m
possint semper esse parati ad respondendum fratribus seruicium petentibus.

[207] _History of the Church of Peterburgh._ By Symon Gunton: fol. 1686,
p. 103. The author gives the subjects and legends of nine windows. I owe
this quotation to the kindness of Mr Hope.

CHAPTER III.

INCREASE OF MONASTIC COLLECTIONS. S. RIQUIER, BOBBIO, DURHAM, CANTERBURY.
BOOKS KEPT IN OTHER PLACES THAN THE CLOISTER. EXPEDIENTS FOR HOUSING THEM
AT DURHAM, CITEAUX, AND ELSEWHERE. SEPARATE LIBRARIES BUILT IN FIFTEENTH
CENTURY AT DURHAM, S. ALBANS, CITEAUX, CLAIRVAUX, ETC. GRADUAL EXTENSION
OF LIBRARY AT S. GERMAIN DES PRES. LIBRARIES ATTACHED TO CATHEDRALS.
LINCOLN, SALISBURY, WELLS, NOYON, ROUEN, ETC.

In the last chapter I attempted to describe the way in which the Monastic
Orders provided for the safe keeping of their books, so long as their
collections were not larger than could be accommodated in a press or
presses in the cloister, or in the small rooms used by the Cistercians for
the same purpose. I have now to carry the investigation a step farther,
and to shew how books were treated when a separate library was built.

It must not be supposed that an extensive collection of books was regarded
as indispensable in all monastic establishments. In many Houses, partly
from lack of funds, partly from an indisposition to study, the books were
probably limited to those required for the services and for the daily life
of the brethren. In other places, on the contrary, where the fashion of
book-collecting had been set from very early days, by some abbat or prior
more learned or more active than his fellows; and where brethren in
consequence had learnt to take a pride in their books, whether they read
them or not, a large collection was got together at a date when even a
royal library could be contained in a single chest of very modest
dimensions. For instance, when an inventory of the possessions of the
Benedictine House of S. Riquier near Abbeville was made at the request of
Louis le Debonnaire in 831 A.D., it was found that the library contained
250 volumes; and a note at the end of the catalogue informs us that if the
different treatises had been entered separately, the number of entries
would have exceeded five hundred, as many books were frequently bound in a
single volume. The works in this library are roughly sorted under the
headings Divinity, Grammar, History and Geography, Sermons,
Service-books[208]. A similar collection