On the Necessity of Books

Burgundian scribe Jean Miélot in his scriptorium (via Wikimedia Commons)

Do you regard yourself as a bibliophile? Have you ever been accused of bibliomania? (I hope not!)

The thing is some of us simply love books. We love them because of their power to transport us to new worlds, faraway places and different times.

We love them because to read is to hear the voices of other people. To experience their heartbreaks, struggles and triumphs.

Reading for pleasure is deeply satisfying. Stimulating our imagination, promoting empathy and enhancing our sense of well-being.

As French poet Charles Baudelaire remarked, ‘A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.’

Reading nourishes the soul

But maybe you don’t get the time to read for the sheer joy of it. Have got out of the habit of reading for pleasure. Or never developed the habit when you were young.   

In which case, can I steer you towards a work by Richard de Bury, 14th–century Bishop of Durham and holder of various high offices under King Edward III. This may strike you as an odd thing to do. Don’t worry. I’ll explain.

Richard de Bury was one of the first real collectors of books in England. And is chiefly remembered for his classic text the Philobiblon (from the Greek for ‘the love of books’). Published in 1345, it’s a twenty chapter love letter to books, the affection due to them and the joys to be derived from them.

His aim in writing it was to promote the pursuit of learning, explain the role played by books in facilitating a richer cultural life, and promote a more professional approach to librarianship. What shines through is his enthusiasm for books and the liberal arts they represent. Along with the philanthropy which underlay his project to develop a store of knowledge for present and future generations by creating a library at Oxford where he could make his collection available to others.

Bear in mind that he was collecting books well before William Caxton’s introduction of the printing press to England around 1475. Before that point, manuscripts (the word means ‘written by hand’ in Latin) were copied out on parchment (or vellum) by specially trained monastic scribes skilled in the arts of calligraphy, illustration and bookbinding.

As a result, books were generally regarded as valuable artefacts rather than a means of promoting truth, wisdom and knowledge. Available only to a few because of their cost and rarity. And, of course, restricted to those who could read at a time when literacy was largely confined to the clergy, the better off and the professional classes.  

Smitten with books

Richard de Bury wanted to challenge this elitist perspective and share his extensive collection with a broad range of scholars. Let’s dive into some of his reflections on the value of books and marvel at his wonderfully rich and melodious prose.

Chapter I: That the Treasure of Wisdom is Chiefly Contained in Books

‘In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace. All things are corrupted and decay in time; Saturn ceases not to devour the children that he generates; all the glory of the world would be buried in oblivion, unless God had provided mortals with the remedy of books.’

‘But the written truth of books, not transient but permanent, plainly offers itself to be observed, and by means of the previous spherules of the eyes, passing through the vestibule of perception and the courts of imagination, enters the chamber of intellect, taking its place in the couch of memory, where it engenders the eternal truth of the mind.’

‘They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or money. If you come to them they are not asleep; if you ask and inquire of them they do not withdraw themselves; they do not chide if you make mistakes; they do not laugh at you if you are ignorant. O books, who alone are liberal and free, who give to all who ask of you and enfranchise all who serve you faithfully!’

Chapter II: The Degree of Affection That is Properly Due to Books

‘A library of wisdom, then, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, aye, even of the faith, must needs become a lover of books.’

Chapter VII: The Complaint of Books Against Wars

‘Almighty Author and Lover of peace, scatter the nations that delight in war, which is above all plagues injurious to books. For wars being without the control of reason make a wild assault on everything they come across, and, lacking the check of reason they push on without discretion or distinction to destroy the vessels of reason.’

‘In sooth we cannot mourn with the grief that they deserve all the various books that have perished by the fate of war in various parts of the world. Yet we must tearfully recount the dreadful ruin which was caused in Egypt by the auxiliaries in the Alexandrian war, when seven hundred thousand volumes were consumed by fire… Who would not shudder at such a hapless holocaust, where ink is offered up instead of blood, where the glowing ashes of crackling parchment were encarnadined with blood, where the devouring flames consumed so many thousands of innocents in whose mouth was no guile, where the unsparing fire turned into stinking ashes so many shrines of eternal truth!

Chapter XV: Of the Advantages of the Love of Books

‘Again, all who are smitten with the love of books think cheaply of the world and wealth; as Jerome says to Vigilantius: The same man cannot love both gold and books. And thus it has been said in verse:

No iron-stained hand is fit to handle books, Nor he whose heart on gold so gladly looks: The same men love not books and money both, And books thy herd, O Epicurus, loathe; Misers and bookmen make poor company, Nor dwell in peace beneath the same roof-tree. No man, therefore, can serve both books and Mammon.’

'Books delight us, when prosperity smiles upon us; they comfort us inseparably when stormy fortune frowns on us. They lend validity to human compacts, and no serious judgments are propounded without their help. Arts and sciences, all the advantages of which no mind can enumerate, consist in books. How highly must we estimate the wondrous power of books, since through them we survey the utmost bounds of the world and time, and contemplate the things that are as well as those that are not, as it were in the mirror of eternity. In books we climb mountains and scan the deepest gulfs of the abyss.'

There are never enough books

I hope this gives you the flavour of Philobiblon. I think it's fair to say Richard of Bury was on to something!

If you want to read more, you can find the full text here, courtesy of the Universities of Ottawa and Toronto.

I’m just heading off to rummage through a pile of new books that have arrived. As Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges put it, ‘I have always imagined paradise will be a kind of library.’