will state how many leaves
are contained in the whole volume; and finally another
numeral immediately following the last clearly sets
forth the number of the tracts contained in the said
volume.

If then the above facts be securely entrusted to a
retentive memory it will be clearly seen in what class,
shelf, place and order each book of the whole Library
ought to be put, and on what leaf and which side of the
leaf the beginnings of the several treatises may be
found. For it has been the object of the compiler of
this present register [and] of the Library, by setting
forth a variety of such marks and notations of classes,
shelves, order, pagination, treatises and volumes, to
insure for his monastery security from loss in time to
come, to shut the door against the spite of such as
might wish to despoil or bargain away such a treasure,
and to set up a sure bulwark of defence and resistance.
And in truth the compiler will not be offended but will
honestly love anyone who shall bring this
register--which is still faulty in many respects--into
better order, even if he should see fit to place his own
name at the head of the whole work.

In the first part of the register, therefore, we have
throughout at the top, between black lines ruled
horizontally, first the class-letter, in red, and,
following it, the shelf-mark, in black characters
(_tetris signaculis_). Then again between other lines
ruled in red, vertically: first, on the left a numeral
shewing the place of the book in order on its shelf:
then the name of the volume: thirdly, the number of the
"probatory" leaf; fourthly, the "probatory" words (in
the case of which, by the way, reference is made to the
text and not to the gloss); fifthly, the number of
leaves in the whole volume; and, lastly, the number of
the treatises contained in it--all written within the
aforesaid lines. In addition there will be left in each
shelf of this part, at the end, some vacant space, in
which the names of books that may be subsequently
acquired can be placed[352].

The meaning of the word "distinction" is the principal difficulty in the
way of understanding the above description. I thought at first that it
denoted merely difference of subject, and that _gradus_, as in the
catalogue of Queens' College, Cambridge, was a side of a