CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Libraries</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09227b.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Collections of books accumulated and made accessible for public or private use"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="09227b.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/l.htm">L</a> > Libraries</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Libraries</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>Libraries, that is to say, collections of books accumulated and made accessible for public or private use, were known to the ancients before the coming of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>. Probably the most ancient library of which we have any precise <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> is that of Tello in Mesopotamia, discovered through the excavations of M. de Sarzec and now in great part removed to the Louvre. It seems to have consisted of more than 20,0000 tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing and belonging to the time of Gudea, ruler of Lagash, about 2500 B.C. Still more extensive was the royal library of Nineveh, formed by Sargon, King of <a href="../cathen/02007c.htm">Assyria</a> from 722 to 705 B.C., and by his great-grandson Ashurbanipal (668 to 628 B.C.). The latter monarch sent scribes to the ancient cities of <a href="../cathen/02179b.htm">Babylonia</a> and Assyria, where libraries existed, to make copies for him of rare and important works, and it seems <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a> that the collection comprised texts, impressed of course upon clay tablets, dealing with every branch of learning and <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a> known to the wise men of his day. More than twenty thousand of these tablets have been brought to <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> and are now preserved in the British Museum. All the more important texts are marked with a formula attesting that they belong to the palace of Ashurbanipal, and the formulas concludes with an imprecation interesting to compare with those so often fount in the <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> of <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> libraries: "Whosoever shall carry off this table, or shall inscribe his name upon it side by side with mine own, may Ashur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and <a href="../cathen/01489a.htm">anger</a>, and may they destroy his name and posterity in the land" (Wallis, Budge, and King, "Guide to Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities", 1908, p. 41). In <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> collections of papyrus rolls must undoubtedly have been made, though the more perishable nature of the material has not permitted any considerable remains to be preserved from the earlier ages of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> history. Of collections of books among the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> little is known, though certain passages in the Historical books of the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a> (e.g., <a href="../bible/2sa001.htm#vrs18">2 Samuel 1:18</a>; <a href="../bible/1ki011.htm#vrs41">1 Kings 11:41</a>; <a href="../bible/1ki014.htm#vrs19">14:19</a>; <a href="../bible/1ki015.htm#vrs23">15:23</a>, etc.) suggest that there must have been repositories where books might be consulted. Moreover, we find in II Mach., ii, 13, a distinct statement that Nehemias founded a library and "gathered together out of the countries, the books both of the <a href="../cathen/12477a.htm">prophets</a>, and of <a href="../cathen/04642b.htm">David</a>, and the epistles of the Kings, and concerning the holy gifts."</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>With regard to <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and Greece we have more precise evidence. Pisistratus is said to have formed a library which was carried off to <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a> by Xerxes and afterwards restored. <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a>, the <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosopher</a>, as his writings prove, must certainly have had some sort of library at his command, and this collection, after coming to Athens, is said to have been ultimately take by Sulla to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. But by far the most famous libraries of the Greek world were those of <a href="../cathen/11666a.htm">Pergamum</a> and Alexandria. The former, which had been formed by the kings of the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> of Attalus from about the year 200 B.C., must have been a very remarkable collection. Modern archaeological exploration has identified the site of this library with certain rooms in the precincts of the temple of Athene (see Conze in the "Sitzungsberichte" of the Berlin Academy, 1884, 1259-70). As for the books themselves, we learn from Plutarch that two hundred thousand volumes, or rather rolls, were removed by Mark Anthony to Alexandria and given to Cleopatra to replace the library which had been accidentally destroyed by fire in Julius Caesar's <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> campaign. The library so destroyed, which was known as that of the Musaeum, was formed by Ptolemy Philadelphus about 260 B.C. It is to this library that the legend attaches of the origin of the <a href="../cathen/13722a.htm">Septuagint</a>, as recorded in the <a href="../cathen/01601a.htm">apocryphal</a>, but very ancient, "Letter of Aristeas". According to this legend, Demetrius Phalereus, the keeper of the library, advised his master, King Ptolemy, to endeavour to obtain for it a translation of the Law of the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>. Envoys were accordingly dispatched to the <a href="../cathen/12407b.htm">High Priest</a> Eleazar of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, who sent seventy (or, more exactly, seventy-two) scholars to Alexandria to make the Greek version required. the work was completed in seventy day, and the translation was read aloud by Demetrius and approved as final.</p> <p>The "Musæum" (i.e., building <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> to the Muses), which contained this, the older of the two libraries, seems to have been located within the precincts of the palace, but the other, of later date, was formed in connection with the temple of Serapis, hence called the Serapeum. Much havoc was wrought among its treasures when Bishop Theophilus made his attack upon <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> worship at Alexandria in A.D. 390, and whatever remained of the library must have perished after the incursion of the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a> in 641. although Polybius, writing in the second century before Christ, speaks (xii, 27) as though libraries would naturally be found in any large town, it is only in the last years of the Roman Republic that we hear much of libraries in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> itself. At first these collections were in private hands  Cicero, for example, seems to have take much pains in acquiring books  but, after an unfulfilled project of Julius Caesar to form a library for public use, C. Asinius Pollio carried this <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> into execution a little later by means of the spoils he had obtained in his Illyrian campaign 39 B.C. The <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Emperor Augustus</a> himself soon followed the same example, and we hear of the collections of both of Greek and Latin Books formed by him, first in the Porticus Octaviae, which he restored about the year 33 B.C., and, secondly, within the precincts of the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, dedicated in 28 B.C. From this time forth public libraries multiplied in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> under the imperial patronage of <a href="../cathen/14717b.htm">Tiberius</a> and his successors, until they numbered, it is said, as many as twenty-six in all. From allusions in such writers as Ovid, Horace, and Aulus Gellius, it seems probable that these libraries, for example that of the Palatine Apollo, were furnished with copies of books on all subjects, and that soon as a new work of any well-known writer was given to the world the Roman libraries acquired it as a matter of course. We also <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> that they were administered by special officials, and that they served as places of resort for literary men, while one or more of them  notably the Bibliotheca Ulpia in the forum of Trajan  were used a depositories for the public archives.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>At the time that <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> appeared upon the scene in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, it is interesting to learn from Seneca how firm a hold the fashion of maintaining libraries, either public or private, had taken of Roman <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>. "What", asks Seneca, "is the use of books and libraries innumerable, if scarce in a lifetime the master reads the titles? . . . Forty thousand books were burnt at Alexandria. I leave to others to praise this splendid monument of royal opulence . . . . Procure as many books as will suffice for use, but not one for show. . . . Why should you excuse a man who wished to possess book-presses inlaid with arbor-vitae wood or <a href="../cathen/08257b.htm">ivory</a>, who gathers together masses of authors either unknown or discredited, and who derives his chief delight from their edges and their tickets? You will find, then, in the libraries of the most arrant idlers all that orators or historians have written  bookcases built up as high as the ceiling. Nowadays a library takes rank with a bathroom as a <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> ornament of a house. I could forgive such <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a>, if they were due to extravagant desire for learning. As it is, these productions of men whose genius we revere, paid for at a high price, with their portraits ranged in line above them, are got together to adorn and beautify a wall" (De Tranquil. Animi, xi).</p> <p>These were the fashions that prevailed in the more cultured circles of the Roman Empire at the time when <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> began its life-and-death struggle with <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a>. the use of books, even if attended with a certain amount of shallow affectation, was not a weapon which the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> could afford to neglect. In itself the accumulated learning of past ages was a good influence, and the teachers of the new <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> were not slow in striving to enlist it on their side. In any case some small collection of books was needed for the church services which seem from the very beginning to have consisted in part  as does the <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Divine Office</a> of the present day  of readings from the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old</a> and <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testaments</a>, and from works of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> instruction and edification. In this way every church that was founded became the nucleus of a library, and we need not be surprised to find <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> counselling Pammachius (Ep. xlix, 3) to make use of these collections (<em>ecclesiarum bibliothecis fruere</em>), and apparently assuming that wherever there was a congregation of the faithful suitable books would be available. But there must, of course, have been certain centres where, on account of their position, antiquity, or the exceptional generosity of benefactors, more important accumulations existed. Of these the earliest known to us is the library formed at <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, principally by Bishop Alexander, about the year 250, and containing, as <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> attests, a number of letters and historical documents (<a href="../fathers/250106.htm"><em>Church History</em> VI.20</a>). Still more important was the library of Caesarea in Palestine. This was collected by the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a> <a href="../cathen/11436b.htm">Pamphilus</a>, who suffered in the year 308, and it contained a number of the <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> which had been used by Origin (Jerome, In Titum, III, ix). At about the same period again we hear that, in the <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> which devastated Africa (303-304), "the officers went to the church at <a href="../cathen/04295a.htm">Cirta</a>, in which the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> used to assemble, and they despoiled it of <a href="../cathen/03561a.htm">chalices</a>, lamps, etc., but when they came to the library [<em>bibliothecam</em>], the presses [<em>armaria</em>] were found empty" (see appendix to Optatus).</p> <p><a href="../cathen/08558b.htm">Julian the Apostate</a>, in 362, demanded that the books formerly belonging to George, the <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arian</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Alexandria, including "many philosophical and rhetorical works and many of the doctrines of the impious Galileans", should be sent him for a library formerly established by Constantius in the imperial palace (<a href="../cathen/08558b.htm">Julian</a>, Epist. ix). On the other hand, when <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a> was dying, "he directed that the library of the church and all the books should be carefully kept for posterity forever", and "he bequeathed libraries to the church containing books and treatises by himself or other <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a> <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a>" (Possidius, "Vita Aug.", n.31). In <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> it would seem that <a href="../cathen/04613a.htm">Pope Damasus</a> (366-384) built a record-office (<em>archivium</em>) which, besides being the depository of official documents served also as library and chancery. It was connected with the Basilica of St. Lawrence, on the <a href="../cathen/05745c.htm">façade</a> of which was an inscription which ended with the three following lines:</p> <blockquote><p>Archivis fateor volui nova condere tecta. <br>Addere praeterea dextra laevaque columnas. <br>Quae Damasi teneant proprium per saecula nomen. </p></blockquote> <p>("I confess that I have wished to build a new abode for archives and to add columns on the right and left to preserve the dame of Damasus forever.")</p> <p>It is no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> this building which <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> refers to as "chartarium ecclesiæ Romanæ". <a href="../cathen/04739c.htm">De Rossi</a> and Lanciani conjecture that Damasus, following the model of one of the great libraries of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, which in its turn had imitated the arrangement of the famous library of <a href="../cathen/11666a.htm">Pergamum</a>, had first build a <a href="../cathen/02325a.htm">basilica</a> dedicated to <a href="../cathen/09089a.htm">St. Lawrence</a> and then added on the north and south sides a <a href="../cathen/04128c.htm">colonnade</a> from which the rooms containing the records would be readily accessible (Lancianai, Ancient <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, pp. 187-190). Whether this building did or did not ever strictly deserve the name of a library, we have evidence that <a href="../cathen/01202c.htm">Pope Agapetus</a> (535-36) set about the erection of another building on the Coelian Hill intended for the keeping of books and afterwards known as the Library of St. Gregory. There, at any rate, an inscription was to be read in the ninth century speaking of the long array of portraits which adorned the walls and, amongst the rest, of that of Pope Agapetus:</p> <blockquote><p>Hos inter residens Agapetus jure sacerdos <br>Codicibus pulchrum condidit arte locum. </p></blockquote> <p>("Mid these by right takes Agapetus place, who built to guard his books this fair abode.")</p> <p>The celebrated <a href="../cathen/03405c.htm">Cassiodorus</a>, who had been the friend of Agapetus, withdrew from the world in his declining years and gathered round him a <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> community at Vivarium, in Southern <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. There he formed a library as an adjunct of primary necessity for such an institute. Further, he enjoined upon the brethren that if they met with any book which he wanted they should make a copy of it, "that by the help of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> and their labour the library of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> might be benefited" (De Inst. Div. Lit., viii). <a href="../cathen/03405c.htm">Cassiodorus</a> also tells us a good deal about his library contrivances.</p> <p>But at the break-up of the civilization of the Roman Empire the great influence which contributed more than anything else to preserve in the West some scattered remnants of the learning of the classical period was undoubtedly monasticism, and in particular that form of monasticism which was identified with the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>. Even in <a href="../cathen/01181a.htm">Africa</a>, as the rule of <a href="../cathen/11381a.htm">St. Pachomius</a> and the writings of Cassion clearly show, the maintenance of the ideal of coenobitical life was in some measure dependent upon the use of books. <a href="../cathen/11381a.htm">St. Pachomius</a>, for example, enjoined that the books of the house were to be kept in a cupboard in the thickness of the wall. Any brother who wanted a book might have one for a week, at the end of which he was bound to return it. No brother might leave a book open when he went to church or to meals. In the evening the officer called the "second"  that is the second in command  was to take charge of the books, count them, and lock them up (see P.L., XXIII, 68, and cf. Butler, "Palladius", I, 236). we <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> from a letter of <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine's</a> that at <a href="../cathen/07360b.htm">Hippo</a> even the <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> had a library, and that it was the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> of one of the sisters to distribute and then to collect the books at the hours set apart for reading. Nor could the large place that study  but more particularly the study of the Scriptures  played in the lives of ascetic <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> at the close of the fourth century, be more clearly illustrated than in the story of St. Melania the younger, the friend of <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a> and <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a>, who made it a rule to spend daily a prescribed time in reading, and whose labours as a scribe were long renowned. But of all the written documents which have influenced the preservation of books, the text of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a> is the most important. Upon this is chiefly based that <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> of learning distinctive of the great monastic orders: "Idleness", says the Rule, "is an enemy to the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a>, and hence at certain times the brethren ought to occupy themselves with manual labour and at others with holy reading . . ." And, after specifying the hours to be devoted to reading at various seasons, the Rule further lays down:</p> <blockquote><p>During <a href="../cathen/09152a.htm">Lent</a> let them apply themselves to reading from morning until the end of the third hour. . . An in these days of <a href="../cathen/09152a.htm">Lent</a> let each one receive a book from the library and read it all through in order. These books are to be given out at the beginning of <a href="../cathen/09152a.htm">Lent</a>. Above all let one or two seniors be appointed to go round the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> at the hours when the brethren are engaged in reading and see that there be no <a href="../cathen/14057c.htm">slothful</a> brother giving himself to idleness or to foolish talk and not applying himself to his reading, so that he is thus not only useless to himself but a distraction to others. If such a one be found (which <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> forbid) let him be corrected once and a second time, </p></blockquote> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>and the Rule adds that if all this be ineffectual, the delinquent is to be chastised in such a way as to strike terror into others.</p> <p>That these principles were fully taken to heart, and bore fruit in the respect shown for books and in the <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zeal</a> displayed to acquire them, was nowhere more clearly <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> than in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. The whole life of the <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">Venerable Bede</a> might serve to illustrate this theme. But it is <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">Bede</a> who tells us from first hand <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of Benedict Biscop, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/15572a.htm">Wearmouth</a>, who, having visited <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> in 671, "brought home not a few books of all-divine erudition, either bought for a fixed price or given hem by the kindness of friends; and when on his return he came to Vienne he received those which he had bought and entrusted to his friends there" (Hist. Abbat., iv). In 678 he paid another visit to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and "brought home a multitude [<em>innumerabilem copiam</em>] of books of every kind". In his last illness Benedict Biscop gave directions that the very noble and complete library which he had brought from <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> as <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> for the instruction of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, should be scrupulously preserved entire and neither suffer injury through want of care nor be dispersed (Hist. Abb., xi). It was from this collection, which was doubled by the energy of Ceolfrid his successor (Hist. Abb., xv). It was from this collection, which Ceolfrid enriched with three new copies of the <a href="../cathen/15515b.htm">Vulgate</a> and with one of the Itala, that the famous <a href="../cathen/04081a.htm">Codex Amiatinus</a> was taken, which Ceolfrid on a later occasion carried with him to <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> as a present for the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>. This <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscript</a>, now in the Laurentian Library in <a href="../cathen/06105c.htm">Florence</a>, has been described as "perhaps the finest book in the world" (White in "Studia Biblica," II, 273), but it seems not to have been the work of native scribes but of <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italians</a> brought over to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>.</p> <p>Although Jarrow had not itself a great scriptorium with a staff of trained copyists  such as, for example belonged to <a href="../cathen/09269a.htm">Lindisfarne</a>, which followed <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Irish</a> traditions, and to <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>, where the dominant influence was Italian  still, through Archbishop Egbert, whom <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">Bede</a> <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">loved</a> and visited at <a href="../cathen/15733b.htm">York</a>, Ceolfrid's library must have exercised a profound influence upon <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a>, and through him again upon the scholarship of all <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Western Christendom</a>. <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a> was the librarian of the fine collection of books which Egbert had formed in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> at <a href="../cathen/15733b.htm">York</a>, and in one of his poems he gives a rather florid account of its contents (<a href="../cathen/10290a.htm">Migne</a>, P.L., CI, 843) which has been described as the earliest catalogue of any <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> library. If we could trust this list, the collection was really one of extraordinary range, including, not merely the best-known of the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin</a> <a href="../cathen/06001a.htm">Fathers</a>, but <a href="../cathen/02035a.htm">Athanasius</a>, Basil, and <a href="../cathen/08452b.htm">Chrysostom</a>, among the Greeks, and besides these a certain number of historians, with <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophers</a> like <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a> and <a href="../cathen/02610b.htm">Boethius</a>, with the most representative of the Latin classics and a fair sprinkling of grammarians. When <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a> became the trusted adviser of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>, that great monarch's influence was everywhere exerted to foster the spread of learning and the accumulation of books. In an ordinance of 789, <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> made provision for the setting-up of <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> for boys in which he directed that "in every <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> and <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> [episcopium]" they were to learn "the psalms and canticles, <a href="../cathen/12144a.htm">plain chant</a>, the computus [or regulation of the calendar] and grammar". And he adds, "Let them also have <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> books well corrected."</p> <p>All this, directory or indirectly, must have given an immense stimulus towards the formation of libraries in Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. Neither can we leave out of account the great influence which had been exerted at a somewhat earlier period by St. Columban and the <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Irish</a> missionaries who settled at <a href="../cathen/09467a.htm">Luxeuil</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, at St. Gall in <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>, at <a href="../cathen/02605b.htm">Bobbio</a> in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, at Wurzburg in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, and in many other places. Still as at St. Gall, for example, the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> often supplanted the Columban, and it was in its <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> days that the <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Swiss</a> <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> attained it greatest renown as a center of learning, and formed the library which still exists. Many, however, of its most precious volumes were at one time removed to <a href="../cathen/12723a.htm">Reichenau</a> as a measure of safety, and they seem not to have been all returned to their owners when quiet was restored. At the same time there is abundant evidence for the existence of a system of lending <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> by one house to another among friendly <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, for the purpose of transcription and collation. This latter process may often be traced in the copies which still survive: for example, two of our oldest <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> of <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">Bede's</a> "Ecclesiastical History" have evidently been collated, and the readings of one transferred to the other.</p> <p>The most famous libraries of the <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Carlovingian</a> period were those of <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a>, <a href="../cathen/12723a.htm">Reichenau</a>, Corvey, and Sponheim in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, and those of Fleury, St-Riquier, Cluny, and Corbie in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. the library of <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a>, under the great scholar <a href="../cathen/12617a.htm">Rhabanus Maurus</a>, was regarded as the best equipped in <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a>, and a contemporary speaks of the books he was there as "almost countless". Even at the beginning of the sixteenth century the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> still possessed nine hundred volumes of <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, most of which seem to have been destroyed or scattered in the <a href="../cathen/14648b.htm">Thirty Years' War</a>. In the case of <a href="../cathen/12723a.htm">Reichenau</a> we still possess the catalogue made by the librarian, Reginbert, before A.D. 831, which enumerates over 500 works contained in 256 volumes. All the libraries just mentioned owed directly or indirectly a good deal to the support of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>. In southern <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> the <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Abbey of Monte Cassino</a>, the cradle of <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> monasticism, well illustrates the perils to which books were exposed owing to the wildness of the times. After it had been demolished by the Lombards in the sixth century, the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was rebuilt, and a new library painfully brought together. But in the ninth century came the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a>, and when the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> was despoiled the library perished in the flames. None the less, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> set to work once more to acquire books and to make new copies, and this collection of <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, which still survives, is among the most remarkable in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>.</p> <p>In <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, at an earlier date, we gain some insight into the ornamentation of a well-appointed library from certain verses written by <a href="../cathen/08186a.htm">St. Isidore of Seville</a> (600-636) to inscribe upon the portraits which hung over his book-presses. Upon the door of the room were also displayed another set of verses as a warning to talkative intruders, the last couplet of which runs:</p> <blockquote><p>Non patitur quenquam coram se scriba loquentem; <br>Non est hic quod agas, garrule, perge foras. </p></blockquote> <p>Which may be rendered:</p> <blockquote><p>A writer and a talker can't agree; <br>Hence, idle chatterer; 'tis no place for thee. </p></blockquote> <p>Speaking of Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> as a whole, we may regard it as an undisputed principle throughout the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> that a library of some sort was an essential part of every monastic establishment. "Claustrum sine armario, castrum sine armamentario", ran the adage; that is to say, a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> without a library is a fort without an armoury. In all the developments of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a>, regulations of some kind are laid down for the use of books. We may quote, for example, the directions given by <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Lanfranc</a> for the annual calling-in of library books on the first <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sunday</a> of <a href="../cathen/09152a.htm">Lent</a>. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> are bidden to bring back all books to the <a href="../cathen/03584a.htm">chapter house</a>, and thereupon, "let the librarian read a document [<em>breve</em>] setting forth the names of the brethren who have had books during the past year; and let each brother when he hears his own name pronounced, return the book which has been entrusted to him for reading, and let him who is conscious of not having read the book through which he has received, fall down upon his face, confess his fault, and <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">pray</a> for forgiveness. And let the aforesaid librarian hand to each brother another book for reading; and when the books have been distributed in order, let the aforesaid librarian in the same chapter put on record the names of the books and of those who receive them."</p> <p>J.W. Clark gives a summary of the arrangements peculiar to the different orders. Both the Cluniacs and <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictines</a>, he says, put the books in charge of the <a href="../cathen/12372a.htm">precentor</a>, and often also styled <em>armarius</em>, and there is to be an annual audit and registration similar to that just described. Among the later <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictines</a> we also find a further regulation that the <a href="../cathen/12372a.htm">precentor</a> is to keep all in repair and personally to supervise the daily use of the <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, restoring each to its proper place when done with. Among these later <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> rules, as found, for example, at <a href="../cathen/01043c.htm">Abingdon</a> at the end of the twelfth century, first appears the important permission to lend books to others outside the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> on receipt of an adequate pledge. The <a href="../cathen/03388a.htm">Carthusians</a> also maintained the principle of lending. As for the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> themselves, each brother might have two books, and he is to be specially careful to keep them clean. Among the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercians</a> a particular official has charge of the books, about the safety of which great care is to be taken, and at certain times of the day he is to lock the press. This last regulation is also observed by the <a href="../cathen/12387b.htm">Premonstratensians</a>, who further require their librarian to take note of books borrowed as well as books lent. Finally, the Augustinians, who are very full in their directions regarding the use of the library, also permit books to be lent outside, but insist much on the need of proper security (see Clark, "Care of Books", 58-73).</p> <p>The importance of the permission to lend consists, of course, in this: that the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> thus became the public libraries of the surrounding district and diffused much more widely the benefit afforded by their own command of books. The practice no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> involved much risk of loss, and there was a disposition sometimes manifested to forbid the lending of books altogether. On the other hand, it is clear that there were those who looked upon this means of helping their neighbors as a <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> prescribed by the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of charity. Thus, in 1212, a <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synod</a> held in <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> passed the following <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>We forbid those who belong to a <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> order to formulate any <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a> against lending their books to those who are in need of them; seeing that to lend is enumerated among the principal works of mercy. After due consideration let some books be retained in the house for the use of the brethren; but let others according to the decisions of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> be lent to those who are in need of them, the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> of the house being safeguarded. In future no penalty of <a href="../cathen/01455e.htm">anathema</a> is to be attached to the removal of any book, and we annul and grant <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> from all <a href="../cathen/01455e.htm">anathemas</a> of the sort." (Delisle in "bib. de l'Ecole des Chartes", Ser. 3, I, 225). </p></blockquote> <p>It is noteworthy, also that in this same thirteenth century many volumes were bequeathed to the Augustinian house of St. Victor, Paris, on the express condition that they should be so lent. No <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> most of the lending was for the benefit of other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, either for reading or, still more often, for the purpose of making a copy. Against the dangers thus incurred it would seem that some protection was sought by invoking <a href="../cathen/01455e.htm">anathemas</a> upon the head of the faithless borrower. How far <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunications</a> were seriously and validly enacted against the unlawful detainers of such volumes is a matter of some uncertainty, but, as in the case of Ashur-ban-i-pal's cuneiform tablets, the <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> of <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> frequently contain on the fly-leaf some brief form of malediction against <a href="../cathen/08010c.htm">unjust</a> possessors or detainers. For example, in a <a href="../cathen/08566a.htm">Jumièges</a> book we find:</p> <blockquote><p>Should anyone by craft or any device whatever abstract this book from this place [<a href="../cathen/08566a.htm">Jumièges</a>] may his <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> suffer in retribution for what he has done, and may his name be erased from the book of the living and not be recorded among the Blessed. </p></blockquote> <p>But in general such formulae were more compendious as, for example, the following found in many <a href="../cathen/01252b.htm">St. Alban's</a> books: "this book belongs to <a href="../cathen/01252b.htm">St. Alban</a>. May whoever steals it from him or erases his inscription of ownership [<em>titulum deleverit</em>] be <a href="../cathen/01455e.htm">anathema</a>. <a href="../cathen/01407b.htm">Amen</a>."</p> <p>The high value set on books is also emphasized by the many decrees enjoining care in their use. "When the religious are engaged in reading", says an order of the General <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> Chapter, "They shall, if possible, hold the books in their left hands, wrapped in the sleeve of their tunics and resting on their knees, their right hands shall be uncovered, with which to hold and turn the leaves of the aforesaid books" (Gasquet, "Old English Bible", 29). Numberless other appeals recommending care, tenderness and even reverence, in the treatment of books might be quoted from <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> sources. In the "Philobiblon" of <a href="../cathen/13042b.htm">Bishop Richard of Bury</a> we have a whole treatise upon the subject, written with an enthusiasm which could not have been exceeded by a nineteenth-century bibliophile. He says, for example (chap. xvii): "And surely next to the vestments and vessels dedicated to our Lord's Body, holy books deserve to be rightly treated by the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, to which great injury is done so often as they are touched by unclean hands." This care naturally extended to the presses in which the books were permanently lodged. The Augustinians, in particular, had a formal rule that "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", and devices were further suggested to prevent the books from being "packed so close as to injury each other, or delay those who want to consult them" (Clark, "Care of Books", 71).</p> <p>Still, the monastic system did not until much later make provision for any separate room to be used as a library. It was in the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a>, in which little alcoves called "carrels" were fitted up, securing a certain amount of privacy for each student, that the literary work of the house, whether in reading or transcribing, was mainly done. The result of this system was that the books were not kept all together but preserved in presses in different parts of the building. At Durham, for example, "some were kept in the church, others in the 'spendiment' or treasury, and others again in the refectory, and in more than one place in the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a>" (Gasquet, "Old Eng. Bible", 10). this scattering of the books was the more likely to happen because, from the very nature of the case, a collection of volumes written by hand and kept up only by limited monastic resources could never be very vast. Until the art of printing had lent its aid to multiply books and to cheapen them, a comparatively small number of cupboards were sufficient to contain the literary treasures of the very largest <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. At Christ Church, <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>, Henry de Estria's Catalogue of about the year 1300 enumerates 3000 titles in some 1850 volumes. At Glastonbury in 1247 there were 500 works in 340 volumes. The <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictines</a> at Dover in 1389 possessed 449, while the largest English monastic library, so far as is known to us, viz., that at <a href="../cathen/03085a.htm">Bury</a> St. Edmunds, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, contained 2000 volumes.</p> <p>The practice just referred to, of scattering books in different presses and collections, was probably also much influenced by the custom of lending, or allowing outsiders to consult, books, upon which something has previously been said. Naturally, there will always have been volumes which any community, monastic or collegiate, reserved for the exclusive use of its members. Liturgical books and some <a href="../cathen/14613a.htm">ascetical</a> treatises, particular copies of the scripture, etc., will have belonged to this class, while there will have been divisions even among the books to which the outside world had access. The following passage, for example, is very suggestive. Thomas Gascoigne says of the <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscans</a> at Oxford about the year 1445: "They had two libraries in the same house; the one called the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> library, and the other the library of the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>; whereof the former was open only to graduates; the latter to the scholars they called seculars, who lived among those <a href="../cathen/06280b.htm">friars</a> for the sake of learning". All this must have been very inconvenient, and it is not surprising that in the course of the fifteenth century the desirability of gathering their library treasures into one large apartment where study might be carried on occurred to the authorities of many monastic and collegiate institutions. During the whole of this period, therefore, libraries of some pretensions began to be build. Thus, to take a few examples, at Christ Church, <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>, a library, 60 feet long by 22 broad, was built by <a href="../cathen/03656a.htm">Archbishop Chichele</a>, between 1414 and 1443, over the Prior's Chapel. The library at <a href="../cathen/05211a.htm">Durham</a> was constructed between 1416 and 1446, by Prior Wessyngton, over the old <a href="../cathen/13322b.htm">sacristy</a>; that at <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, in 1480, over the <em>scriptorium</em>, or writing-room, forming part of the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a>; that at <a href="../cathen/03798c.htm">Clairvaux</a>, between 1495 and 1503, in the same position; that at the Augustinian <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of <a href="../cathen/13388a.htm">St-Victor</a> in <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>, between 1501 and 1508; and that at St-Germain des Pres in the same city, about 1513, over the south <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a>.</p> <p>The transformation of Clairvaux is easy to understand on account of two descriptions left us at a later date. A visitor in 1517 tells us: "On the same side of the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> are fourteen studies [the carrels] where the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> write and study; and over the said studies is the new library, to which one mounts by a broad and lofty spiral staircase from the aforesaid <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a>." The description goes on to extol the beauty of this new construction, which, adapting itself, of course, to the shape of the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> below, was 198 feet long by 17 wide. In it, we are told, "there were 48 seats [<em>bancs</em>] and in each seat four shelves [<em>poulpitres</em>] furnished with books on all subjects". These books, although the writer does not say so, were probably chained to the shelves after the custom of that period. At any rate this is what the authors of the "Voyage litteraire", two hundred years later, say of the same library:</p> <blockquote><p>from the great <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> you pass into the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> of conversation, so called because the brethren are allowed to converse there. In this <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> there are twelve or fifteen little cells [the carrels], all of a row, where the brethren formerly used to write books; for this reason they are still called at the present day the writing rooms. Over these cells is the Library, the building for which is large, vaulted, well lighted, and stocked with a large number of <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> fastened by chains to desks, but there are not many printed books. </p></blockquote> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>This, then, is a type of the transformation which was going on in the last century of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>, a process immensely accelerated, no doubt, by the multiplication of books consequent upon the invention of printing. the newly constructed libraries, whether connected with <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>, or <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedrals</a>, or <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">religious houses</a>, were rooms of considerable size, generally broken up into compartments or stalls, such as may still be seen in Duke Humphrey's Library in the Bodleian at Oxford. Here the books were chained to the shelves, but they could be taken down and laid upon the desk at which the student sat, and at which he could also use his writing materials without inconvenience. Some few survivals of this old arrangement, for example at <a href="../cathen/07255a.htm">Hereford</a> <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">Cathedral</a>, and at Zutphen (where, however, the chained books can only be consulted standing), still exist. But it was not for very many years that this system lasted, except as a perpetuation of old tradition.</p> <h2>Modern libraries</h2> <p>Foremost among the agencies which have contributed to the collection and preservation of books in later times is the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papacy</a>. The <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>, as munificent patrons of learning, have founded a number of libraries and enriched them with <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> and documents of the greatest value. The most important of these <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papal</a> foundations is the Vatican Library, which will be described in another article (see VATICAN LIBRARY). Indirectly, also the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> have furthered the establishment of libraries by founding and encouraging <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>. Each of these naturally regarded the library and the indispensable means of research; and in modern times especially these <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> collections have been enriched by the ever-growing mass of scientific literature. It is interesting to note that the nucleus of the library was often obtained by taking over the books and <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> which had been preserved in <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and other <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> establishments. A glace at the history of the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a> will show how much they are indebted in this respect to the care and industry of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> (see, e.g., the brief accounts in "Minerve", II, Strasburg, 1893). From the same sources came, in many instances, the books which served as the beginnings of the libraries founded by sovereigns, princes, <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">churchmen</a>, national governments, municipalities, and private <a href="../cathen/07762a.htm">individuals</a>. In recent times, moreover, numerous and successful attempts have been made to provide the people at large with the facilities which were once the privilege of the student. Among the efficient means for the diffusion of <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> must be reckoned the public library which is found in nearly every town of importance. While this multiplication of libraries is due chiefly to the advance in popular <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>, it has led, on the other hand, to the creation of what might be called a special art or <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a>. Much attention is now given to the proper housing and care of books, and systematic instruction is provided for those who are to engage in library work. It is not surprising, then, that, along with the growing realization of the value and importance of libraries, there would gradually have come about a fairer appreciation of what was done by the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of the preservation of books.</p> <p>The following list gives the founders and dates of some famous libraries:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>Ambrosian (q.v.), <a href="../cathen/10298a.htm">Milan</a>; Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, 1603-09.</li><li>Angelica, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>; Angelo Rocca, O.S.A., 1614.</li><li>Bodleian, Oxford; Sir Thomas Bodley, c. 1611.</li><li>British Museum, London; George III and George IV (largely with <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> <a href="../cathen/10455a.htm">taken from monasteries</a> by <a href="../cathen/07222a.htm">Henry VIII</a>), c. 1795.</li><li>Casanatense, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>; Cardinal Girolamo Casanata, 1698.</li><li>Congressional, Washington; U.S. Government, 1800.</li><li>Mazarine, <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>; Cardinal Mazarin, 1643; public 1688.</li><li>Mediceo-Laurenziana, Florence; Clement VII, 1571.</li><li>Nationale, <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>; Charles V of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, 1367.</li><li>Royal, Berlin; Elector Fred. William, c. 1650.</li><li>Royal, <a href="../cathen/10631a.htm">Munich</a>; Duke Albert V, c. 1560.</li><li>Valiceliana, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>; Achile Stazio, 1581.</li><li>Vatican, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> (See VATICAN LIBRARY). </li></ul></div> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">CLARK, The Care of Books (Cambridge, 1902), a work of the very highest value and indispensable to any fuller study of the subject; POHLE AND STAHL in Kirchenlex. s.v. Bibliotheken; SCUDAMORE in Dict. of Christ. Antiq.; GASQUET, Mediaeval Monastic Libraries in the Old English Bible and other Essays (London, 1897), 1-61; EHRLE, JAMES, and others in Fasciculus; Joanni Willis Clark Dicatus (Cambridge, 1909); GOTTLEIB, Ueber mittelalterliche Bibliotheken (Leipzig, 1890); EDWARDS, Memoirs of Libraries, 2 vols., (London, 1895); PAULY-WINOWA, Realencyklopadie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft (1893-); BECKER, Catalogi Bibliothecarum antiqui (Bonn, 1885); JAMES, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cembridge, 1903); MACRAY, Annals of the Bodleian Library (Oxford, 1890); ROBINSON AND JAMES, The Manuscripts of Westminster Abbey Monastery (Cambridge, 1898); BASS-MULLINGER in The Cambridge Hist. of English Literature, IV (Cambridge, 1909), 415-34; DELISLE, in Bib. de l'Ecole des Chartes (1849), 216-31; ID., Cabinet des MSS. de la Bib. Nationale (3 vols., Paris, 1874-76); THOMAS, The Philobiblon of Richard of Bury (London, 1888).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Thurston, H.</span> <span id="apayear">(1910).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Libraries.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09227b.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Thurston, Herbert.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Libraries."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 9.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1910.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09227b.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Anna M. Donnelly.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</strong></center></td></tr></table><p align="center"><a href="../utility/contactus.htm">CONTACT US</a> | <a href="https://cleanmedia.net/p/?psid=491-308-20180429T2217479770">ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT</a></p></div> <ins class="CANBMDDisplayAD" data-bmd-ad-unit="30849120210203T1734389107AB67D35C03D4A318731A4F337F60B3E" style="display:block"></ins> <script src="https://secureaddisplay.com/au/bmd/"></script>  <ins class="CMAdExcludeArticles"></ins> </body> </html>