Part 16 (1/2)
Le grand cloitre ... est voute et vitre. Les religieux y doivent garder un perpetuel silence. Dans le cote du chapitre il y a des livres enchainez sur des pupitres de bois, dans lesquels les religieux peuvent venir faire des lectures lorsqu'ils veulent[187].
A similar arrangement obtained at Citeaux[188].
Having traced the development of the Cistercian book-closet, from a simple recess in the wall to a pair of more or less s.p.a.cious rooms at the west end of the Chapter-House, I return to my starting-point, and proceed to discuss the arrangement adopted by the Benedictines. They must have experienced the inconvenience arising from want of s.p.a.ce more acutely than the Cistercians, being more addicted to study and the production of books.
They made no attempt, however, to provide s.p.a.ce by structural changes or additions to their Houses, but were content with wooden presses in the cloister for their books, and small wooden studies, called carrells, for the readers and writers.
The uniformity which governed monastic usage was so strict that the practice of almost any large monastery may be taken as a type of what was done elsewhere. Hence, when we find a full record of the way in which books were used in the great Benedictine House at Durham, we may rest a.s.sured that, _mutatis mutandis_, we have got a good general idea of the whole subject. I will therefore begin by quoting a pa.s.sage from that valuable work _The Rites of Durham_, a description of the House drawn up after the Reformation by some one who had known it well in other days, premising only that it represents the final arrangements adopted by the Order, and takes no account of the steps that led to them.
In the north syde of the Cloister, from the corner over against the Church dour to the corner over againste the Dorter dour, was all fynely glased from the hight to the sole within a litle of the grownd into the Cloister garth. And in every wyndowe iij Pewes or Carrells, where every one of the old Monks had his carrell, severall by himselfe, that, when they had dyned, they dyd resorte to that place of Cloister, and there studyed upon there books, every one in his carrell, all the after nonne, unto evensong tyme. This was there exercise every daie.
All there pewes or carrells was all fynely wainscotted and verie close, all but the forepart, which had carved wourke that gave light in at ther carrell doures of wainscott. And in every carrell was a deske to lye there bookes on. And the carrells was no greater then from one stanch.e.l.l of the wyndowe to another.
And over against the carrells against the church wall did stande certaine great almeries [or cupbords] of waynscott all full of bookes, wherein did lye as well the old auncyent written Doctors of the Church as other prophane authors with dyverse other holie mens wourks, so that every one dyd studye what Doctor pleased them best, havinge the Librarie at all tymes to goe studie in besydes there carrells.[189]
At Durham the monastic buildings stood to the south of the church, and the library-walk of the cloister was that walk, or alley, or pane, or syde (for all these words are used), which had the church to the north of it.
The library was placed there partly for the sake of warmth, partly to secure greater privacy. At Canterbury and at Gloucester, where the church was to the south of the conventual buildings, the library-walk of the cloister was still the walk next to the church, the other walks, as Mr Hope has pointed out to me, being apparently kept clear for the Sunday procession.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 25. The cloister, Westminster Abbey.
From Mr Micklethwaite's plan of the buildings.]
I propose to explain the system indicated in the above quotation by reference to a plan of the cloister at Westminster Abbey, drawn by my friend Mr J. T. Micklethwaite (fig. 25)[190], and by quotations from his notes upon it. At Durham every vestige of ancient arrangement has been so completely destroyed that it is better to go to another House, where less mischief has been done, and it happens fortunately that, so far as the position of the cloister with reference to the church is concerned, Westminster is the exact counterpart of Durham. I will consider first the last paragraph of my quotation from the _Rites of Durham_, that namely which deals with the presses for books, there called ”almeries or cupbords.”
Mr Micklethwaite shews that the two bays at the north end of the west walk of the cloister, and the second bay from the west in the north walk (fig.
25, nos. 1, 2, 4), were appropriated to the novices, by the existence of several sets of nine holes, evidently cut by boys in their idle moods for the playing of some game. Similar holes have been found at Canterbury, Gloucester, and elsewhere. Next he points out that ”the nosing of the wall-bench for six feet of the third bay from the west in the north walk, and in the whole of the fourth and fifth bays, and nearly all the sixth, has been cut away flush with the riser, as if some large pieces of furniture had been placed there (_ibid._ nos. 5, 5, 5, 5). These were evidently bookcases.” Eastward of these indications of bookcases ”the bases of the vaulting-shafts are cut in a way which seems to shew that there was a double screen there (_ibid._ nos. 6, 6), or perhaps there were bookcases arranged so as to form a screen, which is, I think, very likely.
Beyond this screen to the right are appearances in the wall [next the cloister-garth] which seem to indicate a blocked-up locker, but they are rather doubtful. And on the left is a large double locker blocked (_ibid._ 7), and the blocking appears to be ancient. This locker is of the date of the wall (Edw. I.), and may have been an additional book-closet provided, because that on the other side of the church-door [to be described presently] had become too small, and [was] blocked up when the larger bookcases were made opposite the carrells[191].”
Lastly, at the risk of some repet.i.tion, I will quote a pa.s.sage from a letter which Mr Micklethwaite was so good as to write to me on this subject, as it brings out some additional points, and states the whole question with great clearness. After describing the position of the bookcases, he proceeds:
There was thus a s.p.a.ce, the width of the bench, between the back of the case and the cloister-wall, which would help to keep things dry. Whether the floor was boarded we cannot now tell, but there is evidence that this part of the cloister was cut off from the rest by screens of some sort at both ends, which would make it a long gallery lighted on one side, and with bookcases ranged along the other, not unlike Wren's at Lincoln. The windows must have been glazed; indeed remains of the glazing existed to the end of the 17th century; and there were within my memory marks of fittings along the windows-side which I did not then understand, but which, if they still existed, would I have no doubt tell us something of the _carrells_. A ”thorough restoration”
has taken away every trace of them.
The ”bookcase on the other side of the church door” mentioned above was in the northernmost bay of the east cloister. Mr Micklethwaite says of it:
”Entering the cloister from the church by the east cloister door (_ibid._ no. 8), we find on our left hand a very broad bench against the wall, extending as far as the entrance to the Chapter-House (_ibid._ 10). In the most northern bay the wall-arcade, instead of being brought down by shafts as in the others, is stopped off at the springing by original brackets, as if to allow of some large piece of furniture being placed against the wall. Here, I believe, stood in the thirteenth century the _armarium commune_, or common bookcase (_ibid._ 9). At Durham there is a Norman arched recess in the same place, not mentioned by the writer of the _Rites_, because before his time its use had ceased, books having become more numerous, and being provided for elsewhere[192].”
These notes enable us to imagine what this library was like. It was about 80 feet long by 15 feet broad, extending along four bays of the cloister.
It was cut off by a screen at one end, and possibly at the other also; the book-presses stood against the wall, opposite to the windows, which were probably glazed, as we know those at Durham were; and there might have been a wooden floor. Further, the older monks sat in ”carrells,” as we learn from the custumary of Abbat Ware, who was in office 1258-83. The writer is speaking of the novices, and says that after they have attained a certain degree of proficiency they may sit in cloister, and ”be allowed to glance at books taken out of the presses (_armaria_) belonging to the older monks. But they must not be permitted as yet to write or to have carrells[193].”
Whatever may have been the discomfort of this library according to our ideas, there is good reason for believing that it was in use till 1591, when Dean Williams fitted up part of the Dorter as a library for the use of the Dean and Canons[194].
The practice of placing the book-press in the cloister obtained with equal force in France, for the Benedictines who wrote the _Voyage Litteraire_, and who would of course be well acquainted with what was usual in their own Order, remark with surprise when they visit the ancient abbey of Cruas on the Rhone, that the press is in the church.
On voit encore dans l'eglise l'armoire ou on enfermoit les livres, contre la coutume des autres monasteres de l'ordre, qui avoient cette armoire dans le cloitre. On y lit ces vers d'un caractere qui peut avoir cinq cent ans:
Pastor jejunat qui libros non coadunat Nec panem praebet subjectis quem dare debet[195].
A shepherd starves whose store of books is low: Nor can he on his flock their due bestow.