r Brussels. MS. in the Royal Library, Brussels, fol. 53 v^o. _De
Armario._

[141] As I know of no other passage in a medieval writer which describes
an _armarium_, I transcribe the original text: Armarium, in quo libri
reponuntur, intrinsecus ligno vestitum esse debet ne humor parietum libros
humectet vel inficiat. In quo eciam diversi ordines seorsum et deorsum
distincti esse debent, in quibus libri separatim collocari possint, et
distingui abinvicem, ne nimia compressio ipsis libris noceat, vel querenti
moram inuectat.

[142] Statuta primaria Praemonstratensis Ordinis, Cap. VII. ap. Le Paige,
_Bibliotheca Praem. Ord._ fol. Paris, 1633, p. 803. The words are: Ad
Armarium pertinet libros custodire, et si sciverit emendare; Armarium
librorum, cum necesse fuerit, claudere et aperire ... libros mutuo
accipere cum necesse fuerit et nostros quaerentibus commodare sed non sine
licentia Abbatis vel Prioris absente Abbate et non sine memoriali
competenti.

[143] The delightful story of S. Francis and the brother who wished for a
psalter of his own is told in the _Speculum Perfectionis_, ed. Sabatier,
8vo. Paris, 1898, p. 11.

[144] These Constitutions have been printed by Father F. Ehrle in a paper
called _Die aeltesten Redactionen der Generalconstitutionen des
Franziskanerordens_, in "Archiv fuer Literatur und Kirchengeschichte des
Mittelalters," Band VI. pp. 1-138. The passages cited above will be found
on p. 111.

[145] _The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury._ ed. E. C. Thomas, 8vo. Lond.
1888, p. 203.

[146] In the Cluniac Customs those volumes only which had been assigned to
particular brethren are to be laid on the carpet. It is difficult to
understand the reason for this formal assignment of a book to each brother
who chose to ask for one. As brethren in those early times had no separate
cubicles or cells, it could hardly imply more than a precaution against
the difficulty of two brethren requiring the use of the same volume.
Possibly the whole intention was disciplinary, to ensure study as
prescribed by the Rule.

[147] Delisle, _Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes_, Ser. 3, Vol. I. p. 225.
Interdicimus inter alia viris religiosis, ne emittant juramentum de non
commodando libros suos indigentibus, cum commodare inter praecipua
misericordiae opera computetur. Sed, adhibita consideratione diligenti,
alii in domo ad opus fratrum retineantur; alii secundum providentiam
abbatis, cum indemnitate domus, indigentibus commodentur