Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/58

 ELEVENTH CENTURY.

49

legzned moa on the continent followed him to En^and. The circle of the sciences was much adwged beyond any former age. It wa-s in this K^ that we find the distinction drawn, betwixt phjadans, surgeons, and apothecaries. The best colcmporary writers agree, that learning was in a mote flourishing state in England and Nor- maAj in the reign of Henry L (1100 to 1135) tlun It was in Italy.

The following Ls a translation of an old charter, originally written in the Saxon language, and

Cited by William I. to the inhabitants of don: — ^"William, king, greets William, bishop, and Godfrey portgrave (tKe tame in office ti lord mayor) and all the borough of London, French and English, friendly. And I now make known to you, that you are worthy to enjoy all tiuMe laws and pririleges which you did before the decease of King Edward. Ana it is my will that eroy child be his father's heir after his father's decose. And I will not suffer any man to do you wrong. God you keep."

1070. An instance of the high estimation in which books were held at this time, is to be seen in the front of the manuscript gospels bdonging to the public library, of the university of Cam- hidge, written in an old hand in Latin and Anglo- Saxonic, given to the university by the learned Theodore Beza. Thb book was presented by Leofh'c, bishop of the church of St. Peter's at Exeter, for the use of his successors. This Leo- 6ic was chanceUor of England, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and died in 1072.

Theodore Beza was a celebrated reformer, and a man of very extensive and critical learning. He was born at Vezlay, in Burgundy, in 1519, and.died at Geneva, in 1605. The above manu- script is called from him Codex Beza, but some- times. Codex Cantabrigienit.

Theodore Beza dedicated his Arittotle on Ani- mait to pope Sixtus IV. and received from his hdiness tbe cost of the binding.

1070. Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, by his Constitutions, ordered his librarian to deliver a book to each of the religious, at the beginning of Lest: a whole year was allowed for the perusal of the book; and at the Returning Lent, those monks who had neglected to read the books they had tW^ectively received, were commanded to prostrate AeiBKlres before the abbot, and to supplicate his itdslgence. Lanfranc died May 28, 1089, and WB buried at Canterbury.

In this century, Robert, abbot of Jumiege, and •ncctssirely bishop of London, and archbishop of Canterbury, presented to his monastery, during (he time he held the bishopric of London, a book catted a.Sacrameatary, containing all the prayers aad ceremonies practised at the celebration of the sactaments. At the dose of the book, the foUow- \bz anathema was denounced against any one vno should steal the book, or any of the oma- mentS'Of the monastery : — ^ If any one take away this book from this place by force, or fraud, or any other way, let hum suffer the loss of his soul for what he has done ; let him be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written among the

just ; and let him be condemned to the severest excommunication, who shall take away any of the vestments which I have given to this place, or the other ornaments, the silver candlesticks, or the gold from the table. Amen." — Mabillon.

In the above monastery, prayers were appointed to be offered on the (ith of March, for those " who had made and given books on the first day of Lent," the day on which books were distributed to the monks according to rule.

1080. Herman, one of the Norman bishops of Salisbury, condescended to write, bind, and illu- minate books, for the use of the church. • 1072. Inthelibrary of the monastery of Mount Cassino, is a manuscript, containing the lessons for the vigils, to which the following note is prefixed : " I, brother John of Marticana, long since arch-priest of the church, but now the meanest servant of that holy place, did cause to be composed, at my own proper charge, for the salvation of me and mine ; and devoutly offered it to the most holy Father Benedict, on his holy altar; on the day when I took his habit upon me. Farther praying, that if any man shall, on any pretence whatsoever, presume to take it from this holy place, he may have his eternal mansion with those to whom Cnrist at the last judgment shall say : Depart from me into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. But whosoever tou are that read these lines, fail not also to reaa the distich underneath :"

" Blest Savloiir I In thy book of life divine, May Leo's* fkvoored name lllutiions shine."

Father Montfaucon, in his Diarium ludicwm, or travels through Italy, notices several works written or transcribed in this centurj-, and de- posited in the different libraries, some of which have curious inscriptions. In the Duke of Mo- dena's library, is npsaller most elegantly written, on the front of which is in.serted in Greek : — " This book is deposited in the holy monastery, for the remission of the sins of the monk Theo> dosius Xylata. Let him who reads it through the Lord, praise him, and pray for his soul."

1080. 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 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 icriptonum, was expressly fitted up, as a writing-room. Thatof St. Alban'sf abbey was built about this time, by a noble Nor- man, who ordered many volumes to be written there, and who conferred upon the abbey two parts of the tithes of Hatfield, and certain tithes in Redbum, and appointed a daily provision

• The name of the transcriber. t St. Alban was the first person who snlfered Martyntom for Christtanlty in England, he was beheaded at Verulam, in Hertfordshire, June 23, 303, since called St. Albans, fromtbe Abbey founded in memory of that Martyr, 794, by Ollh, King of the Mercians. .

it

VjOOQ IC