Emily Chan
One example of the curse of ex-communication goes something like this: “May the sword of Anathema slay if anyone steals this book away.”
Some curses could get a little more graphic, such as this one: “If anyone take this book away, let him die the death; let him be fried in a pan; let the falling sickness and fever size him; let him be broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen.”
The above curse was found in the Arnstein Bible at the British Library, which was written in the twelfth century in Germany.
There were also other curses directed toward those who might mishandle or compromise the integrity of a book.
Things like leafing through pages with dirty fingers, creasing pages, sneezing in the vicinity of a book, and other acts of carelessness were severely frowned upon.
One such curse reads, “Who folds a leaf downe ye divel toaste browne, who makes marke or blotte ye divel roaste hot, who stealeth thisse boke ye divel shall cooke.”
Now, you might think twice about the way you treat your books!
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