22 COUNTESS OF ANJOU. 



MRS. F. 



A Countess of Anjou, in the 15th century, paid for one 

 book 200 sheep, 5 quarters of wheat, and the same quantity 

 of rye and millet;* and in early times the loan of a book was 

 considered to be an affair of such importance, that, in 1299, 

 the Bishop of Winchester, on borrowing a Bible from a con- 

 vent in that city, was obliged to give a bond for its restora- 

 tion, drawn up in the most solemn mariner; and Louis XI 

 (in 1471) xvas compelled to deposit a large quantity of plate, 

 and to get some of his nobles to join with him in a bond, 

 under a high penalty to restore it, before he could procure 

 the loan of a book which he borrowed from the faculty of 

 medicine at Paris. 



HENRIETTA. 



How very few books people had then. I read the other 

 day, in a description of Paris, that King John (of France) 

 had only eight or ten volumes in the royal library, and that 

 Charles V increased their number to 110. 



MARY. 



And I have read, too, that, in 855, there was not a copy of 

 Cicero in France. 



MRS. F. 



Very likely; but then we must also take into consideration 

 the ignorance of those times, when learning was almost 

 entirely confined to the clergy, and, even among them, so 

 much ignorance existed, that by an ordinance of the Council 

 of Narbonne, held in 589, they were obliged to forbid that 

 any one should be received into the ecclesiastical state who 



* The sums given in modern times have been proportionably 

 great. In 1812, the Marqui$ of Blandford gave 2260/. sterling for 

 an edition of Boccaccio, (Venice, 1471,) which has since passed into 

 the library of Lord Spencer. So Pope says, 



" In books, not authors, curious is my lord; 

 To all their dated backs he turns you round: 

 These Aldus printed," &c. 



