His chief aim in making this
compilation is to show up fully the resources of his
collection, and to lead studious brethren to read zealously
and frequently. Lastly, an analytical index to the
catalogue is supplied: it is in alphabetical order, and is
intended to point out to the user the whereabouts in a
volume of any individual treatise. A similar index, by
the way, is appended to the catalogue of Syon monastery.[1]
The library seems to have been spread over nine tiers
(distinctions) of book-casing, each marked with a letter of
the alphabet. A tier had seven shelves (gradus) marked
by Roman numeral figures, the numbers beginning from
the bottom of the tier. Each book bore a small Arabic
figure which fixed its order on the shelf. The full pressmark
of a book was therefore A. v. 4. Such marks were
written inside the books and on their bindings. On the
second, third, or fourth leaf of a book, or thereabouts, the
title was written on the bottom margin, with the pressmark
and the first words of that leaf. All these marks
were copied in the inventory or shelf-list: first the tier
letter, then the shelf number, afterwards the book number;
followed by the title, the number of the leaf whence the
identifying words were taken, then the identifying words,
with the number of leaves in the volume, and finally the
number of tracts it contains.
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