' Alcuin presented to the Emperor's own collection a revised
copy of the Vulgate illuminated under his personal supervision.
Towards the end of Alcuin's career he retired to the Abbey of St. Martin
at Tours, and there founded his 'Museum,' which was in fact a large
establishment for the editing and transcription of books. Here he wrote
those delightful letters from which we have already made an extract. To
his friend Arno at Salzburg he writes about a little treatise on
orthography, which he would have liked to have recited in person. 'Oh
that I could turn the sentences into speech, and embrace my brother with
a warmth that cannot be sent in a book; but since I cannot come myself I
send my rough letters, that they may speak for me instead of the words of
my mouth.' To the Emperor he sent a description of his life at Tours: 'In
the house of St. Martin I deal out the honey of the Scriptures, and some
I excite with the ancient wine of wisdom, and others I fill full with the
fruits of grammatical learning.'
Very few book-lovers could be found in England while the country was
being ravaged by the Danes. The Northern Abbeys were burned, and their
libraries destroyed. The books at York perished, though the Minster was
saved; the same fate befell the valuable collections at Croyland and
Peterborough. The royal library at Stockholm contains the interesting
'Golden Gospels,' decorated in the same style as the _Book of
Lindisfarne_, and perhaps written at the same place.
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