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with equal reputation at the other extremity of the island, and even in our most northern provinces. Ecbert bishop of York founded a library in his cathedral, which, like some of those already mentioned, is said to have been replenished with a variety of Latin and Greek books. Alcuine, whom Ecbert appointed his first librarian, hints at this library in a Latin epistle to Charlemagne. "Send me from France some learned treatises, of equal excellence with those which I preserve here in England under my custody, collected by the industry of my master Ecbert: and I will send to you some of my youths, who shall carry with them the flowers of Britain into France. So that there shall not only be an inclosed garden at York, but also at Tours some sprouts of Paradise," &c. William of Malmesbury judged this library to be of sufficient importance not only to be mentioned in his History, but to be styled, "Omnium liberalium artium armarium, nobilissimam bibliothecam"." This repository remained till the reign of King Stephen, when it was destroyed by fire, with great part of the city of York. Its founder Ecbert died in the year 767". Before the end of the eighth century, the monasteries of Westminster, Saint Alban's, Worcester, Malmesbury, Glastonbury, with some others, were founded, and opulently endowed. That of Saint Alban's was filled with one hundred monks by King Offa. Many new bishopricks were also established in England: : all which institutions, by multiplying the number of ecclesiastics, turned the attention of many persons to letters.

The best writers among the Saxons flourished about the eighth century. These were, Aldhelm bishop of Shirburn, Ceolfrid, Alcuine, and Bede; with whom I must also join King Alfred. But in an enquiry of this nature, Alfred deserves particular notice, not only as a writer, but as the illustrious rival of Charlemagne, in protecting and assisting the restoration of literature. He is said to have founded the university of OxLel. p. 114. [The only Greek classic was Aristotle.-EDIT.]

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"De Reg. i. 1.

W

Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 486. * A. D. 793. See Dugd. Monast. i.

P. 177.

ford; and it is highly probable, that in imitation of Charlemagne's similar institutions, he appointed learned persons to give public and gratuitous instructions in theology, but principally in the fashionable sciences of logic, astronomy, arithmetic, and geometry, at that place, which was then a considerable town, and conveniently situated in the neighbourhood of those royal seats at which Alfred chiefly resided. He suffered no priest that was illiterate to be advanced to any ecclesiastical dignity. He invited his nobility to educate their sons in learning, and requested those lords of his court who had no children, to send to school such of their younger servants as discovered a promising capacity, and to breed them to the clerical profession. Alfred, while a boy, had himself experienced the inconveniencies arising from a want of scholars, and even of common instructors, in his dominions; for he was twelve years of age, before he could procure in the western kingdom a master properly qualified to teach him the alphabet. But, while yet unable to read, he could repeat from memory a great variety of Saxon songs. He was fond of cultivating his native tongue: and with a view of inviting the people in general to a love of reading, and to a knowledge of books which they could not otherwise have understood, he translated many Latin authors into Saxon. These, among others, were Boethius of THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, a manuscript of which of Alfred's age still remains", Orosius's HISTORY OF THe Pagans,

YMS. Bever, MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. the hours went. But as in windy weaCodd. xlvii. f. 82.

Bever, ibid.

Flor. Vigorn. sub ann. 871. Brompton, Chron. in ALFR. p. 814. And MS. Bever, ut supr. It is curious to observe the simplicity of this age, in the method by which Alfred computed time. He caused six wax tapers to be made, each twelve inches long, and of as many ounces in weight: on these tapers he ordered the inches to be regularly marked; and having found that one of them burned just four hours, he committed the care of them to the keepers of his chapel, who from time to time gave due notice how

ther the candles were more wasted; to remedy this inconvenience he invented lanthorns, there being then no glass to be met with in his dominions. Asser. Menev. Vit. Alfr. p. 68. edit. Wise. In the mean time, and during this very period, the Persians imported into Europe a machine, which presented the first rudiments of a striking clock. It was brought as a present to Charlemagne, from Abdella king of Persia, by two monks of Jerusalem, in the year 800. Among other presents, says Eginhart, was an horologe of brass, wonderfully constructed by some mechanical artifice,

Saint Gregory's PASTORAL CARE, the venerable Bede's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, and the SOLILOQUIES of Saint Austin. Probably Saint Austin was selected by Alfred, because he was the favorite author of Charlemagne. Alfred died in the year 900, and was buried at Hyde abbey, in the suburbs of Winchester, under a sumptuous monument of porphyryd.

Aldhelm, kinsman of Ina king of the West Saxons, frequently visited France and Italy. While a monk of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, he went from his monastery to Canterbury, in order to learn logic, rhetoric, and the Greek language, of archbishop Theodore, and of Albin abbot of Saint Austin's, the pupil of Adrian. But he had before acquired some knowledge of Greek and Latin under Maidulf, an Hibernian or Scot, who had erected a small monastery or school at Malmesbury 8. Camden affirms, that Aldhelm was the first of the Saxons who wrote in Latin, and that he taught his countrymen the art of Latin versification". But a very intelligent antiquarian in this sort of literature, mentions an anonymous Latin poet, who wrote the life of Charlemagne in verse; and adds, that he was the first of the Saxons that attempted to write Latin verse. It is however certain, that Aldhelm's Latin compositions, whether in verse or prose, as novelties were deemed extraordinary performances, and excited the attention

in which the course of the twelve hours
ad clepsydram vertebatur, with as many
little brasen balls, which at the close of
each hour dropped down on a sort of
bells underneath, and sounded the end
of the hour. There were also twelve fi-
gures of horsemen, who, when the twelve
hours were completed, issued out at
twelve windows, which till then stood
open, and returning again, shut the win-
dows after them. He adds, that there
were many other curiosities in this in-
strument, which it would be tedious to
recount. Eginhart, Car. Magn. p. 108.
It is to be remembered, that Eginhart
was an eye-witness of what is here de-
scribed; and that he was an abbot, a
skilful architect, and very learned in the
sciences.

MSS. Cott. OTтн. A. 6. 8vo. membr.
He was particularly fond of Austin's

book DE CIVITATE DEI. Eginhart, Vit. Car. Magn. p. 29.

d Asser. Menev. p. 72. ed. Wise. e Bede says, that Theodore and Adrian taught Tobias bishop of Rochester the Greek and Latin tongues so perfectly, that he could speak them as fluently as his native Saxon. Hist. Eccl. v. 23.

f Lel. p. 97. Thorn says, that Albin learned Greek of Adrian. Chron. Dec. Script. p. 1771.

W. Malmsb. ubi infr. p. 3.

Wiltsh. p. 116. But this, Aldhelm affirms of himself in his treatise on Metre. See W. Malmsb. apud Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii. 4. seq.

i Conringius, Script. Comment. p. 108. This poem was printed by Reineccius at Helmstadt many years ago, with a large commentary. Compare Voss. Hist. Lat. iii. 4.

and admiration of scholars in other countries. A learned cotemporary, who lived in a remote province of a Frankish territory, in an epistle to Aldhelm has this remarkable expression, "VESTRE LATINITATIS PANEGYRICUS RUMOR has reached us even at this distance," &c. In reward of these uncommon merits he was made bishop of Shirburn in Dorsetshire in the year 705. His writings are chiefly theological: but he has likewise left in Latin verse a book of ENIGMATA, copied from a work of the same title under the name of Symposius', a poem De VIRGINITATE hereafter cited, and treatises on arithmetic, astrology, rhetoric, and metre. The last treatise is a proof that the ornaments of composition now began to be studied. Leland mentions his CANTIONES SAXONICE, one of which continued to be commonly sung in William of Malmesbury's time: and, as it was artfully interspersed with many allusions to passages of Scripture, was often sung by Aldhelm himself to the populace in the streets, with a design of alluring the ignorant and idle, by so specious a mode of instruction, to a sense of duty, and a knowledge of religious subjects". Malmesbury observes, that Aldhelm might be justly deemed "ex acumine Græcum, ex nitore Romanum, et ex pompa Anglum P." It is evident, that Malmesbury, while he here characterizes the Greeks by their acuteness, took his idea of them from their scientifical literature, which was then only known. After the revival of the Greek philosophy by the Saracens, Aristotle and Euclid were familiar in Europe long before Homer and Pindar. The character of Aldhelm is thus drawn by an antient chronicler: "He was an excellent harper, a most eloquent Saxon and Latin poet, a most expert chantor or singer, a DOCTOR EGREGIUS, and admirably versed in the scriptures and the liberal sciences","

J W. Malmsb. ut supr. p. 4.
Cave, p. 466.

1 See Fabric. Bibl. Med. Lat. iv. p. 693. And Bibl. Lat. i. p. 681. And W. Malm. ubi supr. p. 7. Among the inanuscripts of Exeter cathedral is a book of ENIGMATA in Saxon, some of which are written in Runic characters, 11. fol. 98,

• Malmsb. ubi supr. p. 4.
P Ubi supr. p. 4.

a Chron. Anon. Leland. Collectan. ii. 278. To be skilled in singing is often mentioned as an accomplishment of the antient Saxon ecclesiastics. Bede says, that Edda a monk of Canterbury, and a learned writer, was "primus cantandi magister." Hist. lib. iv. cap. 2. Wolstan,

Alcuine, bishop Ecbert's librarian at York, was a cotemporary pupil with Aldhelm under Theodore and Adrian at Can

a learned monk of Winchester, of the same age, was a celebrated singer, and even wrote a treatise de TONORUM HARMONIA, cited by William of Malmesbury, De Reg. lib. ii. c. 39. Lel. Script. Brit. p. 165. Their skill in playing on the harp is also frequently mentioned. Of Saint Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, about the year 988, it is said, that among his sacred studies, he cultivated the arts of writing, harping, and painting. Vit. S. Dunstan. MSS. Cott. Brit. Mus. FAUSTIN. B. 13. Hickes has engraved a figure of our Saviour drawn by Saint Dunstan, with a specimen of his writing, both remaining in the Bodleian library. Gram. Saxon. p. 104. cap. xxii. The writing and many of the pictures and illuminations in our Saxon manuscripts were executed by the priests. A book of the gospel, preserved in the Cotton library, is a fine specimen of the Saxon calligraphy and decorations. It is written by Eadfrid bishop of Durham, in the most exquisite manner. Ethelwold his successor did the illuminations, the capital letters, the picture of the cross, and the evangelists, with infinite labour and elegance and Bilfrid the anachorete covered the book, thus written and adorned, with gold and silver plates and precious stones. All this is related by Aldred, the Saxon glossator, at the end of St. John's gospel. The work was finished about the year 720. MSS. Cott. Brit. Mus. NERO. D. 4. Cod. membr. fol. quadrat. Ælfsin, a monk, is the elegant scribe of many Saxon pieces chiefly historical and scriptural in the same library, and perhaps the painter of the figures, probably soon after the year 978. Ibid. TITUS. D. 26. Cod. membr. Svo. The Saxon copy of the four evangelists, which king Athelstan gave to Durham church, remains in the same library. It has the painted images of S. Cuthbert, radiated and crowned, blessing king Athelstan, and of the four evangelists. [Since engraved in the third volume of Strutt's Manners and Customs of the English and in vol. i. of the same work there is an engraving of the figure of our Saviour by St. Dunstan mentioned in this note.—

VOL. I.

:

PARK.] This is undoubtedly the work
of the monks; but Wanley believed it
to have been done in France. Oтнo. B.9.
Cod. membran. fol. At Trinity college
in Cambridge is a Psalter in Latin and
Saxon, admirably written, and illumi-
nated with letters in gold, silver, mini-
ated, &c. It is full of a variety of histo-
rical pictures. At the end is the figure
of the writer Eadwin, supposed to be a
monk of Canterbury, holding a pen of
metal, undoubtedly used in such sort of
writing; with an inscription importing
his name, and excellence in the calligra
phic art. It appears to be performed
about the reign of King Stephen. Cod.
membr. fol. post Class. a dextr. Ser.
Med. 5. [among the Single Codices.]
Eadwin was a famous and frequent
writer of books for the library of Christ-
church at Canterbury, as appears by a
catalogue of their books taken A.D.1315.
In Bibl. Cott. GALB. E 4.
The eight
historical pictures richly illuminated with
gold, of the Annunciation, the Meeting of
Mary and Elizabeth, &c. in a manuscript
of the gospel, are also thought to be of
the reign of King Stephen, yet perhaps
from the same kind of artists. The Saxon
clergy were ingenious artificers in many
other respects. S. Dunstan above men-
tioned made two of the bells of Abing-
don abbey with his own hands. Monast.
Anglic. tom. i. p. 104. John of Glas-
torbury, who wrote about the year 1400,
relates, that there remained in the abbey
at Glastonbury, in his time, crosses, in-
cense-vessels, and vestments, made by
Dunstan while a monk there. cap. 161.
He adds, that Dunstan also handled
"scalpellum ut sculperet." It is said,
that he could model any image in brass,
iron, gold, or silver. Osb. Vit. S. Dun-
stan. apud Whart. ii. 94. Ervene, one
of the teachers of Wolstan bishop of
Worcester, perhaps a monk of Bury, was
famous for calligraphy, and skill in co-
lours. To invite his pupils to read, he
made use of a Psalter and Sacramen-
tary, whose capital letters he had richly
illuminated with gold. This was about
the year 980. Will. Malmesb. Vit.
Wulst. Wharton, Angl. Sacr. p. 244.
William of Malmesbury says, that Elfric,

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