n account of their appearance.
He was speaking of Archbishop Parker, 'whose care for the conservation of
ancient monuments can never be sufficiently commended.' 'The reverend
Father,' he added, 'showed me the _Psalter of David_, and sundry homilies
in Greek, and Hebrew also, and some other Greek authors, beautifully
written on thick paper with the name of this Theodore prefixed,' to whose
library the Archbishop thought that they had belonged, 'being thereto led
by a show of great antiquity.'

The monks of Canterbury claimed to possess the books on pink vellum, with
rubricated capitals, which Pope Gregory had sent to Augustine. One of
these afterwards belonged to Parker, who gave it to Corpus Christi at
Cambridge: the experts now believe that it was written in the eighth
century 'in spite of the ancient appearance of the figure-painting.'
Another is the _Psalter of St. Augustine_, now preserved among the
Cottonian MSS. This is also considered to be a writing of the eighth
century.

In the Bodleian library there is a third example, written in quarto with
large uncial letters in double columns, in much the same style as the
book given by Parker to Corpus Christi. The Bodleian specimen is
especially interesting as containing on the fly-leaf a list in
Anglo-Saxon of the contents of the library of Solomon the Priest, with
notes as to other small collections.

We have reached the period in which Northumbria became for a time the
centre of Western culture. The supremacy of Rome, set up at the Council
of Whitby, was fostered and sustained by the introduction of the Italian
arts. Vast quantities of books were imported. Stately Abbeys were rising
along the coast, and students were flocking to seek the fruits of the new
learning in well-filled libraries and bustling schools. We may judge how
bright the prospect seemed by the tone of Alcuin's letters to Charles the
Great. He tells the Emperor of certain 'exquisite books' which he had
studied under Egbert at York. The schools of the North are compared to 'a
garden enclosed' and to the beds of spices: he asks that some of the
young men may be sent over to procure books, so that in Tours as well as
at York they may gather the flowers of the garden and share in the
'outgoings of Paradise.' A few years afterwards came the news of the
harrying of Northumbria by the Vikings. The libraries were burned, and
Northumbria was overwhelmed in darkness and slavery; and Alcuin wrote
again, 'He w