Some books often found in churches
and frequently mentioned in this book, as the Summa
Praedicantium of John de Bromyarde, Pupilla Oculi, by
John de Burgo, and the Speculum Christiani, by John
Walton, were manuals for the instruction of priests.
[1] Sandys, i. 606; Le Clerc, Hist. Litt. (2nd ed.), 430.
CHAPTER VI. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: OXFORD
"Ingenia hominum rem publicam fecerunt."
Section I
Probably a few scribes plied their craft in Oxford
in early days long before the students began to
make a settlement, for the town had been a flourishing
borough, one of the largest in England. But until the
end of the twelfth century we hear nothing about books
and their makers or users in Oxford. Then we find illuminators,
bookbinders, parchmenters, and a scribe referred
to in a document relating to the sale of land in Cat Street.
This record is very significant, as it suggests the active
employment of book-makers in the centre of Oxford's
student life. St. Mary's Church was the hub. Cat Street,
School Street running parallel with it from High Street
to the north boundary, and Schydyard Street, the continuation
of School Street on the southern side of High Street,
alleys of the usual medieval narrowness and mean appearance,
the buildings on either hand almost touching one
another, and the way dark--were the haunts of masters
and scholars and all those depending on them.
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