Flanders had been the home of book-learning in very early times. The
Counts of Hainault and the Dukes of Brabant were patrons of literature
when most of the princes of Europe were absorbed in the occupations of
the chase. The Flemish monasteries preserved the literary tradition. At
Alne, near Liege, the monks had a Bible which Archdeacon Philip, the
friend of St. Bernard, had transcribed before the year 1140. We hear of
another at Louvain, about a century later in date, with initials in blue
and gold throughout, which had taken three years in copying. Deventer was
known as 'the home of Minerva' before the days of St. Thomas a Kempis.
The Forest of Soigny provided a retreat for learning in its houses of
Val-Rouge and Val-Vert and the Sept-Fontaines. The Brothers of the Common
Life had long been engaged in the production of books before they gave
themselves to the labours of the printing-press at Brussels. Thomas a
Kempis himself has described their way of living at Deventer. 'Much was I
delighted,' he said, 'with the devout conversation, the irreproachable
demeanour and humility of the brethren: I had never seen such piety and
charity: they took no concern about what passed outside, but remained at
home, employed in prayer and study, or in copying useful books.' This
work at good books, he repeated, is the opening of the fountains of life:
'Blessed are the hands of the copyists: for which of the world's writings
would be remembered, if there had been no pious hand to transcribe them?'
He himself during his stay at Deventer copied out a Bible, a Missal, and
four of St.
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