DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32044#0033
INTRODUCTION.
27
rollers at each extremity. At the ends of the cylinder a ball or knob was
then affixed, which was employed as a handle for evolving the scroll ; it
being at one time a reputed crime to take hold of the roll itself.
The Diptych was used by the Romans both for secular and also for sa-
cred purposes. It coniisted of two boards covered with wax, on which
the charaéters were marked with the stylus.
They were generally composed of ebony or box-wood, conneited to-
gether with two or more hinges. They were then embelliihed with
carved ivory, and frequently with gold, iilver, and with precious stones,
rivetted very closely to the wood, and finished with the utmost elegance
and taste.
The next subject for coniideration is the mode of binding adopted in
the monastic establiffiments of Europe. Before the invention of paper
and printing, books were so scarce and dear as to be beyond the reach of
all but the rich. Hence learning was almost excluiively confined to mem-
bers of the priesthood and people of rank. The papyrus was in moit ge-
neral use before the Saracens conquered Egypt in the seventh century,
when it could no longer be procured. Parchment, the only substance for
writing which then remained, was so difficult to be obtained that it was
customary to erase the charadters of antiquity, and Sophocles or Tacitus
were obliged to resign the parchment to missals, homilies, or the golden
legend.*' In this manner, many of the best works of antiquity were for
ever lost, though some have in late times been recovered from the im-
perfedt way in which the first writing was erased. In the early part of
the middle ages, private persons rarely posiësièd any books at all ; and
even distinguiffied monasteries were but scantily supplied. Of the scar-
city of books, Wharton, in the second dissertation to his History of En-
gliffi Poetry, has given a long account. The monks and iludents in the
monasteries were the principal labourers, and it was part of the Sacrist’s
duty to bind and clasp the books used for the service of the church. The
St. Cuthbert’s copy of the Gospels, in the British Museum, which was
written by Eadfrid, Bissiop of Lindisfarn, (a. d. 698-721) is one of the
finest specimens of Saxon caligraphy and decoration extant.-f- Athelwold,
his successor, caused it to be splendidly bound in gold and silver plates, set
with precious gems, under his own direcftion, by Bilfrith the anchorite,
who, according to Simeon of Durham, was “ aurificii arte præcipuus.”
The present binding is modern, and no precise opinion can be formed of
the skill or national peculiarities of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors in this
* Gibbon.
t One of the elaborate illuminations in this exquisite volume, is given in the “ Illuminated
Ornaments of the Middle Ages.”
27
rollers at each extremity. At the ends of the cylinder a ball or knob was
then affixed, which was employed as a handle for evolving the scroll ; it
being at one time a reputed crime to take hold of the roll itself.
The Diptych was used by the Romans both for secular and also for sa-
cred purposes. It coniisted of two boards covered with wax, on which
the charaéters were marked with the stylus.
They were generally composed of ebony or box-wood, conneited to-
gether with two or more hinges. They were then embelliihed with
carved ivory, and frequently with gold, iilver, and with precious stones,
rivetted very closely to the wood, and finished with the utmost elegance
and taste.
The next subject for coniideration is the mode of binding adopted in
the monastic establiffiments of Europe. Before the invention of paper
and printing, books were so scarce and dear as to be beyond the reach of
all but the rich. Hence learning was almost excluiively confined to mem-
bers of the priesthood and people of rank. The papyrus was in moit ge-
neral use before the Saracens conquered Egypt in the seventh century,
when it could no longer be procured. Parchment, the only substance for
writing which then remained, was so difficult to be obtained that it was
customary to erase the charadters of antiquity, and Sophocles or Tacitus
were obliged to resign the parchment to missals, homilies, or the golden
legend.*' In this manner, many of the best works of antiquity were for
ever lost, though some have in late times been recovered from the im-
perfedt way in which the first writing was erased. In the early part of
the middle ages, private persons rarely posiësièd any books at all ; and
even distinguiffied monasteries were but scantily supplied. Of the scar-
city of books, Wharton, in the second dissertation to his History of En-
gliffi Poetry, has given a long account. The monks and iludents in the
monasteries were the principal labourers, and it was part of the Sacrist’s
duty to bind and clasp the books used for the service of the church. The
St. Cuthbert’s copy of the Gospels, in the British Museum, which was
written by Eadfrid, Bissiop of Lindisfarn, (a. d. 698-721) is one of the
finest specimens of Saxon caligraphy and decoration extant.-f- Athelwold,
his successor, caused it to be splendidly bound in gold and silver plates, set
with precious gems, under his own direcftion, by Bilfrith the anchorite,
who, according to Simeon of Durham, was “ aurificii arte præcipuus.”
The present binding is modern, and no precise opinion can be formed of
the skill or national peculiarities of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors in this
* Gibbon.
t One of the elaborate illuminations in this exquisite volume, is given in the “ Illuminated
Ornaments of the Middle Ages.”