No stealing, no talking, no women – the rules you had to follow in a medieval library!
When universities began to emerge in Europe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, they soon became important centres of knowledge. Their libraries could hold hundreds of books, and many of the most valuable volumes were kept under close control — sometimes even chained to desks.
We have few details about how medieval university libraries operated, but a revealing set of rubric headings survives from the University of Angers in western France. Written in 1431, it outlines the regulations governing the library and the duties of its custodian. While it does not preserve every practical detail, it shows what mattered most: who could enter, when the library opened and closed, how books could be borrowed, and what happened to those who broke the rules.
It also makes clear that the custodian’s role carried real responsibility — including taking an oath — and that readers were expected to follow strict behaviour inside the library, with penalties for noise, overdue books, and other infractions.
1. There follow the statutes concerning the common library of the university of Angers and its custodian made in the year of the Lord 1431.
2. Of the oath to be taken by each new custodian of the library.
3. Of the general regimen and custody of the library and its books to be executed by their custodian.
4. Of the privileges which the custodian of the library shall enjoy.
5. To what persons the library shall be open and to whom not, and of its visitation and closing daily by the custodian.
6. At what hours of days on which lectures are given the library shall be closed and at what not.
7. At what hours of days on which lectures are not given and feast days and vacations the library shall be open and at what not.
8. On what feast days throughout the year the library shall be closed and not open.
9. On not drawing out chained books and volumes of the library without obtaining the permission in writing of the rector and college.
10. On visiting the library each year at the close of the university and checking up its inventory and putting it away with the keys of the reading desks in a chest.
A library depicted in a 15th-century manuscript – Musee Condé, Chantilly
11. On not whispering or making a noise or disturbance in the library and on excluding those doing this.
12. On preferring members of the teaching staff to all others and giving them the place in the library which they want.
13. On not bringing or keeping women in the library building as occasion for sin.
14. On not stealing anything from the library and to whom it is permitted to correct its books and to whom not.
15. On copying lectures and the charges therefor and conversion of them to the perpetual use of the library.
16. On charging for the books and quaternions of the library before they are loaned out and marking them with a sign manual.
17. To whom the unchained books and quaternions of the library may be loaned and to whom not, and of the method of doing this and raising the salary of the custodian.
18. On demanding a fine from those who keep books or quaternions of the library for more than thirty days.
19. Of the faculty granted the custodian of the library of selling for others and not for himself, and of his salary.
20. Of revealing in the college any infractions of these regulations by the custodian of the library.
No stealing, no talking, no women – the rules you had to follow in a medieval library!
When universities began to emerge in Europe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, they soon became important centres of knowledge. Their libraries could hold hundreds of books, and many of the most valuable volumes were kept under close control — sometimes even chained to desks.
We have few details about how medieval university libraries operated, but a revealing set of rubric headings survives from the University of Angers in western France. Written in 1431, it outlines the regulations governing the library and the duties of its custodian. While it does not preserve every practical detail, it shows what mattered most: who could enter, when the library opened and closed, how books could be borrowed, and what happened to those who broke the rules.
It also makes clear that the custodian’s role carried real responsibility — including taking an oath — and that readers were expected to follow strict behaviour inside the library, with penalties for noise, overdue books, and other infractions.
1. There follow the statutes concerning the common library of the university of Angers and its custodian made in the year of the Lord 1431.
2. Of the oath to be taken by each new custodian of the library.
3. Of the general regimen and custody of the library and its books to be executed by their custodian.
4. Of the privileges which the custodian of the library shall enjoy.
5. To what persons the library shall be open and to whom not, and of its visitation and closing daily by the custodian.
6. At what hours of days on which lectures are given the library shall be closed and at what not.
7. At what hours of days on which lectures are not given and feast days and vacations the library shall be open and at what not.
8. On what feast days throughout the year the library shall be closed and not open.
9. On not drawing out chained books and volumes of the library without obtaining the permission in writing of the rector and college.
10. On visiting the library each year at the close of the university and checking up its inventory and putting it away with the keys of the reading desks in a chest.
11. On not whispering or making a noise or disturbance in the library and on excluding those doing this.
12. On preferring members of the teaching staff to all others and giving them the place in the library which they want.
13. On not bringing or keeping women in the library building as occasion for sin.
14. On not stealing anything from the library and to whom it is permitted to correct its books and to whom not.
15. On copying lectures and the charges therefor and conversion of them to the perpetual use of the library.
16. On charging for the books and quaternions of the library before they are loaned out and marking them with a sign manual.
17. To whom the unchained books and quaternions of the library may be loaned and to whom not, and of the method of doing this and raising the salary of the custodian.
18. On demanding a fine from those who keep books or quaternions of the library for more than thirty days.
19. Of the faculty granted the custodian of the library of selling for others and not for himself, and of his salary.
20. Of revealing in the college any infractions of these regulations by the custodian of the library.
These rules were translated in University Records and Life in the Middle Ages, by Lynn Thorndike (Columbia University Press, 1944)
Top Image: Photo by Hernán Piñera / Flickr
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