Books, like gloves, are
soon lost. We can well understand how uncommonly easy
it was to forget to return a coveted manuscript. To help
borrowers to overcome the insidious temptation, the scribe
sometimes wrote upon the manuscript the name of the
monastery it belonged to, and threatened a defaulter with
anathema. In some of the St. Albans' books is the
following note in Latin: "This book is St. Alban's book:
he who takes it from him or destroys the title be anathema."[2]
[1] Bibl. Cluniacensis, lib. i.; Maitland, 440.
[2] James (M. R.) 10, 171.
The prior and convent of Rochester threatened to pronounce
sentence of damnation on anyone who stole or
hid the Latin translation of Aristotle's Physics, or even
obliterated the title.[1] Apparently no fate was too bad for
the thief who took the Vulgate Bible: let him die the
death; let him be frizzled in a pan; the falling sickness
and fever should rage in him; he should be broken on the
wheel and hanged; Amen.[2] Two curious notes are to be
found in a manuscript of the works of Augustine and
Ambrose in the Bodleian Library. "This book belongs to
St. Mary of Robert's Bridge: whoever steals it, or sells it,
or takes it away from this house in any way, or injures it,
let him be anathema-maranatha.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165