When the newly elected bishop of Hildesheim, in the north of Germany, asked to see the diocesan library, he was brought to the armory and shown the pikes and battleaxes hanging on the walls; these, he was informed, were the books with which the rights of the bishopric had been won and must be defended. (查看原文)
At first the copying was probably done in an improvised setting in the cloister...But in time special rooms were designated or built for the purpose...these were large rooms equipped with clear glass windows under which the monks, as many as thirty of them, sat at individual desks, sometimes partitioned off from one another. (查看原文)
"He shall be compelled to read." It was this compulsion that, through centuries of chaos, helped to salvage the achievements of ancient thought. (查看原文)
Good parchment was far too valuable and scarce to be discarded. This value helps to account for the fact that monasteries collected ancient manuscripts in the first place and did not consign them to the rubbish. (查看原文)
