The lingering image of the fearsome, shushing librarian still haunts many modern psyches. However, if you have frequented a library recently, you may have noticed a more relaxed, dare I say, hip librarian who would be almost unrecognizable to her formidable predecessor. Yet behind the stereotype of the fierce, bespectacled, spinster librarain, lurks an even darker past. The medieval libraran had no qualms about threatening the life or even the immortal soul of his patron should the materials be unreturned. Book curses have been said to have been more effective against thieves than chaining manuscripts to shelving. Even though the modern librarian is a much more relaxed and open-minded specimen than her medieval counterpart, we do still share the same love for our charges, the same passion for the written word. Below I have included my all-time favorite book curse. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, 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 out for mercy, & let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails … when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever.
