Ambrose which was overlooked by
him.[4] Happily he was in a position to lend texts to monks
for transcribing, and his help in this direction was sought
by Abbot Paul of St. Albans. Recent research by Dr.
Montagu James suggests that Lanfranc's work for the
Canterbury library was a good deal more practical and
influential than has been usually believed. Among the
survivors of the Canterbury collections at Trinity College,
Cambridge, and elsewhere, "are some scores of volumes
undoubtedly from Christ Church, all of one epoch," the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, and all written in hands
modelled on an Italian style. "Another distinguishing
mark," writes Dr. James, "in these volumes is the employment
of a peculiar purple in the decorative initials and
headings.... The nearest approaches I find to it in
England are in certain manuscripts which were once at
St. Augustine's Abbey, and in others which belonged to
Rochester. It can be shown that books did occasionally
pass from Christ Church to St. Augustine's, and it can also
be shown that certain of the Rochester books were written
at Christ Church." All these books, therefore, Dr.
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