R.) 10,
viii.
[2] Robinson.
[3] See also Macray's Annals of the Bodleian.
CHAPTER IV. BOOK-MAKING AND COLLECTING IN THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES
"For if hevene be on this erthe . and ese to any soule,
It is in cloistere or in score . be many skilles I fynde;
For in cloistre cometh no man . to chide ne to fighte,
But alle is buxolllllesse there and bokes . to rede and to
lerne."
Piers Plowman, B. x. 300
Section 1
Before leaving the subject of monastic libraries,
it is desirable to say something about their
economy.
They were built up partly by importing books, partly
by bequests from wealthy ecclesiastics, but largely--and
in some cases wholly--by the labours of scribes. The
scene of the scribe's craft was the scriptorium or writing-
room, which was usually a screened-off portion of the
cloister, or a room beside the church and below the library,
as at St. Gall, or a chamber over the chapter-house, as at St.
Albans under Abbot Paul, at Cockersand Abbey and Birkenhead
Priory. As a rule the monk was not allowed to write
outside the scriptorium, although in some houses he could
read elsewhere--as at Durham, where a desk to support
books was fitted in the window of each dormitory cubicle.
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