ich are now-a-days called carols[204]." Their use--at any rate in some
Houses--is evident from an injunction among the Customs of S. Augustine's,
Canterbury, to the effect that the cellarer and others who rarely sit in
cloister might not have carrells, nor in fact any brother unless he be
able to help the community by copying or illuminating, or at least by
adding musical notation[205]. They were in fact devices to provide a
certain amount of privacy for literary work in Houses where there was no
_Scriptorium_ or writing-room. At Durham, according to the author of
_Rites_, they were used exclusively for reading.

The above-mentioned Customs of S. Augustine's, written between 1310 and
1344, give a valuable contemporary picture of the organization of one of
the more important cloister-libraries. The care of the presses is to be
entrusted to the Precentor and his subordinate, called the Succentor. The
former is to have a seat in front of the press--which doubtless stood
against the wall--and his carrell is to stand at no great distance, on the
stone between the piers of the arches next the cloister-garth. The
Succentor is to have his seat and his carrell on the bench near the
press--by which the bench which commonly ran along the cloister-wall is
obviously meant. These arrangements are made "in order that these two
officers, or at least one of them, may always be at hand to satisfy
brethren who make any demand upon their time[206]." In other words, they
were the librarian and sub-librarian, who were to be always ready to
answer questions. It is clear that brethren were not allowed to handle the
books as they pleased.

The cloister at Durham, or at least that part of it which was used as a
library, was glazed; but whether with white glass or stained glass we are
not informed. So obvious a device for increasing both the comfort and the
beauty of a much-frequented part of the monastic buildings was doubtless
adopted in many other Houses. At Bury S. Edmunds part at least of the
cloister had "painted windows representing the sun, moon and stars and the
occupations of the months"; at Christ Church, Canterbury, Prior Sellyng
(1472-94) "had the south walk of the cloister glazed for the use of the
studious brethren"; at Peterborough the windows of the cloister

were all compleat and fair, adorned with glass of
excellent painting: In the South Cloyster was the
History of the Old Testament: In the East Cloyster of
t