Copy 1

Bibliomania in the Middle Ages or, sketches of bookworms, collectors, Bible students, scribes, and illuminators, from the Anglo Saxon and Norman periods, to the introduction of printing into England ; with anecdotes, illustrating the history of the monastic libraries of Great Britain in the olden time / by F. Somner Merryweather.

  • Merryweather, F. Somner (Frederick Somner), 1827-1900.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bibliomania in the Middle Ages or, sketches of bookworms, collectors, Bible students, scribes, and illuminators, from the Anglo Saxon and Norman periods, to the introduction of printing into England ; with anecdotes, illustrating the history of the monastic libraries of Great Britain in the olden time / by F. Somner Merryweather. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    looke for his text, that very verse was omitted in the print: which gave the first occasion of complaint to the king of the in- sufferable negligence, and insufficience of the London printers and presse, and bredde that great contest that followed, be- twixt the univers. of Cambridge and London stationers, about printing of the Bibles.”* Gross and numerous indeed were the errors of the corrupt bible text of that age, and far exceeding even the blunders of monkish pens, and certainly much less excusable, for in those times they seldom had a large collection of codices*to compare, so that by studying their various readings, they could arrive at a more certain and authentic version. The paucity of the saered volume, if it rendered their pens more liable to err, served to enforce upon them the necessity of still greater scrutiny. On look- ing over a monastic catalogue, the first volume that I search for is the Bible; and, I feel far more disappointment if I find it not there, than I do at the absence of Horace or Ovid— there is something so desolate in the idea of a Christian priest without the Book of Life—of a minister of God with- out the fountain of truth—that however favourably we may be prone to regard them, a thought will arise that the ab- sence of this sacred book may perhaps be referred to the indolence of the monkish pen, or to the laxity of priestly piety. But such I am glad to say was not often the case; the Bible it is true was an expensive book, but can scarcely be regarded as a rare one; the monastery was indeed poor that had it not, and when once obtained the monks took eare to speedily transeribe it. Sometimes they only possessed detached portions, but when this was the ease they gene- rally borrowed of some neighbouring and more fortunate monastery, the missing parts to transcribe, and so complete their own copies. But all this did not make the Bible less loved among them, or less anxiously and ardently studied, they devoted their days, and the long hours of the night, to the perusal of those pages of inspired truth,} and it is a ca- * MS. Harl. 6395, anecdote 348.—I am indebted to D’ Israeli for the reference, but not for the extract. { The monks were strictly enjoined by the monastic rules. to study the Bible unceasingly. The Statutes of the Dominican order are par- ticularly impressive on this point, and enforce a constant reading and critical study of the sacred volume, so as to fortify themselves for dis-