In Italy, the earliest and most famous was Monte Cassino, which fell a prey to the Saracens and to fire in the 9th century. The library of Bobbio was famous for its palimp sests; the collection was mainly transferred to the Ambrosian library at Milan.
Of the monastic libraries of France the principal were those of Fleury, of Cluny, of St. Riquier and of Corbie. The library of St. Riquier, in the time of Louis the Pious, contained 256 mss., with over soo works. Of the collection at Corbie in Picardy we have also catalogues dating from the 12th and from the 17th cen turies. In 1638, 400 of its choicest manuscripts were removed to St. Germain-des-Pres. The remainder were removed after
partly to the national library at Paris, partly to the town library of Amiens.
The chief monastic libraries of Germany were at Fulda, Cor vey, Reichenau and Sponheim. The library of Corvey on the Weser, after being despoiled in the Reformation, was presented to the University of Marburg in 1811. The library of Reichenau fell a prey to the Thirty Years' War. The library at St. Gall, formed as early as 816 by its second abbot, still exists.
In England, the principal collections were those of Canterbury, York, Wearmouth, Jarrow, Whitby, Glastonbury, Crowland, Peterborough and Durham. The library of Christ church, Canterbury, originally founded by Augustine and Theo dore, contained, in the 13th or 14th century, about 5,000 works. It was destroyed by the Danes about 867. Of Whitby there is a catalogue of the 12th century. The catalogue of Glastonbury has been printed by Hearne in his edition of John of Glastonbury. The library of Crowland perished by fire in 1091; Peterborough was rich; from a catalogue of about the end of the 14th century, it had 344 vols., with nearly 1,700 titles. The catalogues of Durham have been printed by the Surtees Society. (The oldest catalogue of a Western library is that of the monastery of Fon tanelle in Normandy [8th century].) Many catalogues may be found in the collections of D'Achery, Martene and Durand, and Pez, in the bibliographical periodicals of Naumann and Petz holdt and the Zentralblatt f. Bibliothekswesen. The Rev. Joseph Hunter has collected some particulars as to the contents of the English monastic libraries; E. Edwards has printed a list of the catalogues (Libraries and Founders of Libraries, 1865, pp.
See also G. Becker, Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui, [1885].) In the 14th century the Franciscans compiled a gen eral catalogue of the mss. in 16o English libraries, and about 1400, John Boston, a Benedictine monk of Bury, catalogued the libra ries of 195 religious houses in England and part of Scotland (Tanner, Bibl. Brit. Hibern., 1748). Leland's list of the books he found during his visitation of the houses in 1539-45 is printed in his Collectanea. The identification of the early provenance of mediaeval mss. has been greatly advanced of late years, especially by the works of M. R. James, both by catalogues of existing col lections and publications of surviving monastic catalogues, e.g., those of Canterbury and Dover (19o9). (See, generally, J. W. Clark, The Care of Books [19o9], and E. A. Savage, Old English Libraries, 1911.) These catalogues, with many others, afford abundant evidence of the limited size and character of the monkish collections.
Modern li brary methods began with the rule of St. Benedict, early in the 6th century. In the 48th chapter the monks were ordered to borrow a book apiece and to read it straight through. In many
houses the treasury or spencliment contained two classes of books —one for the monks generally, one more closely guarded. A press near the infirmary contained books used by the rtader in the re fectory. By the end of the 15th century the larger monasteries found the necessity of a separate library apartment. Libraries were specially built at Canterbury, Durham, Citeaux, Clairvaux and elsewhere, and there grew up increased liberality in the use of books. By the i 5th century, collegiate and monastic libraries were on the same plan, the books being laid on desks or lecterns, and chained to a horizontal bar. As the books increased the ac commodation was augmented by one or two shelves erected above the desks. The library at Cesana is still in its original condition. The Laurentian library at Florence was designed by Michelangelo on the monastic model. There were no chains in the library of the Escorial, erected in 1584, which showed, for the first time, book cases placed against the walls. Chains continued to be used in England in church libraries down to the early part of the 18th century, as at Wimborne. Triple desks and revolving lecterns, raised by a wooden screw, formed part of the librz.,ry furniture. The English cathedral libraries were fashioned after the same principle. By the end of the 17th century the type of the public library developed from collegiate and monastic prototypes be came fixed throughout Europe. The library of St. John's college, Cambridge (16th century), and the Bodleian at Oxford, are slightly developed from the mediaeval type. In that of Trinity college, Cambridge, the walls are covered with books and the windows are raised. (H. R. Tedder, "Evolution of the Public Library," in Trans. of 2nd Int. Library Conference, 1897, 1898.) Arabians.—Greek manuscripts were eagerly sought for and translated into Arabic, and colleges and libraries everywhere arose, notably at Baghdad, Cordova, Cairo and Tripoli. The royal li brary of the Fatimites in Africa, and that collected by the Omay yads of Spain are reported, perhaps with exaggeration, to have contained 1 oo,000 and 600,000 mss. It is said that there were no less than 7o libraries opened in the cities of Andalusia.
In the 9th century, under Leo the Philosopher and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the libraries of Constantinople awoke into renewed life. Meanwhile, in the West we find arising outside the monasteries a taste for collecting books. Charles V. of France formed a considerable library of 910 vols., including much newer literature, and had a catalogue of them prepared in 1373. Guy, earl of Warwick, formed a collection of French romances, which he bequeathed to Bordesley abbey in 1315. Richard of Bury, the doubtful author of the Philobiblon, amassed a noble collection. The taste for secular literature and for the classics gave a fresh direction to collectors, and a disposition to encourage literature began to show itself. Cosimo de' Medici formed a library at Venice while living there in exile in
and on his return to Florence laid the foundation of the great Medicean library. Niccolo Niccoli had already, in 1436, left his library of over Boo volumes for the use of the public. Frederick, duke of Urbino, and Poggio Bracciolini, were among the chief collectors of the Latin mss. buried in monastic libraries. Beyond the Alps, Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, amassed a great collection of splendid manuscripts. With printing, the modern history of libraries may be said to begin.