Over the Threshold of My Library
Quoted from the supplement of Dibdin’s
Henry Drury. ‘Bibliomania,’ where the original
Latin lines may be found.
From mouldering Abbey’s dark Scriptorium brought,
See vellum tomes by Monkish labor wrought;
Nor yet the comma born, Papyri see,
And uncial letters’ wizard grammary:
View my fifteeners in their ragged line;
What ink! What linen! Only known long syne—
Entering where Aldus might have fixed his throne,
Or Harry Stephens coveted his own.