The next abbot also
added some books. Geoffrey, the sixteenth abbot, was
the author of a miracle play, an industrious scribe, and
the donor of some books finely illuminated and bound.
His successor, at one time the conventual archivist, loved
books equally well, and got together a fair collection.
Great Abbot Robert had many books written--"too many
to be mentioned."[3] Simon, the next abbot (1167), a
learned and good-living man who encouraged others to learn,
was especially fond of books, and had many fine manuscripts
written for the painted aumbry in the church. He
repaired and improved the scriptorium. He also made a
provision whereby each succeeding abbot should have at
work one special scribe, called the historiographer, an
innovation to which we owe the matchless series of
chronicles of Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris, William
Rishanger, and John of Trokelowe. In a Cottonian
manuscript is a portrait of Abbot Simon at his book-trunk,
a picture interesting because it illustrates his predominant
taste for books, as well as one method--then the usual method
--of storing them.
[1] James, and James 1.
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