Part 13 (1/2)
Quaeris cur tota non sit mendicus in Urbe: Tecta parat Sixtus suppeditatque cibos.
CLEMENTIA. OPERATIO BONA.
XV. _A similar view._
Jure Antoninum paulo vis Sixte subesse Nam vere hic pius est impius ille pius.
ELECTIO SACRA. VERA GLORIA.
XVI. _A similar view, with the Obelisk._
Transfers Sixte pium transferre an dignior alter Transferri an vero dignior alter erat.
RECOGNITIO. GRAt.i.tUDO.
XVII. _The Obelisk, now in front of S. Peter's, before it was removed._
Qui Regum tumulis obeliscus serviit olim Ad cunas Christi tu pie Sixte locas.
OBLATIO. DEVOTIO.
XVIII. _A fleet at sea._
Instruit hic Sixtus cla.s.ses quibus aequora purget Et Solymos victos sub sua jura trahat.
PROVIDENTIA. SECURITAS.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 18. Rough groundplan of the great hall of the Vatican Library, to ill.u.s.trate the account of the decoration.]
CHAPTER II.
CHRISTIAN LIBRARIES CONNECTED WITH CHURCHES. USE OF THE APSE. MONASTIC COMMUNITIES. S. PACHOMIUS. S. BENEDICT AND HIS SUCCESSORS. EACH HOUSE HAD A LIBRARY. ANNUAL AUDIT OF BOOKS. LOAN ON SECURITY. MODES OF PROTECTION.
CURSES. PRAYERS FOR DONORS. ENDOWMENT OF LIBRARIES. USE OF THE CLOISTER.
DEVELOPMENT OF CISTERCIAN BOOK-ROOM. COMMON PRESS. CARRELLS. GLa.s.s.
The evidence collected in the last chapter shews that what I have there called the Roman conception of a library was maintained, even by Christian ecclesiastics, during many centuries of our era. I have next to trace the beginning and the development of another cla.s.s of libraries, directly connected with Christianity. We shall find that the books intended for the use of the new communities were stored in or near the places where they met for service, just as in the most ancient times the safe-keeping of similar treasures had been entrusted to temples.
It is easy to see how this came about. The necessary service-books would be placed in the hands of the ecclesiastic who had charge of the building in which the congregation a.s.sembled. To these volumes--which at first were doubtless regarded in the same light as vestments or sacred vessels--treatises intended for edification or instruction would be gradually added, and so the nucleus of a library would be formed.
The existence of such libraries does not rest on inference only. There are numerous allusions to them in the Fathers and other writers; S. Jerome, for instance, advises a correspondent to consult church-libraries, as though every church possessed one[115]. As however the allusions to them are general, and say nothing about extent or arrangement, this part of my subject need not detain us long[116].
The earliest collection of which I have discovered any record is that got together at Jerusalem, by Bishop Alexander, who died A.D. 250. Eusebius, when writing his Ecclesiastical History some eighty years later, describes this library as a storehouse of historical records, which he had himself used with advantage in the composition of his work[117]. A still more important collection existed at Caesarea in Palestine. S. Jerome says distinctly that it was founded by Pamphilus, ”a man who in zeal for the acquisition of a library wished to take rank with Demetrius Phalereus and Pisistratus[118].” As Pamphilus suffered martyrdom in A.D. 309, this library must have been got together soon after that at Jerusalem. It is described as not only extensive, but remarkable for the importance of the ma.n.u.scripts it contained. Here was the supposed Hebrew original of S.
Matthew's Gospel[119], and most of the works of Origen, got together by the pious care of Pamphilus, who had been his pupil and devoted admirer.
S. Jerome himself worked in this library, and collated there the ma.n.u.scripts which Origen had used when preparing his Hexapla[120]. At Cirta the church and the library were evidently in the same building, from the way in which they are spoken of in the account of the persecution of A.D. 303-304. ”The officers,” we are told, ”went into the building (_domus_) where the Christians were in the habit of meeting.” There they took an inventory of the plate and vestments. ”But,” proceeds the narrative, ”when they came to the library, the presses there were found empty[121].” Augustine, on his deathbed, A.D. 430, gave directions that ”the library of the church [at Hippo], and all the ma.n.u.scripts, should be carefully preserved by those who came after him[122].”