Pcu/za-^/^ Q^du^^'^^.^&j c2:^^y ^efz^^' ^c.^&9^' MEMOIRS OF LIBEAIIIES OF MU8EUMS; AND OF ARCHIVES. By EDWAlli^ EI)WA1M)S. SECOND EDITION. TllK .SHKET.S IN THIS VOLl-MK UEri!E,SENT ALL THAT \VEi!E llEVISEU FOU I'L'BLICATIOX BV THE LATE EUWAKI) EdwAKUS, AND ARE NOW ISSUED FOR I'RESENTATlON, AS A TRIBUTE Tu HIS JIK.MURl', BY TiioJiAs Greenwouu. LONDON. 1901. LIBRARY SCHOOL Z7ZI LIBRARY ' ' SCHOOL PEEVENT 118, Lord, in all our doings, with Thy most gracious favour, and further us with Thy continual help; that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended, in Thee, we may glorify Tliy holy Name, and finally by Thy mercy obtain everlasting life ; through the alone merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. M761G81 MEMOIRS OF LIBRARIES OE MUSEUMS; AND OF ARCHIVES; (PUBLIC AND PRIVATE); AND OF SOME OF THEIR CHIEF FOUNDERS, COLLECTORS, KEEPERS, AND BENEFACTORS. Part I. MEDIEVAL. Part II. MODEEN:— (LONDON, AND OXFORD.) By EDWARD EDWARDS, Author of "Remaeks on the Ministerial Plan of a Metropolitan University Examining-Board," (1836);— of "The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh," (1868); — Editor of "Liber Monasterii de Hyda," in the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain, Master of the Rolls' Series; Published by order of the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury (1866). Second Edition, revised, continued to 1885, ami (in (treat part) rc-written. NEWPORT, I.W.: Printed by Brannon & Fradd, "County Press" Offices, St. James's Square. 1885. "They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy. He that now goeth on his way, weeping, and bcareth forth good seed, shall doubtless come again with joy, — and bring his sheaves with him." "A HUMAN SPIRIT here records " The studies of long years of toil ; — "A human hand hath touched Time's chords "These leaves may seem but fleeting words, "And yet — they are 'Life's spoil.'" To THE Reverend CHARLES PLUMMER, m.a., (Fellow, Lecturer, Chaplain, and Lihrarian, OF C.C.C., Oxford); THIS VOLUME fthe occasional hut strenuotis labour oj many arduous i/ears, — several of which have been cheered by frequent acts (f kindnens sliewn by him, in many icays, 1o its Writer, — J IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, WITH FEELINGS OF TRUE REGARD AND ESTEEM, BY HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND AND SERVANT, EDWARD EDWARDS. Sea-View, Niton, Isle of Wight, Queen's Accession Dai;, 1SS5. " Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it, — after many days." — Eccles. xi. 1. " I SHALL NOT be otfendcd (as I certainly ought not to be) at any due corrections given me by otliers, Great room there is for amend7)ients, as well as addi- tions; and either of these, in wliat dress soever they come, — rough or smooth, — will be very heartily welcome to mc." — Archbishop Nicolson (of Casliel) : "Irish Historical Library" Pref, p. xxxvi. [Edit, of 1724.] "As FOR the remainder of the Work, all that I can say is that it is my design, by God's permission, to publish at least another volume. But as for the time, I have been so often deceived in the Printing-House, and also by wrong calculations myself, that I have learnt it is vain to fix any time for publication" [otherwise than as a hope]. — Edward Lhuyd : Appendix to Nicolson, as above, p. 241. [Same Edit.] " He that cannot endure to strive against both wind and tide, shall scarcely attain the Port that he maketh for." — Sir Walter Ralegh {Circa 1590). PREFACE. The "Work of which a new Edition is now submitted to the PubHc was pubHshed, in its original form, in Januar}-, 1859. It then consisted of three distinct sections, — onl}- one of which is, at present, reissued. It comprised (1,) A History of the Libraries of Greek and Roman Antiquity, together with — so far as is yet known to me — the first and only collection, textually complete, of those passages of the Greek and Latin writers in which the Ancient .Libraries are described, referred to, or illustrated. That Section I do not propose (at least, for the time,) to reprint. It comprised (2,) A History of Mediaeval and Modern Libraries, complete, as far as the sources of knowledge available, in 18.58, admitted. Of this section, a first instalment is now before the Reader. Lapse of time has made the historical part of the "Memoirs of Libraries," of 18.59, much in arrear. An enormous amount of new information concerning even the oldest Libraries of Europe, and concerning those, necessarily so recent, of America, is now available. And in addition, more than one hundred new Libraries have in our own country alone — Colonial as well as Metropolitan, — been founded. Four-fifths at least of these (reckoning as well the "Free Libraries" of our Colonies as those of the Empire at home,) are the results of those "Public Libraries Acts" of 1850, and subsequent years, down to the year of present publication (as it is hoped), which had their first inception, and origin in the Labours, during the years 1847, 1848, and 1849, of the present Writer, and in his evidence before ParHamentary Committees^Acts procured, amidst difficulties and against opposition which, in 1885, seems scarcely credible, by the strenuous effort and perseverance of an eminent Member of Parliament whose name will ever be, most deservedly, linked with the "Free Libraries" of Her Gracious Majesty's whole Empire, — Mr. William EwART, the parUamentartj author of the Library Legislation of 1850 and subsequent years — as will be shewn in duo place hereinafter. It comprised (3,) an elaborate Treatise ON THE Legislation, the Economy, the Administration, AND the Practical Workincx, of Public Libraries. This, also, is (at least for the present) omitted from the new Edition; though certain portions of those several topics must needs be adverted to either in the historical part of that "General Introduction" which is prefixed to the present volume, or in tliat review of public Legislation concerning or affecting Libraries which follows. At the writer's advanced time of life, he could scarcely hope that — in addition to the final revision of this volume (and of its companion volumes, D.Y.) — he might be able to give to the economical and administrative section of his former work of 1859 that patient and thorough correction, and improvement in details, which would alone justify him in offering a new edition of it to the learned and able Librarians, and to the Lovers of Books, of 1885, and of the years to come. PREFACE. IX. The "General Introduction" on the whole subject- matter of "Memoirs of Libraries, 1885," aims at tracing in the briefest possible form, consistent with clearness (1,) The foundation and growth of important Libraries both media3val and modern, up to this date ; — (2,) the present geographical distribution, and the statistical place of the chief Libraries of the world; — thus shewing, in tliis one particular, the relative position of the several States of which Christendom is composed. The "Introduction" endeavours, finally, to trace in briefest outline the Public Legislation bearing (directly or indirectly) on the administration of Public Libraries, and on the State-distribution of Public Books, — such books, namely, of every kind as are printed at the cost of the Nation, or produced, in other ways, for governmental purposes. On the last-named subject the writer has bestowed special care and pains. It is a subject, the importance of which has greatly increased. Thirty years ago, a Select Com- mittee of the House of Commons (presided over by the late Mr. Tufnell,) reported its opinion that Libraries freely accessible to the Public ought to receive Public Books (whether printed for Parliament, or for any of the various administrative Departments of State,) free of all cost. That recommendation remains yet to be carried out. The recent inquiries into the system pursued for the Pro- mulgation of the Statutes have made it apparent that even as regards that most essential "promulgation," very great anomalies subsist. Substantially, the plan of distribution X. PREFACE. existing in 1884 was very nearly what it had been made in 1831. The claims of Public Libraries are still practically ignored; yet there are no books, — unless love of country is (under influence of " the modern spirit,") to be regarded as a thing only of the days that are no more, — the importance of bringing which under the eyes of all men, of what rank and condition in life soever, is greater or more urgent, than books of a governmental character. The Statutes, and the Papers of Parliament excepted, there is no class of books in the wide circulation of which the Nation has a deeper interest (especially under recent legislation,) than in that of the invaluable several series of publications printed for the Board of Admiralty; — for the Trustees of the British Museum; — for the Master of the Rolls; — for the Department of Education, Science, and Art; — for the Commissioners of Patents; — and other like Governmental bodies. A more liberal distribution of these, as well as of the "blue-books," proper, to our Public Libraries, would alike promote National Education (in the highest sense of the words), and would do honour to the Government that should wisely organise such a distribution. It was the writer's strong desire to do somewhat more in the treatment of the subject-matter of the "General Introduction," by adding as an Appendix to it a corrected reproduction, in tabular form, of the "Statistical View of Public Libraries in Europe and in America" which he wrote in the year 1847 (it was, indeed, begun before the Christmas of 184G), and read to the Statistical Society PREFACE. XI. of London in Marcli, 1848, (at a meeting presided over by the late lamented Earl Fitzwilliam) with eventual results which without vanity or presumption he may say have, in their degree, made an epoch in the Annals of Libraries, not alone in Britain and on many parts of the Continent of Europe, but in most of the British Colonies throughout all parts of the world, and in many parts of the United States of America. The substance of that "Statistical View" was again given, verbally, to a Select Committee of the House of Commons upon Public Libraries, during the writer's five or six several examinations before it in the Sessions of 1849 and 1850. That Committee was appointed in the first-named Session, on the motion (as I have already reminded the Reader, who may honour this Preface with a perusal,) of Mr. William Ewart, and at the solicitation of the present writer, who drew up in English, French, and German, those " Questions on Public Libraries" which, through the medium of the Foreign Office, were presented at every Court throughout the world, to Avhich any British Envoy was accredited. The results were published in several "Appendices" to the various Reports of the Committee from 1849 to 1852 inclusive. Finally, the "Statistical View" was itself reprinted in one of those Appendices; after it had been already reprinted, by the courtesy of Dr. Robert Naumann, in the Leipsic journal "Sera'peum" — the greatest and most valuable repertory of information on Libraries and Public-Record Offices ever published in any country. That third and Parhamentary edition is hitherto the hist. The paper is, I beheve, worth reprinting once again, even after the able labours in the same field, of Messrs. Ernest C. Thomas and H. R. Tedder (to be mentioned hereinafter more specifically); but the needful additions and corrections, requisite in 1885, would so largely increase its bulk, that the prescribed limits of tliis book preclude the gratification of my desire. I the more regret that it is so, because the paper referred to led to a long and somewhat caustic literary and statistical controversy, in the columns of a journal known to literary readers throughout the world — The [London] Athenwiim. The present writer gave a public pledge in its columns to reprint his much-controverted labours, and to establish their substantial and essential accuracy. He did more, for he pledged himself also to shew that such alleged errors as may have been substantiated against him, were errors of under-statement, and therefore, in respect of the argument for removing the reproach from Britain of having been, in the middle of the 19th century, less well-provided with freely accessible Libraries, than were many other States, greatly her inferiors, not only commercially, socially, and politically, but inferiors too in Literature and Science, and in the state, generally, of Public Education, strengthened, instead of weakening, that contention, which alone — in 1850— gave public importance even to the merely numeri- cal Statistics of Libraries. A Avriter who chooses his own topic has no right to PREFACE. Xlll. allege for deficiencies in its treatment the excuse that there was "a lion in the path." It is liis business to struggle with difficulties, to overcome them if he may, and to avoid talking about them. To every rule however there is a possible exception. "Res aiigusta domi" should be kept to a man's self, usually. But a published pledge (however unimportant save to a narrow circle of readers) needs a public performance, or a public apology. Only circumstances of personal penury prevent the Writer from republishing the "Statistical View of Libraries in Europe and in America" at his own cost, in redemption of his promise. In 1881 it was in his contemplation so to do, for in that year he was in enjoyment from the University of Oxford, as Calendarer of the State Papers and Political Correspondence known as the "Carte MSS.," contained in the University's Library, of payments which then averaged three hundred guineas a year. The Lamented death of Mr. Henry Octavius CoxE led to a change of "Bodley's Librarian." The appointment then made was eminently justified by the high attainments of Mr. Coxe's successor, but the change was to the writer disastrous. The new "Bodley's Librarian" appointed in 1882 new employes in various offices and functions, and dismissed the Writer from his Calendarer-siiip, at the beginning of 1883; giving instantly to a new employe the duty of collating and arranging in Chronological Order the Writer's Calendar-slips pre- viously written, — a task requiring more than the labour of a year. XIV. PREFACE. That sudden dismissal utterly deprived the Writer of any assured income whatever. After sixth months of privation and debt he received from Her Gracious Majesty a Literary Pension uj^on the Civil List of — eighty iwunds a year.^ It was well known that he had been labouring for many years, at intervals, and for one year, 1876-77, wholly and exclusively, upon the book, a volume of which is now in the Reader's hands. And he had been asked as early as in the month of January, 1870, to apply to the then Prime Minister for a Civil List Pension, i. e., thirteen years earlier. He refused then, as he refused in 1883, to make any such application ; deeming that both the solace and the grace of a grant of that sort rested wholly on its being conferred, by the Crown, without solicitation on his part. The change of circumstances made it, for very many months, an extremely doubtful problem, whether the deeply-cherished ambition of a quarter-of-a-century — that of removing from the "Memoirs of Libraries," of 1859, some of their many blemishes and seen imperfections, and of leaving the labour of many toilsome years less unworthy of the social importance of its subject-matter, — must not (whatever the disappointment and regret of the writer) be finally given up. It seems very possible that, at first impression, many 1 It dated fi-om July, 1883. A copy of the List of the Pensions of the year, as presented to the House of Commons, is added, as an appendix to this Preface. PREFACE. XV. Headers, — glancing at my "Table of Contents," — will incline to charge me with giving too much space to the Monastic Libraries of mediaeval and of modern times. Indeed, upon occasion of the circulation of my first " Prospectus " of this new Edition, a well-known, and very able, provincial Journalist made himself a little facetious, at my expense, about the Libraries of the "Solitaries of Nitria," in combination with the date "1884." But if that critic were some day, during his vacation, to introduce himself into the Department of MSS. at our National Museum, Mr. Maunde Thompson could shew him, in a quarter-of-an-hour, '<^ery cogent proofs of the importance — not historical alone, but pre- sently practical — of those far-off Collections of the much- contemned Anchorites of the Nitrian desert. Nor would it be absolutely needful for him to go even so far as to the British Museum. Almost any considerable bookseller could place in his hands the deeply interesting and pregnant volume of the late regretted Lord Zouche, entitled "Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant." The evidence of that charming book would, in itself, suffice. And, were it even otherwise, I should not greatly sorrow to err, upon a theme like this, in company with Lord Zouche, and with my honoured friend of former days. Canon Cureton. };_My_oj£n long-cherished conviction, indeed, of the illustrious part borne by Monks of mediseval and of modern times, as in many other noble and arduous tasks of Christian Civihsation. so also in the erection, the b furnisliing, and the maintenance of those great Arsenals of Civihsation and of Christianization — tlie Public Libraries of the World, is somewhat out of harmony with certain prevalent ideas. But I am none the less confident in the substantial truth of my opinion that to Monks we are, in the matter of Libraries, primarily and permanently indebted. And that fact is no discovery of mine. I began to learn the lesson forty-six years ago at the feet (so to speak) of the noble Montalembert. I conned it over again, a long time afterwards, at the feet of Dr. Maitland, for so many years the honoured Librarian at Lambeth Palace; and I rejoice to see that a much more recent French author, not so fond or so proud of Monasticism as was Montalembert — the accomplished and erudite M. Alfred Franklin — has but recently shewn, from MSS. preserved in the National Library of France, that it was to French Monks that the World was indebted for the first really "Free Public Library" ever knoAvn to have been opened. When I originally published the book now re-edited, I assigned that credit to a great French Statesman, though of Italian birth, — namely, to Cardinal Mazarin, To Mazarin, next after Richelieu, the France of other and of (in some respects) better days, owed the consolidation of its illustrious Monarchy, and it was, in 1859, my belief that to him, also, France, and Europe, owed the grand distinction of establishing the first of the now many hundreds of " Free Libraries." As an Ecclesiastic, no respect whatever is due to Mazarin; as a Statesman (his PREFACE. xvii. love of money excepted) very higli respect is due. As a promoter of Learning and of Art, and as tlie free-handed disseminator of both, he stands out as prominently as he does in the long roll of the moulders of Modern Europe. And though the Mazarine Library cannot, after the recent researches of M. Alfred Franklin, take rank as first "Free Library," of the world, it still ranges as a very early one. The activities of its monastic predecessors were necessarily on a very humble scale. The monks had good will, but their means were small, and their "public" still smaller. The Mazarine Library, on the contrary, had a considerable sphere of activity at the very outset of its existence. It has now, in 1885, an enormous educational influence upon an important part of the youth of Paris. Esto peo^petua! It is to the undying honour of our own Lancashire that to a Man- chester Merchant the distinction of founding the next, in order of time, of our subsisting Free Libraries is due. The more the Reader does me the honour of studying those amongst the ensuing pages, and the Authorities I employ for them, which relate to Monastic Libraries (the older as well as the more recent, — and on both classes I have spared neither research nor toil,) the more, I venture to think, he will be compelled to assent to Montalembert's saying: — "As to the 'utility' of "Monasticism — passing over, for the present, its Supreme "Utility, supreme in the eyes of every Christian man, "of Prayer; of the 'life hidden with God,' — let us come b2 XVlll. PEEFACE, "down to the lower 'utility' wliich alone is appreciated "by those who habitually keep their eyes fixed on earth; " — chained to the things that are transient, and to the "things that bring lucre; — let us ask such men to point, " in the long Annals of the World, to any body of men, — "to any institution, — to any organisation whatever, — "which, at any period, has rivalled, even approximately, " those Monasteries that, for more than ten centuries, "were the Schools, the Archives, the Libraries, [some " of them, it might have been added, the Museums,] .... "the Penitentiaries, the Hospitals, and the Public "Gardens and Parks of Christian Society?"^ I think that this true and fair statement will sufficiently justify the length — not in itself inordinate, or otherwise out of pro- portion (and for this assertion I have the express warrant of an "Edinburgh Reviewer," ^ not likely to be overweeningly fond of the works and ways of Monks,) — at which I have ventured to treat of Medieval Libraries, and of their Founders. In dealing — at much gTcater length, of course, — with the modern Libraries and Museums of London and of Oxford, I have used my best endeavours to bring the information down to the latest dates ; and have, as I believe, used the best authorities, in addition to the personal knowledge of nearly fifty years, taking the two cities together. My ultimate knowledge of the Museums, 1 Les Moines iVOccident, Introd., cxxv. (Edit, of 1860.) 2 Edinburgh Review (1874), Article I. PREFACE, XIX. Libraries, and Archives of London began (I almost dread to remember it) in 1835 ; my acquaintance with those of Oxford in 1850 — although, for too many years next thereafter, it was but a very slight and incidental acquaintance. The "Library Returns" of 1849-52, referred to above, contain, as respects several countries of Europe, — contain, that is, in the year 1885, — the latest official and general accounts of the progress, and condition, of many Foreign Libraries, which have been any where puhlished (in any language) or in any form whatsoever. Still, in the year 1885 — no " Book of Reference," as yet published — in any language — gives systematic and annual information on that subject, and on the condition and progress of Museums and Archives, — educationally, so important, and so pregnant with social results. Inquirers and Publicists have to seek it by a multitude of indirect channels. Partially, indeed, the excellent "Library Chro- nicle," so ably conducted by Mr. Ernest Thomas, and the " Centralblatt fur Bibliotheksiuesen," not less ably managed by Dr. 0. Hartwig and his staff of learned collaborators, contribute, from time to time, very important instalments of such information. The search for it is, nevertheless, still attended by much, and by quite needless, difficulty. When the searcher is, as in the writer's case, a very poor man, the difficulty is increased tenfold. In relation to matters of mere " Trade," and occasionally to inventions, and discoveries bearing upon Trade, the XX. PREFACE. Foreign Office, it is well known, systematically confers inestimable benefit on the Nation, by instituting and by publishing periodical reports from our Secretaries of Legation. Is the present writer guilty of an unreasonable presumption, if he expresses the hope that, some day or other, a public boon Avhich has widely diffused accurate knowledge, year by year, about Trade and Trading Establishments, may be so enlarged as also to communi- cate, annually, and regularly, knowledge about the progress and present state, for the time being, of Foreign Museums, Foreign Libraries, and Foreign Public Archives ? Meanwhile, the able authors (Mr. Ernest C. Thomas and Mr. H. R. Tedder) of the Article "Libraries," in the ninth edition of the Encyclopcedia Britannica (now in course of publication), have done much towards the supply — so far as concerns Public Libraries, and up to the date of 1881, — of the deficiency of systematic official accounts, published annually. The statistical table printed at the end of that article is of eminent merit, and I avail myself thankfully of the new information it contains. More recently, the Library Association of the United Kingdom (which in so many ways has largely contri- buted to the increased efficiency of our Public Libraries, and has conspicuously promoted their interests,) has in a variety of forms, issued useful summaries of such Library Reports as have lately been printed, as well as much like mformation from other and original sources. PREFACE. XXI. To all of these I have likewise to acknowledge much indebtedness in the preparation of the volume now submitted, as well to future lyurcliasers, as to my esteemed Subscribers, of 1883 and 1884. For, although the announced intention of the writer that his new volumes should not become — in the ordinary sense of the phrase — a " Trade-book " is strictly adhered to, it came to be inevitable tliat the impression should extend to 500 copies, in order to cover the actual outlay, as well in preliminary expenses, as in paper and print. The Subscribers are still, in 1885, under 200 in number. The remainder of the impression will therefore be offered to purchasers, but only upon t]ie Author's account and behalf It has also been found necessary, in order to keep within the limits announced in the Prospectus of this work, to deal with part of the wide subject, — more especially in the Mediseval Section above referred to, — by way of typical and representative examples of the more eminent Libraries and Museums of each successive age, instead of attempting an exhaustive account of all that attained, at one time or other, to any conspicuous rank. This modification of the original plan, whilst somewhat abridging the text of the book, has necessarily increased, in a measure, the extent of the " General Introduction" prefixed thereto. Of many and great obligations (other than those PREFACE. already noticed) which have been conferred on the writer, in the course of his labour, grateful acknowledg- ment will (D.V.) will be made hereafter. EDWARD EDWARDS. Sea- View, Niton, Queen's Accession-Dai/, 1SS5. APPENDIX A, [See Preface, page xiv.] CIVIL LIST PENSIONS OF THE YEAE 1883-84. "A LIST of all Pensions granted during the Year ended 20th June, ISSJf., and charged upon the Civil List. (Presented pursuant to Act 1 Vict. c. 2, s. 6.) DATE OF GRANT. AMOUNT OF PENSION. "1883: ' 23 August " 23 August " 15 Dec. ["1884: " 30 January February "26 February " 1 May " 11 June Mr. Edward Edwards In recognition of his valuable services to the cause of Literatiu-e. Mr. Matthew Arnold - In recognition of his distinguished literary attainments and his eminence as a Poet. The Rev. Charles C. Sotjthey - - . . In consideration of the great literary merit of his Father, Mr. Robert Southey. Mrs. Mary Antoinette Moncrieff In consideration of the narrow circumstances in which she has been left on the death of her husband. Com- mander L. N. Moncrieff, r.n., who was killed in the discharge of his duties as Her Majesty's Consul at Suakim.] Mr. Frederick James Furnivall - - - - In recognition of his services to English Philology and Literature. Sir Richard Owen, k.c.b. - - - - - [In addition to the Pension of 200 /. a year granted to him in 1842, in recognition of his eminent services to Science.] Mr. James Augustus Henry Murray, ll.d. In consideration, and for the promotion, of his valuable services to Philology, especially in connection with his work as Editor of the New English Dictionary. Mr. William Neilson Hancock, q.c, ll.d. In recognition of his valuable services as a Statistician. Total 250 100 100 - 150 100 250 170 1,200 " Treasury Chambers, \ " July, 1884. / 261." LEONARD COURTNEY. APPENDIX B. LIST OF SUBSCEIBEES, June, 1885. His Grace the [late and lamented] Duke of MAEL- BOEOUGH, K.G., Blenheim Palace, Woodstock. The Et. Hon. the Earl of MACCLESFIELD, Shirburn Castle, Tetsworth. The Et. Hon. the Lord WILLOUGHBY DE BEOKE, Compton Verney, Warioickshire. The Very Eeverend the DEAN OF CHEIST CHUECH, Oxford, and Chapter (per the Eev. the Librarian), for the Chapter and College Library. The Very Eeverend the DEAN OF WINCHESTEE, AND Chapter [for the Cathedral Library: per the Eev. F. T. Madge, M.A., Chapter Librarian). The MINISTEE OF PUBLIC INSTEUCTION of FEANCE. Ten Copies. M. Leopold DELISLE, Member of the Lnstitute of France; Director-General of the National Library of France. The Hon. the COEPOEATION of the CITY OF LONDON (for the Library at the Guildhall). The Trustees of the ASTOE LIBEAEY of the City of New York. The EADCLIFFE TEUSTEES, Oxford, for the Eadcliffe Library [per H. W. D. Acland, Esq., M.D., C.B.) The Curators of the BODLEIAN LIBEAEY, Oxford. The Curators of theTAYLOE INSTITUTION, Oxford. The Library of the UNIVEESITY of CAMBEIDGE [per H. Bradshaw, Esq., M.A., Librarian). Sir WiUiam HAEDY, F.S.A., Deputy Keeper of Her Majesty's Public Records, Rolls House, London. Ernest C. THOMAS, Esq., M.A. {Trin. Coll., Oxford), lion. Secretary of the Libraries Association of the United Kingdom, 2 Grays Inn Square, Grays Inn, London. The Corporation of the City of Liverpool. The Corporation of the City of Manchester. The Corporation of the Borough of Birmingham. The Committee of the " Old Library," Birmingham {per C. E. Scarse, Esq., Librarian.) The Corporation of the Borough of Preston. The Corporation of the Borough of Salford. The Public Libraries Committee of the Corporation of Newcastle-on-Tyne. The Corporation of the Borough of Cambridge (for the Free Town Library; per John Pink, Librarian). The Free Public Library Committee of the Borough of Portsmouth (per T. D. A. Jewers, Esq., Librarian). The President and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Ox- ford {2)er Rev. F A. Clarke, M.A., late College Librarian). The Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford {per Rev. John Wordsworth, M.A., Bampton Lecturer). The President and Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford {per Rev. H. Austin Wilson, M.A., College Librarian). The Master and Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford (per Evelyn Abbott, Esq., M.A., Librarian). The Principal and Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford {per D. J. Ritchie, Esq., College Librarian). Tlie Provost and FelloAvs of Queen's College, Oxford (for the College Library; per Rev. R. L. Clarke, M.A., Librariaii). The London Library, St. James' Square {per Robert Harrison, Esq.) The Mitchell City Library of Glasgow {per F. T Barrett, Esq.) The Library of the London Institution, Finsbury Circus {per Edward W. Byron Nicholson, Esq., M.A.) The Chetham Library, Manchester (per the late James Crossley, Esq., F.S.A.) Mudie's Select Library (Limited), New Oxford Street, London. Alderman Sir Tliomas Baker, Ex-Mayor of Manchester (for the " Mayor's Library," Nexu Town Hall). The Curators of the University of Durham {])er Rev. J. T. Fowler, M.A., Librarian). The Library of King's College, Cambridge {per Rev. Chas. E. Grant, M.A., Librarian). The Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge {per Rev. S. S. Lewis, M.A., Librarian). The Library of Exeter College, Oxford {per Rev. Charles W. Boase, M.A., Librarian). The Regents of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massa- chusetts {2)er Justin Winsor, Esq., Librarian of the University). The Regents of the Colombia College, of the State of New York. The Library of the Theological Seminary of Connecticut, Hartford Qjer E. C. Richardson, Esq., Librarian). The Library of the Middlesex Mechanics' Association, Lowell, Massachusetts (per Miss Mary E. Sargent, Librarian). The Committee of the Oriental Club, Hanover Square, London, W. {per Major C. C. Clayton, Secretary). The Leeds Library {jyer J. V. W. Macalister, Esq., Librarian). The Wigan Free Public Library (|3er Henry T. Folkard, Esq., Librarian). The Committee of the Newport (I.W.) Literary Society. Edward Adamson, M.D., Eye, Sussex. James Evan Adlard, Esq., Stockwell Road, Clapham. Mr. Edward G. Allen, American Agency, 12 Tavistock Row, London. Six Copies. Messrs. Asher and Co., Bedford Street, London. John Angus, Esq., National Bank of Scotland, Kirkcud- bright. William E. A. Axon, Esq., Higher Broughton, Lancashire. Francis T. Barrett, Esq., Glasgoiv. Messrs. Barthes and Lowell, 14- Great Marlborough Street, London, W. Three Copies. Dr. Edward Augustus Bond, Princip>al Librarian of the British Museum. Mr. E. M. BoRRAJO, 22 Haverstock Hill, London. Henry Bradshaw, Esq., M.A., Principal Librarian of the University of Cambridge. Two Copies. Messrs. Bull and Auvache, 35 Hart Street, Bloomsbury, London. Patrick Chalmers, Esq., F.R.H.S., 35 Alexandra Road, Wimbledon. Richard Copley Christie, Esq., M.A., Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester, Glenwood, StaAnes. Mr. J. C. Cornish, 33 Piccadilly, Manchester. Messrs. Crosby, Lockwood, and Co., 7 Stationers' Hall Court, London. James Bridge Davidson, Esq., F.S.A., 14^ Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, London. Melvil Dewey, Esq., M.A., Madison Avenue, Neiv York. The Rev. John Gilbert Dolan, M.A., Doivnside College, Bath. Reginald S. Faber, Esq., Westbourne Terrace Road, London. Henry Tennyson Folkard, Esq., Wigan, Lancashire. Mr. William James Galloway, ^ Compton Terrace, Islington, London, N. Richard Garnett, Esq., LL.D., British Museum. Two Copies. Mr. W. H. Gee, 28 High Street, Oxford. Two Copies. Mr. John Grant, 25 George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh. Mr. Henry Gray, 28 Cathedral Yard, Manchester. Two Copies. The Rev. Edward Kennedy Green, M.A. (Camb.), Rector of Laivford, Essex. (For Vol. I. only.) Messrs. J. and W. Gubbins, High Street, Newport. (For Vol. I. only.) John Hallam, Esq., Chairman of the Public Library, Toronto, Canada. Mr. Otto Harrassowitz, Buchhandler in Leipzig. Four Copies. Mr. John Heywood, Deansgate, Manchester. James Hibbert, Esq., Alderman of Preston, Lancashire. The Rev. John Clare Hudson, M.A., Vicar of Thornton, Lincolnshire. W. C. Jackson, Esq., F.R.G.S., St. Stephen's Club, West- minster. Mr. Councillor G. J. Johnson, Birmingham. James Henry Johnson, Esq.. Hesketh Pai-k, Southjjort, Lancashire. "C. L.," Esq. {jper Mr. John Salkeld, Bookseller, Clapham Road, London. Robert Laing, Esq., Felloiu of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (per W. Laing, Esq., London). Frederick Locker Lampson, Esq., Newhaven Court, Cromer, Norfolk. Thomas G. Law, Esq., Signet Library, Edinburgh. The Rev. W. B. Lowther, Holmfirth, Yorkshire. The Rev. H. R. Luard, D.D., 4 St. Peter's Terrace, Cambridge. The Rev. William Dunn Macray, M.A., F.S.A., Rector of Ducklington, Oxon. Falconer Madan, Esq., M.A., {B.N.C., Oxford), Sub- Librarian of the Bodleian. Two Copies. Mr. J. Cooper Morley {care of CorneHus Walford, Esq., M.A., 86 Belsize Park Gardens, London, N.) Charles Edward Mudie, Esq., Muswell Hill, N.W. John D. Mullins, Esq., Central Free Library, Birming- ham. The Rev. Alexander Napier, M.A., Vicar of Holkham, Norfolk. Ad. Neubauer, Esq., MA., Senior Sub-Librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Edward W. Byron Nicholson, Esq., M.A., Bodley's Librarian, Oxford. Mons^- Omont, of the National Library of France (De- partment of MSS.), 28 Quai de Bethune, Paris. James Parker, Esq., M.A., Broad Street, Oxford. Spencer George Perceval, Esq., Severn House, Henbury, Bristol. H. L. Phillips, Esq., F.G.S., Brownswood Park, South Hornsey, London, N. Captain John Plant (H.M. Lancashire Volunteers), Peel Park, Salford. The Rev. Charles Plummer, M.A., Felloiu, Lecturer, Chap>lain, and Librarian of C.C.C., Oxford. Two Copies. George E. Sears, Esq., New York (per H. Grevel, 33 King Street, London, W.C.) Messrs. W. H. Smith and Sons, 186 Strand, London. Mr. William J. Smith, North Street, Brighton. B. Franklin Stevens, Esq., Jf. Trafalgar Square, Lon- don, W. Charles William Sutton, Esq., Free Public Library, Manchester. Samuel Timmins, Esq., J. P., Elvetham Lodge, near Bir- mingham. The Kev. F. E. Warren, M.A. {St. John's College, Oxford), Rector of Frenchay, Bristol. Mr. William Wesley, S8 Essex Street, London, E.G. The Rev. John Crane Wharton, M.A., Vicar of Willesden, Middlesex. Mr. John Whitaker, F.S.A., 12 Warwick Lane, London, E.G. Justin Winsor, Esq., University Librarian, Cambridge, Massachusetts. James Osborne Wright, Esq., 16 Astor Place, New York {per Messrs, Sampson Low & Co., London). TABLE OF CONTENTS. GENERAL INTRODUCTION:— Part I. — Historical and Chronological Summary of the Foundation and Growth of Archives and Libraries (Public and Private), from the first formation of those of Ancient Assyria {circa B.C. 660), to the Foundation, under the "Free Public Libraries Acts," of the first City Library of Dubhn, a.d. 1884. Part IL — Geographical Summary, shewing the local distribution, and the comparative wealth, of existing Libraries in Europe and in America (1885). Part III. — Legislative Summary, shewing the relation of THE State to Libraries in some of the chief countries of Europe and America (1885). [*^* Like Summaries concerning Museums of Natural History exclusively, and Museums of Art and Anti- quities exclusively, will (D.V.) be prefixed to the intended continuation of the present Volume.] PART THE FIRST. THE LIBRARIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES; WITH BRIEF NOTICES OF THE LATER HISTORY OF SOME MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES WHICH SURVIVED UNTIL PRESENT OR RECENT TIMES, AND ALSO OF SOME EXISTING MONASTIC LIBRARIES OF LATER TIMES. CHAPTER L The Libraries of the English Benedictines. CHAPTER IL The Libraries of the German, Flemish, and Swiss Bene- dictines. XXXI. CHAPTER III. The Libraries of the Itahan and French Benedictines. CHAPTER IV. Notices of some Monastic and other Mediaeval Libraries of Paris, (of various Communities, Colleges, and Orders) ; — inckiding a Summary View of the subsequent History of some Mediaeval Collections, which have survived until present or recent times; and of their recent Benefactors. CHAPTER V. The Libraries of the Mendicant Orders. CHAPTER VI The Economy of the Monastic Libraries. CHAPTER VII. Decline of Learning in the Monasteries; — their Dissolution in England; — the Dispersion and Ruin of their Libraries. CHAPTER VIIL Episcopal, Royal, and Laic Collectors, in various pai»ts of Mediaeval Europe. PART THE SECOND. HISTORY OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES, 'MUSEUMS, AND ARCHIVES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. Book I. — The British Museum: its Founders and its Benefactors. CHAPTER I. Introductory. — Chronological Epochs in the Formation of the British Museum: (I.) Period of Private Benefaction. CHAPTER II. Introductory. — Chronological Epochs in the Formation of the British Museum, continued: (II.) The period of Liberal Support by Parliament. — Contrasts, in this re- spect, between the Georgian Reigns and the Reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1885). CHAPTER III. The Founder of the Cottonian Library; and the subse- quent History of his Collection. CHAPTER IV. The Chief Collector, and the successive Augmentors, of the old Royal and Public Library at St. James', to the Reign of King James I. inclusive. The early History of the Collection with which that acquired by Prince Henry was united. CHAPER V. The Royal Library, from the Reign of Charles I. to that of George II. — Notices of the Literary Character, and of the Literary and Artistic Collections, of Charles I. CHAPTER VL The Collector of the Arundelian Marbles and Manuscripts. CHAPTER VIL The Collection and the Collectors of the Harleian Manu- scripts. — The Public Life of Robert, Earl of Oxford. CHAPTER VIIL The Founders of the Sloane Museum: — William Courten and Sir Hans Sloane. CHAPTER IX. The Early History of the British Museum, as organized in 1753. CHAPTER X. A Group of Archaeologists and of Classical Explorers : — Sir William Hamilton; — Charles Towneley of Towneley; — Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin and of Kincardine; — Richard Payne- Knight. — Antiquities collected by the French Institute of Egypt, under Napoleon I. CHAPTER XL A Group of Book-Lovers : — Thomas Birch ; — Thomas Tyrwhitt; — Sir William Musgrave of Hay ton; — Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode. CHAPTER XIL The Collector of the Lansdowne Manuscripts: — William Petty Fitz-Maurice, Earl of Shelburne, and Marquess of Lansdowne. CHAPTER Xin. Other Manuscript Collectors of the Eighteenth Century : — Charles Burney; — Francis Hargrave; — Francis Henry Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater. CHAPTER XIV. The Library of King George the Third, and its Collector. CHAPTER XV. The Banksian Museum of Natural History ; — The Banksian Library; — their Founder; and their early Curators. CHAPTER XVL General View of the History of the British Museum under the Administration, as Principal Librarian, of Joseph Planta. CHAPTER XVIL Growth, Progress, and General Management of the Museum, during the Principal-Librarianship of Sir Henry Ellis. c2 CHAPTER XVIII. Growth, Progress, and General Management of the Museum, durmg the Principal-Librarianship of Sir Antonio Panizzi. CHAPTER XIX. Another Group of Archaeologists and of Explorers. — The Spoils of Nitria, of Xanthus, of Babylon, of Nineveh, of Halicarnassus, and of Carthage. CHAPTER XX. The Grenville Library, and its Founder. CHAPTER XXI. A Group of Naturalists: — Growth of the Palseontological Collections: — Gideon .Algernon Mantell; Thomas Hawkins; and others. — The Conchological Cabinet of Hugh Cuming, and its Collector. — Progress and Re- arrangement of the Zoological Collections under the late John Edward Gray. CHAPTER XXII. Recent Benefactors to the Medal Room ; to the Galleries of Miscellaneous Antiquities ; and to the newly-formed Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography. — The Museums of Henry Christy, and of James Woodhouse. CHAPTER XXIII. The British Museum during the Principal-Librarianship of John Winter Jones. — Growth of its Literary Depart- ments. — Later Acquisitions of Printed Books and Manuscripts. CHAPTER XXIV. Recent Accessions to the Archaeological Departments. — Progress of Archaeological Exploration in various parts of the World. CHAPTER XXV. Miscellaneous Acquisitions of the Literary Department of the British Museum, from 18C9 to 1885, inclusive. CHAPTER XXVI. Growth and Progress of the Natural History Museum, from the date of its removal from Bloomsbury to South Kensington, until 1885. CHAPTER XXVII. Progress of Archceological Exploration and Discovery: — Cyprus; Ephesus; the Troad. — 1870-1885. — The Ser- vices and Researches of Charles Thomas Newton. CHAPTER XXVIII. The Stowe and Ashburnham Manuscripts. 1884. CHAPTER XXIX. The Coin and Medal Room; and the Print Room. 1870- 1885. Book II. — The Rolls HousG; its Founders and its Organisers. CHAPTER I. History of the English Record Repositories, from the earliest times to the end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. — Development of the Office of Secretary of State, and its influence upon the Records. CHAPTER II. History of the English Record Repositories, and of the State Paper Office ; from the Accession of King James I. to the end of the Reign of King WiUiam IV. CHAPTER III. Brief Notices of the History of the New Rolls House, or General Record Office (as established by 1 and 2 Vict., c. 94), during the Reign of Her Majesty. CHAPTER IV. A Group of Archivists: — Henry Petrie; — Henry Bicker- steth, Lord Langdale ; — John, Lord Romilly; — Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy; — Sir William Hardy. CHAPTER V. Brief Summary of the Contents and Arrangement of the principal existing Public Records of England (June, 1885). Book III CHAPTER I. The Trade and Arts Museum at South Kensington. CHAPTER IL The Branches and Loan Collections of the South Kensine- o ton Museum. CHAPTER HI The Libraries of the South Kensington Museum. CHAPTER IV. The Geological Museum. CHAPTER V. The Minor Museums, Archives, and Libraries of London. XXXVll. Book IV.— The Bodleian Library, the RadclifFe Library, and the IVIinor Libraries and IViuseums of Oxford. CHAPTER I. The ancient Library of tlie University of Oxford, and its Benefactors. CHAPTER II. Sir Thomas Bodley and his Foundation. — His Helpers in the Work. — History of the Bodleian, until the addition of the Selden Library. CHAPTER in. History of the Bodleian, from the Benefaction of Selden to the present time (June, 1885). CHAPTER IV. Glances at some of the Special Treasures of the Bodleian. — Summary of the chief Contents and Sources. CHAPTER V. The Radcliffe Library; its Founders, Benefactors, and Augmentors. — The New Museum of the Natural Sciences, and its Benefactors. — The Clarendon Laboratory. CHAPTER VL The Ashmolean Museum, and its Curators. — The Taylorian Library and Galleries, and their Founder. — Notices of Sir Robert Taylor; of the Rev. Robert Finch; of F. H. Trithen (first Taylor Librarian) ; and of John Macray. CHAPTER VII. Notices of the College Libraries ; — of their Founders, Benefactors, and Augmentors ; — and of some College Librarians, of former days. XXXVlll. CHAPTER VIII. The Manuscript Library of Sir Harry Verney, at Claydon Hall, near Oxford. [See General Introduction.] CHAPTER IX. The Earl of Macclesfield's Library at Shirburn Castle, near Oxford ; its Founders, and its Augmentors. CHAPTER X. The dispersed Library at Whiteknights, and its Collector. [See General Introduction.] CHAPTER XL The dispersed Library of the Earl of Sunderland; and the Manuscripts, and other Heirlooms in the Palace of Blenheim. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I.^IIISTOPdCAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE FOUNDATION AND GROWTH OF ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES (PUBLIC AND PRIVATE), FROM THE FIRST FORMATION OF THOSE OF AN- CIENT ASSYRIA (circa b.c. 660), TO THE FOUNDATION UNDER THE "Free Public Libraries Acts," OF THE FIRST CITY LIB- RARY OF DUBLIN, A.D. 1884. [^4 like Summary concerning Museums of Natural History exclusively, and Museums of Art and Antiquities exclusively, will (D.V.) he j^ref-xed to the intended continuation of the present Volume.~\ CHAPTEE I. The Libraries of Assyria, of Egypt, of Greece, and OF IlVIPERIAL EoME. " In Asia's sea-like plain Where slowly, round his isles of sand, Euphrates through the lonely land Winds towards the pearly main. Slumber there is, — but not of rest ;— There her forlorn and weary nest The famished hawk has found ; The wild-dog howls at fall of night, The serpent's rustling coils affright The traveller on his round ; — What shapeless form half-lost on high, Half-seen against the evening sky. Seems like a ghost to glide? GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Watching from Babel's crumbling heap, Wliere, in her shadow, fast asleep. Lies fallen imjjerial Pride? With half-clos'd eye a lion there Is basking, in his noon-tide lair; But where are now those eagle wings. That sheltered erst a thousand Kings, Hiding the glorious sky From half the Nations, till they own No holier name, no mightier throne? — — That vision is gone by." — John Keble : The Christian Year. "A great Library cannot be constructed : it is the growth of the Ages. You may buy books, at any time, — with money; but you cannot make a Library, like one that has been for Centuries a-growing ; even though you had the whole [amount of our] National Debt to do it with."— John Hill Burton; The Book-IIanler (2nd Ed., p. 169). GENERAL INTRODUCTION, 1. The mos't salient fact in the History of the PART I. ^ Libraries of Antiquity is tliat we possess, in the nine- teenth century of the Christian Era, a more real and Chafier I — The Libraries or Assyria, of , ^ Egypt, op mtiuiate knowlcdge of those of them which were Greece, and OF Imperial fouuded lu rcmotc AssYRiA, aluiost seven centuries Rome. Assyrian and Babylonian Archives and Libraries. before the Advent of our Blessed Lord, than we have of those which were established in familiar Eome, in the very century of that Holy Advent, amidst scenes which are as truly present to the imagination of readers of classical books, as are the palaces or the streets of 17th-century London to the minds of the readers of John Evelyn or of Samuel Pepys. The most imaginative of readers cannot, indeed, form any idea of the social life of Assyria as clear and vivid as a very ordinary reader may form of the social life of Eome, in the days of Cicero, or in those of Horace. But no existing Library in the world can put into its visitor's hand a volume which might have been actually handled by Cicero or by Horace, al- though, to inspect thousands of those inscribed tablets which formed the Library of Assure anipal, " the Great ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN AKCIIIVES AND LIBRARIES. OENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter I — The Libraries of Assyria, of OF Imperi Rome. King," a student lias but to enter the British Museum, or to pay a visit to tiie Louvre. In the former, he may hold in his hand a letter addressed by certain citizens of Darata to Merodacii-baladan (III.), King of l3a1jyloii, ^°^^J^' the contemporary and the correspondent of IIezekiah. Innumerable phrase books ; syllabaries ; dispatches ; law- reports; commercial contracts; official Eeports of pro- vincial governors, — of masters-of-the-horse, — of generals, — of stewards, — of astronomers-royal ; Treatises on astro- logy, on eclipses, on grammar; Collections of astronomical observations ; Annals of the several kingdoms of Assyria, of Elani, and of Babylonia ; and Annals of campaigns in Egypt, in Palestine, in Elam, in Media, and in many other countries ; — all these are but partial fragments of an enor- mous collection of inscribed tablet-books, — exceeding 10,000 in number, — constituting the "Eoyal Library of Assyria," as it existed in the seventh century b.c.^ M. Menant has shewn cogent reasons for the belief that this library was made a public one by Assli^banipal, fcH' the general use of his subjects. ^ That it was classified, me- thodized, and catalogued, is certain. The British Museum contains, with some other catalogues, one^ that is, sub- stantially, a list of what Mr. Mudie would call a "Select Library;" a collection, namely, not of the best books, nor of choice books of any sort; but of those most in current and popular demand. And a very curious selection of "Standard Works" it is; — as curious at the 1 Pinches: Assyrian Antiquities in British Museum (1883), 140-181. Comp. Oppert in Archives ties Missions, Sc, v. 179, seqq. 2 Bibliotheque du Palais de Ninive (1880). 3 It is exhibited in tlie Table-Case marked " C, § 2," tablet No. 9 (in the Kouyunjik Gallery). b2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. least for B.C. 685, as is Mr. Mudie's list of " Standard GENERAL INTRODUCTION ^ ''^^V' works" for A. D. 1885 Chapter I— The LiBRAR Assyria, of Egypt, of Greece, and OF Imperial Rome. 2. Nor is it less curious to note that lialf-a-century ago not one fragment of this vast library-treasure was known, by any one of us, to exist. As recently as in the year 1838 the most studious of arch^ologists knew as little of the hidden treasures of the mounds on the Tigris and the Euphrates as was known to Sir Eobert Kerr Porter, on that earlier day, — towards the close of the preceding century, — when he drew rein before the mysterious Babylonian mound, at " Birs Nimroud," on the Euphrates, and sketched in his note-book a pass- ing incident of travel which the Christian muse of John Keble has immortalized. In 1840 Austen Layard, almost exactly like Porter, stopped his horse to gaze at the neighbouring mounds of Kouyunjik and Nib])i- Yunus, on the Tigris. Porter looked at the like sight with the eye of an artist, "in search of the picturesque;" Layard (though a clever and true artist also), in the thoughtful mood of a Christian archasologist, familiar with his Bible, and accustomed to ponder on that close connection of Past with Present, which to a really re- flective mind is the most self-evident of truths. Gazing on a mere heap, as it seemed, of the accumulated rubbish of some thousands of centuries, it flashed on Layard's thoughts that beneath the rude heap of earth he was glancing at, some deep secrets of a bygone world nuist needs lie concealed. The " Kouyunjik Gallery" of our National Museum is but one of a multitude of results which have already accrued — directly and indirectly — - out of those searchings of heart, of April, 1840. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter I— The Libraries of Assyria, or Egypt, or Greece, and OF Imperial Rome. BEGINNINGS OF ASSYKLVN DECYPHERMENT. O Layard's first visit preceded by necarly two years the earliest excavations of M. Botta and of liis colleagues, in the neighbourhood of Khorsabad. And every year that now rolls on adds to the results, already so fruitful. Before that date, all that was really known of Assyrian Inscriptions had been drawn from a few casually- . Beginniiig.s of discovered cylinders and slabs, on the decyphenng of Assyrian Decyphcrmcnt. which Grotefend, St. Martin, Eask, and Sir Henry Rawlinson had successively laboured, with admirable zeal, but, as yet, with very slender outcome. ^ 3. There are dim records — rather legendary than Varies. historical — of a great Egyptian Library, that of Osy- MANDYAS (Eamses I?), at the "Eamseseum" near Thebes, which preceded that of Assurbanipal at Nineveh by more than seven centuries. But in 1885 little more is really known of it, even by the pupils of Gardner Wilkinson and of Eichard Lepsius, than was known (B.C. 50) to DiODORUs of Sicily,^ whose record of the inscription over its door — "TAe Sours Dispensary'' — will never l^e forgotten. Lepsius beheved that he had 1 Grotefend was first in the field. He read a memoir on some inscriptions, Assyrian and Persian, to the Royal Society of Gottingen, as early as in 1802. St. Martin continued Grotefend's researches in succeeding years. Rask took up the subject in 1826. Rawlinson, when — in 1835 — at Kermanspah, on the western frontier of Persia, began to work in the track marked by Grotefend. In the following year, his labours on the Behistan inscriptions (which were communicated to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1837) marked a new epoch in the interpretation of cuneiform literature. Burnouf 's labours in this fruitful field began in 1836, but most of them were carried on after the discoveries of Layard and of Botta. Burnouf 's translations were collected and published in 1847. Those of Dr. Hincks were partially published in the same year. (Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. ix. art. 8; x. § 2, passim; and App. 401, sopi. See, also, Id., vols. xii. art. 9 (1850); xiv. passim (1854); xv. arts. 1, 2, and 6 (1855); xvi. art. 8 (1856); xviii. art. 2 (1861); and New Series, i. arts. 6, 8 (1865); iii. art. 1 (1868); and Trans, of Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxii.) 2 Wesseling's Edit, of Diod. Sic, i. 58. b GENERAL INTRODUCTION. GENERAL cliscoverecl the tomb.s of two successive Librarians of INTRODUCTION. PARTI. ^1^^^, j^amsesian collection. ^ But of its actual contents CiiArTEE I— The Libraries of Assyria, of Greece, and OF Imperial Rome. nothing whatever has been truly ascertained. Three EoYPT, OF facts, however, about Eijyptian Libraries are well esta- fiREECE. AND ' ' C.. 1 blislied: — (1) That they were the constant appendages, alike of the temples of the idols, and of the tombs of the Kings; — (2) that whereas many public libraries, exist- ing in the present day, suffer more from governmental taxation than they enjoy by governmental grants and encouragements, it was the habitual practice of Egyptian governments, much more than two thousand j^ears ago, to make free appropriations of land for the support of such institutions r — (3) that at the time of the Persian conquest of Egypt, the books contained in them were so numerous, as to make as conspicuous a feature in the spoils which the invaders carried back with them into Persia, as were, in the too-well-remembered recent years, 1870 and '71, those choice art-manufactures of Paris and of Lyons, with which the then invaders of France loaded its Northern-railway trains for gratuitous transit into Prussia. 4. The Ptolemeian Libraries of Alexandria rank next, in historical significance, after the wonderful "tile^-book" libraries of Assyria and of Babylonia. Their wealth of books was the wonder of ancient times, and their ulti- mate fate has turned out to be a pregnant puzzle which 1 Lepsius: Chronolo(jie der jErjypter, 39 (Ed. of 1849). Comp. Wilkinson: The Ancient E EAliLY CHURCH LIBRARIES OF r.lLESTINE. 15 'tJie supposed HebreAV orignal of St. Matthew's Gospel,''^ introduction wliicli is probably the book, in the same collection *'^''^'- wliich he (St. Jerome) elsewhere describes as a ' Gospel in Syro-Chaldaic, used by the Nazarenes.'^ In another work Jerohie says : ' I have been somewhat diligent iri ' searching for copies .... of the Apology for Origen ' by Pamphilus. In the Library of Eusebius, at Caesarea, 'I found six volumes. . . .'^ That library contained pies of the greater part of the works of Origen, made \' P^uiPHiLUS himself.^ The originals of tlie Hexapla ere there, and Jerome corrected liis copy from tliem.^ .fore the time of Jerome this Library had fallen more or less into decay, but endeavours to restore it were made by two successors of Eusebius — by Acacius, a.d. 340, and by Euzoius, a.d. 366.^ Of Euzoius, Saint Jerome says, on the authority of Thespesius Elietor; 'He strove with great labour to refurnish the 'library of Origen and Pamphilus, which M^as akeady decayed.''' Isidore of Seville (writing in the year 636), asserts that the library of Pami'IIILus at CtEsarea con- tained nearly 30,000 volumes."^ 1 HiERON., ., Origines, lib. vi. c. 6. ' Chaiter II. Primitive Church Libraries. 16 GENERAL INiJiODlcTION. OENtRAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter II. — Primitive Church Libraries!. Clmrch- Libraiies of Constanti- nople ;— 1 1 . The well-known letter of tlie Emperor Constan- TiNE to EusEBius, Concerning the supply of sumptiiousls written copies of select portions of the Holy Bible for the libraries of certain newly-founded Churches in Con- stantinople, botli implies the prior existence of libraric s as part of the ordinary equipment of a Christian Church, and suggests that such liberal gifts would naturally become the germ of new li])raries. " Let there be written," .... says the Emperor, "by calligraphic artists, thoroughly skilled in their art, fifty volumes of the Sacred Writings, such as are most necessary for tlie supply and use of the Church, on well prepared parchments, legible and portable for use." ^ 12. In spite of desolating and almost unceasing wars, and of many other calamities, the Libraries of Churches were an object of constant care. New collections w^ere formed : old ones were augmented or restored. There is a long series of evidences — secular as well as eccle- siastical — to this effect, which extend over many cen- turies, and are full of interest. One or two citations will shew the character of this testimony concisely and sufficiently: — " In 1^1 a great stimulus was given to the formation of Libraries in Cathedral Churches within the dominions of Charlemagne, by an order issued by him for the establishment of Schools in connection with them. 2 Such schools obviously implied a good collection of books. A later edict of the same prince, after providing that there be set up schools of reading- 1 EUSEBIU.S, Devita Const., iv. 36. 2 This Edict is printed by Labbe, Comc, v. 1779; and is quoted by Seudamore, in Dirt, of ChrlM. Aiilici.. as above. CHUECH LIBRARY AT RIIEBIS. 17 boys, adds, 'Let them learn the Psalms, notes, chants, «eneral » ' ' 7 3 7 INTRODUCTION. the art of deterininin}:? the seasons, and grammar, m ^ ''•'"■^'■ o ' O ' Chapter II— every monastery and episcopal church. Let iluin p«iMmvE also have Cathohc books, well corrected.' "^ i^iBnAWEs. 13. These laws of Charlemagne would certainly lead to the foundation of Cathedral Libraries, where they had not existed before. It is probable that the smaller libraries found in connection with many other churches owe their oriojin, in a OTeat measure, to a similar edict of Lewis in 816. By this, bishops were ordered to see " that the Presbyters had a missal, a "lectionary, and other books necessary to them."^ What some, at least, of these "other books," supposed to be necessary, were, we may gather from the following list in an ancient Polyptychon, preserved in the Church of St. Eemigius, at Eheims : — "A book of the Gospels, a psalter, an antiphonary, a breviary [z. e., a table of the Gospels for the year, in which they were indicated by their first and last words], a computus, an order of baptism, a martyrology, a penitential, a passional, a volume of canons, forty homihes of St. Gregory. "^ As soon as such a collection went beyond the require- ments of the service," — as in this case it did, — "the foundation of a Church Library was already laid."'* 1 Cajyit., aim. 789, c. 70. 2 C. 28, Capit. Beg. Franc, i. 3 Ibid., ii. 1159. 4 ScuDAMORE, ttbi supra. 18 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. GENERAL INTRODOCTION. PAST I. Chapter II — Primitive Church LlBHARIES. Church- Libraries of Rome. 14. At Eome, we have — not, indeed, accounts — but allu.sions, many in number, and various in origin, to similar libraries ; as, for example, mention of one by St. Hilary as existing in the Lateran Baptistery (a.d. 461); of one at St. Peter's (a.d. 649) ;1 but there is evidence that the Eoman collections so often mentioned were frequently destroyed, or dispersed, during the constant warfare, riot, and plunder wliich disturbed the empire from the fifth to the eighth centuries. "In our regions," say the Eoman bishops, in reply to an imperial summons for their attendance at the third Council of Constan- tinople (a.d. 680), "war is every day raging. . . . Our whole life is full of care. . . . The ancient maintenance of the Churches has fallen away."^ On the other hand, there is also evidence that repeated attempts were made to restore what was so often destroyed. But, for several generations, the available collections, in the Latin part of the Empire were conspicuously inferior to those in the Eastern regions. What is said to that effect, over and over again, by various writers in the sixth and seventh centuries, is still repeated, by our own Beda, in the eii:rhth.^ 1 Contemporary narrative, quoted by Laebe, ConciHa, v. 1884. 2 Contemporary letter, also printed in Labee, lb., vi. 681. 3 E. g. Hist. Ecckdastica, v. 20. [ 19] CHAPTEE III. Magnitude of the debt we owe to Monks, as in i.iterature generally, so especially in biblio- GRAPHY; IN THE Economy of Libraries; and in the ADVANCEMENT OF THE INVENTION AND GENERAL diffusion of THE ArT OF PRINTING. Only a few years ago, when professional erudition was exhausting itself in Commentaries on Pelasgic or Etruscan ruins, and was falling into ecstasies at aight of the fragments of a Roman road, a gross ignorance prevailed of the present appropriation, even of the very sites, sometimes, of those glorious metropolises of Christian virtue and of Christian learning which were once called " Cluoni ;" "CiTEAUx;" Fleury;" " Marmoutier." To learn where those marvellous creations of Faith and Charity once stood, you riiust have recourse to old maps, or old books of topography. For, too frequently, you would in vain inquire about them of a race bniti- fied by sceptical "philosophy," and by rampant materiahsm. The answer would be such an one as a traveller might meet with from the Bedouins of the African Desert, should he question them about the genealogj- of the Pharoahs, or the Annals of the Thebaid.— Translated < from Montalembert, Moines iV Occident, Introd., ccv. (Edit, of 1860). 15. A List of the books composed by Monks, at general INTRODUCTION. various periods in the f^rand history of Monachism, part i. ^ . CUAPTEH III— both Eastern and Western, ^vould inchide several of tlie maqnitudk OF THE DEBT o-reatest, the most preoiiant, and most widely influential we owe to '^ ' . . . Monks. books that ever came from uninspired minds. It would include some of the noblest commentaries upon Holy 1 It is from no want of respect to the fair and accomplished authoress (Mrs. Margaret Oliphant) of the English translation of the Count of Mont- alembert's very noble book that I have — here, as everywhere else, — made my own translations. They were (many of them) made a year or two anterior to the appearance of her work. Mrs. Oliphant, I may, perhaps, without impertinence, be permitted to add, is to myself a favourite and a beloved writer, so that it would be a new ple3,sure — added to many literary pleasures which I owe to her graceful pen— to have, had it been possible, quoted her version. But, although I am proud to own a score or two of her books, — her "Monka of the West" is not one of them. c2 20 GENERAL ES'TEODUCTION. GENERAL ScRHTURE tliat, in any aoe, have aided the diffusion of rNTRODUCl'ION. ' J C ' !hap4T III- Christianity and the development of the Christian hfe. Magnitude j^. -^Quld also incUide a loncr series of manuals in pliilo- OF THE DEBT O 1 MoNKr™ sophy, in the physical sciences, and in the arts, thai regard being had to their several dates and to the cu'- cumstances under which they were respectively com- posed — may truly be described as models in their kind. The books transcribed by Monks would include a long series of the actual MSS. from which the first printers worked. And it is to Monks that we owe ahke the first foundations of the science of Bibliograph}^, and the first systematic regulations for the formation, the classifying, the preservation, the cataloguing, and the administering of Public Libraries. 16. The few words about books which occur in the primary " Eule of St. Benedict" (a.d. 530,) are so framed as to imply that even at that date the monks had access to a considerable collection of the works of the Fathers of the Church. Successive revisions of that Eule during the same century (a.d. 553, Ferreolus, c. 19; A.D. 595, Isidore, c. 9 ;) give further and minute details which sliew the quick growth of the early monastic libraries, the increasing use made of them, and also increasing providence on the part of their keepers for careful handling and safe preservation.^ 17. Cassiodorus, the virtual founder of the mi^nas- tery of Vivarium {cir. 562), seems to have united the 1 Mr. Scudamore, in the article of the Dictionary of ChriMian A ntiqmtie^ {§ "Libraries;" ii. 985, ntqq.), already mentioned, has summed up with great clearness and conciseness the chief evidence on these points. I have largely and very thankfully profited by that paper,— as well in this chapter, as in that which immediately precedes it. Chapter HI— Magnitude of the debt CASSIODORUS AND BENEDICT BISCOP. 21 offices of Abbot and of Librarian. He collected books ,j,^°I^^^t.on from far-distant places ; actively promoted the making '""' '• of transcripts in the Scriptorium, and was keen in his earcli for books of secular literature, as well as for ^^^^^^' Ijooks of divinity. He appears to have possessed, in good measure, that love of orderly arrangement which is, and must be, the palmar}'- quality of a Librarian. Without it, the amplest store of learning, the keenest love of books, and the ripest power of discriminating their respective values, even if combined with those qualities of the " man of business," which some writers — strongly imbued with what they eall ''the modern spirit" — are specially fond of exalting, will prove to be insufficient. A century later, we have another exanqjle of an eminent monastic librarian in Benedict Biscop, first Abbot and first Librarian of the Monastery of Wearmouth, 18. Beda tells us that Benedict made five journeys to Kome, and that he brought back with him no incon- siderable number of books, in all branches of sacred literature ; many of which he had received as gifts ; the others he had bought. After his return (about the year 672) from his fourth journey he founded two monas- teries, — those of Wearmouth and Jarrow, — or, as Simeon of Durham records it, to shew how closely they were united, one monastery on two sites. He then made yet another journey into Italy, whence he returned \^dth a new supply of "spiritual merchandise," more abundant than before. He brought also, adds Beda, paintings of sacred subjects for the adornment of the Church, to the 22 GENERAL INTKODUCTION. GENERAL iiitent that all comers, however ionorant of letteis, INTRODUCTION. ■ ' O CHAri^r 'ill- ^ig^^t contemplate the ever gracious countenance of Magnitude Q^^lst aud of lils Saluts, if oulv as throudi a veil, OF THE DEBT ' .' O ' monT^" darkly. The founder died in 690~his death being probably accelerated by the fatigues of his frequent journeys amidst many hardships — and on his death-bed he gave repeated injunctions for the strict preservation of that "most noble and rich Ubrary which he had brought from Kome" with so much care and pains. ^ One of these precious volumes, however, Ceolfrid, his disciple and successor in the Abbacy, was prevailed on to rehnquish at the earnest entreaty of King Alfred of Northumberland, who is said to have granted to the monastery eight hides (according to the glossarists at least 800 acres; perhaps not less than 960) of land in exchange for it. Ceolfrid, although he yielded tliis long-coveted volume to his King, largely added to the store, Uke a faithful disciple. By his zeal, the libraries, we are told, were almost doubled in extent. But the noblest result of Biscop's foresight, and of his successor's perseverance, is to be seen in the studies and labours of their common biographer, Beda, who was born in the year (674), from which the foundation of Wearmouth monastery is usually dated, and was the pupil of its founder ; whilst in the neighbouring convent most of his life was passed. When we read the pious and vigorous pages which are among the best legacies of that age, we unconsciously profit hj those earlier books, so laboriously 1 Bedaj Hidoria Eccle-ncu*lica Gentvi Anglorum, lib. iv, c. 18 (Emjl. Hist. Soc, p. 388, § 205); Vita beatorum Abbatum Bemdicti, etc. {E. H. S. 49, et Ktq.]; Simeon Dunelm. apiul TwyscJen: Scripforei decent, c. 4; Dodsworth and Dugdale: Mona> as a sort of ^^commendani' — -held, however, not for increased gain, but for increased toil — to its headship. Before his transfer to the archbishopric of Mentz, he had worked as Abbot, and as Liljrarian, at Fulda, for twenty years. His career is of especial interest to Enoiishmen, for he was, in a limited but true sense. 1 Alcuini: De Pontijidhus et Sanctis Ecclessiie EhoracenMs j^oeina. Ex MSS. Codd. Remensi et Sancti Theodorici prope Remos; apud GAhEfHistorke Britanniciv .... Sc7-iptore>< XY . , iii. 730. 2 Alcuini: Eputola ad Car. May. {0pp. i. 52). 26 GENERiVL INTRODUCTION. GENERAL ^|^g i)ui)il of our owu St. Boniface (Winfrid of Nortli- INTRODUCTION. 1 i ^ chaptoT hi- ^^i^il^^"!-'^? the great Apostle of Germany, and the proto- maonitude i^-^artyr of Frisia,) as well as of our own Alcuin. OF THE DEBT " ' WE OWE TO Eabanus was the architect and builder of his library, Monks. as well as its working administrator. But the first books he placed in his new building were remnants of the books of Boniface, whose murderers (at Doken, in East Frisia,) after their bloody deed, ransacked the martyr's library; scattered the books, at random, over meadow and marsh, whence some of them were soon reclaimed by pious Iiands, and were carried to the Church of Fulda, as to a place of safety. Eabanus was wont to shew to visitors — as his successors some- times shew to them, I believe, at this day — as the special treasures of his librar}^, a Book of the Gospels, said to have been written with the martyr's own hand; a New Testament, which had been his dear companion; and a volume of tracts of St. Ambrose, containing the treatise De bono mortis, and several others. This volume was, and is, most justty regarded with veneration. It was in the martyr's hand (as it seems) when his murderers came to him ; and it is stained with his life-blood. 2 1 . Before PlABANus left the librarian's seat at Fulda, for the archiepiscopal throne at Mentz, he had made his hbrary a model for other monastic collections. And he made himself beloved as a prelate ; as he had previously made himself beloved as a monk. In both capacities, as in his special function of librarian, he did work which endured. We shall have occasion to see, here- after, that the work of transcription, carried on under his direction at Fulda, proved also to be of fruitful MONKISH COI\BffiNTAini-:s ON SCRIPTURE. 27 example elsewhere. As Lil)raria]i, he had eminent (lisci^^les, some of whom became exemplars in their turn. riENEKAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter III— Magnitude OF THE debt we owe to Monks. 22. I have ventured to say — in the lirst paragraph Monkish of this Chapter; and in direct contravention, as I am on so-i^turrof •,, ^ IP • • 1 the so-called too well aware, oi very nmch ol current opnnon on that ■ D,u-k Ages.- subject — that it is to Monks we are indebted for many of the noblest Commentaries upon Holy Scripture that are, even in this year of Grace, 1885, yet extant. And I was rash enough, when I first drew uj) the " Table of Chapters" for my present volume, to hope that I might be able to devote at least half-a-score of pages to a (necessarily brief and rapid) enumeration of some splen- did instances in that kind. But the almost oppressive wealth of my more immediate and proper subject re- strahis my hand. I nuist content myself with Ijut a few words upon one^ and only one, typical example of such Commentaries as I had then in my mind. It is but one of a host. And I the more readily retain, as such typical example, Thomas of Kempen's immortal book, " The Imitation of Christ^'' because I have seen {since I began to correct the proof-sheets of these pages,) a very recent mention, — from the able pen of Archdeacon Murray of Connor, — of the '•'Imitation,'' which mention that learned and estimable writer thought it necessary to introduce to his readers, of 1885, by the very charac- teristic, and very remarkable, (question: " C«?z aiiy good thing come out of the Monasteries?'''^ I should, myself, 1 Murray : The Great Books of Chrhtendovi ; in Church of EiKjIand Sunday School May., 1885— (No. for January). 28 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. have humbly thought that the question was a quite superfluous one (at any date of time) ; seeing that some GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter III — Magnitude ^f ^]^g |jgg(- ve"fetables aucl tlie best fruits that form OF THE DEBT WE OWE TO Monks. Thomas a Kempis' " Imilation of Christ." part of our " daily bread," and are therefore part of the subject-matter of our " daily thanksgiving," came, in- strumentally, and in England (or in Ireland), for the Jirst time, out of Monastic gardens; — since many of the shrubs and of the trees which every day of our lives refresh and delight our labour- wearied eyes, were first planted by Monastic hands; — since many of the best contrivances and appliances {pace the worth}" "agri- cultural-implement makers" of our " Great-Exhibition'' days) for that improved agriculture, to which, primarily, we owe much of the relish and the savour of our daily bread, aforesaid, originated in broad Monastic fields, and in bi*? Monastic barns. The Imitation of Christ, too, — SO far from being an exceptional instance of a noble monkish book, had, — from monkish cells, many a worthy predecessor, and many a worthy successor. And it would have been strange, indeed, had the fact been otherwise. What distinguishes the production of the admiral^le Canon of Agnetenberg from the pro- ductions of a host of worthy congeners, both earlier and later, is matter, not of substance, but of form. Unusual simj^licity and homeliness of style, combined with the author's soaring elevation of mind, soul, and spirit, towards the Source of all good gifts, gave quick popularity to his book, which is as truly a "Com- mentary" on the Holy Bible, and especially on the Holy Gospels, as if it had been expressly so entitled. A book that is at once j^assionate in its aspirations OF THE DEBT WE OWE TO Monks. THE LITERARY ASPECTS OF MONACHISM. 29 towards God tlie Father, and towards God our general ' introduction. Blessed Eedeemer, and towards God tlie Holy Spirit ; — ^ ''^''^ '• ' J J. ' Chapter III— ])rofound, in its ])liilusoi)liic basis and structure: — and ^'-^"nitide intensely practical in its hortatory deductions and appli- cations, when once it had received the garb of a homely and lucid style, must needs become a popular book. And the more popular — in earlier and humbler times — because pre-eminently devout and reverent in its tone. Thomas of Kenipen says, in striking opposition to very many sa3"ings that in our days are very current, — • current, too often, from the lips of men w^ho, like him (though in a different branch of Holy Church), have taken Holy Orders,^ — (in more than one place), that Holy Scripture "should be read in the spirit in which it was written." 23. No book — next after the Bible itself — has been so often reprinted; — none has been translated into so many languages; — none so frequently re-translated for wider currency; — none has more commonly proved to be a fruitful seed-plot, whence — next after the Bible itself — other writers have derived some of their best inspirations, and aspirations, for writing other books, alike congenial and congenital. The very arrangement of Thomas Haemmerlein's book is at once instructive and suggestive. Beginning with admonitions to the Spiritual Life ; he proceeds to give appliances for habitual self-examination. Thence, he passes to the consolations, in general, of the devout Christian; and winds ujD his grand theme Ijy a special commentary on 1 See, e. rj., "Bevised Version" of O.T. (May, 1885), Job xix. 25, 30 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. OENERAL INTBODUUTION. PART I. Chapter III— Magnitude of the debt WE OWE TO Monks. the iiLstitutioii, and the reverent reception, of the Sacra- ment of the Holy Eucharist, which is ahke admonitory in its waniini;'; soothing-, inspiritino-, and precious, in its consohitions. The mind that could be caught up as if "into Paradise," and could "hear words unspeakable," could also express in the most lucid and impressive form, the blessed excellences of absolute silence. Wh}', he asks in an admiral^le hortatory passage, — "Why do Christians talk so much, when they know so well that they rarely return into silence without bringing with them some hurt of conscience?" I often think that those words dwelt in John Bunyan's memory when he penned his portrait of " Mr. Talkative" — a personage so familiar to all readers of late vears.^ Joannes de Cantibus. 24. Another of the many Monastic " Great Books of Christendom," — here, of necessity, noticed only 1)}' way of very scanty sample, — is the ^^ Mirror of the Life of Christ" long ascribed to St. Bonaventura, but more prol)ably written l)y Giovanni da S. Geminiano, a Tuscan Friar-Minor, and written, perhaps, about 1370. It is a work that was widely circulated for many centuries in MS.; was translated from the Latin into most of the languages of Europe; l)y many independent translators into our owm: — amongst those translators are several who came to be illustrious, alike in Church and State. I " Mr. Talkative is a tall man, something more comely at a distance than at hand.". . . . [Do you axk the ■•- O ' J J maonitude instrnnientahty of the "Brethren of the Common Life;" OF THE DEBT " ' WE OWE TO Qf (^i^g ]3enedictines of several Flemish and Dntch Monks. Abbe3^s ; and other monastic commnnities ; and by encouragement sccnlar prlests of varlous rank. By one of the first- given to the Art tit • • i i -r> i • of Printing by named bodies, })rnitmg was brought to Brussels m 1472; — -by the Benedictines to Deventer in 1477, and into Zealand,^ 1478; — by the Carthusians to Naniur in 1485; — by Angustinian Canons to Schoonhoven,- 1495; — by the Franciscans to Schiedam in 1498. 28. The Augustinians brought printing to Savona in 1474; — thence it spread to Milan. The Benedictines brought the art into the Abbey of St. Colgal, near Barcelona, in 1489. By Augustinians, presses were set up in the College of Lerida in the same year. Cister- cians established printers at Dijon in 1491; and at Zhmer, near Wittemberg, in 1492. Franciscans did the like at Dinan in 1493. The Nuns of St. James, at Eipoli, in Tuscany, in 1482. As early as in 1483, Augustinians settled printers at Troyes. More than sixty years passed l)efore the need of a press was felt at La Rivoine, hard by Troyes; but when one came to be established there, the measure was still the act of monks — those of types by Coster at about the same date; — (4) Use of cast metal types- -as in 4th edition of Speculum, cir. 1433; — (5) Gutenberg's experiments at Stras- burgh, dr. 1135; and at Mentz, dr. 1445;— (6) Those of Schoeffer with improved metal types, 1453. Gutenberg testified his gratitude to the Car- thusians by the gift of a considerable series of the productions of his presses. (Schwartz: De Origim Typogr., ii. 4, seqq.) 1 At St. Martin's Abbey, near Tholen. 2 The first Schoonhoven printer was brought from Delft. THE LITERARY ASPECTS OF MONACHISM. 33 the Order of Citeaux, who set Nicholas Paris to work general ' INTRODUCTION. in tlieir Abbey. ^ ''^''^ '• , J Chapter III— Magnitude of the debt 29. The Benedictines of the famous Abbey of Mont- serrat, in Catalonia, were not content with so common a ^;^^'^^ ™ piece of monastic duty as that of setting up a printing- press in tlieir Abbey. They entered into a formal league with eighteen other Communities, dependent or related, for the systematic dissemination of the art. . . . 30. These are fewer than half the instances of which I have made notes, as tending to shew how extensively the Monastic Communities gave liberal encouragement to the fathers and disseminators of Printing. If to monastic patronage that of Bishops and of Archbishops — many of them Monks also — were further to be noted, the mere enumeration would indeed become almost in- terminable. Had it occurred to the learned querist in our recent Church of England Magazine — "Ca?z anything good come out of Monasteries?" — to glance, in limine, at the "Annals of Printing," he would probably have hesitated before suggesting any such inquiry. " Cax- tons" are commonly held to be "good things," alike by the purchasers who love books, and by the bookselling- tradesmen who love money. Assuredly, very many of these Caxtons came "out of the Monasteries." In the Abbey of St. Albans, the Monks printed many beautiful books at a date very little later than the date of Caxton's establishment in the Abbey of Westminster. The Benedictines of Tavistock, and the Augustinians of Canterbury, did precisely the like. D GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter III— Magnitude OF THE debt WE owe TO Monks. 34 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 31. But — most unhappily for the " query" of Arch- deacon Murray — the Holy Scriptures themselves come, to us, "out of the Monasteries." Many of our best sacred texts are in the scription of monastic hands ; were writ- ten in Monastic Libraries and Scriptoria: were alike reverently preserved, and liberally disseminated, by the hands of cenobites. The popular outcry against Mona- chism, as antagonistic to the circulation of the Bible, has but a slender foundation of fact to rest upon; and that foundation, slight as it is, is further restricted to narrow periods of time, and to special peculiarities of place and circumstance. Much, too, of what was done by Monks, in mediceval times, for spreading Biblical know- ledge—with due and needed appliances — was done with open-handed generosity, in reverent obedience to the Divine injunction: Freely ye have received, freely give. Whereas much of what is done in our own day in the like direction is done with a direct view to mercantile profit: and in strict obedience to that spirit of rampant commercialism which, in other spheres of action, is day by day lowering England in the scale of Nations, and im- perilling the most precious interests of all Christendom. [35] CHAPTEE IV. The Monasteries of the Nitrian Desert. The Archffiologist cannot, like the [philological] Scholar, carry on his researches in his own Library, independent of outward circum- stances He must travel, must excavate — collect— transcribe, . . . before he can place his subject before his mind. —Charles Thomas Newton: On the Stiulif of Arclatology, 26. 32. Monastic History may be said to be^j^in with general ~ INTRODUCTION. those communities in the sechided valley of Nitria, the varti. ^ ' Chapter IV— OF Nitria. small remains and the large ruins of whose rocky abodes monasteru have attracted so many visits in quite recent days, with results wliicli have become very memorable in literary history. The foundation of the earliest of those ruined Convents is lost in the mists of remote antiquity. But it is certain that about the year 330, at latest, there already existed rude hermitages in the Nitrian Desert, and that ere long that Desert came to be as crowded with monks as a hive with bees. For many generations the valley so peopled with ascetics appears to have excited far-spread curiosity; shared, in course of time, by Mohannuedans as well as by Christians. The Com- munities have long since dwindled into comparative insignificance. The few monks that remain are com- monly ignorant even of their own history. Of their most ancient and picturesque abodes the very sites can, in many cases, be traced only amidst doubt and difficulty. But for the student, and most especially for the student of Theology and of the History of the Church, that lonely and barren valley will have an endearing charm, d2 36 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. as the scene, in primitive days, of the self-denyinf vigils, and of the hterary labours, of many pious men GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter IV — Monasteries ^1;^o, auiidst wliatsoever large admixture of corruption, OF NiTRlA. ' o r ^ or of folly, had a firm grasp on much of vital Christian truth; and who were, in some respects, and in their degree, the prototypes of the greater " Monks of the West." It will also have another and scarcely less per- manent interest as the long buried mine whence, in far subsequent centuries, and in our ow^n, the assiduous and patient researches of a series of explorers and of scholars — notable, in the roll, the Assemanis and Tischendorff ; our own Huntington; Tatham; Lord Zouche; Lord Prudhoe — drew rich treasures. And thus the recent acquisitions, the record of which fills some of the most salient pages in the annals of Western Libraries, come to be closely linked with the pursuits, the studies, and the historical incidents, of the pristine monastic life of the East, fifteen hundred years ago. 33. Of the very little that is known of the first origin and subsequent growth of those Nitrian Libraries which have recently excited so much of renewed literary curiosity, the chief source is a series of isolated inscrip- tions upon individual manuscripts. They are full of interest. But they afford no adequate material for the annals of the Collections whence they came. The nar- rative that is best worth the telling, in pages such as these, consists in a brief summary of the researches of Travellers. And it may well be restricted to those of the last two or three centuries. RESEARCHES IN THE LEVANT. 37 34, Perhaps, the earhest notable alhision to the OENERAL INTRODUCTION. manuscript weahh of the Levantine monasteries, within c^jf^^'' \y_ tliose hmits, is to be found in the all-embracin • f ^ rn CHAPTER VI- was the joint undertaking of Gerard, Count of Aurillac, library of Cluny Abbet and of William, Count of Auvergne. The former laid in burqundy, its foundation. Both contributed to its first endowment. It dates from the year 909. Berno, who in that year was Abbot of the Monastery of Gigni, in the northern part of the Diocese of Lyons, became first Abbot of Cluny. The new community very soon became famous, alike for the devout zeal of its Monks, for the activity with which they carried on the labours of the Scrip-, torium, for the steady growth of its Library, and for the civilizing and ennobhng influences which, in various channels, it helped to diffuse over a wide extent of country. Odo, second Abbot (from 927), whose fame f2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 68 GENEKAL INTRODUCTION. lias eclipsed that of his predecessor, and whom some Chapter VI- aiiiialists spcak of as if he had been the founder, accom- cIuny^'IbTey panied Beeno in his journey from the Lyonese. He had iNBuRouNBY. served the Canons of St. Martin's Cathedral at Tours as their Precentor, and as the master of their School. He had learned to be an ardent book-lover at the paternal hearth. " My father," he once told a brother-monk of Cluny, who survived him, and became his biographer, "was a different sort of person from most men of the present day. He had by heart the historical works of the ancient writers, and the Novellce of Justinian. And, at his table, the Gospels were always read." Odo early imbibed the love of reading, under such example. But, for a time, the charms of the classic poets won his heart. They did not retain it. The subhmities of Holy Prophets of a day more ancient still, and the solemn verities of the Christian Evangelists, and of those Fathers of the Church who expounded and enforced them, soon engrossed the affections of one who, being come to manhood, put away what, in comparison, and in the retrospect, seemed to be but as childish things. Long before he accompanied his friend Berno on the first journey to Cluny, he had, it is recorded, gathered a hundred volumes as liis private library. And Odd possessed what, for the immediate purpose of his proper work in the infant community of Cluny, was even more .important than was the love of books, — the love, namely, of what is best in men, and the faculty of so rulinw them as to brinix it out. But his bookishness gave the ply to the Cluniac brotherhood. He lived to govern it, himself, only fifteen years after liis election. THE LIBRAEY OF CLUNY. 69 Maiolus (afterwards canonized, and known to studious travellers in some parts of France as the patron-saint of several churches of note), who eventually became fourth Abbot, grew up under Odo's eye. He even outvied his instructor in the way of book-collecting. He made many journeys into Italy, to buy fine copies of the Holy Scriptures, and of the Fathers ; incurred much ]ieril, we are told, from " Saracens, and other robbers," on the highways, and was occasionally stripped of the books wliich it had cost him such pains to gather, — sometimes, however, recovering them in a romantic way; and not infrequently incurring another kind of peril, to hfe or limb, by the inveterate habit he had acquired of " be- guiling the lonesome hour" by reading whilst in the saddle. Sometimes the book suffered, whilst the reader had a narrow escape.^ One of the many choice volumes given by Maiolus to his community now adorns the National Library of France. It is a beautiful copy of St. Ambrose's Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke.^ 67. Abbot Odilo imitated his predecessor, in a wide- spread research after fine books, and in carrying them about him, whilst journeying. Hugh I., his immediate successor (the two governed the community for the extraordinary term, jointly, of 113 years), kept the Scriptorium very actively employed, and established such a system of diligent reading of the Scriptures in public, and also of the best Commentaries upon them,' 1 Mabillon: Acta Sanctorum Ord. S. Bened., vii. 771-780. 2 " Fonds de Cluni, 29 ;" Delisle : Inventaire des MSS., d-c. (1884), 44, 45, and pref. vi. ''Liber oblatus ad altare S. Petri Cluniemis coenobii ex voto D. .... Maioli abbatis." GENERAL INTRODUCTION PART I. Chapter VI— Library of Cluny Abbey in Burgundy. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 70 GENEKAL INTRODUCTION. — especially during the long evenings of autumn and chaweT VI- winter, as must needs have made the Monks of Cluny Library OF eminent "textualists," in the best sense of the word.^ Cluny Abbey ' IN BuBQUNDY. j^ jg Qjjg^ oulj, of inuumerable testimonies to the un- truthfulness of some very current opinions concerning monastic neglect of the Holy Bible. The vividness and pungency of that instructive conversation, held in the eleventh century, in the refectory of an Abbey of the Black Forest, makes its witness better than that (co- gent as that, also, is) of a multitude of the Catalogues of Monastic Libraries. 68. If (for brevity's sake) we pass over a century and a half, we reach the rule of Abbot Ives I., and find him recorded as the donor of fifty volumes to the Library of Cluny. Of these, ten are bibhcal. Nearly at the same date we have a hbrarian's register of books lent. It enumerates 128 volumes, of which twenty-two are biblical. ^ 69. In the next century we have an account of a special abbatial library, formed by Abbot Androuin de LA EocHE (afterwards Cardinal), which includes several famous books ; and another record of a large donation to the Abbey Library by Abbot Jean de Cosant^ (1383- 1400). When Printing dawned, it was quickly and largely encouraged by the munificent Abbot Jean de Bourbon. He established a printer in the Abbey itself, — Michael Wensler ; and appears to have given to the 1 See Dr. Maitland's translation of Monk Ulrich's discourse (at Hirschau), " Quomodo Testamentum legatur utrumque," in "The Dark Ages," 336-338. 2 Delisle, ut sup.: App., 375-377 (sub anno 1252). 3 Chronique des AhUs de Cluni (MS. du fends Lat. 942, f. 102); and Delisle, vi. THE LIBRARY OF CLUNY. 71 library, at various times, about twenty-five printed oeneral •^ ' ' J i INTRODUCTION. volumes, in addition to nearly eighty manuscript ^^^^'^^'^ '^j_ volumes. Twelve of the latter are biblical; seven are library of Cluny Abbey Latin classics. His successor, Jacques d'Amboise, con- in burgundy. tinned his patronage of printers, and caused some beautiful liturgical books to be executed at Cluny. ^ 70. M. Delisle has adduced evidence for his belief that the Monks of Cluny, as early as in the tliirteenth century, made their hbrary a lending collection, and "Lending sent books, upon due occasion, " to all parts of France," xiiiufceutury. and into Switzerland. The great library of Paris pos- sesses the original receipt by which the Council of Basel acknowledge the loan to them, for the purposes of tlieir assembly, of certain tracts of St. Augustine, and at the same time desire the transmission of several works of other Fathers of the Church.^ But such loans were often prejudicial to Libraries. The good Fathers were much more ready to borrow books, than careful to return them. 71. The Community were not always themselves as duly careful, as they were duly liberal, in dealing with their books. A volume of the Letters of St. Augustine was once left in an outhouse of the Abbey, and had the singular fate of being "devoured," or partly devoured, " by a bear," The Monks had to confess their careless- ness when, having need to refer to a copy, they sought its loan from the Prior of the Grande Chartreuse. The story is told in a letter of Peter the Venerable.^ 1 Delisle : vii. One of the Cluny books is exhibited to visitors in the Mazarine Gallery of the National Library. 2 D'Achery: Spicilegium, 761, 762;— MS. Lat. du Bib. Nat., 11833, § 39. 3 BiUiotheca Cluniacensis, col. 653. 72 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter VI— 72. After the long continuance of great zeal and great prosperity — more than usually prolonged at Cluny cluny''Ib''b'ey — came, at length, the time of supineness and of IN Burgundy. decadeUCe — "When Churchmen's lives gave laymen leave to fall, And did their former humbleness disdain; — When shirt of hair turn'd coat of costly pall." The punishment came, by the hands of brutal men, who, in Burgundy, just like their congeners — Thomas Cromwell and the rest — in England, themselves made "reformation of religion" the cloak of covetousness. We may see, from his words, that Beza blushed for his fellow-Huguenots, when he wrote (although not quite accurately as to the details of their Vandalism): .... " Having taken Cluny without resistance, .... its Library, in which there was still a great mass of ancient MSS., was totally destroyed. The books were in part torn up; in part, carried off in fragments. And thus that treasure was lost by the insolence, and ignorance, of soldiers who cried out that the books 'were all mass-books. '"^ Happily the Archives of this great community were, in the main, saved. The Count DE Chizy has recently narrated the manner in which they escaped the partial destruction of the Library, in a tract printed (1870) at Dijon. ^ Happily, also, Beza's account is an exaggeration of the fate, disastrous as it was, which befel the books. They were, in trutli, very far from being totally destroyed. Although it was 1 Histoire . . des Eglists Rejormis, (1580), 421. 2 Note historique concernant la sauvetage du "Trisor des Ohartes de Cluny " RESEARCHES OF LE MICHEL. 73 mainly from the Archives that Andre Duchesne drew GENERAL INTRODUCTION. the materials of his Bibliotheca Cluniacensis (1614), he ^^J^^^\^_ Library of Cluny Abbey IN Burgundy. derived some of tliem from remnants of the Library. Almost forty years after his researches, came those of the learned Benedictine, Anselme Le Michel, who spent more than five years in a literary tour throughout the Monasteries of France, of his Order, and took Cluny, in its turn, in the summer of 1644. Le Michel made his laborious journies on foot, carrying with liim his voluminous papers. He found many surviving MSS. of the Library, and appears to have made many transcripts from the archives. His labours detained him at Cluny a long time, and whilst so employed he was overtaken by illness. When able to depart, he left in the Abbey much that he had written there, and also many papers gathered from other monasteries, believing, he says, that they would be sent after him, in consideration of his ill health. But delays intervened, and it was not until the spring of 1645 that his papers were entrusted to another Benedictine, his agent, for delivery. This monk was arrested, whilst passing through Charolles, at the instance of the Benedictines there, and the papers were claimed as being the property of the Abbey of Cluny. Le Michel appealed to the Prince of Conti, then Abbot of Cluny, and Superior of the Clugniac Monasteries generally. But the issue of the matter is unknown. ^ It would seem probable, however, that some of the MSS. claimed by Le Michel remained at Cluny in after- times. 1 M. Delisle has printed the list of Le Michel's MSS. , and also, in full, his Memoir addressed to the Prince of Conti; — Liventaire, d;c., 394-397 (1884). GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter VI — Library of Cluny Abbey IN Burgundy. 74 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 73. Etienne Baluze, in his turn, made three several visits to Chmy — in 1699, in 1701, and again in 1703, — working assiduously amongst its charters and other MSS.j and making an enormous number of transcripts. It seems, too, that by the influence of the Cardinal of Bouillon he obtained authority to retain a few originals. It is certain that amongst the vast collections — nearly 1000 volumes of MSS., 700 charters, and a large as- semblage, filhng seven presses, of unbound transcripts and miscellaneous pajDers^ — ^purcliased for the Eoyal Library in 1719, several original charters, wliicli originally belonged to Cluny, are now extant. 74. In 1710, the Benedictines, Edmond Martene, and Ursin Durand, followed the example of their pre- decessor, Le Michel, and worked amongst the MSS. of Cluny for seventeen days. "Everything," they say, "was opened to us. We found a considerable number of ancient and fine MSS. still in the Library, but forming a very small portion of what it once possessed It is said that many were carried by the Huguenots to Geneva, and now enrich the pubhc library of that town. The Cluny Muniment Eoom still contains one of the finest collections of Charters in the Kingdom. "^ 75. Towards the close of that century, the govern- ment of Lewis XVI. commissioned an eminent archaeo- logist, M. Lambert de Barive, to make a complete series of transcripts, which occupied him for al^out twenty years, and was interrupted only by the Eevolutionary excesses of 1790. His transcripts passed to the 1 Le Cabinet des 3ISS., i. 365; — Inventaire ut sup., xii. 2 Voyage LitUraire, RIES. ' ^ Swithun's) and the New-Minster (or St. Peter's; afterwards Abbey of Hyde) ; — ahke possessed Libraries of some mark. The former was the foundation of men conspicuous for asceticism and for industrialism. They were, at first, very httle conspicuous for love of Ijooks. The latter was the creation of a Founder pre-eminent, of all contemporary men, for Learning, and for the love of Literature. He gathered round liim, for the special purposes of his New-Minster, a whole galaxy of scholars, the pick and cream of their period. Yet the Library begun in St. Swithun's Abbey in the tenth century subsists at the close of the nineteenth century, in noble vigour. It gives, under the bland auspices of Dean KiTCHiN, the hospitality of the loan of books to students who live far remote from Winchester, whilst providing very ample apphances for those who are so happy as to live near to Winchester. The Library founded in New-Minster, afterwards Hyde, which, for a brief inter- val, possessed Monastic craftsmen more renowned for calhgraphic scription, and taste for illumination and rubrication, than their near neighbours,* had almost perished of inanition, before the inroads of the all- devouring satellites of Thomas Cromwell. 96. SwiTHUN was born in Winchester (cir. a.d. 805) ; became Dean of the old Minster {cir. a.d. 840) ; dis- tinguished himself in the promotion of public works, even before he succeeded (a.d. 852) to the Bishopric. SWITIIUN, BISHOP OF WIKCIIESTER. 87 GENERAL INTKODUCTION. PART I. Chaptkr VII— Three Repre- sentative As Bislioj), lie won universal love and respect. Swithxin (says tlie earliest of liis Biographers) " loved not pride, nor to ride on gay horses ; nor to be praised or flattered of the People. By his own holy hfe, he made others to Benedictine JL •' ./ ' Libraries. live virtuously. "1 Another, and metrical, biographer — • of later date (loth century) — writes thus; "Saint Switliun liis Bishopric to all goodness drew; The town, also, of Winchester he amended enow, For he caused the strong Bridge, without the town, arear, And found thereto lime and stone, and the workmen that were there." 97. There seems to be ground for the belief that Ethelwulf was influenced by Swithun to make that large and princely grant to the Church which ranks the King as the virtual Founder of Christian Missions in England, and as the initiator of that church-building impulse, which spread so rapidly far and wide, with results so memorable for all Christendom. 98. Swithun's pro\ddent care for Posterity, though it stretched so far abroad, always took thought also for the things near at hand. At the moment when he initiated the most fruitful of all methods for spreading Christian Faith throughout England at large, he built strong walls to protect his own Abbey-Cathedral at home. Those walls lield back the ravaging Danes, when all else fell before them. Swithun died in (pro- bably) the year 863. For more than a century thereafter, his own wish that his remains should lie, 1 Life, as printed in William Caxton's Golden Legend (1483). 88 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. iindistinguislied, in the common grave-yard was obeyed. " The Saint who was so vile OENERAL INTRODUCTION , ^^''''t,, Bnt in July, 971- Chapter VII— J ' Three Repre- sentative Benedictine Libraries. In his own eyes; who slept like common dust Outside the Church; exto'led through Power Divine, By sigjis innumerous, and by startling proofs, Vouched meet to dwell with Peter and with Paul, Into their Chuix'h was now in triumi)h borne."^ 99. Swithun's si^ecial work for his Cathedral was vigorously resumed by his successor, Ethelwold, in the next century; and by many others as time wore on. Amidst good and evil fortunes, the Abbey prospered. It was Ethelwold who furnished the Library, as richly as circumstances permitted, with books — Latin, French, and English. 100. The separate story of the closely neighbouring communities were too lontr to tell. That of the New- Minster in the earlier ages; that of the Cathedral in modern days, will best elucidate my special subject. 101. The Monastic History of the England of our Forefathers abounds in romantic incident. But there are only a very few English Abbeys that have a history quite so romantic, or so varied, as that of New-Minster or Hyde Abbey. It stood on Danemead, veiy near to the beautiful capital-city of Hampshire, — once the capital of our Fatherland, Its monks fought in armour 1 The translation was accomplished with difficulty, on account of unusual rains. Hence the proverbial connection of St. Swithin's Day with jenduring rain, upon a contingency. HISTOKY OF HYDE ABBEY, 89 for England, on the field of Sanglac, or, as we are now wont to call it, the field of Hastings. The Com- mnnity were bitterly punished by the Conqueror; were nuilcted of many a fine manor in revenge for their staunch adherence to EngUsli Harold against Norman William. But they survived his anger; and their suc- cessors played a conspicuous jjart — from time to time — in our national annals for many an age. When the riches of the Monasteries came to be quite too tempting and appetising, in covetous ej^es, to be longer respected ; when the "sfc iwlo^ sic jubeo'' of an adulterous, a gluttonous, and a murderous king was strong enough to override law and honour and true public policy, his agents (under the mask of Eeformation) destroyed — • with hundreds of others — the one Abbey in all England that could boast of its origin from one of the c^reatest, wisest, and most pious of English kings. And Hyde Abbey was not only the Creation of Alfked the G keat ; it was also his Tomb. 102. A recant visit to Winchester — the latest of perhaps a score, or more, of visits thither, all of which are remembered with interest and pleasure — reminded the present writer of his careful exploration, in years long bygone, of the now very scanty remnants of what was once so eminent a "cynosure of neighb'ring eyes" in this County. 103. Hyde Abbey was only for a brief period remark- able for its Literature. But — howsoever we may now estimate the worth of its staunch adherence to Harold against William — it is certain that the Community ren- dered good public service, in return for its broad lands tyYl GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter VII — Three Repre- sentative Benedictine Libraries. Chapter VII— Three Repre- sentative 90 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. general ^.j^^ "i-g well-stocked barns, in many channels of activity INTRODUCTION. 'J J PARTI. ^jggg open to question than was its apuearance in battle array in 1066) and ou many critical occasions. To give Benedictine ^^-^g qj. |.^,q exami^lcs merely: — It strenuously withstood Libraries. i -^ •' the attempt of Cardinal Henry of Blois (Bishop of Winchester from a.d, 1129-1171, and brother of King Stephen) to withdraw the See of Winchester from its allegiance to Canterbury; to obtain from the Pope a Bull for converting it into an Archiepiscopate, and for increasing its wealth — already abundant — by the syste- matic plunder of otlier sees and communities. The monks obtained the help of St. Bernard, whose then influence at Eome came, it appears, to be the decisive means of defeating the Cardinal's skilfully-laid plans. The Community suffered more than its average share of losses in time of foreign war, of internal strife, of riot, and of famine. But in more prosperous times it upheld ancient hospitality and liberal charity. And it helped to educate the poor, in fair proportion to its means. 104. Wlien Alfred ascended the English throne (a.d. 871) he found his realm devastated by the effects of a long succession of wars; the Monasteries (speaking generally) in ruins; the Monastic Schools utterly de- stroyed. He says himself that it was then scarcely possible to find a man south of Thames who could translate a Latin letter into Enghsh. His first thought was to strike one vigorous blow against our Danish invaders. But he was completely outnumbered at Wilton, and perforce must conclude a truce. His second thought was to bend every effort to the strength- KING ALFRED AND NEW-MINSTER. 91 ening of our jSTavy; — the third, to rebuild the de- OENERAL INTRODUCTION. stroyed Monasteries, and to found new ones so phmned ^ ^'"'''^ '■ *' ' -I Chapter VII— Three Repre- sentative Benedictine Libraries, as to liave (next to their primary and pahna.ry object of tlie worship and service of God) for tlieir special aim the education of the English youth, and, to start with, pre-eminently of the youthful Nobles of England, — the future rulers of the people in time of Peace, and its leaders in time of War. From all parts of the Conti- nent he sent for the most learned Monks he could hear of. Grblbald — pre-eminent for learning, for energy, for pubhc spirit, for devoutness of mind — he destined from the first to be the head of his own foundation of New- Minster. The King's plans for the new Abbey were large, far-sighted, and many-sided. In one particular they erred, though the illustrious Founder did not live long enough to perceive, still less to rectify, the mistake which bore painful consequences for two and a quarter centuries. Then, at length, a remedy was found. And the remedy led to one of the most curious circumstances in the whole chequered story of the Abbey of Hyde. 105. Invading Danes were still pressing on struggling Saxons and Englishmen, from aU sides, when Alfred planned the foundation of New-Minster in the Close of Winchester. The protection of strong walls was now the primary necessity of all peaceful dwellers. And though the Monks of the New-Minster proved them- selves vaHant and of stout lieart for War, Peace un- questionably was tlieir vocation and their duty. 106. To be sheltered from the attack of foes, tlieir Founder " penned them in" very closely witliin the precincts of that time-honoured Abbey of St. Swithun, 92 GENERiVL INTRODUCTION. wliicli all true Hampshire-men love and venerate de- voutly, to this da}', as " Winchester Cathedral." A glance at this rude sketch will better explain the L^BRrBi™'' relative position of the new Monks and the old ones, than a long description would: — GENERAL INTRODUCTION, PART I . Chapter VII— Three Repre- sentative Future Palace of 'William the Conqueror." The High Street of Winchester. En'closure ( of Church OF New-Minster. NE| W-MlNSTER. Church of t't. Swithun's, Catiiedral Church, or Old-Minster. 107. The Eeader will perceive that this primary site of the new Abbey combines every kind of incon- venience. The Monks of St. Swithun's could not ring their bells, without disturbing the quiet of their brethren of St. Grimbald's. Neither of them could form "a procession," without encroaching upon the territory of their near neighbours. The ver}' singing of their respective Choirs became an impediment rather than an aid to Devout and Holy Worship. And the disadvantage from a sanitary point of view — though such matters were less thought of in the days of Alfred and of St. Grimbald, than they are in our own days — was even then seen to be scarce a wliit less serious an FIRST CHARTER OF THE COMMUNITY. 93 impediment to well-being, than the over-close neigh- OENERAL INTRODUCTION. bourhood was to the delights and the blessings promised ^.^J^^^^ \^^_ Three Repre- sentative Benedictine to those " Brethren, who dwell together in Unity." 108. The execution of the Founder's plans for ^•""'^'^' that " Newan-Mynstre," which lay so near his heart, was long held in check by fresh invasions of Danes (a.d. 893, 895, 89 G), whose arrival in our land gave encouragement to their kinsmen in East Angiia, and in remote Northumbria, to rise again in arms. They had now a new chieftain, whose fierce courage vied with the valour of Alfred. But the terrible Hastings, though equal with Alfred in bravery, was his inferior in military skill. The strife, however, lasted long; it completely wore down the King's declining strength; arrested for years the litei-ary studies in which he so much delighted ; and probably it abridged those con- ferences about the rule and organization of the new Community, at the head of which he designed to place Grimbald, whom he had brought over from the Monas- tery of St. Omer, in France, in order that English monks might, by his saintly example, be won over to aim at a his-lier standard in their learnino' and literature, and at a purer discipline in their conventual life. Death came (901) before they could confer fully on these far- sighted plans. Alfred's son and successor, Edward the Elder, both presided at the dedication of the Abbey, and gave to the Community their first charter. It bears date 900,1 ]^^^i -^as unquestionably sealed and issued in 1 The same date is also given by Simeon of Durham, and some other Chroniclers. Of the various recensions of the Saxon Chronicle, some fall into like error; others correctly give 901. 94 GENERiVL INTRODUCTION. GENERAL QQ]^ altlioii(?li It mav well have been roiio-hly drafted in INTRODUCTION. ' & J O J chap^teT VII- ^^^^ former year. Some of its provisions were not clefini- thbee repre- iiyoij settled until the assemblincr of a Council at SENTATIVE J O SrmEr'' Winchester, called by Edward. In this primary Charter the Abbey is said to be dedicated (in anticipa- tion of the actual ceremony) to the Holy Trinity. In a second and more detailed Charter of 903, it is described as the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, of the B. Virgin Mary, and of St. Peter. A mark (niancus) of pure gold was paid for each foot of the land on which the Abbey was built — extending to three acres and three virgates.^ The new King was a munificent giver to the Community, which he loved for his father's sake and for his own. Five Hampshire manors^ and three Wilt- shire manors were among his gifts. Together they are said to have extended to more than 27,000 acres. ^ This pious and open-handed monarch, after a (on the vdiole) very prosperous reign of twenty-four years, was buiied at New-Minster beside his father — to share with him and with St. Grimbald, the brutal desecration of 1793. Edmund the Elder; his brother Eldred; their two curiously-contrasted nephews Edwy and Edgar — "the thorn," and "the rose," of the monkish Chroniclers 1 . . . . "passiis uniuscujusque istius loci emit uno mancuso purga- tissimi aiiri." — Fropodtio i^rincipalis causie qaare Novum mUJicatum est Monasterium. 2 Namely, Mieheldever ; Abbot's Anne; Brown-Candover; Durley; and Thorley; — the three Wilts manors were Cranbourne (now part of the estates of our truly illustrious Premier — whom may God preserve, — and the manor from which he derives his second peerage title); CoUingbourne; and Chiseldon. 3 Taking the acreage of the " hide of land" according to the most ac- credited estimate. grbibald's connection with oxpord. 95 -all followed in Edward's steps, in respect of bene- OENERAL INTRODUCTION. ficence to liis favourite Abbey. Collectively, they con- chapte^ vir- Three Repre- sentative verted his 27,000 acres into, at least, 40,000 — spreading out into Berkshire on the one hand, into Sussex on the ^-^^'^j^dictine ' Libraries. other. 109. Grimbald governed the Community well and wisely under the Augustinian rule, but his life was spared for little more than three or (periiaps) four years after his arrival in England — and part of that brief span was spent (in all probabihty) at Oxford. His residence and influence there have been much questioned. When the jDresent writer stood, not long ago, in the venerable and Ijeautiful Crypt (beneath the former Church of the University — St. Peter's in the East — whence so many of the brilliant lights, of the best days of our dear Anglican Mother, have shed their soul-enkindling in- fluences,) which bears Grimbai^d's name, he felt most strongly, as many wiser men have felt before him, that not one iota was there in view which, in any way, tended to conflict with the tradition that it was under Grimbald's eye, and by his inspiration — or rather that of the Almighty Father working in and through His humble instrument and creature — that the structure rose, long before the Norman Conquest ; the good Monk himself intending that when God should be pleased to call him hence, his body should rest in that Crypt. 110. The event, however, was otherwise determined, by higher wisdom than that of St. Grimbald. The new wine did not suit the old bottles. Men trained in the rude and primitive Oxford of King Alfred's days re- sented the introduction of foreicrn Scholars from France, Three Repre- sentative Benedictine Libraries. 96 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. GENERAL howsoevei' brilliant their reputation and their example, INTRODDi'TION ^ ^ PARTI rjij^g circumstances are shrouded in much of dim Chapter VII— obscurity. But the fair probability is that the dis- sension between old scholars and new at Oxford may have been the determining cause of the foundation of the New-Minster at Winchester. Proof is quite un- attainal^le.i 111. The history of almost every monastic com- munity (that lived long enough to outgrow its cradle) alternates between a period of lax discipline, and a ])eriod of vigorous reform. The first "reformer" of New-Minster was Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester — the " Father of Monks" of the Chroniclers. He caused the Benedictine rule to be substituted for the Augus- tinian. The impulse, however, was given l)y Dunstan. And to make the reform really effective needed all the influence of King Edgar, backed by a Papal Bull. The struggle was hard, and it lasted long. Many of the 1 The passage, in Asser's " Life of King Alfred " — of which all the MSS. seem now to be lost — and the one book »n which this whole question hinges, is found in one Edition only, — that, viz., of Twyne. "In consequence," it is there said, of the opposition shewn to him and his disciples by the old Oxonia'-^s, "he retired himself to that Winchester Ahhey which had been lately founded by Alfred . . . (ad Monasterium Wintonieme, ab Alfredo receiiH ftmdatum, prqfiscebatur, . . . quam qaidem Ecdedam [Z>. Petri in Oxonia], . . . idem Grimcoldus exfraxerat ab ipso fundamento de Saxo anmma cura perpolito.J" In the time of Twyne there were still extant MSS. of Asser which contained a full account of the building o' this church with 3tone brought from a well-known quarry (long since disused) ai South Hincksey. The crypt, it may be added, is in dimensions 36 feet by nearly 21 Teet, and is nine feet high, it is weird-like in the solemniuy of its aspect, as well as of its associations. Very near to St. Peter's stood St. Neot's Hall, the earliest of the long list of O::ford halls. . . . See Wise's Edit, o^ Asser, Vita yElfrida; comp. Hearne's Collertanea, xxxi:c. 179; and his note in Lib. Niq., p. 570. The Church was the first built o^ stone in the Midlands, and is said to have attracted crowds of people from a great distance to ;Taze at it. An incised figure of a dragon is still to be seen on one of the pillars. THE ABBACY OF ETHELGAK. 97 Aimustinian Canons had taken to themselves wives, general & INTRODUCTION. Many were become habitual absentees, and were rarely, CHAwtr vii- if ever, in residence at New-Minster. The first successor three repre. ' SENTATIVE of Grimbald who left any deep mark upon his Com- Benedictine •J r X Libraries. munity was Ethelgae, who came to it from Abingdon ■ — possibly in 968, but the date is doubtful, — which had already won repute for learning and for discipline. But Ethelgar's nurture was drawn from a more famous place. He was bred in that . . . . island valley of Avilion, Where fell nor hail, nor rain, nor any snow, Nor ever wind blew loudly; but it lay Deep-nieadowed, happy, fair, with orchard lawns And bowery hollows, crovsmed with Summer sea. . . When Ethelgar was only a monkish neophyte at Glas- tonbury, its Church was still venerated as that sacred fane which Joseph of Arimathea had founded ; though the legends of " the return of King Arthur" had ceased to attract popular attention, or to find credulous listeners. When he left Glastonbury for Abingdon, the favourite abode of Dunstan was already regarded as the truest exemplar in all England of perfected Bene- dictine holiness. 112. The training which Dunstan began at Glaston- bury was completed, on the same model, by Bishop Ethelwold at Abingdon. When his preliminary mea- sures for the reform of New-Minster seemed to him ripe for the crowning operation, he put Al^ingdon men into the Wintonian stalls; but left to the new Abbot the practical working out of his plans. The good Bishop's 98 GENERAL INTRODUCTION, QENEEAL ^grI liacl clotliecl itself in tlie very amplest f]^arb of INTRODUCTION. ^ 1 O ^ ''^''' '• Christian firmness and energy ; but the Christian meek- Ch AFTER \II— OJ ' Three repre- j-^^g^ ^,^g g|.^|]^ lacking. Ethelgar possessed gentleness, SENT ATI VE ~ 1 O ^ Benedictine ^g ^g^ j^g resolution. He had tliG soft hand, as well as Libraries. the steel glove. The distresses of the expelled Canons, and of their long-tolerated families, could touch his heart, though they had failed to touch the heart of Ethelwold, In the hrm resolve that performance should eventually wait upon profession, they were both at one. Ethelgar ruled New-Minster for about thir- teen years. The great Eeformer — some of whose yet remaining, and somewhat legendary, "memorials" the Writer had, some years ago, the pleasure of examining, amidst the ruins of the archiepiscopal palace at Mayfield — who had taken him by the hand as a Novice, at Glastonbury, lived to consecrate liim as a Bishop, ^ at Selsey ; and was himself succeeded by liim, as Primate of all England, in the year 988. In the Abbacy of New-Minster, Ethelgar was followed by Elfsige, wlio continued to hold that office during seventeen years, and was in turn succeeded, in 995, by Brightwold. These two incumbencies, together with the next follow- ing one of Brightmere, covered collectively a term of about half-a-century — marked by much national cala- mity, and by more than one political revolution. But during all that time, the days at New-Minster — hke those of the Poet's " Thalaba" — went peacefully by — " In full enjoyment of profound repose." I The " Hyde Annals," in MS. Harl.» MDCCLXL, agree with some other Chronicles, in dating Ethelgar 'g Episcopate aa 977. William of Malmesbury dates it (on better e\idence) in 080. CAJJUTE's GUTS TO THE ABBEY. 99 But the repose was ominous. It was the calm before oexiiral i INTRODUCTION. the Storm. ^ ^^''^'• Chapter VII— 113. It was durliiCT the Abbacy of Alnotii, or Ai.f- three repee- ~ •' ' SENTATIVE NOTH, the immediate successor of the last-mentioned Benedictine Libraries. Abbot Britioiere, that King Canute, the Dane, gave to the Community tliat himous " Colden Cross of Hyde," which figures so conspicuously in several incidents of the local history, occurring in long subsequent times. lie was a great friend to the Monks of St. Grimbald, and made to them many gifts. His alleged charter, granting to them the rich manor of Woodmancote, is still occasionally shewn to such visitors of Wincliester College as may care to look at the College muniments ; but its genuineness is very questionable. There is, however, as little doubt that the Monks lield that manor in their day, as there is tliat it is held l)y the College now. Canute's widow, Emma (Elfgifa-Emma, or Elgiva) followed his liberal example, and among her gifts to the Monks was the head of that much-venerated saint and martyr, Saint Valentine. ^ His festival is (or lias been) familiar to all of us; but how it came to pass that his head (which was struck off at Eome in the third century) was given by an English Queen, in a.d. 1041, to an English Abbey, there is no account. Its re- ception was the cause of much rejoicing, and its exhibi- tion a source of much profit to the possessors. They were scarcely less proud of it than of their gorgeous processional Cross, with its great images of silver and 1 Liber de Hyda breaks off abruptly at a.d. 1023, but the gift is recorded in the Harleian MS., " 1761," Begistrum Cartarmn Abbatke de Hyda, fol. 16. It is also told in the Anglo-Saxon (Jhronick, under a.d. 1041. h2 100 GENERAL INTEODUCTION. gold; its numerous precious jewels; and its several GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PARTI. sacred relics Chapter VII- theeerepre- ;[i4_ There is no other notable incident in the Hyde SENT ATI V BENEDK" Libraries, Benedictine ^nuals till wc rcacli thc uiemorable year 1066. The then Ab1)ot, Alfnoth II., was the brother of Earl Godwin, and the uncle of King Harold. His sacred function had not, it seems, at all cooled that warlike ardour which must have been natural to a man wdio came of such a gallant strain. He chose, out of his black-robed Hock, the twelve Monks who were most notable for strength of thew and sinew ; made them to exchange the Bene- dictine cowl for the Saxon helmet, and to head a sturdy troop of men-at-arms on the field of Hastings. The whole band shewed that •' their limbs were made in England;" fought most gallantly; and fell, almost to a man, where they fought. They w^ere very far from being unmarked by the Conqueror, He noted his ap- jDreciation of their prow^ess by a grim pleasantry. Such an Abbot as Alfnoth, he said, "must be worth a barony, at the least; and twelve such monks, a manor apiece. And that is the penalty I will exact." He did not fail to choose the best manors the Community held. Among those which he escheated was what is now our illustrious Premier, Lord Salisbury's, manor of Cran- bourne, in Wilts; the manors of Andover, Whorwell, Lansmere, Up-Warneford, and Popham in Hants, on the mainland; Barton (very near to our Gracious Queen's favourite summer abode), Bangbourne, and Merton, — all in the Isle of Wiglit; together with part of the Isle of Portsea, and with, at least, one fine Berkshire manor. In sum, the Monks of New-Minster NEW-MENSTER UNDER WILLIAM RUFUS. 101 forfeited for their daring gallantry at Hastings, about GENERAL INTRODUCTION. (at the lowest estimate) seventeen thousand broad p^^j^^^J^"^ '^n- Three Repre- 5ENTATIVE acres/ some of them amongst the best land in the country, in addition to the rich contents of the Monastic LiroTRl^Er^ treasury at New-Minster itself. 115. When Willl\3i Eufus made up his mind that, whereas his father had laden the Monks of St. Peter "with a heavy 3'oke," he would add to that yoke; and whereas the Conqueror had "chastised them with stripes," he would, in his turn, "chastise them with scorpions ;" he found a ready instrument in his infamous Chancellor, Eadlxphus Flambard or Passe-Flambard (" Ealph Pass-the-Torch"), and also a fit sub-agent in Egbert de Losinga, Bishop of Norwich, who bought the Abbacy of New-Minster, by a flagrantly simoniacal contract, for his father, Herbert de Losinga. Part of the revenues of the Abbacy were also to be given to the King. As so often in all days, indignation gave birth to poetry — rude but incisive : &' 1 The Statement and Estimates are very conflicting. Thomas Rudborne (Historia Major Wintouieii-'i-, pp. 248, 249) gives an enumeration of lands which leads to the estimate cited above. But recent editors of Dodsworth and Dugdale's Monasdcon Avijlkaimin, founding upon a comparison of the Domesday current assessments for the year 1086 of the Abbey lands with that of the assessment in the Confessor's reign, make such large additions as to raise the estimate to twenty-five thousand acres. This seems to me to be a somewhat rash conclusion. The rules which governed these assessments are involved in much obscurity. On the other hand, William had relented towards the Community of St. Peter before the date of the Survey, and may well have moderated its incidence. In his closing years he gave to them Alton and Kingsclere, and restored to them the beloved Cross of Canute. Laverstoke (near Whitchurch) was not a gift from William, as is asserted in the last edition of the Monastkoii; unless to restore a thing to the owners who had been wrongfully deprived of it, for a time, is to make "a gift." The reign of Rufus was a cruel reign for the Monks of St. Peter (or of " St. Grimbald ") as for so many other of Englishmen. But it was happily a brief reign. 102 GENERAL rSlTlODUCTION. QENERAi, "Surgit in ecclesia monstrum, genitore Losing INTRODUCTION. r, • • i PARTI. feimoni diim secta, canonum virtute resecta, Chapter vii— Petre nimis tardas, nam Simon ad ardua tentat, sENTATivB Si priBsens esses, non Simon ad alta volaret. Benedictine Proh dolor I Ecclesias nummis venduntur et aire. Libraries. Fihus est prajsul, pater abbas : — Simon uterquo. Quid non speremus si nummoa possedeamusl Omnia nummus liabet; quid vult facit, addit, et aufert, Res uimis injusta, nummis f,t Prmeid et Abba." The first year of the reign of Heney I. (Beaiiclerc) brought relief from this, as from many other scandals. Its tenth year brought to the Monks of New-Minster tlie means of at length exchanging their pent-up abode within the crowded city for a capacious and well-built edifice in free air, upon its northern side, " beyond the walls." They chose part of the spacious plain which had long been notable to them, as a Community, for its share in a famous incident in the life-career either of Athelstan, or else of Etheleed, the darling son of their great Founder. That incident has been so overgrown with fabulous accretions, that its substantial verity came for a long interval to be whoUy, or almost wliolh', disregarded. Often, the nineteenth-century Critic and the twelfth-century Monk do much more than ap- proach the Disputed Shield from opposite sides. They meet with opposed faiths. The one beheves (or affects to believe) that everything in earth, or sea, or sky is "explainable" and comprehensible. The other humbly beheves — and truly — that many things can, as this our mortal hfe, be neither explained nor comprehended. He believes, from his heart, tliat God "resi^teth the proud," and "giveth grace to the humble." To the TIIE STORY OF GUY i\XD CX)LBRAND. 103 Monks who, in the year of grace 1100, or thereabout, OEXERAI, ISTRODUCTION. raised upon " Dane-mead," hard by Winchester, a chap^'T vh- Three Repre- sentative Benedictine LlBRARISS. splendid building for the humble service of Almighty God, and for the relief of the distresses of their fellow men, that meadow was the scene of a very memorable and very pregnant combat between "Dane" and "Englishman," in days which, by stern necessity of events, and under beneficent Providential dispensations, were marked by a real and essential antagonism in the tenth centur}^ between races which in the nineteenth century are united by the happiest of all possible alli- ances, and by the most blessed of all possible auguries, 116. And, in truth, for that much-derided "legend" of Guy and Colbra^jd, there is evidence quite as con- clusive as there is for many the least controverted facts of our history, No subsequent accretion of legend — how large soever — can destroy the historical character of the incident itself which gave birth to the legend. 117. Originally, Danesmead was given to the Monks of New-Minster by King Ethelred, in the eleventh century, and therefore within twenty years of the most probable date of the combat itself. The grant is not now extant; but, in a list of benefactors, almost con- temporary (and of which there is a copy, made in the sixteenth century, in Cotton MS., Yesp., D. ix.), it is described as ^^ pratum quod vocatw\ Dennemarcke, ad quod jacet jluvius qui vocatw* Itlien" [Itchen]. It be- came one of the Conqueror's many seizures, above- mentioned; but was restored to the community in May, 1281.1 1 Registrum^ &c., aa above, in Cott. MS., Domit. xii. ff. 43, 44. GENERAL ISTBODUCTION. 104 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 118. In simplest form the story of Guy of Warwick cham^'' 'vii- ^^ tliis: Born at Wallingford in Berksliire, he early s™Tivr'''' distinguishes liimself by liis knightly prowess, and gains LL^^Sr"" ^^ i^'^ reward the hand of Felicia, daughter and heiress of EouALT, Earl of War\^dck. The marriage is happy, but a dream soon makes a deep impression on Gutt's mind, and induces him to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, He parts from Felicia, carrpng with liim her favourite ring. Notliing is heard of liim, in Eng- land, and many years elapse. The Danes, under their King Anl^if, renew their invasion, and advance towards Winchester, bringing with them a Danish Gohali, called CoLBRAND. The King looks in vain for his match among the warriors of England; but to liim also a dream is vouchsafed, in which he is told to rise at dawn, and to watch for a Palmer who \\-ill enter Winchester by its northern gate. In that Palmer he wiU find a David. The Palmer appears, — poor, hungry, careworn, and wapvorn. He accepts the proffered combat, and slays the mant with liis o^vn axe. wliich he then dedicates to God. He tells the King that he is Gu^^ of Warwick, returned from Palestine, but takes a pledge of secrecy. From Winchester he goes to Warwick, where he finds liis wife, but is not recognised. He withdraws to the Forest of Arden, and, hke " Duke Frederick," — There, meeting with an old religious man, After some questions with him, is converted — Both from his enterprise, and from the world. His hermit-life lasted but nine months. Then, feeling the approach of death, he sent to Felicia the token GENERAL, INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter VII — Three Repre- sentative THE STORY OF GUY AND COLBRAND. 105 ring, as proof that liis love lasted till death did part them. 119. The earliest versions of this popular- story are no longer extant. The current stories antedate the Jj^^'^^^^;^ combat at Winchester by throwing it into the reign of Athelstan; whereas, in all probability, it really occurred in that of Etiielred, the grantor to the Monks of New-Minster. The writers confound two distinct Anlafs, whose dates differ by almost seventy years. The battle and its decorative adjuncts are most fully set forth in the Frencli metrical romance Guy de Warewike;^ in the Frencli prose romance Guy de Warrewik;^ — iw Chroriicon Abbatice de Evesham; in John Lydgate's Gii/y de Waricik; in John Lane's Corrected Ilistorie of Sir Gwy^ Earle of Warwick, suriianied the Heremite,^ wliich is the more memorable for having a commendatory sonnet by the Elder John Milton, father of the author of Paradise Lost. It is told, also, by the Enghsh Chronicler Knighton (a.d. 1o66?), and, also, by the anonymous autlior of the partially-lost Chro- nicle, De gestis Regum Westsaxonum, of which the only now known passages occur, as quotations, in Lord Macclesfield's MS., Liber de Hyda.^ The Enghsh metrical romance of Guy is only a receiLsioii of the French one. 120. The late Mr. E. B. Woodward, author of the 1 MS. Harl., 3775, ff. 15-26 (end of I3th century). 2 MS. Royal, 15 E. vi. ff. 227, segr/. (15th century). 3 MS. Lansd., 699, ff. 18-27 (15th century). This MS. formerly belong- ing to that charming poet, William Browne, author of Britannia's Pastorals. 4 MS. Harl., 5243. 5 Published in the Rolls series of English Chronicles. OENEBAI* INTRODUCTION. sentative Benedicti librabix3. 106 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. earlier portion of the most recent '■''History of Bamp- CHA^t^r VII- *^"'^'^'" ^^^ ^'^ deeply imbued with the "modern spirit," Three repre. ^g to Write thus scornfiiUy of the story of Guy and SENTATIVE «' «/ benedictot CoLBitAND: — ^' I'he Only fowidatlon iov ihis leg&n^ , . . is tlie original name of the spot selected \_8ic\ , . , Denemede, wliich signifies no more tlian the meadow in the valley." . . And he goes on to add, more strangely still, . . "In the reign of John, and long afterwards, , . [Denemede] . . ivas a surname in Winchester.'" How different, and how much wiser, the well-weighed words of a long prior Hampshire liistorian, pious and worthy Dr. Jolm Milner (words written about ninety years ago): . . . "To reject i\iQ groundwork of a history, wdiich is founded on so many ancient records, and supported by immemorial tradition, . . . and by a great number of monuments still existing, or that existed until of late, savours of absolute scepticism." ^ 121. It was under the immediate rule of an Abbot Geoffrey I. (1106-1129), and under the episcopal government of William Giffard, thrice Lord Chancellor of England, that the Monks of St. Peter and St. Grim- bald moved froiu New-Muster to Hyde. The soil was soft and springy. Much of it, indeed, was a natural water-meadow. But monkish architects were skilful architects. They knew how to build and to plant, as well as how to govern and to bless. They brought from a great distance a vast mass of clay, and laid it to the depth of four feet, over aU parts of tlie site that were treacherous or doubtful. And, when they had got a 1 Milner: Hid INTRODUCTION. Prelate officiated, in his stead, he was content that ten ^ ''''^'^ '• „ ' ' Chapter VII— Hvde cehbates should represent the Fraternity. The three repre- i " SENTATIVE men of St. Grimbald contented themselves with a stroncj Benedictine <^ Libraries. protest against the vanity of so mucli state in things sacred and ecclesiastical. Those of St. Swithun were angrier and more demonstrative. Their Bishop had diminished their funds, whilst increasing their attend- ances. On one occasion they shewed their discontent by meeting barefoot, with their processional crosses reversed, and by marching round their cloisters from West to East, thus reversing the use of the Church. Protests of that sort, however, were but as lo^'ers' quarrels, compared with the long and bitter conflict between the Hyde ecclesiastics and Giffard's proud and turbulent successor, Henry of Blois (1129-1171). 125. That ambitious Prelate had been a powerful instrument of his brother Stephen's elevation to the throne. But the ties of duty which bound him to the Church were far stronger than the ties which bound him to King Stephen, who had vainly thought to make him subservient in all things. When the new monarch attacked Bishop Eoger of Salisbury, and Bishop Alex- ander of Lincoln, their episcopal brother at Winchester shewed unmistakably that to be a Churchman, through and through, was his primary sense of his duty to ' God. And he was now a Papal Legate, as well as Bishop of Winchester, His loyalty to the Church was soon to raise him to the Cardinalate. The imme- diate cause of quarrel with the King was the same as Becket's wdth Stephen's successor. 110 GENEEAL INTRODUCTION, GEKERAL 226, Bishop Henry, like Arclibisliop Thomas, INTRODTTCTION. i ' -I ' ^^'''' '• „ contended that Prelates must be • tried, for alleo-ed Chapter VII— ' ~ Three repre. Qij-gj-^^gg bv the Pope, HOt bv the Kinor. When SENTATIVE 'J JT ' J O Benedictine |^]^g Empress Matilda landed in Enf^laTid, she was Libraries. ^ " ' received by the Bishop of Winchester, — at first as the representative of her brotlier's presnmably chival- rous courtesy to a competitor; but soon after — as the avowed ally and trusted counsellor of the Empress- Queen, against the now by her imprisoned King. All the Monks of the conjoined Winchester Communities, and with tliem the very Nuns — for the first time on recoi-d — of St, Mary's, escortal Stephen's powerful rival into Winchester, " Molde, the good Queen," of the funeral tablet, was then certainly " Molde, the ])roud " one. But the state of pride and splendour was short-lived. Matilda's prosperity lasted but five months. Her coronation with great pomp in our beautiful Cathedral, was soon followed by her imprison- ment, in turn, at the same hand as that which had placed the sceptre of St. Edward in hers, and which had given her what remained of the treasure of Henry I. A peaceful Monk, with keen observant eyes under his cowl, looked on at both incidents, and has left us a vivid picture of what he saw.^ 127. The March Coronation was followed by the August Siege. Bishop Henry gave a great banquet in Wolvesey Castle, and tried hard, when the wine-cup had gone round freely, to make his guests declare for his brother. A warlike Mayor^ of Winchester helped, 1 William of Malmesbury, in his famous Chronicle. 2 Then called " Provost." THE SIEGE OF WINCHESTER, 111 mainly, to balk liim, by slipping out unobserved, and OENERAL INTRODUCTION. securing Winchester Castle for Matilda, The Prelate „ '"''"^ '• , O Chapter VII— Three Repre- sentative had already fortified Wolvesey, — for the strengthening and rehef of which another Matilda (Stephen's French Benedictine ^ Libraries. wife) sent in an army, cliiefly of rieinings. But the mercenaries were far more anxious to make booty, than to serve the King's cause. They plundered the city, whilst its Bishop threw fire-balls into the most populous quarter. Hyde Abbey was wholly destro3^ed; its famous Cross, — with its Library,— its Scriptorium, — and its (still more richly furnished) Sacristy, Tlie Treasury had been pretty well depleted, long before the siege, Henry had kept the Abbacy In liis own episcopal hands, for five years and a half before its destruction occurred, and he still retained it for a year thereafter. Three hundred pounds a year out of its revenues he had applied to the promotion — not, certainly, of personal profit, or of luxury in living, but — of his schemes of ambition, and especially of his persistent effort to transfer the Abbacy into a (suffragan) Bishopric, and to make the See of Winchester Archiepiscopal and MetropoHtan. 128. From twenty to tliirty churches;^ — the vener- able Nunnery of St. Mary; — many almost palatial residences ; — many precious monuments of Anglo-Saxon times; — shared in the destruction which befel the illus- trious foundation of King Alfred, and of his beloved friend Grimbald. It was due to the humane feehngs and the piety of Egbert, Earl of Gloucester (Egbert 1 Some of the Chroniclers go so far as to say that forty churches were destroyed ; but it is doubtful if the whole number of Winchester churchea exceeded forty, in the aggregate; and it is needless to eay that some of the churches of King Stephen's day exist at this day. 112 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. '• Consul," son of Henry I.) that St. Swithun's Priory OESERAL INTRODUCTION. PARTI. (now the Cathedral) escaped a Uke fate Chapter VIT- threerepre- 229. The last and crowning drop of humiliation in SENTATIVE " ^ Benedictine ^]^g bitter CUD of the Mouks of St. Griuibald — we must Libraries. -■■ not say the crownino- drop of "sorrow," for the constant sight of the "ashes" of their Golden Cross, in their days of poverty, would needs have reminded the Monks of their Golden Days under Kinsz Canute, after his penitence — Nessun maggior dolore che di ricordarse Dal tempo felice, nella miser ia, — came to them when the siege was over.^ When the many sufferers by its numerous calamities were groping amidst the ruins, for such salvage as they could scrape together, the celibates found that their own salvage was considerable. Sixty pounds' weight of silver; fifteen pounds' weight of gold; three diadems, adorned with precious stones; two silver patens, gilt; two golden images, of the Blessed Virgin, and of her faithful pro- tector St. John; two very gorgeous " Salomonic lavers"^ (called "Salomonic," as being fashioned after the pattern of the great lavers, in the Holy Temple "on the Mount"); a fine silver vase, for holy water, given, Uke the Cross, by King Canute; with censers, crucifixes, and relics innumerable, figure, at much greater length 1 If Henry Knighton's account be accepted, the raising of the siege was hastened by the romantic escape of the Empress Matilda, in a leaden coffin, out of the Castle. Knighton gives this incident in his Z>e EvtiUihtis Anglice, ii. ; apud Twysdeni ScrlptortJi decern, col. 2387. 2 One of these, the Bishop, say his indicters, stripped entirely of its gold and gems. It it fair to remember, throughout this part of our story, that it Ls told, substantially, upon the faith of his bitter opponents. But there is also substantial corroboration from outsiders. DISSATISFACTION OF THE COMMUNITY. 113 than in this epitome, in the long indictment which the Hyde Community sent against their Bishop, first to tlie King, in his Council ; then, to St. Bernakd of Clairvaux, the universal judge of ecclesiastical controversies in the twelfth century; finally, to the Pope. Their plaints and charges included spoliations of their estates, in respect of which they alleged that their losses amounted to the enormous sum, for that day, of £4,862 sterling. But these suits dragged on wearily during almost twenty years. And the losses were embittered by domestic quarrel. The dissatisfaction of the Community with their Abbot, Hugh de Lens (1142-1151), as well as with their Bishop, combined with other incidents in the an- nals of that period, make an enquirer to think that, prol)ably, the Monks were refractory under a reforming Head, who had abundant justification for his endeavour to enforce better discipline than he found to exist when he entered upon his office. A deputation, however, went to Rome, and obtained a Brief for his deposition. He was succeeded by Selid, or Salidus, whose rule en- dured until 1171. It was under this Abbot that the restored Library made progress, and that the Scrip- torium (as it seems) became busy. Ten copies of the Holy Gospels were written by good scribes. But reviving literary zeal (on but a slender scale) was checked by the poverty induced in the years of political strife. 1 As late as 1311, proof occurs that part of the 1 Defttructio MonaAterii de Hicld f'apud Monaaticon Anglicanwn, edit. 1682, p. 210, col. 2; comp. Damna qua fecit Hetiricus Epixcopun . . . in MS. Harl. 1761, f. 3. Also, Animles EcdeMce Wintoniend^, in MS. Cott., Domit. A. xiii. fol. 32 (Dr. Luard's admirable printed Edit., p. 55). Much of this account, however, is based on William of Mahnesbury's, Comp. Sir Thomas OENERAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter VII — Three Repre- sentative Benedictine Libraries. 114 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Abbey was still in ruins. At that time Bishop Henry GENERAL INTRODUCTION. CHAPTEr VII- WoDELOCKE directed the making of collections for the '^''^^l^^J''^' ^ovk of restoration at Hyde, throuo-hout his vast SENTATIVE J ' O l"ZZ" diocese.i 130. The year 1171 witnessed the death alike of Abbot Selid and of Bishop Henry of Blois. There are no very notable incidents in the annals of the year im- mediately succeeding, John, who had previously, it is said, presided over the great Priory of Cluny, ruled Hyde for the almost unexampled period of forty-two years, and ruled with vigour. Under him (as it became a Monk of the illustrious literary Community of Cluny) the Library grew. His rule was peaceful, save for a sudden outbreak of violence, at a very unseasonable time. Very riotous proceedings disturbed the Com- munity on a night — that of "the Seven Holy Sleepers"^ which ought to have been specially calm. The fullest account is given by a St. Swithun's annalist, who per- haps made the most he could of his story — against his next neighbours.'* 131. The thirteenth century was chiefly marked in the annals of Hyde by a sharp quarrel between the servants of its Abbot and those — chiefly foreigners — - who came thither in the retinue (an unusually large one) of Otho, the Papal Legate, who in 1267 kept his Hardy's Edit, of Hidoria Novella, § 50. There is a fine representation of the great Cross in Strutt's Planners and Custom>i, vol. I., plate 28. 1 As to the re-construction of the Abbey Church, see Rudborne, Ilistoria Major, p. 302. 2 Be(jistni7n Henrici de Woddock, &c., MS. in Episc. Registry at Win- chester, fo. 165. 3 July 27th, 1201. 4 See Cott. MS., Domit, A.B., folio 1, verso (Luard, p. 77). HYDE ABBEY AND THE DISSOLUTION. 115 Christmas with Abbot William, of Worcester. It was i^^^oductwn. kept too coiivivially, and led to the imposition of a '"''''■"• Papal interdict for four weeks of 1268. The Abbey never recovered thoroughly from the spoliations of the })receding century. Exactly in the middle of the four- teenth century it sank so greatly into penury, that the estates were temporarily surrendered into the hands of William de Edingdon, Bishop of Winchester, and Lord Chancellor of England, an able Prelate and Statesman, who so administered them as to restore the Community to something like competent means of livelihood. But it rose from its ruins only slowly; to enjoy a brief period of well-being, — quickly followed by the covetousness, tlie rapacities, and the scandalous sacrileges which marked the reign of Henry the Eighth. I will venture to say, — after no brief term of research amongst the Mo- nastic Eecords of the "Court of Augmentations" (now in the EoUs House), and amongst the vast correspondence of Thomas Cromwell (Earl of Essex) with his satellites of the Dissolution days, that but few Monasteries in all England give, by their subsisting records, a more striking illustration of the fraud, the crapulence, and the reckless violence, by which the Dissolution was effected, than do the records, in that day of turmoil, of the Abbey of Hyde.i 132. Up to this date (1352) the most distinguished writer in the younger of the Winchester Communities was John, of Hyde, who seems to have exerted a 1 In the foregoing pages I have abridged portions of my Preface to Liber (h Hyda, as edited in 1866. In relation to the story of " Guy of Warwick," I am much indebted to Mr. H. L. D. Ward's excellent Catalogue of MS. Romances in the British Museum (1883). i2 Chapter VII— Three Repre- sentative Benedictine Libraries. 116 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. ^ literary influence upon his brethren, second only to that GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PARTI q£ ^i^g learned cluster of Continental monks feathered Chapter VII — o Three Repre- sentative '■ together by St. Grimbald, when the Community of the LiTRTR^Er'' New-Minster was in its cradle. And the literary in- fluence so exerted at the beginning of the fourteenth century seems to have been almost as brief, in its duration, as was the like Grimbaldian influence, at the beginning of the tenth. John, of Hyde, — one of the six Hampshire writers selected by Fuller, ^ when sur- veying the incidents of a period reaching over seven centuries, as pre-eminent over all others — gave a re- newed impulse to the growth of the Hyde Library, and to the labours of the Scriptorium. He also wrote the History of his Abbey. ^ But that Community, though it did its fair spell of religious, social, and political work, in its day, and though it administered a princely Christian charity, was not destined to be a specially literary Community, in the later periods of its existence. 133. The interval between the temporary surrender to Bishop Edingdon, and the final Dissolution of Monas- teries in England, is an interval of a Inmdred and eighty eventful years. But the monastic annals at Winchester, during that long term, are comparatively quiet. The Community recovered a fair measure of temporal pro- sperity. In the early dmy^ of the great Statesman and Prelate, William of Wykeham, it incurred his occasional censure for certain minor neglects of duty; in his closing days, it won his conspicuous praise ; and every member of the Hyde Abbey, from highest to lowest, shared in 1 Worthies (Abridged Edition of 1684) p. 220. 2 A work lost, apparently, in the turmoil of the Dissolution, NICHOLAS STRODE AND JOHN SALCOT. 117 his testamentary bounty, ^ Then, agam, there was a GENERAL INTRODUCTION. new period of decadence; soon to be followed ^J cha^^ek'yu- piinishment which far transcended the fault. ^1^^^^^'"'" 134. In the long Hue of Abbots of Hyde during this ^I^^^rieT' term of a hundred and eighty years — ^one eighth of which term alone, saw six successive Abbots in office, so rapid was their mortality — two men stand out saliently: ^Nicholas Strode, early in the fifteenth cen- tury; John Salcot, early in the sixteenth. 135. Strode took a conspicuous part in several of the Parliaments of the distracted reign of Henry VI. He exerted an important influence upon the government of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, as Protector of the Eealm. He governed his Abbey with skill and firmness, at a critical and trying time. Its recovery from almost ruin was necessarily slow; but it would have been slower still had not the Winchester Monasteries been governed with more wisdom than, in some respects, were the Winchester Citizens. For almost a century the decay of the town was as though the plague was constantly overshadowing it. The annalists tell, in that century, of the decay of one thousand and seventy households. Many churches were utterly deserted, and fell into ruins. It is a note of the time — and certainly not a note of its unwisdom — that the City Magistrates took special pains to keep up the wonted pageantry, upon certain great Festivals. 136. Salcot was a man of still more conspicuous 1 See Wykeham's Will as printed by Dr. Lowth, in an Appendix to his excellent Life of the great Prelate and Benefactor. GENERAL INTRODUCTION Libraries. 118 GENEKAL INTRODUCTION. parts than was Strode. But he made a far worse use CHAwlsr VII- ^f them. His one aim in the world was that he himself J'™ j^^'"''''" might "get on" in it. And he had his reward, in his BENEBICTINE g^CCeSS. 137. The Chapter in which he was elected as Abbot of Hyde was opened in January, 1530. Salcot was the candidate of Wolsey, whose faculties like his for- tunes were then fast fading — "Like a bright exhalation in the evening; No man to see him more." The great Cardinal, in all probability, knew Sm.cot but slightly. Had he known him well, he, with his own great plans for posterity still cherished, though cherished amidst fears, would not have fostered a man engrossed with " Self-Help." 138. The main cause of Salcot's success was, that every kind of Court influence was exerted in his favour. Cromwell and Cromwell's satellites supported his can- didature. The election excited the town largely. Day after day, crowds of Wintonians besieged the cloisters, to learn the progress of the contest, which occupied almost a month. At last (February 22nd) a monk, standing on the steps of the Chapter-House, announced to the citizens assembled in the Cloister that John Salcot — already Abbot of St. Bennet-Hulme — was Abbot of Hyde. 139. The mere fact of such a gathering, and of such an announcement, of itself opens a vista into the occa- sional falsity — to say the least — of many current stories about the state of English Monachism when it fell. HENRY VIII. AND SALCOT. 119 Assuredly it was not enmity to townsmen and to their OENERAL INTRODUCTION. well-being; or the corruption of worldlings; or the p^^^^^''^'^^ '^jj_ lustful gratifications of self-love, seen by those three repre- LlBRARIES. fc> 'J - SENT ATI VE assembled crowds in former Abbots, as their domi- Benedictine nant passions and characteristics, wdiich made the Wintonians of 1530 so eacrer to couOTatulate a new Abbot. They must have found, often, in an Abbot of Hyde, a friend and a benefactor. Of Salcot, person- ally, they could know nothing, save by hearsay. 140. Henry VIII., however, knew the man well. Very soon after Salcot's election, the King writes to his Ambassador at Eome (by way of enforcing his desire that the Pope should commit "to certain abbots" the decision of the case of Queen Katharine of Aragon) :— " The Abbot of Hyde is a great Clerk, and singularly learned in Divinity. '' That famous question of divorce- law was to be disposed of differently. But Salcot found many occasions of service. Give him a Bishop- ric, and he would yield not alone the Abbacy but the Abbey. His nature and his conscience were of kin to the nature and the conscience of the Thomas Cromwells and the Thomas Wriothesleys, of the period. And his rise in the world was akin to theirs. 141. Whilst Salcot still held his Abbacy, Henry made him Bishop of Bangor. As Bishop-Abbot, he began by relaxing the rule, and by impoverishing the Monks, — by degrees. Thomas Wriothesley — eventu- ally Lord High Chancellor of England, and Earl of Southampton — took his first share in the plunder of Hyde at the very moment when the Abbot of Hyde (in commendam) became a Bishop. 120 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. inteoductIon 1^'2' ^ have seen and read Cromwell's first orders (.j^^p'j^^^''yjj_ for "regulating'' the Abbey, written in his own hanJ,^ sF^TTi^r''''' They are skilful steps towards its destruction in con- benedictinb ygi^igni^ seasou. They plan systematically the "soften- Libraries. ing" of the Monks by extended leave of absence for recreation; they provide for various diversions of the Abbey revenues — even to payment of persons residing in foreign Universities " for purposes of study." Very soon afterwards, Wriothesley^ appears again on the Winchester stage, with some colleagues. They set speedily to work at the spoliation of the Cathedral- Abbey first : " This morning," — so they write to Crom- well (Sept., 1538,) — "we made an end of the Shrine, here at Winchester The silver thereof will amount to near 2000 marks Going to our beds-ward, we viewed the Altar, which we 23urpose to brim/ icith us Which done, we intend, both at Hyde and at St. Mary's, to sweep away all the rotten hones that he called ''Relics,' lest it should be thought that loe came more for the Treasure, than for voiding the abominations of Idolatry .''^ This picture, drawn by his own hand, of a man soon to be seated in the marble chair of Sir Thomas More as 1 They are in MS. Cott. "Cleopatra," E. iv. (Brit. Museum). 2 W^riothesley was of a stock who for several generations were members of the Heralds' College. His grandfather had been " Garter" in the reign of Edward IV; his father, " Norroy." He himself was bred in that College, but left it to seek his fortunes in an Inn of Court. He had travelled in Ger- many, and there had seen the Princess Anne of Cleves. Her personal charms were, in his opinion, few, and he communicated that impression to the King, whilst negotiations for the marriage were still immature. Henry, it is said, felt a rueful sort of gratitude to Wriothesley — afterwards. 3 Cromwell Corres]}., now in the Rolls House, forming '^Chapter House Records, Bundle ' B. ' " DESTRUCTION OF THE ABBEY BY WRIOTHESLEY. 121 Lord High Cliancellor of England, (^pending the "small i^^^p^l^oN hours " of morning, along with a miscellaneous band of ^.^^J^^^ \^^ followers, in furtively hacking and hewing at Altars and ll!^^^^^^'^''''' Shrines, in order to despoil them of their jewels, gold- i;™!^'' smith's work, and silver pLate; — -for the better ^^JReforma- tion of Religion,'" opens another and an instructive vista behind the scenes 143. The Monastic Libraries and Scriptoria fared no better than did the Church and the Altar. Some of the books — and especially the Biblical ones — in both Ab- beys — were splendidly bound. In the Library of St. Swithun's there was a copy of the Gospels, written in golden uncials, which was solidly plated with gold. This was "presented" to Cromwell, A large portion of both Libraries was utterly destroyed, scattered abroad, or wasted, 144, The buildings of Hyde Abbey, with all their appurtenances, were given to Wriothesley, and all the ground they covered was granted to him upon lease. He pulled down the Abbey with great rapidity, and sold its materials. Many of its richest manors were granted to him in fee. When he had made all he could of the Abbatial buildings of Hyde, and had stripped St. Swithun's itself of nmcli of its rich furniture and fittings, the site of the former passed to Eichard Betiiell. In Elizabeth's reign, the place was visited, in company, by Wilham Camden and by Sir Eobert Cotton, " In this once stately Church," wrote Camden, "was buried the illustrious Alfred, with many more Saxon Kings and Bishops. At jiresent, the bare site remains, deformed with heaps of ruins, daily dug up OENEKAL INTRODUCTION. PART I. Chapter VII— Three Repre- sentative Benedictine Libraries. 122 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. to hum into limey After Camden's time, the very fact that the bones of Alfred lay there seems to have passed out of memor}^ Two hundred and fifty years after the destruction, it was still possible to trace out the main foundations of the Abbey, and of the great Church. All else was mere guess-work. But it was certain that somewhere^ within that limit, precious deposits — "pre- cious" from quite another point of view than that of Lord Chancellor Wriothesley — still lay buried. In the year 1788 the Magistrates of Hampshire purchased, from the then representative in title of the Grantee, the site of the Abbey wherein was buried King Alfred, to make of it a County " Bridewell," for the reception of misdemeanants and of felons. The gentle and vener- able Milner, the historian and the illustrator of our county, stood by, watching tliis desecration with grief, but with no power to intervene: "At almost every stroke of the mattock," he has recorded, . . "some ancient sepulchre or other was violated, the venerable contents of which were treated with marked in- dignity."^ 145. But there was another bystander,^ who had more frequent and more minute opportunities to observe what went on from day to day. He has left it on record — through Mr. Henry Howard — that many stone coffins 1 Milner : Hist, of Winchester, i. 227. 2 A clerk of the works to the Contractors, who subsequently narrated his observations to Mr. Henry Howard of Corby — a scion of the illustrious House of Norfolk and Arundel. What was told to Mr. Howard, some years after ] 788, at Hyde — near to which he was then living in quarters with his Regi- ment — led him to make extensive researches, the substance of which he communicated to his bi'ethren of the Society of Antiquaries. They were afterwards printed in the Archceologia (1798), under the title : Enquiries concerning the Tomb of King Alfred at Hyde Abbey (^ol. xiii., pp. 309-312). EXCAVATIONS ON THE SITE OF THE ABBEY 123 were found as the excavations proceeded— the bones OENKRAL INTRODUCTION. withm which were tossed into heaps of rubbish; ^ome ^^^J^"^^^ \^^_ TnRp:E Repre- sentative Benedictine Libraries. of the coffins being turned into water-troughs — in ex- act anticipatory paralleUsni with the proceedings of some of our Eailway Companies when invading con- secrated Church-Yards ahnost a century later. Patens, chaUces, and rings were also found — to be converted into cash as opportunity offered. 146. A rude diagram will enable the reader to understand the matter better than would a host of additional words ; — [From I I (/ d and from / to / extended a mass of beaten clay, serving as "con- crete."] / Probable site of the Sacristy. [N. B. —The dotted lines t e (, e mark, rough- ly, the site of the BrklarM, now removed.] b b b b b b d Site of the fir eat ?<-? (a) Chukch e of c Hyde ; Abbey with : its b appurtenances, b b b b b • 1 1 THE German, the ixhine amidst the rums of Eeichenau/ flemish, AND Swiss Benedictines. At several points of their respective histories, there Library of are links of connection between Eeichenau and St. Gall, (^f^^bout 820.) of a closer sort than those which unite, more or less directly, so many of the Monasteries of media3val times. The fate of their Libraries, however, has been different. There remains very much of the old col- lection of St. Gall, to attract and to gratify the student of mediasval literature. The Abbot Gozbert may be regarded as the founder of one of the few Libraries which can point in their annals to the celebration of a millennial jubilee. He ruled the Community from 816 to 836, and of his zeal for the Library it is recorded : . . Primus earn itistricxit, neglectam antea ac froiie nullum lihrorum usu hahitam. ... Of about four hundred volumes collected by this Abbot, a contemporary catalogue is still extant. It is also stated, that he set apart for the books a room above the Scriptorium. The collection thus begun, grew rapidly, as well by remarkable industry in tran- scription, as by numerous gifts from successive Abbots, Monks, and pupils. The existing Library possesses a considerable series of precious Manuscripts written by Irish and Scottish Monks, in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. They include copies of The Gospels^ "of great beauty ; several of the works of Beda; many tracts on ecclesiastical 1 Murray: Northern Germany [Wth 'E.dit.), 5b5. PART I. Chapter II. — Libraries of THE German, Flemish, AND Swiss 32 LIBRARIES OF THE FOREIGN BENEDICTINES, history; and some fragments of Liturgies of the ninth century. Of the scription and iUumination of the bibhcal and hturgical books, a series of transcripts was made (about the year 1835) for the late Mr. PuKTON-CooPER. The miniatures possess great value for the history of Art ; and may be seen in the appen- dices to his very valuable, although unfinished, ^ ''''Report on the Foedera." Here, also, are two Eunic^ Alphabets, which Gustav Haenel has assigned to the ninth century; Wilhelm Grimm to the tenth. ^ They are of special interest, as being of Anglo-Saxon origin. When first discovered, they were almost illegible, through age and neglect. The chemical ingenuity of Von Arx^ restored them to legibility. In the tenth century, the invasion of the Huns neces- sitated the hasty removal of the books to Eeichenau (as a place of comparative safety, on 'account of its insular position), whence they w^ere not brought back without some losses. Even thus early, the Library of St. Gall could boast not only of Greek, but even of Hebrew MSS.; and it is hinted by the historian of the Com- munity, that some of these treasures so sorely tempted the brethren at Eeichenau to break at least the tenth commandment, as to lead to some mistakes of identity 1 " Barbara fraxiiieis pingata rhuna tabellis; Quodque papyrus agit, virgula plana valet." 'Abnina" in early German (corrupted by Tacitus, Ger mania, c. viii., into 'Aurinia") = witch, or female magician. 2 Grimm: Ueber deutsche Runen (Goett 1821), p. 126. 3 Pertz: Reisen, p. 462. THE LIBRARY OF ST. GALL. 33 when the books had to be returned; the number of^^J^^^\^ vohimes beino- rio-ht enouo-h, but their contents not in i^'J^^^^ries of o o o ' THE German, Flemish, AND Swiss Benedictines. exact agreement with the original catalogue. Wliatever may have been the extent of the injury tlius occasioned, other and more grievous losses quickly followed. For a while they were compensated, in some degree, by increased activity in the Scriptorium, espe- cially under the rule of the Abbot Buechard II., at the commencement of the eleventh century, from which period are to be dated some of the most precious trea- sures which still adorn the Library of St. Gall. Nor was transcription the only form taken by the literary activity of the Monks in the best days of this famous fraternity. They translated many portions of Holy Scripture into vernacular dialects. Weidmann, its keeper and historian, regards the first four centuries of its annals (830—1200) as the goUeii; the fifth (1200 — 1300) as the iron; and the sixth and part of the seventh (1300—1463) as the leaden eras. In the thirteenth century the Connnunity had enemies enough out of doors, but its worst foes were those of its own house. At that time the turbulence of its digni- taries was only erpialled by their ignorance. Then came the famous Council of Constance, with its perilous levies on all the Monastic Libraries that were within reach; and in the case of St. Gall, it seems not im- probable that some of the volumes which it lost, went again towards the enrichment of its neighbours. The fifteenth century was marked by the memorable re- searches of POGGIO BrACCIOLINI. 34 LIBRARIES OF THE FOREIGN BENEDICTINES. Flemish, AND Swiss Benedictini CHAPTEr 'ii- '^^^^' ai^'iiable English biographer of Poggio has ob- THroER™ served, that "the expense occasioned by these hterary excursions was a heavy incumbrance" upon one "whose property could by no means bear any extraordinary diminution." But it seems highly probable that, in this instance at all events, the compassion is a littlfe misplaced. Poggio regarded literary researches in Monastic Libraries as a species of war, which ought, naturally, to be carried on at the enemy's cost. His countrymen have loudly cele- brated his "discovery" of Quintilian, but they make no mention of the " two waggons " which (if we may trust the monkish chronicle) he had to procure, in order to carry off his spoils. The incident, and what it involves, if true, are of course much more discreditable to the Monks than to their visitor. But it gives a different colour to PoGGio's account of what he saw, as well as to Dr. Shepherd's compassionate and charitable allusion to the slenderness of his resources. There is sufficient evidence that he knew how to turn his discoveries to profitable account, — in more senses than one. In a letter addressed to Guarino Veronese (16th Dec, 1416), he narrates his visit to St. Gall in company with some friends. They found, he says, a large number of MSS., and among them a complete copy of Quintilian, "safe and sound, but buried in rubbish and dust," in the lowest room or dungeon of a tower, " unfit even for the residence of condemned criminals." Besides Quin- tihan, they found there the first three books and part of the fourth book of the '' Argonautics" of Valerius Flaccus, and the Commentary of Asconius Pedianus on Poggio's discoveries in the Library of St. Gall. THE LIBRAllY OF ST. GALL, 35 eio-ht of Cicero's Orations. ^ These are all that are„ parti O Chapter II.- LlBRARIES OF THE German, specifically mentioned, but they were probal^ly only a small portion of Poggio's windfalls. flemish, -•- AND Swiss With the rule of Abbot UlRICH YIII. (1463-1491) a Benedictines period of renewed literary activity dawned upon St. Gall. 2 It again acquired scholastic fame, and again suffered eclipse in the stormy times which followed. And it became especially notable for the possession of a considerable number of books and tracts in various vernacular dialects, both of Eomance and of Teutonic families. Some of these may still be identified, and they combine linguistic with historic interest. The modern history of the Library of St, Gall l)e- longs to a subsequent section of these Memoirs. But it may here be added that its contents were officially reported in 1881 to include about 41,700 volumes of printed books, of which 1700 are incunabula; and 1800 Manuscripts. It is made publicly accessible. There is a printed Catalogue of the Manuscripts and of the incunabula.^ 1 Poggio's letter is in the W^olfenbuttel Library, and it has been printed in Po'jf/iana (iii. .SOD), l>ut 1 cannot now refer to it otherwise than as it is re- ported, at second hand, by Tiraboschi : ' ' Tra una grandissima copia di libri die' egli che lungo sarebbe I'annoverare trovammo vin Quintiliano, ancor sano e salvo, ma pien di polvere e d'immondezza, perciocchfe eran que libri nella biblioteca non com' il loro onor richedeva, ma sepolti in una oscura e tetra prigione, cioe nel fondo di una torre in cui non si getterebbon nemmeno idan- nati a morte. " — Tiraboschi: Storia del literatura ItaUana, vi. 121. 2 Weidmann: Geschichte der Bihliothek von St. Gallen, aus den Quellen hearheitet, auf tausendjdhrige Jtihelfeier. A good epitome of the history of this Library, founded on Weidmami's book, will be found in Seraiieum, iii. 113. 3 Tedder AND Thomas: art. " Libraries," in £"?? eye. Britfanica, 9th Edit., xiv. 54 (1882). 36 LIBRARIES OF THE FOREIGN BENEDICTINES. chap^^'r n - '^^^^ Library of the Abbey of Sponlieim was probably Libraries OF fQundcd 111 1124, but acQiiirecl its chief celebrity under THE German, '1 •' Flemish, ^]^g - i. ^ ter from St. Lewis exists, but is now without a date. It may, probably, be assigned to the year 1250. It is also probable that the Library is coeval with the Col- lege. The Founder, Eobert, "of Sorbonne " gave about seventy volumes. ^ As early as in the year 1271, there is record of the bequest by Guerond of Abbeville of nearly three hundred volumes. And of these no less than a hundred and eighteen have been also identified among the MSS. of Sorbonne origin in the same great repository. 2 Germain of Narbonne gave some books 1 Delisle : Les Manuscrits de la Bibliothdque Natlonale, ii. 142, seqq. 2 Ibid. LIBRARY OF THE SORBONNE. 75 at about the same date. So that before the Founder's c/J^,^'^'\y death, in 1274, there was a Library of considerable ^ ^-^^^^^^^•'J' extent and value. Fifteen years later, it had received considerable accessions and careful organization. Tliere exists a code of regulations, of the year 1289-1290, which direct the insertion in each volume thereafter acquired of the date of reception, and the preparation of a complete Catalogue arranged in classes. At this date, the Library was already divided into a consulting department, and a lending department. At first, the borrowers of books must be members of the CoUege, but afterwards the privilege was extended to strangers. As early as in 1321, M. Delisle has found record tliat an express regulation was made for keeping the re- putedly best book on a given subject always in its place. In that fact we recognize the anticipation of a rule wliich on some of our own old foundations has been newly introduced, and which in some others is thought by students to be much needed. The Catalogue of 1290 is now preserved in the Lib- rary of the Arsenal. It comprises a thousand and seventeen volumes. Among the recorded donors of the fourteenth century occur the names of several Enghsh- men, as well as those of Italians, Spaniards, and Poles. Li a second Catalogue, of 1338, fourteen hundred and twenty-two vohimes are enumerated, of which three hundred "and tliirty are set apart for consultation, and a thousand and ninety are made available to borrowers.^ Minute regulations for the use and preservation of the 1 Delisle, ii. 182. 76 MEDIiEVAL LIBRAEIES OF PARIS. PART I. Library are made. But many losses are recorded. At ClIAITEK IV. "' -J § i_LiBRARY OF j-i^Q beffimiing of the fifteenth century, a Eegitter of theSoubonne. O O J ^ id Borrowers was provided (1402), and is still extant. It shews that at this time a small fee was paid for the loan of books. The practice also obtained of inserting on the fly-leaf the estimated value of each book. But no stamp was used until a very recent date. Introduction of In 1469 occurrcd one of the most notable incidents Printing into ' . i r i France. in tlic uiediaeval history of the Library and oi the College. The Doctors of Sorbonne invited from Mentz, Ulrich Gehing, Michael Friburgeii, and Martin Crantz, and installed them within their own buildings. ^ There, in 1470, was 'printed Gasparini Bergamensis Epistolarum opus. The printers recorded in laudatory verses their sense of favours received, and their hope of favours to come — " Ut sol lumen, sic doctrinam fundis in orbem, Musarum nutrix, regia Parisius; Hinc prope divinani tu, quain Germania novit, Artem scribendi suscipe, pronierita." What the Sorbonne did for these early printers had had its difficulties and its perils. The scribes and illu- minators of manuscripts looked as jealously upon 1 Chevillier: De Vorighie de Vlmprimerk de Pari% 90; Franklin, ut sup. , 269. Schoefer and Heinlin established in Paris a rival repository for the sale of Mentz impressions in 1474, or perhaps somewhat earlier; and this also was within an ecclesiastical precinct. The Brerthren of the Holy Cross wel- comed a clerk or agent of the Mentz printers, but he died within a short time of his arrival, and his remaining stock was seized ("par droit d'mibaine" ) and sold. The Monks, however, obtained from Le^vis XI. an ordonnance for the payment of the proceeds to Schoefifer. They amounted to no less than 2,425 crowns. (Franklin: A.jB., i. 330; cf. Chevillier, ut sup.) EARLY PRINTERS IN THE SORBONNE. 77 German innovating artisans and their marvellous pro- chIwIr'tv ductions, as our English weavers used to look ^^pon ^ ^~^g^^^^J^°' French or Flemish new-comers, with their improA^ed processes, and were ready to sliew their dislike almost as turbulently. Of workers in one way or other con- nected with the production of manuscripts, Paris is said to have contained at this time nearly six thousand. But the printers were protected, and they prospered. Their gratitude was shewn by the gift of books to the Library, and by gifts of money ; as well as by eulogy of the Col- lege in flowing verse. Some fine books given by Gering are still to be seen in various Parisian collections. At liis death, in 1510, the Doctors had their choice from " a considerable stock of books in sheets," and they in- herited the produce of the sale of the printing office and its plant, in addition to a bequest of 8,500 livres.^ The Sorbonne attained celebrity for the choice speci- mens of early typography in its Library. The eagerness of the Sorbonne to welcome the new invention led, in 1481, to the construction of a new building for the Library. It was nearly 120 feet long; was lighted by thirty-eight windows ; and was provided with twenty-eight desks for readers. The Doctors decorated their Liljrary with the portraits of their benefactors ; and they were careful to isolate it from neiQ:hbourino: structures.^ The fame of the swarming students of the College attracted, a few years later, the notice of Luther. " The Doctors of Sorbonne," he said, " have obtained 1 Chevtllier, p. 90; Franklin, i. 259. 2 Delisle, ii. 190, seqq. Chapter § 1— LiBKARV OF THE SORBONNE. 78 MEDL'EVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. ^**'^''iv. ^^^^ most desirable residence in Paris, and they have twenty thousand scholars. Their name, I imagine, is derived from the fruit (\Sorhus') of the Dead Sea," Luther's poor sarcasm, and his obvious exaggera- tion of the number of students, testify alike to his appreciation of the Sorbonne as a stronghold of the Eoman Church. He would liave rejoiced could he have foreseen that his Parisian antagonists, in the vain en- deavour to increase their strength by persecution, would by and bye both lessen their power and sully their fame. For a time, the body which had won for itself the glory of having brought Printing into France, became the enemy of the French press. The historian of the Libraries of the seventeenth cen- tury. Father Lewis Jacob, speaks of the Sorbonne collec- tion as being "very good and very fine."^ When his book appeared, the Sorbonne Library was on the eve of being more than doubled by an indirect consequence of the testamentary arrangements of Eichelieu. And pro- bably the accession in point of numbers was surpassed by the enhancement in intrinsic value. For good and for evil, what RiciiKjai^i uiu v\as iiKoiToration of usually doiic with a certain grandeur, save only when Riclielieu's i > ■> c i • t Library with his sclf-csteem as statesman, or his literary vanity as that of the n m i /-n t Sorbonne. autlior, was touclied. Then, the great Cardinal could descend to pettinesses as well as to cruelties. But to the Doctors of Sorbonne he was, for five and thirty years, the constant 1[riend and the munificent benefactor. 1 Louis Jacob : Tra'ict6 des plus belles bihliolMques, 563. PARTI. Chapter IV. CABDiNAL Richelieu's lebraey. 79 He luidertook the charge of re-building their entire edifice — Schools, Library, residences, and dependencies ^^"^jJ^^^^^'J^'' — on a much enlarged scale. He did not intend that tliey should inherit his own Library, which he had aggrandized by acts of spoliation, as well as by wide research and liberal outlay. It \¥as his ambition that a great "Kicheheu Library," augmented from time to time, and freely accessible to scholars, should help to perpetuate liis name and be an heir-loom of his family. The collection was therefore bequeathed to the Dukes his successors, but with an express provision for super- intendence from time to time by visitors chosen by the Doctors of Sorbonne.^ The Cardinal's heirs did not observe the conditions of his bequest, either as to enlargement or publicity. Nor did they comply witli his directions as to the completion of the new buildings of the College. After much hti- gation, it was decreed by the Parhament of Paris (1660) that the Library should be transferred to the Doctors of the Sorbonne, together with an endowment ftom the Cardinal's estate for its maintenance in perpetuity. The Cardinal's Library included many precious manu- scripts, and amongst them a collection of a hundred and ten volumes — chiefly Oriental —which had been col- lected at Constantinople hj the French Ambassador De Breves. By him they had been intended for the King's Library. When they reached France, they vrere placed 1 "Mon deasein est . ._ . qu'elle [ma elite hiblioth^6 la Fortune Puhlique en France,'"^ agrees with the Eeturns then obtained through our Ambassador at Paris, in stating the printed books at about 40,000 volumes, the manuscripts about 1000.^ And its succession of Librarians, from the Eevolution downwards, contains not a few names eminent in Lite- rature: — Serieys (1794); Laromiguiere (1804); Jour- niOY (1837); Burnoue (1840); Blanche (1844); Le Bas (1846); Leon Eenier (1860). The two most notable acquisitions of recent years are those of two very notable benefactors — Victor Le Clerc and Victor Cousin. Joseph Victor Le Clerc, born at Paris in 1787, and educated at the College known under the Empire as Lycee Napoleon, there began his public career as Pro- fessor of Greek; and, in 1815, succeeded Villemain as 1 Philippe Lebas (Librarian of the Sorbonne) : Rapport au M'mistre de VInstruction Publique; printed in Journ. Gen., 7 Apr., 1847. 2 Didot: Annuaire, of 1849. 3 Macarel, &c. : De la Fortune Puhlique; i. 477, seqq. 4 App. to Report of Select Committee on Public Libraries; printed in 1850. Benefaction of J. Y.Le Clerc. PART I. Chapter IV. § 2— Library OF THE University. 92 MEDIiEVAL LIBRARIES 01 PARIS. Professor of Khetoric at the Lycee Charlemagne; and filled several other Chairs with distinction, during the successive chancres in the orefanization of Public Educa- tion in Paris which followed upon the various revolu- tions of government. His first publication was, I believe, an Eloge de Montaigne; soon foUow^ed by a Chrestomatliie Grecque (1812), which has gone tlirough many editions. His admirable edition of Cicero's com- plete M^orks, in Latin and French, appeared between the years 1821 and 1825, and has been reprinted. His recension of the text of Cicero has become a standard for subsequent French editions of the author. The treatise Des Journaux chez les Romains is an exhaustive review of a subject full of interest and curiosity; and theretofore very imperfectly handled — by testimony of competent critics — in any countr3\ This work appeared in 1838. M. Le Clerc evinced like ability in handling classical subjects, whether comparatively novel, as in this instance, or hackneyed by a thousand and one prior labourers, as in the ^^ Ilistoire da platonisme,'' which, a few years earlier, he had prefixed to a reprint of his Pensees de Platan of 1818. M. Le Clerc had, from an early period of his career, begun the formation of a Library, rich, as might be expected, in classics, and especially in the apparatus of Eoman literature ; well furnished, also, in the Literature of France, to the great Benedictine History of which he early became an extensive contributor; succeeding, eventually (1840), another eminent lover, writer, and collector of books, Daunou, in the chief editorship. ^ 1 Vapereau : Diet, des Contemjioraires, § Le Clerc. BENEFACTION OF COUSIN. 93 The important volume on the thirteentli-century Htera- ^jj^p^^j^^jy tiire, of 1856, is mainly his. He was also an extensive ^ ^7!^^^*^^ contributor, both to the Biogrrqjhie Universelle of university MiCHAUD, and to the Nouvelle BiograjjJiie Generale of DiDOT. This fine Library amounted, at the date of the col- lector's death, to about 12,000, and was bequeathed entire to the University. At that time, M. Le Clerc's was by far the most considerable gift the University had yet received. 1 It was followed, in 1867, by the noble benefaction of Bequest of the Victor Cousin, eminent alike in Philosophy, in History, victor cousm. and in Criticism; eminent, not alone as author, as bibliographer, and as professor, but as pul:)licist and senator; who has left a vast series of works, most of which seem likely to retain their hold upon public opinion for a long time to come ; several of which mark epochs in the study of their several and richly-diversi- fied subjects; though, in his last Will, he was pleased to subordinate the whole of them, viewed as the labours of a most industrious and indefatigable life, to that special labour of love, which he had, indeed, known how to interweave with them all — the collection of a great Library, There, he had found the refresh- ment and the renewal of energies which, at one time or other, had been tasked in almost every form of literary and of public toil, — and that at a period more than ordinarily severe, wearing, and exhaustive, even to 1 Franklin : Anciennes BihJlotMques de Paris, iii. 312, 94 MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART I. Chapter IV. § 2 — Library OF THE University. " I give to the V. Cousin as a Collector. faculties more than commonly robust: Sorbonne," he wrote, not long before his death, "my best Work,—\\\y Librar}^" These pithy and humble words are curiously corro- borative of a pen-and-ink portrait, for which tlieir writer sat, unconsciously, to a skilled artist, some years earlier (1859). " The most eloquent of our philo- sophers, — a great writer,- — an unrivalled talker, — is, before all things else, a Connoisseur; nothing escapes his passion for collecting — Manuscripts, Printed Books, Prints, Pictures, — and wherever (in that quest) he sets foot, he is King To-day, he has met with a wind-fall; and adieu to Philosophy. — He has found (only fancy it!) ^^Zayde" in the first edition; on large paper; uncut; a copy really unique; — and bound in lemon-coloured morocco ! " Some famous incidents in the professional career of M. Cousin have been made familiar to many readers, who do not read Lectures on, or Histories of. Philo- sophy, by being told in the vivid pages of a popular historian, M, Louis Blanc, who, at a more recent date, shared Cousin's early democratic enthu- siasm, without ever, in the least, sharing his later and deeper conservative wisdom. One of those incidents must needs have a word or two, because it became an event in the History of the Sorbonne, — in the annals of halls which had rung with the glowing words of great speakers and teachers, laid in earth five or six centuries before the utterance (1827) of that brilliant sketch of a sort of universal history, from the point of view of an ardent publicist (uttered by way of an " Introduction to the INFLUENCE OF COUSIN. 95 study of Philosophy,") which served as a war-cry to a chIpter'iv. band of youthful assailants upon an unpopular Ministry; ^ ^Vj:™^'''' and which had an incontestable share in bringing about University. alike the Eevolution of July, and the very needful Con- cousin-s " _ influence on the servative checks and curbs upon that Eevolution, which Revolution of j^laced " 1832" in such striking contrast with " 1830." And there w^as no inconsistency; unless growth be an inconsistency of youth. For that impassioned oration of 1827 is in nothing more notable, than in its glorifi- cation of Monarchy, — of Monarchy guided by prudent counsellors, and restrained by real, not seeming, franchises. A list of the eminent men whose formative jDcriod was largely influenced by the teachings of Cousin, would be a list singularly varied, and would be scarcely a less notable tribute to his powers than would be a list of his own w^ritings — were this the place for either. It would include men as diversified in their careers, and in their own influence on the new generation, as the philosopher and historian, Damiron— whose series of portraits of men of the eighteenth century makes so curious a pendant and contrast to his early master's series of women of the seventeenth; — and that famous preacher. Abbe Cceur, whom some have ventured to characterize as "the St. Cyprian of the nineteenth century." It would also include younger men of great promise, cut off in their prime, l:)ut nevertheless influen- tial, too, in their measure, such as the young Farcy, who fell at the barricades of July; — who received from Sainte-Beuve a biographical portrait, which has its place in classic French prose; and to whom Cousin 96 MEDIiEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART I. Chapter IV. § 2— Library OK THE University. paid the crowning honour of dedicating to his memory the best text and the best French version of the Dialogues of Plato. Of such a stamp were many of the men bred in " the Sorbonne," of the early years of this century. The Conservative Peer of France (born in 1792J was the son of a watchmaker, and was the brilhant student, prizeman, and medaUist, of the Lycee Charlemagne. Eeversing the course of his fellow-benefactor of the Sorbonne, Le Clerc, the successful scholar of the Charlemagne Lyceum became, for a time, the popular professor of the Napoleon Lyceum; and the man who, during the " Hundred Days," took his spell of service in the Eoyal Volunteers, had presently (1824) the curious fate of being imprisoned first at Dresden and afterwards at Berlin, for a suspected (but very fictitious) "car- bonarism." Like so many other f^xmous men. Cousin knew how to pluck the rose " progress" out of the net- tle "danger." He acquired at Berlin a more thorough knowledge of German philosoi^hy than probably would have been possible to him, but for that annoying ad- venture. Those German studies rendered brilliant service to his future career. And I venture to think (remembering what I have read, years ago, of docu- ments which came from Cousin's pen on Public Educa- tion) that, even at so early a date, he learned something in Prussia on educational subjects, — nothing can rob Prussia of its due and large meed of honour in that field, — which was not without its influence in procuring for him the later official Mission, and what grew out of cousin's literary labours. 97 that, and so helped to shape the official action of the chIptce'iv future Minister of Public Instruction in France. Prior ^ ^-library OF THE to the eventful journey of 1824, Cousin had had but university. a brief glimpse of Germany. The early courses of Philosophy, of 1817 and the subsequent years, did not appear in print until 1836, when they were published under the editorship of M. Adolphe Garnier. And tliere is nothing, in its kind, more instructive than to compare that work of 1836 with its new recension, as it came from the author's own mind, — ripened, matured, purified, Christianized, —in 1853. The first actual publications of a man who was to be- The literary come as conspicuously a marvel oi laboriousness and of victor cousin, erudition, as of intellectual versatility, were those of an Editor:— Procks (1820-27); Plato (1825-40); Descartes (1826); appeared in rapid succession, and with admir- able apparatus and introductions; though, as respects Plato, the illustrative matter of the first intention re- mains unfinished. In a like field of labour followed Abelard (1836); and the Pensees de Pascal (1842); more than once reprinted; and which — although itself much improved afterwards in the recension of Faugere — may not unfitly be called a Princeps edition of a French classic, published about 200 years after the author's death. It is familiar to all students of French Literature — but there is never any harm in reiterated tril^ute to weighty and pregnant labours — that the last- named publication, preceded, as it had been, by re- markable articles in the Journal des Savants — did much 7 98 MEDIEVAL LIBRAEIES OF PARIS, PART I. Chapter IV. § 2— Library OF THE University. more than restore to purity the text of a great French classic. It aroused attention, at once, — as iteration from less honoured hps would hardly have done, — to the current evils of jDcrfunctory and unfaithful editing of the worthies of old time. Two other distinctive fields of exertion must have brief mention: — The official missions into Holland and into Germany, under Louis Philippe, had, for their adminis- trative result, fruitful labours in political and cabinet office; and for hterary result, the treatise De V Instruc- tion Puhlique en Hollande, of 1837; and that De r In- struction Puhlique dans qiLclques pays de rAUernagne, et particulierement en Prusse, of 1840. Very few years after the last-named date was begun that long and me- morable series of Etudes sur les Femmes et la Societe du XVIP Siecle, which are so notable, not alone as instruc- tive and delightful reading, but as powerful correctives to the prevalent depreciation of the old France. This latest group of books continued to enlarge itself, al- most until the death of a great thinker, a great student, and an actor of no small puissance on the stage of pubhc affairs ; whose whole hfe — long, rich, and varied as it was — has its ever-recurring points of contact with the " Sorbonne,"- — as he loved to call his University to the last, — and whose final act makes him, of itself, immortal on the long Eoll of its book-loving Bene- factors, extending — under varied collegiate transforma- tions — from the thirteenth century to the nineteenth. ST. GERMAEN-IN-THE-FIELDS. 99 § 3. — The Library of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Germ AIN-IN-THE-FlELDS . For almost a hundred and fifty years, the German Public had pro- fited by that thorough an'd comprehensive instruction which the Maurists of Paris had drawn from old MSS., and had imparted in several immortal works ; and especially by their Si/ste7n of DijHomatics (which Adelung and others had made more useful stiU by translating it into German), . . . with its vast series of examjiles of every sort of Writing, extended over a thousand years. Men wondered to see so interminable a crowd of acquisitions to know- ledge won, — arranged, — methodized, — illustrated with thousands of specimens; — and all within one generation. — Jaeck : Die Bambergische B'Miothck, 2r Th., pp. 47 seqq. As to the Utility of Monasticism j)assing over — here, and for the present, that supreme utility (supreme in the eyes of every consistent Christian) of Prayer, of the life hidden with God ; of that puissant and unceasing intercession by Prayer, always as- cending from earth to Heaven, let us come down to that lower level which is occupied by those who always keep their eyes fixed upon earth ; always chained down to the things that are passing, and the things that bring gain. Let us ask all such to point, in the Annals of the World, to any body, any institution, .... which has, at any time, rivalled, even remotely, with those Monasteries which were, for more than ten centuries, the Schools, the Archives, the Libraries, the Hotels, the Workshops of Christian Society. — MoNTALEMBERT : Lcs Mohus d' Occident, Intr. cxxv. The Abbey of St. Germain-in-the-Fields was probably part i. •^ . . „ . Chapter IV. the oldest Monastic Foundation of Paris. Its first § s-L'brary of St. Germain- Cliurcli dates from the middle of the sixth century; in-the-fields having been originally dedicated to St. Vincent the Martyr by Childebert I. An early Christian poet has celebrated the beauty of that infant Church, in verses which are still remembered. Towards the close of his reign, Childebert, with the co-operation of his consort Ultrogotha, gave the Church to a Community of Bene- dictines, established under the headship of St. Germain, formerly Abbot of Symphorien at Autun, whose name became, in the event, the name of the Abbey. ^ 1 MONTALEMBERT : ut sup., ii. 231. 7* 100 MEDI^VAI. LIBRARIES 01 PARIS. chIpter'iv "^^^^ subsisting records give very little information § 3-LiBRARY OF ai^Q^t; the oriorin and o-rowth of the Library, which r>T. (jrERMAIN- O O •/ -^ iN-THE-FiELDs j-Q-^^gt, have been of great importance at an early date. Tliere is evidence, on the face of a long series of manu- scripts which are now preserved in the National Library, that, at all events, from the eleventh century down to the sixteenth, it had many liberal benefactors; many book-loving Abbots; many laborious scribes. These scribes and tlie Abbey-Librarians have made many an entry on the fly-leaves of their books, of the sense they entertained that the Monk of St. Benedict had no duty, next after that supreme duty of which Montaleimbert has spoken so weightily, in the few lines I have placed at the head of this section, more incumbent on him than the duty of study, and of providing and diffusing the means of study. ^ The earlier labours (of a secular sort) of faithful Benedictines had, before the twelfth century, fallen very much into other hands, by change of cir- cumstance, and by the very fruitfulness of those labours themselves. The labours of the Scriptorium had be- come, in course of time, more imperative, more preg- nant with good, than the wonted labours of field and •garden and orchard. Often, these new maxims are expressed in verse — inartistic, but instructive. And other like entries often commemorate the donation and the transcription of books l^y men elsewhere unregistered. The givers of MSS. in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are many. And not a few of the gifts are still serviceable to readers and students of the nineteenth century, 1 Delisle: Le Cabinet des MSS. de la Bibl. Nat'ionale., ii. 41, seqq. THE LIBRARY OF ST. GERMAIN's. 101 PART I. Chapter IV. S^LlBRARY OF St. Germain- There is evidence, too, that these Benedictines of St. Germain's made their Library a Pubhc one, as early as in the twelfth century. Students had, at that date, •>-™'^ fields access to it, as well for borrowing as for consultation. ^ In the fifteenth century came the period — too usual in annals such as these — of lassitude, indolence, and corruption. When the invading Northmen had come to St. Germain's, burning and ravaging, after their fashion, seven hundred years before, they found a Library and destroyed it. When, in 1513, Guillaume BR190NNET came to the Abbacy, he had almost to lay over again the very foundation of a Library. With the remnant of the ancient Collection, and on the basis of the improved arrangements introduced by Briqonnet, a long line of laborious and faithful Monks worked successively and zealously in its enlargement. The Mamist Amongst them: Jean Jacques Du Breul, Gregoire Learning at Sarisse, Jean Dartis, Jean Luc d'Achery, Eobert Morel, David Placide Porcheron, and Nicolas Ca- jiusAT, deserve honourable memory. D'Achery — the Father, in the Congregation of St. Maur, of restored Monastic studies, as he has been justly called — added to other services a good Catalogue. Porcheron added the beginning of a Cabinet of Medals. St. Germain's had already shared with its neighbour-Abbeys of St. Victor and St. Genevieve the gift of a vast collection of Prints, formed by Accart,— so large and so valuable, as well to bear sub-division; and it is to this day a store-house for students and artists. As early as in the year 1557, the Library had been 1 Delisle: Le Cab. des MSS., serve, a Pascal volume in the rich Library of Troyes ; but that is probably a transcript. St. Germain- iN-THE -Fields Gifts of the Library of Ai'clibishop D'Bstrees; and of that of E. Benaudot. In 1718, Jean D'Estrees, Archbishop-elect of Cam- bray, gave the Library which he had inherited from his uncle. Cardinal Cesar D'Estrees, who had himself been Abbot of St. Germain's, and was, at the date of his death, the Father of the French Academy. This col- lection abounded in works on French History. Its acquisition at St. Germain's was speedily followed (Sept., 1720) by that of the Library of Eusebe Eenau- DOT, the Orientalist, and grandson of the founder of the Gazette de France, which contained about nine thousand volumes of printed books, and a large series of manu- scripts, — Greek, Latin, and Oriental. Together, these accessions made the Library of St. Germain's one of the most important in Paris. And it was soon to be still further increased by the several collections of the Chancellor Seguier (in great part); of the Cardhial Louis PoTiER de Gesvres ; and of Achille de Harlay, third of his name. The now famous Abbey had already, and had for a long time, become the head-quarters of those wide- spread researches and labours of the Maurist Bene- dictines, which have given fame to their Congregation, and have conferred on France, along with many ad- mirable works of History, the sources and feeders 1 Pascal: Pens^es, ut sup. (Fong^re'a Intr., p. 55). SEGUIER AS A BOOK-COLLECTOR. 105 whence are sure to come many more. To promote „ ^'^'^'^^\„ •J i Chapter IV. labours so fruitful, it became, in course of time, the § s-library of ' ' 'St. Germain- practice with other Houses of the St. Maur Congrega- in-the-fields tion to send many of their MSS. to St. Germain's, as to the place where they would be of most use to Learning. The richness of its printed Library enabled the St. Germain's Monks to give, in return, useful printed books. In this way, the Parisian Communit}^ drew store of MSS. from Bee, and from other provincial Abbeys; from the White-Hoods (Blanc-Manteaux) of Paris; and from the Priory of St. Martin-in-the- Pields. The Chancellor Seguier began to collect MSS. before The Library of the year 1630. By 1640, he had got together nearly *^4Sr.""''" sixteen hundred volumes. When the troubles and dangers of the Fronde drove him from Paris, his se- verance from his beloved books was anguish to him. It is the ever-recurring theme of his letters, and the law^yer gets, at length, to write with all a poet's glow. Take, for instance, this passage to his Librarian : , . . . " I do not doubt your fidelity. But a lover has always somewhat of uneasiness about the object of his passion. I am not yet mortified" [in seclusion] "to a degree which can lessen my affection for my books. On the contrary, my love grows with absence." When peace was restored, the Chancellor's correspondence tells of large agencies at home and abroad. For Greek MSS. he was especially ardent. And his attention was (as I have had to mention heretofore) early turned to the 106 MEDLZEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. chIpt\'r''iv Monasteries of the Mtrian Desert, as well as to other l-;^^^^^;'/ Cominuinties of the Levant, i iN-THE-FiELDs Qauval, thc Hlstohan of Paris, describes Seguier's Library as being placed (charmingly placed, as all book-lovers will think wlio are also of Bacon's mind as to the true rank of gardens, among the inno- cent delights of human life,) between two gardens, arranged in long galleries, everywhere looking out amongst turf, and trees, and flowers. ^ One extensive gallery was wholly occupied by works of History. The other classes of Literature and Science occupied three large rooms. The Greek MSS., "bought from the Caloyers of Mount Athos," are mentioned by Sauval as a conspicuous feature in the contents of another large hall, the remaining space of which was filled with MSS. in Arabic, Syriac, Chaldee, and Hebrew, chiefly acquired at Alexandria. "All these works," he adds, (echoing, no doubt, opinions which he had heard fall from more learned hps,) "are well-selected, well-con- ditioned, and well-bound." Another contemporary bears testimony to the Chan- cellor's exemplary liberality in permitting, at that early date, the free accessibility of his collection: "To the 1 Magy, a merchant of Marseilles, writes to him (Oct., 1646): . . . *'I have been apprised of Your Excellency's desire to have lists of the manuscripts of the Convent of St. Macaire, and of other Egyptian Monasteries. I am de- lighted to have the opportunity of testifying the gratitude of myself and of the other poor merchants. I have vrritten by way of Leghorn, to my Factor in Egypt, directing him to take all possible means to obtain for you the said works and Lists of Manuscripts." — Siguier MS. Corresp. in Bibl. Nat. Paris (printed by Delisle, Cah. des MSS., ii. 87). 2 Sauval: M6m. sur les Hotels; as cited by Le Roux de Lincy: Be- cker cJies, 123. PART I. Chakiee IV. § 3 — Library of THE BENEFACTION OE SEGUIER. 107 Cliancellor's Library, both rich and poor go to study." ^ When it came to be appraised, for testamentary pur- ^^ g^rmain. poses, after the Collector's death (1672), the MSS. were -™-fi-ds estimated at 56,557 livres;^ equal, I suppose, to some- what more than £9000 of present Enghsh money. They descended to the Chancellor's grandson, Henri Charles de Cambout de Coislin, Archbishop of Metz, under whose auspices the work of Monteaucon, so me- morable in bibliographic annals, Bihliotheca Coisliniana, appeared in 1715. During its progress, Monteaucon gives the Archbishop, from time to time, some account of those of its contents which were more than usually notable as additions to previous knowledge. Amongst documents of this class, he signalizes: (1,) ^ list of the works of Severus of Antioch, of the fifth century; (2,) Fragments of the works, themselves, of that Writer, of which not one twentieth part, he says, were previously extant; (3,) Canons and Minutes of Councils, equally new to the learned. When the Archbishop bequeathed this noble Library to the Maurists of St. Germain's, he might well say (May, 1731): "I am assured you will make of it a good use, both for the Church and for the State." I have told, elsewhere, how it has come to pass that, whilst so much of the Seguier-Coislin collection adorns the National Library of France, other and rich portions of it have to be sought in London and at St. Peters- burgh. The accomphshed De Bbequigny was astonished 1 Mimaille sur les BibliotMques de Paris. 2 Of this sum, the Greek MSS., about 400 in number, are entered for 12,851 livres. 108 RIEDIiEVAL LIBKAKIES OF PARIS. Chapter IV. § ^^^l^ZZ^' volumes of the Harleian Collection, of which, till then, cellor's correspondence is preserved in the Library of the Institute of France, of which, in his capacity of member and protector of the Academy, he may be looked upon as a sort of Ancestor. The Gesvres Collection. The MSS. of the The books of the Cardinal de Gesvees, Archbishop of Bourges, were, with the hberal spirit so characteristic of the great Ecclesiastics of France of all ages, accom- panied by an express provision for public access. m.riay°' '"' Thc strcugth of tlic Harlay Collection of MSS. lay Famoy. j^^ ^^^^ classes '^ Jiirispvudence" and '■^History of France ^ Its foundation had been laid by the first Achille de Harlay, President of the Parliament of Paris, and great-grandfather of the giver; it was increased by Christopher de Harlay, who had been Ambassador in England, and had, it is probable, made some literar}^ acquisitions here. It was also increased by his son, Achille II. It included MS. collections of the Bel- LiEVRE family and of the Attorney-General Servan. For the most part, it had been kept in the family seat at Gros-bois.i The Maurist-historian, Dom Tassin, dates the gift in 1762; M. Delisle, in 1755. It was made by the heir of the long line of the De Harlays, M. De Chauvelin, then Minister of Foreign Affairs. The MSS. were 1559 in.number.2 1 Delisle : Le Cahimt des MSS., d:c., ii. 100-103. 2 I think this to be the correct number. It so occurs in my authorities once, and once as 1659. PART I. Chapter IV. 3 — Library of St. Germain- iN-THE -Fields FATE OF THE ST. GERMAIN's LIBRARY. 109 In the year 1767, a collection of MSS. wliicli had belonged to the ecclesiastical historian, Le Nain de ■ Tillemont, was given to St. Germain's by its then pos- sessor, M. de Fremont d'Auneuil. And, nearly at the same time, the Library was enriched with a series of historical transcripts which had been made, originally, for FouQUET, — whose name occnrs with such curious frequency in bibliothecal annals. So that, at this period, a series of gifts, some of them so truly prince-like, had put the Benedictines of St. Germain's in possession of a Library very large, for the time, yet much less notable for its extent, than for its choiceness, and for the noble uses to which it had l^een turned, both by collectors and by inheritors. Of its then forty-five thousand volumes, more than five thousand were manuscripts; and of the manu- scripts, not a few were almost priceless. According to Lerouge, the author of the book entitled Curiosites de Paris, nearly a thousand of them ranged in date from the sixth century to the ninth. ^ Almost every great historical work produced in France during the last century, and not a few classical and theological works of mark, owe part of their value to the stores of St. Germain's. When these Benedictines came, at length, under the The suppression sway of Pievolutionists, they shared the common fate, community at . . . f. , , -, -r-r- . the Revolution. The ruling spirits oi the hour respected Historians as little as they respected Chemists. A Bouquet, indeed, would probably have won even less favour and less 1 It would be safer, probably, to read tenth ? 110 MEDIAEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART Chapter IV, mercy than a Lavoisier. For they were on the eve of ^ |:7^(^™^j^°/ finding out that Chemists ?/;ere wanted. ^ History, as iN-THE -Fields -L^^Qj^P^jj^j, -^^^^ g^ truly Said, is "much hated." 2 And it is hated by none so intensely, — unless they be per- mitted to fashion it for themselves, — as by Eevolution- ists and by Socialists ; — by the men of blood, and by the men of dreams. The Eevolution dispersed the Monks. The Library was retained, and was permitted to continue open to the Public. But under character- istic conditions : A magazine of saltpetre was lodged on its basement floor. And a large quantity of charcoal was stored up hard by. And thus it came to pass, that the Paches^ of that day, and their congeners, were presently spared all trouble, either (1) in providing tumbrils to remove so large a stock of books to the municipal "depots"; or 1 The Reader will remember the answer given to the representation, made by a friend of Lavoisier to his gaolers, that a delay of some days in his execu- tion might enable the great Chemist to complete some important experiments. 2 "There is nothing in the world more cordially hated than is History; oppressors of the people and enemies of God strive for nothing more strenu- ously than for the destruction of History They surround their victim with all the apparatus of intimidation. But Publicity is strongest." .... . . . — (Lacordaire's Conferences a Notre Dame.) No doubt the germ of these stiikiug sentences, which rang through the aisles of Notre Dame, lies in the famous passage of Chateaubriand on "the Cassar" in the splendour of the throne, and the Tacitus in an obscure corner of the Empire;— but they bear Lacordaire's own mint-mark, nevertheless; and the spirit of the passage, the force of the central truth in it, is now seen more vividly in relation to the Communist aud Terrorist enemies of the Past, the Present, and the Future, than ever it can have been seen in relation to Imperialist oppression. No ob- servant student, in these days (who looks on things from the Christian point of view), can have failed to note that revolutionist oppressors and haters of Christianity wield forces more terrible, and have an organization more ramified, and far more secret, than were ever wielded by any oppressive monarch upon earth ; and they use them more unscrupulously. 3 See, in the next Section, the account of the dealings of the Municipala with St. Victor's Library. FATE OF THE ST. GERMAIn's LIBRARY. Ill (2) in providing funds for the maintenance of a Library, p^^^^j^'-jy containinof books so distasteful: or (3) in the divesting ^17^''"*''''''°*' o ' \ / - & St. Germain- title-pages, dedications, and bindings of those armorial '^-the -fields bearings, mitres, coronets, and other emblems or insig- Partial 1 • 1 T f» 1 -11 mi • destruction of ma, which were more distasteful still. The maofazme st. Germain-s T Vi exploded in August, 1794 — the month which made so deep a mark in the annals of " The Eeign of Terror." Only a few days before the occurrence of a catas- trophe so strictly consecutive, some worthy precursor or other of the Communists of 1871, but, even during tlie Eeign of Terror, somewhat in advance of his own Age, had been heard to recommend the burning down of a. more famous Library, The Library of the Eue Eichelieu, said this advanced politician of the pavement, has been a very long time "sullied" by its name of ^^Bibliotheque du Eoi." ^ Even the Convention of '94 was struck by the occurrence of so striking a commentary, in August, upon words spoken, perhaps, in July. It enacted that, thenceforth, no magazines of gunpowder or of saltpetre sliould be placed close to Pubhc Libraries. Visitors to St. Petersburcrh are wont, at times, ^^^'i'^^ ^ss. at ^ St. Petersburg!!. to express surprise at the oreat number of choice partly derived , -^ ... ^rom St. Ger- MSS. bearing the Eoyal arms and insignia of France, main's Library. which are shewn in its Imperial Library. They see there Prayer-Books of Jane of Burgundy, of Lewis XII., of Mary Stuart. French Eomances are shewn to them. 1 I have quoted my authorities at length in Part III., in the Memoir of the National Library, and have alluded to the discussion which occurred about it, but the other day. 112 MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART 1 wliicli once belong-ed to Louisa of Savoy, or to Anne of Chapter IV. O .^ ' St ^GERtlm"'' -^^^^^^^^3' ' ^^^^ classical MSS., precious alike for tlieir iN-THE-FiELDs coiiteiits, aiicl for tlieir calligraphy, wliicli Catherine of Medicis had brought with her from Tuscany into France. They behold, in Eussia, a series of French Charters of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries ; with a multitude of Eoyal Letters and of State Papers of later date. Very naturally, they wonder how so many of the literary treasures of old France reached St. Petersburgh. Some of them passed into Eussian hands on that August night of 1794, when Paris was suddenly alarmed by loud explosions, and lighted up by the flames of a noble me- dieval Abbey. Others, it is believed, had been already stolen from the Library at or about the time of the revolutionary inventorizing of '91. For, not long before the partial destruction, the con- tents of St, Germain's Library had been summarily enumerated. Its printed books were then found to be 49,387 volumes. Its Oriental Manuscripts were six hundred and thirty-four volumes. The Greek Manu- scripts were four hundred and fifty-two. The Latin, a thousand six hundred and forty-four. The French, two thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. All these numbers of MSS. are exclusive of the Harlay Collec- tion, which, in all classes, comprised 1559 volumes more; so that the total number of MSS., according to the count of 1791, amounted to seven thousand and seventv-two.^ 1 Etat gdndrnl des Livres des Maimns EccUs. ; MSS. in Archives of France ; summarized in Franklin: Anciennes BibL, ut supra, i. 124, seqq. THE LIBRARY OF ST. GERMAIN'S. 113 But the real number exceeded eiglit thousand vo- chIpteV'iv hinies ; the difference being mainly occasioned by the ^ ^^^^g^™.,"/ omission, in the return made by the delegates of the '^-the -fields National Assembly, of those many manuscripts and manuscript-collections, chiefly on the History, civil and ecclesiastical, of France, which were in actual use for the literary labours of the Maurist Monks. At the fire of 1794 there were, of course, many per- sons present, who strove to save the books and other contents of the Abbey. Some of the helpers threw a large number of volumes into neighbouring cellars. These, as it seems, were mostly recovered for France by the indefatigable and self-denying labours, for months together, amidst dirt, damp, and noisome ex- halations, of men like the Benedictine Dom Poirier, MSS. from and the bibliographer Van Praet. Other volumes, and st. Germain at , . St. Petersburgh. some of the choicest, fell into the hands of a Secretary of the Eussian Embassy, Peter Dubrowski, who had already, as appears by conclusive proof, made con- siderable collections at the taking of the Bastille, and probably on other occasions. ^ Despite repeated researches, there remains not a little mystery about the circumstances of these successive depredations. Poirier himself has left autograph notes which point to early and leisurely theft, for they shew that, in some cases, the contents of a precious volume were taken out, and something comparatively worthless inserted into the old binding; so that the loss was un- 1 Count Hector de La Ferrieke : Rapp. sur les recJie^-ehes faites a. la B'lbl. Imp6r. de St. Petersb.; j)rinted in the Archives des Missions Scicntifiques, Scrie II., torn, ii., pp. 373, seqq.; torn, iii., pp. 1, seqq. (1865-66). 8 Chapter IV. § 3 — Library of St. Germain- iN-THE -Fields Notable Librarians of St. Germain. 114 MEDIiEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART I. perceived until after close secarch. Leprince, the his- torian of the National Library, has also put on record (in a MS. note) a current rumour of the day, that on occasion of the fire of '94, some of the choicest MSS. of St. Germain's fell into the hands of " Browiski, a Pole," who sent them for sale to St. Petersburgh.^ It is known, on other evidence, that some of them were shewn and offered for purchase in London, soon after the catastrophe. The superb Library had been lodged in a building worthy of its contents. It was far from being the only collection, for public use, which did honour alike to Benedictine learning and to Benedictine munificence, and which had become a "cynosure," not to "neigh- bouring eyes" only. Here, Bernard de Montfaucon had laid the foundation of a Museum of Antiquities, which his successors had enriched. Here, other Maur- ists had formed a valuable Museum of Natural History. Among its Librarians, besides those whom I have mentioned already, were Montfaucon himself, Denis de St. Marthe, and Martin Bouquet. Many of the his- torical and some of the theological books which have done conspicuous honour to France, were written in the Library, and in the cells, of St. Germain's. It is the crowning distinction of the Benedictines of St. Maur, that, illustrious as they are in Literature, they are not less illustrious in Keligion. Nowhere can the duties, the charities, and the devotion, of a true Monas- tic life, have been more faithfully observed, than they 1 MSS. ill Bibl. Nat. cited by Delisle: Le Cab. des MSS., torn, ii., p. 48. THE LIBRARY OF ST. GERMAIN's. 115 were by very many of the men whose labours, as chI^^er'! authors and editors, have made them for ever memor- ^ 3-library of ' St. Germain- able. If, in some particulars, the ancient Benedictine '^^-the -fields disciphne came, in a changed world, to be relaxed or modified, the best purposes for which that discipline was established were but the more fully attained. 116 MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. § 4. — The Library of the Augustinian Abbey of St. Victor. " I never enter into a large Library without feeling my mind sur- prised into reverential awe, as if in the presence of a great Assembly of Men, renowned for . . . talents and virtue. — r>inlo[iucs in a Library, p. 2. Men of ordinary literary hardihood look over the dusty and solemn ranks of learned works in a great .... Library, as an invincible Terra incotraila. They gaze on the letter'd latitude and altitude, as they would gaze on the inaccessible shore of some gi-eat Island, bounded on all sides with a rocky precipice. But Bishop HuKT gives the example of a man having no such sen- sations — submitting and retiring — at sight of the most formidable masses of Literature. There was no point where he had the sm.allost fear of not being able to m.ake an entrance, and a lodgment, and to extend his researches and conquests ; . . . . while the common tribe of scholars . . . stand at distance, gazing and confounded. — Fosterlana, p. SI. PART I. The Libraiy of St. Victor does not connect itself so 4- Library of dii'ectly witli tlic literary history of France, as does that of St. Germain-in-the-Fields. But few Libraries could point to a longer list of the visits of famous stu- dents, medigeval and modern; of famous book-lovers, who delighted to see fine books, finely lodged, and richly accompanied. For at St. Victor's, a man could see a collection of engraved portraits of the writers of the books he came to consult, scarcely to be equalled, even in Paris; and he found himself, even more directly and literally, in the actual presence of an "Assembly of renowned men," than the Dialogist of my epigraph could well have realized, by dint of al:)straction and meditation. The visitor to the Library of St. Victor's saw not only choice books, in a choice building, but above the books he saw in long line, and in artistic EARLY HISTORY OF THE ABBEY OF ST. VICTOR. 117 becauty, both of sculpture, of position, and of adorn- j/^';'"^'- nient, the busts of the ij^reat Authors of all ao:es. And s^L'^^^'^^^"^ ' ^ "-St. Victor. in those monastic halls, in later days, it was also the practice to invite the Parisian public to listen to an annual oration on the advantages of Public Libraries. The foundation of the famous Abbey of St. Vic-tor ^^;^;^yJ^J^^^^^^^ dates from the year 1113. It has a connection with '^^■^'''^°'"- the controversies of Eealists and Nominalists, so event- ful in that day, and which retain something more than a merely historical interest in our own. When the star of William of Champeaux was paling before the meteor-like displays of his great rival, he left the cloisters of Notre-Dame, and established himself in what was then a little " Chapel of St. Victor," which he soon expanded into an Abbey of Augustinians. Scarcely had he obtained a Charter from Lewis VI. for the new foundation, when he was removed to Chalons- sur-Marne as Bishop; and his disciple Gilduin became first Abbot of St. Victor. The Abbey prospered as a great School of Theology. Before the century expired, it possessed a Library of note; it had its offshoots or dependant "halls"; it claimed to have educated seven cardinals, six bishops, and two archbishops; and to have sent to other Communities fifty-four eventual abbots. And its Library was already — although in only a restricted sense — public. "^4cZ usum fratrum et pauperiDn scholarium'^ is an expression repeatedly occurring in connection with books in the Necrology. In mentioning this fact, M. Franklin (an exhaustive historian of the Monastic Parisian Libraries) adds : 118 MEDIiEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. chIptek'iv. " ■''- liave met witli no indication of this kind in the ^ s7^vwtoY "' Necrologies of the two great Abbeys contemporaneous witli St. Victor, — those of St. Germain-in-the-Fields, and of St. Genevieve. "^ In the following century, the benefactions to the growing Library were numerous. Amongst the donors are Queen Blanche of Castile, mother of St. Lewis, its Library. CATHERINE d'Alcu^ou, aud a nephew of Pope Gregory IX. In the list appears also an Englishman, Gervase, who gave some books, historical and biblical. The gift of a splendid Bible, in French, is recorded in 1336. By the close of the next century, the collection had become so large as to need a new building, new classification, and new catalogues; for the good Monk, Claude de Grandrue, who had then become Librarian, knew enough of his calhng and his duties to make two cata- logues: one alphabetical, and the other according to subjects. The former ma}^ still be seen in the Mazarine Library, and the latter in the National. It is pleasant to note, in the long list of acquisitions, one of the earliest of printed books, acquired imme- diately on its publication, and in its choicest form. About 1460, the Monks sent twelve gold crowns to Peter Schoeffer and Johann Fust, and received, in return, a vellum copy of the Epistoloi S. Hieronymi? Such a beginning seems to have been fairly well fol- lowed up. Under Francis L, the Library of St. Victor 1 Franklin: Ancknnes BibliotMques de Paris, i. 153. 2 Necrolorj'mm S. Victoris, as quoted by Franklin: Ancknnes BibliotMques de Paris, i. 148. PART I. Chaptek IV. ' 4 — LlBRAKY OF St. Victor. grandrue's arrangement and catalogue. 119 had acquired the reputation of. being the best collection in France. A worthy Prior, Jean Le Masse (who died hi 1458,) deserves special mention for his zeal in enriching the Library. More than a hundred manuscripts may yet be seen in the National Library of France whicli were either transcribed or purchased during liis single term of office at St. Victor's.^ The mediseval statutes provide for a periodical stock- taking, twice in the year. They also provide for a special collection for the service of the sick Monks in the Infirmary. And in other particulars they indicate, not only a strong love of learning, but a spirit of ear- nest devotion, and of Christian charity and tenderness; of care for the Public at large. About the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Canon above-mentioned, Claude de Grandrue, not only ^^^<^ catalogue ' ' '' 1508-1514. catalogued and re-classed the MSS., but also arranged nine hundred and ninety of them on fifty-seven desks, so that here again the Monastic appliances for devout study before the close of the " Dark Ages," considerably excel a good many instances of Library-Economy with whicli we are all familiar in this Age. His Catalogue is a model in its kind. An eminent palseographer pro- nounces it to be unquestionably superior, on the whole, to many modern Catalogues, which nevertheless, in his judgment, are themselves excellent.^ De Grandrue's arrangement subsisted, it seems — in the main — until the last century. It is also a notable 1 Delisle : Le Cab. des MSS. , torn. ii. , pp. 209, seqq. 2 Delisle: torn, ii., pp. 227, seqq. Grandrue's igement 120 MEDIAEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. cnlpTm'iv. feature in the economy of St. Victor's Abbey, that the '^^^llf^^Q^''"'' Librarian sometimes cumulated his office with that of Bursar, — much to the advantage of the collection under his care. " I was delighted," writes one such pluralist, "to have the charge of the purse, as well as the charge of the books. It not only enabled me to augment the collection freely, but to adorn our Library with the portraits of men illustrious for learning and for piety." ^ Among the frequenters of St. Victor's Library, in the sixteenth century, was a famous man who there in- creased his learning and sharpened his wit, and then made the Monks, his benefactors, the objects of his satire. Eabelais' would-be pleasantries on this subject are simply coarse and revolting. They shew— as his successors in literature have so often shewn since — with how contemptible and narrow a nature, vigorous and great faculties may be united. Eabelais (with all his genius) is a true precursor of the Voltaires, the Diderots, and the D'Holbachs, of the eighteenth cen- tury, and the meanness of spirit, combined so conspicu- ously with greed of money in them all, has, in his case, even less of extenuation in attendant circumstances. ciJ'ca 1604. Visit of Peiresc; Early lu tlic ucxt century, Peiresc was a visitor here. He noticed amongst the contents a contemporary col- lection of the documents connected with the trial of Joan of Arc. They had been gathered by Nicaise Delorme. Here also were preserved the "tablets" of 1 GouRREAU: MS. Memoir in Bibl. Nat.j cited by Delisle: torn, ii., p. 228. GROWTH OF ST. VICTOR's LIBRARY. 121 PART I. Chapter IV. Philip the Fair, containing a curious record of his jour- neys and traveUing expenses (1301, 1302). Amongst ^ ^^ ^.^^^^.^^ other regal curiosities of early date, were a book of Hours; and a translation of Aristotle's Problemata, made for King Charles the Fifth of France. Amongst the Classical MSS. was a Livy of the twelfth century. The Biblical MSS. were especially notable for their antiquity and beauty. The Biblical printed incunabula included Fust and SchoefTer's edition of 1462, on vellum. Much later, when Louis Jacob published that Traicte des plus belles Bibliotheques (1644) — which I have so often to quote in these ''''Memoirs,'' — the number of its manuscripts amounted to about 1500. Of the printed books we have no satisfactory statement, until a sub- sequent date. Another instance of liberal participation of their treasures by the Canons of St. Victor, is seen in the grant of some choice manuscripts to a newly established Convent of Jesuits in their own neighbourhood, appa- rently as a help to the foundation of a Jesuit Library. When the new order came to be suppressed (1760), the Canons re-purchased their old possession, and the books are still extant. ^ In 1652, the Library received a laro-e augmentation Gift of the ' -^ . Library of by the bequest of Henri du Bouchet, Sieur de Bournon- DuBouchet; ville. Councillor in the Parliament of Paris, of about 8000 volumes,^ together with a collection of maps, 1 Franklin, M« sttp., 153. 2 " Et se sont trouvez sept h. huiet mille volumes de toute ordre dont estoit 122 MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. CHlpraR'iv pi'iiits, and drawings, on the express stipulation that §4-LiBRARYOFg^^(;[gj^^g should be admitted to read in the Library on St. Victor. '' three days, at least, of each week, and for seven hours on each of those days. This condition seems to shew that the Library at that time had ceased to be pubhc. Car- dinal Mazarin's was then open to all comers. The Community honoured their benefactor with a solemn funeral ; placed his bust in their Library ; and engraved on marble that part of his Will which con- cerned them. Another benefaction came soon after- wards, by the gift of Charles Le Tonnelier. At the close of the seventeenth century, the Canons possessed about twenty-one thousand volumes, of which nearly three thousand were MSS. They are described by a contemporary, as in good condition and freely accessible to public use. The collection of Maps and Prints, of which Du Bouchet's bequest had laid the foundation, was en- riched by a far more splendid series gathered by Jean Nicolas DE Tralage, also a wealthy Councillor in the Parliament of Paris. The prints alone were nearly thirty-three thousand in number. It was, very pro- bably, the finest collection of its kind then (1698) and of that of exlstlug iw tlic World.^ Soon afterwards, another Louis Cousin ; ^ ^ ^ Parisian magistrate, Louis Cousin (a member also of the French Academy), bequeathed a line Library, and also an endowment for its perpetual increase, and its thorough pubhcity. That the many examples of zeal composee la ditte biblioth^que. " — Jean de Toulouse: Memorial de VAbhaye de St. Victor, ii. 57, 58 (Franklin, i. 156). 1 Franklin, %it sup.; citing Piganiol de La Force : Descr. de Paris, v. 285. Comp. Du Plessis: La Cabinet des Esiampes d la Bihl. Imperiale, 13. 1710. STATE OF THE LIBRARY AT THE REVOLUTION. 123 for learning which had thus been shewn at St. Victor's chIpter'iv. should bear more fruit, he further instituted an annual §^"^^1;'^^;;^^'°'' oration on the advantages of Public Libraries. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the collection of Printed Books had increased to nearly thirty-five thou- sand volumes, and that of Manuscripts to considerably more than three thousand. At this time the Abbacy was held by a descendant of the Stuarts, — the Duke of FiTz- James. For the second time in its history, the Library had now outgrown its receptacle. Yearly sums were set apart to accumulate for a building-fund. The structure was begun in 1772. Lewis XVI. made a grant of £6000, sterling, in aid of the expenses. But when the building— in all senses an ornament of Paris — came to be quite completed, the new Vandals were at hand. The Library of St. Victor, in its new per- fection, had an existence of but three years. The accounts of the extent of this Library at the outbreak of the Ee volution do not at all accord with the Inventories taken a little before the suppression of the Monastic Communities. But that fact is not pecu- liar to St. Victor, nor is its probable explanation hard to find. As early as in 1790, there were some indica- tions of the perils about to be incurred. The last Librarian, Jean Charles Marie Bernard, was one of the victims of the massacres of September, 1792. The enumeration of 1790 comprises 34,000 printed volumes: 1800 manuscripts; 170 volumes of maps ; state of the Library of St. about 170 boxes containing plans and prints. victor in 1790. The Communist Pache allowed three hours for the transfer to some Municipal Eepository (or to any place 124 MEDIJEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. chIptJk'iv. ^^ hand,) of these thirty-six thousand volumes; the ^ s7.\'^ctor! °^ three hours expired, the unremoved books were to be pitclied out of window, in order to clear the Abbey for other purposes. Ameilhon (Librarian of the City) obtained, with difficuUy, the modification of the im- perious order, by putting days for hours, and then, laying hands upon every available cart and carriage he could find, effected their hurried removal to a neighbouring Hospital. When the MSS. came to be eventually placed in the National Library, twelve hundred and seventy had escaped destruction or misappropriation, out of the eighteen hundred of 1790, Nine hundred and forty- four of these are Latin MSS. Many of those entered in Grandrue's Catalogue of the fifteenth century were wanting. It is said that some of the many missing volumes were carried away by Lindenbrog.^ Others, I beheve, may be found in existing French collections. It may liere be noted that another Augustinian Community of Paris — whose Convent was near to the Pont Neuf — possessed more than three hundred MSS. Of these only fifteen came to the National Library, The fine buildings of the Abbey of St. Victor re- mained for many years. Then they were destroyed, to make room for a wine-market. At the corner of a wall there might still, until very lately, have been seen a small fountain, with this inscription: — " Quae sacros doctrinse aperit Domus intima fontes, Civibus exterior dividit urbis aquas." 1 Delisle : ut sup. THE LIBRARY OF NOTRE-DAME. 125 § 5. — The Library of the Cathedral of Our Lady. still am I busie bookfes assembling, For to have plenty. It is a pleasaunt thing, In my conceyt, to have them aye at hand ; Though what they mean, oft, I not understande. But yet I have them in great reverence And honour; saving them from filth and ordure, By often brushing and much diligence. Full goodly bound in pleasaunt coverture Of damesk-sattin, or els of velvet pure, I keep them sure; — fearing lest they should be lost; For in them is the cunning wherein I do me boast. —Alexander Barclay : The Slap of Fooh.s (1500). The recorded gifts of Service Books to the Church part i. ^ _ _ Chapter IV. of Notre-Dame begin as early as in the tenth century. § 5-libraey All similar gifts down to the year 1160 are either cathedral c ^ -^ N. Dame. Bibhcal or Liturgical. In May, 1160, the famous Peter Lombard gave all his books to the Church. These consist, chiefly, of Biblical Commentaries. A century later, Stephen, Archdeacon of Canterbury, leaves his books (1271), on the express condition that they shall be made "accessible to the jooor students in theology of the Schools of Paris." This collection also is rich in Biblical Literature. In 1297, Pierre de JuiGNY bequeathes a larger number of works on various subjects, with the same stipulation. A long series of donors follow during the next two centuries; but at the end of the sixteenth century the Library seems to have fallen into decay. During a great part of the next century, its Annals are almost a blank. Nor can this be matter of sur- prise if we note the character of the man who, at 126 MEDIiEVAL LIBKAEIES OF PAEIS. PART I. Chapter IV, that date, bore temporary sway in the Chapter of Notre- §5-LiBRARY Dame. Late in that century, an ecclesiastical annalist OF THE 'J ' ^^™^^"^ records the death of a Dean (De Contes), who left be- hind him a sum of 400,000 livres, one half of which, it is said, was found, in coin, in his coffers. And it is noted, by the way, that he also left behind him a ward- robe which, for its extent and costliness, was the marvel of Parisian beholders. But we hear of no books; of no legacies to contemporary poor; of no provision for the studies of distressed scholars to come.^ Immediately, almost, after the death of the Dean whose rule seems to mark the nadir of the Library of Claude joiy's Notrc-Damc, its decay was repaired (1680) by a con- Gift;mit5so. giderablc benefaction of Claude Joly, Precentor of the Church, and author of a Traite des Ecoles Ecdesiastiques. Joly's Library was notable in its day, and the gift of it — as a testimony, he says, of gratitude to the Church which had been his nursing-mother, and his protectress, during forty-nine years^ — was accompanied by a col- lection of portraits of eminent men. This donation was followed in the course of the succeeding century by many others. Notre-Dame had come to be possessed of a precious series of MSS., some of them of the seventh, eighth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. These were sold, in 1756, to the King, for the augmentation Transferof MSS of tlic Eoyal Library, " in order," say the vendors, LibrarJ"^''^ " that they may be made more accessible to the learned. 1 PoNTCHATEAU: Hist. de Port-Royal; MS.; cited by Saint Beuve: Port-Royal, iv. 131. 2 Franklin: Ancienites Bihliofhdqne-'^ de Paris, 1874; i. 32, seqq. Joly had inherited the Library of Antoine Loisel, also an Ecclesiastic of Paris, THE LIBRARY OF NOTRE-DAME. 127 PART I. Chapter IV. OF THE Cathedral of N. Dame. and more useful to the Eepublic of Letters." The overture, it seems, was made to the Chapter by D'Ar- * ^-library ' ' i «^ OF THE GENSON, the Secretary of State. 50,000 livres were paid by the King; part of which sum was applied to the purchase of printed books, and part to the printing of a Catalogue. Among the earUest and choicest of the MSS. enu- merated in the original Catalogue are these: (1,) Codex quatuor EvaiKjelium, of the ninth or tenth century; (2,) An ancient Evangeliary^ in uncials and on vellum, with many miniatures; the cover ornamented with many figures in relief; (3,) A translation of the Gospels into old German, of the eleventh century. Notwithstanding this alienation of precious manu- scripts, given by former benefactors of the Chapter of Notre-Dame, another collection, comprising 159 vo- lumes and 68 bundles, illustrative of the Church History of France, was bequeathed to the Chapter in 1762. The donor was Pierre Le Merre, an Advocate of Paris. In 1787, the Metropolitan Church of Paris possessed about 12,000 printed volumes, which were soon to share the common fate of the ecclesiastical collections. They passed, towards the close of 1790, into one or other of the great Municipal Eepositories of confiscated books, to be afterwards in part, probably, scattered far and wide; in part, transferred into subsisting Libraries. Twenty years later (1811), some of the Municipal "Eepositories" were still existing under the Empire. The Canons of Notre-Dame represented to the then Minister of the Home Department that they felt the 128 MEDIEVAL LIBEARIES OF PARIS. PART I. IV. need of books in their Church, and they were em- ^o7th™ powered to make a selection out of the confiscated St™™^^'' "^ remnants, as the beginning of a new Library, i 1 '■'■Letter of Paris Clergy," MS,, in Nat. Archives; as cited by Frank- lin: lU stip., i. 43, LIBRARY OF ST. GENEVIEVE. 129 § 6. — Library of the ancient Abbey of St. Genevieve. And well tlioir outward vesture did express The bent and habit of their inward mind ; Adopting [Bennet's] antiquated dress, His usages, by Time cast far behind. Yet under names of venerable sound, Wide o'er the World they stretched their awful rood; Through all the provinces of Learning own'd For teachers of whate'er is wise and good. Extending from tlie hill on evcrj' side, In circuit vast a verdant valley spread. Across whose uniform flat bosom glide A thousand streams, in wandering mazes led. —Gilbert West: Eilucatioa, xxiii, xxvii. The foundation of tlie Auo-nstinian Abbev of St. cJ.ZX- Genevieve may be said to be pre-liistoric. Earl}^ re- cords tell of its destruction by tlie invading Normans, but disclose nothing of its origin. The first traces of a restored Library occur late in the twelftli century. It increased gradually and considerably during the three following centuries. Then the lal)orious acquisitions of many generations of pious Monks were scattered by an unworthy Abbot and a corrupted Community. When EiCHELiEU, in 1624, induced Cardinal Francois de La Eochefoucauld to undertake a reform of the decayed Community, the new Superior, it is said,^ found scarcely a single volume, save such service-books 1 Franklin: Ancievnes Bibliotheques de Paris, i. 74; citing, for the early annals of this Library, a MS. "Hist, de VAbbaye de S. Genevieve," and also the early topographers of Paris, Dubreul and Malingre. I cannot cite M. Franklin's book, without adding my humble tribute to its conspicuous merit. § 6 — Library of THE Abbey of St. Genevieve y 130 MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES 01' PARIS. PAHTi. g^g were still in use in the Choir. He sent for a selec- Chapter IV. § 0-LiBEARY OF ^JQj-^ of some six hundred of his own books, as the THE Abbey of St. Genevieve foundation of a uew Abbey Library. On liis death, the Canons inherited the remainder. As he liad taken pains to import new Monks as well as new books, the collection prospered. Fronteau, one of the most conspicuous members of the reformed foundation, divided his energies — which were notable — between his class of philosophy, and his cares for the Library. When he entered St. Genevieve, he had found almost empty shelves. His strong sympa- thies with the Jansenists of Port-Eoyal, (though he was never formally enrolled among " nos Messieurs,") made him a sharer in their persecution; but before he was expelled from St. Genevieve he had trained a book- loving successor in P. Lallemant.^ Their joint labours in that disturbed and trying time, speedily brought together nearly eight thousand volumes, and put them into thorough order. The books so gathered were the nucleus, and those Augustinian Monks were the virtual founders, of the noble Library w^hich, — having escaped the Vandals of the Eevolution, — now subserves, by day and by 1 It seems to be not improbable that it was by Lallemant that the above- mentioned MS. History of St. Genevieve, several times cited by M. Franklin, was written: — "I cannot but deplore," says this anonymous writer, "the loss that was sustained [by the Library] in the time of Abbot de Brt^chauteau, one of whose servants found precious MSS. lying neglected in a gallery, and sold them to booksellers, by weight, as old parchment," in order (it may be hoped) to buy service-books for the Choir with the proceeds. Several Libraries, he adds, profited by this misconduct. Some books he had himself seen in the Library of Cardinal Mazarin. Others he had been enabled to re-purchase, from dealers, in order to restore them to their old abode. LIBEARY OF ST. GENEVIEVE. 131 nio-lit, the studies or the solace of a vast crowd of „ '"*'''''„, tJ ' Chaptf.r IV. readers. The readers of these days spend httle thought ^ ^^^'1^^^^°^ on their monkish predecessors; but they include per- st.genevieve sons of many calhngs and professions, and occasionally of ahnost all classes of society ; and some amongst them will be sure to learn eventually some degree of grati- tude for the past, wherewith to leaven and to dignify their enjoyment and their admiration of the present. Lallemant lived until 1673. He was followed in the librarianship by Claude Du Molinet, eminent as an antiquarian and numismatist, under whose care a new Library-building was constructed, a valuable cabinet of antiquities added, and the foundation of a collection of prints laid. Du Molinet's term of office was only fifteen years, but at his death the number of manu- scripts had increased to about four hundred, and that of printed books to nearly twenty thousand volumes. The medals and coins were already important enough to enable the Canons of St. Genevieve to bestow three hundred specimens on the King's collection, as a wel- come gift. They had partaken of the inheritance of the cabinet of Peiresc. Their Library was now^ to be nearly doubled by the The Benefaction gift of an episcopal collection, described by a conteni- Lel^'Tui^rf mo. porary as "rich and choice in what is best in books," ^ the fruit of the researches and of the liberal expendi- ture, during fifty years, of Charles Maurice Le Tellier, Archbishop of Elieims. " It would be a great loss if these books were scattered, as they doubtless would be, 1 PiGANiOL DE La Force: Deticriptioii de Paris, vi. 82 ; Franklin: An- cieime>> BihliotMque>^, i. 76. 132 MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PARTI after my death," writes tlie prelate in his last Will. Chapter IV. -J ' i i 6-LiBRARY OF u 'j'j^jg conviction," he continues, "makes me think it THE Abbey of ^ ' St. Genevieve j-^^y dutj to givc tlieui to a Community able to preserve them, to use them, and to dispense the use of them to the Public. I therefore give and bequeath my books to the Abbey of St. Genevieve-au-Mont."i This be- quest took effect in 1710. It added about sixteen thousand volumes to the previous collection. Galland, the well-known Orientalist,^ has recorded in' his MS. Diary (anno 1710) that he was told by Sarrebourse, then Librarian of St. Genevieve, that when the Archbishop's collection came to be collated with its catalogue, only one volume was found to be wanting. The missing volume w^as a book, entitled " Teatro Jesuitico," printed at Coimbra, of which, at that time, no other copy was known to bibliographers. Galland adds that his informant attributed the abs- traction of the ^'■Teatro" to a near relative of its owner, a certain "Abbe de L.," by which initial is plainly meant the well-known Abbe de Louvois, son of the Minister, and Keeper of the King's Library.^ Another extremely rare Le Tellier volume — much prized by lovers of early French literature — entitled L'An des sept Dames, disappeared from St. Genevieve's 1 Will of Archbishop Le Tellier ; preserved in the Archives of France ; printed by Franklin, 2it sup., 77. 2 The Galland known even to English children by his version of " The Thousand nights and one night." 3 Journal IIS. de Galland, § 25 Mai, 1710. I quote it from an article in the Journal des Savants, of August, 187(5, p. 525. Galland notes in a sub- sequent entry of his Diary that he had heard afterwards of a second copy of the Teatro Jesuitico, as having been brought to Paris from Lerida, where the owner had purchased it from a soldier present at the taking of that town. ST. GENEVIEVE LIERARY MADE PUBLIC. 133 Library for nearly seventy years. Then, this coveted p.^T, collection of medieval tales figured in the catalogue of § ^ " lIbrak Jof a sale by auction. It was eagerly purchased (tlie law st.^'genevLve now ajjplicable, in France, to such cases being non- existent) for the Library, and restored to its place ; but onl}' to disappear again witliin six months. Tliis ad- venturous volume again made its appearance at a pubhc sale; was again bought by its owners a few years since; and special care is now taken of a book so dangerously attractive to connoisseurs.^ There is contemporary evidence that the Canons wave f- o^^^vi^ve i. J o Library made virtual effect to Arclibishop Le Tellier's injunction by ^"™''- making their Library accessible upon application, though they did not expressly organize it as a public institution until many years afterwards. They had to enlarge their buildings. They were art-loving Monks accustomed, in externals, to a somewhat stately life. They did liberal honour to a liberal benefactor. When visitors entered the chief room of the restored Library, they were wont, says a contemporary writer, to be dazzled by its majestic perspective, its richly- painted ceiling, its long range of the busts of famous authors, and by other rich and varied decorations which attracted the eye at every step. Extant prints fully bear out this statement, and shew that the rich- ness of the repository was in due subordination to the contents. Outwardly, as well as intrinsically, the books were worthy of their abode. 1 De Bougy : Hist, de la BibliotMque de S. Genevieve. M. de Bougy has given a full account of the contents of this very curious volume. 134 MEDIiEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. chIpter'iv The Librarian of that day, Pierre Francois Le Cour- § 6-LiBRARY OF jj^YER, made himself in later life well-known here in THE Abbey of ' St. Genevieve j^j-^g J j^j-^^_ He Is deservedlj lionoured for literary and controversial labours which, at a peculiar juncture in her history, rendered to our National Church a welcome service. Like his early predecessor, Lallemant, he was in theology a Jansenist, and like him became for con- science sake an exile from the loved Monastery to which he had been a benefactor. The Librarian- Le Courrayer had acqulred for the Library of St. Le Courrayer. Gcnevievc B. copy of Eenaudot's Memoire sur la validite des Ordinations des Anglais; had read it and made some notes upon it. He had, as it seems, at the outset no purpose of taking any public share in the discussion, but the views he had formed, and had talked about, met with sympathy. He was asked to reply to Eenau- DOT. In due time his dissertation was sent to the offi- cial licenser of the press, and by him was sanctioned for publication. But it failed to obtain the final ap- proval of the Chancellor. In the interval, the writer heard that Archbishop Wake was in Paris, and came into communication with him. Eventually, the tract was published, in 1723, with the fictitious imprint of "Brussels," and without the author's name. It had really been printed at Nancy. Le courrayer's jj^ 1724, by au articlc iu the Journal des Savants, tract upon English XjE Courrayer avowed the authorship of the treatise. Ordinations ; • i • i and what it wliicli liad already been attacked with not a little bitterness. The controversy now increased in keen- ness, and many theologians of note took part in it. The author published, in 1726, an elaborate defence led to. PART I. Chapter IV. 6— Library of THE Abbey of St. Genevieve LE COURRAYER IN ENGLAND, 135 of liis treatise. He had already, by the advice of his superiors, retired from St. Genevieve to the dependant Priory of Hennemont. He was now formally con- demned and excommunicated by the sentence of a Council assembled at the Monastery of St. Germain (August, 1727), at which twenty-two prelates were present. Whilst still at Hennemont, Le Courrayer received from the University of Oxford his diploma as Doctor of Divinity. With it came assurances that if he should cross the Channel, he would find a cordial welcome. He arrived in England in January, 1728. The tasks of the Librarian were now to be entirely changed for those of the Writer. A long career lay yet before him; and he did not suffer himself, even in that controversial age, to be wholly absorbed in theo- logical polemics. But the events which had made him an exile coloured all his subsequent life. His first publication (1729) was a Relation historique et cqyologe- tique des sentimens et de la conduite du Pere Le Cour- rayer. It was followed by translations from Sleidan and from Paolo Sarpi. In the preface to Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent., he records in glowing terms his gratitude for the kindness which he had met with in England. Among his later literary labours are a Life of Le Bossu, and a Life of Du Molinet, his wor- thy predecessor in the Librarianship of St. Genevieve. Notwithstanding the liberal treatment and the warm friendships which he met with in England, he must needs have had many fond regrets for the old Parisian abode and workshop. In 1733, Le Courrayer appeared at the Oxford at^orforT.^^"^ 136 JIEDI^VAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART I. Chapter IV. St. Gknevievi Commemoration," and excited much attention. His ^ ^JabbeToT «peecli in tlie Slieldonian Theatre was printed both in Latin and Enghsh. To the abihties and the learning which had first won for him so kindly a reception, he added many genial qualities and many truly Christian charities. But in point of Christian faith he added, in the upshot, one instance more to the long line of ex- amples which shew how hard it is — in these later days — for men bred in the Eoman Communion to find sure anchorage in any other. With them, usually, it is Eo- manism — -or eventual scepticism. The exile from St. Genevieve survived his banishment nearly half-a-century ; dying (in Downing Street, West- minster,) in 177G, at the age of ninety-five. He be- queathed seven hundred pounds to the poor of two Westminster parishes; and also a considerable bene- faction to the poor of his birth-place in Normandy. He had in his lifetime known well how to find affection " in huts where poor men lie," as well as in a Parisian Abbey, or in an Oxford common-room. It is charac- teristic of the man, tliat the friend of Wake was also the friend of Atierbury. By the exiled Anglican Pre- late, a portrait of the exiled Augustinian Monk was be(pieatlied to the University which had incorporated him. Le Courrayer's books were given by his last will to Archbishop Tenison's Library at St. Martin's-in-the- Fields; — a Library devoted by its founder to public use, but suffered in our own days to be dispersed, by the supineness and neglect of those who should have been its guardians. That dispersion was as truly dis- He bequeaths his books to Tenison's Library at St. Martin's. THE DUKE OF ORLEANS AT ST. GENEVIEVE. 137 graceful to the Parliament which passed the needful chImeriv. Bill, from somnolence, as it was to the parishioners, and ^ ^^"J^abbeVoT to the Eector, who originated the Bill, from parsimony, st.genevieve Those whose better light might have led them to the duty of opposing its passing, were craftily taken by surprise. Le Coureayer's was far from being the only gift of an estimable benefactor which was desecrated when Tenison's Library was sold. And the sale took place after the passing of the " Pubhc Libraries Act " of 1850. Li the Librarianship at St. Genevieve, Claude Pre- LibranansMp of Claude Prevost. vosT had succeeded Le Courrayer, but only for a short time as chief. Le Courrayer's own predecessor, GiLLET, who had for a time taken tlie headship of a dependant Priory, returned to end his days in his old office, and the two became joint-librarians. Prevost made a book-hunting tour in the Netherlands, with good results for the Library of St. Genevieve.^ Towards the middle of tlie century the Abbey i^^-^^ZlXeoi ceived a princely guest, who was to surpass most of orkans!^"^*" °* the Canons of the House, so far as respects the volun- tary austerities and mortifications to which he subjected himself, and to equal the most studious of them in the diligent use of their Library. Lewis, Duke of Orleans, (son of the Eegent) seemed bent on exemplifying once again what saliency of contrast might be seen in the lives of a father and a son; — ^a contrast often shewn before, but rarely, perhaps, to a like extent. His se- clusion was enlivened by much learned conversation, 1 Jordan : Voyage LiMraire, 62. 138 MEDIiEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART I. Chapter IV. and by many of the delights of a collector. But the § 6-LiBRARY OF j)^j]^g seems to have spent most of his time in the study THE Abbey of -I ■' St. Genevieve Qf ^^iQ old Tlieologiaus aud Commeutators, and in the hard attempt to M^restle, at a mature age, with the lexicography and grammar of the Oriental tongues, that he might be the better fitted for his biblical read- ings, and for the composition of innumerable tracts on thorny topics of Divinity and of Ethics. These tracts he would not permit to be printed, nor did he leave them to his Augustinian hosts. He gave them, testa- mentarily, together with his printed books, to a neigh- bouring and much poorer Community of Dominicans. His Bequests to rjiQ St. Geiievievc, he bequeathed choice collections of the Library and ' 1 Abte"™ °^ """ ^6^^^^s and of gems ; and to its Curator in the Abbey, his Museum of Natural History. But most of these collections — other than books — were eventually claimed by the heirs-at-law, and became, in the issue, the foun- dation of the Museum at the Palais-Eoyal. The death of Duke Lewis, and of the learned joint-Librarians, Gillet and Prevost, with whom he had held so many a long discussion — suggestive, per- haps, of Casaubon's pithy question when told of the long ages of debate at the neighbouring Sorbonne: "What, then, have they decided?" — came closely pInSanf''"' together. The new Librarians were Alexander Gui Mercier. PiNGRE, aud Barthclemc Mercier, who, as is well known, made a deep mark in the annals of biblio- graphy. PiNGRE is better remembered for his devo- tion to astronomy, and for his passionate love of Horace, than for anything specially belonging to his Librarianship. THE LIBRARY AT THE REVOLUTION. 139 At this period, tlie Abbey of St. Genevieve became chI^eriv more than ever one of the ])0])ular sio-hts of Paris, from ^ c-libiiary of J- -!■ o ' THE Abbey of the development of its Museum of Antiquities; the st.genevieve foundation of which lay in the collections of Peiresc. The Museum now occupied nine handsome rooms. All the collections of the Abbey were made thoroughly available for students. When the Eevolution came, with its many perils for the best interests of learning and true civilisation, the Library of St. Genevieve had grown to 58,107 printed volumes and 2013 manuscripts. ^ The cabinet of coins and medals contained nearly 17,000 specimens. The newly-erected church of St. Genevieve was ^he Library *^ designated, at turned into a "Pantheon of Great Men" — after the esti- "^e Revolution, "Pantheon mate of the day; — subject, of course, to those instruc- library.- tive revised estimates which became necessary when the object of last week's adoration turned into the object of this week's hatred. The Library therefore came to be known as "Library of the Pantheon," and this conversion, combined with certain personal in- fluences, saved it from sharing in the general suppres- sion of Monastic Libraries, and the heaping-up of their 1 MS. Enumerations of 1790 (p. 99), preserved in the National Archives and quoted textually by Franklin : A7iciennefi BibliotMques de Paru, ut sup. The special historian of St. Genevieve, M. de Bougy, says that in 1787 the Library contained 80,000 printed volumes ; a statement which I was led to adopt in the first Edition of this book. De Bougy adds that at the date of the suppression the number of volumes was still the same. {HUtoire de la Bibl. de St. OenevUve, 128). But the documentary evidence adduced by M. Franklin is conclusive on this point. On the other hand, there is always in regard to the Libraries of 1790-1, the possibility of a withdrawal of books by their owners, on the eve of anticipated suppression, and in the hope of better times. This may sometimes, and to a certain extent, account for prevalent discrepancies of statement. 140 MEDLEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART J Chapter : 6— Libra THE Abbey of j^. treasures into chaotic "depots," under the guardianship "^ of the Connnunists. The subsidiary cabinet of medals St. Genevieve ^^,^j^ transferred to thc National Library. The Abbe Pingre quitted the Augustinian robe in 1790, and continued to be Librarian until his death in 1796. Mercier 1)e St. Leger had long ceased to be his colleague, but he retained his love for the old Abbey, and made frequent visits to its Library, Once, he had the shock of meeting in the street one of the tumbrils of "the Terror," and of seeing in it a beloved friend and comrade. The sight, it was believed, made his remaining years one long malady; but he lingered until 1799. Pingre was succeeded, for a few months only, by The Librarian- Gulllaume Aiitolue Lemonnier. Tlien^ came the me- ship and the .... literary and uiorablc Librarlausliip of Pierre Claude Francois public career of P. Daunou. Daunou, emincut as critic, as orator, as historian, as legist, and as statesman; not less eminent, too, in the humbler, but by him beloved, pursuits of bibliography. The man who could withstand the terrorists in their heighth of power ; who could preside with dignity over the National Convention, when the remnant of the KoBESPiERRE factiou were seeking to regain power by violence; who could, for conviction's sake, resist the blandishments of Napoleon, when he wore the yet un- stained laurels of Italy and of the Consulate ; could also employ himself with ardour in the daily tasks of the 1 Daunou's nomination is dated 17 Floreal an V = 6th May, 1797. EARLY LIFE OF DAUNOU. 141 Librarian, — could calendar records, or classify books, chIpter'iv. with equal assiduity.i ^ tntABrvT Daunou's life had been already varied and eventful «-«-— when he was appointed to the Librarianship at St. Genevieve. Born at Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1761, and educated there in the College of the Oratorians, he became himself a member of their Order before he was seventeen years of age; induced, it is probable, by the perspective of long years of quiet study in the well- stored Oratorian Libraries. That pleasant prospect was indeed illusive, but the labours in literature of a public, turmoiled, and most chequered life, would have done honour — as far as literature is concerned — to a lifetime spent in a cloister of the Congregation of St. Maur, The Oratorians of 1780— like the Oratorians of 1880, nearer home — had "many windows open to the busy world, "2 and the currents of thought from without must have largely modified the teachings within. Daunou did not learn all that the Oratorians of the best days could have taught him. He learnt the lessons of inde- fatigable industry, and of fidelity to conscience. But it was the conscience of this world pre-eminentl3\ He seems never to have regained the faith of the early years. His earliest tasks were those of a tutor and lecturer in many Colleges of his Order. He had often to make long journeys on foot to Paris and elsewhere. It was 1 See the testimony on this point of an admirable judge, the late Marquis de Laborde, which I have cited on a subsequent page. 2 The expression is Saitite-Beuve's (Portraits coiite7nporaire-< et divevi, iii. 8). 142 MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. PART I. Chapter IV. noted of him, thus early, that many a book was mas- ^ tn^ABBE^o ' ^®^Q^ in a walk.i He taught theology as well as St. Genevieve pi^Q^g^^pl^y aud Hterature. But tlieology to him was never a congenial field of labour. Daunou's first publication was a prize-essay written for the Academy of Msmes, on the question: ''''What has been Boileaits influence on French Literature?'' (1787). It led to a polemic in which the youthful writer shewed powers of fence quite equal to the occasion. 2 His next appearance was upon a point of social law (in 1788) in which the nascent powers of the future legislator were already to be recognized. Then (1790) came another academical essay, ^ which subse- quent events made famous. This essay, which the crowding incidents of the day deprived of its expected audience, was followed by the first of a long series of writings on Public Education, varied in form, and many ways fruitful in result. As an orator, Daunou made his first appearance at a funeral ceremony, in the Church of the Oratorians of Paris, for those who had fallen in the attack on the Bastille. It was to be his fortune tliereafter to deliver the funeral oration for Hociie, in the Champ-de- Mars; to preside, and to speak, on many questions 1 Ibid. 2 ViLLENAVE : Vk. (le Daunou (in Nouv. Biofj. G^n., xiii. 186). .3 On tlie question, proposed by the Lyons Academy, "What truths and what opinions is it most important to impress on men for their happiness?" A question soon to receive some remarkable answers, then quite unantici- pated at Lyons or elsewhere. The events of 1791 prevented any adjudication by the Academy. See Sainte-Beuve : Portraits Contemp., iii. 19. DAUNOU'S POLITICAL CAREER. 143 which mark epoclis in the History of the Conven- chIwer'iv tioii/ and of the Council of Five Hundred. He was * "^-^'f «^''^' "^ THE Abbey of also to deUver the installation-speech of the Institute st.genevievb (in April, 1796), of which he was to be so conspicuous Daunou-s a member for forty-four years. But nothing in all the briUiant labours of the orator and publicist — extended over half a century — does more honour to his memory than do the courageous and pregnant words which he addressed to the Convention in 1794: — "Anarchy has contrived to compress into one single year more disas- ters and more crimes than human histor}^ has, until now, recorded for several centuries." These words were written in the old Abbey of Port- Eoyal, at Paris (then converted into one of the prisons of the Terror), an Abbey so teeming with memories of great publicists connected with the first and best period of the "Port-Eoyal" of history. Whilst fully accepting the truth of Daunou's denunciations of the crimes of 1793-94, one can scarcely — -whilst reading it, and think- ing of the place where it was written — -avoid a retro- spect at those atrocities of a bygone day which had not even the poor extenuation of popular frenzy and popular ignorance. The History of the Terror is, in one of its aspects, a commentary on the Ecclesiastical history of France in the sixteentli and seventeenth centuries, and very specially a commentary on the annals of the two Abbeys of Port-Eoyal. Soon after his . appointment (1797) to the Librarian- 1 He was returned to the National Convention for the department of Pas-de-Calais, with two most strangely assorted colleagues, Carnot and Thomas Paine. 144 MEDIEVAL LIBRARIES OF PARIS. chIpter'iv ^^^^P ^^ ^^' G-enevieve, Daunou was sent into Italy to §6-LiBRARY0F Qj.(yg^jj^2e the new Eepublic of the Eoman States, At THE Abbey ok o 1 St. Genevieve £yj^^g^ hc found the pnvate Library of Pope Pius the His purchase of Sixth, which had been seized by the usurpers of the day, Pius VI. under offer of sale. He obtained authority from the French Directory to purchase^ the more choice and rare books of that collection, in part for the National Library; in part for that of St. Genevieve. Among the books selected for St. Genevieve (then, it will be remem- bered, designated "Library of the Pantheon,") were a fine series of the editions of Sweynheym and Pannartz, and of those of other early printers ; with many precious copies of the great books of prints on the Vatican col- lections and the other art-treasures of Eome, Those of Daunou's acquisitions which had been allotted to the National Library were restored to Italy in 1815; those sent to St. Genevieve's were not claimed.- They were shewn with some pride to the bibliographer Dibdin in 1818; and they are to be seen still. One of the revolu- tionary depots of the books confiscated in Paris itself had been established in the Abbe}^ buildings, and the Library shared largely in the spoils. Probably, not less than 20,000 volumes were thus added ; the larger por- tion of them being taken from the collection of the suppressed Cordeliers.^ Daunou had been a very prominent member of the 1 See De Bouuy: Hi'it. de la hiJd. de St. Genevieve, ut sup. 2 DiBuix: Bihliographkcd Tour in France, d-c, ii. 171. 3 The Cordeliers of Paris possessed, at the date of their suppression, 17,614 volumes (Etaf, d-c, cited by Fkanklin: Ancienue.s BihUoth., i. 207). According to M. de Bougy, most of these came to St. Genevieve. LIBRARIANSniP OF DAUNOU. 145 Council of Five-Hundred. His political course had cnlpTERiv. been marked by moderation, as well as by energy. At *' "J^J^amey o7 the fall of the Directory he narrowly missed nomination st.genevieve as one of the three Consuls. He then busied himself as zealously in the task of classifying, arranging, and cataloo'uino-i the vast undi^ HiKtoriens (Hist. Gen.) pp. 450, 451 (1872). 2 SciiMELi.ER : Ueber Bilchercatalogue des X F. und frUherer Jahrhuvderte [Serapeum, ii. 243), 176 ECONOMY OF THE MONASTIC LIBRARIES. PAET I Qf ^iiich are tlieolofyical, or devotional ; these are fol- Chapter VI.— o ' Economy of ^Qwed bv scientific, poetical, and historical books, indis- THE Monastic j ^ l ^ Libraries, criminatelv. Here, the only classification is that re- sulting from the different uses to which the books were ap2:)lied, under the Monastic regulations. In the Catalof?ue of the Library of the Monastery of Catalogue of the ° '' Library of gt. Emiiieram at Eatisbon, the arrangement is that of St. Emmeram, Ratisbon. tlic desks or book-cases in which the volumes were placed. Of these there were thirty-two. Beginning with the text of Holy Scripture, followed by Commen- taries, and the Works of the Fathers; the sequence of Theological books is interrupted at Press XYI. by "History," which is probably a necessity of local con- struction; the numeration of the presses appearing to indicate that groups of them, along the main wall, were allotted to the more richly provided classes of books, and the narrow "end-presses" to the poorer classes. "Law," "Arts," "Polygraphy," follow after Theology. Hortatory Divinity and portions of the Bible fill the last two presses as numbered ; the position of which brought them probably next to the first. Another Catalogue of the same collection, apparently written about 1460, preserves the same general arrange- ment, witli certain improvements in details. Forty j^ears later, comes a new arrangement introduced by Brother Dion}'sius Menger, whose Catalogue divides the Library into"(l) Vellum MSS.; (2) Paper MSS. ; (3) Printed Books. These sections are subdivided into the letters of the alphabet, and these again ])y figures, extending usually to 20 under each letter. Thus of the 420 vel- lum MSS., the first {Papias sive Mater Verbonim, in CATALOGUES OF MONASTIC LIBRARIES. 177 magno volumine et antiqua bona scTijytura) is marked PART I. Chapter VI. — A. 1.; and the last (Tahala notahilis et inaqistralis, in economy of ' \ t/ ' THE Monastic per