Si quem sancta tenet meditandi in lege voluntas
Hic poterit residens sacris intendere libris.

Here he whose thoughts are on the laws of God
May sit and ponder over holy books.

As De Rossi explains, the first of the two niches was intended to contain
the vessels and furniture of the altar; the second was reserved for the
safe-keeping of the sacred books. The word _trichora_, in Greek [Greek:
tricho], is used by later writers to designate a three-fold division of
any object--as for instance, by Dioscorides, of the seed-pod of the
acacia[126].

Whether this theory of the use of the apse be accurate or fanciful, the
purely Christian libraries to which I have alluded were undoubtedly
connected, more or less closely, with churches; and I submit that the
libraries which in the Middle Ages were connected with cathedrals and
collegiate churches are their lineal descendants.

I have next to consider the libraries formed by monastic communities, the
origin of which may be traced to very early times. Among the Christians of
the first three centuries there were enthusiasts who, discontented with
the luxurious life they led in the populous cities along the coasts of
Africa and Syria, fled into the Egyptian deserts, there to lead a life of
rigorous self-denial and religious contemplation. These hermits were
presently joined by other hermits, and small communities were gradually
formed, with a regular organization that foreshadowed the Rules and
Customs of the later monastic life. Those who governed these primitive
monasteries soon realised the fact that without books their inmates would
relapse into barbarism, and libraries were got together. The Rule of S.
Pachomius (A.D. 292-345), whose monastery was at Tabennisi near Denderah
in Upper Egypt, provides that the books of the House are to be kept in a
cupboard (_fenestra_) in the thickness of the wall. Any brother who wanted
a book might have one for a week, at the end of which he was bound to
return it. No brother might leave a book open when he went to church or
to meals. In the evening the officer called "the Second," that is, the
second in command, was to take charge of the books, count them, and lock
them up.[127]

These provisions, insisted upon at a very early date, form a suitable
introduction to the most important section of my subject--the care of
books by the Monastic Orders. With them book-preserving and book-producing
were reduced to a system, and in their l