A book curse was the nearly all widely-employed and effectual method of hopeless the thievery of manuscripts in the medieval period. The use of book curses dates back much more, to pre-Christian times, when the wrath of gods was appealed to look after books and scrolls. During their medieval custom, many of these curses vowed that harsh repercussions would be inflicted on anybody who appropriated the work from its appropriate owner. The punishments generally included excommunication, damnation, or anathema.

Excommunication was the lightest of the curses for the reason that, in the Medieval Catholic Church, it was opposite state. Anathema was the most severe of the curses as it engaged a permanent removal from the Church and from the view of God. On the other hand, both, excommunication and anathema required the recognition of the guilty party and for the Church to take action next to that person. Damnation had the advantage of not requiring human intervention as it was a state that the Creator, not the Church, visited right away on the soul of the doer. All three types of curses were well thought-out to be effectual deterrents against the book thief.