Encouraged by some recent twitter threads, I conducted a short survey of book storage. In continental monasteries in the twelfth century, books were often stored in small recesses in the cloister wall. Valuable books were kept in the sacristy, and books for daily use were kept in situ. When the number of books became too big for the small cloister recesses, a separate space or even room was allocated, such as in a gallery between the transept and the chapter house. Of course, books were also stored in chests, cupboards and shelves in the Middle Ages and later on. At first books were stored flat, and only later they were kept vertically but fore-edge outwards. This led to some beautiful – and hidden – fore-edge paintings (see the virtual exhibition at the KU Leuven). Only between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries people began to store books as we are used to today, vertically and spine-forward.
In Iceland we find information on book storage in church inventories, a treasure trove regarding all kinds of information. Most entries only present a list of books in the church building, but some entries are more detailed. In 1550 in Hólar, the episcopal see in North Iceland, there were books in the choir of the church, as well as close to the high altar and in one of the chapels; books were also kept in the timber hall. In Þykkvabæjarklaustur, the Augustinian monastery in South Iceland, charters were for some time kept in the steeple – with abysmal consequences, as most of them rotted and were subsequently thrown away.
Books were often stored in chests. In 1569, the church in Hólar had a "brefa stockur. boka kista hia alltari" (chest of charters. book chest at the altar, Diplomatarium Islandicum, vol. 15, 213). This is followed by a list of nearly fifty books. The chest of charters was still extant in 1721, judging from a remark by Árni Magnússon: ”’Originalen ligger udj Stiftskisten paa Holum, og er paa papir’” (The original is located in the episcopal chest [of charters] at Hólar, and is [written] on paper, Diplomatarium Islandicum, vol. 11, 122). Árni refers to a vidimus from c. 1640, a copy of which he was given in 1721.
Books were also stored in cupboards. There was a „lijtill skapur og eru j bækur” (a small cupboard with books, Diplomatarium Islandicum, vol. 10, 629) in Skálholt, the episcopal see in South Iceland, in 1541.
Unfortunately we do not know if the books were stored fore-edge otuwards or not. Do you know more details? And have you ever seen an Icelandic book with fore-edge painting (or a book wheel)?
Further reading:
Theresa Webber: "The Libraries of Religious Houses," in The European Book in the Twelfth Century, edited by Erik Kwakkel and Rodney Thomson. Cambridge Uni Press, 2018, 103-121.
Yorumlar