Dear Gary,

Your account of the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the
Bibliothéque municipale of Chartres during the last year of the splendid
little Acute Collective Psychotic Episode of 1939-45 corresponds, in the main,
with what little I know about it. 

Except, of course, that the original story I heard had it that it was a
Lincoln bomber of the RAF that did the (accidental) deed. 
{{%-{[< .

*Some*where I have read a brief account of the events by the late erudite
Canon Yves Delaporte (perhaps in his _Fragments des mss. de Chartres_ 
(_in the series _Paléographie musical_, XVII, 1958?).

I suppose I'd take your or Delaporte's account of the nationality of the
_diabolici machinas_ (in bishop Fulbert's apt phrase [in another 
context]) over my own wretched memory, however.

The only thing I can add is that there appear to have been very few bombs left
in the load--perhaps no more than 8 or 10--and they seem to have landed in a
more or less straight line through the upper and lower towns. (One of the last
[or first] took out half of a house of a friend of mine on the rue du faubourg
Guillaume, near the Paris road; and you can trace the track of them by
wandering around town and noting the newish buildings.)

So, the *direct hit* on the BM was quite a good shot indeed.

Yankee ingenuity at work, no doubt. (Brits could never have gotten the 
job done.)

>Chartres was an important railway junction. 

And the station was taken out, though it would appear, from the age of 
the buildings near-by, that the damage was relatively limited in the 
area.

>It also possessed an enemy airfield. 

Near the village of Champhol (11th c. _Campus fauni_ =? field of the dancing
deer?), across the valley, on the plain directly East of the cathedral;
visible from the Bishop's garden off the apse.

The 11th-early 12th c. village church (belonging to the abbey of St. Peter)
was hit, but was repaired and is worth a visit (nearly always locked, of
course).

Still used as a small field, especially for the gliders that one sees (or
*used* to see, in the Old Days) in summer. 

>Years ago I heard rumours that the local German commander could not bear to
allow the famous Chartres manuscripts to be taken away and hidden in a secure
location out of town; so they were brought back. 

Don't know this bit.

Possible, certainly.

Damned Comedy of Errors, all round, for sure.

As you may know, no doubt with the Reims experience during the ACPE of 14-18
in mind, the cathedral windows were removed (!!) and stored somewhere
(*wonderful* photographs of the interior taken with the windows out--cf.
Focillon's _Art of the West_, vol. 2).

There was also a munitions plant west of the city center, I believe, and if it
had gone up, the blast would probably have taken out the stunning West
Windows, at the least.

>a magnificent collection of some 1, 873 manuscripts remained housed in the
library, 600 of which were parchment texts dating from the eighth to the
fifteenth centuries. Several of these medieval manuscripts were extremely
precious; almost half were embellished with decorations or contained
miniatures. 

Thought it was 800, but I won't quibble. Quite a few, anyway.

Do you know Yves Delaporte's annotated "catalogue" of the mss with
illuminations: "Les mss enluminés de la biblio. de Ch." in _Le Cinquantenaire
de la Soc. Archéologique d'Eure-et-Loir, 1906. [1929], II, pp. 165-362 (!!,
with a few plates) ?

Mss of particular archeological, liturgical or historical interest may also be
discussed in Jan van der Meulen's massive _Chartres: Sources and Literary
Interpretation: A Critical Bibliography_ (Boston, 1989), passim. 

>Relatively few items out of this once very rich collection survived the war, 

Sad but true, though the operative word here is "relatively": still a *rich*
collection.

(Enhanced by the addition of the important 11th-12th c. ms from St-Etienne,
with it's early 11th c. portrait of B. Fulbert in his cathedral, which was
"returned" to Chartres from that dismal town after the war.)

I didn't spend much time in the library when I worked in Chartres for several
winters during the '80's, but occasionally did look up a few things.

If you are looking for something in particular, the library copy of the 
c. 1900 printed catalogue of mss is annotated, with laconic notices: "little
damaged," "partially usable," "utterly destroyed," etc.--enough 
to break your heart, the pages bleed with them.

But, even there, I found that at least one of the mss which I asked for, once
"communicated" to me, turned 
out, happily, to be not "utterly destroyed," but rather, quite usable, after a
fashion: 

they brought it (an early 12th c. copy of the letters of St. Ivo) out in an
ancient, filthy cardboard box marked: "CARE: Dried Milk." 

Inside were little packets of folded-up newspaper (France-Soir, I 
believe, from 1947); and in *them* were the utterly lovely (though badly
crinkled) pages of the mss, with *tiny*, **tiny**, perfectly clear, script.

I couln't believe that anyone could write so small, so clearly. Turns out (I
think) that the vellum had shrunk (?) when wet from the water from the fire.

But, in the main, it was still perfectly legible.

So, if you go there and *really* need to look at something, give it a shot,
ask to actually *see* the ms and maybe you'll be lucky and the catalogue will
be wrong and your ms will not be entirely "inutilisible".

Otoh, if you can't pop over to Chartres, check VdM's bibliography: he
discusses the *actual* present condition of most of the mss he lists (he
doesn't list all, by any means).

>unless...unless... some of these MSS. were spirited away at the very 
last moment... 

Haven't heard of this hallucination having actually happened--but that don't
mean it didn't, certainly (though there were just *so many* of the little
guys, don't you see).

I have my own fantastic theory about the possibility of the opposite 
being the case for at least one ms, however.

The 12th c. (> 1152?) cathedral Ordinary, which was housed in the 
Archives du Hotel-Dieu down in Chateaudun has been missing "since at 
least 1975" (according to VdM).

I believe (on no real evidence whatever) that it is *possible* that canon
Delaporte--**for the best of all possible reasons**, I hasten to add (Cd 
was virtually destroyed in 1870)--*may* have brought it to Chartres for
safekeeping in the Bm there. (Comedy of Errors, remember.)

In any event, Delaporte's own ms copy of the _Veridicus_ and a few photos he
made (and published, I believe, in his ed. of the 13th c. Ordinary), are all
we have of this precious ms.

>Or is this just a medievalist's fantasy?

Well, as I'm sure you are aware, it is a strict rule that only 
certifiable Benedictines are allowed to have "fantasies" (usually about
non-existant villages named after fictive saints) on this list; so, 
you're on your own there.

Just remember: Mummy may be watching.

Hope these ramblings are of some use to someone.

(I was going to put "sorry for the length" in my signature, but it's already
too long.)

Best to all from here,

Christopher

Christopher Crockett

Would-be future curator of the 
Centre des Etudes Chartraines 
a home on the Web for Chartres-
related scholarship from all disciplines, 
comming sometime in the next millenium
to a web site near you.

And Pres. & CEO of
Christopher's Book Room
P.O. Box 1061
Bloomington, IN 47402
(Corporate motto: "Will sell Books for Food")

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