Chapter XV: Part IV: =The Library.= (2)

In the plan which I may pursue, you must forgive me, my friends, if you find it desultory and irregular: and, as a proof of the sincerity of your criticism, I earnestly beg that, like the chivalrous judge, of whom mention was made last night, you will cry out "_Ho!_" when you wish me to cease. But where shall we begin? From what period shall we take up the history of BOOKISM (or, if you please, BIBLIOMANIA) in this country? Let us pass over those long-bearded gentlemen called the Druids; for in the various hypotheses which sagacious antiquaries have advanced upon their beloved _Stone-henge_, none, I believe, are to be found wherein the traces of a _Library_, in that vast ruin, are pretended to be discovered. As the Druids were sparing of their writing,[227] they probably read the more; but whether they carried their books with them into trees, or made their pillows of them upon Salisbury-plain, tradition is equally silent. Let us therefore preserve the same prudent silence, and march on at once into the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries; in which the learning of Bede, Alcuin, Erigena, and Alfred, strikes us with no small degree of amazement. Yet we must not forget that their predecessor THEODORE, archbishop of Canterbury, was among the earliest book-collectors in this country; for he brought over from Rome, not only a number of able professors, but a valuable collection of books.[228] Such, however, was the scarcity of the book article, that Benedict Biscop (a founder of the monastery of Weremouth in Northumberland), a short time after, made not fewer than five journeys to Rome to purchase books, and other necessary things for his monastery--for one of which books our immortal Alfred (a very _Helluo Librorum_! as you will presently learn) gave afterwards as much land as eight ploughs could labour.[229] We now proceed to BEDE; whose library I conjecture to have been both copious and curious. What matin and midnight vigils must this literary phenomenon have patiently sustained! What a full and variously furnished mind was his! Read the table of contents of the eight folio volumes of the Cologne edition[230] of his works, as given by Dr. Henry in the appendix to the fourth volume of his history of our own country; and judge, however you may wish that the author had gone less into abstruse and ponderous subjects, whether it was barely possible to avoid falling upon such themes, considering the gross ignorance and strong bias of the age? Before this, perhaps, I ought slightly to have noticed INA, king of the West Saxons, whose ideas of the comforts of a monastery, and whose partiality to _handsome book-binding_, we may gather from a curious passage in Stow's Chronicle or Annals.[231]

[Footnote 227: Julius Cæsar tells us that they dared not to
commit their laws to writing. _De Bell. Gall._, lib. vi., §
xiii.-xviii.]

[Footnote 228: Dr. Henry's _Hist. of Great Britain_, vol.
iv., p. 12, edit. 1800, 8vo. We shall readily forgive
Theodore's singularity of opinions in respect to some cases
of pharmacy, in which he held it to be "dangerous to perform
bleeding on the fourth day of the moon; because both the
light of the moon and the tides of the sea were then upon
the increase."--We shall readily forgive this, when we think
of his laudable spirit of BIBLIOMANIA.]

[Footnote 229: Dr. Henry says that "This bargain was
concluded by Benedict with the king a little before his
death, A.D. 690; and the book was delivered, and the estate
received by his successor abbot Ceolfred." _Hist. of Great
Britain_, vol. iv., p. 21. There must be some mistake here:
as Alfred was not born till the middle of the ninth century.
_Bed. Hist. Abbat Wermuthien, edit. Smith_, pp. 297-8, is
quoted by Dr. Henry.]

[Footnote 230: 1612, folio. De Bure (_Bibliogr. Instruct._
no. 353) might have just informed us that the Paris and
Basil editions of Bede's works are incomplete: and, at
no. 4444, where he notices the Cambridge edition of
Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_, (1644, fol.) we may add
that a previous English translation of it, by the celebrated
Stapleton, had been printed at Antwerp in 1565, 4to.,
containing some few admirably-well executed wood cuts.
Stapleton's translation has become a scarce book; and, as
almost every copy of it now to be found is in a smeared and
crazy condition, we may judge that it was once popular and
much read.]

[Footnote 231: The passage is partly as follows--"the sayde
king did also erect a chapell of gold and silver (to wit,
garnished) with ornaments and vesselles likewise of golde
and siluer, to the building of the which chappell hee gaue
2640 pounds of siluer, and to the altar 264 pounde of golde,
a chaleis with the patten, tenne pounde of golde, a censar 8
pound, and twenty mancas of golde, two candlesticks, twelue
pound and a halfe of siluer, A KIVER FOR THE GOSPEL BOOKE
TWENTY POUNDS"! &c. This was attached to the monastery of
Glastonbury; which Ina built "in a fenni place out of the
way, to the end the monkes mought so much the more giue
their minds to heauenly things," &c. _Chronicle_, edit.
1615, p. 76.]

We have mentioned ALCUIN: whom Ashmole calls one of the school-mistresses to France.[232] How incomparably brilliant and beautifully polished was this great man's mind!--and, withal, what an enthusiastic bibliomaniac! Read, in particular, his celebrated letter to Charlemagne, which Dr. Henry has very ably translated; and see, how zealous he there shews himself to enrich the library of his archiepiscopal patron with good books and industrious students.[233] Well might Egbert be proud of his librarian: the first, I believe upon record, who has composed a catalogue[234] of books in Latin hexameter verse: and full reluctantly, I ween, did this librarian take leave of his _Cell_ stored with the choicest volumes--as we may judge from his pathetic address to it, on quitting England for France! If I recollect rightly, Mr. Turner's elegant translation[235] of it begins thus:

"O my lov'd cell, sweet dwelling of my soul,
Must I for ever say, dear spot, farewell?"

[Footnote 232: _Theatrum Chemicum_, proleg. sign. A. 3.
rect.]

[Footnote 233: _History of Great Britain_, vol. iv., pp. 32,
86. "Literatorum virorum fautor et Mæcenas habebatur ætate
sua maximus ac doctissimus," says Bale: _Scrip. Brytan.
Illustr._, p. 109, edit. 1559. "Præ cæteris (says Lomeier)
insignem in colligendis illustrium virorum scriptis operam
dedit Egbertus Eboracensis archiepiscopus, &c.: qui
nobilissimam Eboraci bibliothecam instituit, cujus meminit
Alcuinis," &c. _De Bibliothecis_, p. 151. We are here
informed that the archbishop's library, together with the
cathedral of York, were accidentally burnt by fire in the
reign of Stephen.]

[Footnote 234: This curious catalogue is printed by Dr.
Henry, from Gale's _Rer. Anglicar. Scriptor. Vet._, tom. i.,
730. The entire works of Alcuin were printed at Paris, in
1617, folio: and again, at Ratisbon, in 1777, fol., 2 vols.
See Fournier's _Dict. Portat. de Bibliographie_, p. 12. Some
scarce separately-printed treatises of the same great man
are noticed in the first volume of the appendix to Bauer's
_Bibl. Libror. Rarior._, p. 44.]

[Footnote 235: _Anglo-Saxon History_, vol. ii., p. 355,
edit. 1808, 4to.]

Now, don't imagine, my dear Lisardo, that this anguish of heart proceeded from his leaving behind all the woodbines, and apple-trees, and singing birds, which were wont to gratify his senses near the said cell, and which he could readily meet with in another clime!--No, no: this monody is the genuine language of a bibliomaniac, upon being compelled to take a long adieu of his choicest _book-treasures_, stored in some secretly-cut recess of his hermitage; and of which neither his patron, nor his illustrious predecessor, Bede, had ever dreamt of the existence of copies! But it is time to think of Johannes SCOTUS ERIGENA; the most facetious wag of his times, notwithstanding his sirname of the _Wise_. "While Great Britain (says Bale) was a prey to intestine wars, our philosopher was travelling quietly abroad amidst the academic bowers of Greece;"[236] and there I suppose he acquired, with his knowledge of the Greek language, a taste for book-collecting and punning.[237] He was in truth a marvellous man; as we may gather from the eulogy of him by Brucker.[238]

[Footnote 236: Freely translated from his _Script. Brytan.
Illustr._, p. 124.]

[Footnote 237: Scot's celebrated reply to his patron and
admirer, Charles the Bald, was first made a popular story, I
believe, among the "wise speeches" in _Camden's Remaines_,
where it is thus told: "Johannes Erigena, surnamed Scotus, a
man renowned for learning, sitting at the table, in respect
of his learning, with Charles the Bauld, Emperor and King of
France, behaved himselfe as a slovenly scholler, nothing
courtly; whereupon the Emperor asked him merrily, _Quid
interest inter Scotum et Sotum_? (what is there between a
Scot and a Sot?) He merrily, but yet malapertly answered,
'_Mensa_'--(the table): as though the emperor were the Sot
and he the Scot." p. 236. _Roger Hoveden_ is quoted as the
authority; but one would like to know where Hoveden got his
information, if Scotus has not mentioned the anecdote in his
own works? Since Camden's time, this facetious story has
been told by almost every historian and annalist.]

[Footnote 238: _Hist. Philosoph._, tom. 3, 616: as referred
to and quoted by Dr. Henry; whose account of our
book-champion, although less valuable than Mackenzie's, is
exceedingly interesting.]

In his celebrated work upon predestination, he maintained that "material fire is no part of the torments of the damned;"[239] a very singular notion in those times of frightful superstition, when the minds of men were harrowed into despair by descriptions of hell's torments--and I notice it here merely because I should like to be informed in what curious book the said John Scotus Erigena acquired the said notion? Let us now proceed to ALFRED; whose bust, I see, adorns that department of Lorenzo's library which is devoted to English History.

[Footnote 239: "He endeavours to prove, in his logical way,
that the torments of the damned are mere privations of the
happiness, or the trouble of being deprived of it; so that,
according to him, material fire is no part of the torments
of the damned; that there is no other fire prepared for them
but the fourth element, through which the bodies of all men
must pass; but that the bodies of the elect are changed into
an ætherial nature, and are not subject to the power of
fire: whereas, on the contrary, the bodies of the wicked are
changed into air, and suffer torments by the fire, because
of their contrary qualities. And for this reason 'tis that
the demons, who had a body of an ætherial nature, were
massed with a body of air, that they might feel the fire."
_Mackenzie's Scottish Writers_: vol. i., 49. All this may be
ingenious enough; of its truth, a future state only will be
the evidence. Very different from that of Scotus is the
language of Gregory Narienzen: "Exit in inferno frigus
insuperabile: ignis inextinguibilis: vermis immortalis:
fetor intollerabilis: tenebræ palpabiles: flagella
cedencium: horrenda visio demonum: desperatio omnium
bonorum." This I gather from the _Speculum Christiani_, fol.
37, printed by Machlinia, in the fifteenth century. The idea
is enlarged, and the picture aggravated, in a great number
of nearly contemporaneous publications, which will be
noticed, in part, hereafter. It is reported that some
sermons are about to be published, in which the personality
of Satan is questioned and denied. Thus having, by the
ingenuity of Scotus, got rid of the fire "which is never
quenched"--and, by means of modern scepticism, of the devil,
who is constantly "seeking whom he may devour," we may go on
comfortably enough, without such awkward checks, in the
commission of every species of folly and crime!]

This great and good man, the boast and the bulwark of his country, was instructed by his mother, from infancy, in such golden rules of virtue and good sense that one feels a regret at not knowing more of the family, early years, and character, of such a parent. As she told him that "a wise and a good man suffered no part of his time, but what is necessarily devoted to bodily exercise, to pass in unprofitable inactivity"--you may be sure that, with such book-propensities as he felt, Alfred did not fail to make the most of the fleeting hour. Accordingly we find, from his ancient biographer, that he resolutely set to work by the aid of his wax tapers,[240] and produced some very respectable compositions; for which I refer you to Mr. Turner's excellent account of their author:[241] adding only that Alfred's translation of Boethius is esteemed his most popular performance.

[Footnote 240: The story of the _wax tapers_ is related both
by Asser and William of Malmesbury, differing a little in
the unessential parts of it. It is this: Alfred commanded
six wax tapers to be made, each 12 inches in length, and of
as many ounces in weight. On these tapers he caused the
inches to be regularly marked; and having found that one
taper burnt just four hours, he committed them to the care
of the keepers of his chapel; who, from time to time gave
him notice how the hours went. But as in windy weather the
tapers were more wasted--to remedy this inconvenience, he
placed them in a kind of lanthorn, there being no glass to
be met with in his dominions. This event is supposed to have
occurred after Alfred had ascended the throne. In his
younger days, Asser tells us that he used to carry about, in
his bosom, day and night, a curiously-written volume of
hours, and psalms, and prayers, which by some are supposed
to have been the composition of Aldhelm. That Alfred had the
highest opinion of Aldhelm, and of his predecessors and
contemporaries, is indisputable; for in his famous letter to
Wulfseg, Bishop of London, he takes a retrospective view of
the times in which they lived, as affording "churches and
monasteries filled with libraries of excellent books in
several languages." It is quite clear, therefore, that our
great Alfred was not a little infected with the
bibliomaniacal disease.]

[Footnote 241: _The History of the Anglo-Saxons_; by Sharon
Turner, F.S.A., 1808, 4to., 2 vols. This is the last and
best edition of a work which places Mr. Turner quite at the
head of those historians who have treated of the age of
Alfred.]

After Alfred, we may just notice his son EDWARD, and his grandson ATHELSTAN; the former of whom is supposed by Rous[242] (one of the most credulous of our early historians) to have founded the University of Cambridge. The latter had probably greater abilities than his predecessor; and a thousand pities it is that William of Malmesbury should have been so stern and squeamish as not to give us the substance of that old book, containing a life of Athelstan--which he discovered, and supposed to be coeval with the monarch--because, forsooth, the account was too uniformly flattering! Let me here, however, refer you to that beautiful translation of a Saxon ode, written in commemoration of Athelstan's decisive victory over the Danes of Brunamburg, which Mr. George Ellis has inserted in his interesting volumes of _Specimens of the Early English Poets_:[243] and always bear in recollection that this monarch shewed the best proof of his attachment to books by employing as many learned men as he could collect together for the purpose of translating the Scriptures into his native Saxon tongue.

[Footnote 242: Consult _Johannis Rossi Historia Regum
Angliæ; edit. Hearne_, 1745, 8vo., p. 96. This passage has
been faithfully translated by Dr. Henry. But let the lover
of knotty points in ancient matters look into Master Henry
Bynneman's prettily printed impression (A.D. 1568) of _De
Antiquitate Cantabrigiensis Academiæ_, p. 14--where the
antiquity of the University of Cambridge is gravely assigned
to the æra of Gurguntius's reign, A.M. 3588!--Nor must we
rest satisfied with the ingenious temerity of this author's
claims in favour of his beloved Cambridge, until we have
patiently examined Thomas Hearne's edition (A.D. 1720) of
_Thomæ Caii Vindic. Antiquitat. Acad. Oxon._: a work well
deserving of a snug place in the antiquary's cabinet.]

[Footnote 243: Edit. 1803, vol. i., p. 14.]

Let us pass by that extraordinary scholar, courtier, statesman, and monk--ST. DUNSTAN; by observing only that, as he was even more to Edgar than Wolsey was to Henry VIII.--so, if there had then been the same love of literature and progress in civilization which marked the opening of the sixteenth century, Dunstan would have equalled, if not eclipsed, Wolsey in the magnificence and utility of his institutions. How many volumes of legends he gave to the library of Glastonbury, of which he was once the abbot, or to Canterbury, of which he was afterwards the Archbishop, I cannot take upon me to guess: as I have neither of Hearne's three publications[244] relating to Glastonbury in my humble library.

[Footnote 244: There is an ample Catalogue Raisonné of these
three scarce publications in the first volume of the
_British Bibliographer_. And to supply the deficiency of any
extract from them, in this place, take, kind-hearted reader,
the following--which I have gleaned from Eadmer's account of
St. Dunstan, as incorporated in Wharton's
_Anglia-Sacra_--and which would not have been inserted could
I have discovered any thing in the same relating to
book-presents to Canterbury cathedral.--"Once on a time, the
king went a hunting early on Sunday morning; and requested
the Archbishop to postpone the celebration of the mass till
he returned. About three hours afterwards, Dunstan went into
the cathedral, put on his robes, and waited at the altar in
expectation of the king--where, reclining with his arms in a
devotional posture, he was absorbed in tears and prayers. A
gentle sleep suddenly possessed him; he was snatched up into
heaven; and in a vision associated with a company of angels,
whose harmonious voices, chaunting _Kyrie eleyson, Kyrie
eleyson, Kyrie eleyson_, burst upon his ravished ears! He
afterwards came to himself, and demanded whether or not the
king had arrived? Upon being answered in the negative, he
betook himself again to his prayers, and, after a short
interval, was once more absorbed in celestial extasies, and
heard a loud voice from heaven saying--_Ite, missa est_. He
had no sooner returned thanks to God for the same, when the
king's clerical attendants cried out that his majesty had
arrived, and entreated Dunstan to dispatch the mass. But he,
turning from the altar, declared that the mass had been
already celebrated; and that no other mass should be
performed during that day. Having put off his robes, he
enquired of his attendants into the truth of the
transaction; who told him what had happened. Then, assuming
a magisterial power, he prohibited the king, in future, from
hunting on a Sunday; and taught his disciples the _Kyrie
eleyson_, which he had heard in heaven: hence this
ejaculation, in many places, now obtains as a part of the
mass service." Tom. ii., p. 217. What shall we say to "the
amiable and elegant Eadmer" for this valuable piece of
biographical information?--"The face of things was so
changed by the endeavours of Dunstan, and his master,
Ethelwald, that in a short time learning was generally
restored, and began to flourish. From this period, the
monasteries were the schools and seminaries of almost the
whole clergy, both secular and regular." Collier's _Eccles.
History_, vol. ii., p. 19, col. 2. That Glastonbury had many
and excellent books, vide Hearne's _Antiquities of
Glastonbury_; pp. LXXIV-VII. At Cambridge there is a
catalogue of the MSS. which were in Glastonbury library,
A.D. 1248.]

We may open the eleventh century with CANUTE; upon whose political talents this is not the place to expatiate: but of whose bibliomaniacal character the illuminated MS. of _The Four Gospels_ in the Danish tongue--now in the British Museum, and once this monarch's own book--leaves not the shadow of a doubt! From Canute we may proceed to notice that extraordinary literary triumvirate--Ingulph, Lanfranc, and Anselm. No rational man can hesitate about numbering them among the very first rate book-collectors of that age. As to INGULPH, let us only follow him, in his boyhood, in his removal from school to college: let us fancy we see him, with his _Quatuor Sermones_ on a Sunday--and his _Cunabula Artis Grammaticæ_[245] on a week day--under his arm: making his obeisance to Edgitha, the queen of Edward the Confessor, and introduced by her to William Duke of Normandy! Again, when he was placed, by this latter at the head of the rich abbey of Croyland, let us fancy we see him both adding to, and arranging, its curious library[246]--before he ventured upon writing the history of the said abbey. From Ingulph we go to LANFRANC; who, in his earlier years, gratified his book appetites in the quiet and congenial seclusion of his little favourite abbey in Normandy: where he afterwards opened a school, the celebrity of which was acknowledged throughout Europe. From being a pedagogue, let us trace him in his virtuous career to the primacy of England; and when we read of his studious and unimpeachable behaviour, as head of the see of Canterbury,[247] let us acknowledge that a love of books and of mental cultivation is among the few comforts in this world of which neither craft nor misfortune can deprive us. To Lanfranc succeeded, in book-fame and in professional elevation, his disciple ANSELM; who was "lettered and chaste of his childhood," says Trevisa:[248] but who was better suited to the cloister than to the primacy. For, although, like Wulston, Bishop of Worcester, he might have "sung a long mass, and held him _apayred_ with only the offering of Christian men, and was holden a clean _mayde_, and did no outrage in drink,"[249] yet in his intercourse with William II. and Henry I., he involved himself in ceaseless quarrels; and quitted both his archiepiscopal chair and the country. His memory, however, is consecrated among the fathers of scholastic divinity.

[Footnote 245: These were the common school books of the
period.]

[Footnote 246: Though the abbey of Croyland was burnt only
twenty-five years after the conquest, its library then
consisted of 900 volumes, of which 300 were very large. The
lovers of English history and antiquities are much indebted
to Ingulph for his excellent history of the abbey of
Croyland, from its foundation, A.D. 664, to A.D. 1091: into
which he hath introduced much of the general history of the
kingdom, with a variety of curious anecdotes that are no
where else to be found. DR. HENRY: book iii., chap. iv., § 1
and 2. But Ingulph merits a more particular eulogium. The
editors of that stupendous, and in truth, matchless
collection of national history, entitled _Recueil des
Historiens des Gaules_, thus say of him: "Il avoit tout vu
en bon connoisseur, et ce qu'il rapporte, il l'écrit en
homme lettré, judicieux et vrai:" tom. xi., p. xlij. In case
any reader of this note and lover of romance literature
should happen to be unacquainted with the French language, I
will add, from the same respectable authority, that "The
readers of the _Round Table History_ should be informed that
there are many minute and curious descriptions in INGULPH
which throw considerable light upon the history of _Ancient
Chivalry_." Ibid. See too the animated eulogy upon him, at
p. 153, note _a_, of the same volume. These learned editors
have, however, forgotten to notice that the best, and only
perfect, edition of Ingulph's History of Croyland Abbey,
with the continuation of the same, by Peter de Blois and
Edward Abbas, is that which is inserted in the first volume
of Gale's _Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores Veteres_: Oxon, 1684.
(3 vols.)]

[Footnote 247: LANFRANC was obliged, against his will, by
the express command of Abbot Harlein, to take upon him the
archbishopric in the year 1070. He governed that church for
nineteen years together, with a great deal of wisdom and
authority. His largest work is a commentary upon the
Epistles of St. Paul; which is sometimes not very faithfully
quoted by Peter Lombard. His treatise in favour of the real
presence, in opposition to Birenger, is one of his most
remarkable performances. His letters "are short and few, but
contain in them things very remarkable." Du Pin's
_Ecclesiastical History_, vol. xi., p. 12, &c., edit. 1699.]

[Footnote 248: _Polychronicon_, Caxton's edit., sign. 46,
rev.]

[Footnote 249: _Polychronicon._ Caxton's edit., fol. cccvj.
rev. Poor Caxton (towards whom the reader will naturally
conceive I bear some little affection) is thus dragooned
into the list of naughty writers who have ventured to speak
mildly (and justly) of Anselm's memory. "They feign in
another fable that he (Anselm) tare with his teeth Christ's
flesh from his bones, as he hung on the rood, for
withholding the lands of certain bishoprics and abbies:
Polydorus not being ashamed to rehearse it. Somewhere they
call him a red dragon: somewhere a fiery serpent, and a
bloody tyrant; for occupying the fruits of their vacant
benefices about his princely buildings. Thus rail they of
their kings, without either reason or shame, in their
legends of abominable lies: Look Eadmerus, Helinandus,
Vincentius, Matthew of Westminster, Rudborne, Capgrave,
WILLIAM CAXTON, Polydore, and others." This is the language
of master Bale, in his _Actes of Englyshe Votaryes_, pt.
ii., sign. I. vij. rev. Tisdale's edit. No wonder Hearne
says of the author, "erat immoderata
intemperantia."--_Bened. Abbas._, vol. i., præf. p. xx.]

And here you may expect me to notice that curious book-reader and Collector, GIRALD, _Archbishop of York_, who died just at the close of the 11th century. Let us fancy we see him, according to Trevisa,[250] creeping quietly to his garden arbour, and devoting his midnight vigils to the investigation of that old-fashioned author, Julius Firmicus; whom Fabricius calls by a name little short of that of an old woman. It is a pity we know not more of the private studies of such a bibliomaniac. And equally to be lamented it is that we have not some more substantial biographical memoirs of that distinguished bibliomaniac, HERMAN, bishop of Salisbury; a Norman by birth; and who learnt the art of book-binding and book-illumination, before he had been brought over into this country by William the Conqueror.[251] (A character, by the bye, who, however completely hollow were his claims to the crown of England, can never be reproached with a backwardness in promoting learned men to the several great offices of church and state.)

[Footnote 250: "This yere deyd thomas archbisohop of york
and gyralde was archebishop after him; a lecherous man, a
wytch and euyl doer, as the fame tellyth, for under his pyle
whan he deyde in an erber was founde a book of curyous
craftes, the book hight Julius frumeus. In that booke he
radde pryuely in the under tydes, therefor unnethe the
clerkes of his chirche would suffre him be buryed under
heuene without hooly chirche," _Polychronicon: Caxton's
edit._, sign. 43., 4 rect. (fol. cccxlij.) Godwyn says that
"he was laide at the entrance of the church porch." "Bayle
chargeth him (continues he) with sorcery and coniuration,
because, forsooth, that, after his death, there was found in
his chamber a volume of Firmicus: who writ of astrology
indeed, but of coniuration nothing that ever I heard."
_Catalogue of the Bishops of England_, p. 453--edit. 1601.
Concerning Girard's favourite author, consult Fabricius's
_Bibl. Lat.: cura Ernesti_, vol. iii., p. 114, &c., edit.
1773.]

[Footnote 251: Leland tells us that Herman erected "a noble
library at Sailsbury, having got together some of the best
and most ancient works of illustrious authors:" _de
Scriptor. Britan._, vol. i., 174: and Dugdale, according to
Warton (_Monasticon Anglican._; vol. iii., p. 375), says
that "he was so fond of letters that he did not disdain to
bind and illuminate books."]

LOREN. If you proceed thus systematically, my good Lysander, the morning cock will crow 'ere we arrive at the book-annals even of the Reformation.

LYSAND. It is true; I am proceeding rather too methodically. And yet I suppose I should not obtain Lisardo's forgiveness if, in arriving at the period of HENRY THE SECOND,[252] I did not notice that extraordinary student and politician, BECKET!

[Footnote 252: I make no apology to the reader for
presenting him with the following original character of our
once highly and justly celebrated monarch, Henry II.--by the
able pen of Trevisa. "This HENRY II. was somewhat reddish,
with large face and breast; and yellow eyen and a dim voice;
and fleshy of body; and took but scarcely of meat and drink:
and for to _alledge_ the fatness, he travailed his body with
business; with hunting, with standing, with wandering: he
was of mean stature, renable of speech, and well y lettered;
noble and _orped_ in knighthood; and wise in counsel and in
battle; and dread and doubtfull destiny; more manly and
courteous to a Knight when he was dead than when he was
alive!" _Polychronicon_, Caxton's edit., fol. cccliij.,
rev.]

LIS. At your peril omit him! I think (although my black-letter reading be very limited) that Bale, in his _English Votaries_, has a curious description of this renowned archbishop; whose attachment to books, in his boyish years, must on all sides be admitted.

LYSAND. You are right. Bale has some extraordinary strokes of description in his account of this canonized character: but if I can trust to my memory (which the juice of Lorenzo's nectar, here before us, may have somewhat impaired), Tyndale[253] has also an equally animated account of the same--who deserves, notwithstanding his pomp and haughtiness, to be numbered among the most notorious bibliomaniacs of his age.

[Footnote 253: We will first amuse ourselves with Bale's
curious account of

"_The fresh and lusty beginnings of_ THOMAS BECKET."

As those authors report, which chiefly wrote Thomas Becket's
life--whose names are Herbert Boseham, John Salisbury,
William of Canterbury, Alen of Tewkesbury, Benet of
Peterborough, Stephen Langton, and Richard Croyland--he
bestoyed his youth in all kinds of lascivious lightness, and
lecherous wantonness. After certain robberies, rapes, and
murders, committed in the king's wars at the siege of
Toulouse in Languedoc, and in other places else, as he was
come home again into England, he gave himself to great
study, not of the holy scriptures, but of the bishop of
Rome's lousy laws, whereby he first of all obtained to be
archdeacon of Canterbury, under Theobald the archbishop;
then high chancellor of England; metropolitan, archbishop,
primate; pope of England, and great legate from antichrist's
own right side. In the time of his high-chancellorship,
being but an ale-brewer's son of London, John Capgrave saith
that he took upon him as he had been a prince. He played the
courtier altogether, and fashioned himself wholly to the
king's delights. He ruffled it out in the whole cloth with a
mighty rabble of disguised ruffians at his tail. He sought
the worldly honour with him that sought it most. He thought
it a pleasant thing to have the flattering praises of the
multitude. His bridle was of silver, his saddle of velvet,
his stirrups, spurs, and bosses double gilt; his expenses
far passing the expenses of an earl. That delight was not on
the earth that he had not plenty of. He fed with the
fattest, was clad with the softest, and kept company with
the plesantest. Was not this (think you) a good mean to live
chaste? I trow it was. _Englyshe Votaryes_, pt. ii., sign.
P. vi. rect. Printed by Tisdale, 8vo. The orthography is
modernized, but the words are faithfully _Balëan_! Thus
writes Tyndale: and the king made him (Becket) his
chancellor, in which office he passed the pomp and pride of
Thomas (Wolsey) cardinal, as far as the ones shrine passeth
the others tomb in glory and riches. And after that, he was
a man of war, and captain of five or six thousand men in
full harness, as bright as St. George, and his spear in his
hand; and encountered whatsoever came against him, and
overthrew the jollyest rutter that was in the host of
France. And out of the field, hot from bloodshedding, was he
made bishop of Canterbury; and did put off his helm, and put
on his mitre; put off his harness, and on with his robes;
and laid down his spear, and took his cross ere his hands
were cold; and so came, with a lusty courage of a man of
war, to fight an other while against his prince for the
pope; when his prince's cause were with the law of God, and
the pope's clean contrary. _Practise of Popish Prelates._
_Tyndale's Works_, edit. 1572, p. 361. The curious
bibliographer, or collector of ancient books of biography,
will find a very different character of Becket in a scarce
Latin life of him, printed at Paris in the black letter, in
the fifteenth century. His archiepiscopal table is described
as being distinguished for great temperance and propriety:
"In ejus mensa non audiebantur tibicines non cornicines, non
lira, non fiala, non karola: nulla quidem præterquam mundam
splendidam et inundantem epularum opulentiam. Nulla gule,
nulla lascivie, nulla penitus luxurie, videbantur
incitamenta. Revera inter tot et tantas delicias quæ ei
apponebantur, in nullo penitus sardanapalum sed solum
episcopum sapiebat," &c. _Vita et processus sancti Thome
Cantuariensis martyris super libertate ecclesiastica_;
Paris, 1495, sign. b. ij. rect. From a yet earlier, and
perhaps the first printed, mention of Becket--and from a
volume of which no perfect copy has yet been found--the
reader is presented with a very curious account of the
murder of the Archbishop, in its original dress. "Than were
there iiij. cursed knyghtes of leuyng yt thoughte to haue
had a grete thanke of the kyng and mad her a vowe to gedir
to sle thomas. And so on childremasse day all moste at
nyghte they come to caunterbury into thomas hall Sire
Reynolde beriston, Sire william tracy, Sire Richard breton,
and sire hewe morley. Thanne Sire Reynolde beriston for he
was bitter of kynde a none he seyde to thomas the king that
is be yonde the see sente us to the and bad that thou
shuldst asoyle the bishoppe that thou cursiddiste than seyde
thomas seris they be not acursed by me but by the Pope and I
may not asoyle that he hathe cursid well seyde Reynolde than
we see thou wolte not do the kynges byddynge and swore a
grete othe by the eyon of God thou shalt be dede. than cryde
the othir knyghtes sle sle and they wente downe to the
courte and armyd hem. Than prestis and clerkis drowe hem to
the church to thomas and spered the dores to hem. But whan
thomas herde the knyghtes armed and wold come into the
churche and myghte not he wente to the dore and un barred it
and toke one of the knyghtes by the honde and seyde hit be
semyth not to make a castell of holy churche, and toke hem
by the honde and seyde come ynne my children in goddis name
Thanne for it was myrke that they myghte not see nor knowe
thomas they seyde where is the traytour nay seyde thomas no
traytour but Archebishoppe. Than one seyde to hym fle fore
thou arte but dede. Nay seyde thomas y come not to fle but
to a byde Ego pro deo mori paratus sum et pro defensione
iusticie et ecclesie libertate I am redy to dye for the loue
of God and for the fredomme and righte of holy churche Than
reynold with his swerdes poynte put off thomas cappe and
smote at his hede and cutte of his crowne that it honge by
like a dysche Than smote anothir at him and smote hit all of
than fill he downe to the grounde on his knees and elbowes
and seyde god into thy hondes I putte my cause and the
righte of holy churche and so deyde Than the iij knyghte
smote and his halfe stroke fell upon his clerkis arme that
helde thomas cross be fore him and so his swerde fill down
to the grounde and brake of the poynte and he seyde go we
hens he is dede. And when they were all at the dore goyng
robert broke wente a geyne and sette his fote to thomas
necke and thruste out the brayne upon the pauement Thus for
righte of holoye churche and the lawe of the londe thomas
toke his dethe." _The boke that is callid Festiuall_; 1486,
fol. sign. m. iij. These anecdotes, which are not to be
found in Lyttleton or Berrington, may probably be gratifying
to the curious.]

Although I wish to be as laconic as possible in my _Catalogue Raisonné_ of libraries and of book-collectors, during the earlier periods of our history, yet I must beg to remind you that some of the nunneries and monasteries, about these times, contained rather valuable collections of books: and indeed those of Glasgow, Peterborough, and Glastonbury,[254] deserve to be particularly noticed and commended. But I will push on with the personal history of literature, or rather of the BIBLIOMANIA.

[Footnote 254: "I shall retire back to _Godstowe_, and, for
the farther reputation of the nunns there, shall observe
that they spent a great part of their time in reading good
books. There was a common library for their use well
furnished with books, many of which were English, and divers
of them historical. The lives of the holy men and women,
especially of the latter, were curiously written ON VELLUM,
and many ILLUMINATIONS appeared throughout, so as to draw
the nunns the more easily to follow their examples."
Hearne's edit. _Guil. Neubrig._, vol. ii., p. 768. Again he
says, "It is probable they (certain sentences) were written
in large letters, equal to the writing that we have in the
finest books of offices, the best of which were for the use
of the nunns, and for persons of distinction, and such as
had weak eyes; and many of them were finely covered, not
unlike the Kiver for the Gospell book, given to the chapell
of Glastonbury by king Ina." p. 773. Can the enlightened
reader want further proof of the existence of the
BIBLIOMANIA in the nunnery of Godstow? As to _Peterborough_
abbey, Gunston, in his history of the same place, has copied
the catalogue of the different libraries belonging to the
abbots. Benedict, who became abbot in 1177, had a collection
of no less than _fifty-seven_ volumes. But alas! the book
reputation of this monastery soon fell away: for master
Robert, who died abbot in 1222, left but _seven_ books
behind him; and Geoffrey de Croyland, who was abbot in 1290,
had only that dreary old gentleman, _Avicenna_, to keep him
company! At its dissolution, however, it contained 1700
volumes in MSS. _Gunton's Peterborough_, p. 173.
_Glastonbury_ seems to have long maintained its reputation
for a fine library; and even as late as the year 1248 it
could boast of several classical authors, although the
English books were only four in number; the rest being
considered as "vetustas et inutilia." The classical authors
were Livy, Sallust, Tully, Seneca, Virgil, and Persius. See
_Joh. Confrat. Glaston._, vol. ii., p. 423, 435: Hearne's
edit. "Leland," says Warton, "who visited all the
monasteries just before their dissolution, seems to have
been struck with the venerable air and amplitude of this
library." _Hist. Engl. Poetry_, Diss. ii.]

I should be wanting in proper respect to the gentlemanly and scholar-like editor of his works, if I omitted the mention of that celebrated tourist and topographer, GIRALD BARRI, or Giraldus Cambrensis; whose Irish and Welch itinerary has been recently so beautifully and successfully put forth in our own language.[255] Giraldus, long before and after he was bishop of St. David's, seems to have had the most enthusiastic admiration of British antiquities; and I confess it would have been among the keenest delights of my existence (had I lived at the period) to have been among his auditors when he read aloud (perhaps from a stone pulpit) his three books of the Topography of Ireland.[256] How many choice volumes, written and emblazoned upon snow-white vellum, and containing many a curious and precious genealogy, must this observing traveller and curious investigator have examined, when he was making the tour of Ireland in the suite of Prince, afterwards King, John! Judge of the anxiety of certain antiquated families, especially of the Welch nation, which stimulated them to open their choicest treasures, in the book way, to gratify the genealogical ardour of our tourist!

[Footnote 255: There is a supplemental volume to the two
English ones, containing the only complete Latin edition
extant of the Welsh Itinerary. Of this impression there are
but 200 copies printed on small, and 50 on large, paper. The
whole work is most creditably executed, and does great
honour to the taste and erudition of its editor, Sir Richard
Colt Hoare, bart.]

[Footnote 256: "Having finished his topography of Ireland,
which consisted of three books, he published it at Oxford,
A.D. 1187, in the following manner, in three days. On the
first day he read the first book to a great concourse of
people, and afterwards entertained all the poor of the town.
On the second day he read the second book, and entertained
all the Doctors and chief scholars: and on the third day he
read the third book, and entertained the younger scholars,
soldiers, and burgesses."--"A most glorious spectacle (says
he), which revived the ancient times of the poets, and of
which no example had been seen in England." This is given by
Dr. Henry (b. iii., ch. 4, § 2), on the authority of
Giraldus's own book, _De rebus a se gestis_, lib. i. c. 16.
Twyne, in his arid little quarto Latin volume of the
_Antiquities of Oxford_, says not a word about it; and, what
is more extraordinary, it is barely alluded to by Antony
Wood! See Mr. Gutch's genuine edition of Wood's _Annals of
the University of Oxford_, vol. i., pp. 60, 166. Warton, in
his _History of English Poetry_, vol. i., Diss. ii., notices
Giraldus's work with his usual taste and interest.]

LIS. I wish from my heart that Girald Barri had been somewhat more communicative on this head!

LOREN. Of what do you suppose he would have informed us, had he indulged this bibliographical gossipping?

LIS. Of many a grand and many a curious volume.

LYSAND. Not exactly so, Lisardo. The art of book-illumination in this country was then sufficiently barbarous, if at all known.

LIS. And yet I'll lay a vellum Aldus that Henry the second presented his fair Rosamond with some choice _Heures de Notre Dame_! But proceed. I beg pardon for this interruption.

LYSAND. Nay, there is nothing to solicit pardon for! We have each a right, around this hospitable table, to indulge our book whims: and mine may be as fantastical as any.

LOREN. Pray proceed, Lysander, in your book-collecting history! unless you will permit me to make a pause or interruption of two minutes--by proposing as a sentiment--"SUCCESS TO THE BIBLIOMANIA!"

PHIL. 'Tis well observed: and as every loyal subject at our great taverns drinks the health of his Sovereign "with three times three up-standing," even so let us hail this sentiment of Lorenzo!

LIS. Philemon has cheated me of an eloquent speech. But let us receive the sentiment as he proposes it.

LOREN. Now the uproar of Bacchus has subsided, the instructive conversation of Minerva may follow. Go on, Lysander.

LYSAND. Having endeavoured to do justice to Girald Barri, I know of no other particularly distinguished bibliomaniac till we approach the æra of the incomparable ROGER, or FRIAR, BACON. I say incomparable, Lorenzo; because he was, in truth, a constellation of the very first splendour and magnitude in the dark times in which he lived; and notwithstanding a sagacious writer (if my memory be not treacherous) of the name of Coxe, chooses to tell us that he was "miserably starved to death, because he could not introduce a piece of roast beef into his stomach, on account of having made a league with Satan to eat only cheese;"[257]--yet I suspect that the end of Bacon was hastened by other means more disgraceful to the age and equally painful to himself.

[Footnote 257: "_A short treatise declaringe the detestable
wickednesse of magicall sciences, as necromancie,
coniuration of spirites, curiouse astrologie, and suche
lyke, made by_ FRANCIS COXE." Printed by Allde, 12mo.,
without date (14 leaves). From this curious little volume,
which is superficially noticed by Herbert (vol. ii., p.
889), the reader is presented with the following extract,
appertaining to the above subject: "I myself (says the
author) knew a priest not far from a town called
Bridgewater, which, as it is well known in the country, was
a great magician in all his life time. After he once began
these practices, he would never eat bread, but, instead
thereof, did always eat _cheese_: which thing, as he
confessed divers times, he did because it was so concluded
betwixt him and the spirit which served him," &c. sign. A
viii. rect. "(R.) Bacon's end was much after _the like
sort_; for having a greedy desire unto meat, he could cause
nothing to enter the stomach--wherefore thus miserably he
starved to death." Sign. B. iij. rev. Not having at hand
John Dee's book of the defence of Roger Bacon, from the
charge of astrology and magic (the want of which one laments
as pathetically as did Naudé, in his "_Apologie pour tous
les grands personnages, &c., faussement soupçonnez de
Magic_," Haye, 1653, 8vo., p. 488), I am at a loss to say
the fine things, which Dee must have said, in commendation
of the extraordinary talents of ROGER BACON; who was
miserably matched in the age in which he lived; but who,
together with his great patron GROSTESTE, will shine forth
as beacons to futurity. Dr. Friend in his _History of
Physic_ has enumerated what he conceived to be Bacon's
leading works; while Gower in his _Confessio Amantis_
(Caxton's edit., fol. 70), has mentioned the brazen head--

=for to telle
Of such thyngs as befelle:=

which was the joint manufactory of the patron and his èleve.
As lately as the year 1666, Bacon's life formed the subject
of a "famous history," from which Walter Scott has given us
a facetious anecdote in the seventh volume (p. 10) of
_Dryden's Works_. But the curious investigator of ancient
times, and the genuine lover of British biography, will
seize upon the more prominent features in the life of this
renowned philosopher; will reckon up his great discoveries
in optics and physics; and will fancy, upon looking at the
above picture of his study, that an explosion from
gun-powder (of which our philosopher has been thought the
inventor) has protruded the palings which are leaning
against its sides. Bacon's "_Opus Majus_," which happened to
meet the eyes of Pope Clement IV., and which _now_ would
have encircled the neck of its author with an hundred golden
chains, and procured for him a diploma from every learned
society in Europe--just served to liberate him from his
first long imprisonment. This was succeeded by a subsequent
confinement of twelve years; from which he was released only
time enough to breathe his last in the pure air of heaven.
Whether he expended 3000, or 30,000 pounds of our present
money, upon his experiments, can now be only matter of
conjecture. Those who are dissatisfied with the meagre
manner in which our early biographers have noticed the
labours of Roger Bacon, and with the _tetragonistical_
story, said by Twyne to be propagated by our philosopher, of
Julius Cæsar's seeing the whole of the British coast and
encampment upon the Gallic shore, "maximorum ope speculorum"
(_Antiquit. Acad. Oxon. Apolog._ 1608, 4to., p. 353), may be
pleased with the facetious story told of him by Wood
(_Annals of Oxford_, vol. i., 216, Gutch's edit.) and yet
more by the minute catalogue of his works noticed by Bishop
Tanner (_Bibl. Brit. Hibern._ p. 62): while the following
eulogy of old Tom Fuller cannot fail to find a passage to
every heart: "For mine own part (says this delightful and
original writer) I behold the name of Bacon in Oxford, not
as of an individual man, but corporation of men; no single
cord, but a twisted cable of many together. And as all the
acts of strong men of that nature are attributed to an
Hercules; all the predictions of prophecying women to a
Sibyll; so I conceive all the achievements of the Oxonian
Bacons, in their liberal studies, are ascribed to ONE, as
chief of the name." _Church History_, book iii., p. 96.]

Only let us imagine we see this sharp-eyed philosopher at work in his study, of which yonder print is generally received as a representation! How heedlessly did he hear the murmuring of the stream beneath, and of the winds without--immersed in the vellum and parchment rolls of theological, astrological, and mathematical lore, which, upon the dispersion of the libraries of the Jews,[258] he was constantly perusing, and of which so large a share had fallen to his own lot!

[Footnote 258: Warton, in his second Dissertation, says that
"great multitudes of their (the Jews) books fell into the
hands of Roger Bacon;" and refers to Wood's _Hist. et
Antiquit. Univ. Oxon._, vol. i., 77, 132--where I find
rather a slight notification of it--but, in the genuine
edition of this latter work, published by Mr. Gutch, vol.
i., p. 329, it is said: "At their (the Jews) expulsion,
divers of their tenements that were forfeited to the king,
came into the hands of William Burnell, Provost of Wells;
and _their books_ (for many of them were learned) to divers
of our scholars; among whom, as is verily supposed, ROGER
BACON was one: and that he furnished himself with such
Hebrew rarities, that he could not elsewhere find. Also
that, when he died, he left them to the Franciscan library
at Oxon, which, being not well understood in after-times,
were condemned to moths and dust!" Weep, weep, kind-hearted
bibliomaniac, when thou thinkest upon the fate of these poor
Hebrew MSS.!]

Unfortunately, my friends, little is known with certainty, though much is vaguely conjectured, of the labours of this great man. Some of the first scholars and authors of our own and of other countries have been proud to celebrate his praises; nor would it be considered a disgrace by the most eminent of modern experimental philosophers--of him, who has been described as "unlocking the hidden treasures of nature, and explaining the various systems by which air, and earth, and fire, and water, counteract and sustain each other"[259]--to fix the laureate crown round the brows of our venerable Bacon!

[Footnote 259: See a periodical paper, entitled _The
Director_! vol. ii., p. 294.]

We have now reached the close of the thirteenth century and the reign of EDWARD THE FIRST;[260] when the principal thing that strikes us, connected with the history of libraries, is this monarch's insatiable lust of strengthening his title to the kingdom of Scotland by purchasing "the libraries of all the monasteries" for the securing of any record which might corroborate the same. What he gave for this tremendous book-purchase, or of what nature were the volumes purchased, or what was their subsequent destination, is a knot yet remaining to be untied.

[Footnote 260: "King Edward the first caused and committed
divers copies of the records, and much concerning the realm
of Scotland, unto divers abbies for the preservance thereof;
which for the most part are now perished, or rare to be had;
and which privilie by the dissolution of monasteries is
detained. The same king caused the libraries of all
monasteries, and other places of the realm, to be purchased,
for the further and manifest declaration of his title, as
chief Lord of Scotland: and the record thereof now extant,
doth alledge divers leger books of abbeys for the
confirmation thereof": Petition (to Q. Elizabeth) for an
academy of Antiquities and History. _Hearne's Curious
Discourses written by eminent Antiquaries_; vol. ii., 326,
edit. 1775.]

Of the bibliomaniacal propensity of Edward's grandson, the great EDWARD THE THIRD, there can be no question. Indeed, I could gossip away upon the same 'till midnight. His severe disappointment upon having Froissart's presentation copy of his Chronicles[261] (gergeously [Transcriber's Note: gorgeously] attired as it must have been) taken from him by the Duke of Anjou, is alone a sufficient demonstration of his love of books; while his patronage of Chaucer shews that he had accurate notions of intellectual excellence. Printing had not yet begun to give any hint, however faint, of its wonderful powers; and scriveners or book-copiers were sufficiently ignorant and careless.[262]

[Footnote 261: Whether this presentation copy ever came,
eventually, into the kingdom, is unknown. Mr. Johnes, who is
as intimate with Froissart as Gough was with Camden, is
unable to make up his mind upon the subject; but we may
suppose it was properly emblazoned, &c. The duke detained it
as being the property of an enemy to France!--Now, when we
read of this wonderfully chivalrous age, so glowingly
described by the great Gaston, Count de Foix, to Master
Froissart, upon their introduction to each other (vide St.
Palaye's memoir in the 10th vol. of _L'Acadamie des
Inscriptions_, &c.), it does seem a gross violation (at
least on the part of the Monsieur of France!) of all
gentlemanly and knight-like feeling, to seize upon a volume
of this nature, as legitimate plunder! The robber should
have had his skin tanned, after death, for a case to keep
the book in! Of Edward the Third's love of curiously bound
books, see p. 118, ante.]