Patronage by kings and nobles had always played an important role in the
development of monastic and cathedral libraries, but in the later Middle Ages they were
also important as book collectors themselves. Notable French royal and noble
bibliophiles were John II the Good, Charles V, John, duke of Berry, and Philip the Bold
and Philip the Good, dukes of Burgundy. John II purchased or commissioned manuscript
books of religious and secular varieties; he commissioned a translation of the Bible into
French and a translation of Livy into French by Pierre Bersuire. His son Charles V took
great interest in the royal library and had it installed in a tower of the Louvre. Charles
enlarged his collection by purchase, commission, and sometimes confiscation of the
library of a defeated enemy. Surviving records give details of purchases of materials for
the making of books, binding costs, and payments to illuminators and booksellers. Like
his father, Charles had numerous Latin works translated into French for his library,
including classical literature, histories, and philosophy.
John, duke of Berry, brother of Charles V, was his equal as a bibliophile and
accumulated one of the most important medieval personal libraries. He had an extensive
collection of classical literature in Latin and in French translation, but essentially no
Greek literature. The duke commissioned numerous works, including some of the most
exquisite books of hours of the later Middle Ages. He was also part of a large gift-
exchange network among the members of the aristocracy, who presented each other with
sumptuous illuminated manuscripts.
Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, began one of the great collections of the northern
regions, purchasing many devotional texts, histories, and miscellaneous treatises from
Parisian booksellers. His descendants continued to enlarge the collection with, among
other things, a copy of the works of Christine de Pizan and translations of Boccaccio’s
De-cameron. The library of the dukes reached its zenith under Philip the Good, who
enriched the collection through inheritance, exchanges of gifts, commissions, and
purchases. The additions ranged over classical literature, vernacular translations, religious
texts, and even books on the Near East.
One cannot close a discussion of medieval libraries without noting developments that
greatly facilitated the availability and the ready use of books. The pecia copying system
for “farming out” the copying of manuscripts by parts greatly speeded up the production
of manuscripts for the use of scholars at the University of Paris and elsewhere. This
innovation had consequences primarily in the realm of availability, supply, and price.
However, another innovation, the development of indices, concordances, and other
“finding tools” for the Bible and the works of major authors, facilitated the task of
locating passages and “authoritative” citations. What had in the past required feats of
memory or the possession of florilegia with extracts from the church fathers could now
be accomplished by consulting a subject index or a concordance keyed by a standard
system of reference marks to pages in a text. Comparing the Quattuor libri sententiarum
of Peter Lombard, the Sic et non of Abélard, or the Glossa ordinaria to the Bible, with
their full quotations of patristic authorities on each question or each passage of Scripture,
to the new “finding tools” of the 13th century underscores the difference that the latter
made. The Lombard and his generation sought to “digest” the past (represented by
quotations from “authoritative texts”) in textual form on the page, reconciling citations
from texts as they were presented. The university masters of the 13th century worked out
a new way to approach texts in their entirety, but with an ability to interrogate them in a
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