membranis de purpuratis coloratis pro
animae suae remidis scribere jusset." Du Cange, vol. iv. p. 654. See
also Mabillon Act. Sanct., tom. v. p. 110, who is of opinion that
these purple MSS. were only designed for princes; see Nouveau Traite
de Diplomatique, and Montfaucon Palaeog. Graec., pp. 45, 218, 226, for
more on this subject.

[79] See a Fragment in the Brit. Mus. engraved in Shaw's Illuminated
Ornaments, plate 1.

[80] Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 437. Mr. Maitland, in his "Dark Ages,"
enters into a consideration of this matter with much critical
learning and ingenuity.

[81] D'Israeli Amenities of Lit., vol. i. p. 358.

[82] The Precentor's accounts of the Church of Norwich contain the
following items:--1300, 5 _dozen parchment_, 2_s._ 6_d._, 40 lbs. of
ink, 4_s._ 4_d._, 1 gallon of vini decrili, 3_s._, 4 lbs. of
corporase, 4 lbs. of galls, 2 lbs. of gum arab, 3_s._ 4_d._, to make
ink. I dismiss these facts with the simple question they naturally
excite: that if parchment was so _very scarce_, what on earth did
the monk want with all this ink?

[83] Leonardi Aretini Epist. 1. iv. ep. v.

[84] Mehi Praefatio ad vit Ambrosii Traversarii, p. xxxix.

[85] Mehi Praef., pp. xlviii.--xlix.

[86] A MS. containing five books of Tacitus which had been deemed
lost was found in Germany during the pontificate of Leo X., and
deposited in the Laurentian library at Florence.--_Mehi Praef._ p.
xlvii. See Shepard's Life of Poggio, p. 104, to whom I am much
indebted for these curious facts.

[87] Shepard's Life of Poggio, p. 101.

CHAPTER IV.

_Canterbury Monastery.--Theodore of
Tarsus.--Tatwine.--Nothelm.--St.
Dunstan.--AElfric.--Lanfranc.--Anselm.--St. Augustine's
books.--Henry de Estria and his
Catalogue.--Chiclely.--Sellinge.--Rochester.--Gundulph, a Bible
Student.--Radulphus.--Ascelin of Dover.--Glanvill, etc._

In the foregoing chapters I have endeavored to give the reader an insight
into the means by which the monks multiplied their books, the
opportunities they had of obtaining them, the rules of their libraries
and scriptoria, and the duties of a monkish librarian. I now proceed to
notice some of the English monastic libraries of the middle ages, and by
early records and old manuscripts inquire into their extent, and revel
for a time among the bibliomaniacs of the cloisters. On the s