This interest
was naturally associated with the great Humanistic movement of which
it may be considered as partly the cause and partly the effect. The
development of literary interests in Italy during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries will be considered in the chapter on the
Renaissance.
In Germany, the collections outside of the monasteries appear to have
been less important than in Burgundy and in France, the difference
being probably in part due to the narrower cultivation of the German
noblemen, and probably also in part to their smaller resources. In
fact, the more important collections do not appear to have been in the
possession of the nobility at all, but to have come into existence
through the public spirit of citizens of lower degree. The library of
two hundred volumes brought together as early as 1260 by Hugo Trimberg,
a schoolmaster of St. Gangolf, has already been referred to.
Duke Ludwig of Brieg is described as having had as early as 1360 a
considerable collection of books, and as having had written, in 1353,
by some scribe whose name has not been preserved, the Hedwig legends.
The Electors of the Palatinate interested themselves in the formation
of libraries, having possibly been influenced to some extent by their
relations with their neighbours on the other side of the Rhine. Authors
such as Matthias of Kemnat and Michel Behaim worked at the instance of
the Electors and under pay from them. The books of Kemnat and Behaim
were either originally written in German, or were promptly translated
into German for the use of the Electors and of their wives. A number of
books in this series are also ornamented with pictures, but, according
to the descriptions, the art work in these illustrations was much
inferior to that done at the same time in Burgundy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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