A book curse was the most widely-employed and effective method of discouraging the thievery of manuscripts during the medieval period. Many of these curses vowed that harsh repercussions, often to do with religion, would be inflicted on anyone who appropriated the work from its proper owner. One example from a book in the monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona reads as follows: A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Look up Curse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A curse is the effective action of supernatural (or psychological) cause in an individual, group, or objects existence, distinguished solely by the quality of adversity that it brings, else it would be considered a charm or a blessing. ...

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.

Most curses were scribed in the script's colophon.

References

• Basbanes, Nicholas A. (1995). A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, Owl Books, 35. ISBN 0805061762.
• Ploughing the Parchment: European Manuscripts from the Middle Ages, 500-1500. URL accessed 2 March 2006.
• Anderson, Sandra (2003). "The Medieval Book Curse." URL accessed 2 March 2006.