Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/73

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LITERATURE.

house, each week, 4». 4irf. ; fuel, £1 6«. 8<f. The total of weekly charge, £13 0s.9id. giving an annual total of £678 Is. 2d.

Exclnsire of this charge for the monastery, there is a separate account in the bakehouse and brewery for the abbot; the revenues of the abbot and convent, in all the greater monasteries, being kept separate, and the estates for the support of each detached from each other. The weekly expenditure in the abbot's department comes so near in amount (£11 6s. 9a.) to that for the convent generally, that it seems necessary to add the remark that, as a parliamentary baron, the abbot was obliged to maintun a large retinue ; he had his town residence and his country seats, and all the monastery who held rank in society were necessarily his guests.

In the kitchen of the monastery, £10 per week was expended on flesh, fish, eggs, cheese and other minor articles, making a total annual expenditure under this head of £520, besides the purveyance of the cellarer, which consisted chiefly in the provision for Lent, during the continuance of which his expenditure was for herrings, £25; forfour seams of pulse for gruel, £l 12s.; for six seams of beans, £1 IDs.; honey, 6s. 8d.; nuts, 13s. 4d.; salt, £3 6s. Sd.; forty- two seams of peas, for pottage through the year, £11 ; total annual expense in the cellarer's department, £43 8s. 8d. Here the abbots' portion comes in again ; the weekly expenditure of which was, six carcasses and three quarters of oxen, at 4s. the ox, £1 7s.; fifteen porkers and a half, at 3s. the porker, £2 6s. 6d.; thirty, one .geese, at 2d. each, 5s. 2d.; one hundred and fif^-fivehens,at1(. each, 12s. l\d. Theweekly expenditure in the abbot's kitchen amounted to £4 15s. 7d., making an annual total, exclusive of fuel, of £568 4s. 3d. The annual cost of fuel for the kitchen, to both the abbot and the convent, was £30. A charge of £60 then comes for the provender of the horses of the prior, cellarer, and hospitaller; and another £60 is charged for pittances, misericordias, robes, horses, and other necessary expenses of the cellarer. All these various accounts make the gross annual expenditure of the abbey, as far as its aflairs in the kitchen, the refectory, and the convent stables are concerned, amount to £H7 iU. 2d. This sum seems to have covered the maintenance as well as the hospitality of the convent in ordinary times; but, on particular occasions, a royal visit broke much deeper into the abbey revenues. The entertainment of King Richard II. and his queen at this abbey in 1383, alone cost the monastery eight hundred marks: and King Henry VI., in 1433, stayed there from Christmas to St. George's day.

The large sums expended upon oaten malt may appear not very intelligible ; particularly as the beer brewed from it was not likely to be made a drink of choice by the convent. But the immense number of servants and retainers who came with visitors of rank, the constant access of the poor to the convent, and the recollection that tiavelleis in former times resorted to monas-

teries instead of inns, will easily account for this branch of the expenditure.

From the above account may be seen the cost of various articles of food, ana from which mny be estimated the value of books at this period ; and it is rather singular, that no mention is made either of manuscripts or books of any description.

1284-5. The earliest specimen of the art of engraving on wood, in Europe, is supposed to have been executed in the course of these two years.

" The origin of engraving on wood," says Mr. Ottley, " like that of many other useful arts, is obscured by clouds, which the learned have in vain laboured to dispel. The want of evidence cotemporaneous, or nearly cotemporaneous, with the truth sought, has hitherto rendered every attempt for its attainment unavailable; and con- jecture must still be employed to fill the chasm which proofs cannot be found to occupy. That it is of Asiatic original, appears to be the best founded opinion ; and if the name of its inventor is destined ever to be known, it is most probable, that it will be found among the records of Eastern nations. China seems to hare the best claim to the invention. It is well known that the Chinese, in writing their language, do not describe words by means of a combination of letters, each ex- pressive of a particular soimd, as is the case in European languages; but that they represent each word of their endless vocabulary oy one distinct character, serving to indicate it alone ; if indeed, those characters can properly be termed the representations of words, which are often individually expressive of a sentiment that could not, in speaking, be expressed without the assis- tance 01 many words. The prodigious number of these characters, amounting, according to some accounts, to 80,000, renders it impracticable for them to print their books with moveable types. To cast them separately would be an endless un- dertaking ; and were it done, by far the greater part of them would be of veiy rare occurrence.

The earliest document concerning wood en- graving in Europe, is given by Papillon ; but this authority has given rise to much controversy among the critics, led by Heineken on one side, and Zani on the other, of which latter Mr. Ottley speaks in terms of much respect. Papillon gives the glory of the Two Cdnio. They were twin brother and sister, the first son of the count di Cunio, which he had by a noble and beautifiil Veronese lady, allied to the family of Pope HonoriusIV. Theirworks werea representatim, in eight pieces, of the actions of Alexandef Ae Great, with Latin verses. Mr. Ottley givei a statement of the argument on both sides of tlie (question, as to the authenticity of these non-exist- ing documents, and concludes, " Thus much for Papillon's entertaining narrative respecting the two Cunio ; a document — for so, I think, I may now term it, from which we learn, that engraving in wood was practiced as early as the thirteenu century, in those parts of Italy at lea.st, which border upon the Gulph of Venice. It is hae inserted, for the gratincation of the curious.

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