Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIBRARIES, AND THE FOUNDERS OF LIBRARIES
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY.—THE ANCIENT LIBRARIES OF EGYPT, OF JUDÆA, OF GREECE, AND OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
- CHAPTER II INTRODUCTORY. — MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN LIBRARIES. — ANTICIPATORY SURVEY OF THE SUBJECT, IN GENERAL
- CHAPTER III OF SOME LIBRARIES OF MONASTERIES ABROAD
- CHAPTER IV OF SOME LIBRARIES OF MONASTERIES AT HOME
- CHAPTER V CONCERNING THE LIBRARIES OF SOME FAMOUS AUTHORS, OF VARIOUS PERIODS
- CHAPTER VI CONCERNING THE LIBRARIES OF SOME CELEBRATED MONARCHS AND ROYAL PERSONAGES, OF VARIOUS PERIODS
- CHAPTER VII HISTORY OF THE OLD ROYAL LIBRARY OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND
- CHAPTER VIII HISTORY OF THE STATE PAPER OFFICE
- CHAPTER IX HISTORY OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF THE REALM, IN THEIR EARLY PERIOD OF GROWTH AND SEPARATE CUSTODY
- CHAPTER X THE LIFE OF THOMAS PARKER, EARL OF MACCLESFIELD.—THE LIFE OF NICHOLAS JOSEPH FOUCAULT.—HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LIBRARY AT SHIRBURN CASTLE IN OXFORDSHIRE
- CHAPTER XI THE LIFE OF CHARLES SPENCER, THIRD EARL OF SUNDERLAND. — HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LIBRARY AT BLENHEIM PALACE
- CHAPTER XII THE PUBLIC LIFE OF GEORGE JOHN, SECOND EARL SPENCER.—HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SPENCER LIBRARY AT ALTHORP
- APPENDIX A LIST AND DESCRIPTION OF EXTANT CATALOGUES OF ENGLISH MONASTIC LIBRARIES, DISTINGUISHING THE UNPRINTED FROM THE PRINTED
- APPENDIX B NOTE ON THE LIBRARY OF KING EDWARD THE SIXTH
- APPENDIX C SUMMARY CLASSIFICATION AND SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF THE REALM
- Plate section
CHAPTER III - OF SOME LIBRARIES OF MONASTERIES ABROAD
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIBRARIES, AND THE FOUNDERS OF LIBRARIES
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY.—THE ANCIENT LIBRARIES OF EGYPT, OF JUDÆA, OF GREECE, AND OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
- CHAPTER II INTRODUCTORY. — MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN LIBRARIES. — ANTICIPATORY SURVEY OF THE SUBJECT, IN GENERAL
- CHAPTER III OF SOME LIBRARIES OF MONASTERIES ABROAD
- CHAPTER IV OF SOME LIBRARIES OF MONASTERIES AT HOME
- CHAPTER V CONCERNING THE LIBRARIES OF SOME FAMOUS AUTHORS, OF VARIOUS PERIODS
- CHAPTER VI CONCERNING THE LIBRARIES OF SOME CELEBRATED MONARCHS AND ROYAL PERSONAGES, OF VARIOUS PERIODS
- CHAPTER VII HISTORY OF THE OLD ROYAL LIBRARY OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND
- CHAPTER VIII HISTORY OF THE STATE PAPER OFFICE
- CHAPTER IX HISTORY OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF THE REALM, IN THEIR EARLY PERIOD OF GROWTH AND SEPARATE CUSTODY
- CHAPTER X THE LIFE OF THOMAS PARKER, EARL OF MACCLESFIELD.—THE LIFE OF NICHOLAS JOSEPH FOUCAULT.—HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LIBRARY AT SHIRBURN CASTLE IN OXFORDSHIRE
- CHAPTER XI THE LIFE OF CHARLES SPENCER, THIRD EARL OF SUNDERLAND. — HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LIBRARY AT BLENHEIM PALACE
- CHAPTER XII THE PUBLIC LIFE OF GEORGE JOHN, SECOND EARL SPENCER.—HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SPENCER LIBRARY AT ALTHORP
- APPENDIX A LIST AND DESCRIPTION OF EXTANT CATALOGUES OF ENGLISH MONASTIC LIBRARIES, DISTINGUISHING THE UNPRINTED FROM THE PRINTED
- APPENDIX B NOTE ON THE LIBRARY OF KING EDWARD THE SIXTH
- APPENDIX C SUMMARY CLASSIFICATION AND SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF THE REALM
- Plate section
Summary
“Here Man more purely lives, less oft doth fall,
More promptly rises, walks with stricter heed,
More safely rests, dies happier, is freed
Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal
A brighter crown.” On yon Cistertian wall
That confident assurance may be read………
………………………The potent call
Doubtless shall cheat full oft the heart's desires;
Yet, while the rugged age on jjliant knee
Vows to rapt Fancy humble fealty,
A gentler life spreads round the holy spires;
Where'er they rise, the sylvan waste retires,
And aëry harvests crown the fertile lea.
Ecclesiastical Sonnets, II, 3.Monte Cassino has been called the Sinai of the Middle Ages. It was certainly the cradle of a great series of Monastic Communities whence issued an illustrious band of the Missionaries, both of Religion and of Civilisation, whose labours were destined to bear rich fruit over all Europe. The Monks of Monte Cassino had become famous as early as the eleventh century for their transcriptions, not only of theological books, but of Virgil, Horace, Terence ; of the Idyls of Theocritus ; of the Fasti of Ovid ; and of not a few of the Historians both of Greece and Rome. They not only formed a good library for themselves, but they disseminated the products of their Scriptorium far and wide.
At Monte Cassino, indeed, as elsewhere, the learned and laborious monks of one generation were followed by but too many of the ignorant and idle monks of another. When, in the fourteenth century, Boccaccio visited them, and respectfully requested to see their famous library, a monk, he tells us, answered him gruffly :—“Go up; it is open.”
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- Libraries and Founders of Libraries , pp. 44 - 52Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010