The
Abbey of Laubes was especially rich in biblical commentaries and other
works of criticism, which were all destroyed afterwards in a fire, except
a Vulgate of the eighth century that happened to be required for use at
the Council of Trent. Petrarch described his visit to Liege in a letter
to a friend; 'When we arrived I heard that there was a good supply of
books, so I kept all my party there until I had one oration of Cicero
transcribed by a colleague, and another in my own writing, which I
afterwards published in Italy; but in that fair city of the barbarians it
was very difficult to get any ink, and what I did procure was as yellow
as saffron.'
A few years afterwards he went from Avignon to Paris, and was astonished
at the net-work of filthy lanes in the students' quarter. It was a
paradise of books, all kept at fair prices by the University's decree;
but the traveller declared that, except in 'the world's sink' at Avignon,
he had never seen so dirty a place. At Rome he was dismayed to find that
all the books were the prey of the foreigner. The English and French
merchants were carrying away what had been spared by the Goths and
Vandals. 'Are you not ashamed,' he cried to his Roman friends, 'are you
not ashamed that your avarice should allow these strangers every day to
acquire some remnant of your ancient majesty?'
He used to pore over his manuscripts on the most incongruous occasions,
like Pliny reading his critical notes at the boar-hunt.
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