The letters of Sidonius afford us
a few glimpses of the literary condition of Southern Gaul soon after the
invasion of Attila. The Bishop of Clermont gives us a delightful picture
of his house: a verandah leads from the _atrium_ to the garden by the
lake: we pass through a winter-parlour, a morning-room, and a
north-parlour protected from the heat. Every detail seems to be complete;
and yet we hear nothing of a library. The explanation seems to be that
the Bishop was a close imitator of Pliny. The villa in Auvergne is a copy
of the winter-refuge at Laurentum, where Pliny only kept 'a few cases
contrived in the wall for the books that cannot be read too often.' But
when the Bishop writes about his friends' houses we find many allusions
to their libraries. Consentius sits in a large book-room when he is
composing his verses or 'culling the flowers of his music.' When he
visited the Prefect of Gaul, Sidonius declared that he was whirled along
in a stream of delights. There were all kinds of out-door amusements and
a library filled with books. 'You would fancy yourself among a
Professor's book-cases, or in a book-shop, or amid the benches of a
lecture-room.' The Bishop considered that this library of the Villa
Prusiana was as good as anything that could be found in Rome or
Alexandria. The books were arranged according to subjects. The room had a
'ladies' side'; and here were arranged the devotional works. The
illuminated volumes, as far as can now be judged, were rather gaudy than
brilliant, as was natural in an age of decadence; but St.
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