Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/59

 60

LITERATURE

of meat for the writers, the exemplars were fur- nished by Archbishop Lanfranc. Estates and legacies were often bequeathed for the support of the scriptorium, and tithes appropriated for the express purpose of copying books. The tran- scription of the service books for the choir, was in- trusted to boys and novices; but the missals and bibles were ordered to be written by monks of mature age and discretion. Persons qualified by experience, and superior learning, were appointed to revise every manuscript that came from the scriptorium. The copying of books, was executed in other places besides monasteries; sometimes by individuals, from their attachment to litera- ture; but generally by persons who made it their professed employment. Where there were no nxed revenues for defraying the expenses of pro- curing books for the library, the abbot, with the consent of the chapter, commonly imposed an annual tax, on every member of the community for that purpose. The monks of some monasteries were bitterly reproached for the extravagant sums they expended on their libraries.

Tothecareand curiosityof the religioushouses, it is principally owing, that the old chronicles' of our country were preserved till the invention of printing. Besides the monks who were employed m the monasteries, in copying manuscripts; there were others, who were engaged in illuminating and binding them when written. Gold and azure were the favourite colours of the illuminators. In binding their books, some wereadomed with gold, silver, ivory, precious stones, or coloured velvet; but for common binding, they frequently used rough white sheep-skin, with or without immense bosses of brass, pasted upon a wooden board, carved in scroll and similar work.

The monks, in these convential writing rooms, were enjoined to pursue their occupation in .silence, and cautiously to avoid mistakes in gram- mar, spelling, or pointing; and, in certain in- stances, authors prefixed to their works, a solemn adjuration to the transcribers, to copy them cor- rectly; the following ancient one, by Irenieus, has been preserved : " I adjure thee, who shall transcribe this book, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by his glorious coming to judge the quick and the dead, that thou compare what thou trans- scribest, and correct it carefully, according to the copy from which thou transcribest; and that thou also annex a copy of this adjuration towhatthou hast written." — Eutebitu'i Ecclet. Hut,

The monastic writers, or copiers of manu- scripts, have been thought by some, to be the last relics of the Jewish scribes, or the Roman librarii. — Dihdin.

Turner, in his History of England, gives the followingaccountof Osmund, who came over with the Conqueror, and who had been created Earl of Dorset, and borne the highest offices in the state, having embraced a religious life, and been chosen bishop of Sherbom, or Salisbury, collected a noble library; and not only received with great liberality, every ecclesiastic that was distinguished for learn- ing, and persuaded them to reside with him, but • npied and bound books with bis own hand.

1095, May 24. Died Pope GtegoTj VII. This pope from a bigotted zeal, or a principle of policy, endeavoured to destroy the works of all the most eminent heathen authors; and, among many others that perished by his means, he is said to have burned above one hundred copies of Livy't Hiitory,al\ the decads of which were entire before his time.

The Dictates of Hildebrand, sufficiently de- monstrate the fierce impetuosity and boundless ambition of his character. One of these Dtclola affirm, " that no book is to be deemed canonical without his authority."

Inflamed with the blindest zeal against every thing Pagan, this pone ordered that the library of the Palatine Apollo, a treasury of literature formed by successive emperors, should be com- mitted to the flames! He issued this order under the notion of confining the attention of the clergy to the, holy scriptures! From that time all ancient learning which was not sanctioned by the authority of the church, has been emphati- cally distinguished as profane — in opposition to taered. This Pope also is said to have burnt the works of Varro, the learned Roman, that St. Austin should escape from the charge of plagi- arism, being deeply indebted to Varro for much of his great work the City of God. ITie works of the ancients were frequently destroyed at the instigation of the monks, lliey appear some- times to have mutilated them, for passages have not come down to us which once evidently existed.

" Science now dreads on books no holy war j

Thus multiply'd. and thus dlspere'd so far.

She smiles exulting, dootn'd no more to dwell

'Midst moths and cobwebs, in a friar's cell :

To sec her Livy, and most faroitr'd sons.

The prey of wonxu and popes, of Goths and Hans;

To mourn, half-eaten Tacitiu, thy fate.

The dread of lawless sway, and craft of state.

Her bold mncAme redeem 's the patriot's fame

From royal malice, and the bi^'s flame;

To bounded thrones displays the leg^al plan.

And vindicates the dignity of man.

Tyrants and time, in her, lose half their pow'r, —

And Reason siiall subsist, tho' both devour.

Her sov'reigrn empire, Britons, O! maintain

While demons yell, and monks blaspheme in vain.

Her's is the re(>imen of civil good;

And her's, religion, truly understood."

Until this century, musical notes were ex- pressed only by letters of the alphabet, and till the fourteenth century they were expressed by large lozenge-shaped black dots or points placed on different lines, one above another, and these first-named «/, re, mi, fa, sol, la, to which si was afterwards added; and they were all expressed without any distinction as to length of time, and without any such thing as breves, semibreves, minims, crotchets, or quavers. The old p.salters, in many cathedral cnurches, are found thus written. In the library at Worcester, there is a copy of St. Matthew's gospel, set to music throughout, with these sorts of notes. Reeds were commonly used for writing the text and initials, and quills for the smaller writing.

From the origin of monasteries, till the close of the tenth century, there were no schools in Europe, except those belonging to monasteries, or episcopal churches. At the beginning of the eleventh cen-

VjOOQ IC