for those who would steal or deface books, which were all considered to be precious works before the advent of the printing press. Writes Stephen Greenblatt, in The Swerve: How the World Became Modern: “Books were scarce and valuable. They conferred prestige on the monastery that possessed them, and the monks were not inclined to let them out of their sight. On occasion monasteries tried to secure their possession by freighting their precious manuscripts with curses.” One oft-quoted example of a book curse, purportedly from a Barcelona monastery, is actually fictional, taken from the 1909 hoax The Old Librarian's Almanack: And what Condemnation shall befit the accurst Wretch (for he cannot justly claim the title of Man) who pilfers and purloins for his own selfish ends such a precious article as a Book? I am reminded of the Warning display'd in the Library of the Popish Monastery of San Pedro at Barcelona. This is the version English'd by Sir Matthew Manhan, who saw it writ in Latin in the Monastery, as he himself describes in his learn'd Book, Travels in Spanish Countries, 1712. The Warning reads thusly: "For him that stealeth a Book from this Library, let it change to a Serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with Palsy, and all his Members blasted. Let him languish in Pain, crying aloud for Mercy and let there be no surcease to his Agony till he sink to Dissolution. Let Book-worms gnaw his Entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, and when at last he goeth to his final Punishment let the Flames of Hell consume him for ever and aye." Medieval scribes wrote most curses in the book's colophon. This was the one place in a medieval manuscript where a scribe was free to write what he wished, so book curses tend to be unique to each book. Occasionally, a clever scribe would put a curse in the form of a rhyme: Steal not this book my honest friend For fear the gallows should be your end, And when you die the Lord will say And where's the book you stole away? Marc Drogin’s book, Anathema! Medieval Scribes and the History of Book Curses, has been paramount in further understanding the concept of book curses, particularly those from the medieval ages, as he compiled the largest collection of curses thus far. According to Drogin,