eapness of literary productions of the present age
render it an absolute waste of time to transcribe a whole volume, and
except with books of great scarcity we seldom think of borrowing or
lending one; having finished its perusal we place it on the shelf and in
future regard it as a book of reference; but in those days one volume did
the work of twenty. It was lent to a neighboring monastery, and this
constituted its publication; for each monastery thus favored, by the aid
perhaps of some half dozen scribes, added a copy to their own library,
and it was often stipulated that on the return of the original a correct
duplicate should accompany it, as a remuneration to its author. Nor was
the volume allowed to remain unread; it was recited aloud at meals, or
when otherwise met together, to the whole community. We shall do well to
bear this in mind, and not hastily judge of the number of students by a
comparison with the number of their books. But it was not always a mere
single volume that the monks lent from their library. Hunter has
printed[24] a list of books lent by the Convent of Henton, A. D. 1343, to
a neighboring monastery, containing twenty volumes. The engagement to
restore these books was formally drawn up and sealed.

In the monasteries the first consideration was to see that the library
was well stored with those books necessary for the performance of the
various offices of the church, but besides these the library ought,
according to established rules, to contain for the "edification of the
brothers" such as were fit and needful to be consulted in common study.
The Bible and great expositors; _Bibliothecae et majores expositores_,
books of martyrs, lives of saints, homilies, etc.;[25] these and other
large books the monks were allowed to take and study in private, but the
smaller ones they could only study in the library, lest they should be
lost or mislaid. This was also the case with respect to the rare and
choice volumes. When the armarian gave out books to the monks he made a
note of their nature, and took an exact account of their number, so that
he might know in a moment which of the brothers had it for perusal.[26]
Those who studied together were to receive what books they choose; but
when they had satisfied themselves, they were particularly directed to
restore them to their assigned places; and when they at any time received
from the armarian a book for their private reading, they were not allowed
to l