by Gertrude Burford Rawlings
New York D.Appleton and Company 1901
result that towards the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries the English
manuscripts were unsurpassed by any in Europe. As a typical specimen of the illuminations of this period,
we may with propriety select one which has been described by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson as "the
very finest of its kind," and" probably unique in its combination of excellence of drawing, brilliance of
illumination, and variety and extent of subjects." It is a Psalter dating from the fourteenth century, and
known as Queen Mary's Psalter, because a customs officer of the port of London, who intercepted it as it
was about to be taken out of the country, presented it to the Queen in 1553. This magnificent book is
now in the British Museum.
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a large number of Bibles and Psalters were written, and made
up the greater part of the book output of the larger monasteries, to which we are indebted for all our fine
pieces of manuscript work. Indeed, most of the decorated manuscripts of this period are occupied with
the Scriptures, services, liturgies, and other matters of the kind, and on such the best work was
lavished. Later, however, the growing taste for romances and stories induced a corresponding tendency
to decorate these secular manuscripts too, and some very fine work of this class was produced,
especially in France. The books of the chronicles of England and of France, written in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, were also largely adorned with painted miniatures.
Nearly all the writing of Europe was done in the religious houses. In most of the larger monasteries there
was a scriptorium, or writing room, where Bibles, Psalters, and service books, and patristic and classical
writings were transcribed, chronicles and histories compiled, and beautiful specimens of the illuminator's
art carefully, skillfully, and lovingly executed.
Books, however, were not only written in the monasteries, but read as well. The rule of St. Benedict
insisted that the steady reading of books by the brethren should form part of the daily round.
Archbishop Lanfranc, also, in his orders for the English Benedictines, directed that once a year books
were to be distributed and borrowed volumes to be restored. For this purpose, the librarian was to have
a carpet laid down in the Chapter House, the monks were to assemble, and the names of those to whom
books had been lent were to be read out. Each in turn had to answer to his name, and restore his book,
and he who had neglected to avail himself of his privilege, and had left his book unread, was to fall on his
face and implore forgiveness. Then the books were re-distributed for study during the ensuing year. This
custom was generally followed by all the monasteries of Lanfranc's time.
Richard Aungervyle, Bishop of Durham, born in 1281 at Bury 81. Edmund's, and therefore usually known
as Richard de Bury, gives a vivacious picture of the attitude of a book-lover of the Middle Ages in his
Philobiblon, or Lover of Books. He there sings the praises of books, and voices their lament over their ill-
treatment by degenerate clerks and by the unlearned. He also tells how he gathered his library, which was
then the largest and best in England. Philobiblon is written in vigorous and even violent language, and is
worth quoting.
Books, according to this extravagant eulogy, are" wells of Iiving water," "golden urns in which manna is
laid up, or rather, indeed, honeycombs,” “the four-streamed river of Paradise, where the human mind is
fed, and the arid intellect moistened and watered." "You, O Books, are the golden vessels of the temple,
the arms of the clerical militia, with which the missiles of the most wicked are destroyed, fruitful olives,
vines of Engedi, fig trees knowing no sterility, burning lamps to be ever held in the hand."
Then the books are made to utter their plaint because of the indignity to which they are subjected by the
degenerate clergy. " We are expelled from the domiciles of the clergy, apportioned to us by hereditary
right, in some interior chamber of which we had our peaceful cells; but, to their shame, in these nefarious
times we are altogether banished to suffer opprobrium out of doors; our places, moreover, are occupied
by hounds and hawks, and sometimes by a biped beast: woman, to wit. . .; wherefore this beast, ever
jealous of our studies, and at all times implacable, spying us at last in a corner, protected only by the
web of some long-deceased spider, drawing her forehead into wrinkles, laughs us to scorn, abuses us in
virulent speeches, points us out as the only superfluous furniture in the house, complains that we are
useless for any purpose of domestic economy whatever, and recommends our being bartered away
forthwith for costly head dresses, cambric, silk, twice-dipped purple garments, .woolen, linen, and furs."
After this terrible picture of feminine ignorance and malevolence, it is refreshing to turn to the
achievements of the pious Diemudis, by way of contrast. Diemudis was a nun of "Wessobrunn in Bavaria,
who lived in the eleventh century. Nuns are not often referred to as writers, but of this lady it is recorded
that she wrote "in a most beautiful and legible character" no less than thirty-one books, some of which
were in two, three, and even six volumes. These she transcribed, to the praise of God, and of the holy
apostle; Peter and Paul, the patrons of this monastery.