There has been a huge, wholesale devaluing of culture lately. I’m thinking particularly of the books-should-be-free-or-at-best-99¢ school of thought. And, if they’re not free or virtually free, they deserve to pirated.

As we know, individual cultures create their own sense of value and what is valuable. So, I thought the below was an interesting glimpse into a different take on the value of a book:

“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 sur-cease to his Agony till he sink in Dissolution. Let Bookworms 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.”
—Curse Against Book Stealers, Monastery of San Pedro, Barcelona

Yeow! Don’t even think about it!