Home | History | General | First Hundred Years: Introduction | Augustinian libraries - 02 ID 2756

Augustinian libraries - 02

Paris. How small libraries were in 1290 can be seen in the example of the large studium generale in Paris. Its catalogue of manuscripts in 1290 listed only fifty titles.

By 1400 the library at Paris was much larger, because today over 200 of its former manuscripts still exist in various (non-Augustinian) libraries in Paris and further afield.

These 200 manuscripts contain about fifty-five different works by St Augustine, and even several copies of some of them. They include almost all of his more important works: the Confessions, City of God, Enchridion, and De Trinitate.

Image (below): The library section of the Augustinian Priory in Erfurt, Germany where Martin Luther lived and studied.

St Augustine : Augustinian libraries - 02

As well, there are copies of some of his smaller works. To name a few of them: On Free Will, The Advantage of Believing, The Excellence of Marriage, The Excellence of Widowhood, Holy Virginity, De Doctrina Christiana, The Work of Monks, Baptism, Expositions on the Psalms, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Letter of John, The Spirit and the Letter, Marriage and Desire, and The Literal Meaning of Genesis.

In Paris or elsewhere, the number of manuscripts in a library could increase only by purchases or if the Augustinians ordered manuscripts elsewhere to be copied on its behalf.

Each studium generale in the Order was permitted to employ two professional copyists, who usually were laymen. This practice lapsed in many places after the Black Death in the fourteenth century.
 
Some Augustinian houses in Continental Europe, especially within the Augustinian observant movement, began to staff their scriptorium (copying room) with Augustinians.
 
The work of one such Augustinian scriptorium (copying room) can still be seen.
 
The publication in the 1960s of the library catalog of the public library of the city of Windsheim in Bavaria, Germany, indicated that it still possesses all the manuscripts of the Augustinian Priory at Windsheim that was suppressed during the Protestant Reformation.

Some of these manuscripts show excellent calligraphy, while others show corrections made by a supervisor.

A quicker increase of library holdings, however, came from the donation of entire libraries to add to that of the Augustinian convento, either from wealthy laity or from Augustinian scholars who has just died. 
 
In this way, for example, the former Prior General in 1460 – 1470, William Becchi O.S.A., bequested 100 volumes to the Augustinian Convento di Santo Spirito in Florence, to which also the humanist author and friend of Augustinians, Giovanni Boccaccio, bequeathed many books in his last will and testament dated 28th August 1374.

(Continued on the next page.)
ID2756

<< Previous    Next >>
Augustinian libraries - 02
First hundred years - 01
First hundred years - 02
First hundred years - 03
First hundred years - 04
First Hundred Years - 05
First hundred years - 06
First hundred years - 07
First hundred years - 08
First hundred years - 09
First hundred years - 10
First Hundred Years - 11
Origins & Identity - 01
Origins & Identity - 02
Origins & Identity - 03
Origins & Identity - 04
Origins & Identity - 05
Origins & Identity - 06
Origins & Identity - 07
Origins & Indentity - 08
Early leaders - 01
Early leaders - 02
Early leaders - 03
Early leaders - 04
Early leaders - 05
Learning: emphasis - 01
Learning: emphasis - 02
Learning: emphasis - 03
Learning: emphasis - 04
Learning: emphasis - 05
Learning: emphasis - 06
Learning: emphasis - 07
Learning: emphasis - 08
Augustinian libraries - 01
   Augustinian libraries - 02
Augustinian libraries - 03
Augustinian libraries - 04
Augustinian libraries - 05
Augustinian libraries - 06
About | Daily Bread | News | Guestbook | Contact | Sitemap | Disclaimer