One of the most important of these services was with
regard to the making of books, such as we have before described. It was
in these monasteries, or houses of monks, that nearly all the books of
those times were written or transcribed, and a number of the monks were
always employed, if not in writing books, at all events in making copies
of those which had been written before. A room called the Scriptorium,
or writing-room, was to be found in every monastery, and most of the
monks could either write or read, and were looked upon in consequence as
very learned and wise. This made the visits of little Hans to his uncle
very pleasant. There was nothing he thought so great a treat as to have
something read to him out of one of Father Gottlieb's books, for he
possessed two of these precious volumes. One was a copy of the book of
Genesis, the first book in the Bible, you know, and the other was a
history of the lives of some of the holy men that have been called
saints by the Catholics. Seated on a low stool at his uncle's knee, Hans
could have listened for hours to stories of the patriarchs Abraham, and
Jacob, and Joseph, which Father Gottlieb slowly read from the pale
written volume; but the duties of the convent allowed him only short
portions of time, in which, shut up in his own little room or cell, he
could entertain his dearly loved nephew; and often when both were so
engaged he had to jump up at the sound of a bell calling him to prayers,
and then, hastily locking up the precious volume, he would kindly stroke
the boy's curly head, and with a message to his mother, bid him
farewell.
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