IV. Bede's Library xxv
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XXV probably in every way much in advance of the simple wooden buildings of Melrose, Coldingham, Lindisfarne, and Whitby. But the other monastic buildings probably did not differ much. From the works of Bede and his contemporaries we get a picture of a series of separate buildings, the dormitories, the refectory, the kitchens, the novices' apartments well away from the rest, and the cells, perhaps beehive-shaped, for the older monks, similar to those which still survive in a number of Irish and Scottish islands such as Skellig Michel, Inishmurray, Eilean na Naoimh, and on the Broughs of Deerness and Birsay in the Orkneys.1 Round the whole would run a rampart or cashel, though the habit of building monasteries within Roman sites such as Burgh Castle, Reculver,
Bradwell and elsewhere provided some with outer ramparts ready made.
IV. Bede's Library Next to the church itself the most important buildings so far as Bede was concerned would be the libraries and the scriptoria.
Benedict Biscop was making journeys to Rome regularly and as soon as the monastery was founded he brought back books from Rome and probably from Gaul in large quantities. Ceolfrith did his share too and is said to have greatly enlarged the libraries at both Wearmouth and Jarrow, though the writer of the anonymous
Life of Ceolfrith who tells us this does not explain how.2 Probably it was partly by purchase and partly by the copying which would be going on constantly in the great scriptoria. But there are enough proofs in Bede's writings to show that he was familiar with a wide range of authors. His Commentaries consist largely of borrowings from the Fathers. So over and beyond the scriptures of which his knowledge was outstanding and all-embracing he was familiar with, and had at hand, the works of Ambrose, Augustine,
Cyprian, Jerome, Gregory, Cassiodorus, Isidore, and others.3
In addition to works on the scriptures he had of course a number of basic books. In his earlier works such as the Art of Metre and his work on the Figures and Tropes of Holy Scripture, obviously intended as school books, he uses the classical authors most and 1 J. Anderson, Scotland in Early Christian Times (Edinburgh, 1881), pp. 94 ff., and Lord Dunraven, Notes on Irish Architecture, ed. Margaret Stokes (London,
1875), I. 27 if.
2 H AA, Plummer, 1. 395. a BLTW , pp. 263-6.
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quotes many examples from Cicero, Plautus, Terence, and others; but these may well have been borrowed from Donatus or a num ber of other lesser-known Latin Grammars.1 The only classical authors with whom we may be sure that Bede was familiar are, first and foremost Virgil, as all his works bear witness, and Pliny's
Natural History. Apart from these two his quotations are mere tags. He did not use the other 'heathen' writers for their own sake any more than did Gregory the Great, who sternly rebuked
Desiderius bishop of Vienne for teaching the art of grammar through the medium of 'heathen' writers.2 His library was well stocked with treatises on chronology and especially the works of Dionysius Exiguus.
In the libraries too there was much to encourage him to turn to and make use of the Lives of the saints. Not only had he the Calendars which gave the dates of the passions of the saints and martyrs, but also such important works as Athanasius' Life of Antony in Evagrius' Latin translation, Sulpicius Severus' Life of St. M artin, Jerome's Life of Paul the Hermit, and the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. When at some time between 725 and 731 he determined to make what proved to be the first historical or narrative martyrology, he had the Lives of at least fifty saints and martyrs at his disposal. It was this fortunate accumulation which led him to produce the type of martyrology which was to be the pattern for all other martyrologies in the west.3
Of all this collection of books in the twin libraries only a small proportion escaped the savage Viking onslaughts of the ninth century. Of these the most striking is the Codex Amiatinus already mentioned, the leading authority for Jerome's translation of the Bible. It is now in the Laurentian Library at Florence and consists of 1029 leaves of costly and beautiful vellum, each measuring 19 ! X 13^ in., written in an elegant uncial script. It was one of three magnificent volumes produced in the scriptoria of the twin monastery. Of the other two, only a few odd pages remain in the British Museum. But the fact that three of these volumes, almost identical in form, were produced in the scriptoria throws some light on the surprising resources of the monastery in > BLTW , p. 241.
2 M G H t Epp. II. 303. For a defence of Gregory against the accusation of being 'anti-learning* see P. Meyvaert, Bede and Gregory the Great, p. 14 and notes.
3 H. Quentin, Les Martyrologes historiques du Moyen Age, pp. 17-119*