And now what do we mean by books and by popularity at the end of the thirteenth century? The reader must keep in mind that our notion of popularity measured by thousands of copies would then have been regarded as strange as the most monstrous of Sir John Mandeville’s stories. There was no printing; there was no paper, either--as we understand. The art, indeed, of making paper out of pulp did exist at this date with the Oriental nations--perhaps with the Moors in Spain, but not in England. Parchment made from skins was the main material, and books were engrossed laboredly with a pen or stylus. It was most likely a very popular book which came to an edition of fifty or sixty copies within five years of its first appearance: and a good manuscript was so expensive an affair that its purchase was often made a matter to be testified to by subscribing witnesses, as we witness the transfer of a house. A little budget of these manuscripts made a valuable library. When St. Augustine planted his Church in Kent--he brought nine volumes with him as his literary treasure. Lanfranc, who was one of the Norman abbots brought over by the Conqueror to build up the priesthood in learning, made order in 1072 that at Lent the librarian should deliver to the worthiest of the brotherhood each a book; and these were to have a year to read them. At the commencement of the fourteenth century there were only four classics in the royal library of Paris; and at the same date the library of Oxford University consisted of a few tracts kept in chests under St. Mary’s Church.--Green, in his “Making of England,”[31] cites from Alcuin a bit of that old Churchman’s Latin poem--“_De Pontificibus_”--which he says is worthy of special note, as the first catalogue which we have of any English Library. “Quidquid Gregorius summus docet, et Leo Papa; Basilius quidquid, Fulgentius atque, coruscant, Cassiodorus item, Chrysostomus atque Johannes Quidquid et Athelmus docuit, quid Beda magister.” Beda and Aldhelm are the only English writers represented; and the catalogue--if we call it such--could be written on a half-page of note paper--Metaphors and Geography and Theology and decorative epithets included.