B O 
'coveries. Porphyry makcls mention of foine pillars pre- 
ferved in Crete", on which the ceremonies obferved by the 
.Corybantes in their facrifices were recorded. Heliod’s 
works were originally written upon tables of lead, and de- 
pofited in the temple of the Mufes, in Bceotia ; the ten 
commandments, delivered to Mofes, were written upon 
done; and Solon’s laws upon wooden planks. Tables of 
.wood, box, and ivory, were common among the ancients: 
when of wood, they were frequently covered with wax, 
that people might write upon them with more eafe, or 
obliterate what they had written. The leaves of the palm- 
tree were afterwards ufed inflead of wooden planks, and 
the fined and thinned part of the bark of Inch trees, as 
the lime, the afli, the maple, and the elm; from hence 
comes the word liber , which lignifies the inner bark of the 
trees ; and as thefe barks are rolled up, in order to be re¬ 
moved with greater eafe, thefe rolls were called volumcn, 
a volume; a name afterwards given to the like rolls of paper 
or parchment. Thus books were fird written on hones, 
as was the Decalogue given to Moles : then on the parts 
of plants, as leaves, chiefly of the palm-tree, the rind and 
barks, especially of the tilia, or phillyrea, and the Egyp¬ 
tian papyrus. By degrees wax, then leather, were intro¬ 
duced, efpecially the Ikins of goats and flieep, of which at 
length parchment was prepared; then lead came into ufe; 
alfo linen, filk, horn, and ladly paper. The fird books 
were in the form of blocks and tables, whence the expref- 
fion, “ tables of the law ;” but, as flexible matter came to 
be wrote on, they found it more convenient to make their 
books in the form of rolls. Thefe were compofed of le- 
veral (fleets fahened to each other, and rolled upon a dick, 
or umbilicus-, the whole making a kind of column, or cy¬ 
linder, which was to he managed by the umbilicus as a 
handle, it being reputed a crime to take hold of the roll 
jtfelf. The outlide of the volume was calledy>tW.»'; the 
ends of the umbilicus, cornua, which were ufually carved, 
and adorned with filver, ivory, or evert gold and precious 
flones: the title, <7v*.\a.Q o$, was druck on the outlide ; the 
whole volume, when extended, might make a yard and a 
half wide, and fifty long. The form which has obtained 
among us, is the fquare, compofed of feparate leaves ; 
which was alfo known, though little ufed, by the ancients. 
To the form of books belongs alfo the internal econo¬ 
my, as the order and arrangement of points and letters 
into lines and pages, with margins and other appurtenants. 
This has undergone many varieties. At fird the letters 
were only divided into lines ; then into feparate words ; 
•which by degrees wete noted with accents, and diftributed, 
by points and flops, into periods, paragraphs, chapters, 
and other divifions. In fome countries, as among the 
orientals, the lines began from the right and ran leftward ; 
in others, as the northern and weftern nations, from left 
to right ; others, as the Greeks, followed both diredions, 
alternately going in the one, and returning in the other, 
called boujlrophcdon. In mod countries the lines run from 
one fide to the other; in fome, particularly the Chinefe, 
from top to bottom. 
Though books, previous to the invention of printing, 
were all in manufcript, and could be multiplied no fader 
than men could write; yet the multitude and variety of 
them feem to have been complained of as early as the 
days of Solomon, who lived upwards of three thoufand 
years ago. In our days, they are too numerous not only 
to procure and read, but to fee, to learn the names of, or 
even to number. England has more to complain of on 
this fcore than other countries; fince, befides our own 
produce, we have for fome years pad drained our neigh¬ 
bours. However, as bifliop Caramuel’s fcheme mifcar- 
ried, which was to write about an hundred volumes in 
folio, and then prevail on the civil and military powers to 
oblige all their fttbjedls to read them, we need not much 
regret the multitude of books. Knowledge is naturally 
advantageous ; and, as every man ought to be in the way 
ef information, even a fuperfluity of books is not without 
it ufe, fince hereby they are brought to obtrude them- 
felves on us, and engage us to read them when we had 
the lead defign. This fuperfluity is alfo the belt fecurity 
we have againft the total lofs or deftruetion of books : it 
is this that has preferved them againft the injuries of time, 
the rage of tyrants, the zeal of perfecutors, and the ra¬ 
vages of barbarians ; and handed them down, through 
long intervals of darknefs and ignorance, fafe to our days. 
Solaque non no< unt hcec monumenta mori. 
Ot the fcarcity and value of books, during the feventh 
and many lubfequent centuries, the following curious ac¬ 
count is given by the late profelfor Warton, in his Hiftory 
of Englilh Poetry, vol. i. “ Towards the dole of the 
leventh century, even in the papal library at Rome, the 
number of books was fo inconliderable, that pope Saint 
Martin requefied Sanflamand bilhopof Maeftricht, if pof- 
ftble, to fupply this defed from the remoteft parts of Ger¬ 
many. In 855, Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres in France, lent 
two of his monks to pope Benedict III to beg a copy of 
Cicero de Oratore, and Qmntilian’s Inftitutes, and fome 
other books: ‘ for (fays the abbot), although we have part 
of thefe books, yet there is no whole or complete copy of 
them in all France.’ Albert, abbot of Gemblours, wild 
with incredible labour and immenfe expence had collected 
an hundred volumes on theological, and fifty on profane, 
(objects, imagined he had formed a fplendid library! 
About the year 790, Charlemagne granted an unlimited 
right of hunting to the abbot and monks of Sithin, fo? 
making their gloves and girdles of the (kins of the deer 
they killed, and covers for their books. We may imagine 
that thefe religious were more fond of hunting than read¬ 
ing. It is certain that they were obliged to hunt before 
they could read ; and at leaft it is probable, that under 
thefe circumftances, and of fuch materials, they did not 
manufacture many volumes. At the beginning of the 
tenth century books were fo fcarce in Spain, that one and 
the fame copy of the bible, St. Jerome’s epiftles, and fome 
volumes of ecclefiaflical offices and martyrologies, often 
Icrved feveral different monafteries. Among the conlti- 
tutions given to the monks of England by archbilhop Lan- 
franc, in 1072, the following injunction occurs : At the 
beginning of Lent, the librarian is ordered to deliver a 
book to each of the religious : a whole year was allowed 
for the perufal of this book; and, at the returning Lent, 
thofe monks, who had negleCted to read the books they had 
refpeCtively received, are commanded to proftrate them- 
felves before the abbot, and to fupplicate his indulgence,. 
This regulation was partly occalioned by the low ftate of 
literature which Lanfranc found in the Englilh monafte¬ 
ries. But at the fame time it was a matter of neceffity,. 
and is in great meafure to be referred to the Icarcity of 
copies of ufeful and fuitable authors. In an inventory of 
the goods of John de PontilFara, bifhop of Winchefter, 
contained in his capital palace of Wolvefey, all the books 
which appear are nothing more than Se'ptcndecem pecie li- 
brorum de diverfis fcienliis. This was in the year i 294. The 
fame prelate, in 1299, borrows of his cathedral convent 
of St. Swithfn at Winchefter, Bibliam bene glojfatam ; that 
is, the bible with marginal annotations, in two large folio 
volumes ; but gives a bond for the fafe return of the fame, 
drawn up with great folemnity. This bible had been be¬ 
queathed to the convent the fame year by Pontilfara’s pre— 
decellbr, bifhop Nicholas de Ely: and in conlideration of 
fo important a bequeft, that is, pro bona biblia pibli epifcopi 
bene glojfata, and one hundred marks of money, the monks 
founded a daily mafs for the foul of the donor. When a 
fingle book was bequeathed to a friend or relation, it was 
feldom without many reftriCtions and ftipulations. If any 
perfon gave a book to a religious houfe, he believed that 
fo valuable a donation merited eternal l'alvation ; and he 
offered it on the altar with great ceremony. The gift of 
a book to Lincoln cathedral, by bifliop Repingdon, iii 
1422, occurs in this form : ‘ I Philip of Repyndon, late 
bifhop of Lincoln, give this book, called Peter dc Aureoles, 
to the new library to be built within the church of Lit-* 
coin: referving the ufe and poflellion of it to Richard 
