i The Libraries and Book Shops of Canterbury BY HENRY R. PLOMER HEN the Abbey of St. Augustine was founded in Canterbury, about the beginning of the seventh century, Pope Gregory sent to Augustine certain books as a mark of his good wishes to the rising Monastery. Leland also affirms that Augustine procured, by means of his friends, large numbers of Greek and Latin works in Italy, and had them sent to him. These works formed the nucleus of the great Library of St. Augustine's Abbey, probably the first of its kind founded in England. " The gifts of Gregory were mainly service books for use in the Abbey church, and Thomas of Elmham, who left an unfinished history of St. Augustine's, gave a list of these volumes, which is translated and printed by Dr. James in his Introduction to, "The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover," (pp. lxiv-lxxi). This may be briefly abridged as follows: (1) First, there is in the library the Bible of St. Gregory (Biblia Gregoriana) in two volumes... At the beginnings of the books in these volumes are inserted certain leaves, of which some are purple, others of rose colour. These when held up to the light give a wonderful reflection." (2) There is further, in the same library, the Psalter of St. Augustine, which the said Gregory sent to him.. (3) There is also in the vestry a text of the Gospels . . . and it is called the Text of St. Mildred, because a countryman in Thanet swore falsely upon it, and, it is said, lost his eyes.' "(4) There is, besides, another Psalter, placed upon the table of the High Altar, which has outside it an image of Christ and of the four evangelists in plain silver." (5) Also in the library there is another text of the Gospels to which the ten Canons are prefixed... (6) Passions of the Apostles. (7) Passions of Saints. (8) Expositions of the Epistles and Gospels from the 3rd Sunday after the Octave of Easter to the 4th Sunday after the Octave of Pentecost. All these were in splendid bindings and lay on the High Altar. Of these eight books a fragment of the Gregorian Bible is believed to exist among the Royal MSS. at the British Museum, although Dr. James does not commit himself as to its identity. All he says is that "it is of the eighth century, written in a beautiful round minuscule, it does contain some leaves of purple vellum and it did belong to St. Augustine's Abbey." " There is also in the Cottonian MSS. a Psalter" which may be identical with one of those mentioned in Elmham's list, although Dr. James is inclined to think it a copy. The gifts of Gregory and Augustine to the Abbey were quickly followed by others. Archbishop Theodore introduced into England the study of Greek, and there is no doubt he brought with him many books, and both he and Abbot Adrian are said by Leland to have increased the library. King Athelstan further enriched it, a copy of Isidore de naturis rerum being among his gifts, and on a leaf of this is a list of other works that were presented by him to the Abbey. By the end of the fifteenth century the library of St. Augustine's contained some 1900 books. It was at this time, about 1497, that the catalogue printed by Dr. James was drawn up. In many instances the names of the donors were added, and besides the Abbots and priors include Michael of Northgate, the author of the Ayenbite of Inwit, a famous monument of the Kentish dialect of the fourteenth century; Thomas Sprott, the chronicler of the Abbey, who gave eight books, and 353125 a certain Richard Molash, whose book of devotion was in the chapel of the Blessed Mary in the nave of the church. Some thirty years later another literary man, Robert Saltwood, was keeper of this chapel, and will be heard of again. Of the beginnings of the Christchurch library little is known. King Athelstan gave it a copy of the Gospels of Mac Durnan, and Canute a copy of the Gospels. These were service books, and though there still exist at Oxford, Cambridge and in the great collection of Manuscripts at the British Museum, five Norman books that are believed to have once stood on the Christchurch shelves the bulk of the collection was destroyed in the great fire which broke out in Canterbury in 1067, in which the Cathedral and all the adjacent buildings were swept away. Το Archbishop Lanfranc belongs the credit of establishing the medieval library of Christ Church. He was not only a donor of books but he drew up rules for the distribution of books amongst the monks and for their return at the end of twelve months. Dr. James discovered in the University Library of Cambridge a twelfth century copy of the Music and Arithmetic of Boethius, which contains, on three leaves at the end, a catalogue of books which were clearly in Christ Church library, for a large number of them are found in later catalogues. The list is only a fragment, for some of the most numerous classes of books are unrepresented in it. It contains roughly speaking the books relating to Grammar, Rhetoric, Music, Arithmetic, Poetry, Logic, Astronomy and Geometry. Theology, Medicine and Law are absent save for a volume or two at the end. The number of volumes in the fragment is 223, and Dr. James believes that the total extent of the library in Beckett's days was between 600 and 700 volumes. The earliest complete catalogue was that compiled by Prior Henry of Eastry (1284-1331), which enumerates 1831 volumes, containing 4157 treatises. Theology and Canon law were the largest classes, but there was a very fair proportion of classical, scientific and historical works. During the fourteenth century the library lost many of its books. This was due to the foundation of Canterbury College at Oxford, to which large numbers of books were transferred from the Christ Church library, never to return. Dr. James, referring to this, says, “There is plenty of evidence. that the oldest portions of the library were not spared when the selection for the Oxford students was made ". He adds that not one of the books so transferred has survived either at Oxford or elsewhere. In the fifteenth century a new library was built by Archbishop Chicheley, over the prior's chapel. That building occupied the same site as the room which now contains the Howley Harrison collection of books, and the library above it therefore filled the same space. Access to the library was obtained by means of a narrow staircase in a gallery outside the passage leading from the lavatory tower to the transept of the church. The dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century was followed by the total dispersal of the riches of both St. Augustine's and Christ Church libraries. Some of the books from St. Augustine's Abbey were rescued by John Twyne, Schoolmaster and Mayor of the city of Canterbury, and were passed from him to Dr. John Dee, and ultimately found their way to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, by the bequest of Brian Twyne, the godson of John Twyne. Many of the treasures of Christchurch were secured by Archbishop Parker, who gave them to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Archbishop Whitgift also carried off some, as amongst the books of his now at Trinity College, Cambridge, are fifty MSS. which are set down in Eastry's catalogue. One can readily believe that the requirements of these large monastic establishments led to the settlement of booksellers, bookbinders and stationers in the city of Canterbury at a very early date; but there is no record of them before 1485, when we find the name of John Barker, junior, stationer of Canterbury mentioned on the De Banco Rolls. In the same year a William Ingram, bookbinder and stationer was settled in the ward of Burgate and carried on business there until 1489. In the Treasurers Accounts of the Cathedral for the year 1493-4 there is an entry of a payment of 4s. 8d. to a certain John Sawnder, pro ligacione duorum librorum missalium," but there is no evidence to shew whether he was a bookbinder by trade or a monk in the Abbey. In 1476 William Caxton the mercer, a native of the Weald of Kent, introduced the art of printing into Eng |