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| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Every book written by hand on flexible material and intended to be placed in alibrary is called a manuscript. We must therefore set aside from the study of manuscripts (1) books graven on stone or brick (Library of Assurbanipal at Ninive; graven documents discovered at Cnossus or Phæstos in Crete); (2) all public acts (diplomas, charters, etc.), the study of which constitutes the object of diplomatics. Manuscripts have been composed from the most remote antiquity (Egyptian papyri of the memphite epoch) down to the period of the invention of printing. However, Greek manuscripts were still copied until the end of the sixteenth century, and in themonasteries of the East (MountAthos,Syria, Mesopotamia, etc.), the copying of manuscripts continued well into the nineteenth century. On the other hand the most recent Western manuscripts date from the last years of the fifteenth century.
The principal materials employed in the making of manuscripts have been papyrus, parchment, and paper. In exceptional cases other materials have been used (e.g. the linen books of Etruria andRome, a specimen of which was found on anEgyptian mummy in the museum ofAgram; the silken books ofChina, etc.). Besides, in ancient time and during theMiddle Ages tablets dipped in wax on which characters were traced with a stylus were made us of for fugitive writings, accounts, etc.; these might be folding in two (diptychs), or in three (triptychs), etc. Papyrus (charta ægyptica) was obtained from a long-stemmed plant terminating in a large and elegant umbrella; this was the Cyperus Papyrus, which grew in the marshes ofEgypt andAbyssinia. The stem was cut in long strips which were placed one beside the other. On the vertical strips others were placed horizontally; then after they had been wet with the water of the Nile they were submitted to strong pressure, dried in the sun, and rubbed with shells to render them solid. To make a book the separate pages (selides,paginæ) were first written on, then they were put end to end, the left margin of each page being made to adhere to the right margin of the preceding page. A roll (volumen) was thus secured, of which the dimensions were sometimes considerable. SomeEgyptian rolls are forty-six feet long by nine or ten inches wide, and the great Harris papyrus (British Museum) is one hundred and forty-one feet long. The end of the last page was fastened to a cylinder of wood or bone (omphalos,umbilicus), which gave more consistency to the roll. The page having been ruled, the writing was done with a sharpened reed on the horizontal portion of the fibres. From being almost exclusively used inEgypt, the use of papyrus spread to Greece about the fifth century, then toRome and throughout the West. Its price remained very high; in 407 B.C. a roll of twenty leaves was worth twenty-six drachmas, or about five dollars (Corp. Insc. Attic., I, 324). Pliny the Elder (Hist. Nat., XIII, 11-13) gives a list of its various grades (charta Augusta, Liviana, etc.).Egypt retained the monopoly of the manufacture, which furthermore belonged to the State. Alexandria was the principal market. In the first centuries of theMiddle Ages it was exported to the West by the "Syrians", but the conquest ofEgypt by theArabs (640) stopped the trade. However it still continued to be used for diplomas (atRavenna until the tenth century; in thepapal chancery until 1057). TheArabs had attempted to cultivate the plant inSicily.
Parchment (charta pergamena), made of the skin of sheep, goats, calves (vellum), asses, etc., was used by the Ionians and the Asiatics as early as the sixth century B.C. (Herodotus, V, 58); the anecdote related by Pliny (Hist. Nat., XIII, 11), according to which it was invented atPergamus, seems legendary; it would seem that its manufacture was simply perfected there. Imported toRome in ancient times, parchment supplanted papyrus but slowly. It was only at the end of the third century A.D. that it was preferred to papyrus for the making of books. Once prepared, the parchment (membrana) was cut into leaves which were folded in two; four leaves together formed a book of eight folios (quaternio); all the books formed acodex. There was no paging before the fifteenth century; writers merely numbered first the books (signature), then the folios. The dimensions of the leaves varied; the most in use for literary texts was the large quarto. AnUrbino catalogue (fifteenth century) mentions a manuscript so large that it required three men to carry it (Reusens, "Paléographie", 457); and there is preserved atStockholm a gigantic Bible written on ass-skin, the dimensions of which have won for it the name of "Gigas librorum". The page was ruled in dry point so deeply that the mark was visible on the other side. Parchments were written on both sides (opistographs). As parchment became very rare and costly during theMiddle Ages, it became the custom in somemonasteries to scratch or wash out the old text in order to replace it with new writing. These erased manuscripts are called palimpsests. With the aid of reacting chemicals the old writing has been made to reappear and lost texts have been thus discovered (theCodex Vaticanus 5757 contains under a text ofSt. Augustine the "De Republica" of Cicero; recovered byCardinal Mai). Manuscripts thus treated have been nearly always incomplete or mutilated; a complete work has never been recovered on a palimpsest. Finally, by sewing strips of parchment together, rolls (rotuli) were made similar to those formed of papyrus (e.g. HebrewPentateuch ofBrussels, ninth century, on fifty-seven sewn skins, forty yards in length; "rolls of the dead", used by the associations ofprayer for the dead in theabbeys; administrative and financial rolls used especially inEngland to transcribe the decrees of Parliament, etc.)
Paper is said to have been invented inChina in A.D. 105 by a certain Tsai-Louen (Chavannes, "Journ. Asiatique", 1905, 1). Specimens of paper of the fourth century A.D. have been found in Eastern Turkestan (expeditions of Stein and Sven Hedin). It was after the taking of Samarkand (704) that theArabs learned to make paper, and introduced it to Bagdad (795), and to Damascus (charta damascena). It was known inEurope as early as the end of the eleventh century, and at this earlydate it was used in the Norman chancery of Sicily; in the twelfth century it began to be used for manuscripts. It was sold even then in quires and reams (Arabic,razmah) and in the thirteenth century appeared the filigranes or watermarks. According to chemical analyses, the paper of theMiddle Ages was made of hempen or linen rags. The expression "charta Bombycina" comes from theArab manufactory of Bombyce, between Antioch andAleppo. The copyist of theMiddle Ages used chiefly black ink,incaustum, composed of a mixture of gall nuts and vitrol. Red ink was reserved from ancients times for titles. Gold and silver ink were used for manuscripts de luxe (seeEVANGELIARIA). The method of bindingcodices has varied little since ancient times. The books were sewn on ox sinews placed in rows of five or six on the back. These sinews (chordæ) served to attach to the volume wooden covers, which were covered with parchment or dyed skin. Covers of the manuscripts de luxe were made ofivory or brass, ornamented with carvings, precious stones, cut and uncut.
Montfaucon (Palæographia græca, 15) confesses that he never saw a papyrus manuscript. There were such, nevertheless, in some archives, but it was only in the eighteenth century, after the discover of the papyri of Herculaneum (1752) that attention was devoted to this class of documents. The first discovery took place inEgypt at Gizeh in 1778, then from 1815 the discoveries in thetombs have succeeded one another without interruption, especially since 1880. The hieroglyphic, demotic, Greek, and Latin papyri are at present scattered among the greatlibraries (Turin,Rome, Paris, Leyden,Strasburg,Berlin, London, etc.). The publication of the principal collections has been begun (see below) and the edition of a "Corpus papyrorum" is projected, which my be one of the greatest undertakings of erudition of the twentieth century. The importance of these discoveries may be estimated from the consideration of the chief kinds of papyrus published today.
The greater number are religious documents relating to the veneration of the dead and the future life. The most ancient date from the epoch ofMemphis (2500-2000 B.C.), the most recent belong to the Roman period. One of the most celebrated is the "Book of the Dead", of which several copies have been recovered. Moral andphilosophical treatises have also been found (the Prisse Papyrus, in the Bibliothèque Nat.,Paris) as well as scientific treatises, romances and tales, and popular songs.
They are distributed over ten centuries (third century B.C.-seventh century A.D.) and contain registers from archives (giving a very exactidea of the administration ofEgypt under the Ptolemies and the Roman and Byzantine emperors; their study has given rise to a new diplomaticscience), literary works (the finest discovered are the orations of Hyperides found on papyri in the British Museum in 1847, 1858, 1891, and in the Louvre in 1889;Aristotle's "Republic ofAthens" on a papyrus of the British Museum in 1891; the "Mimes" of Herondas, lyric poems of Bacchylides and Timotheus; and lastly, in 1905, 1300 verses by Menander at Kom Ishkaou byG. Lefebvre), and religious documents (fragments of Gospels, of which some remain unidentified, religious poems,hymns, edifying treatises, etc., e.g.: the GreekPsalter of the British Museum, of the third century A.D., which is one of the most ancient Biblical manuscripts we possess; the "Logia" ofJesus, published by Grenfell and Hunt; ahymn inhonour of theHoly Trinity similar to the "Te Deum", discovered on a papyrus of the sixth century; etc.).
These are rare, at Herculaneum as well as inEgypt, and we possess only fragments. A papyrus ofRavennadated 551 (Library ofNaples) is in Ostragothic writing (Catal. of Latin papyri in Traube, "Biblioth. Ecole des Chartes", LXIV, 455).
Louvre (Brunet de Presle, "Not. et ext. des manuscripts", XVIII),Turin (ed. Peyron, 1826-27); Leyden (ed. Leemans, 1843); British Museum (ed. Kenyon, 1898); Flinders Petrie (ed. Mahaffy, Dublin, 1893-94); University ofCalifornia (Tebtunis Papyrus, ed. Grenfell and Hunt,London and New York, 1902); Berlin (Berlin, 1895-98); Archduke Renier (ed. Wessely, Vienna, 1895); Strasburg (ed. Keil, 1902); Oxyrhyncos excavations (Grenfell and Hunt, London, since 1898); Th. Reinach (Paris, 1905).
In ancient times the copyists of manuscripts were free workmen or slaves. Athens, which was before Alexandria a greatlibrary center, had itsBibliographos, copyists, who were at the same time librarians. AtRome Pomponius Atticus thought of competing with booksellers by training slaves, for the most part Greeks, to copy manuscripts, their work to be afterwards sold. Some booksellers were at once copyists, calligraphers, and evenpainters. to the greatlibraries founded by the emperors were attached rooms for copyists; in 372Valens attached to that of Constantinople four Greek and three Latin copyists (Theod. code, XIV, ix, 2). The edict ofDiocletian fixing the maxima of prices sets down the monthly salary of thelibrarius at fiftydenarii (Corp. Inscript. Latin, III(2) 831). Unfortunately, except for theEgyptian papyri, none of the works copied in ancient times has come down to us, and our oldest manuscripts date only from the beginning of the fourth century. The copyists of this century, several of whom wereChristianpriests, seem to have displayed great activity. It was by transcribing on parchment the works hitherto written on papyrus and in danger of being destroyed (Acacius and Euzoïus at Cæsarea; cf.St. Jerome, "Epist.", cxli), that they assured the preservation of ancient literature and prepared the work of the copyists of theMiddle Ages. The most ancient and the most precious manuscripts of our collection date from this period; Biblical manuscripts:Codex Sinaiticus, a Greek fourth century manuscript discovered by Tischendorf at themonastery of St. Catherine of Sinai (1844-59), now at St. Petersburg;Codex Alexandrinus, a Greek Bible executed at Alexandria in the beginning of the fifth century, now in the British Museum;Codex Ephræmi Rescriptus, a palimpsest of the Bibliothèque Nationale ofParis, containing fragments of aNew Testament written in the fifth century; Latin Bible of Quedlinburg, fourth century, in the Library ofBerlin; Fragments of the Cotton Latin Bible (Brit. Mus.), fifth century. Profane authors: The seven manuscripts of Virgil in capitals [the most famous is that of the Vatican (Lat. 3225), fourth century]; the "Iliad" of theAmbrosian Library, fifth century; the Terence of the Vatican (Lat. 3226) in capitals, fifth century, the "Calendar" of Philocalus written in 354, known only by modern copies (Brussels,Vienna, etc.).
The barbarian invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries brought about the destruction of thelibraries and the scattering of the books. However, in the midst of barbarism, there were a certain number of privileged refuges, in which the copying of books went on. It is to these copyists of theMiddle Ages that moderns owe the preservation of the Sacred Books as well as the treasures of classical antiquity; they veritably saved civilization. The chief of these copying centres were: Constantinople, where thelibrary andschools continued to exist; themonasteries of the East and West, where the copying of books was regarded as one of the essential labours of monastic life; thesynagogues andschools of theJews, to which we owe the Hebrewmanuscripts of the Bible, the most ancient of which date only from the ninth century (British Museum, manuscripts Orient, 4445, ninth century; Codex Babylonicaus of St. Petersburg, copied in 916); theMussulmanschools (Medressehs), provided with largelibraries (that atCordova had 400,000 vols.) and copying rooms, in which were transcribed not only theKoran but alsotheological works and Arabic translations of Greek authors (Aristotle, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, etc.). The most important works undoubtedly was done by themonasteries; its history is identical with the history of the transmission of sacred and profane texts of antiquity.
From the very beginning ofEgyptian monasticism copying rooms were installed in themonasteries, as is shown by the Coptic chronicle on papyrus studied by Strzygowski ("Eine Alexandrinische Weltchronik", Vienna, 1905). In Palestine,Syria,Ethiopia, andArmenia, inMelchite, Jacobite, orNestorianmonasteries, the copying of manuscripts was held in esteem. Weknow the name of one scribe, Emmanuel, of themonastery of Qartamin on the Tigris, who copied with his own hand seventy manuscripts (one of them the BerlinNestorian Evangeliarium; Sachau, 304, tenth century). At theNestorianschool ofNisibis the students copied theHoly Scripture, the text of which was afterwards explained to them. Indeed theBible was copied by preference, hence the numerous Biblical manuscripts, whether Syriac (text of the "Peshitto" preserved atMilan; end of the fifth century), Coptic (fragments discovered by Maspero atAkhmin; see "Journal Asiatique", 1892, 126),Armenian (Gospel in capitals, Institute Lazarev ofMoscow,dated 887; the most ancient complete Bible belongs to the twelfth century),Ethiopian, etc. Commentaries onHoly Scripture,liturgical books, translations from theGreekFathers,theological orascetical treatises, and some universal chronicles constitute the greater number of these manuscripts, from which the classic writers are excluded.
In the GreekmonasteriesSt. Basil also recommended the copying of manuscripts and his treatise "On the usefulness of reading profane authors" bears sufficient witness that side by side with the religious texts theBasilianmonks assigned an important place to the copying of classical authors. That a large number of texts have perished is not the fault of themonks, but is due to the custom of Byzantine scholars of composing "Excerpta" from the principal authors, and afterwards neglecting the originals (e.g. Encyclopedia of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in thelibrary of Photius. See Krumbacher, "Gesch. der Syzant. litter.", p. 505). Wars, and especially the taking of Constantinople in 1204 also brought about the destruction of a great number oflibraries. The work of the Byzantine copyists from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries was considerable; and to convince ourselves it is enough to peruse the list of three thousand names of known copyists recovered by Maria Vogel and Gardthausen from Greek manuscripts ("Beihefte zum Zentralblatt für Bibliothekwesen", XXXIII, Leipzig, 1909). It will be seen that the greater number of copyists aremonks; at the end of the manuscript they often place their signature and the name of their monastery. Some of them throughhumility preserve anonymity:Graphe tis; oide theos ("Who wrote this?God knows"). Others on the contrary inform posterity concerning the rapidity with which they have completed their task. The scribe Theophilus wrote in thirty days the Gospel of St. John (985). A manuscript of St. Basil begun on Pentecost (28 May) of 1105 was ended 8 August of the same year. With themonks there were some secular copyists known asnotarii,tabularii, among them a tax collector of the eleventh century (Montfaucon, "Palæog. gr.", 511), a judge of the Morea (Cod. Paris, gr. 2005, written at Mistra in 1447), and even emperors. Theodosius II (408-450) had earned the surname of "Calligrapher" (Codinus ed. of Bonn, 151) and John V Cantacuzenus, having in 1355 retired to amonastery, copied manuscripts. Among copyists is also mentioned the Patriarch Methodius (843-847), who in one week copied seven psalters for the seven weeks ofLent (Pat. Gr. G. 1253).
Themonasteries of Constantinople remain the chief centres for the copying of manuscripts. From them perhaps proceeded in the sixth century the beautiful Gospels on purple parchment in letters of gold (seeILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS). In the ninth century the reform of the Studites was accompanied by a veritable renascence of calligraphy. St. Plato, uncle and master ofTheodore of Studion, andTheodore himself copied many books, and their biographies extol the beauty of their writing.Theodore installed atStudion a scriptorium, at the head of which was a "protocalligrapher" charged with preparing the parchment and distributing to each one his task. InLent the copyists were dispensed from the recitation of thePsalter, but rigorous discipline reigned in the work-room. A stain on a manuscript, an inexactness in copy was severely punished. All themonasteries which came under the influence ofStudion also adopted its method of copying; all had theirlibraries and their copying rooms. In the eleventh century St. Christodoulos, another monastic reformer, found of theconvent of St. John of Patmos,ordained that allmonks "skillful in the art of writing should with the authorization of thehegoumenos make use of the talents with which they had been endowed by nature". There has been preserved a catalogue of thelibrary of Patmos,dated 1201; it comprised two hundred and sixty-seven manuscripts on parchment, and sixty-three on paper. The majority are religious works, among them twelve Evangeliaries, ninePsalters, and many Lives of thesaints. Among the seventeen profane manuscripts are works on medicine and grammar, the "Antiquities" ofJosephus, the "Categories" ofAristotle, etc.
In themonasteries located at the extremities of the Hellenic world are found the same occupations. The monastic colony of Sinai, which has existed since the fourth century, formed an admirablelibrary, of which the present remains (1220 manuscripts) afford but a faintidea. In ByzantineItaly from the tenth to the twelfth century, theBasilianmonks also cultivated calligraphy atGrottaferrata, at St. Salvatore atMessina, at Stilo in Calabria, at themonastery of Cassola, nearOtranto, at St. Elias at Carbone, and especially at the Patir ofRossano, founded in the eleventh century by St. Bartholomew, who bought books at Constantinople and copied several manuscripts. Thelibrary ofRossano became one of the sources from which the manuscripts of the Vaticanlibrary were drawn. Besides, from the end of the tenth century the greatmonasteries ofMt. Athos, the greatlaura of St. Athanasiu, Vatopedi, Esphigmenou, etc., became most important centres for the copying of manuscripts. Without speaking of the treasures of sacred and profane literature which are still preserved there, there is not alibrary of Greek manuscripts which does not possess some examples of their work. Finally themonasteries founded in theSlav countries, inRussia,Bulgaria,Servia, on the model of the Greekconvents, also had their copying rooms, in which were translated into the Slavonic language, with the help of the alphabet invented in the ninth century by St. Cyril, theHoly Scripture and the most important works of theecclesiastical literature of the Greeks. It was also in these monastic study halls that the first monuments of the national literature of theSlavs were copied, such as the "Chronicle of Nestor", the "Song of Igor", etc.
The work of the Western copyists begins withSt. Jerome (340-420), who in his solitude of Chalcis and later in hismonastery of Bethlehem, copied books and commended this exercise as one most becoming to monastic life (Ep. cxxiii). At the same timeSt. Martin of Tours introduced this rule into hismonastery. The copying of manuscripts appears as one of the occupations of all the founders of monastic institutions, ofSt. Honoratus and St. Capresius atLérins, of Cassian at St. Victor's atMarseilles, ofSt. Patrick in themonasteries ofIreland, ofCassiodorus in hismonasteries ofScyllacium (Squillace). In his treatise "De Institutione divinarum litterarum" (543-545)Cassiodorus has left a description of hislibrary with its ninearmaria formanuscripts of the Bible; he also describes the copying room, the scriptorium, directed by theantiquarius. He himself set the example by copying the Scriptures and he believed that "each word of the Saviour written by the copyist is a defeat inflicted onSatan" ("De Institut.", I, 30). The work of the copyists was also considered meritorious by St. Benedict. In the sixth century copying rooms existed in all themonasteries of the West.
Since the time of Damasus, thepopes had alibrary which was probably provided with a copying room. The missionaries who leftRome to evangelize the Germanic peoples, such as Augustine in 597, brought with them manuscripts which they were to reproduce in themonasteries founded by them. In the seventh century Benedict Biscop made four journeys toRome and brought thence numerous manuscripts; in 682 he founded themonastery of Jarrow which became one of the chiefintellectual centres ofEngland. Theodore ofTarsus (668-680) accomplished a similar work when he reorganized the Anglo-Saxon Church. The first period of monastic activity (sixth-seventh centuries) is represented in ourlibraries by a large number of Biblical manuscripts, many of which come fromIreland ("Liber Armachanus" ofDublin),England ("Codex Amiatinus" of Florence, copied atWearmouth under Wilfred, and offered to thepope in 716; "Harley Evangeliary", Brit. Mus., seventh century), some fromSpain ("Palimpsest ofLeon",cathedral archives, seventh century). Finally thelibrary of theUniversity of Upsala possesses the "Codex Argenteus", on purple parchment, written in the fifth century, which contains theBible ofUlphilas, the first translation into a Germanic language of theHoly Scripture.
At the end of the seventh and during the eighth century Gaul became more and more barbarous;monasteries were destroyed or ravaged, culture disappeared, and whenCharlemagne undertook the reorganization ofEurope he addressed himself to the countries in which culture was still flourishing in themonasteries, toEngland,Ireland,Lombardy. The Carolingian renaissance, as the movement has been called, had as its principle, the establishment of copying rooms at the imperial court itself and in themonasteries. One of the most active promoters of the movement wasAlcuin (735-804), who after having directed thelibrary andschool of York, became in 793Abbot ofSt. Martin of Tours. Here he founded aschool of calligraphy which produced the most beautiful manuscripts of the Carolingian epoch. Several specimens distributed byCharlemagne among the variousmonasteries of the empire became the models which were imitated everywhere, even inSaxony, where the newmonasteries founded byCharlemagne became the foremost centres of Germanic culture. M.L. Delisle (Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscript., XXXII, 1) has compiled a list of twenty-five manuscripts which proceeded from thisschool ofTours (Bible of Charles the Bald, Paris, Bib. Nat., Lat. No. 1; Bible ofAlcuin, Brit. Mus., 10546; manuscripts at Quedlinburg relating to the life of St. Martin; Sacramentaries ofMetz and Tours of theParis Bibliothèque Nationale, etc.)
Among the works proceeding from the imperial scriptorium attached to the Palatine School is mentioned the Evangeliary copied forCharlemagne by themonk Godescalc in 781 (now at the Bibliothèque Nationale), and thePsalter of Dagulf presented toAdrian I (now at the Imperial Library ofVienna). Other important scriptoria were established atOrléans by Bishop Theodulfe (whence issued the two beautiful Bibles now kept in the treasury of thecathedral of Puy Amand (where the copyist Hucbald-Amand contributed eighteen volumes to thelibrary), at St. Gall, under the Abbots Grimaldus (841-872) and Hardmut (872-883), who caused the making of a complete Bible in nine volumes; there are extant ten Biblical manuscripts written or corrected by Hardmut. At St. Gall and in many othermonasteries the influence ofIrishmonks is very marked (manuscripts ofTours,Würzburg,Berne,Bobbio, etc.). Besides numerous Biblical manuscripts there are found among the works of the Carolingian epoch many manuscripts of the classical authors. Hardmut had had copiedJosephus,Justin, Martianus Capella, Orosius,Isidore of Seville; one of the most beautiful manuscripts of theschool ofTours is the Virgil of thelibrary ofBerne, copied by thedeacon Bernon. Many of these works were even translated into the vulgar tongue: at St. Gall there wereIrish translations of Galen and Hippocrates, and at the end of the ninth centuryKing Alfred (849-900) translated into English the works ofBoethius, Orosius,Bede, etc. At this epoch manymonasteries possessedlibraries of considerable size; when in 906 themonks of Novalaise (near Susa) fled before theSaracens they carried toTurin alibrary of six thousand manuscripts.
The period of the eleventh and twelfth centuries may be considered as the golden age of monastic manuscript writing. In eachmonastery there was a special hall, called the "scriptorium", reserved for the labours of the copyists. On the ancient plan of St. Gall it is shown beside the church. In theBenedictinemonasteries there was a special benediction formula for this hall (Ducange, Glossar. mediæ et inf. latin.", s.v. Scriptorium). Absolute silence reigned there. At the head of the scriptorium thebibliothecarius distributed the tasks, and, once copied, the manuscripts were carefully revised by thecorrectores. In theschools the pupils were often allowed as anhonour to copy manuscripts (for instance atFleury-sur-Loire). Everywhere themonks seem to have given themselves with great ardour to the labour which was considered one of the most edifying works of the monastic life. At St. Evroult (Normandy) was amonk who was saved because the number of letters copied by him equalled the number of hissins (Ordericus Vitalis, III, 3). In the "explicit" which concluded the book the scribe often gave his name and thedate on which he wrote "for thesalvation of hissoul" and commended himself to theprayers of the reader. Division of labour seems as yet not to have been fully established, and there weremonks who were both scribes and illuminators (Ord. Vital., III, 7). The Bible remained the book which was copied by preference. The Bible was copied either entire (bibliotheca) or in part (Pentateuch, thePsalter, Gospels and Epistles, Evangeliaria, in which the Gospels followed the order of the feasts). Then came the commentaries on the Scriptures, theliturgical books, the Fathers of the Church, works of dogmatic ormoral theology, chronicles, annals, lives of thesaints, histories of churches ormonasteries, and lastly profane authors, the study of which never ceased entirely. Rather a large number of them are found among the ne thousand manuscripts in thelibrary of Cluny. At St. Denis even Greek manuscripts were copied (Paris, Bib. Nation., gr. 375, copied in 1033). The newerreligious orders,Cistercians,Carthusians, etc., manifested the samezeal as theBenedictines in the copying of manuscripts.
Then beginning with the thirteenth century the labour of copyists began to be secularized. About theuniversities such as that ofParis were a large number oflaymen who gained a livelihood by copying; in 1275 those ofParis were admitted as agents of theuniversity; in 1292 we find atParis twenty-four booksellers who copied manuscripts or caused them to be copied. Colleges such as the Sorbonne also had their copying rooms. On the other hand at the end of the thirteenth century in the greater number ofmonasteries the copying of manuscripts ceased. Although there were stillmonks who were copyists, such as Giles of Mauleon, who copied the "Hours" of Queen Jeanne ofBurgundy (1317) at St. Denis, the copying and the illumination of manuscripts became a lucrative craft. At this juncture kings and princes began to develop a taste for books and to formlibraries; that of St. Louis was one of the earliest. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries these amateurs had in their pay veritable armies of copyists. Thenceforth it was they who directed the movement of the production of manuscripts. The most famous were PopesJohn XXII (1316-34),Benedict XII (1334-42); the poetPetrarch (1304-74), who was not satisfied with purchasing the manuscripts inconvents but himself formed aschool of copyists in order to have accurate texts, the King ofFrance, Charles V (1364-1380), who collected in the Louvre alibrary of twelve hundred volumes, the French princes Jean, Duke of Berry, a forerunner of modern bibliophiles (1340-1416), Louis Duke ofOrléans (1371-1401) and his son Charles ofOrléans (d. 1467), the dukes of Burgandy, the kings ofNaples, andMatthias Corvinus. Also worthy of mention areRichard of Bury, Chancellor ofEngland, Louis ofBruges (d. 1492), and Cardinal Georges d'Amboise (1460-1510).
The copying rooms were made more perfect, andTrithemius,Abbot of Spanheim (1462-1513), author of "De laude scriptorum manualium", shows the well-established division of labour in a studio (preparation and polishing of parchment, ordinary writing, red ink titles, illumination, corrections, revision, each task was given to a specialist). Among those copies religious manuscripts, Bibles,Psalters, Hours, lives of thesaints, were always represented, but an increasingly important place was accorded the ancient authors and the works of national literature. In the fifteenth century a great many Greek refugees fleeing before theTurks came toItaly and copied the manuscripts they brought with them to enrich thelibraries of the collectors. A number of them were in the service ofCardinal Bessarion (d. 1472), who after collecting five hundred Greek manuscripts, bequeathed them to theRepublic of Venice. Even after the invention of printing, Greek copyists continued to work, and their names are found on the most beautiful Greek manuscripts of ourlibraries, for instance Constantine Lascaris (1434-1501), who lived a long time atMessina;John Lascaris (1445-1535), who came toFrance under Charles VIII; Constantine Palæocappa, a formermonk ofAthos, who entered the service ofCardinal de Lorraine. John ofOtranto, the most skilful copyist of the sixteenth century.
But the copying of manuscripts had ceased long before in consequence of the invention of printing. The copyists who had toiled for long centuries had completed their tasks in bequeathing to the modern world the sacred and profane works of antiquity.
Save for some exceptions, which are becoming more and more rare, the manuscripts copied during theMiddle Ages are at present stored in the great publiclibraries. The private collections which have been formed since the sixteenth century (Cotton, Bodley, Christina of Sweden, Peiresc, Gaignières,Colbert, etc.) have eventually been fused with the great repositories. The suppression of a great number ofmonasteries (England andGermany in the sixteenth century,France in 1790) has also augmented the importance of storehouses of manuscripts, the chief of which are,
The dangers of all kinds which threaten manuscripts have induced the greater number of theselibraries to undertake the reproduction in facsimile of their most precious manuscripts. In 1905 an international congress assembled atBrussels to study the best practical means of reproduction. This is a great undertaking, the accomplishment of which depends on the progress of photography and of colour photography. By this means will the works of the copyists of theMiddle Ages be preserved. (SeeLIBRARIES.)
Revue des bibliothèques (Paris, since 1890), a periodical devoted to bibliography, contains numerous unedited catalogues, and critical studies of manuscripts;Zentralblatt für Bibliothekwesen (Leipzig, since 1884), treats of periodical bibliography in the supplement; GRAESEL, Fr. tr. LAUDE,Manuel de Bibliothéconomie (Paris, 1897) deals with the material arrangements of manuscript cabinets; EHRLE (prefect of the Vatican),Sur la conservation et restauration des anciens MSS. inRev. des Biblioth. (1898), 152; OMONT,Liste des recueils de fac-similes conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, 1903); GILBERT,The National manuscripts of Ireland (Southampton, 1874), 3 vols.; KOENNECKE,Bilderatlas der deutschen Nationalliteratur (Marburg, 1894).
On the history of copyists and the production of MSS.:Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes (Paris, since 1839), contains numerous bibliographical articles; LECOY DE LA MARCHE,L'art d'écrire et les calligraphes in Revue des questions historiques (1884); DELISLE,Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bib. Nat. (Paris, 1868-81), 3 vols. andalbum, a fundamental work for the history of medieval libraries; GARDTHAUSEN,Griechischen Schreiber des Mittelalters under der Renaissance (Leipzig, 1909); BERGER,Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premiers siècles du moyen Age (Nancy, 1893); FAUCON,La librairie des papes d'Avignon (Biblioth. Ecole Franc. de Rome, XLIII and L); MÜNTZ,La bibliothèque du Vatican au XVe siècle (ibid., XLVIII). A large amount of information concerning papyri will be found inArchiv für Papyrusforschung (Leipzig, since 1900). See also HOHLWEIN,La papyrologie grècque (Louvain, 1905),Studien zur Palaeographie und papyrusurkunde (Leipzig, since 1901, edited by WESSELY).
APA citation.Bréhier, L.(1910).Manuscripts. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09614b.htm
MLA citation.Bréhier, Louis."Manuscripts."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 9.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09614b.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Bryan R. Johnson.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor.Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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