finger together would describe an Antiphonary, or making the sign of the Cross and kissing the finger would indicate a Gradual, yet some additions to the signs for a pagan book and a tract were necessary to signify what particular tract or book was wanted. But probably if this rule was observed at all--and we do not think it likely--the signs were used only for church books, and most often in church. In nearly every monastery the rule of silence was made. In the Brigittine house of Syon “silence after some convenience is to be kepte in the lybrary, whyls any suster is there alone in recordyng of her redynge.”[200] But it was at all times difficult to enforce, as the monks, in experience and habits, were but children.
For notes, exercises, brief letters, bills, first drafts, daily services of the church, the names of officiating brethren,--for all temporary purposes waxed tablets were used. They were in common use from classic times: some Greek and many Latin tablets are still preserved;[201] they were much used in ancient Ireland, as we have seen; and they continued to be of service until the late Middle Ages. Anselm habitually wrote his first drafts upon them. At St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, the monks were supplied with tablets, for a novice’s outfit included, after profession, a stylus, tablets, and a knife.[202] The writing was scratched on the wax with a stylus, a sharp instrument of bone or metal. The other end of it was usually flattened for pressing out an incorrect letter; among the Romans the term “vetere stylum” became common in the sense of correcting a work.
[Illustration: TABLET CASE AND WAXED TABLET]
For all permanent purposes “bōc-fel,” or book-skin, was used; either vellum or “parchëmyn smothe, whyte and scribable.” Vellum and parchment were interchangeable terms in medieval times; but parchment was commonly used. In early monastic days it was prepared by the monks themselves, being rubbed smooth with pumice-stone; later it was bought from manufacturers ready-made. It was not so expensive as vellum: the average price being two shillings per dozen skins as compared with eight shillings per dozen skins of vellum. For a Bible presented to Bury St. Edmunds Abbey, finest Irish (or Scottish) vellum was procured (_c._ 1121-48). This special material was used for the paintings, which seem to have been pasted down on the leaves of inferior vellum. This manuscript is now in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.[203]