_Album_ (Vol. vii., p. 235.).--The origin and the earliest notice of
this kind of friendly memorial book is to be traced to the registers of
the deceased that were formerly kept in every church and monastery. Such
a book was called the _album_, _i. e._ the blank book, in which the
names of the friends and benefactors to the church or monastery were
recorded, that they might be prayed for at their decease, and on their
anniversaries. The earliest writer belonging to this country who uses
the word is the Venerable Beda, who in his {342} preface to his prose
life of St. Cuthbert, written previous to the year 721, reminds Bishop
Eadfrith that his name was registered in the album at Lindisfarne, "in
albo vestræ sanctæ congregationis." (_Bedæ Opera Minora_, p. 47., ed.
Stevenson.) Elsewhere Beda calls this book "the annal" (_Hist. Eccles._,
lib. iv. c. 14.). At a later period it was called, both in England and
abroad, the _Liber Vitæ, or Book of Life_, a name borrowed from St. Paul
(Philippians, iv. 3.).
The earliest specimen of an English album, and perhaps the most elegant
one that this or any other country ever produced, may be seen in the
British Museum (_Cotton MSS._, Domitian VII.). It is the Album, or Book
of Life, of the monastery of Durham. Nor need we add that this album
affords a relief to the eye wearied with looking over the pages of a
modern album, and to the mind sick of the endless but monotonous
repetition of imaginary ruins, love sonnets, and moss roses.