nducted more as a matter of commerce, and making of books
became in time very profitable. The Church continued to hold the keys of
knowledge and to control the means of productions; but the cloistered
cell, where the monk or the layman, who had a penance to work off for a
grave sin, had worked in solitude, gave way to the apartment specially
set aside, where many persons could work together, usually under the
direction of a _librarius_ or chief scribe. In the more carefully
constructed monasteries this apartment was so placed as to adjoin the
calefactory, which allowed the introduction of hot air, when needed.

The seriousness with which the business of copying was considered is well
illustrated by the consecration of the _scriptorium_ which was often
done in words which may be thus translated: "Vouchsafe, O Lord, to bless
this work-room of thy servants, that all which they write therein may be
comprehended by their intelligence and realized in their work."

While the work of the scribes was largely that of copying the scriptures,
gospels, and books of devotion required for the service of the church,
there was a considerable trade in books of a more secular kind.
Particularly was this so in England. The large measure of attention given
to the production of books of legends and romances was a distinguishing
feature of the literature of England at least three centuries previous to
the invention of printing. At about the twelfth century and after, there
was a very large production and sale of books under such headings as
chronicles, satires, sermons, works of science and medicine, treatises on
style, prose romances and epics in verse. Of course a large proportion of
these were written in or translated from the Latin, the former indicating
a pretty general knowledge of that language among those who could buy or
read books at all. That this familiarity with the Latin tongue was not
confined to any particular country is abundantly shown by various
authorities.

Mr. Merryweather, whose book, as has been intimated, is only a defense
of bibliomania itself as it actually existed in the middle ages, gives
the reader but scant information as to processes of book-making at that
time. But thanks to the painstaking research of others, these details are
now a part of the general knowledge of the development of the book. The
following, taken from Mr. Theodore De Vinne's _Invention of Printing_,
will, we think, be found interesting: