The chain was long enough for the book to be carried to a table to be read, but strong enough to keep it safe from theft. This practice of chaining books was common in Europe from the Middle Ages up to the 18th century. Even today, some chained libraries survive – there is one at Hereford Cathedral, for instance, and others at Wimborne Minster and the Royal Grammar School, Guildford.

The chain would be fitted to the front corner or front edge of the book; if the chain was fixed to the spine, when the book was removed from the shelf it would suffer too much stress and wear. Therefore the books had to be placed on the shelf back to front, as it seems to us today, with the fore edges of the pages facing the reader; thus the book could be taken off the shelf and read without turning it round, and so the chain did not get tangled. We can see books arranged thus in the illustration below of Hereford Cathedral's chained library, which you can download from this website.

Hereford Cathedral’s chained library contains some amazing books. The oldest one is the Hereford Gospels, which dates from the beginning of the 9th century, and there are many books from the 12th century, mostly theological works. At this time the cathedral probably owned only about 140 books, chained up in various places, and it was only in 1611 that the chained library was created. It was not until 1841 that the chaining of books at the cathedral was ended. In 1996 a new building was erected to house Hereford’s priceless collection.

Comments (0)