ten by mistake; a knife for mending the reed; pumice, for a similar purpose, or to smooth the parchment; compasses for measuring the distances of the lines; scissars, for cutting the paper; a puncher, to point out the beginning and end of each line; a rule, to draw lines, and divide the sheets into columns; a glass, containing sand, and another glass filled with water, probably to mix with the ink.

Neither the particular species of calamus, used as pens by the ancients, nor the manner in which they prepared them for this purpose, is known. This is remarkable, since all the places, where these reeds grow wild, have been ascertained, and explored by botanists: with so little success, however, that after a variety of learned as well as scientific conjectures, the calamus of the ancients has not yet found a place in the botanical system of Linneus.

This is yet more remarkable, as reeds are still employed by many eastern nations to write with. Ranwolf, who travelled in the sixteenth century, informs us that canes for pens were sold in the shops of Turkey, small, hollow within, smooth without, and of a brownish colour. Tavernier, Chardin, Tournefort, and other travellers, give a similar aocount, adding, that the reeds are about the size of large swan quills, and are cut and split in the same manner that we do quills, except that their nib is much larger. The best grow near the Persian Gulph. It is highly probable, that, of whatever species these are, they are of the same as those employed by the ancients; and that the mode of preparing them, still practised in the east, was followed by the ancients. They are put for some months in a dunghill; this gives them a dark yellow colour, a fine polish, and the requisite hardness.

Reeds continued to be used even so late as the eighth century, though there can be no doubt that quill pens were known in the middle of the seventh. The earliest author who uses the word penna for a writing pen, is Isidorus, who lived in that century; and towards the latter end of the same century, a Latin sonnet to a pen was written by an AngloSaxon author. There is, indeed, in the Medicean Library, a MS. of Virgil, written in the beginning of the 5th century, evidently, from the gradual and regular fineness of the hair strokes, by some instrument as elastic as a quill; but there is no proof that it was really

written with a quill. Considering that pens from quills were certainly known in the seventh century, they must have come into general use very slowly; for in 1433, a present of a bundle of quills was sent from Venice by a monk, with a letter, in which he says, "Shew the bundle to Brother Nicholas, that he may choose a quill."

The composition and the colours of the ink used by the ancients were various. Lamp-black, or the black taken from burnt ivory, and soot from furnaces and baths, according to Pliny and other writers, formed the basis of it: the black liquor of the cuttle fish is also said to have been used as ink, principally on the authority of a metaphorical expression of the poet Persius. But of whatever ingredients it was made, it is certain, from chemical analysis, from the solidity and blackness in the most ancient manuscripts, and from an inkstand found at Herculaneum, in which the ink appears like a thick oil, that the ink then made was much more opaque as well as encaustic than that used at present. Inks, red, purple and blue, and also silver and gold inks, were much employed by the ancients; the red was made from vermilion, cinnabar, and carmine; the purple from the murex; one kind of this coloured ink, called the sacred encauster, was set apart for the sole use of the emperors. The subscription at the end of most Greek manuscripts, containing the name of the copyist, and the year, month, day, and sometimes hour, when he finished his labour, were generally written, in the period of the Lower Empire, in purple ink. Golden ink was used by the Greeks much more than by the Romans. The manufacture both of it and silver ink was a distinct and extensive, as well as a lucrative business in the middle ages; and another distinct business was that of inscribing the titles, capitals or emphatic words, in coloured and gold or silver inks.

CHAPTER III.

Manuscript Books—where written and copied, and by whom-Causes of their Destruction or Loss-their Rarity and high price—Libraries— Schools.

THE foregoing chapter proves very strongly and clearly the obstacles and impediments in the way of the communication and transmission of knowledge

among the ancients, and in the dark and middle ages, in so far as the nature of the materials employed for those purposes is concerned. Masses of stone or marble, metal, or blocks or planks of wood, were too heavy and cumbrous to circulate in order to learn what the inscriptions on them related to, it was necessary that they should be consulted on the spot. Even after better materials were used, such as tablets, parchment, and the papyrus paper, the difficulties and disadvantages were great. Wax tablets might answer for notes, letters, or very short treaties, but scarcely for writings of any great length. Besides it appears that they were chiefly intended and applied for private use, and never circulated. Parchment never could have been abundant and cheap; and being, at least during the Greek and Roman period, manufactured exclusively or principally, in one place, other parts of the world must have been dependant for their supply upon it. Papyrus paper was cheaper, and in much greater abundance; but for a supply of it, the world was indebted to Egypt alone; and we have seen how this supply was cut off or much diminished when the Saracens obtained possession of that country. The invention of paper from linen rags succeeded. Dr. Robertson remarks that "it preceded the first dawning of letters and improvement in knowledge towards the close of the eleventh century, and that by means of it, not only the number of manuscripts increased, but the study of the sciences was wonderfully facilitated." So far, indeed, as respects material, after this period, the European world was nearly as well off for the means of cir. culating and transmitting knowledge, as we of the present day are. But we must never lose sight of this fact, that all books were manuscript, written by the hand. How this was accomplished, by whom, and where, form part of the inquiries answered in the present chapter. If we look at the voluminous works of some of the ancient Fathers or schoolmen, we must be struck with astonishment, when we reflect that copies of them were made by the pen alone, and that their circulation, which seems to have been extensive, could not proceed unless the pen supplied copies. From this single fact, we shall be prepared to expect that the copyists of books must, at all times before the invention of printing, have been very numerous; following a regular business, that afforded

full employment, and required experience and skill, as well as legible and expeditious writing.

The booksellers

This was indeed the case in Greece, Rome, Alexandria, and other places before the Christian era; and after its establishment, in the monasteries, universities, and many other places. At Athens copyists by profession were numerous, and gained a steady and considerable livelihood, as, notwithstanding their number and labours, books were seldom very common. of Athens employed them principally to copy books of amusement, most of which were exported to the adjoining countries on the shores of the Mediterranean, and sometimes even to the Greek colonies on the Euxine. In many of these places the business of copying was carried on, and libraries formed. Individuals also employed themselves, occasionally, in copying; and there are instances recorded of some forming their own libraries by copying every book they wished to put into them. Not long after the death of Alexander, the love of science and literature passed from Athens and Greece generally, to Alexandria, where, patronised by the Ptolemies, they flourished vigorously, and for a considerable period seemed to have concentred themselves. Under the same roof with the celebrated library there, (which is said to have contained at one time 700,000 volumes,) were extensive offices, regularly and completely fitted up for the business of transcribing books: and it was the practice of foreign princes, who wished for copies of books, to maintain copyists in this city. Some of the libraries of Rome, having been destroyed by fire, the Emperor Domitian sent copyists to Alexandria, that he might be able to replace them. This practice continued for some centuries after Domitian, probably till the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens in the middle of the seventh century. The supposed invention of parchment by a king of Pergamus has already been mentioned. This is doubtful; but it is certain that there were extensive manufactories of that article there, almost entirely for the use of the copyists, who were attached to the royal library; this is said to have contained 200,000 books.

We are ignorant of the class of people in ancient Grecce, by whom the business of copying was chiefly followed, and of the education they received. But

we know, that, in Rome, the copyists were usually slaves who had received a liberal education. Sometimes they were freedmen, especially those employed by private individuals. The Romans, of rank and consequence, seldom wrote their works, speeches, or even letters themselves;-it was customary for them to dictate to such of their slaves or freedmen, as had been liberally educated, who wrote the MS. in a kind of short hand, or rather in contractions and signs which stood for words and syllables. If the work was. intended for publication, it was sent to the booksellers who employed people to copy it fairly in the ordinary characters. This kind of short hand is said to have been invented by Xenophon it was certainly much extended and improved by the Romans. Tyro, Cicero's freedman, in copying the speeches of Cato, first regulated the method of taking down public harangues -hence their nota took his name, Nota Tyronian; they were in use in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Many of the speeches of Cicero and other distinguished statesmen and orators, in the senate or at the forum, were taken down by short-hand writers stationed there. Extreme rapidity of writing was absolutely necessary : this led them to contract words more and more, and to multiply the number of the contractions. In many cases, either for the sake of greater expedition, or of secrecy, "signs or marks which could be currently made with one dash or scratch of the style, and without lifting or turning it, came to be employed, instead of those letters which were themselves abbreviations of words. This mode of dictation, and of rapid and abbreviated writing, continued to be practised, at least as late as the fourth century."

This, itself, must have occasioned many errors; but the chief source of errors in the MSS. of the ancients arose from the transcribers employed by the booksellers; these were often ignorant and careless; and complaints on that score are made against them, at a very early period, by Lucilius, in one of his satires, and afterwards by Cicero, Strabo, Martial, and other authors. Strabo informs us that in his time the copyists were so careless that they neglected to compare what they wrote with the exemplar: this, he adds, has been the case in many works copied for sale, at Rome and Alexandria. Individuals seldom copied books for their own use at Rome. Plu

tarch, indeed, mentions, that Cato the Censor, out of his great anxiety for the education of his son, wrote out, for his use, with his own hand, in large letters, such historical works as he wished him to read; but this is evidently noticed as an extraordinary and unusual action. When a person, from the absence of his scribe or other cause, wrote his letters himself, the extreme rapidity to which he had been accustomed while dictating unavoidably produced rapid and illegible writing. Cicero, in reply to the com plaint of his brother Quintus, that he could not read his letters, tells him that when he wrote himself, he wrote with whatever pen he took up, whether good or bad*.

When the seat of the Roman empire was transferred to Constantinople, that city, for upwards of one thousand years, became the chief seat of literature, and source of books. The liberality and munificence of the emperors in purchasing books, and having them copied, are repeatedly noticed, especially by the Byzantine historians. The manuscripts executed in that city are, in general, beautifully written, and sometimes most splendidly decorated. Though the number of books, and the demand for them in ancient times, were, comparatively, extremely limited, yet, in consequence of the frequent destruction of manuscripts, by common accidents and casualties, the business of copyists must have been very extensive. When the Roman empire began to decline, their destruction was extended and increased in the midst of the turbulence and rapine of the civil contests for the imperial throne. Christianity, properly understood, and exercising its due influence on the understanding and character, must be a warm friend of knowledge and literature: but the spurious Christianity, believed and acted upon in the dark ages, was hostile to some of the noblest productions of the human mind. The temples of the Heathens, with the public libraries they contained, were the objects of vengeance and destruction. The classics were represented as sinful books. In addition to these causes, the capture of Rome in the fifth century,-the devastations committed by Alaric, Genseric, and Attila-and the plunder of Milan, which,

Quintilian informs us that wax tablets were preferred to paper, when it was necessary or desirable to write with rapidity, as the pen required to be fre

quently raised from the paper, to be dipped in the ink ing with the style on tablets. -an intermision and delay not required when writ

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. The 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.

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 succeeded each other, as they became weary with writ ing: 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 illuminations, 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 both sides of which the ancients wrote, was made by

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 Lote-book, loose papers.

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 t 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 Spain about this period were much devoted to literature: Leo Africanus alludes to one Jewish philosopher of Cordova, who, having fallen in love, turned poet : 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