RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



reading, conducting themselves with all de- 

 corum, each reading his own book, save 

 those who might be singing from anti- 

 phoners, graduals, or hymnaries, or giving 

 readings to others. If any one was obliged 

 to leave he was to replace his book in the 

 case, or if he wished to leave it on his seat 

 to signify by sign to a brother sitting near 

 that he left it in his custody. At all times 

 of lection the brothers were to wear their 

 slippers (nocturnal! bus botis). No manuscript 

 was to be kept in. the cloister carrols nor in 

 the dormitory chests without leave of the 

 abbot. 



The librarian, called armarius, from the 

 armarium or case in which the books were 

 kept, was to mend and care for the books and 

 to open and shut the case as required. He 

 was to mutually assign and change the books 

 as they were wanted, but not without leave 

 of the abbot or prior, or without making an 

 entry. He was also required to keep a 

 numbered list of the books. 1 The Premon- 

 stratensian rule underwent various changes 

 on the authority of the General Chapter in 

 the seventeenth century, and was finally 

 revised in 1630. The librarian was then 

 termed bibliothtcarius ; he was ordered to 

 arrange his books, in the place where they 

 were kept, according to their subject or 

 faculty.* This had been done at Titchfield 

 for at least two and a half centuries before 

 the passing of this revised statute. 



The usual places for books in religious 

 houses were cases in recesses of the cloister. 

 It was not until a comparatively late period 

 that a few of the larger houses thought of 

 providing a special room or building for the 

 library. 3 Titchfield was only a daughter house 

 of no great wealth, and from its having in 

 1400 so large and valuable a library in a 

 special apartment opening out of the cloister, 

 and from the general character of the White 

 Canons as a reading order, it may perhaps be 

 assumed that the Premonstratensians usually 

 had a particular chamber to serve for the 

 books or manuscripts. 



There were in the library of Titchfield, as 

 is specifically described, four cases (columna) 

 wherein to place the books. It would seem 

 that the door was on the west side of the 

 chamber, for there were two cases against the 



1 Statuta OrJinis Premonsteratn' , Dist. II. cap. vii. 



* Statuta OrJinis Premonstratensis Renovata (1630), 

 Dist. II. cap. xiv. p. 109. 



8 See Gasquet's Notes on Medieeval Monastic 

 Libraries (1891) ; James' Catalogue of MSS., 

 Peterhouse, Cambridge (1899) ; and Willis Clark's 

 Customs of Austin Canons (1897). 



east wall, a third against the south wall and a 

 fourth against the north wall. Each of these 

 cases had eight shelves (gradus\ marked with 

 a letter of the alphabet, representing a divi- 

 sion of the library and not the special shelf. 

 In case I., were the Bibles and the patristic 

 glosses on the different books ; II., the Fathers 

 and general theology ; III., sermons, legends, 

 rules and canon and civil law ; IV., medical 

 and surgical works, grammar, logic, philosophy 

 and varia. The alphabet letters gave further 

 classification ; thus B was affixed to seven 

 shelves of case I., containing the glosses on the 

 Scriptures ; and D was marked on five shelves 

 of case II., whereon stood the works of St. 

 Augustine and St. Gregory. The first folio 

 or the cover of each volume contained not 

 only the shelf letter, but a number indicating 

 its position on the shelves. The very volume 

 that gives the library list has on its first page 

 the mark ' P.x.' On turning to the catalogue 

 there is found entered Rememoratorium mona- 

 sttrii et omnium maneriorum de Tychefeld, as the 

 tenth book on shelf P. 



The total number of volumes was 224, but 

 it must be remembered that many of these 

 MS. volumes contained a variety of treatises, 

 which if printed after modern fashion would 

 make several separate books. 4 



Several of the other volumes of this library 

 must have been of exceptional bulk or un- 

 usually close writing. Only one book is 

 named as written in English, viz. a copy of 

 the Golden Legends (E. vii.) ; but under the 

 letter Q are various books in French. Among 

 the more curious theological tracts may be 

 mentioned : De ortu et educatione Pontil Pilate, 

 and De ortu "Judee hcaritis. At the end of 

 the library catalogue a list is given of upwards 

 of a hundred other volumes pertaining to the 

 divine office, and usually kept in the church. 



The library catalogue is followed by an 

 itinerary, or distance in miles, of the various 

 English houses of White Canons from Titch- 

 field ; the nearest being Durford in Sussex, 16 

 miles, and the most remote Alnwick in North- 

 umberland, 276 miles. 8 



The next matter that is illustrated in this 

 interesting register is the very serious way in 

 which the monasteries, in common with the 

 rest of the country, suffered from the awful 

 Black Death of 1349-50. The local anna- 

 list cites an inventory of the monastery and 



4 Thus the library of the great Benedictine 

 Abbey of Peterborough only numbered 268 

 volumes, but these contained about 1,700 works. 



5 This list corresponds with that of the whole 

 order compiled in 1320,35 given in Le Paige's 

 Bibliotbeca Prem. Ord. (1633), p. 33. 



