The document provides an overview of the history of libraries established by the Benedictine order of monks. It discusses the founding of the order by Saint Benedict in 529 AD at Monte Cassino in Italy, where he established the first monastery and library. The Rule of Saint Benedict prescribed principles of prayer, work, reading and scholarship that helped establish Benedictine monasteries as centers of learning across Europe with extensive libraries throughout the Middle Ages. Many important medieval libraries were founded at Benedictine monasteries, preserving classical and religious texts and engaging in copying, transcription and scholarship.

2. Library Histories
“The history of an old library
can only be traced
intermittently, the facts
playing hide and seek like a
distant lantern carried over
broken ground.”
Ernest Albert Salvage

3. Benedictine Order of
Monks
 Founded 529 or 530 AD
 Saint Benedict of Nursia
 Monte Cassino, Italy
 Beginning of library era
“Behold! How great a matter a little
fire kindleth!”

4. Scene

5. Benedict of Nursia
 480 born in Nursia-Benedictus “well-said” or
“blessed”
 Sought refuge and solitude with God
 Barely 14, renounced riches and family
 Patriarch of Western Monasticism, instrument of
regeneration, Father of Western Civilization, Patron
of Europe
 543 died standing raising his hands to God

6. Speculum & exemplar Christicolarum: vita beatissimi patris Benedicti monachorum patriarchae sanctissimi
http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9923/#q=benedictine+library&qla=en

7. Rule of St. Benedict
Regula Benedicti (RB)
• Detailed series of social, liturgical, and penal
ordinances
• By 7th Century applied to women
• By early 9th century supplanted most other
monastic styles in northern and western Europe.

8. The Rule of Saint Benedict, from the Abbey of Metten-
World Digital Library

9. • St. Benedict prescribed:
• Ora et labora (prayer and work)
• Discretio (The Gift of Discernment)
• Pax benedicitna (Benedictine Peace)
• Stabilitas (Order)
• Obedience to the abbot is emphasized
• Concrete community of monastics
• Caritatem fraternitatis caste impendant
• “they should show brotherly love for one another”
• Solitariness is silence
• Hora competens (Order of days-structured division
in the course of daily life)

10. “Idleness is the enemy of the soul.
At set times, accordingly, the
brethren should be occupied with
manual work, and again, at set
times, with spiritual reading.”
Saint Benedict of Nursia

11. Reading
 Monk should be able to read (Pachomius)
 Made to use this skill (Benedict)
 Lent to October, fourth to sixth hour
 October to Lent, up to second hour
 Beginning of Lent given book from library
 Sundays
 Reading at table – Weekly Reader

12. “Above all, have one or two seniors
appointed to go around the monastery
during the hours for reading to see that
no restless brother is by chance idle or
chattering and not intent on his reading
and so of no profit to himself and a
distraction to others.... However, if there
is anyone so dull or lazy that he either will
not or cannot study or read, let him have
some task assigned him which he can
perform, so that he may not be idle....”

13. • Importance of lectio divina (divine
reading)emphasized
• Audire (hear) and aedificare (build
up)
• Scriptures rejuvenate so Benedict
wanted readers to be vcare (free)
• memor (remembering) which came
from meditatio (meditation)
Lectio divina and meditatio

14. • Silent reading made possible
• Word separation
• English monks Venerable Bede
(673-735)
• Monk-missionary Boniface (675-
754)
• Innovation in scribal
transcription

15. • Benedictine abbot Johannes
Trithemius (1462-1516)
• Wrote De laude scriptorum
• Print technology would undermine
monastic culture
• Challenge of computer technology
today

16. Monte Cassino
 Built Monte Cassino 529 AD Saint Benedict resided
there 14 years
 Towering height midway between Rome and Naples
 Principal sanctuary of monastic order
 Centre of spiritual virtue, “School of the Lord”
 Gained reputation as house of learning
 Several times destroyed and rebuilt

18. • 581 Lombards destroyed, then
rebuilt
• 884 destroyed by Saracens
• Greatest influence in 11th century
• 1389, earthquake, period of decline
• 1799 sacked by Napoleon
• 1866 dissolution of Italian
monasteries, became national
monument
• 1944, World War II, aerial
bombardment from Allied advance

19. BATTLE OF MONTE CASSINO (Jan-May 1944)
Wikimedia Commons

20. • Desederius (abbot 1058-1087)
• Beneventan script
• 200 monks copying and illuminating
• Literature preserved through scriptoria
• Great service to European civilization
• Encouraged original writings
• Copying of books in all branches of
learning, intellectual revival
Monte Cassinos’ Golden Age

21. MONTE CASSINO TODAY
www.ashka.eu

22. LIBRARIES of Benedictine Houses
• Bibliotheca on upper floor, scriptorium on
lower
• Oblong room, high vaulted ceilings
• Two sets of books: one for brethren, and
those kept in a safe place
• (lending library and library of reference)
• Armeria (books shut up in presses or
bookcases)
• Books chained to desks
• Cloister of conversation
• We understand collegiate libraries through
monastic libraries

23. Other Benedictine
Libraries in Italy
 Nonantola, 752-
 Library contained manuscripts older than the monastery
itself
 Bobbio, 614-803
 Librarian ranked among officials of library, 700 Codices, of
broad scope surpassed Monte Cassino in influence
 Subiaco, 520- First printing house in Italy 15th century
 Farfa, 681- littera Farfensis, script based on Beneventan

24. FRANCE
 Saint-Germain-des-Pres, 543-1790 – intensive literary
activity
 Fleury-Saint-Benoit, 651- Carolingian scriptorium,
history of calligraphy, one of richest libraries in
Christendom
 Corbie, 657-1790 renowned for scriptorium, library,
and school, first true Carolingian writing
 Bec, 1034- advancement of theological learning and
influence on course of church history, Lanfranc
Statutes to Benedictines

25. ENGLAND
 Canterbury, 605-1538 -St. Augustine and his
companions introduce monasticism to England,
 Abbey library catalog documents donors and
benefactors from 13th century forward
 Whitby, 657-1543 – library rich in humanistic
literature
 Wearmouth, 674-1539 and Jarrow, 681-1536
 “greatest library-builder before the Norman-
Conquest,” “first great monastic library”
 Bede studied here

26. • Glastonbury, 5th century-1539 – large library included
works of modern theology
• Durham, 1083-1538 - library contained large proportion of
classical authors, humanistic, and medical works, detailed
arrangement of books
• Libraries not assigned special rooms for use until 14th or
15th centuries
• York, 625-1539 - Alcuin, friend of Charlemagne educated
here and accompanied him on book hunting expeditions,
metrical catalogue, motto was “learn in order to teach”

27. Germany
 Reichenau, 724-1802 –Abbot Waldo “spared neither
trouble nor money to increase the library,” several
rare works, supported many scholars
 Fulda, 744-1803 –love of learning, countless books
 “There you will find all that God has sent down to
earth from heaven for the benefit of man in the pious
works of sacred scripture and all the worldly wisdom
that has been made known to the world in various
ages.” Boniface

28. • Benediktbeuern, 740-1803 – library and archives has
many priceless manuscripts and charters
• Sankt Michael Library of Metten, 766-
• Monk from here founded first Benedictine abbey in
United States, Latrobe, Pennsylvania
• Maria Laach, 1093-center of liturgical reform,
hymnology, art
• Beuron, 1687-liturgical monastic revival, supports
school

29. AUSTRIA -Admont Abbey
Wikimedia Commons
“A monastery without a library was like a fortress
without an arsenal”

30. MasterFILE Premier, Codex E, Admont Giant Bible

31. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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