next to Rome, was the principal repository for books in Italy-greatly reduced the number of manuscripts, or contributed to their mutilation.

Soon after monachism was regularly formed in the sixth century, the monks, especially those under the rules of St. Benedict, which did not prohibit the reading of the classics, turned their attention to procuring and copying manuscripts. Most of these indeed were worthless; but truth obliges us to add, that many of the abbots, and even monks, employed themselves in procuring or copying the choicest works of Greece and Rome*. Cassiodorus, to use the words of Gibbon, "after passing thirty years in the honours of the world, was blessed with an equal term of repose in the devout and studious solitude of Squillace." To this place, the monastery of Monte Cassino, in Calabria, he carried his own extensive library, which he greatly enlarged by manuscripts bought at a considerable expense in various parts of Italy. His fondness for literature spread among the monks; he encouraged them to copy manuscripts; and even wrote a treatise giving minute directions for copying with correctness and facility. What he did there seems to have been imitated in the other monasteries of that part of Italy; for fifty religious houses there are mentioned, which afterwards principally supplied the libraries of Rome, Venice, Florence, and Milan, with manuscripts. north of Italy had also similar establishments in monasteries for copying. The monastery of Benedictines at Bobbio, according to Tiraboschi, was celebrated for its cultivation of literature. The same author fixes the systematic commencement of the copying of the classics in the sixth century. The monasteries of the Morea, and of the islands of Eubea and Crete, but more especially the numerous religious houses which covered the heights and sides of Mount Athos, had always some of their inhabitants employed in the transcription of books.

The

It was a fixed rule in religious houses that all their inmates should devote a portion of the day to labour. Such as were unable to work at employments

Some of the early fathers employed much of their time in dictating their works. Eusebius gives a cu rious picture of Origen's mode of composition: he had seven notarii, or short-hand writers, who suceeeded each other, as they became weary with writing: he had also a regular establishment of men and young women, who wrote beautifully, to copy his

works.

requiring toil and strength, or particular skill, discharged their duty by copying manuscripts; and as it was another rule, that every vacancy should be filled up, as soon as ever it took place, there was always a considerable number of copyists. In every great abbey, an apartment, called the scriptorium, was expressly fitted up, as a writing-room. That of St. Alban's abbey was built about 1080, by a Norman, who ordered many volumes to be written there; the exemplars were furnished by Archbishop Lanfranc. Estates and legacies were often bequeathed for the support of the scriptorium, and tithes appropriated for the express purpose of copying books. The transcription of the service books for the choir was intrusted to boys and novices; but the missals and Bibles were ordered to be written by monks of mature age and discretion. Persons qualified by experience and superior learning were appointed to revise every manuscript that came from the scriptorium. The copying of books was executed in other places besides monasteries; sometimes by individuals, from their attachment to literature; but generally by persons who made it their professed employment. Richard of Bury, bishop of Durham, in the thirteenth century, is highly celebrated for his love and encouragement of literature. Besides his libraries, which were numerous in all his palaces, and the books which covered the floor of his common apartments, so that it was no easy matter to approach him, he had a great number of copyists, illuminators, and binders, in his pay. While Chancellor and Treasurer of England, he preferred receiving the usual perquisites of his office in books, instead of the usual new year's gifts and presents. Copyists were found in all the great towns; but were most numerous in such as had universities. It is said that more than six thousand persons at Paris subsisted by copying and illuminating manuscripts, at the time when printing was introduced into that city: they held their privilege under the University. We know little certain of the rate at which copyists were paid; one fact, however, mentioned by Stow, in his Survey of London,' may be given: In 1433, 667. 138. 4d. was paid for transcribing a copy of the works of Nicholas de Lyra, in two volumes, to be chained in the library of the Grey Friars. The usual price of wheat at this time was 5s. 4d.

the quarter. The wages of a ploughman were one penny a day; of a sawyer, four-pence; and of a stone-cutter, the same*.

The Jews practised the business of copying, and greatly excelled in fine and regular writing. But they confined their labours chiefly to the Old Testament, and their own religious books. In some of the Hebrew manuscripts, executed by them, the letters are so equal, that they seem to have been printed. Even at present, as Mr. Butler remarks, "those who have not seen the rolls used in the synagogues, can have no conception of the exquisite beauty, correctness, and equality, of the writing."

The ancients most commonly wrote only on one side of the parchment or paper, joining the sheets together till their work was entirely writtent. The manuscript was then rolled on a cylinder, and called volumen. More than one book was seldom included in a volume. Thus the fifteen books of Ovid's Metamorphoses, were in fifteen volumes. The volume being formed, a ball of wood, bone, ivory, &c., was fastened to it on the outside, for ornament and security. This was the most ancient mode of binding books, if so it may be called; and it was followed long after the time of Augustus. The square form, it is said, was first given to books by one of the kings of Pergamus; and it is certain that Julius Cæsar introduced the custom of dividing his letters to the senate, and folding them like our books. Previously to his time, when the consuls wrote to the senate, their letters were rolled up in a volume. • It must be noticed, however, that the illumina

tions, as well as the ornaments, are probably included in the sun; if not the materials used, at least the workmanship. The works of Nicholas de Lyra seem to have been in high repute, and much honoured. John Whethamstede, abbot of St. Alban's, highly celebrated for his studious employment and love of literature, began, during his abbacy, a grand transcript of the Postilla of De Lyra; the ornaments and hand writing were most splendid. The monk, who mentions it, and who lived after him, when it was still unfinished, exclaims, "God grant that this work may receive, in our days, a happy consummation."

† Pasting the leaves together was a distinct and regular business, carried on by persons called glutinatores. In parchment there appear to have been ruled lines to direct the writing; whereas, when writing on paper, which in general was very fine, and almost transparent, a leaf of ruled paper was put beneath. The double paper, mentioned by Pliny, on

When books were exposed to sale, they were covered with skins, which were rendered smooth by pumice-stone. There was one particular street in Rome, or rather a part of one street, in which the booksellers chiefly lived. In the middle ages books were usually bound by monks. There were also trading binders, called ligatores, and persons whose sole business it was to sell covers. White sheep-skin, pasted on a wooden board, sometimes overlapping the leaves, and fastened with a metal cross, was the most common kind of binding. It was deemed the duty of the sacrists in particular to bind and clasp the books. There is a curious charter of Charle magne's, in 790, to the abbots and monks of Sithin, by which he grants them an unlimited right of hunting, on condition that the skins of the deer they killed should be used in making them gloves and girdles, and covers for their books.

We know little about booksellers in the early part of the dark ages; it is probable, indeed, that for many centuries there was no mode of procuring a copy of a book but by borrowing it, and employing a copyist, to transcribe it. Books, however, as well as other articles, were occasionally sold in the porches of the churches-a place where law meetings were held, and money paid, in order that its payment might be attested, if necessary, by some of the persons there assembled. We may suppose that, for the same reason, books

were sold there. This custom seems to have been adopted from a similar one which prevailed in the porticoes of the Greek and Roman temples; for in them goods were sold, and business transacted. We may also trace to the schools which were established there, for children even of the highest rank,-the custom mentioned by Shakspeare, of parish schools being held in the porch, or in a room above the church.

Mr. Hallam says booksellers appear in the latter part of the twelfth century; and quotes Peter of Blois, who mentions a law book which he had bought from a public seller of books. The Jews of

pasting two leaves together, in such a manner that the grain of the paper was crossed. The blank side of manuscripts, written on single paper, was sometimes used for rough drafts, or given to children for copy-books-hence the Latin term, adversaria,-a note-book, loose papers.

his verses, he adds, were publicly sold in a street in that city, which he calls the Booksellers'-Street; this was about the year 1220, The Greek and Roman

authors adopted rather a singular custom, either to make their works sell after they were actually published, or, more probably, to create a disposition to purchase them when they should come into the hands of the booksellers. We learn from Theophrastus, Juvenal, Pliny, and Tacitus, (particularly from the last,) that a person who wished to bring his writings into notice, hired or borrowed a house, fitted up a room in it, hired forms, and circulated prospectuses, and read his productions before an audience, there and thus collected. Giraldus Cambrensis did the same in the middle ages, in order to make his works known.

Having thus given an account of the manner in which manuscripts were copied and increased in monasteries, &c. we shall now state the causes of their destruction and loss. Till the establishment of Monachism, Christianity, or rather its blind and bigoted professors, were hostile to the classics; -the monasteries in a great degree made up for this by the care they took and the copies they made of them. But one of the causes of their destruction arose, even in the monasteries. The high price of parchment at all times, and its firm and tough texture, tempted and enabled the ancients to erase what had been written on it, (especially, we may suppose, when the contents were of little moment,) in order to use it again for writing upon. A manuscript of this kind was called a Palimpsest. Cicero's self-love took the alarm when his friend Tribatius wrote a letter to him on such parchment. After praising him for his parsimony, he expresses his wonder what he had erased to write such a letter, except it were his law notes; "for I cannot think that you would efface my letter to substitute your own." This practice, in the dark and middle ages, became so prevalent, and was productive of such serious consequences, the most important documents often being destroyed to make way for trash, that the emperors of Germany, in their patents of nobility, with power to create imperial notaries, inserted a clause to the following effect: "On condition that they should not make use of old or erased parchment, but that it should be quite new." The parchment was generally erased but the monks had also a practice of taking out the writing by a chemical process; and sometimes they peeled off the surface of the parchment. They had recourse to these destructive prac

tices, not only when they wished to add to their stock of religious works, but also when they wanted to raise a sum of money. In this case, they erased the old writing-paying little regard to its value or rarity-wrote a legend or a psalter, and sold it to the common people. Though it had been long known that the writings of classical authors lay concealed and nearly obliterated beneath the literary rubbish of the monks-and this in numerous cases-for Montfaucon affirms that the greater part of the MSS. he had examined were of this description; yet no steps were taken to recover the original and more valuable writings, till Angelo Mai undertook the task: he has succeeded in recovering several works, the most important of which is a considerable portion of Cicero de Republica that had been erased, and replaced by St. Augustine's Commentary on the Psalms.

The conquest of Egypt by the Saracens, which rendered it almost impracticable to procure papyrus paper, and the consequent high price of parchment, and temptation to erasure, were injurious to literature, not only in this respect, but by the alarm it gave to Europe. This event, their subsequent conquest of Spain, the Norman invasion of France, and the wars by which various parts of Europe were so long and dreadfully afflicted, afforded opportunities and pretexts for plundering the convents and cities, and thus caused the destruction and loss of a great number of valuable manuscripts.

We have already alluded, generally, to the facility with which books can be procured now, and the extreme difficulty even of ascertaining where they were to be found before the invention of printing; when that was ascertained, of gaining access to them, or a loan of them; and the high price at which they were then sold. We shall now give several instances of the truth of this general statement, for, in no other manner, can we so clearly point out and prove the very great advantages that literature and science have derived from the art of printing. The materials employed formerly to write upon-the cumbersome or perishable nature of some-the dearness of others—the length of time necessarily taken up, in writing books with the hand

the few places in which they were accumulated-the difficulty of access to them-their liability to destruction,

-and the practice of the monks' erasing the writing,-have prepared our readers to anticipate their great rarity and value. We must premise, however, that though the facts we shall state will sufficiently prove the high price of manuscript books, yet we cannot gain a precise notion of the subject, because, in many cases, that arose in a great measure from the splendour of their illuminations, and cost of outward workmanship-and, setting aside this consideration, because it is not possible to ascertain exactly the comparative value of money in those ages, and in the present times. Where we have dates, we shall add the price of wheat, and the wages of labour-perhaps the best criteria for ascertaining the purchasing power of money. We shall begin with instances of the rarity of manuscripts, as it is shown in the anxiety to borrow them, and the conditions on which they were lent. We have already mentioned Richard of Bury. In his Philobiblion he devotes one entire chapter expressly to an enumeration of the conditions on which books were to be lent to strangers. In 1299, the Bishop of Winchester borrowed a Bible in two volumes folio, from a convent in that city, giving a bond drawn up in a most formal and solemn manner, for its due return. This Bible had been given to the convent by a former bishop, and in consideration of this gift, and 100 marks, the monks founded a daily mass for the soul of the donor. In the same century several Latin Bibles were given to the University of Oxford, on condition that the students who read them should deposit a cautionary pledge. And even after manuscripts were multiplied by the invention of linen paper, it was enacted by the statutes of St. Mary's College, at Oxford, in 1446, that "no scholar shall occupy a book in the library above one hour, or two hours at most, lest others should be hindered from the use of the same." Money was often lent on the deposit of a book; and there were public chests in the universities, and other places in which the books so deposited were kept. They were often particularly named and described in wills-generally left to a relation or friend, in fee, and for the term of his life, and afterwards to the library of some religious house. "When a book was bought," observes Mr. Warton, "the affair was of so much importance, that it was customary to assemble persons of consequence and character, and to make

a formal record that they were present on the occasion." The same author adds, "Even so late as the year 1471, when Louis XI. of France borrowed the works of the Arabian physician Rhasis, from the faculty of medicine at Paris, he not only deposited, by way of pledge, a quantity of valuable plate, but was obliged to procure a nobleman to join with him as surety in a deed, by which he bound himself to return it under a considerable forfeiture." Long and violent altercations, and even lawsuits, sometimes took place in consequence of the disputed property of a book.

Books were so scarce in Spain in the tenth century, that several monasteries had among them only one copy of the Bible, of Jerome's Epistles, and of several other religious books; and monasteries had frequently only one missal. There are some curious instances given by Lupus, abbot of Ferrieris, of the extreme scarcity of classical manuscripts in the middle of the ninth century: he was much devoted to literature; and, from his letters, appears to have been indefatigable in his endeavours to find out such manuscripts, in order to borrow and copy them. In a letter to the Pope he earnestly requests of him a copy of Quintilian, and of a treatise of Cicero; for, he adds, though we have some fragments of them, a complete copy is not to be found in France. In two other of his letters, he requests of a brother abbot the loan of several manuscripts, which he assures him shall be copied and returned as soon as possible by a faithful messenger. Another time he sent a special messenger to borrow a manuscript, promising that he would take very great care of it, and return it by a safe opportunity, and requesting the person who lent it to him, if he were asked to whom he had lent it, to reply, to some near relations of his own, who had been very urgent to borrow it. Another manuscript, which he seems to have prized much, and a loan of which had been so frequently requested, that he thought of banishing it somewhere that it might not be destroyed or lost, he tells a friend he may perhaps lend him, when he comes to see him, but that he will not trust it to the messenger who had been sent for it, though a monk, and trustworthy, because he was travelling on foot. We shall extract only one more instance of the scarcity of manuscripts from the letters of Lupus: