Nov. 10. 1849. ] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
21 
Td rather marry a disease 
Than court the thing E cannot please ; 
She that will cherish my desires, 
Must feed my flames with equal fires. 
What pleasure is there in a kiss, 
To him that doubts the heart’s not his ? 
I love thee, not cause thou art fair, 
Smoother than down, softer than air,, 
Nor for those Cupids that do lie 
In either corner of thine eye ; 
Will you then know what it may be ? 
"Tis —I love you cause you love me. 
J. Bruce. 
24th Oct. 1849. 
NOTES UPON ANCIENT LIBRARIES. 
A knowledge of the intellectual acquire- 
ments of the middle ages must be mainly 
formed upon a consideration of the writings 
which directed them, or emanated from them. 
Unfortunately such materials are very imper- 
fect, our knowledge of the existence of works 
often resting only upon their place in some 
loosely-entered catalogue—and of the cata- 
logues themselves, the proportion still remain- 
ing must be small indeed.. Under these cir- 
cumstances the following documents, which are 
now for the first time printed, or even noticed, 
will be found to be of considerable interest. 
The first is, in modern language, a Power of 
Attorney, executed by the Prior of Christ 
Church, Canterbury, appointing two of the 
monks of his church to be his procurators for 
the purpose of receiving from the convent of | 
Anglesey, in Cambridgeshire*, a. book which 
had been lent to the late Rector of Terrington. 
Its precise date is uncertain, but it must be 
of about the middle of the thirteenth century 
(1244—1254), as Nicholas Sandwich, the 
Prior of Christ Church, was the second of | 
four priors who presided between the years 
1234 and 1274. 
** N. Prior Ecclesiz Christi Cantuariensis disere- 
tis viris et religiosis Domino Priori de Anglesheya 
et ejusdem foci sacro conventui salutem in Domino. 
Cum sincera semper caritate noverit fraternitas 
vestra nos constituisse fratres Gauterum de Hatd- 
feld et Nicholaum de Grantebrigiense Ecclesie 
nostra’ monachos latores precencium procuratores 
nostros-ad exigendum et recipiendum librum qui 
* The information given of this house by Dugdale 
is very scanty. It could surely be added to con- 
siderably. 
intitulatur..Johannes Crisestomus de laude Apos- 
toli.. In quo etiam volumine continentur Hystoria 
vetus Britonum que Brutus appellatur et tracta- 
tus Roberti Episcopi Herfordie de compoto. Qua 
quondam accommodavimus Magistro Laurentio 
de Sancto Nicholao tune Rectori ecclesiz de Ty- 
renton. Qui post decessum preefati Magistri L. 
penes vos morabatur et actenus moratur. In cu- 
jus rei testimonium has litteras patentes nostro 
sigillo signatas vobis transmittimus.” 
The contents of the book which is the sub- 
ject of this special embassy are of the cha- 
racter usually found to have formed the staple 
of monastic libraries, though the particular 
treatises included in it are not common. 
In the Reverend Joseph Hunter’s valuable 
treatise upon English Monastic Libraries * 
occurs a notice of an indenture executed in 
A.D. 1348, whereby the priory of Henton lent 
no less than twenty books to another monastic 
establishment. The deed is described, but 
not printed. It will be seen that the instru- 
ment we have given above is. nearly a century 
earlier; and the minute description of the 
book given in this document supplies some 
very curious facts illustrative of the mode of 
putting together ancient books, which have 
not hitherto been remarked;. for the simple 
reason that no opportunity: for comparison 
like that presented by the present case has 
yet been noticed. Among the Cottonian MSS. 
(Galba E. iv.) is a perfect specimen of an an- | 
cient Library Catalogue, which, although not 
altogether unnoticed, deserves a more careful 
examination than it has: yet received.. It re- 
lates to the magnificent monastic foundation 
from which emanated the deed we have printed 
above, and is headed “ Tituli librorum de 
libraria Ecclesiz Christi Cantuariensis et con- 
tenta in eisdem libris tempore H. Prioris.” It 
is written in that bold hand which prevails so 
extensively in ecclesiastical MSS., with but 
little variation, from the middle of the:four~ | 
teenth century to the end of the fifteenth, — 
a hand which is not always clearly written, 
and which therefore, in itself, does not mate- 
rially assist in the distinction of a date. Now 
having first assigned the credit of this noble 
¢ 
* London, 1831, quarto. See also a Paper by 
Mr. Halliwell in the Arckeologia, xxvii. p. 455., and 
Sir Francis Palgrave’s Introduction to Documents and 
Records illustrating the History of Scotland, pp. xevi. 
—cxvi., for extracts from the historical chronicles pre- 
served in the monasteries, &c. 
