Excerpt from Book-Collectors as Benefactors of Public Libraries, Vol. 9 Until about the middle of the fifteenth century the production of books was both costly and laborious, and was chiefly confined to the monasteries of Europe and Asia, where alone learning was cultivated. Such being the case, we find this industry almost exclusively confined to those religious communities where the few who were proficient in the art of writing or copying were patiently and peacefully employed in this calling, while their personal needs were provided for by other members of the community less fitted either by ability, training, or inclination than they for the patient and exacting work of the scrivener. Hence it was, in the nature of things, that the first libraries were mainly confined to religious houses and were composed of such volumes as had been written in them or secured by exchange. These libraries, as may be supposed, were naturally restricted to a limited number of subjects. First and most prominent of all were works of a religious nature, such as the Bible, liturgies, psalters, commentaries, and the lives of saints and martyrs. These, as time progressed, were naturally supplemented by the history of the religious world as found in the writings of the church Fathers, accounts of the various Councils, and the annals of the monasteries themselves. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched, of that extraordinary and enduring phenomenon: the library' Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under Attack Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.