Book curse
Generally located in the first or last page of a volume as part of the colophon, these curses were often considered the only defense in protection of highly coveted books and manuscripts.
[1] With the introduction of the printing press, these curses instead became "bookplates [which] enabled users to declare ownership through a combination of visual, verbal, and textual resources.
"[1] The earliest known book curse can be traced to Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria from 668 to 627 BC, who had the following curse written on many or all of the tablets collected at the library at Ninevah, considered to be the earliest example of a systematically collected library:[3] I have transcribed upon tablets the noble products of the work of the scribe which none of the kings who have gone before me had learned, together with the wisdom of Nabu insofar as it existeth [in writing].
I have arranged them in classes, I have revised them and I have placed them in my palace, that I, even I, the ruler who knoweth the light of Ashur, the king of the gods, may read them.
[5] Because these tablets were made of clay, and thus easily vandalized, there were specific curses to protect against such acts, such as: "In the name of Nabu and Marduk, do not rub out the text!
At the time, these curses provided a significant social and religious penalty for those who would steal or deface books, which were all considered to be precious works before the advent of the printing press.
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.
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.
The physical labor and resources necessary in producing a single volume serves to explain why scribes were so inclined to take drastic measures to protect them.
In contrast, a scribe from the Evesham Abbey wrote a "A colophon that praises the scribe's work — and requests high-quality wine ('vini nobilis haustum') for him as a reward — ends with a curse in which the book's thief is wished a 'death from evil things: may the thief of this book die' (Morteque malorum: raptor libri moriatur)".
[8] One document curse from an Anglo-Saxon will written in AD 1046 reads:And he who shall detract from my will which I have now declared in the witness of God, may he be deprived of joy on this earth, and may the Almighty Lord who created and made all creatures exclude him from the fellowship of all saints on the Day of Judgement, and may he be delivered into the abyss of hell to Satan the devil and all his accursed companions and there suffer with God's adversaries without end and never trouble my heirs.
[21]Another document curse from a land grant in AD 934 reads: If however, which God forbid, anyone puffed up with the pride of arrogance shall try to destroy or infringe this little document of my agreement and confirmation, let him know that on the last and fearful Day of Assembly when the trumpet of the archangel is clanging the call and bodies are leaving the foul graveyards, he will burn with Judas the committer of impious treachery, and also with the miserable Jews blaspheming with sacrilegious mouth Christ on the altar of the cross in eternal confusion in the devouring flames of blazing torments in punishments without end.
