LIST[321] OF LIBRARIES CONTAINING MSS. WITH IRISH GLOSSES THEREON NOT LATER THAN END OF NINTH OR BEGINNING OF TENTH CENTURY: 1. Trinity College Library, Dublin. 2. Library of the Franciscan Monastery, Dublin. 3. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. 4. British Museum, London. 5. Lambert Library, South London. 6. University Library, Cambridge, England. 7. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 8. St. John’s College, Cambridge. 9. Bodleian Library, Oxford, England. 10. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. 11. Library of Nancy. 12. Library of Cambray. 13. University Library, Leyden. 14. University Library, Würzburg. 15. Hof-und Landesbibliothek, Carlsruhe. 16. Royal Library, Munich. 17. Library of the Monastery of Engelberg. 18. Library of St. Paul’s Kloster in Carinthia. 19. Royal Library, Dresden. 20. Stadtbibliothek, Schaffhausen. 21. Royal Library, Vienna. 22. Stifsbibliothek, St. Gall. 23. Stadtbibliothek, Berne. 24. Ambrosian Library, Milan. 25. Vatican Library, Rome. 26. University Library, Turin. 27. Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin. 28. Laurentian Library, Florence. These numerous and valuable MSS. that have come down to us are in themselves the most convincing evidence of the zeal of the Irish monks for the promotion and transmission of classical learning. There can be little doubt that these Irish scholars under the most adverse circumstances fostered learning during the dark ages that preceded the Renaissance and, as we have seen, when the great awakening came one of the sources from which the treasures of classical antiquity emerged were the monastic libraries that contained the MSS. copied, or preserved, with loving care by Irish scribes and scholars. In this chapter we have endeavoured to show how the zeal for learning which inspired the teacher in the class-room was carried into the scriptorium; how the scribes with patient industry copied, and so transmitted, the relics of classical antiquity; and how these relics were preserved to the afterworld in the great monastic libraries. The direct contribution made by the Irish monks of the Early Middle Ages to contemporary education will be studied in the next chapter. Here we would emphasise the fact that the full significance of the Irish monastic schools as an educational factor cannot be understood unless we realize the importance of the combined, as well as the separate, contribution of these three great centres of intellectual activity, the school, the scriptorium and the library. CHAPTER VI COURSE OF STUDIES