Part 16 (2/2)
No example of an English book-press has survived, so far as I know, but it would be rash to say that none exists; nor have I been so fortunate as to find one in France, though I have taken a great deal of pains to obtain information on the subject. In default of a press made specially to hold books, I must content myself with representations of two well-known pieces of furniture--both preserved in French churches.
The first (fig. 26) stands in the upper sacristy of the Cathedral of Bayeux, over the south transept. The name usually given to it, _le Chartrier de Bayeux_, implies that it was made to hold doc.u.ments. M.
Viollet-le-Duc does not accept this view, but considers that it contained reliquaries, with which he probably would not object to a.s.sociate other articles of church-plate.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 26. Part of the ancient press in Bayeux Cathedral, called _Le Chartrier de Bayeux_.
From a photograph.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 27. Press in the church at Obazine, Central France.
From a photograph.]
It is of oak, very coa.r.s.e, rough, and ma.s.sive. It is 9 ft. 3 inches high, from floor to top, 17 ft. 2 inches long--(it was originally 3 ft.
longer)--and 3 ft. deep. There are two rows of cupboards each 3 ft. 8 inches high, with ma.s.sive doors that still preserve their original ironwork. The whole piece of furniture has once been painted, indications of which still exist, but the subjects can no longer be made out. M.
Viollet-le-Duc[196], who possibly saw the paintings when they were in a better state of preservation than when I examined them in 1896, decides that they once represented the translation of relics.
My second example (fig. 27) is in the church of Obazine in Central France (Departement de la Correze). It is far simpler and ruder than the press in Bayeux Cathedral; and the style of ornamentation employed indicates a somewhat earlier date; though M, Viollet-le-Duc places the construction of both in the first years of the 13th century. It is 6 ft. 7 in. high, by 7 ft. broad, and 2 ft. 7 in. deep. The material is oak, which still bears a few traces of having once been painted[197].
These pieces of furniture were certainly not made specially for books; but, as they belong to a period when the monastic system was in full, vigorous, life, it is at least probable that they resemble those used by monks to contain their books. I have shewn in the previous chapter that in ancient Rome the press used for books was essentially the same as that used for very different purposes; and I submit that it is unnecessary to suppose that monastic carpenters would invent a special piece of furniture to hold books. They would take the _armarium_ that was in daily use, and adapt it to their own purposes.
Before I leave this part of my subject I must mention that there is a third press in the Church of Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, Paris. It stands in a small room over the south end of the west porch, which may once have been a muniment room. It was probably made about a century later than those which I have figured. In arrangement it bears a general resemblance to the example from Bayeux. It consists of six cupboards arranged in two tiers, the lower of which is raised to the level of a bench which extends along the whole length of the piece of furniture, with its ends mortised into those of the cupboards. The seat of this bench lifts up, so as to form an additional receptacle for books or papers[198].
The curious wooden contrivances called carrells, which are mentioned in the above quotation from the _Rites of Durham_, have of course entirely disappeared. Nothing is said about their height; but in breadth each of them was equal to the distance from the middle of one mullion of a window to the middle of the next; it was made of wainscot, and had a door of open carved work by which it was entered from the cloister. This arrangement was doubtless part of the systematic supervision of brother by brother that was customary in a monastery. Even the aged, though engaged in study, were not to be left to their own devices. I have carefully measured the windows at Durham (fig. 28); and, though they have been a good deal altered, I suppose the mullions are in their original places. If this be so the carrells could not have been more than 2 ft. 9 in. wide, and the occupant would have found but little room to spare. There are eleven windows, so that thirty-three monks could have been accommodated, on the supposition that all were fitted with carrells.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 28. Groundplan of one of the windows in the cloister of Durham Cathedral.]
In the south cloister at Gloucester there is a splendid series of twenty stone carrells (fig. 29), built between 1370 and 1412. Each carrell is 4 ft. wide, 19 in. deep, and 6 ft. 9 in. high, lighted by a small window of two lights; but as figures do not give a very vivid idea of size, and as I could not find any one else to do what I wanted, I borrowed a chair from the church and a folio from the library, and sat down to read, as one of the monks might have done six centuries ago (fig. 30). There is no trace of any woodwork appertaining to these carrells; or of any book-press having ever stood near them. The easternmost carrell, however, differs a good deal from the others, and it may have been used as a book-closet.
There is a bench-table along the wall of the church opposite to the carrells; but it does not appear to have been cut away to make room for book-presses, as at Westminster. The south alley appears to have been shut off at the east end, and also at the west end, by a screen[199].
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 29. Range of carrells in the south cloister at Gloucester Cathedral.
(From Mr Murray's _Handbook to the Western Cathedrals_.)]
This drawing will help us to understand the arrangement of the wooden carrells used at Durham and elsewhere. Each carrell must have closely resembled a modern sentry-box, with this difference, that one side was formed by a light of the window looking into the cloister-garth, opposite to which was the door of entrance. This, I imagine, would be of no great height; and moreover was made of open work, partly that the work of the occupant might be supervised, partly to let as much light as possible pa.s.s through into the cloister-library. The seat would be on one side of the carrell and the desk on the other, the latter being so arranged that the light would enter on the reader's left hand.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 30. A single carrell, Gloucester Cathedral.]
Carrells seem to have been usual in monasteries from very early times, not to have been introduced at a comparatively late date in order to ensure greater comfort. The earliest pa.s.sage referring to them is that which I have already quoted[200], shewing that they were in use at Westminster between 1258 and 1283; at Bury S. Edmunds the destruction of the carrells is mentioned among other outrages in a riot in 1327[201]; they occur at Evesham between 1367 and 1379[202]; at Abingdon in 1383-84[203]; and at Christ Church, Canterbury, it is recorded among the good deeds of Prior Sellyng (1472-94), that in the south alley of the cloister ”novos Textus quos Carolos ex novo vocamus perdecentes fecit”; words which Professor Willis renders ”constructed there very convenient framed contrivances which are now-a-days called carols[204].” Their use--at any rate in some Houses--is evident from an injunction among the Customs of S. Augustine's, Canterbury, to the effect that the cellarer and others who rarely sit in cloister might not have carrells, nor in fact any brother unless he be able to help the community by copying or illuminating, or at least by adding musical notation[205]. They were in fact devices to provide a certain amount of privacy for literary work in Houses where there was no _Scriptorium_ or writing-room. At Durham, according to the author of _Rites_, they were used exclusively for reading.
The above-mentioned Customs of S. Augustine's, written between 1310 and 1344, give a valuable contemporary picture of the organization of one of the more important cloister-libraries. The care of the presses is to be entrusted to the Precentor and his subordinate, called the Succentor. The former is to have a seat in front of the press--which doubtless stood against the wall--and his carrell is to stand at no great distance, on the stone between the piers of the arches next the cloister-garth. The Succentor is to have his seat and his carrell on the bench near the press--by which the bench which commonly ran along the cloister-wall is obviously meant. These arrangements are made ”in order that these two officers, or at least one of them, may always be at hand to satisfy brethren who make any demand upon their time[206].” In other words, they were the librarian and sub-librarian, who were to be always ready to answer questions. It is clear that brethren were not allowed to handle the books as they pleased.
The cloister at Durham, or at least that part of it which was used as a library, was glazed; but whether with white gla.s.s or stained gla.s.s we are not informed. So obvious a device for increasing both the comfort and the beauty of a much-frequented part of the monastic buildings was doubtless adopted in many other Houses. At Bury S. Edmunds part at least of the cloister had ”painted windows representing the sun, moon and stars and the occupations of the months”; at Christ Church, Canterbury, Prior Sellyng (1472-94) ”had the south walk of the cloister glazed for the use of the studious brethren”; at Peterborough the windows of the cloister
were all compleat and fair, adorned with gla.s.s of excellent painting: In the South Cloyster was the History of the Old Testament: In the East Cloyster of the New: In the North Cloyster the Figures of the successive Kings from King _Peada_: In the West Cloyster was the History from the first foundation of the Monastery of King _Peada_, to the restoring of it by King _Edgar_. Every window had at the bottom the explanation of the History thus in Verse[207].
At Westminster, as recorded above, traces of the insertion of gla.s.s have been observed.
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