the doors this inscription: "_Alii quidem equos amant, alii oves,
alii feros; mihi vero a puerulo mirandum acquirendi et possidendi libros
insedit desiderium._"

The libraries of the middle ages were neither large nor numerous. The
neglect of learning and of literature was wide-spread; only in the
monasteries of Europe were to be found scholars who kept alive the sacred
flame. In these were renewed those fruitful labors of the _scriptorium_
which had preserved and multiplied so many precious books in classic
times among the Romans. The monks, indeed, were not seldom creators as
well as copyists, though the works which they composed were mainly
theological (as became their sacred profession and ascetic life). The
Latin, however, being the almost universal language for so many
centuries, the love of learning conspired to widen the field of monastic
study. Many zealous ecclesiastics were found who revived the classic
authors, and copies of the works of poets, historians, philosophers and
rhetoricians were multiplied. Then were gradually formed those monastic
libraries to which so many thousands of mediaeval scholars owed a debt of
gratitude. The order of Benedictines took a leading and effective part in
this revival of learning. Taxes were levied on the inmates of monasteries
expressly for furnishing the library with books, and the novices in many
houses must contribute writing materials upon entering, and books at the
close of their novitiate, for the enrichment of the library. Among
notably valuable libraries, several of which still survive, were those of
Monte Cassino in Italy, the Abbey of Fleury in France, St. Gall in
Switzerland, and that of the illustrious congregation of St. Maur in
France. The latter had at one time no less than one hundred and seven
writers engaged in multiplying books.

The first library in England is recorded (in the Canterbury Chartulary)
to have been given by Pope Gregory the Great, and brought by St.
Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, on his mission to England
about A. D. 600. It consisted of nine precious volumes on vellum, being
copies of parts of the Scriptures, with commentaries, and a volume of
Lives of the Martyrs. The library of the Benedictine Monastery at
Canterbury had grown in the 13th century to 3000 titles, being very rich
in theology, but with many books also in history, poetry and science. At
York had been founded, in the 8th century, a noble library by Archbishop
Eg