Library

Among the lost treasures of Constantinople was the only authentic copy of the Proceedings of the Council of Nice, held in 325 AD, to deal with the Arian heresy.

The ultimate fate of the Imperial Library at Constantinople yet remains a problem.

Some are of opinion that it was destroyed by Amurath IV.

and that none but comparatively unimportant arabic and other oriental manuscripts made up the sultan's library some believe that in spite of repeated assertions to the contrary on the part of turkish officials and others there somewhere lies a secret hoard neglected and uncared for perhaps but nevertheless existent of ancient and valuable greek manuscripts the seraglio has usually been considered to be the repository of this horde and access to the seraglio is very difficult and almost impossible to obtain in the year eighteen hundred professor carlyle during his travels in the east took enormous pains and used every means in his power to reach the bottom of the mystery surrounding the seraglio treasures he was assured by every turkish officer whom he consulted on the subject that no greek manuscripts existed there and when by dint of influence in high quarters and much patience and perseverance he at length gained permission to examine the seraglio library he found that it consisted chiefly of arabic manuscripts and contained not a single greek latin or hebrew writing the library or such part of it as the professor was shown was approached through a mosque and consisted of a small cruciform chamber measuring only twelve yards at its greatest width one arm of the cross served as an antechamber and the other three contained the bookcases the books were laid on their sides one on the other the ends outward their titles were written on the edges of the leaves the result of the professor's researches went to confirm the belief held by so many that no greek manuscripts had survived on the other hand the jealousy and suspicion of the turks would render it at least possible that despite the apparent straightforwardness with which mr carlyle was treated there were stores of manuscripts which were kept back from him a final touch of mystery was given to this fascinating subject by a tradition concerning a certain building in constantinople which had been closed up ever since the time of the turkish conquest in the fifteenth century of the existence of this building professor carlyle was certain the tradition asserted that it contained many of the former possessions of the greek emperors and among these possessions professor carlyle expected that the remains of the imperial library would be found if such remains existed of other libraries of olden times such as those of antioch and ephesus or those in private possession in the country houses of italy and gaul and which perished at the hands of the barbarians it is not necessary to speak more fully it is sufficient to point out that they existed and that though we possess few details as to their furniture or arrangement we are justified in concluding that the latter at any rate were luxuriously appointed It must not be inferred, however, that all the books which disappeared from these various centers were of necessity destroyed.

August 2010.

Chapter 5, Libraries in Medieval Times.

During the rule of the Arabs in Northern Africa and in Spain, thousands of manuscripts were gathered together in their chief cities, such as Cairo and Cordova, and many Arabic, Spanish, and Moorish writings have been preserved in the Escorial Library, though a large part of this library was burnt in 1671. with these exceptions the collections of books belonging to the various religious houses were practically the only libraries of early medieval times these collections to begin with were very small so small indeed that there was no need to set apart a special room for them Library buildings were not erected till the 14th or 15th centuries when the accumulation of books rendered them necessary, and those which are found in connection with old foundations will always prove to have been added later.

It is said, however, that gosbert abbot of st gall in the ninth century who founded the library there by collecting what was then the large number of four hundred books allotted them a special room over the scriptorium but as a rule the books were kept in the church and then as the number increased in the cloisters the cloister was the common living-room of the monks where they read and studied and carried out most of their daily duties the books were either stored in presses though no such press remains to show us upon what pattern they were built or in recesses in the wall probably closed by doors two of these recesses may be seen in the cloisters at worcester in cistercian houses says mr j w clarke to whose reed lecture eighteen ninety four i am indebted for these details this recess developed into a small square room without a window and but little larger than an ordinary cupboard in the plans of clairvaux and kirkstall this room is placed between the chapter-house and the transept of the church and similar rooms in similar situations have been found at fountains bellew tintern netley c the books were placed on shelves round the walls when the cloister windows came to be glazed so as to afford better protection from the weather for the persons and things within the cloister they were occasionally decorated with allusions to the authors of the books in the adjacent presses Sometimes carels were set up in the cloister, a carel being a sort of pew in which study could be conducted with more privacy than in the open cloister.

Yet there is a demand for such work, and so far as I know, we are the first concern in America to take up the hand illumination of books as a business.

Of course, we had to train our helpers, and from very crude attempts at decoration, we have attained to a point where the British Museum and the Bibliotheque at The Hague have deigned to order and pay good golden guineas for specimens of our handicraft.

Very naturally, we want to do the best work possible, and so self-interest prompts us to be on the lookout for budding genius.

The Roycroft is a quest for talent.

I'm Dani Lloyd-Pritchard, and this episode was recorded live in our podcast booth at Newcastle Museum during the Hunter Science Festival for National Science Week.

Today I'm talking with Karen Eastwood, Program Delivery Officer for Newcastle Museum and Library.

Karen took me through the library's brand new Little Bang Discovery Club, a hands-on program turning preschoolers into little scientists and their parents into lab assistants.

We talk about what's inside the program's take-home discovery box how four weeks of experiments build to a mini science fair and how Newcastle Museum and Library is reshaping what a library can be, from a dedicated citizen science corner to borrowable fossil kits and, yes, a chill-out zone stocked with genuine dinosaur poo.

I'm talking with Karen Eastwood, Program Delivery Officer for the Newcastle Museum and Library.

Welcome to the Citizen Science Show podcast.

Thanks for having me on board.

Jump Escape Audio kindly welcomes you to join them in...

The Library.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the library, the show where we talk about Halo lore.

I'm Austin.

He's not here.

Forget the first one.

Yeah.

Sky Cairo commented, Awaiting someone to hold Austin's account hostage in exchange for a permanent seat on the library Hillelore cast.