Bibliomania in the Middle Ages Part 15

[272] This was in the year 731. _Goodwin_ says he "sate 36 years, and died an. 767." He says, "This man by his owne wisedome, and the authority of his brother, amended greatly the state of his church and see. He procured the archiepiscopall pall to be restored to his churche againe, and erected a famous library at York, which he stored plentifully with an infinite number of excellent bookes." p.

441.

[273] De Pontificibus et Sanctis Ecclesiae Eboracensis.

[274] Alcuini Oper., tom. i. vol. 1, p. 57, translated in Sharpe's William of Malmsbury, p. 73.

[275] Opera, tom. i. p. 305.

[276] In a letter to Gisla, sister to the emperor, he writes "Totius forsitan evangelii Johannis expositionem direxissem vobis, si me non occupa.s.set Domini Regis praeceptum in emendatione Veteri Novique Testamenti."--_Opera_, tom. i. vol. 7, p. 591.

[277] Alcuini, ap. Gale, tom. iii. p. 730.

[278] Alcuini, Oper. tom. i. p. 52. Ep. x.x.xviii. It was written about 796.

[279] He was also very careful in instructing the scribes to punctuate with accuracy, which he deemed of great importance. See Ep. lx.x.xv. p. 126.

[280] Necrolog. MS. Capituli, Metropolitani Salisburgensis, _apud_ Froben, tom. i. p. lx.x.xi.

[281] Charlemagne founded several libraries;--see _Koeler, Dissert.

de Biblio. Caroli Mog._ published in 1727. Eginhart mentions his private collection, and it is thus spoken of in the emperor's will; "Similiter et de libris, quorum magna in bibliotheca sua copiam congregavit: statuit ut ab iis qui eos habere uellet, justo pretio redimeretur, pretin in pauperes erogaretur." Echin. Vita Caroli, p.

366, edit. 24mo. 1562. Yet we cannot but regret the dispersion of this imperial library.

[282] Formerly called _Streaneshalch_.

[283] At the age of 66, _Bede_, b. iv. cxxiii.

[284] Bede, b. iv. c. xxiv.

[285] John de Trevisa says, "Caedmon of Whitaby was inspired of the Holy Gost, and made wonder poisyes an Englisch, meiz of al the Storyes of Holy Writ." _MS. Harleian_, 1900, fol. 43, a.

[286] Ibid.

[287] Cottonian Collection marked _Claudius_, B. iv. There is another MS. in the Bodleian (_Junius_ XI.) It was printed by Junius in 1655, in 4to. Sturt has engraved some of the illuminations in his _Saxon Antiquities_, and they were also copied and published by J.

Greene, F. A. S., in 1754, in fifteen plates.

[288] It is unfortunately imperfect at the end, and wants folio 32.

[289] Take the following as an instance of the similarity of thought between the two poets. Sharon Turner thus renders a portion of Satan's speech from the Saxon of Caedmon:

"Yet why should I sue for his grace?

Or bend to him with any obedience?

I may be a G.o.d as he is.

Stand by me strong companions."

_Hist. Anglo Sax._ vol. ii. p. 314.

The idea is with Milton:

... ..... To bow to one for grace With suppliant knee, and deify his power, Who from the terror of this arm so late Doubted his empire; that were low indeed!

That were an ignominy, and shame beneath This downfall!

_Paradise Lost_, b. i.

[290] He will find it in Charlton's History of Whitby, 4to. 1779, p.

113.

[291] Marked MS. N. B. 17.

[292] Wright and Halliwell's Rel. Antiq. vol. ii. p. 180.

[293] It is printed in Hearne's History of Glas...o...b..ry, from a MS.

in the Bodleian Library, Ed. _Oxon_, 1722, _Appendix_ x. p. 291.

[294] Bibliothecam optimam c.u.m duobus armillis ex auro purissimo fabricatis.--_Heming. Chart_, p. 95.

[295] Thomas's Survey, of Worcester Church, 4to. 1736, p. 46. The Scriptorium of the monastery was situated in the cloisters, and a Bible in Bennet College, Cambridge, was written therein by a scribe named Senatus, as we learn from a note printed in Nasmith's Catalogue, which proves it to have been written during the reign of Henry II. It is a folio MS. on vellum, and a fine specimen of the talent of the expert scribe.--See _Nasmith's Catalogus Libr. MSS._, 4to. _Camb._ 1777, p. 31.

[296] Since writing the above, which I gave on the authority of Green (_Hist. of Worc._ vol. i. p. 79), backed with the older one of Thomas (_Survey Ch. Worc._ p. 70), I have had the opportunity of consulting the reference given by them (_Heming, Chart._ p. 262), and was somewhat surprised to find the words "_Et bibliothecam, in duobus partibus divisam_," the foundation of this pleasing anecdote.

"_Bibliothecam_," however, was the Latin for a Bible in the middle ages: so that in fact the Lady G.o.diva gave them a Bible divided into two parts, or volumes.

[297] Chalmer's Hist. of the Colleges of Oxford, p. 458. Wood's Hist. Antiq. of Oxon, lib. ii. p. 48.

[298] Green's Hist. Worc. p. 79.

[299] Sir W. Dugdale's View of the Troubles in England, _Folio_, p.

557. We can easily credit the destruction of the organ and painted windows, so obnoxious to Puritan piety; but with regard to the _Bibles_, we may suspect the accuracy of the Royalist writer, col.

182.

[300] Symeon Dunelm. Tweyed. Script. x.

[301] Habingdon, MSS. G.o.dwin de Praef, p. 231.

[302] Tindal's Hist. of Evesham, p. 248.

[303] _Ibid._ p. 250.

[304] MS. Harl., No. 3763, p. 180.

[305] MS. Cot. Vesp. b. xxiv. It is printed in Latin in _Nash's Worcesters.h.i.+re_, vol. i. p. 419, and translated in _Tindal's Hist.

of Worcs._ p. 24, all of which I have used with _Dugdale's Monast._ vol. ii. p. 5.

[306] _MS. Cottonian Augustus II._ No. 11. "Ex his debet invenire praecentor incaustum omnibus scriptoribus monasterii; et Pergamenum ad brevia, et colores ad illuminandum, et necessaria ad legandum libros." See _Dugdale's Monast._ vol. ii. p. 24.

[307] After the elapse of so many years, the research of the antiquarian has brought this desk to light; an account of it will be found in the Archeologia, vol. xvii. p. 278.

[308] "Emit etiam quator evangelia glosata, et Yaiam et Ezechielem glossatos."

[309] Harleian MSS., No. 3763.