A curse against book stealers

Slightly Foxed is a beautifully produced little magazine and this month's edition reproduces a notice seen pinned up in the college library at Peterhouse, Cambridge.

The Curse Against Book Stealers allegedly comes from the Monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona.  If I have loaded the picture correctly, it should enlarge if you click on it.  If I've messed up (entirely possible) then the curse reads as follows:

"For him that stealeth a Book from this Library, let it change into 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 Bookworms gnaw his Entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, and when at last he goes to his final Punishment let the flames of Hell consume him forever and aye."

I'm sure we all agree that hanging's too good for a book stealer and that having their entrails gnawed by bookworms is a far better punishment. 

Comments

[patricia]

Must.Have.That.Curse.

And isn't Slightly Foxed pure delight? Such a treasure!

[Gillian Polack]

Thank you for posting the curse - I hope you don't mind that I have linked to it and your blog in my blog.

[iliana]

I wish I could get my hands on that magazine. Sadly I've never seen it in the States. Anyway, that curse is brilliant!

[Aria]

Am I the only one who can't enlarge it - clicking on it just takes me directly to the magazine's website...

(another American reader who would probably go buy the magazine just for that if she could - unfortunately theres not even a really DECENT bookstore near me - much less one that will carry too many imported magazines...

[Sandra]

Sorry, yes I seem to have messed up the link. There's obviously a blog curse against curse stealers in operation!

Slightly Foxed is lovely, although you in the States don't do so badly for magazines. In the summer I visited a good few book stores in New York and Boston and the selections were much wider than any you'd find here. But I suppose the grass is always greener!

[Aria]

Note the operative phrase "in New York and Boston" - some of us unfortunately have been flung deep into areas which are seemingly quite devoid of culture.... (When the closest Borders is an hour and a half, and the closest Barnes and Nobels is over 2 hours away... and no good used bookstores either.... thank goodness for the internet! oh and don't get me started about our very pathetic public library system...)