Christian library
A Christian library or theological library is a kind of library that has its origins in the Jewish religion whose practice and transmission depended on the keeping and duplication of sacred texts. Like Judaism, Christianity depends fundamentally on the preservation and study of a sacred text. From this it follows that the texts and the secondary literature will be collected for the use of the literate members of the religious communities and passed on to succeeding generations.
Early Christian libraries
The integral relationship between Christianity and its texts has always ensured a central place for books, for learning, and for libraries among Christians. The passing of two millennia has witnessed changes in the manner and intensity of Christian scholarship, yet it has always been the case that theological learning is inconceivable without libraries and librarians doing the work both of collecting the theological insights of the past and anticipating future theological and religious trends.The establishment of the Christian canon has classically been a subject of central interest to the Christian religion. It also has a direct bearing on the origins of Christian libraries. As preliminary consensus in the formation of a canon was arrived at, early Christian communities would typically entrust to a member of the community the task of providing care and security for those documents that authentically represented the identity and cohesion of each community in this upstart religion.
The impulse to keep valued texts and documents safe but accessible shaped the patterns of early collections, and the first recorded mention of early Christian library activity comes down to us from a context of hostility. Under the Emperor Diocletian, a series of edicts against the Christians included orders that Christian books be seized and destroyed. From this it can reasonably be inferred that it was typical for a local Christian assembly to possess a collection of texts of one kind or another, and that the authorities considered the destruction of such materials to be an essential part of suppressing the Christian faith.
The library at Jerusalem
Bishop Alexander of Jerusalem established a library during his tenure : this is known from the records of an actual "reader", Eusebius of Caesarea, who mentions some of the works he found there. Possibly Alexander's library had as its model the notable Classical collection of Alexandria: it may be that while still in the Egyptian city, Origen encouraged his student Alexander to initiate a center for study in Jerusalem.The library at Caesarea
Origen influenced the establishment of the early Christian library of greatest renown, that at Caesarea, based on his own private collection. The great Jerome was later associated with this library, although a lot of the specific library work appears to have been the task of Pamphilus who, according to Jerome, "searched throughout the world for examples that were true and eternal monuments of gifted writers." Through these efforts, the library grew to include thousands of volumes, a staggering accomplishment when one considers the labor involved in copying by hand. The breadth and quality of this collection is attested by the range of sources cited by Eusebius, who relied on this library in research for his works. Primary collections included all the works of Origen, as well as contemporaries such as Clement of Alexandria, Apollinaris, Justin, Irenaeus, and virtually all the important ecclesiastical writers of the period. Since the library performed the critical functions of copying, revising and gathering texts into usable selections, scriptural texts were present in abundance.Preservation issues also presented themselves: we have record of there having been projects to "convert" the library from papyrus to parchment. Caesarea's was, in almost every modern sense, principally a research rather than a congregational or liturgical library. In this setting ambitious critical works were housed, and ever more ambitious and critical works were written, and it would be some time before any Christian library again rose to the standard set in Caesarea.
The library at Alexandria
Of a specifically Christian library in Alexandria less is known. Given the prominence of the city within the Greek world of letters, it is quite possible that authoritative teaching figures such as Pantaenus and Clement put their personal libraries at the disposal of students, and that over time a Christian library took shape.The early library of the Bishop of Rome
It was not until the 4th and 5th centuries, when political conditions permitted, that "episcopal" libraries took shape in Rome, situated in the Lateran Palace. Here were housed not only theological works, but, in keeping with the administrative function, archives as well.The library at Hippo Regius
Of all the Christian libraries in the West in the first six centuries, most is known most about the library at Hippo, home of Augustine. No distinction is made in the contemporary accounts between his personal library and that of the church, so it is probable that the two were housed together The librarian recorded over a thousand items under Augustine's personal authorship, and the collection is certain to have included scriptural books, the works of other Latin and Greek Christian writers, and a rich selection of "secular" works. The collection was fully catalogued but along with the rest of the collection this index is lost.Further improvements
When it was safe to do so, Christianity made the most of the accomplishments of Roman civilization with respect to books and libraries: if the possession of a well-stocked library was considered an enviable adornment to a Roman house, it is probable that a similar element of prestige was conferred on those Christian gathering places which possessed the premier collections of letters and texts. Jerome, for example, was able to assume that wherever there was a congregation, books would be found. In the course of things, those churches that became regional administrative centers tended to develop the best collections.The Near East
Of early Christian libraries in the East, far less is known. The Imperial Library of Constantinople encompassed at its peak over 100,000 items but in no sense was it primarily a theological library.Libraries in the monastic setting
The earliest examples come from Egypt. Monasteries under the direction of Pachomius and Shenouda required that members learn to read, and it was further expected that they would borrow and study texts from the community's collection. Collections were composed of biblical texts, lectionaries, church canons, hagiography/biography, etc.In Eastern Christendom, monastic libraries developed on a similar pattern. "Catalogs" were simply inventories of items held by the community. On those rare occasions when a community's benefactor would donate their personal collection, the tendency was not to dispose of questionable or even heretical works: given the short supply of texts, almost any item would be considered a "rare book". The common practice in monastic life was for the abbot to be charged with the responsibility for securing and caring for the collection.
Cassiodorus, a monk from southern Italy, left a compendious work of bibliography, the Institituiones divinarum et saecularum litterarum, which surveys first Christian and then secular texts, providing notes and commentary along the way. An earlier attempt at Rome to establish a theological school had been frustrated, and so on his family's estate at Calabria he established the "Vivarium", as a setting in which "to incorporate systematic theological study into monastic life." With this in view he assembled a large library of both Christian and Classical texts and designed a curriculum of study. He undertook his monastic and bibliographic work only after a long and well-rewarded career in the service of the Goths, and hence the work we remember him for can be seen as aspiring "to combat the growing chaos of the world". We learn from the Institutiones how he had these sub-collections housed, what they included, together with how they were obtained.
The Later Middle Ages
Cassiodorus may have been aware of the inception of the library at Monte Cassino under the influence of St. Benedict In any event, with the Imperial City increasingly under attack, the locus of library activity shifted increasingly to the rural monastic houses. Benedict supported and energized the place of the library in the community by delegating one or two senior brothers to walk on "patrol" at a set hour, to ensure that no one is engaged in idle chatter, rather than being diligent in his reading.During the succeeding centuries, such libraries played an increasingly strategic role in defending the tradition of learning from decay, pillage, and even disappearance. By the standards of the later Middle Ages, a monastery collection numbering more than a thousand would have been considered very large. Quality and utility rather than mass were most to be desired. Catalogs varied in complexity and in volume, and "chained books" were common enough to indicate that security was a lively concern.
Typically a large, pillared hall would serve as a reading room, with built-in cupboards to store the books. Carrels for study were often set around the perimeter to utilize available light. An additional floor might house a scriptorium.
The same period saw the flowering of monastic libraries in Britain. Once the Roman occupation ended in the mid-Fifth century, Columba founded the meditation and copying center at Iona off the coast of Scotland. A century later witnessed the arrival of Augustine of Canterbury, sent to England by Gregory the Great, and this set in motion the establishment of greater conformity to the will of Rome on the part of the English church. A side-effect of this harmony was a marked increase in monastic library development in England, and a key figure in this maturing was Benedict Biscop of Wearmouth on the North Sea Coast. In the tradition of Pamphilius and Cassiodorus, Biscop traveled far to get the works he required: "he sought where they were best to be found among the desolate remains of ancient civilization in Italy." Most importantly, what he retrieved from the Continent contained everything that was necessary for understanding the main outlines of the Christian learning of the ancient world. These books supported the scholarship of , "the greatest example of Benedictine scholarship and of the use to which a Benedictine library can be put."
The rise of universities and their libraries was energized greatly by bequests: Bp. Robert Grosseteste to Oxford, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester to Cambridge, Robert de Sorbon to the University of Paris, etc. The emerging university libraries, small though they may have been at first, rapidly assumed a different function than the monastic libraries. Research activity, rather than copying and preservation, predominated. The advent of new technology - the printing press - in the late 14th century helped take this distinction still further.
In France, prior to 1200 all of the major theological schools had all grown up in the environs of cathedrals: St. Victor, Ste. Genevieve, Notre Dame. This association of the cathedral and academy proved to have a decisive influence in determining both where and how theological research and education were to be carried out for centuries to come.
By 1500 there were between 75 and 85 universities in Western Europe. Most began without formal libraries, but over the course of time the user of private tutors' collections in faculties of theology and elsewhere gave way to more methodical and sustainable collection schemes.