CHAINED BOOKS IN DORSET AND ELSEWHERE. 9 



production as well as to the preservation of books. The time 

 of his monks was divided into periods of prayer, of mental 

 study, and of manual labour. " Idleness," he wrote, in the 

 48th chapter of his rule, " is the enemy of the soul. Hence, 

 brethren ought, at certain seasons, to occupy themselves with 

 manual labour, and again at certain seasons with holy 

 reading." From Easter until the end of September, they 

 were to apply themselves to reading from the fourth until the 

 sixth hour. From October until the beginning of Lent they 

 were to study until the second hour. And during Lent 

 they were to read until the third hour. a book being 

 then entrusted to them which they were to read straight 

 through. 



The labour bestowed upon the production of a book, when 

 each copy must needs be carefully written by hand, together 

 with the costliness of the material (vellum, or some other 

 form of parchment) of which they were usually composed, 

 apart from the value of the subject matter, or in some cases 

 of the associations, would account for the care which was 

 bestowed upon their safe custody. Sometimes it was an 

 inflexible rule that no books were to be lent outside the 

 Monastery at all. In other cases they might not be lent 

 without the receipt of volumes of at least an equivalent 

 value as a pledge. Occasionally a terrible imprecation was 

 annexed against such as should remove a book without 

 intending to return it, e.g. 



" Ut si quis eum (librum) de monasterio aliquo ingenio 

 non rediturus abstraxerit, cum Juda proditore, Anna, et 

 Caipha, portionem aeternae damnationis accipiat. Amen, 

 amen. Fiat, fiat." 



The use of chains was of course to ensure the safe custody 

 of the volumes to which they were attached. The period 

 during which books were chained, for more or less public 

 study, may be said to have lasted from the early part of the 

 thirteenth century until late in the eighteenth century. 

 The first mention of chained books, so far as I am aware, 

 dates back to the early part of the thirteenth century, when 



