'The Librarie-Keeper's place and office, in most countries (as most
other Places and Offices both in Churches and Universities) are
lookt upon, as Places of profit and gain, and so accordingly sought
after and valued in that regard; and not in regard of the service,
which is to bee don by them unto the Common-wealth of Israël, for
the advancement of Pietie and Learning; for the most part men look
after the maintenance, and livelihood settled upon their Places,
more then upon the end and usefulness of their emploiments; they
seek themselves and not the Publick therein, and so they
subordinate all the advantages of their places, to purchase mainly
two things thereby viz. an easie subsistence; and som credit in
comparison of others; nor is the last much regarded, if the first
may bee had; except it bee in cases of strife and debate, wherein
men are over-heated: for then indeed som will stand upon the point
of Honor, to the hazard of their temporal profits; but to speak in
particular of Librarie-Keepers, in most Universities that I know;
nay indeed in all, their places are but Mercenarie, and their
emploiment of little or no use further, then to look to the books
committed to their custodie, that they may not bee lost or
embezeled by those that use them, and this is all. I have been
informed that in Oxford (where the most famous Librarie now extant
amongst the Protestant Christians is kept), the settled maintenance
of the Librarie-Keeper is not above fiftie or sixtie pound _per
annum_; but that it is accidentally, _viis et modis_ sometimes
worth an hundred pound: what the accidents are, and the waies by
which they com, I have not been curious to search after; but I have
thought, that if the proper emploiments of Librarie-Keepers were
taken into consideration as they are, or may bee made useful to the
advancement of Learning; and were ordered and mainteined
proportionally to the ends, which ought to bee intended thereby;
they would bee of exceeding great use to all sorts of Scholars, and
have an universal influence upon all the parts of Learning, to
produce and propagate the same unto perfection. For if
Librarie-Keepers did understand themselves in the nature of their
work, and would make themselves, as they ought to bee, useful in
their places in a publick waie; they ought to becom Agents for the
advancement of universal Learning: and to this effect I could wish,
that their places might not bee made, as eueriewhere they are,
Mercenarie, but rather Honorarie; and that with the competent
allowance of two hundred pounds a year, som emploiments should bee
put upon them further then a bare keeping of the books. It is true
that a fair Librarie, is not onely an ornament and credit to the
place where it is; but an useful commoditie by itself to the
publick; yet in effect it is no more then a dead Bodie as now it is
constituted, in comparison of what it might bee, if it were
animated with a publick spirit to keep and use it, and ordered as
it might bee for public service. For if such an allowance were
settled upon the emploiment as might maintain a man of parts and
generous thoughts, then a condition might bee annexed to the
bestowing of the Place; that none should be called thereunto but
such as had approved themselves zealous and profitable in som
publick waies of Learning to advance the same, or that should bee
bound to certain tasks to bee prosecuted towards that end, whereof
a List might bee made, and the waie to trie their abilities in
prosecuting the same should be described, least in after times,
unprofitable men creep into the place, to frustrate the publick of
the benefit intended by the Doners towards posteritie. The proper
charge then of the Honorarie Librarie-Keeper in an Universitie
should bee thought upon, and the end of that Imploiment, in my
conception, is to keep the publick stock of Learning, which is in
Books and Manuscripts, to increas it, and to propose it to others
in the waie which may bee most useful unto all; his work then is to
bee a Factor and Trader for helps to Learning, and a Treasurer to
keep them, and a dispenser to applie them to use, or to see them
well used, or at least not abused; and to do all this, first a
_Catalogue_, of the Treasurie committed unto his charge is to bee
made, that is all the Books and Manuscripts, according to the
Titles whereunto they belong, are to bee ranked in an order most
easie and obvious to bee found, which I think is that of Sciences
and Languages; when first all the Books are divided into their
_subjectam materiam_ whereof they Treat, and then everie kinde of
matter subdivided into their several Languages; and as the
Catalogue should bee so made, that it may alwaies bee augmented as
the stock doth increas; so the place in the Librarie must bee left
open for the increas of the number of Books in their proper Seats,
and in the Printed Catalogue, a Reference is to bee made to the
place where the Books are to bee found in their Shelvs or
repository. When the stock is thus known and fitted to bee exposed
to the view of the Learned World, then the waie of Trading with it,
both at home and abroad, is to bee laid to heart both for the
increas of the stock, and for the improvement of it to use. For the
increas of the stock both at home and abroad, correspondencie
should bee held with those that are eminent in everie Science, to
Trade with them for their profit, that what they want and wee have,
they may receiv upon condition, that what they have and wee want,
they should impart in that facultie wherein their eminence doth
lie; as for such as are at home eminent in anie kinde, becaus they
may com by Native right to have use of the Librarie-Treasure, they
are to be Traded withal in another waie, viz. that the things which
are gained from abroad, which as yet are not made common, and put
to publick use should bee promised and imparted to them for the
increas of their private stock of knowledge, to the end that what
they have peculiar, may also bee given in for a requital, so that
the particularities of gifts at home and abroad, are to meet as in
a Center in the hand of the Librarie-Keeper, and hee is to Trade
with the one by the other, to caus them to multiplie the publick
stock, whereof hee is a Treasurer and Factor.
'Thus hee should Trade with those that are at home and abroad out
of the Universitie, and with those that are within the Universitie,
hee should have acquaintance to know all that are of anie parts,
and how their view of Learning doth lie, to supplie helps unto them
in their faculties from without and from within the Nation, to put
them upon the keeping of correspondencie with men of their own
strain, for the beating out of matters not yet elaborated in
Sciences; so that they may bee as his Assistants and subordinate
Factors in his Trade and in their own for gaining of knowledg: Now
because in all publick Agencies, it is fit that som inspection
should bee had over those that are intrusted therewith, therefore
in this Factorie and Trade for the increas of Learning, som tie
should bee upon those Librarie-Keepers to oblige them to
carefulness.
'I would then upon this account have an Order made that once in the
year the Librarie-Keeper should bee bound to give an Account of his
Trading, and of his Profit in his Trade (as in all humane Trades
Factors ought, and use to do to their principals at least once a
year), and to this effect I would have it ordered, that the chief
Doctors of each facultie of the Universitie should meet at a
Convenient time in a week of the year to receive the Accounts of
his Trading, that hee may shew them wherein the stock of Learning
hath been increased for that year's space; and then he is to
produce the particulars which he hath gained from abroad, and laie
them before them all, that everie one in his own facultie may
declare in the presence of others that which hee thinketh fit to
bee added to the publick stock, and made common by the Catalogue of
Additionals, which everie year within the Universities is to be
published in writing within the Librarie itself, and everie three
years (or sooner as the number of Additionals may bee great, or
later, if it bee smal) to be put in Print and made common to those
that are abroad. And at this giving up of the accounts, as the
Doctors are to declare what they think worthie to bee added to the
common stock of Learning, each in their Facultie; so I would have
them see what the Charges and Pains are whereat the Librarie Keeper
hath been, that for his encouragement the extraordinarie expences
in correspondencies and transcriptions for the publick good may
bee allowed him out of some Revenues, which should be set apart to
that effect, and disposed of according to their joint consent and
judgment in that matter. Here then hee should bee bound to shew
them the Lists of his correspondents, the Letters from them in
Answer to his, and the reckoning of his extraordinarie expence
should bee allowed him in that which hee is indebted, or hath
freely laid out to procure Rarities into the stock of Learning. And
becaus I understand that all the Book-Printers or Stationers of the
Common-wealth are bound of everie Book which is Printed to send a
Copie into the Universitie Librarie; and it is impossible for one
man to read all the Books in all Faculties, to judg of them what
worth there is in them; nor hath everie one Abilitie to judg of all
kinde of Sciences what everie Author doth handle, and how
sufficiently; therefore I would have at this time of giving
accounts the Librarie-Keeper also bound to produce the Catalogue of
all the Books sent unto the Universitie's Librarie by the
Stationers that Printed them; to the end that everie one of the
Doctors in their own Faculties should declare, whether or no they
should bee added, and where they should bee placed in the Catalogue
of Additionals; for I do not think that all Books and Treatises,
which in this age are Printed in all kindes, should bee inserted
into the Catalogue, and added to the stock of the Librarie,
discretion must be used and confusion avoided, and a cours taken to
distinguish that which is profitable from that which is useless,
and according to the verdict of that Societie, the usefulness of
Books for the publick is to bee determined; yet because there is
seldom anie Books wherein there is not somthing useful, and Books
freely given are not to bee cast away, but may bee kept; therefore
I would have a peculiar place appointed for such Books as shall bee
laid aside to keep them in, and a Catalogue of their Titles made
Alphabetically in reference to the Author's name with a note of
distinction to shew the Science to which they are to bee referred.
These thoughts com thus suddenly into my head, which in due time
may bee more fully described, if need bee, chiefly if, upon the
ground of this account, som competencie should bee found out and
allowed to maintein such charges as will bee requisite towards the
advancement of the Publick good of Learning after this manner.'
[Illustration: FROM WYNKYN DE WORDE'S 'HYCKSCORNER.']
[Illustration: FROM ANTOINE VERARD'S 'THERENCE EN FRANÇOYS.']