Again, there is a class of thieves shamefully mutilating books,
who cut away the margins from the sides to use as material for
letters, leaving only the text, or employ the leaves from the
ends, inserted for the protection of the book, for various uses
and abuses-- a kind of sacrilege which should be prohibited by
the threat of anathema.
Again, it is part of the decency of scholars that whenever they
return from meals to their study, washing should invariably
precede reading, and that no grease-stained finger should
unfasten the clasps, or turn the leaves of a book. Nor let a
crying child admire the pictures in the capital letters, lest he
soil the parchment with wet fingers; for a child instantly
touches whatever he sees. Moreover, the laity, who look at a
book turned upside down just as if it were open in the right way,
are utterly unworthy of any communion with books. Let the clerk
take care also that the smutty scullion reeking from his stewpots
does not touch the lily leaves of books, all unwashed, but he who
walketh without blemish shall minister to the precious volumes.
And, again, the cleanliness of decent hands would be of great
benefit to books as well as scholars, if it were not that the
itch and pimples are characteristic of the clergy.
Whenever defects are noticed in books, they should be promptly
repaired, since nothing spreads more quickly than a tear and a
rent which is neglected at the time will have to be repaired
afterwards with usury.
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