[1] Besides this impost every student in the
abbey was bound to give two books to the library. At
Corbie, in Picardy, a rate was levied to pay the salary of
the librarian, and to cover part of the cost of bookbinding.
Here also each novice, on the day of his profession, had to
present a book to the library; at Corvey, in Northern
Germany, the same rule was observed at the end of the
eleventh century. As all the monasteries of an order were
conducted much on the same lines, it is difficult to believe
that similar rates were not levied by some of the larger
houses in England.
[1] Full document in Edwards, i. 283.
The libraries were also augmented by gifts and bequests,
as well as by purchase and by transcription in the scriptorium.
In most abbeys it was customary for the brethren to give
or bequeath their books to their house. A long list of such
benefactors to Ramsey Abbey is extant, and one of the
brothers, Walter de Lilleford, prior of St. Ives, gave what
was in those days a considerable library in itself.[1] Much
longer still are the lists of presents given to Christ Church
and St. Augustine's, Canterbury.
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