Part 6

The bishop of Durham wrote a treatise containing rules for the management of the library above-mentioned, describing how the books were to be preserved, and upon what conditions they were to be lent out to scholars, and appointed five keepers, to whom he granted yearly salaries. This treatise he called “_Philobiblion_,” from whence he himself came to be called by the same name, “a lover of books,” and this very justly, if, as he says himself in the preface to it, his love of them was so violent that it put him into a kind of rapture, and made him neglect all his other affairs. He finished it at Auckland, the 24th of January, 1345, being then just 63 years of age. It was printed at Spires in 1483; at Paris, by Badius Ascensius, in 1500; by the learned Thomas James, at Oxford, in 1599, in quarto; and at Leipsic, in 1674, at the end of _Philologicarum Epistolarum Centuria una, ex Bibliotheca Melch. Hamingfeldii_. It appears also in manuscript in the Cottonian library, in the royal library, and in other libraries in Oxford and Cambridge.

The “_Philobiblion_,” is written in very indifferent Latin, and in a declamatory style. It is divided into twenty chapters. In chapter 1. the author praises wisdom, and books in which it is contained. 2. That books are to be preferred to riches and pleasure. 3. That they ought to be always bought. 4. How much good arises from books, and that they are misused only by ignorant people. 5. That good monks write books, but the bad ones are otherwise employed. 6. The praise of the ancient begging friars, with a reproof of the modern ones. 7. He bewails the loss of books by fire and wars. 8. He shews what fine opportunities he had had of collecting books, whilst he was chancellor and treasurer, as well as during his embassies. 9. That the ancients outdid the moderns in hard studying. 10. That learning is by degrees arrived at perfection, and that he had procured a Greek and Hebrew grammar. 11. That the law and law books are not properly learning. 12. The usefulness and necessity of grammar. 13. An apology for poetry, and the usefulness of it. 14. Who ought to love books. 15. The manifold advantages of learning. 16. Of writing new books and mending the old. 17. Of using books well, and how to place them. 18. An answer to his calumniators. 19. Upon what conditions books are to be lent to strangers. 20. Conclusion.

In the “_Philobiblion_” the bishop apologizes for admitting the poets into his collection; _quare non negleximus Fabulas Poetarum_. But he is more complaisant to the prejudices of his age, where he says, that the laity are unworthy to be admitted to any commerce with books: _Laici omnium librorum communione sunt indigni_. He prefers books of the liberal arts to treatises of the law. He laments that good literature had entirely ceased in the university of Paris. He admits _Panfletos exiguos_ into his library. He employed _Stationarios_ and _Librarios_, not only in England, but in France, Italy, and Germany. He regrets the total ignorance of the greek language; but adds that he has provided for the students of his library both Greek and Hebrew grammars. He calls Paris the “paradise of the world,” and says that he purchased there a variety of invaluable volumes in all sciences, which yet were neglected and perishing. While he was Chancellor and Treasurer of England, instead of the usual presents and new year’s gifts appendant to his office, he chose to receive those perquisites in books. By the favour of king Edward the third, he gained access to the libraries of the principal monasteries, where he shook off the dust from various volumes preserved in chests and presses, which had not been opened for many ages.

There were several collections of manuscripts in England before the general restoration of science in Europe, which had at different times been brought hither by those who had travelled into foreign countries; these were chiefly preserved in the two Universities, in the cathedral churches, and in religious houses, but in the fifteenth and sixteenth century several valuable libraries were formed in England.

In the reign of king Henry the sixth, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, fourth and youngest son of king Henry the fourth, was a singular promoter of literature, just at the dawning of science and learning. However unqualified this eminent personage was for political intrigue, and to contend with his malicious and powerful enemies, among whom the Cardinal Beaufort was the principal, he was nevertheless the common friend and patron of all the scholars of his time. A sketch of his character and pursuits, as being closely connected with the progress of English literature, cannot fail of proving interesting, more especially as they are peculiarly associated with the subject of the present inquiry.

About the year 1440, the Duke gave to the University of Oxford a library, containing six hundred volumes, one hundred and twenty only of which were valued at more than one thousand pounds of the money of that day. These books, it need not be observed, were all in manuscript, the art of printing not having then been discovered; they are called _Novi Tractatus_, or New Treatises, in the University Register, and are said to be _admirandi apparatus_. They were the most splendid and costly copies that could be procured, finely written on vellum, and elegantly embellished with miniatures and illuminations. Among the rest was a translation into French of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Only a single specimen of these valuable volumes was suffered to remain; it is a beautiful manuscript, in folio, of Valerius Maximus, enriched with the most elegant decorations, and written in Duke Humphrey’s age, evidently with a design of being placed in this sumptuous collection. All the rest of the books, which, like this, being highly ornamented, looked like missals, were destroyed or removed by the pious visitors of the University, in the reign of king Edward the sixth, whose zeal was equalled only by their ignorance, or perhaps by their avarice. A great number of classics, in this grand work of reformation, were condemned as anti-christian, and some of the books, in this library, had even been before this, either stolen or mutilated. In the library of Oriel College, at Oxford, we find a manuscript _Commentary on Genesis_, written by John Capgrave, a monk, belonging to the monastery of St. Austin, at Canterbury, a learned theologist of the fifteenth century. In it is the author’s autograph, and the work is dedicated to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. In the superb initial letter of the dedicatory epistle, is a curious illumination of the author Capgrave, humbly presenting his book to his patron, the Duke, who is seated, and covered with a sort of hat. At the end of the volume is this entry, in the hand-writing of Duke Humphrey “C’est Livre est a moy Humfrey, Duc de Gloucestre, du don de Frere Jehan Capgrave, quy le me fist presenter a mon manoyr de Pensherst le jour ... de l’an MCCCCXXXVIII.” This is one of the books which Humphrey gave to his new library at Oxford, destroyed or dispersed by the active reformers of the young Edward. He also gave to the same library Capgrave _Super Exodum et Regum Libros_.

John Whethamstede, a learned abbot of St. Alban’s, and a lover of scholars, but accused by his monks of neglecting their affairs, while he was too deeply engaged in studious employments, and in procuring transcripts of useful books, notwithstanding his unwearied assiduity in beautifying and enriching their monastery, was in high favour with this munificent prince. The Duke was fond of visiting this monastery, and employed Abbot Whethamstede to collect valuable books for him. Some of Whethamstede’s tracts, manuscript copies of which often occur in our libraries, are dedicated to the Duke, who presented many of them, particularly a fine copy of Whethamstede’s _Granarium_, an immense work, which Leland calls _ingens volumen_ to the new library. The copy of Valerius Maximus, mentioned before, has a curious table or index, made by Whethamstede. Many other Abbots paid their court to the Duke, by sending him presents of books, the margins of which were adorned with the most exquisite paintings.

Gilbert Kymer, physician to king Henry the sixth, and holding, among other ecclesiastical preferments, the Deanery of Salisbury and Chancellorship of the University of Oxford; the latter dignity by the recommendatory letters of the Duke, inscribed to the Duke of Gloucester his famous medical system—_Diætarium de Sanitatis Custodia_—in the year 1424.

Lydgate,[12] one of the early English poets, translated Boccacio’s book, _De Casibus Virorum illustrium_, at the recommendation and command, and under the protection and superintendance, of Duke Humphrey, whose condescension in conversing with learned ecclesiastics, and diligence in study, the translator displays at large, and in the strongest expressions of panegyric. He compares the Duke to Julius Cæsar, who, amidst the weightier cares of state, was not ashamed to enter the rhetorical school of Cicero at Rome. Nor was his patronage confined only to English scholars. His favour was solicited by the most celebrated writers of France and Italy, many of whom he bountifully rewarded. Leonard Aretin,[13] one of the first restorers of the Greek tongue in Italy, (which language he learned of Emanuel Chrysoloras,[14]) and of polite literature in general, dedicates to this universal patron his elegant Latin translation of Aristotle’s _Politics_. The copy presented to the Duke by the translator, most elegantly illuminated, is now in the Bodleian library.

To the same noble encourager of learning, Petrus Candidus, the friend of Laurentius Valla,[15] and secretary to the great Cosmo, Duke of Milan, inscribed by the advice of the Archbishop of Milan, a Latin version of Plato’s _Republic_. An illuminated manuscript of this translation is in the British Museum, perhaps the copy presented, with two epistles from the Duke to Petrus Candidus.

Petrus de Monte, another learned Italian of Venice, in the dedication of his treatise—_De Virtutum et Vitiorum differentia_—to the Duke of Gloucester, mentions the latter’s ardent attachment to books of all kinds, and the singular avidity with which he pursued every species of literature.

A tract entitled _Comparatio Studiorum et Rei Militaris_, written by Lopus de Castellione, a Florentine civilian, and a great translator into Latin of the Greek classics, is also inscribed to the Duke at the desire of Zeno, archbishop of Bayeux. It must not be forgotten that our illustrious Duke invited into England the learned Tito Livio of Foro-Juli, whom he naturalized and constituted his poet and orator. He also retained learned foreigners in his service, for the purpose of transcribing, and of translating from Greek into Latin. One of these was Antonio de Beccaria, a Veronese, who translated into Latin prose the Greek poem of _Dionysius Afer de Situ Orbis_; whom the Duke also employed to translate into Latin six tracts of Athanasius. This translation, inscribed to the Duke, is now among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum, and at the end, in his own hand-writing, is the following insertion:—“C’est Livre est a moi Homphrey Duc le Gloucestre: le quel je fis translater de grec en latin par un de mes secretaires Antoyne de Beccara ne de Verone.”

An astronomical tract, entitled, by Leland, _Fabulæ Directionum_, is erroneously supposed to have been written by Duke Humphrey. But it was compiled at the Duke’s instance, and according to tables which he had himself constructed, called by the anonymous author in his preface, _Tabulas illustrissimi principis et nobilissimi Domini mei, Humfredi, &c._ In the library of Gresham College, however, there is a scheme of calculations in astronomy, which bears his name. Astronomy was then a favourite science; nor is it to be doubted that he was intimately acquainted with the politer branches of knowledge which now began to acquire estimation, and which his liberal and judicious attention greatly contributed to restore.

* * * * *

King Edward the fourth and Henry the seventh greatly assisted the cause of learning, by the encouragement they gave to the art of printing in England, and by purchasing such books as were printed in other countries. William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, purchased many valuable Greek manuscripts which had been brought hither by the prelates and others after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks.

King Henry the eighth may justly be called the founder of the royal library, which was enriched with the manuscripts selected from the _scriptoria_ and libraries of the principal monasteries, by that indefatigable antiquary John Leland.

Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, enriched the library of the college of Corpus Christi, with a great number of ancient and curious manuscripts.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Thomas Bodley greatly increased the public library at Oxford, which is now called by his name. This great benefactor to the literature of his country, quitted the court, and applied himself wholly to the purchasing of books and manuscripts both at home and abroad. By these means he had the satisfaction of furnishing that library with 1294 manuscripts, which by the subsequent liberality of many great and illustrious persons, has been since increased to more than eight thousand volumes, including the manuscripts given by Tanner, Bishop of Norwich, and the valuable library bequeathed by the will of Dr. Richard Rawlinson.

Considerable augmentations were made to the libraries of the several colleges in the two universities, as also to those of our cathedral churches, the palace at Lambeth, the Inns of Court, the College of Arms, and others; catalogues of which were published at Oxford in 1697 under the title of _Catalogus Manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ_.

Bodley’s great contemporary, Sir Robert Cotton, is also entitled to the gratitude of posterity for his diligence in collecting the Cottonian library; he was engaged in the pursuit of manuscripts and records upwards of forty years, during which time he spared neither trouble nor expense.

The noble manuscript library founded by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and greatly enriched by his son Edward, who inherited his father’s love of science, claims a distinguished place in every account which may be given of the literary treasures of antiquity in general, and of this country in particular. Posterity will ever be indebted to her grace the Duchess Dowager of Portland, for securing this inestimable treasure of learning to the public, by authority of Parliament, under the guardianship of the most distinguished persons of the realm, both for rank and abilities, whose excellent regulations have made this library, as also the Royal, Cottonian, Sloanian, and others, now deposited in the British Museum, easy of access, and consequently of real use to the philosopher, the statesman, the historian, the scholar, and the artist.[16]

Footnote 9:

Gildas, called _Badonicus_, because said to be born at Bath, was, for his singular prudence and the severity of his morals, surnamed the WISE; he was a monk of Bangor, and his “Description of the state of Britain,” above alluded to, is the only one of his writings extant, as we are assured by Archbishop Usher. Gildas wrote this work in Latin, in a style, according to that age, harsh and perplexed enough. The first printed edition of it was published by Polydore Virgil, in octavo, London, 1525, and dedicated to Cuthbert Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, which, however, was from an incorrect copy. It was reprinted at Basil, in 12mo, in 1541; and at London, 1548, though Bishop Nicolson says 1568. It was again printed at London, in 12mo, in 1638, translated by Thomas Habingdon, of Henlip, in Worcestershire. John Josseline, secretary to Archbishop Parker, reprinted Gildas more correctly from two new manuscripts, Basil, 1568, 12mo; and Paris 1576; but these are little more perfect than the first.—The latest and best copy of Gildas is in Dr. Gale’s collection of Ancient English Historians, 2 vols. folio, Oxford, 1687 and 1691; who had the advantage of a more ancient and better copy, as Bishop Nicolson observes. Besides Habingdons’s translation above mentioned, there was another printed during the Cromwell rebellion, in 1652, for the mere purpose, it has been said, of retailing Gildas’s sharp reproofs of Kings and Priests.—For an account of this edition, see Oldys’s British Librarian, and Savage’s Librarian, vol. 1. p. 117.

Footnote 10:

Strutt, in his “Chronicle of England” has given a plate representing a page of this manuscript, and in Astle’s “History of Writing,” there is a plate of the same page, coloured, in imitation of the original.

Footnote 11:

Bede, commonly called the Venerable Bede, was the most learned man of the age in which he lived; he was born at Weremouth, in Northumberland, in the year 672. Both ancient and modern authors have bestowed the highest encomiums upon the learning of this extraordinary man. His works are many, making eight large volumes, in folio, the principal of which is his Ecclesiastical History of the Anglo-Saxons, consisting of five books, from whence the more perfect part of our early history is formed; his other works are the Lives of Saints, Treatises on the Holy Scriptures, and Philosophical Tracts. This great man died at his cell at Jarrow, in the year 735, aged 63.

Footnote 12:

Lydgate was commonly called the Monk of Bury, because born at that place, about the year 1380. After some time spent in the English Universities, he travelled through France and Italy, in which countries he greatly improved himself. In addition to his poetical talents, he is described as being an eloquent rhetorician, an expert mathematician, an acute philosopher, and no mean divine. He is said to have been so much admired by his contemporaries, that they said of him, that his wit was fashioned by the Muses themselves. After his return from France and Italy, he became tutor to the sons of several of the nobility, and for his excellent endowments, was much esteemed and reverenced by them. He wrote a poem, called _The Life and Death of Hector_, some satires, eulogies, and odes, and other learned works in prose. He died in 1440, aged sixty, and was buried in his own convent at Bury. Lydgate is said to have been a disciple of Chaucer.

Footnote 13:

Leonard Aretin, the disciple of Chrysoloras, was a linguist, an orator, and an historian; the secretary of four successive Popes; and Chancellor of the Republic of Florence, where he died in 1444, aged seventy-five. He added a Supplement to Livy on the Punic War, and wrote the History of Italy, with other valuable works.

Footnote 14:

Emanuel Chrysoloras was one of the envoys sent by the Greek Emperor Manuel, at the end of the fourteenth century, to implore the compassion of the Western Princes. He was not only conspicuous for the nobleness of his birth but also for the extent of his learning. After visiting the courts of France and England, in furtherance of his mission, he was invited to assume the office of a Professor, and Florence had the honour of this invitation, as it had had a few years previously that of the first Greek Professor Leo Pilatus, whose mind was stored with a treasure of Greek learning, with whom history and fable, philosophy and grammar, were alike familiar, and who first read the Poems of Homer in the Schools of Florence. Chrysoloras may be considered as the founder of the Greek language in Italy, and his knowledge not only of the Greek, but of the Latin tongue, surpassed the expectation of the Florentine republic. At the same time and place, the Latin classics were explained by John of Ravenna, the domestic pupil of the celebrated Petrarch. The Italians, who illustrated their age and country, were formed in this double school, and Florence became the fruitful seminary of Greek and Roman erudition. Chrysoloras was recalled by the Emperor from the college to the court, but he afterwards taught at Pavia and Rome with equal industry and applause. He died at Constance on a public mission from the Emperor to the council. _Gibbon’s Hist._ vol. 12. p. 126.

Footnote 15:

Laurentius Valla, was a native of Placenza, where he was born in 1415; he revived the Latin language from gothic barbarity, but he was a rigorous critic. He fell under the displeasure of the Church of Rome, for the freedom with which he hazarded his opinions respecting some of its doctrines, and he was condemned to be burnt, but was saved by Alphonsus, king of Naples. Pope Nicholas the fifth, who was himself one of the greatest encouragers of learning of his time, and who highly respected the talents of Valla, invited him to Rome, and gave him a pension.—This Pope, whose pursuits were in direct association with our present subject, from a plebeian origin, raised himself by his virtue and his learning to the highest honours of the Church. The character of the man prevailed over the interest of the Pontiff, and he sharpened those weapons which were soon pointed against the religion of Rome. He had been the friend of the most eminent scholars of the age, and after his elevation to the chair of St. Peter, he became their patron. Under Pope Nicholas, the influence of the Holy See pervaded Christendom, and he exerted that influence in the search, not of benefices, but of books. From the ruins of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monasteries of Germany and Britain, he collected the dusty manuscripts of the writers of antiquity; and whenever the original could not be removed, a faithful copy was transcribed and transmitted for his use. The Vatican was daily replenished with precious furniture, and such was his industry, that in a reign of eight years, he formed a library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence the Latin world was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus, Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo’s Geography, of the Iliad, of the more valuable works of Plato and Aristotle, of Ptolemy, and Theophrastus, and of the Fathers of the Greek Church.

Footnote 16:

For an account of the following Manuscript Libraries in England, see Savage’s Librarian, 3 vols. London, 1808-1810—namely, that of the British Museum, in vol. 1. p. 26; of the Royal Society, p. 71; of the Heralds Office, p. 73; of the Society of Antiquaries, p. 129; of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s at Lambeth Palace, p. 133; of Lincoln’s Inn, p. 183, 225; of the Middle Temple, p. 273; of the Inner Temple, vol. 2. p. 131; of the Lansdown Collection of Manuscripts, vol. 1. p. 34, and vol. 3. p. 27, and of the Cottonian Manuscripts, vol. 3. p. 31.

The curious reader who is interested in the history of the public records of his country, will find in the same volumes, the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on the State of the Records, in vol. 1. p. 17, &c.—an account of the Records in the Tower of London, vol. 2. p. 34, &c. of those in the Rolls Chapel, ibid. p. 185, &c. and of those in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey, vol. 3. p. 41, &c.

TORTURE IN ENGLAND.[17]

In the reign of King Henry the Sixth, the RACK or BRAKE, was placed in the Tower of London, by the Duke of Exeter, when he and the Earl of Suffolk had formed the design of introducing the Civil Law into England. It was called “Exeter’s daughter,” and remained afterwards in the Tower, “where it was occasionally used as an _Engine of State_, more than once in the _reign of Elizabeth_.”