Chapter VIII

.]

The walls are 9 ft. 8 in. high, from the floor to the top of the wall-plate. They are divided into bays, each 7 ft. 9 in. wide, by vertical shafts, from which, at a height of 5 ft. 9 in. from the ground, spring the braces which support the tiebeams of the roof. These are massive beams of oak, slightly arched, and molded on their under-surface. Their position is indicated by dotted lines on the plan (fig. 38). The whole roof is a splendid specimen of fifteenth century work, enriched with carving in the finest style of execution. There is a bold ornament in the centre of each tiebeam; and at the foot of the central joist in each bay, which is wider than the rest, and molded, while the others are plain, there is an angel, projecting horizontally from the wall. The purlin, again, is molded, and where it intersects the central joist a subject is carved: an angel playing on a musical instrument--a bird--a rose--a grotesque figure--and the like. Below the wall-plate is a cornice, 12 in. deep, ornamented with a row of quatrefoils above a row of battlements. Beneath these there is a groove, which seems to indicate that the walls were once panelled or plastered.

[Illustration: Fig. 38. Plan of the Old Library, Lincoln Cathedral.]

It is probable that there was originally a row of equidistant windows in the east and west walls, one to each bay on each side; but of these, if they ever existed, no trace remains. There must also have been a window at the north end, and probably one at the south end also. The present windows are plainly modern. The room is known to have suffered from a fire, which tradition assigns to 1609; and probably the original windows were changed during the repairs rendered necessary at that time.

[Illustration: Fig. 40. Plan of the Cloister, etc., Lincoln Cathedral.]

It is not easy to decide how this library was approached. It has been suggested that the stone newel stair at the north-west corner of the Chapter-House was used for this purpose; but, if that be the case, how are we to explain the words in the above order "the Stair Case thereto removed"; and an item which occurs in the Cathedral Accounts for 1789, "taking down the old stairs, strings, and banisters, 14_s._"? It appeared to me, when examining the building, that there had been originally a door on the east side, now replaced by a window, as shewn on the plan (fig. 38). Possibly the staircase destroyed in 1789 led to this door, which was conveniently situated in the centre of a bay. The staircase built in 1789 is the one still existing at the north-east corner of the old library (fig. 40, A).

At Salisbury Bishop Osmund (1078-99) is stated to have "got together a quantity of books, for he himself did not disdain either to write books or to bind them after they had been written"[246]; but the library, as elsewhere, was a work of the fifteenth century. The foundation is very clearly recorded in an act of the Chapter, dated 15 January, 1444-45. The members present decide that as it is desirable, "for divers reasons, to have certain schools suitable for lectures, together with a library for the safe keeping of books and the convenience of those who wish to study therein--which library up to the present time they have been without--such schools and library shall be built as soon as possible over one side of the cloister of the church, at the cost of William [Ayscough] now Bishop of Salisbury, the Dean, and the Canons of the aforesaid church[247]." Accordingly, a building was erected, extending over the whole length of the east cloister, conveniently approached by the staircase at the south-west corner of the south transept, which originally led only to the roof. This library was curtailed to its present dimensions, and otherwise altered, in consequence of a Chapter Order dated 25 November, 1758, part of which I proceed to quote:

That the southern part of the library be taken down as far as the partitions within which the manuscripts are placed, the whole being found much too heavy to be properly supported by the Cloysters, which were never designed originally to bear so great a weight.

That the roof of the northern part of the library (where the Theological lecture antiently used to be given by the Chancellor of the Church) be taken down; the walls lowered, and a new and lighter roof be placed in its room; and that the same be fitted up in a neat and convenient manner for the reception of the present books and any others which shall hereafter be added to them.

The appearance of the library, as the execution of the above order left it, will be understood from the view (fig. 41), taken from the roof of an adjoining alley of the cloister. Internally the room is 66 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 12 ft. 9 in. high. It has a flat plaster ceiling, part of the "new and lighter roof" imposed on the lowered walls in 1758. The fittings are wholly modern.

The library attached to S. Paul's Cathedral, London, by which I mean the medieval cathedral commonly called Old S. Paul's, was in a similar position. Its history is succinctly recorded by Dugdale. After describing the cemetery called Pardon Church Hawgh, with the cloister that surrounded it, he proceeds:

_The Library._

Over the East quadrant of the before mentioned Cloyster, was a fair _Library_ built, at the costs of _Walter Shiryngton_, Chancelour of the Duchy of Lancaster in King Henry the 6th's time: But in the year MDXLIX. 10. _Apr._ both Chapell, Cloyster, and Monuments, excepting onely that side where the _Library_ was, were pulled down to the ground, by the appointment of _Edward_ Duke of Somerset, then Lord Protector to King _Edward_ 6. and the materialls carried into the Strand, towards the building of that stately fabrick called Somerset-House, which he then erected; the ground where they stood being afterwards converted into a Garden, for the Pettie Canons[248].

[Illustration: Fig. 42. Plan of the Library in Wells Cathedral.

Scale 1/10 inch=1 foot.]

[Illustration: Fig. 41. Exterior of the Library at Salisbury Cathedral, looking north-east.]

Nothing is known of the dimensions or arrangement of the above room; but, as it was over a cloister, it must have been long and narrow, like that which still exists in a similar position at Wells Cathedral, which I will briefly mention next.

The Chapter Library at Wells Cathedral occupies the south end of a long, narrow room over the east pane of the cloister, approached by a spiral staircase from the south transept. This room is about 162 feet long by 12 feet wide; the portion assigned to the library is about 106 feet long (fig. 42). The roof was originally divided into 13 spaces by oak principals, very slightly arched, resting on stone corbels. There were two windows on each side to each space. In the part fitted up as a library the principals have been plastered over to imitate stone, and the joists between them concealed by a ceiling. There is a tradition that this room was fitted up as a library in 1472. The present fittings, which I shall have occasion to mention in a subsequent chapter, were put up when the library was refitted and stocked with books after the Restoration[249].

These four examples--at Lincoln, Salisbury, S. Paul's, and Wells--are typical of Cathedral libraries built over a cloister. I will next notice some that were detached.

[Illustration: Fig. 43. Plan of the Library at Lichfield Cathedral.

From _History and Antiquities of Staffordshire_, by Stebbing Shaw, fol. Lond. 1798, Vol. 11. p. 244.]

The library of Lichfield Cathedral[250] stood on the north side of the cathedral, west of the north door, at some little distance from the church (fig. 43). It was begun in 1489, when Thomas Heywood, dean, "gave L40 towards building a library of brick," and completed in 1493. It was about 60 feet long by 15 feet wide, approached by a flight of stairs. As the Chapter Order (9 December, 1757) which authorised its destruction speaks of the "Library, Chapter Clerk's House, and Cloisters," I suspect that it stood on a colonnade, after the manner of the beautiful structure at Noyon, a cathedral town in eastern France, at no great distance from Amiens.

This library--which I have carefully examined on two occasions--was built in pursuance of the following Order of the Chapter, 16 November, 1506.

Le 16. iour de Nouembre audit an, l'affaire de la Librairie se remet sus. Le sieur Doyen offre cent francs pour cet oeuure. Et le 20. iour de Nouembre, ouy le Maistre de Fabrique et Commissaires a ce deputez, fut arrestee le long de l'allee qui meine de l'Eglise a la porte Corbaut; et a cet effect sera tire le bois a ce necessaire de nos forests, et se fera ladite Librairie suiuant le pourtrait ou patron exhibe au Chapitre le sixiesme iour de Mars 1506. Le Bailly de Chapitre donne cent sols pour ce bastiment, a condition qu'il en aura une clef[251].

This library (fig. 44) is, so far as I know, an unique specimen of a library built wholly of wood, supported on wooden pillars with stone bases, so that it is raised about 10 feet above the stone floor on which they rest, probably for the sake of dryness. There is a legend that a market used to be held there; but at present the spaces between the pillars have been filled in on the south side. The one here represented (fig. 45) stands on the north side, in a small yard between the library and the cathedral.

[Illustration: Fig. 44. Chapter-Library at Noyon, France.]

The site selected for the building is on the south side of the choir of the cathedral, with its longest axis north and south. It measures 72 feet in length by 17 feet in width between walls, but was originally longer, a piece having been cut off at the south end, where the entrance now is, and where the library is now terminated by a stone wall of classical character. Tradition places the entrance at the opposite end, by means of an external staircase; an arrangement which would have been more convenient for the members of the Chapter, as they could have approached it through their vestry, which is on the south side of the choir. There are now nine windows on the east side--originally there were at least ten; but none on the west side, and it is doubtful if there ever were any, as they would be rendered useless by the proximity of other structures. The fittings are modern and without interest.

[Illustration: Fig. 45. A single pillar of the cloister beneath the

## Chapter Library at Noyon.]

At Bayeux also the Chapter-library is a detached building--of stone, in two floors, about 40 feet long by 26 feet wide, but I have not been able to discover the date at which it was built; and at York a detached library was built 1421-22 at the south-west corner of the south transept. This building, in two floors, the upper of which appears to have held the books, is still in existence.

The Cathedral library at Troyes, built by Bishop Louis Raguier between 1477 and 1479, to replace an older structure, was in an unusual position, and arranged in an unusual manner. It abutted against the south-east angle of the south transept, from which it could be entered. It was nearly square, being 30 feet long by 24 feet broad; and the vault was supported on a central pillar, from which radiated the six desks which contained the books (fig. 46). It was called _La Theologale_, because lectures on theology were given in it, as in the library at Salisbury. The desks were taken down in 1706, and the whole structure swept away in 1841-42, by the Departmental Architect, in the course of "a thorough restoration[252]."

[Illustration: Fig. 46. Plan of the Library at the south-east angle of the south transept of the Cathedral at Troyes.

A, B, C, D, Library; E, Entrance from vestibule in front of south transept door. The room on the east side of this passage was used to keep records in.]

At this point I cannot refrain from mentioning a somewhat anomalous library-foundation at Worcester, due to the zeal of Bishop Carpenter (1444-76), though both structure and foundation have been long since swept away[253]. In 1464 he built and endowed a library in connexion with the charnel-house or chapel of S. Thomas, martyr, a detached building on the north side of the cathedral. The deed in which this foundation is recorded contains so many interesting particulars that I will state briefly the most important points insisted upon[254].

The Bishop begins by stating that by ancient arrangement the sacrist of the cathedral, assisted by a chaplain, is bound to celebrate mass daily in the charnel-house or chapel aforesaid, to keep it in repair, and to supply it with ornaments and vestments. For this purpose an annual endowment of 15 marks has been provided. He then describes his own foundation.

In accordance with the intention of his predecessors, and actuated by a desire to increase the knowledge of our holy faith, he has built a library in the aforesaid charnel-house, and caused certain books to be chained therein. Further, lest these volumes should be left uncared for, and so be damaged or abstracted, he has caused a dwelling-house for a master or keeper of the said books to be erected at the end of the said library; and he has conferred on the said keeper a new stipend, in addition to the old stipend of 15 marks.

This keeper must be a graduate in theology, and a good preacher. He is to live in the said chantry, and say mass daily in the chapel thereof. He is to take care of all the books in the library, which he is to open on every week-day for two hours before None, and for two hours after None, to all who wish to enter for the purpose of study. He is to explain hard and doubtful passages of scripture when asked to do so, and once in every week to deliver a public lecture in the library. Moreover on Holy Thursday he is to preach in the cathedral, or at the cross in the burial-ground.

Further, in order to prevent any book being alienated, or carried away, or stolen from the library, a tripartite list of all the books is to be made, wherein the true value of each is to be set down. One of these lists is to be retained by the Bishop, another by the sacrist, and a third by the keeper. Whenever a book is bequeathed or given to the library it is to be at once set down in this list together with its true value.

On the Friday after the feast of Relics (27 January) in each year, the sacrist and the keeper are carefully to compare the books with the list; and should any book have disappeared from the library through the carelessness of the keeper, he is to replace it or the value of it within one month, under a penalty of forty shillings, whereof twenty shillings is to be paid to the Bishop, and twenty shillings to the sacrist. When the aforesaid month has fully expired, the sacrist is to set apart out of his own salary a sum sufficient to pay the above fine, and to purchase and chain in the library as soon as possible another book of the same value and material.

The keeper is to receive from the sacrist an annual salary of ten pounds, and four yards of woollen cloth to make him a gown and hood.

The sacrist is to keep the chapel, library, books, and chains, together with the house built for the use of the keeper, in good repair; and he is, moreover, to find and maintain the vestments and lights required for the chapel. All these duties he is to swear on the Holy Gospels that he will faithfully perform.

My enumeration of Cathedral libraries would be sadly incomplete if I did not say a few words about the splendid structure which is attached to the Cathedral of Rouen[255]. The Chapter possessed a respectable collection of books at so early a date as 1120; this grew, and, 29 July, 1424, it was decided to build "a study or library (_quoddam studium seu vnam librariam_)," which was completed in 1428. Fifty years afterwards--in 1477--it was decided that the library should be extended. The first thought of the Chapter was that it should be built of wood, and the purchase of good stout timber (_bona et grossa ligna_) is ordered. This plan, however, was evidently abandoned almost as soon as it was formed, for two years afterwards (20 April 1479) "the library lately erected" is mentioned. These words can only refer to the existing structure which is built wholly of stone. A week later (28 April) William Pontis, master-mason, was asked to prepare a design for a staircase up to the library. This he supplied on the following day. In June of the same year the Chapter had a serious difference of opinion with him on the ground that he had altered the design and exceeded the estimate. They came, however, to the wise conclusion that he should go on with the work and be requested to finish it with all dispatch.

In the following spring (20 March 1480) it was decided to prolong the library as far as the street; and in 1481 (18 September) to build the beautiful stone gate surmounted by a screen in open-work through which the court is now entered. This was completed by the end of 1482. The whole structure had therefore occupied about five years in building.

The library, together with a building of older date next to the Cathedral which serves as a sort of vestibule to it, occupies the west side of what is still called, from the booksellers' shops which used to stand there, _La Cour des Libraires_. The whole building measures 105 ft. in length, by 25 ft. in breadth. The library proper is lighted by six windows in the east wall, and by two windows in the north wall. The masonry of the wall under these windows and the two lancets by which it is pierced indicate that advantage had been taken of an earlier building to form the substructure of the library. The west wall must always have been blank. Access to the library was obtained directly from the transept by means of the beautiful stone staircase in two flights which Pontis built in 1479. This staircase leads up to a door marked BIBLIOTHECA which opens into the vestibule above mentioned. In 1788 a room was built over the library to contain the archives of the church, and the staircase was then ingeniously prolonged so as to reach the new second-floor.

Unfortunately the minutes of the Chapter tell us nothing about the original fittings of this room[256]. In 1718 the books were kept in cupboards protected by wire-work, over which were the portraits of benefactors to the library[257].

At present the archives have disappeared; the few books that remain have replaced them in the upper storey, and the library is used as a second vestry. The illustration (fig. 47) shews the interior of the _Cour des Libraires_, with the beautiful gate of entrance from the street. The library occupies the first floor. Beneath are the arches under which the shops used to be arranged; and above is the library of 1788.

[Illustration: Fig. 47. Interior of the _Cour des Libraires_, Rouen, shewing the gate of entrance from the street, and the Library.]

FOOTNOTES:

[208] _Catalogi Bibliothecarum antiqui_; ed. G. Bekker, 8vo. 1885, pp. 24-28.

[209] _Ibid._, pp. 43-53.

[210] _Ibid._, pp. 64-73.

[211] _Ibid._ p. 82-120.

[212] _Catalogi Veteres Librorum Eccl. Cath. Dunelm._, ed. Surtees Soc. 1838, pp. 1-10.

[213] See a letter by Dr M. R. James in _The Guardian_, 18 May, 1898.

[214] _Catalogi Veteres Librorum Eccl. Cath. Dunelm._ Ed. Surtees Soc, 1838, pp. 46-79. This catalogue is dated Easter, 1395.

[215] _Ibid._ pp. 10-34. This catalogue is dated 1391.

[216] _Ibid._ pp. 34-38. Of the same date.

[217] _Ibid._ pp. 80, 81. These volumes are recorded in the first of the above catalogues.

[218] _Ibid._ pp. 81-84. The date is 1395. For a description of the Spendment see _Rites of Durham_, _ut supra_, p. 71.

[219] Printed in _Catalogue general des manuscrits des Bibliotheques Publiques de France_, V. 339-452.

[220] Inventarium librorum monasterii Cistercii, Cabilonensis diocesis, factum per nos, fratrem Johannem, abbatem eiusdem loci, anno Domini millesimo CCCC octuagesimo, postquam per duos annos continuos labore duorum et sepius trium ligatorum eosdem libros aptari, ligari, et cooperiri, cum magnis sumptibus et expensis fecimus.

[221] Et primo librorum existencium in libraria dormitorii, quam ut est disposuimus, cum locus ipse prius diu fuisset inutilis et dudum arti sutorie et vestiario serviebat, sicut per aliquas annexas armariorumque dispositiones apparebat, sed a II^o annis vel circa nichil aut parum ibi fuerat.

[222] _Dictionnaire raisonne de l'Architecture_, I. 271. He does not give the date, but, when I examined the original in the _Bibliotheque Nationale_, I found it plainly dated 1674. It is a most valuable record, as it shews the monastic buildings, which were greatly altered at the beginning of the last century, in their primitive state.

[223] With this use of the word _linea_ may be compared the word _rayon_, now usually used in France for a shelf, especially a book-shelf.

[224] Godwin, _De Praesulibus Angliae_, ed. Richardson, I. 126.

[225] _Anglia Sacra_, I. 145. Librariam etiam supra Capellam Prioris situatam perpulcra caelatura adornavit, quam etiam nonnullis libris instaurari fecit, ad usum maxime literarum studiis deditorum, quos miro studio et benevolentia nutrivit et fovit.

[226] _Rites of Durham_, p. 26.

[227] Item structura ij fenestrarum in Libraria tam in opere lapideo, ferrario et vitriario, ac in reparacione tecti descorum et ij ostiorum, necnon reparacione librorum se extendit ad iiij^{oo}x^i. xvj^o. et ultra. _Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores tres._ Ed. Surtees Soc. p. cclxxiii.

[228] _Regist. Abbatiae Johannis Whethamstede Abbatis monasterii sancti Albani iterum susceptae_: ed. II. T. Riley, Rolls Ser. Vol. I. p. 423.

[229] _Hist. and Ant. of Worcester._ By V. Green, 4to. Lond. 1796. Vol. I. p. 79. The measurements in the text were taken by myself in 1895.

[230] _Monumenta Franciscana_, ed. J. S. Brewer, Rolls Ser. Vol. I. p. 319, from a document called "Prima fundatio fratrum minorum Londoniae," MSS. Cotton, Vitellius, F. xii.

[231] Stow's _Survey_, ed. Strype, fol. Lond. 1720, Book 3, p. 130.

[232] _History of Christ's Hospital_, by Rev. W. Trollope, 4to. Lond. 1834, App. p. xxiii. The view of the library (fig. 32) is borrowed from this work.

[233] I have to thank M. Joseph Garnier, Archiviste du Departement, for his great kindness, not only in allowing me to examine these precious relics, but in having them conveyed to a photographer, and personally superintending a reproduction of them for my use.

[234] This plan is not dated, but, from internal evidence, it forms part of the set to which the bird's-eye view and the general ground-plan belong. They were taken when "des projets," as the heading calls them, were being discussed. One of these was an increase of the library by the addition of a long gallery at the east end at right angles to the original construction.

[235] _Voyage Litteraire de deux Religieux Benedictins_, 4to. Paris, 1717, I. 198, 221.

[236] I have taken 1 _toise_=6.39 feet.

[237] I have to thank M. Leon Dorez, of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, for kindly lending me his transcript of this catalogue, and for continual help in all my researches.

[238] Printed in Didron, _Annales Archeologiques_, 1845, III. 228. The article is entitled: _Un grand monastere au XVI^{me} siecle_. I owe this reference to my friend Mr W. H. St John Hope, Assistant Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries.

[239] _Voy. Litt._ I. 101, 102.

[240] _Dictionnaire de l'Architecture_, I. 267.

[241] For the history of this library see Bouillart's work cited at the foot of Fig. 37; and Franklin, _Anciennes Bibliotheques de Paris_, Vol. I. pp. 107-134.

[242] For the historical information contained in this narrative, which originally appeared as a paper in the _Camb. Ant. Soc. Proc. and Comm._ IX. 37 for 18 February, 1895, I am indebted to an article in _The Builder_, 2 April, 1892, pp. 259-263, by my friend the late Rev. E. Venables, Canon and Precentor of Lincoln.

[243] This list has been printed in the Appendix to _Giraldus Cambrensis_ (Rolls Series), VII. 165-171.

[244] Memorandum quod in ista indentura continentur omnes libri existentes in libraria ecclesie beate Marie Lincoln de novo sub seruris cathenati, cuius quidem indenture una pars consuitur in fine nigri libri dicte ecclesie et altera pars remanet in.... The rest of the line is illegible. I have to thank the Rev. A. R. Maddison for kindly lending me his transcript of this valuable MS.

[245] For this plan I have to thank my friend T. D. Atkinson, Esq., of Cambridge, architect.

[246] William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Pontificum_, Rolls Ser. p. 183.

[247] Ex eo quod visum est eis vtile et necessarium diuersis causis eos moventibus habere quasdam scolas competentes pro lecturis suis vna cum libraria ad conseruacionem librorum et vtilitatem inibi studere volencium qua hactenus caruerunt statuerunt ... quod super vna parte claustri eiusdem ecclesie huiusmodi scole edificentur ... cum libraria [etc.]. Chapter Act Book. I have to thank A. R. Malden, Esq., Chapter Clerk, for his kind assistance.

[248] Dugdale, _History of S. Paul's Cathedral_, fol. 1658, p. 132.

[249] I have fully described this library and its fittings in _Camb. Ant. Soc. Proc. and Comm._ 1891. Vol. viii., pp. 6-10.

[250] My account of the library at Lichfield is derived from the _History and Antiquities of the Church and City of Lichfield_, by Rev. Th. Harwood, 4to. Gloucester, 1806, p. 180; and the Chapter Act Book, which I was allowed to examine through the kindness of my friend the Very Rev. H. M. Luckock, D.D., Dean.

[251] Levasseur, _Annales de L'Eglise Cathedrale de Noyon_, 4to. Paris, 1633, p. IIII. A marginal note tells us that the gift of the Bailly de Chapitre was accepted 14 June, 1507.

[252] _Voyage archeologique ... dans le Departement de l'Aube._ A. F. Arnaud. 4to. Troyes 1837, pp. 161-163.

[253] For the library belonging to the monastery see p. 108.

[254] The deed is copied in _MSS. Prattinton_ (Soc. Ant. Lond.), Vol. VIII. p. 379. For this reference I have to thank the Rev. J. K. Floyer, M.A., librarian of Worcester Cathedral. See his _Thousand Years of a Cathedral Library_ in the _Reliquary_ for Jan. 1901, p. 7.

[255] My principal authority for the history of the Chapter Library is the Minute-Book of the Dean and Chapter of Rouen Cathedral, now preserved in the Archives de la Ville at Rouen, where I had the pleasure of studying it in September, 1896. A summary of it is given in _Inventaire-Sommaire des Archives Departementales_ (Seine Inferieure), 4to. Paris, 1874, Vol. II. I have also consulted _Recherches sur les Bibliotheques ... de Rouen_, 8vo., 1853.

[256] The Canons held a long debate, 28 May, 1479, "de ambonibus seu lutrinis in nova libraria fiendis et collocandis"; but finally decided to use the furniture of the old library for the present.

[257] _Voyage Liturgique de la France_, par Le Sieur de Moleon, 1718, p. 268. I have to thank Dr James for this quotation.

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