CHAPTER III.

INCREASE OF MONASTIC COLLECTIONS. S. RIQUIER, BOBBIO, DURHAM, CANTERBURY. BOOKS KEPT IN OTHER PLACES THAN THE CLOISTER. EXPEDIENTS FOR HOUSING THEM AT DURHAM, CITEAUX, AND ELSEWHERE. SEPARATE LIBRARIES BUILT IN FIFTEENTH CENTURY AT DURHAM, S. ALBANS, CITEAUX, CLAIRVAUX, ETC. GRADUAL EXTENSION OF LIBRARY AT S. GERMAIN DES PRÈS. LIBRARIES ATTACHED TO CATHEDRALS. LINCOLN, SALISBURY, WELLS, NOYON, ROUEN, ETC.

In the last chapter I attempted to describe the way in which the Monastic Orders provided for the safe keeping of their books, so long as their collections were not larger than could be accommodated in a press or presses in the cloister, or in the small rooms used by the Cistercians for the same purpose. I have now to carry the investigation a step farther, and to shew how books were treated when a separate library was built.

It must not be supposed that an extensive collection of books was regarded as indispensable in all monastic establishments. In many Houses, partly from lack of funds, partly from an indisposition to study, the books were probably limited to those required for the services and for the daily life of the brethren. In other places, on the contrary, where the fashion of book-collecting had been set from very early days, by some abbat or prior more learned or more active than his fellows; and where brethren in consequence had learnt to take a pride intheir books, whether they read them or not, a large collection was got together at a date when even a royal library could be contained in a single chest of very modest dimensions. For instance, when an inventory of the possessions of the Benedictine House of S. Riquier near Abbeville was made at the request of Louis le Débonnaire in 831a.d., it was found that the library contained 250 volumes; and a note at the end of the catalogue informs us that if the different treatises had been entered separately, the number of entries would have exceeded five hundred, as many books were frequently bound in a single volume. The works in this library are roughly sorted under the headings Divinity, Grammar, History and Geography, Sermons, Service-books[208]. A similar collection existed at S. Gall at the same period[209]. In the next century we find nearly seven hundred manuscripts in a Benedictine monastery at Bobbio in north Italy[210]; and nearly six hundred in a House belonging to the same order at Lorsch in Germany[211]. At Durham, also a Benedictine House, a catalogue made early in the twelfth century contains three hundred and sixty-six titles[212]; but, as at S. Riquier, the number of works probably exceeded six or seven hundred.

These instances, which I have purposely selected from different parts of Europe, and which could easily have been increased, are sufficient to indicate the rapidity with which books could be, and in fact were accumulated, when the taste for such collections had once been set. Year by year, slowly yet surely, by purchase, by gift, by bequest, by the zeal of the staff of writers whom the precentor drilled and kept at work, the number grew, till in certain Houses it reached dimensions which must have embarrassed those responsible for its bestowal. At Christ Church, Canterbury, for instance, the catalogue made by Henry de Estria, Prior 1285-1331, enumerates about 1850 manuscripts[213].

It must gradually have become impossible to accommodate such collections as these according to the old method, evensupposing it was desirable to do so. There were doubtless many duplicates, and manuscripts of value requiring special care. Consequently we find that places other than the cloister were used to keep books in. At Durham, for instance, the catalogues made at the end of the fourteenth century enumerate (1) "the books in the common press at Durham in sundry places in the cloister" (386 volumes)[214]; (2) "the books in the common press at Durham in the Spendment" (408 volumes)[215]; (3) "the inner library at Durham called Spendment" (87 volumes)[216]; (4) "the books for reading in the frater which lie in the press near the entrance to the farmery" (17 volumes)[217]; (5) "the books in the common press of the novices at Durham in the cloister" (23 volumes)[218]. Of the above catalogues the first obviously deals with the contents of the great "almeries of wainscot" which stood in the cloister; the second and third with the books for which no room could be found there, and which in consequence had been transferred to a room on the west side of the cloister, where wages were paid and accounts settled. In theRites of Durhamit is termed the treasure-house or chancery. It was divided into two by a grate of iron, behind which sat the officer who made the payments. The books seem to have been kept partly in the outer half of the room, partly within this grate.

At Citeaux, the parent-house of the Cistercian order, a large and wealthy monastery in Burgundy, the books were still more scattered, as appears from the catalogue[219]drawn up by John de Cirey, abbat at the end of the fifteenth century, now preserved, with 312 of the manuscripts enumerated in it, in the public library of Dijon.

This catalogue, written on vellum, in double columns, with initial letters in red and blue alternately, records the titles of1200mssand printed books; but the number of the latter is not great. It is headed:

Inventory of the books at Citeaux, in the diocese of Chalons, made by us, brother John, abbat of the said House, in the year of our Lord 1480, after we had caused the said books to be set to rights, bound, and covered, at a vast expense, by the labour of two and often three binders, employed continuously during two years[220].

This heading is succeeded by the following statement:

And first of the books now standing (existencium) in the library of the dorter, which we have arranged as it is, because the room had been for a long time useless, and formerly served as a tailory and vestry, ... but for two years or nearly so nothing or very little had been put there[221].

A bird's-eye view of Citeaux, dated 1674, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, shews a small building between the Frater and the Dorter, which M. Viollet-le-Duc, who has reproduced[222]part of it, letters "staircase to the dorter." The room in question was probably at the top of this staircase, and the arrangements which I am about to discuss shew beyond all question that the Dorter was at one end of it and the Frater at the other.

There were six bookcases, called benches (banche), evidently corresponding to thesediliaor "seats" mentioned in many English medieval catalogues. The writer takes the bookcases in order, beginning as follows:

Deprima bancainferiusversus refectorium(13 vols.).In2alineaprimebanche superius(17 vols.).In2abancainferiusde lateredormitorii(18 vols.).""superius""(14 vols.).In2abancainferiusde latererefectorii(15 vols.).""superius""(18 vols.).

The third and fifthbanche, containing respectively 75 volumes and 68 volumes, are described in identical language; but the descriptions of the 4th and 6th differ sufficiently to make quotation necessary:

In quartabancade lateredormitorii(24 vols.)."""refectorii(16 vols.).In sextabancade lateredormitorii(25 vols.).Libri sequentes sunt in dicta sexta banca de latere dormitorii inferius sub analogio(38 vols.).

It seems to me that the firstbancawas set against the Dorter wall, so that it faced the Frater; and that it consisted of two shelves only, the second of which is spoken of as a line (linea)[223]. The second, third, and fifthbanchewere detached pieces of furniture, with two shelves on each side. I cannot explain why the fourth is described in such different language. It is just possible that only one shelf on each side may have been occupied by books when the catalogue was compiled. I conjecture that the sixth stood against the Frater wall, thus facing the Dorter, and that it consisted of a shelf, with a desk below it, and a second shelf of books below that again.

Besides these cases there were other receptacles for books called cupboards (armaria) and also some chests. These are noted in the following terms:

Secuntur libri existentes in armariis librarie.In primo armario de latere versus refectorium (36 vols.).In secundo armario (53 vols.).In tertio armario (24 vols.).Sequuntur libri existentes in cofro seu archa juxta gradus ascensus ad vestiarium in libraria (46 vols.).In quadam cista juxta analogium de latere refectorii (9 vols.).

The total of the MSS. stored in this room amounts to 509. In addition to these the catalogue next enumerates "Books of the choir, church, and cloister (53 vols.); Books taken out of the library for the daily use of the convent (29 vols.); Books chained on desks (super analogiis) before the Chapter-House (5 vols.); on the second desk (5 vols.); on the third desk (4 vols.); on the fifth desk (4 vols.); Books taken out of the library partly to beplaced in the cloister, partly to be divided among the brethren (27 vols.); Books on the small desks in the cloister (5 vols.); Books to be read publicly in convent or to be divided among the brethren for private reading (99 vols.)." These different collections of MSS., added together, make a total of 740 volumes, which seem to have been scattered over the House, wherever a spare corner could be found for them.

The inconvenience of such an arrangement, or want of arrangement, is obvious; and it must have caused much friction in the House. We can imagine the officer in charge of the finances resenting the intrusion of his brother of the library with an asperity not wholly in accordance with fraternal charity. And yet, so strong is the tendency of human nature to put up with whatever exists, rather than be at the trouble of changing it, no effectual steps in the way of remedy were taken until the fifteenth century. In that century, however, we find that in most of the large monasteries a special room was constructed to hold books. Reading went forward, as heretofore, in the cloister, and I conceive that the books stored in the new library were mainly intended for loan or for reference. As at Durham, the monks could go there when they chose.

These conventual libraries were usually built over some existing building, or over the cloister. Sometimes, especially in France, the library appears as an additional storey added to any building with walls strong enough to bear it; sometimes again as a detached building. I will cite a few examples of libraries in these different positions.

At Christ Church, Canterbury, a library, about 60 ft. long by 22 ft. broad, was built by Archbishop Chichele between 1414 and 1443, over the Prior's Chapel[224], and William Sellyng (Prior 1472-1494) "adorned [it] with beautiful wainscot, and also furnished it with certain volumes chiefly for the use of those addicted to study, whom he zealously and generously encouraged and patronised[225]."

At Durham Prior Wessyngton, about 1446, either built or thoroughly repaired and refitted a room over the old sacristy, between the Chapter-House and the south Transept, or, as theRitessay, "betwixt the Chapter House and the Te Deum wyndowe, being well replenished with ould written Docters and other histories and ecclesiasticall writers[226]." Wessyngton's work must have been extensive and thorough, for it cost, including the repairs of the books, £90. 16s.0d.[227]—at least £1100 or £1200 at the present value of money. The position of this library will be understood from the illustration (fig. 31). The room is 44 ft. 10 in. long, by 18 ft. wide, with a window at each end, 13 ft. wide, of five lights, and a very rough roof of oak, resting on plain stone corbels.

Fig. 31. Library at Durham, built by Prior Wessyngton about 1446.Fig. 31. Library at Durham, built by Prior Wessyngton about 1446.

At Gloucester the library is in a similar position, but the date of its construction is uncertain. It has been described as follows by Mr Hope:

The library is an interesting room of fourteenth century date, retaining much of its original open roof. The north side has eleven windows, each of two square-headed lights and perfectly plain.... [There are no windows on the south side.] The large end windows are late perpendicular, each of seven lights with a transom. There are other alterations, such as the beautiful wooden corbels fromwhich the roof springs, which are probably contemporary with the work of the cloister when the western stair to the library was built, and the room altered.

At Winchester a precisely similar position was selected between the Chapter-House and the south transept, above a passage leading from the cloister to the ground at the south-east end of the church.

At the Benedictine House of S. Albans the library was begun in 1452 by John Whethamstede, Prior, and completed in the following year at the cost of £150[228]—a sum which represents about £2000 at the present day—but the position has not been recorded.

At Worcester, also Benedictine, it seems probable that the library occupied from very early times the long, narrow room over the south aisle of the nave to which it was restored in 1866. This room, which extends from the transept to the west end of the church, is 130 ft. 7 in. long, 19 ft. 6 in. wide, and 8 ft. 6 in. high on the south side. It is lighted by twelve windows, eleven of which are of two lights each, and that nearest to the transept of three lights. The room is approached by a circular stone staircase at the south-west angle of the cathedral, access to which is from the outside only[229].

At Bury S. Edmund's abbat William Curteys (1429-45) built a library, on an unknown site: but his work is worth commemorating, as another instance of the great fifteenth century movement in monasteries for providing special rooms to contain books.

At S. Victor, Paris, an Augustinian House, the library was built between 1501 and 1508, I believe over the sacristy; at Grönendaal, near Brussels, also Augustinian, it was built over the whole length of the north cloister (a distance of 175 feet), so that its windows faced the south.

Fig. 32. Library of the Grey Friars House, London, commonly called Christ's Hospital. From Trollope's History.Fig. 32. Library of the Grey Friars House, London, commonly called Christ's Hospital. From Trollope's History.

The Franciscan House in London, commonly called Christ's Hospital, had a noble library, founded 21 October, 1421, by Sir Richard Whittington, mercer and Lord Mayor of London. By Christmas Day in the following year the building was roofed in; and before three years were over it was floored, plastered, glazed, furnished with desks and wainscot, and stocked with books. The cost was £556. 16s.8d.; of which £400 was paid by Whittington, and the rest by Thomas Wynchelsey, one of the brethren, and his friends[230]. It extended over the whole of one alley of the cloister (fig. 32). Stow tells us that it was 129 ft. long, by 31 ft. broad[231]; and, according to the letters patent of Henry VIII., dated 13 January, 1547, by which the site was conveyed to the City of London, it contained "28 Desks and 28 Double Settles of Wainscot[232]."

I have recounted the expedients to which the monks of Citeaux were reduced when their books had become too numerous for the cloister. I will now describe their permanent library. This is shewn in the bird's-eye view dated 1674 to which I have already referred, and also in a second similar view, dated 1718, preserved in the archives of the town of Dijon[233], where I had the good fortune to discover it in 1894. It is accompanied by a plan of the whole monastery, and also by a special plan[234]of the library (fig. 35). The buildings had by this time been a good deal altered, and partly rebuilt in the classical style of the late renaissance; but in these changes the library had been respected. I reproduce (fig. 33) the portion of the view containing it and the adjoining structures, together with the corresponding ground-plan (fig. 34).

The authors of theVoyage Littéraire, Fathers Martène and Durand, who visited Citeaux in 1710, thus describe this library:

Citeaux sent sa grande maison et son chef d'ordre. Tout y est grand, beau et magnifique, mais d'une magnificence qui ne blesse point la simplicité religieuse....

Fig. 33. Bird's-eye view of part of the Monastery of Citeaux. From a drawing dated 1718. A, library; B, farmery.Fig. 33. Bird's-eye view of part of the Monastery of Citeaux. From a drawing dated 1718. A, library; B, farmery.

Les trois cloîtres sont proportionnez au reste des bâtimens. Dans l'un de ces cloîtres on voit de petites cellules comme à Clervaux, qu'on appelle les écritoires, parce que les anciens moines y écrivoient des livres. La bibliothèque est au dessus; le vaisseau est grand, voûté, et bien percé. Il y a bon fonds de livres imprimez sur toutes sortes de matières, et sept ou huit cent manuscrits, dont la plupart sont des ouvrages des pères de l'église[235].

The ground-plan (fig. 34) shews the writing-rooms orscriptoria, apparently six in number, eastward of the church; and the bird's-eye view (fig. 33) the library built over them. Unfortunately we know nothing of the date of its construction. It occupied the greater part of the north side of a cloister called"petit cloître" or Farmery Cloister, from the large building on the east side originally built as a Farmery (fig. 33, B). It was approached by a newel-stair at its south-west corner (fig. 35). Thisstair gave access to a vestibule, in which, on the west, was a door leading into a room called small library (petite bibliothèque), apparently built over one of the chapels at the east end of the church (fig. 34). The destination of this room is not known. The library proper was about 83 feet long by 25 feet broad[236], vaulted, and lighted by six windows in the north and south walls. There was probably an east window also, but as explained above, it was intended, when this plan was drawn, to build a new gallery for books at this end of the older structure.

Fig. 34. Ground-plan of part of the Monastery of Citeaux. From a plan dated 1718.Fig. 34. Ground-plan of part of the Monastery of Citeaux. From a plan dated 1718.

Fig. 35. Ground-plan of the Library at Citeaux.Fig. 35. Ground-plan of the Library at Citeaux.

I proceed next to the library at Clairvaux, a House which may be called the eldest daughter of Citeaux, having been founded by S. Bernard in 1115. This library was built in a position precisely similar to that at Citeaux, namely, eastward of the church, on the north side of the second cloister, over theScriptoria. Begun in 1495, it was completed in 1503; and was evidently regarded as a work of singular beauty, over which the House ought to rejoice, for the building of it is commemorated in the following stanzas written on the first leaf of a catalogue made between 1496 and 1509, and now preserved in the library at Troyes[237]:

La construction de cette librairie.Jadis se fist cette constructionPar bons ouvriers subtilz et plains de sensL'an qu'on disoit de l'incarnationNonante cinq avec mil quatre cens.Et tant y fut besongnié de courageEn pierre, en bois, et autre fournitureQu'après peu d'ans achevé fut louvrageMurs et piliers et voulte et couverture.Puis en après l'an mil vcet troisY furent mis les livres des docteurs:Le doux Jésus qui pendit en la croixDoint paradis aux dévotz fondateurs.

La construction de cette librairie.

Jadis se fist cette constructionPar bons ouvriers subtilz et plains de sensL'an qu'on disoit de l'incarnationNonante cinq avec mil quatre cens.

Et tant y fut besongnié de courageEn pierre, en bois, et autre fournitureQu'après peu d'ans achevé fut louvrageMurs et piliers et voulte et couverture.

Puis en après l'an mil vcet troisY furent mis les livres des docteurs:Le doux Jésus qui pendit en la croixDoint paradis aux dévotz fondateurs.

Amen.

We fortunately possess a minute description of Clairvaux, written, soon after the completion of the new library, by the secretary to the Queen of Sicily, who came there 13 July, 1517,and was taken, apparently, through every part of the monastery[238]. The account of the library is as follows:

Et de ce même costé [dudit cloistre] sont xiiii estudes où les religieulx escripvent et estudient, lesquelles sont très belles, et au dessus d'icelles estudes est la neufve librairerie, à laquelle l'on va par une vis large et haulte estant audict cloistre, laquelle librairie contient de longeur lxiii passées, et de largeur xvii passées.En icelle y a quarante huic banctz, et en chacun banc quatre poulpitres fournys de livres de touttes sciences, et principallement en théologie, dont la pluspart desdicts livres sont en parchemin et escript à la main, richement historiez et enluminez.L'édiffice de ladicte librairie est magnificque et massonnée, et bien esclairé de deux costez de belles grandes fenestres, bien vitrés, ayant regard sur ledict cloistre et cimitière des Abbez. La couverture est de plomb et semblablement de ladite église et cloistre, et tous les pilliers bouttans d'iceulx édiffices couverts de plomb.Le devant d'icelle librairie est moult richement orné et entaillé par le bas de collunnes d'estranges façons, et par le hault de riches feuillaiges, pinacles et tabernacles, garnis de grandes ymaiges, qui décorent et embelissent ledict édifice. La vis, par laquelle on y monte, est à six pans, larges pour y monter trois hommes de front, et couronné à l'entour de cleres voyes de massonerie. Ladicte librairerie est toute pavée de petits carreaulx à diverses figures.

En icelle y a quarante huic banctz, et en chacun banc quatre poulpitres fournys de livres de touttes sciences, et principallement en théologie, dont la pluspart desdicts livres sont en parchemin et escript à la main, richement historiez et enluminez.

L'édiffice de ladicte librairie est magnificque et massonnée, et bien esclairé de deux costez de belles grandes fenestres, bien vitrés, ayant regard sur ledict cloistre et cimitière des Abbez. La couverture est de plomb et semblablement de ladite église et cloistre, et tous les pilliers bouttans d'iceulx édiffices couverts de plomb.

Le devant d'icelle librairie est moult richement orné et entaillé par le bas de collunnes d'estranges façons, et par le hault de riches feuillaiges, pinacles et tabernacles, garnis de grandes ymaiges, qui décorent et embelissent ledict édifice. La vis, par laquelle on y monte, est à six pans, larges pour y monter trois hommes de front, et couronné à l'entour de cleres voyes de massonerie. Ladicte librairerie est toute pavée de petits carreaulx à diverses figures.

It will be interesting to place by the side of this description a second, written nearly two hundred years later, by the authors of theVoyage Littéraire, who visited Clairvaux in the spring of 1709:

Le grand cloître ... est voûté et vitré. Les religieux y doivent garder un perpétuel silence. Dans le côté du chapitre il y a des livres enchaînez sur des pupitres de bois, dans lesquels les religieux peuvent venir faire des lectures lorsqu'ils veulent....Du grand cloître on entre dans le cloître du colloque, ainsi appellé, parce qu'il est permis aux religieux d'y parler. Il y a dans ce cloître douze ou quinze petites cellules tout d'un rang, où les religieux écrivoient autrefois des livres: c'est pourquoy on les appelle encore aujourd'hui les écritoires. Au-dessus de ces cellules est la bibliothèque, dont le vaisseau est grand, voûté, bien percé, et rempli d'un grand nombre de manuscrits, attachez avec des chaînes sur des pupitres, mais il y a peu de livres imprimez[239].

Du grand cloître on entre dans le cloître du colloque, ainsi appellé, parce qu'il est permis aux religieux d'y parler. Il y a dans ce cloître douze ou quinze petites cellules tout d'un rang, où les religieux écrivoient autrefois des livres: c'est pourquoy on les appelle encore aujourd'hui les écritoires. Au-dessus de ces cellules est la bibliothèque, dont le vaisseau est grand, voûté, bien percé, et rempli d'un grand nombre de manuscrits, attachez avec des chaînes sur des pupitres, mais il y a peu de livres imprimez[239].

The plan of the substruction of this new library, as shewn onthe ground-plan of Clairvaux given by Viollet Le Duc[240], is exactly the same as that of Citeaux (fig. 33) but on a larger scale. The library itself, as there, was approached by a newel stair at its south-west corner. This stair was hexagonal, and of a diameter sufficient to allow three men to ascend at the same time. The library was of great extent—being about 206 feet long by 56 feet broad—if the dimensions given in the above account be correct, and if I am right in supposing a pace (passée) to be equivalent to a modernmètre; vaulted, and well lighted. The Queen's secretary seems to have been specially struck by the beauty, the size, and the decoration of the windows. The floor was paved with encaustic tiles.

It will be interesting to note how, in some Houses, the library slowly expanded itself, occupying, one after another, every coign of vantage-ground. An excellent example of this growth is to be found in the abbey of Saint Germain des Près, Paris; and fortunately there are several views, taken at different periods before the Revolution, on which the gradual extension of the library can be readily traced. I append a portion of two of these. The first (fig. 36), dated 1687, shews the library over the south walk of the cloister, where it was placed in 1555. It must not, however, be supposed that no library existed before this. On the contrary, the House seems to have had one from the first foundation, and so early as the thirteenth century it could be consulted by strangers, and books borrowed from it. The second view (fig. 37), dated 1724, shews a still further extension of the library. It has now invaded the west side of the cloister, which has received an upper storey; and even the external appearance of the venerable Frater, which was respected when nearly all the rest of the buildings were rebuilt in a classical style, has been sacrificed to a similar gallery. The united lengths of these three rooms must have been little short of 384 feet. This library was at the disposal of all scholars who desired to use it. When the Revolution came it contained more than 49,000 printed books, and 7000 manuscripts[241].

Fig. 36. Part of the Abbey of S. Germain des Près, Paris. From a print dated 1687; reproduced in Les Anciennes Bibliothèques de Paris, par Alf. Franklin, Vol. i. p 126.Fig. 36. Part of the Abbey of S. Germain des Près, Paris. From a print dated 1687; reproduced in Les Anciennes Bibliothèques de Paris, par Alf. Franklin, Vol. i. p 126.

1Porta major monasterii.2Atrium ecclesie.3Regalis basilica.4Sacrarium.5Claustrum parvum B. M.7Dormitorium.8Bibliotheca.9Dormitoria R. Patrum Congregationis.10Aulæ Hospitum.12Refectorium.

Fig. 37. Part of the Abbey of S. Germain des Près, Paris. From a print in Histoire de l'Abbaye Royale de Saint Germain des Prez, par Dom Jacques Bouillart, fol. Paris, 1724, lettered "l'Abbaye ... telle qu'elle est présentement."Fig. 37. Part of the Abbey of S. Germain des Près, Paris. From a print in Histoire de l'Abbaye Royale de Saint Germain des Prez, par Dom Jacques Bouillart, fol. Paris, 1724, lettered "l'Abbaye ... telle qu'elle est présentement."

A.Porte Extérieure.B.Maisons de l'enclos.C.Parvis de l'Eglise.D.L'Eglise.F.Saciristie.G.Petit Cloître.H.Grand Cloître.I.Bibliothèque.K.Dortoir.L.Réfectoire.M.Cuisine.Z.Dortoir des Hôtes.

I now pass to Cathedrals, which vied with monasteries in the possession of a library; and, as might be expected, the two sets of buildings throw light on each other. I regret that it has now become impossible to discover the site or the extent of such a library as that of York, which was well stocked with books so early as the middle of the eighth century; or of that of Notre Dame de Paris, which was a centre of instruction as well as oflearning; but some good examples of capitular libraries can be found in other places; and, like those of the monasteries, they were for the most part built in the fifteenth century. I will begin with the library of Lincoln Cathedral, part of which is still in existence[242].

The Cathedral of Lincoln was founded at the close of the eleventh century, and in the middle of the twelfth we find the books belonging to it kept in a press (armarium). We learn this from the heading of a list[243]of them when placed in the charge of Hamo, Chancellor 1150-1182, written on the first page of a copy of the Vulgate, the first volume in the collection:

Quando Hamoni cancellario cancellaria data fuit et librorum cura commissa, hos in armario invenit libros et sub custodia sua recepit, scilicet:Bibliothecam in duobus voluminibus [etc.].

Quando Hamoni cancellario cancellaria data fuit et librorum cura commissa, hos in armario invenit libros et sub custodia sua recepit, scilicet:

Bibliothecam in duobus voluminibus [etc.].

The list which follows enumerates 42 volumes, together with a map of the world. To this small collection there were added in Hamo's time, either by his own gift or by that of other benefactors, 31 volumes more; so that before his death the press contained 73 volumes, probably a large collection for that period. Besides these, there were service-books in the charge of the bursar (thesaurarius), and song-books in that of the precentor. The three collections were probably kept in the church.

The first indication of a separate room to contain books is afforded by the gift of a volume by Philip Repyndon, Bishop 1405-1419, in which year he resigned. It is given after his resignation, "to the new library to be built within the Church of Lincoln." Again, Thomas Duffield, formerly Chancellor, who died in 1426, bequeathed another book "to the new library of the aforesaid church." The erection of the new library may therefore be placed between 1419 and 1426.

A catalogue, now in the muniment room at Lincoln, which, on internal evidence, may be dated about 1450, enumerates 107works, of which 77 (more or less) have been identified as still in the library. The heading, which I will translate, refers to a chaining of the books which had recently taken place, possibly after the construction of the cases which I shall describe in a subsequent chapter.

It is to be noted that in this indenture are enumerated all the books in the library of the church of blessed Mary of Lincoln which have lately been secured with locks and chains; of which indenture one part is stitched into the end of the black book of the aforesaid church, and the other part remains in ...[244].

The library—a timber structure—was placed over the northern half of the east walk of the cloister. At present only three bays at the north end remain; but there were originally two bays more, at the south end, between the existing structure and the Chapter-House. These were destroyed in 1789, when the following Chapter Order was made (7 May):

That the old Library adjoining to the Chapter House shall be taken down, and the part of the Cloysters under it new leaded and the walls compleated, and the Stair case therto removed, and a new Stair Case made, agreable to a plan and estimate of the Expence thereof.

I will now briefly describe the room, with the assistance of the plan (fig. 38)[245], and the view of the interior (fig. 39).

Fig. 39. Interior of the Old Library, Lincoln Cathedral. The open door leads into Dean Honywood's Library, as described in Chapter VIII.Fig. 39. Interior of the Old Library, Lincoln Cathedral. The open door leads into Dean Honywood's Library, as described inChapter VIII.

The walls are 9 ft. 8 in. high, from the floor to the top of the wall-plate. They are divided into bays, each 7 ft. 9 in. wide, by vertical shafts, from which, at a height of 5 ft. 9 in. from the ground, spring the braces which support the tiebeams of the roof. These are massive beams of oak, slightly arched, and molded on their under-surface. Their position is indicated by dotted lines on the plan (fig. 38). The whole roof is a splendid specimen of fifteenth century work, enriched with carving in the finest style of execution. There is a bold ornament in the centre of each tiebeam; and at the foot of the central joist in each bay, which is wider than the rest, and molded, while the others are plain, there is an angel, projecting horizontally from the wall. The purlin, again, is molded, and where it intersects the central joist a subject is carved: an angel playing on a musicalinstrument—a bird—a rose—a grotesque figure—and the like. Below the wall-plate is a cornice, 12 in. deep, ornamented with a row of quatrefoils above a row of battlements. Beneath these there is a groove, which seems to indicate that the walls were once panelled or plastered.

Fig. 38. Plan of the Old Library, Lincoln Cathedral.Fig. 38. Plan of the Old Library, Lincoln Cathedral.

It is probable that there was originally a row of equidistant windows in the east and west walls, one to each bay on each side; but of these, if they ever existed, no trace remains. There must also have been a window at the north end, and probably one at the south end also. The present windows are plainly modern. The room is known to have suffered from a fire, which tradition assigns to 1609; and probably the original windows were changed during the repairs rendered necessary at that time.

Fig. 40. Plan of the Cloister, etc., Lincoln Cathedral.Fig. 40. Plan of the Cloister, etc., Lincoln Cathedral.

It is not easy to decide how this library was approached. It has been suggested that the stone newel stair at the north-west corner of the Chapter-House was used for this purpose; but, if that be the case, how are we to explain the words in the above order "the Stair Case thereto removed"; and an item which occurs in the Cathedral Accounts for 1789, "taking down the old stairs, strings, and banisters, 14s."? It appeared to me, when examining the building, that there had been originally a door on the east side, now replaced by a window, as shewn onthe plan (fig. 38). Possibly the staircase destroyed in 1789 led to this door, which was conveniently situated in the centre of a bay. The staircase built in 1789 is the one still existing at the north-east corner of the old library (fig. 40, A).

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