LIBERTY TREE AND LIBERTY HALL.

"Lafayette said, when in Boston, 'The world should never

forget the spot where once stood Liberty Tree, so famous in

your annals.' … The open space at the four corners of

Washington, Essex, and Boylston streets was once known as

Hanover Square, from the royal house of Hanover, and sometimes

as the Elm Neighborhood, from the magnificent elms with which

it was environed. It was one of the finest of these that

obtained the name of Liberty Tree, from its being used on the

first occasion of resistance to the obnoxious Stamp Act. …

At daybreak on the 14th August, 1765, nearly ten years before

active hostilities broke out, an effigy of Mr. Oliver, the

Stamp officer, and a boot, with the Devil peeping out of

it,—an allusion to Lord Bute,—was discovered hanging from

Liberty Tree. The images remained hanging all day, and were

visited by great numbers of people, both from the town and the

neighboring country. Business was almost suspended.

Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson ordered the sheriff to take the

figures down, but he was obliged to admit that he dared not do

so. As the day closed in the effigies were taken down, placed

upon a bier, and, followed by several thousand people of every

class and condition," were borne through the city and then

burned, after which much riotous conduct on the part of the

crowd occurred. In 1766, when the repeal of the Stamp Act took

place, a large copper plate was fastened to the tree,

inscribed in golden characters:—'This tree was planted in the

year 1646, and pruned by order of the Sons of Liberty,

February 14th, 1766.' … The ground immediately about Liberty

Tree was popularly known as Liberty Hall. In August, 1767, a

flagstaff had been erected, which went through and extended

above its highest branches. A flag hoisted upon this staff was

the signal for the assembling of the Sons of Liberty. … In

August, 1775, the name of Liberty having become offensive to

the Tories and their British allies, the tree was cut down by

a party led by one Job Williams."

_S. A. Drake,

Old Landmarks of Boston,

chapter 14._

LIBERUM VETO, The.

See POLAND: A. D. 1578-1652.

LIBRA, The Roman.

The ancient Roman unit of weight was the libra, or pondus,

from which the modern names of the livre and pound are

derived. Its weight was equal to 5,015 Troy gr. or 325 grams,

and it was identical with the Greek-Asiatic mina."

_H. W. Chisholm,

Science of Weighing and Measuring,

chapter 2._

See, also, AS.

----------LIBRARIES: Start--------

LIBRARIES:

Ancient, Babylonia and Assyria.

"The Babylonians were … essentially a reading and writing

people. … Books were numerous and students were many. The

books were for the most part written upon clay [tablets] with

a wooden reed or metal stylus, for clay was cheap and

plentiful, and easily impressed with the wedge-shaped lines of

which the characters were composed. But besides clay, papyrus

and possibly also parchment were employed as writing

materials; at all events the papyrus is referred to in the

texts."

_A. H. Sayce,

Social Life among the Assyrians and Babylonians,

page 30._

"We must speak of the manner in which the tablet was formed.

Fine clay was selected, kneaded, and moulded into the shape of

the required tablet. One side was flat, and the other rounded.

The writing was then inscribed on both sides, holes were

pricked in the clay, and then it was baked. The holes allowed

the steam which was generated during the process of baking to

escape. It is thought that the clay used in some of the

tablets was not only well kneaded, but ground in some kind of

mill, for the texture of the clay is as fine as some of our

best modern pottery. The wedges appear to have been impressed

by a square headed instrument."

_E. A. W. Budge,

Babylonian Life and History,

p. 105._

{2001}

Assurbanipal, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks, was the greatest

and most celebrated of Assyrian monarchs. He was the principal

patron of Assyrian literature, and the greater part of the

grand library at Nineveh was written during his reign."

_G. Smith,

Assyrian Discoveries,

chapter 18._

"Assurbanipal is fond of old books, particularly of the old

sacred works. He collects the scattered specimens from the

chief cities of his empire, and even employs scribes in

Chaldea, Ourouk, Barsippa, and Babylon to copy for him the

tablets deposited in the temples. His principal library is at

Nineveh, in the palace which he built for himself upon the

banks of the Tigris, and which he has just finished

decorating. It contains more than thirty thousand tablets,

methodically classified and arranged in several rooms, with

detailed catalogues for convenient reference. Many of the

works are continued from tablet to tablet and form a series,

each bearing the first words of the text as its title. The

account of the creation, which begins with the phrase:

'Formerly, that which is above was not yet called the heaven,'

was entitled: 'Formerly, that which is above, No.1;'

'Formerly, that which is above, No.2;' and so on to the end.

Assurbanipal is not less proud of his love of letters than of

his political activity, and he is anxious that posterity

should know how much he has done for literature. His name is

inscribed upon every work in his library, ancient and modern.

'The palace of Assurbanipal, king of legions, king of

multitudes, king of Assyria, to whom the god Nebo and the

goddess Tasmetu have granted attentive ears and open eyes to

discover the writings of the scribes of my kingdom, whom the

kings my predecessors, have employed. In my respect for Nebo,

the god of intelligence, I have collected these tablets; I

have had them copied, I have marked them with my name, and I

have deposited them in my palace.' The library at Dur-Sarginu,

although not so rich as the one in Nineveh, is still fairly

well supplied."

_G. Maspéro,

Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria,

chapter 16._

Collections of inscribed tablets had been made by

Tiglath-Pileser II., king of Assyria, B. C. 745, who had

copied some historical inscriptions of his predecessors.

Sargon, the founder of the dynasty to which Assur-bani-pal

belonged, B. C. 722, had increased this library by adding a

collection of astrological and similar texts, and Sennacherib,

B. C. 705, had composed copies of the Assyrian canon, short

histories, and miscellaneous inscriptions, to add to the

collection. Sennacherib also moved the library from Calah, its

original seat, to Nineveh, the capital. Esarhaddon, B. C. 681,

added numerous historical and mythological texts. All the

inscriptions of the former kings were, however, nothing

compared to those written during the reign of Assur-bani-pal.

Thousands of inscribed tablets from all places, and on every

variety of subject, were collected, and copied, and stored in

the library of the palace at Nineveh during his reign; and by

his statements they appear to have been intended for the

inspection of the people, and to spread learning among the

Assyrians. Among these tablets one class consisted of

historical texts, some the histories of the former kings of

Assyria, and others copies of royal inscriptions from various

other places. Similar to these were the copies of treaties,

despatches, and orders from the king to his generals and

ministers, a large number of which formed part of the library.

There was a large collection of letters of all sorts, from

despatches to the king on the one hand, down to private notes

on the other. Geography found a place among the sciences, and

was represented by lists of countries, towns, rivers, and

mountains, notices of the position, products, and character of

districts, &c., &c. There were tables giving accounts of the

law and legal decisions, and tablets with contracts, loans,

deeds of sale and barter, &c. There were lists of tribute and

taxes, accounts of property in the various cities, forming

some approach to a census and general account of the empire.

One large and important section of the library was devoted to

legends of various sorts, many of which were borrowed from

other countries. Among these were the legends of the hero

Izdubar, perhaps the Nimrod of the Bible. One of these legends

gives the Chaldean account of the flood, others of this

description give various fables and stories of evil spirits.

The mythological part of the library embraced lists of the

gods, their titles, attributes, temples, &c., hymns in praise

of various deities, prayers to be used by different classes of

men to different gods, and under various circumstances, as

during eclipses or calamities, on setting out for a campaign,

&c., &e. Astronomy was represented by various tablets and

works on the appearance and motions of the heavens, and the

various celestial phenomena. Astrology was closely connected

with Astronomy, and formed a numerous class of subjects and

inscriptions. An interesting division was formed by the works

on natural history; these consisted of lists of animals,

birds, reptiles, trees, grasses, stones, &c., &c., arranged in

classes, according to their character and affinities as then

understood, lists of minerals and their uses, lists of foods,

&c., &c. Mathematics and arithmetic were found, including

square and cube root, the working out of problems, &c., &c.

Much of the learning on these tablets was borrowed from the

Chaldeans and the people of Babylon, and had originally been

written in a different language and style of writing, hence it

was necessary to have translations and explanations of many of

these; and in order to make their meaning clear, grammars,

dictionaries, and lexicons were prepared, embracing the

principal features of the two languages involved, and enabling

the Assyrians to study the older inscriptions. Such are some

of the principal features of the grand Assyrian library, which

Assur-bani-pal established at Nineveh, and which probably

numbered over 10,000 clay documents."

_George Smith,

Ancient History from the Monuments: Assyria,

pages 188-191._

"It is now [1882] more than thirty years since Sir Henry

Layard, passing through one of the doorways of the partially

explored palace in the mound of Konyunjik, guarded by

sculptured fish gods, stood for the first time in the double

chambers containing a large portion of the remains of the

immense library collected by Assurbannipal, King of Nineveh.

… Since that time, with but slight intermissions, this

treasure-house of a forgotten past has been turned over again

and again, notably in the expeditions of the late Mr. George

Smith, and still the supply of its cuneiform literature is not

exhausted. Until last year [1881] this discovery remained

unique; but the perseverance of the British Museum authorities

and the patient labour of Mr. Rassam were then rewarded by the

exhumation of what is apparently the library chamber of the

temple or palace at Sippara, with all its 10,000 tablets,

resting undisturbed, arranged in their position on the

shelves, just as placed in order by the librarian twenty-five

centuries ago. …

{2002}

From what Berosus tells us with regard to Sippara, or

Pantibiblon (the town of books), the very city, one of whose

libraries has just been brought to light, … it may be

inferred that this was certainly one of the first towns that

collected a library. … It is possible that the mound at

Mugheir enshrines the oldest library of all, for here are the

remains of the city of Ur (probably the Biblical Ur of the

Chaldees). From this spot came the earliest known royal brick

inscription, as follows:—'Urukh, King of Ur, who Bit Nanur

built.' Although there are several texts from Mugheir, such as

that of Dungi, son of Urukh, yet, unless by means of copies

made for later libraries in Assyria, we cannot be said to know

much of its library. Strange to say, however, the British

Museum possesses the signet cylinder of one of the librarians

of Ur, who is the earliest known person holding such an

office. … Its inscription is given thus by

Smith:—'Emuq-sin, the powerful hero, the King of Ur, King of

the four regions; Amil Anu, the tablet-keeper, son of Gatu his

servant.' … Erech, the modern Warka, is a city at which we

know there must have been one or more libraries, for it was

from thence Assurbannipal copied the famous Isdubar series of

legends in twelve tablets, one of which contained the account

of the Deluge. Hence also came the wonderful work on magic in

more than one hundred tablets: for, as we have it, it is

nothing more than a facsimile by Assurbannipal's scribes of a

treatise which had formed part of the collection of the school

of the priests at Erech. … Larsa, now named Senkereh, was

the seat of a tablet collection that seems to have been

largely a mathematical one; for in the remains we possess of

it are tablets containing tables of squares and cube roots and

others, giving the characters for fractions. There are from

here also, however, fragments with lists of the gods, a

portion of a geographical dictionary, lists of temples, &c.

… To a library at Cutha we owe the remnants of a tablet work

containing an account of the creation and the wars of the

gods, and, among others, a very ancient terra-cotta tablet

bearing a copy of an inscription engraved in the temple of the

god Dup Lan at Cutha, by Dungi, King of Ur. The number of

tablets and cylinders found by M. de Sarzec at Zirgulla show

that there too the habit of committing so much to writing was

as rife as in other cities of whose literary character we know

more."

_The Libraries of Babylonia and Assyria

(Knowledge, November 24, 1882,

and March 2, 1883)._

"One of the most important results of Sir A. H. Layard's

explorations at Nineveh was the discovery of the ruined

library of the ancient city, now buried under the mounds of

Kouyunjik. The broken clay tablets belonging to this library

not only furnished the student with an immense mass of

literary matter, but also with direct aids towards a knowledge

of the Assyrian syllabary and language. Among the literature

represented in the library of Kouyunjik were lists of

characters, with their various phonetic and ideographic

meanings, tables of synonymes, and catalogues of the names of

plants and animals. This, however, was not all. The inventors

of the cuneiform system of writing had been a people who

preceded the Semites in the occupation of Babylonia, and who

spoke an agglutinative language utterly different from that of

their Semitic successors. These Accadians, as they are usually

termed, left behind them a considerable amount of literature,

which was highly prized by the Semitic Babylonians and

Assyrians. A large portion of the Ninevite tablets,

accordingly, consists of interlinear or parallel translations

from Accadian into Assyrian, as well as of reading books,

dictionaries, and grammars, in which the Accadian original is

placed by the side of its Assyrian equivalent."

_A. H. Sayce,

Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments,

chapter 1._

LIBRARIES:

Greece.

"Pisistratus the tyrant is said to have been the first who

supplied books of the liberal sciences at Athens for public

use. Afterwards the Athenians themselves, with great care and

pains, increased their number; but all this multitude of

books, Xerxes, when he obtained possession of Athens, and

burned the whole of the city except the citadel, seized and

carried away to Persia. But king Seleucus, who was called

Nicanor, many years afterwards, was careful that all of them

should be again carried back to Athens." "That Pisistratus was

the first who collected books, seems generally allowed by

ancient writers. … In Greece were several famous libraries.

Clearchus, who was a follower of Plato, founded a magnificent

one in Heraclea. There was one in the island of Cnidos. The

books of Athens were by Sylla removed to Rome. The public

libraries of the Romans were filled with books, not of

miscellaneous literature, but were rather political and sacred

collections, consisting of what regarded their laws and the

ceremonies of their religion."

_Aulus Gellius,

The Attic Nights,

book 6, chapter 17 (volume 2),

with foot-note by W. Beloe._

"If the libraries of the Greeks at all resembled in form and

dimensions those found at Pompeii, they were by no means

spacious; neither, in fact, was a great deal of room

necessary, as the manuscripts of the ancients stowed away much

closer than our modern books, and were sometimes kept in

circular boxes, of elegant form, with covers of turned wood.

The volumes consisted of rolls of parchment, sometimes purple

at the back, or papyrus, about twelve or fourteen inches in

breadth, and as many feet long as the subject required. The

pages formed a number of transverse compartments, commencing

at the left, and proceeding in order to the other extremity,

and the reader, holding in either hand one end of the

manuscript, unrolled and rolled it up as he read. Occasionally

these books were placed on shelves, in piles, with the ends

outwards, adorned with golden bosses, the titles of the

various treatises being written on pendant labels."

_J. A. St. John,

The Hellenes,

volume 2, page 84._

"The learned reader need not be reminded how wide is the

difference between the ancient 'volumen,' or roll, and the

'volume' of the modern book-trade, and how much smaller the

amount of literary matter which the former may represent. Any

single 'book' or 'part' of a treatise would anciently have

been called 'volumen,' and would reckon as such in the

enumeration of a collection of books. The Iliad of Homer,

which in a modern library may form but a single volume, would

have counted as twenty-four 'volumina' at Alexandria.

{2003}

We read of authors leaving behind them works reckoned, not by

volumes or tens of volumes, but by hundreds. … It will at

once be understood that … the very largest assemblage of

'volumina' assigned as the total of the greatest of the

ancient collections would fall far short, in its real literary

contents, of the second-rate, or even third-rate collections

of the present day."

_Libraries, Ancient and Modern

(Edinburgh Review,

January, 1874)._

LIBRARIES:

Alexandria.

"The first of the Ptolemies, Lagus, not only endeavoured to

render Alexandria one of the most beautiful and most

commercial of cities, he likewise wished her to become the

cradle of science and philosophy. By the advice of an Athenian

emigrant, Demetrius of Phaleros, this prince established a

society of learned and scientific men, the prototype of our

academies and modern institutions. He caused that celebrated

museum to be raised, that became an ornament to the Bruchion;

and here was deposited the noble library, 'a collection,' says

Titus Livius, 'at once a proof of the magnificence of those

kings, and of their love of science.' Philadelphos, the

successor of Lagus, finding that the library of the Bruchion

already numbered 400,000 volumes, and either thinking that the

edifice could not well make room for any more, or being

desirous, from motives of jealousy, to render his name equally

famous by the construction of a similar monument, founded a

second library in the temple of Serapis, called the Serapeum,

situated at some distance from the Bruchion, in another part

of the town. These two libraries were denominated, for a

length of time, the Mother and the Daughter. During the war

with Egypt, Cæsar, having set fire to the king's fleet, which

happened to be anchored in the great port, it communicated

with the Bruchion; the parent library was consumed, and, if

any remains were rescued from the flames, they were, in all

probability, conveyed to the Serapeum. Consequently, ever

after, there can be no question but of the latter. Euergetes

and the other Ptolemies enlarged it successively; and

Cleopatra added 200,000 manuscripts at once from the library

of King Pergamos, given her by Mark Antony. … Aulus Gellius

and Ammianus Marcellus seem to insinuate that the whole of the

Alexandrian library had been destroyed by fire in the time of

Cæsar. … But both are mistaken on this point. Ammianus, in

the rest of his narrative, evidently confounds Serapeum and

Bruchion. … Suetonius (in his life of Domitian) mentions

that this emperor sent some amanuenses to Alexandria, for the

purpose of copying a quantity of books that were wanting in

his library; consequently a library existed in Alexandria a

long while after Cæsar. Besides, we know that the Serapeum was

only destroyed A. D. 301, by the order of Theodosius.

Doubtless the library suffered considerably on this

last-mentioned occasion; but that it still partly existed is

beyond a doubt, according to the testimony of Oroses, who,

twenty-four years later, made a voyage to Alexandria, and

assures us that he 'saw, in several temples, presses full of

books,' the remains of ancient libraries. … The trustworthy

Oroses, in 415, is the last witness we have of the existence

of a library at Alexandria. The numerous Christian writers of

the fifth and sixth centuries, who have handed down to us so

many trifling facts, have not said a word upon this important

subject. We, therefore, have no certain documents upon the

fate of our library from 415 to 636, or, according to others,

640, when the Arabs took possession of Alexandria—a period of

ignorance and barbarism, of war and revolutions, and vain

disputes between a hundred different sects. Now, towards A. D.

636, or 640, the troops of the caliph, Omar, headed by his

lieutenant, Amrou, took possession of Alexandria. For more

than six centuries, nobody in Europe took the trouble of

ascertaining what had become of the library of Alexandria. At

length, in the year 1660, a learned Oxford scholar, Edward

Pococke, who had been twice to the East, and had brought back

a number of Arabian manuscripts, first introduced the Oriental

history of the physician Abulfarage to the learned world, in a

Latin translation. In it we read the following passage:—'In

those days flourished John of Alexandria, whom we have

surnamed the Grammarian, and who adopted the tenets of the

Christian Jacobites. … He lived to the time when Amrou

Ebno'l-As took Alexandria. He went to visit the conqueror; and

Amrou, who was aware of the height of learning and science

that John had attained, treated him with every distinction,

and listened eagerly, to his lectures on philosophy, which

were quite new to the Arabians. Amrou was himself a man of

intellect and discernment, and very clear-headed. He retained

the learned man about his person. John one day said to him,

"You have visited all the stores of Alexandria, and you have

put your seal on all the different things you found there. I

say nothing about those treasures which have any value for

you; but, in good sooth, you might leave us those of which you

make no use." "What then is it that you want?" interrupted

Amrou. "The books of philosophy that are to be found in the

royal treasury," answered John. "I can dispose of nothing,"

Amrou then said, "without the permission of the lord of all

true believers, Omar Ebno'l-Chattab." He therefore wrote to

Omar, informing him of John's request. He received an answer

from Omar in these words. "As to the books you mention,

either, they agree with God's holy book, and then God's book

is all-sufficient without them; or they disagree with God's

book, in which case they ought not to be preserved." And, in

consequence, Amrou Ebno'l-As caused them to be distributed

amongst the different baths of the city, to serve as fuel. In

this manner they were consumed in half-a-year.' When this

account of Abulfarage's was made known in Europe, it was at

once admitted as a fact, without the least question. … Since

Pococke, another Arab historian, likewise a physician, was

discovered, who gave pretty nearly the same account. This was

Abdollatif, who wrote towards 1200, and consequently prior to

Abulfarage. … Abdollatif does not relate any of the

circumstances accessory to the destruction of the library. But

what faith can we put in a writer who tells us that he has

actually seen what could no longer have been in existence in

his time? 'I have seen;' says he, 'the portico and the college

that Alexander the Great caused to be built, and which

contained the splendid library,' &c. Now, these buildings were

situated within the Bruchion; and since the reign of Aurelian,

who had destroyed it—that is to say, at least nine hundred

years before Abdollatif—the Bruchion was a deserted spot,

covered with ruins and rubbish.

{2004}

Abulfarage, on the other hand, places the library in the Royal

Treasury; and the anachronism is just as bad. The royal

edifices were all contained within the walls of the Bruchion;

and not one of them could then be left. … As a fact is not

necessarily incontestable because advanced as such by one or

even two historians, several persons of learning and research

have doubted the truth of this assertion. Renaudot (Hist. des

Patriarches d'Alexandrie) had already questioned its

authenticity, by observing: 'This account is rather

suspicious, as is frequently the case with the Arabians.' And,

lastly, Querci, the two Assemani, Villoison, and Gibbon,

completely declared themselves against it. Gibbon at once

expresses his astonishment that two historians, both of Egypt,

should not have said a word about so remarkable an event. The

first of these is Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, who

lived in that city 500 years after it was taken by the

Saracens, and who gives a long and detailed account, in his

Annals, both of the siege and the succeeding events; the

second is Elmacin, a most veracious writer, the author of a

History of the Saracens, and who especially relates the life

of Omar, and the taking of Alexandria, with its minutest

circumstances. Is it conceivable or to be believed that these

two historians should have been ignorant of so important a

circumstance? That two learned men who would have been deeply

interested in such a loss should have made no mention of it,

though living and writing in Alexandria—Eutychius, too, at no

distant period from the event? and that we should learn it for

the first time from a stranger who wrote, six centuries after,

on the frontiers of Media? Besides, as Gibbon observes, why

should the Caliph Omar, who was no enemy to science, have

acted, in this one instance, in direct opposition to his

character. … To these reasons may be added the remark of a

German writer, M. Reinhard, who observes that Eutychius

(Annals of Eutychius, volume ii. page 316) transcribes the

very words of the letter in which Amrou gives the Caliph Omar

an account of the taking of Alexandria after a long and

obstinate siege. 'I have carried the town by storm,' says he,

'and without any preceding offer of capitulation. I cannot

describe all the treasures it contains; suffice it to say,

that it numbers 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 40,000 taxable

Jews, 400 theatres, 12,000 gardeners who sell vegetables. Your

Mussulmans demand the privilege of pillaging the city, and

sharing the booty.' Omar, in his reply, disapproves of the

request, and expressly forbids all pillage or dilapidation. It

is plain that, in his official report, Amrou seeks to

exaggerate the value of his conquest, and to magnify its

importance, like the diplomatists of our times. He does not

overlook a single hovel, nor a Jew, nor a gardener. How then

could he have forgotten the library, he who, according to

Abulfarage, was a friend to the fine arts and philosophy? …

Elmacin in turn gives us Amrou's letter nearly in the same

terms, and not one word of the library. … We … run no

great risk in drawing the conclusion, from all these premises,

that the library of the Ptolemies no longer existed in 640 at

the taking of Alexandria by the Saracens. … If it be true,

as we have every reason to think, that in 640 … the

celebrated library no longer existed, we may inquire in what

manner it had been dispersed and destroyed since 415 when

Oroses affirms that he saw it? In the first place we must

observe that Oroses only mentions some presses which he saw in

the temples. It was not, therefore, the library of the

Ptolemies as it once existed in the Serapeum. Let us call to

mind, moreover, that ever since the first Roman emperors,

Egypt had been the theatre of incessant civil warfare, and we

shall be surprised that any traces of the library could still

exist in later times."

_Historical Researches on the pretended burning

of the Library of Alexandria by the Saracens

(Fraser's Magazine. April, 1844)._

"After summing up the evidence we have been able to collect in

regard to these libraries, we conclude that almost all the

700,000 volumes of the earlier Alexandrian libraries had been

destroyed before the capture of the city by the Arabs; that

another of considerable size, but chiefly of Christian

literature, had been collected in the 250 years just preceding

the Arab occupation; and that Abulpharaj, in a statement that

is not literally true, gives, in the main, a correct account

of the final destruction of the Alexandrian Library."

_C. W. Super,

Alexandria and its Libraries

(National Quarterly Review, December, 1875)._

ALSO IN:

_E. Edwards,

Memoirs of Libraries,

book 1, chapter 5 (volume 1)._

_E. Edwards,

Libraries and the Founders of Libraries,

chapter 1._

See, also,

EDUCATION, ANCIENT: ALEXANDRIA;

and ALEXANDRIA: B. C. 282-246.

LIBRARIES:

Pergamum.

See PERGAMUM.

LIBRARIES:

Rome.

Pliny states that C. Asinius Pollio was the first who

established a Public Library in Rome. But "Lucullus was

undoubtedly before him in this claim upon the gratitude of the

lovers of books. Plutarch tells us expressly that not only was

the Library of Lucullus remarkable for its extent and for the

beauty of the volumes which composed it, but that the use he

made of them was even more to his honour than the pains he had

taken in their acquisition. The Library, he says, 'was open to

all. The Greeks who were at Rome resorted thither, as it were

to the retreat of the Muses.' It is important to notice that,

according to Pliny, the benefaction of Asinius Pollio to the

literate among the Romans was 'ex manubiis.' This expression,

conjoined with the fact that the statue of M. Varro was placed

in the Library of Pollio, has led a recent distinguished

historian of Rome under the Empire, Mr. Merivale, to suggest,

that very probably Pollio only made additions to that Library

which, as we know from Suetonius, Julius Cæsar had directed to

be formed for public use under the care of Varro. These

exploits of Pollio, which are most likely to have yielded him

the 'spoils of war,' were of a date many years subsequent to

the commission given by Cæsar to Varro. It has been usually,

and somewhat rashly perhaps, inferred that this project, like

many other schemes that were surging in that busy brain,

remained a project only. In the absence of proof either way,

may it not be reasonably conjectured that Varro's bust was

placed in the Library called Pollio's because Varro had in

truth carried out Cæsar's plan, with the ultimate concurrence

and aid of Pollio? This Library—by whomsoever formed—was

probably in the 'atrium libertatis' on the Aventine Mount.

{2005}

From Suetonius we further learn that Augustus added porticoes

to the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Mount, with (as

appears from monumental inscriptions to those who had charge

of them) two distinct Libraries of Greek and Latin authors;

that Tiberius added to the Public Libraries the works of the

Greek poets Euphorion, Rhianus, and Parthenius,—authors whom

he especially admired and tried to imitate,—and also their

statues; that Caligula (in addition to a scheme for

suppressing Homer) had thoughts of banishing both the works

and the busts of Virgil and of Livy—characterizing the one

as a writer of no genius and of little learning, and the other

(not quite so unfortunately) as a careless and verbose

historian—from all the Libraries; and that Domitian early in

his reign restored at vast expense the Libraries in the

Capitol which had been burnt, and to this end both collected

MSS. from various countries, and sent scribes to Alexandria

expressly to copy or to correct works which were there

preserved. In addition to the Libraries mentioned by

Suetonius, we read in Plutarch of the Library dedicated by

Octavia to the memory of Marcellus; in Aulus Gellius of a

Library in the Palace of Tiberius and of another in the Temple

of Peace; and in Dion Cassius of the more famous Ulpian

Library founded by Trajan. This Library, we are told by

Vopiscus, was in his day added, by way of adornment, to the

Baths of Diocletian. Of private Libraries amongst the Romans

one of the earliest recorded is that which Emilius Paulus

found amongst the spoils of Perseus, and which he is said to

have shared between his sons. The collection of Tyrunnion,

some eighty years later (perhaps), amounted, according to a

passage in Suidas, to 30,000 volumes. That of Lucullus—which,

some will think, ought to be placed in this category—has been

mentioned already. With that—the most famous of all—which

was the delight and the pride of Cicero, every reader of his

letters has an almost personal familiarity, extending even to

the names and services of those who were employed in binding

and in placing the books. … Of the Libraries of the

long-buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum there is not a

scintilla of information extant, other than that which has

been gathered from their ruins. At one time great hopes were

entertained of important additions to classical learning from

remains, the discovery of which has so largely increased our

knowledge both of the arts and of the manners of the Romans.

But all effort in this direction has hitherto been either

fruitless or else only tantalizing, from the fragmentary

character of the results attained."

_E. Edwards,

Memoirs of Libraries,

pages 26-29._

"Most houses had a library, which, according to Vitruvius,

ought to face the east in order to admit the light of the

morning, and to prevent the books from becoming mouldy. At

Herculaneum a library with bookcases containing 1,700 scrolls

has been discovered. The grammarian Epaphroditus possessed a

library of 30,000, and Sammanicus Serenus, the tutor of the

younger Gordian, one of 62,000 books. Seneca ridicules the

fashionable folly of illiterate men who adorned their walls

with thousands of books, the titles of which were the delight

of the yawning owner. According to Publius Victor, Rome

possessed twenty-nine public libraries, the first of which was

opened by Asinius Polio in the forecourt of the Temple of

Peace; two others were founded during the reign of Augustus,

viz., the Octavian and the Palatine libraries. Tiberius,

Vespasian, Domitian, and Trajan added to their number; the

Ulpian library, founded by the last-mentioned emperor, being

the most important of all."

_E. Guhl and W. Koner,

The Life of the Greeks and Romans,

p. 531._

LIBRARIES:

Herculaneum.

"Herculaneum remained a subterranean city from the year 79 to

the year 1706. In the latter year some labourers who were

employed in digging a well came upon a statue, a circumstance

which led—not very speedily but in course of time … —to

systematic excavations. Almost half a century passed, however,

before the first roll of papyrus was discovered, near to

Portici at a depth from the surface of about 120 English feet.

In the course of a year or two, some 250 rolls—most of them

Greek—had been found. … In 1754, further and more careful

researches were made by Camillo Paderni, who succeeded in

getting together no less than 337 Greek volumes and 18 Latin

volumes. The latter were of larger dimensions than the Greek,

and in worse condition. Very naturally, great interest was

excited by these discoveries amongst scholars in all parts of

Europe. In the years 1754 and 1755 the subject was repeatedly

brought before the Royal Society by Mr. Locke and other of its

fellows, sometimes in the form of communications from Paderni

himself; at other times from the notes and observations of

travellers. In one of these papers the disinterred rolls are

described as appearing at first 'like roots of wood, all

black, and seeming to be only of one piece. One of them

falling on the ground, it broke in the middle, and many

letters were observed, by which it was first known that the

rolls were of papyrus. … They were in wooden cases, so much

burnt, … that they cannot be recovered.' … At the

beginning of the present century the attention of the British

government was, to some extent, attracted to this subject. …

Leave was at length obtained from the Neapolitan government

for a literary mission to Herculaneum, which was entrusted to

Mr. Hayter, one of the chaplains to the Prince Regent. But the

results were few and unsatisfactory. … The Commission

subsequently entrusted to Dr. Sickler of Hildburghausen was

still more unfortunate. … In 1818, a committee of the House

of Commons was appointed to inquire into the matter. It

reported that, after an expenditure of about £1,100, no useful

results had been attained. This inquiry and the experiments of

Sickler led Sir Humphrey Davy to investigate the subject, and

to undertake two successive journeys into Italy for its

thorough elucidation. His account of his researches is highly

interesting. … 'My experiments,' says Sir Humphrey Davy, …

'soon convinced me that the nature of these MSS. had been

generally misunderstood; that they had not, as is usually

supposed, been carbonized by the operation of fire, … but

were in a state analogous to peat or Bovey coal, the leaves

being generally cemented into one mass by a peculiar substance

which had formed during the fermentation and chemical change

of the vegetable matter comprising them, in a long course of

ages. The nature of this substance being known, the

destruction of it became a subject of obvious chemical

investigation; and I was fortunate enough to find means of

accomplishing this, without injuring the characters or

destroying the texture of the MSS.' These means Sir Humphrey

Davy has described very minutely in his subsequent

communications to the Royal Society.

{2006}

Briefly, they may be said to have consisted in a mixture of a

solution of glue with alcohol, enough to gelatinize it,

applied by a camel's hair brush, for the separation of the

layers. The process was sometimes assisted by the agency of

ether, and the layers were dried by the action of a stream of

air warmed gradually up to the temperature of boiling water.

'After the chemical operation, the leaves of most of the

fragments separated perfectly from each other, and the Greek

characters were in a high degree distinct. … The MSS. were

probably on shelves of wood, which were broken down when the

roofs of the houses yielded to the weight of the

superincumbent mass. Hence, many of them were crushed and

folded in a moist state, and the leaves of some pressed

together in a perpendicular direction … in confused heaps;

in these heaps the exterior MSS. … must have been acted on

by the water; and as the ancient ink was composed of finely

divided charcoal suspended in a solution of glue or gum,

wherever the water percolated continuously, the characters

were more or less erased.' … Sir Humphrey Davy proceeds to

state that, according to the information given him, the number

of MSS. and fragments of MSS. originally deposited in the

Naples Museum was 1,696; that of these 88 had then been

unrolled and found to be legible; that 319 others had been

operated upon, and more or less unrolled, but were illegible;

that 24 had been sent abroad as presents; and that of the

remaining 1,265—which he had carefully examined—the majority

were either small fragments, or MSS. so crushed and mutilated

as to offer little hope of separation; whilst only from 80 to

120 offered a probability of success (and he elsewhere

adds:—'this estimate, as my researches proceeded, appeared

much too high'). … 'Of the 88 unrolled MSS. … the great

body consists of works of Greek philosophers or sophists; nine

are of Epicurus; thirty-two bear the name of Philodemus, three

of Demetrius, one of each of these authors:—Colotes,

Polystratus, Carneades, Chrysippus; and the subjects of these

works, … and of those the authors of which are unknown, are

either Natural or Moral Philosophy, Medicine, Criticism, and

general observations on Arts, Life, and Manners.'"

_E. Edwards,

Memoirs of Libraries,

volume 1, book 1, chapter 5._

LIBRARIES:

Constantinople.

"When Constantine the Great, in the year 336, made Byzantium

the seat of his empire, he in a great measure newly built the

city, decorated it with numerous splendid edifices, and called

it after his own name. Desirous of making reparation to the

Christians, for the injuries they had sustained during the

reign of his tyrannical predecessor, this prince commanded the

most diligent search to be made after those books which had been

doomed to destruction. He caused transcripts to be made of

such books as had escaped the Diocletian persecution; to these

he added others, and with the whole formed a valuable Library

at Constantinople. On the death of Constantine, the number of

books contained in the Imperial Library was only six thousand

nine hundred; but it was successively enlarged by the

emperors, Julian and Theodosius the younger, the latter of

whom augmented it to one hundred thousand volumes. Of these,

more than half were burnt in the seventh century, by command

of the emperor Leo III., in order to destroy all the monuments

that might be quoted in proof against his opposition to the

worship of images. In this library was deposited the only

authentic copy of the Council of Nice: it has also been

asserted that the works of Homer, written in golden letters,

were consumed at the same time, together with a magnificent

copy of the Four Gospels, bound in plates of gold to the

weight of fifteen pounds, and enriched with precious stones.

The convulsions that weakened the lower empire, were by no

means favourable to the interests of literature. During the

reign of Constantine Porphyrogennetus (in the eleventh entry)

literature flourished for a short time: and he is said to have

employed many learned Greeks in collecting books for a library,

the arrangement of which he superintended himself. The final

subversion of the Eastern Empire, and the capture of

Constantinople by Mohammed II., A. D. 1453, dispersed the

literati of Greece over Western Europe: but the Imperial

Library was preserved by the express command of the conqueror,

and continued to be kept in some apartments of the Seraglio;

until Mourad (or Amurath) IV., in a fit of devotion,

sacrificed (as it is reported) all the books in this Library

to his hatred against the Christians."

_T. H. Horne,

Introduction to the Study of Bibliography,

pages 23-25._

LIBRARIES:

Tripoli.

Destruction of Library by Crusaders.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1104-1111.

LIBRARIES:

Mediæval.

Monastic Libraries.

"In every monastery there was established first a library,

then great studios, where, to increase the number of books,

skilful caligraphers transcribed manuscripts; and finally,

schools, open to all those who had need of, or desire for,

instruction. At Montierender, at Lorsch, at Corvey, at Fulda,

at St. Gall, at Reichenau, at Nonantula, at Monte Cassino, at

Wearmouth, at St. Albans, at Croyland, there were famous

libraries. At St. Michael, at Luneburg, there were two—one

for the abbot and one for the monks. In other abbeys, as at

Hirschau, the abbot himself took his place in the Scriptorium,

where many other monks were occupied in copying manuscripts.

At St. Riquier, books bought for high prices, or transcribed

with the utmost care, were regarded as the most valuable

jewels of the monastery. 'Here,' says the chronicler of the

abbey, counting up with innocent pride the volumes which it

contained—'here are the riches of the cloister, the treasures

of the celestial life, which fatten the soul by their

sweetness. This is how we fulfil the excellent precept, Love

the study of the Scriptures, and you will not love vice.' If

we were called upon to enumerate the principal centres of

learning in this century, we should be obliged to name nearly

all the great abbeys whose founders we have mentioned, for

most of them were great homes of knowledge. … The principal

and most constant occupation of the learned Benedictine nuns

was the transcription of manuscripts. It can never be known

how many services to learning and history were rendered by

their delicate hands throughout the middle ages. They brought

to the work a dexterity, an elegance, and an assiduity which

the monks themselves could not attain, and we owe to them some

of the most beautiful specimens of the marvellous caligraphy of

the period. … Nuns, therefore, were the rivals of monks in

the task of enlarging and fertilising the field of Catholic

learning.

{2007}

Every one is aware that the copying of manuscripts was one of

the habitual occupations of monks. By it they fed the

claustral libraries already spoken of, and which are the

principal source of modern knowledge. Thus we must again refer

to the first beginning of the Monastic Orders to find the

earliest traces of a custom which from that time was, as it

were, identified with the practices of religious life. In the

depths of the Thebaïde, in the primitive monasteries of

Tabenna, every house … had its library. There is express

mention made of this in the rule of St. Benedict. … In the

seventh century, St. Benedict Biscop, founder and abbot of

Wearmouth in England, undertook five sea-voyages to search for

and purchase books for his abbey, to which each time he

brought back a large cargo. In the ninth century, Loup of

Ferrières transformed his monastery of St. Josse-sur-Mer into

a kind of depot for the trade in books which was carried on

with England. About the same time, during the wars which

ravaged Lombardy, most of the literary treasures which are now

the pride of the Ambrosian library were being collected in the

abbey of Bobbio. The monastery of Pomposa, near Ravenna, had,

according to contemporaries, a finer library than those of

Rome or of any other town in the world. In the eleventh

century, the library of the abbey of Croyland numbered 3,000

volumes. The library of Novalese had 6,700, which the monks

saved at the risk of their lives when their abbey was

destroyed by the Saracens in 905. Hirschau contained an

immense number of manuscripts. But, for the number and value

of its books, Fulda eclipsed all the monasteries of Germany,

and perhaps of the whole Christian world. On the other hand,

some writers assure us that Monte Cassino, under the Abbot

Didier, the friend of Gregory VII., possessed the richest

collection which it was possible to find. The libraries thus

created by the labours of monks became, as it were, the

intellectual arsenals of princes and potentates. … There

were also collections of books in all the cathedrals, in all

the collegiate churches, and in many of the castles. Much has

been said of the excessive price of certain books during the

middle ages: Robertson and his imitators, in support of this

theory, are fond of quoting the famous collection of homilies

that Grecia Countess of Anjou bought, in 1056, for two hundred

sheep, a measure of wheat, one of millet, one of rye, several

marten-skins, and four pounds of silver. An instance like this

always produces its effect; but these writers forgot to say

that the books bought for such high prices were admirable

specimens of caligraphy, of painting, and of carving. It would

be just as reasonable to quote the exorbitant sums paid at

sales by bibliomaniacs of our days, in order to prove that

since the invention of printing, books have been excessive in

price. Moreover, the ardent fondness of the Countess Grecia

for beautiful books had been shared by other amateurs of a

much earlier date. Bede relates that Alfred, King of

Northumbria in the seventh century, gave eight hides of land

to St. Benedict Biscop in exchange for a Cosmography which

that book-loving abbot had bought at Rome. The monks loved

their books with a passion which has never been surpassed in

modern times. … It is an error to … suppose that books of

theology or piety alone filled the libraries of the monks.

Some enemies of the religious orders have, indeed, argued that

this was the case; but the proof of the contrary is evident in

all documents relating to the subject. The catalogues of the

principal monastic libraries during those centuries which

historians regard as most barbarous, are still in existence;

and these catalogues amply justify the sentence of the great

Leibnitz, when he said, 'Books and learning were preserved by

the monasteries.' It is acknowledged that if, on one hand, the

Benedictines settled in Iceland collected the Eddas and the

principal traditions of the Scandinavian mythology, on the

other all the monuments of Greece and Rome which escaped the

devastations of barbarians were saved by the monks of Italy,

France, and Germany, and by them alone. And if in some

monasteries the scarcity of parchment and the ignorance of the

superiors permitted the destruction, by copyists, of a certain

small number of precious works, how can we forget that without

these same copyists we should possess nothing—absolutely

nothing—of classic antiquity? … Alcuin enumerates among the

books in the library at York the works of Aristotle, Cicero,

Pliny, Virgil, Statius, Lucan, and of Trogus Pompeïus. In his

correspondence with Charlemagne he quotes Ovid, Horace,

Terence, and Cicero, acknowledging that in his youth he had

been more moved by the tears of Dido than by the Psalms of

David."

_Count de Montalembert,

The Monks of the West,

book 18, chapter 4 (volume 6)._

"It is in the great houses of the Benedictine Order that we

find the largest libraries, such as in England at Bury St.

Edmund's, Glastonbury, Peterborough, Heading, St. Alban's,

and, above all, that of Christ Church in Canterbury, probably

the earliest library formed in England. Among the other

English monasteries of the libraries of which we still possess

catalogues or other details, are St. Peter's at York,

described in the eighth century by Alcuin, St. Cuthbert's at

Durham, and St. Augustine's at Canterbury. At the dissolution

of the monasteries their libraries were dispersed, and the

basis of the great modern libraries is the volumes thus

scattered over England. In general, the volumes were disposed

much as now, that is to say, upright, and in large cases

affixed to a wall, often with doors. The larger volumes at

least were in many cases chained, so that they could only be

used within about six feet of their proper place; and since

the chain was always riveted on the fore-edge of one of the

sides of a book, the back of the volume had to be thrust first

into the shelf, leaving the front edge of the leaves exposed

to view. Many old volumes bear a mark in ink on this front

edge; and when this is the case, we may be sure that it was

once chained in a library; and usually a little further

investigation will disclose the mark of a rivet on one of the

sides. Regulations were carefully made to prevent the mixture

of different kinds of books, and their overcrowding or

inconvenient position; while an organized system of lending

was in vogue, by which at least once a year, and less formally

at shorter intervals, the monks could change or renew the

volumes already on loan. … Let us take an example of the

arrangement of a monastic library of no special distinction in

A. D. 1400,—that at Titchfield Abbey,—describing it in the

words of the register of the monastery itself, only

translating the Latin into English.

{2008}

'The arrangement of the library of the monastery of Tychefeld

is this:—There are in the library of Tychefeld four cases

(columnae) in which to place books, of which two, the first

and second, are on the eastern face; on the southern face is

the third, and on the northern face the fourth. And each of

them has eight shelves (gradus), marked with a letter and

number affixed on the front of each shelf, that is to say, on

the lower board of each of the aforesaid shelves; certain

letters, however, are excepted, namely A, H, K, L, M, O, P, Q,

which have no numbers affixed, because all the volumes to

which one of those letters belongs are contained in the shelf

to which that letter is assigned. [That is, the shelves with

the letters A, H, K, etc., have a complete class of books in

each, and in no case does that class overflow into a second

shelf, so there was no need of marking these shelves with

numbers as well as letters, in the way in which the rest were

marked. Thus we should find 'B 1,' 'B 2,' 'B 3,' … 'B 7,'

because B filled seven shelves; but 'A' only, because A filled

one shelf alone.] So all and singular the volumes of the said

library are fully marked on the first leaf and elsewhere on

the shelf belonging to the book, with certain numbered

letters. And in order that what is in the library may be more

quickly found, the marking of the shelves of the said library,

the inscriptions in the books, and the references in the

register, in all points agree with each other. Anno Domini

MCCCC.' … Titchfield Abbey was a Præmonstratensian house,

founded in the thirteenth century, and never specially rich or

prominent; yet we find it with a good library of sixty-eight

books in theology, thirty-nine in Canon and Civil Law,

twenty-nine in Medicine, thirty-seven in Arts, and in all

three hundred and twenty-six volumes, many containing several

treatises, so that the total number of works was considerably

over a thousand."

_F. Madan,

Books in Manuscript,

pp. 76-79._

LIBRARIES:

Renaissance.

Italy.

On the revival of learning in Italy, "scarcity of books was at

first a chief impediment to the study of antiquity. Popes and

princes and even great religious institutions possessed far

fewer books than many farmers of the present age. The library

belonging to the Cathedral Church of S. Martino at Lucca in

the ninth century contained only nineteen volumes of

abridgements from ecclesiastical commentaries. The Cathedral

of Novara in 1212 could boast copies of Boethius, Priscian,

the Code of Justinian, the Decretals, and the Etymology of

Isidorus, besides a Bible and some devotional treatises. This

slender stock passed for great riches. Each of the precious

volumes in such a collection was an epitome of mediæval art.

Its pages were composed of fine vellum adorned with pictures.

The initial letters displayed elaborate flourishes and

exquisitely illuminated groups of figures. The scribe took

pains to render his caligraphy perfect, and to ornament the

margins with crimson, gold, and blue. Then he handed the

parchment sheets to the binder, who encased them in rich

settings of velvet or carved ivory and wood, embossed with

gold and precious stones. The edges were gilt and stamped with

patterns. The clasps were of wrought silver chased with

niello. The price of such masterpieces was enormous. … Of

these MSS. the greater part were manufactured in the

cloisters, and it was here too that the martyrdom of ancient

authors took place. Lucretius and Livy gave place to

chronicles, antiphonaries, and homilies. Parchment was

extremely dear, and the scrolls which nobody could read might

be scraped and washed. Accordingly, the copyist erased the

learning of the ancients, and filled the fair blank space he

gained with litanies. At the same time it is but just to the

monks to add that palimpsests have occasionally been found in

which ecclesiastical works have yielded place to copies of the

Latin poets used in elementary education. Another obstacle to

the diffusion of learning was the incompetence of the

copyists. It is true that at the great universities

'stationarii,' who supplied the text-books in use to students,

were certified and subjected to the control of special censors

called 'Preciani.' Yet their number was not large, and when

they quitted the routine to which they were accustomed their

incapacity betrayed itself by numerous errors. Petrarch's

invective against the professional copyists shows the depth to

which the art had sunk. 'Who,' he exclaims, 'will discover a

cure for the ignorance and vile sloth of these copyists, who

spoil everything and turn it to nonsense? If Cicero, Livy, and

other illustrious ancients were to return to life, do you

think they would understand their own works? There is no check

upon these copyists, selected without examination or test of

their capacity.' … At the same time the copyists formed a

necessary and flourishing class of craftsmen. They were well

paid. … Under these circumstances it was usual for even the

most eminent scholars, like Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Poggio,

to make their own copies of MSS. Niccolo de' Niccoli

transcribed nearly the whole of the codices that formed the

nucleus of the Library of the Mark. … It is clear that the

first step toward the revival of learning implied three

things: first, the collection of MSS. wherever they could be

saved from the indolence of the monks; secondly, the formation

of libraries for their preservation; and, thirdly, the

invention of an art whereby they might be multiplied cheaply,

conveniently, and accurately. The labour involved in the

collection of classical manuscripts had to be performed by a

few enthusiastic scholars, who received no help from the

universities and their academical scribes, and who met with no

sympathy in the monasteries they were bent on ransacking. …

The monks performed at best the work of earthworms, who

unwittingly preserve fragments of Greek architecture from

corrosion by heaping mounds of mould and rubbish round them.

Meanwhile the humanists went forth with the instinct of

explorers to release the captives and awake the dead. From the

convent libraries of Italy, from the museums of

Constantinople, from the abbeys of Germany and Switzerland and

France, the slumbering spirits of the ancients had to be

evoked. … This work of discovery began with Petrarch. … It

was carried on by Boccaccio. The account given by Benvenuto da

Imola of Boccaccio's visit to Monte Cassino brings vividly

before us both the ardour of these first explorers and the

apathy of the Benedictines (who have sometimes been called the

saviours of learning) with regard to the treasures of their

own libraries. …

{2009}

'Desirous of seeing the collection of books, which he

understood to be a very choice one, he modestly asked a

monk—for he was always most courteous in manners—to open the

library, as a favour, for him. The monk answered stiffly,

pointing to a steep staircase, "Go up; it is open." Boccaccio

went up gladly; but he found that the place which held so

great a treasure was without door or key. He entered, and saw

grass sprouting on the windows, and all the books and benches

thick with dust. In his astonishment he began to open and turn

the leaves of first one tome and then another, and found many

and divers volumes of ancient and foreign works. Some of them

had lost several sheets; others were snipped and pared all

round the text, and mutilated in various ways. At length,

lamenting that the toil and study of so many illustrious men

should have passed into the hands of most abandoned wretches,

he departed with tears and sighs. Coming to the cloister, he

asked a monk whom he met, why those valuable books had been so

disgracefully mangled. He answered that the monks, seeking to

gain a few soldi, were in the habit of cutting off sheets and

making psalters, which they sold to boys. The margins too they

manufactured into charms, and sold to women.' … What Italy

contained of ancient codices soon saw the light. The visit of

Poggio Bracciolini to Constance (1414) opened up for Italian

scholars the stores that lay neglected in transalpine

monasteries. … The treasures he unearthed at Reichenau,

Weingarten, and above all S. Gallen, restored to Italy many

lost masterpieces of Latin literature, and supplied students

with full texts of authors who had hitherto been known in

mutilated copies. The account he gave of his visit to S.

Gallen in a Latin letter to a friend is justly celebrated. …

'In the middle [he says] of a well-stocked library, too large

to catalogue at present, we discovered Quintilian, safe as yet

and sound, though covered with dust and filthy with neglect

and age. The books, you must know, were not housed according

to their worth, but were lying in a most foul and obscure

dungeon at the very bottom of a tower, a place into which

condemned criminals would hardly have been thrust; and I am

firmly persuaded that if anyone would but explore those

ergastula of the barbarians wherein they incarcerate such men,

we should meet with like good fortune in the case of many

whose funeral orations have long ago been pronounced. Besides

Quintilian, we exhumed the three first books and a half of the

fourth book of the Argonautica of Flaccus, and the

Commentaries of Asconius Pedianus upon eight orations of

Cicero.' … Never was there a time in the world's history

when money was spent more freely upon the collection and

preservation of MSS., and when a more complete machinery was

put in motion for the sake of securing literary treasures."

_J. A. Symonds,

Renaissance in Italy: The Revival of Learning,

chapter 3._

LIBRARIES: Modern.

Europe: Rise and growth of the greater Libraries.

In a work entitled "Essai Statistique sur les Bibliothèques de

Vienne," published in 1835, M. Adrien Balbi entered into an

examination of the literary and numerical value of the

principal libraries of ancient and modern times. M. Balbi, in

this work, shows that "the Imperial Library of Vienna,

regularly increasing from the epoch of its formation, by means

equally honorable to the sovereign and to the nation, held,

until the French revolution, the first place among the

libraries of Europe. Since that period, several other

institutions have risen to a much higher numerical rank. …

No one of the libraries of the first class, now in existence,

dates beyond the fifteenth century. The Vatican, the origin of

which has been frequently carried back to the days of St.

Hilarius, in 465, cannot, with any propriety, be said to have

deserved the name of library before the reign of Martin the

Fifth, by whose order it was removed from Avignon to Rome in

1417. And even then, a strict attention to the force of the

term would require us to withhold from it this title, until

the period of its final organization by Nicholas the Fifth, in

1447. It is difficult to speak with certainty concerning the

libraries, whether public or private, which are supposed to

have existed previous to the fifteenth century, both on

account of the doubtful authority and indefiniteness of the

passages in which they are mentioned, and the custom which so

readily obtained, in those dark ages, of dignifying every

petty collection with the name of library. But many libraries

of the fifteenth century being still in existence, and others

having been preserved long enough to make them the subject of

historical inquiry before their dissolution, it becomes easier

to fix, with satisfactory accuracy, the date of their

foundation. We find accordingly, that, including the Vatican,

and the libraries of Vienna, Ratisbon, and the Laurentian of

Florence, which are a few years anterior to it, no less than

ten were formed between the years 1430 and 1500. The increase

of European libraries has generally been slowly progressive,

although there have been periods of sudden augmentation in

nearly all. Most of them began with a small number of

manuscripts, sometimes with a few printed volumes, and often

without any. To these, gradual accessions were made, from the

different sources, which have always been more or less at the

command of the sovereigns and nobles of Europe. In 1455, the

Vatican contained 5,000 manuscripts. … Far different was the

progress of the Royal Library of Paris. The origin of this

institution is placed in the year 1595, the date of its

removal from Fontainebleau to Paris by order of Henry the

Fourth. In 1660, it contained but 1,435 printed volumes. In

the course of the following year, this number was raised to

16,746, both printed volumes and manuscripts. During the

ensuing eight years the library was nearly doubled; and before

the close of the next century, it was supposed to have been

augmented by upwards of 100,000 volumes more."

_G. W. Greene,

Historical Studies,

pages 278-281._

"The oldest of the great libraries of printed books is

probably that of Vienna, which dates from 1440, and is said to

have been opened to the public as early as 1575. The Town

Library of Ratisbon dates from 1430; St. Mark's Library at

Venice, from 1468; the Town Library of Frankfort, from 1484;

that of Hamburg, from 1529; of Strasburg, from 1531; of

Augsburg, from 1537; those of Berne and Geneva, from 1550;

that of Basel, from 1564. The Royal Library of Copenhagen was

founded about 1550. In 1671 it possessed 10,000 volumes; in

1748, about 65,000; in 1778, 100,000; in 1820, 300,000; and it

now contains 410,000 volumes. The National Library of Paris was

founded in 1595, but was not made public until 1737. In 1640

it contained about 17,000 volumes; in 1684, 50,000; in 1775,

150,000; in 1790, 200,000."

_E. Edwards,

A Statistical View of the Principal Public Libraries in

Europe and the United States Of America,

(Journal of the Statistical Society, August., 1848)._

{2010}

LIBRARIES: Modern.

Germany.

According to "Minerva" (the "Year-book of the Learned World"),

for 1893-94, the Royal Library at Berlin contains 850,000

printed books and 24,622 manuscripts; the Münich University

Library, 370,000 books and 50,000 pamphlets, including 2,101

incunabula; the Leipsic University Library, 500,000 printed

books, and 4,000 manuscripts; Heidelberg University Library,

400,000 bound volumes (including 1,000 incunabula), and

175,000 pamphlets and "dissertationen," with a large

collection of manuscripts; Dresden Royal Public Library,

300,000 printed books (including 2,000 incunabula), 6,000

manuscripts, and 20,000 maps; Freiburg University Library,

250,000 volumes and over 500 manuscripts; Königsberg

University Library, 220,000 volumes and 1,100 manuscripts;

Tübingen University Library, 300,000 volumes and 3,500

manuscripts; Jena University Library, 200,000 volumes and

100,000 "dissertationen"; Halle University Library, 182,000

books and 800 manuscripts, besides 12,800 books, 35,000

pamphlets and 1,040 manuscripts in the Ponickausche

Bibliothek, which is united with the University Library;

Hamburg City Library, about 500,000 printed books and 5,000

manuscripts; Frankfort City Library (April, 1893), 326,139

volumes; Cologne City Library, 105,000 volumes, including

2,000 incunabula; Augsburg City and Provincial Library, about

200,000 volumes (including 1,760 incunabula) and 2,000

manuscripts; Göttingen University Library, 456,000 volumes of

books and 5,300 manuscripts; Gotha Public Library, 200,000

printed books, including 1,029 incunabula, and 7,037

manuscripts, of which 3,500 are oriental; Greifswald

University Library, 143 volumes of printed books and about 800

manuscripts; Bamberg Royal Public Library, 300,000 volumes,

3,132 manuscripts; Berlin University Library, 142,129 volumes;

Bonn University Library, 219,000 volumes, including 1,235

incunabula, and 1,273 manuscripts; Bremen City Library,

120,000 volumes; Breslau University Library, 300,000 volumes,

including about 2,500 incunabula, and about 3,000 manuscripts;

Breslau City Library, 150,000 volumes and 3,000 manuscripts;

Erlangen University Library, 180,000 volumes; Hanover Royal

Public Library, 180,000 books and 3,500 manuscripts; Hanover

City Library, 47,000 volumes; Carlsruhe Grand-ducal Library,

159,842 books and 3,754 manuscripts; Kiel University Library,

217,039 volumes, 2,375 manuscripts; Colmar City Library,

80,000 volumes; Marburg University Library, 150,000 volumes;

Strasburg University Library, 700,000 volumes; Strasburg City

Library, 90,000 volumes; Weimar Grand-ducal Library, 223,000

volumes and 2,000 manuscripts; Würzburg University Library,

300,000 volumes.

_Minerva, 1893-94._

"The Munich library, … in matter of administration,

resembles the British Museum. Here one finds carefully

catalogued that great wealth of material that appears only in

doctorate theses, and for this reason is most valuable to the

historic student. No tedious formalities are insisted upon,

and orders for books are not subjected to long delays. The

Vienna library moves slowly, as though its machinery were

retarded by the weight of its royal imperial name. The

catalogue is not accessible, the attendants are not anxious to

please, and the worker feels no special affection for the

institution. But at the royal library of Berlin there exists

an opposite state of affairs—with the catalogue at hand one

can readily give the information needful in filling up the

call card. This being a lending library, one occasionally

meets with disappointment, but, as the privilege of borrowing

is easily had, this feature can have a compensatory side. The

most marked peculiarity found here is the periodic delivery of

books. All books ordered before nine o'clock are delivered at

eleven; those before eleven, at one; those before one, at

three; and those after three are delivered the same day if

possible. This causes some delay, but as soon as the rule is

known it has no drawback for the continuous user, and for the

benefit of one who wants only a single order there is placed

at the outer door of the building a box into which one can

deposit the call card, and returning at the proper time find

the book waiting in the reading room above. This saves the

climbing of many steps, and enables one to perform other

duties between ordering and receiving. As far as I know, here

alone does one purchase the call cards, but as the price is

only twenty cents per hundred the cost is not an important

item."

_J. H. Gore,

Library Facilities for Study in Europe

(Educational Review, June, 1893)._

In Berlin, "the report of the city government for 1889-00

reckons 25 public free libraries; 334,837 books were read by

14,900 persons, i. e., 17,219 volumes less than last year. The

expenses were 26,490 marks, the allowance from the city

treasury 23,400 marks [less than $6,000]."

_The Library Journal, May, 1892._

LIBRARIES: France:

The Bibliothèque Nationale.

"The history of the vast collection of books which is now,

after many wanderings, definitely located in the Rue de

Richelieu, divides itself naturally into three periods, which,

for the sake of convenience, may well be called by three of

the names under which the Library has, at different times,

been known. The first period is that in which the Library was

nothing more than the private collection of each successive

sovereign of France, which sometimes accompanied him in his

journeys, and but too often, as in the case of King John, or

that of Charles VII., shared in his misfortunes; it was then

fitly called the 'Bibliothèque du Roi.' This period may be

considered as ending in the time of Henry IV., who transferred

the royal collection from Fontainebleau to Paris, and gave it

a temporary home in the College de Clermont. Although its

abode has often been changed since, it has never again been

attached to a royal palace, or been removed from the capital.

The second period dates from this act of Henry the Fourth's,

and extends down to the Revolution of 1780, during which time

the Library, although open with but slight restrictions to all

men of letters who were well recommended, and to the general

public for two days a week, from the year 1692, was not

regarded as national property, but as an appendage of the

Crown, which was indeed graciously opened to the learned, but

was only national property in the same sense that the Queen's

private library at Windsor is national property.

{2011}

Although still called the Bibliothèque du Roi during this

period, it may well be here spoken of, for the sake of

distinction, as the Bibliothèque Royale down to the

Revolution. In 1791, the King's library was proclaimed

national property, and it was decreed that it should

henceforth be called 'Bibliothèque Nationale,' which name it

bore till the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French,

in 1805, when it was styled 'Bibliothèque Impériale.' Of

course it was Bibliothèque Royale again in 1815, 'Nationale'

in 1848, and once again, in 1852, was declared to be the

'Bibliothèque Impériale.'"

_Imperial Library of Paris

(Westminster Review, April, 1870)._

After the fall of the Second Empire, the great library again

became "Nationale" in name. According to a report made in the

spring of 1894, the Bibliothèque Nationale of France

contained, at the end of the previous year, 1,934,154

"'numbers,' forming at least 2,600,000 volumes." This report

was made by a committee of twenty persons, appointed to

consider the advisability and method of printing the catalogue

of the library. The conclusions of the committee are favorable

to the printing of the catalogue.

_The Nation,

May 17, 1894_.

Books come to the National Library "in three ways: from (1)

gifts, about 3,000 a year; … (2) purchase, 4,500 (the

library has $20,000 a year to spend on books and binding); (3)

copyright, 22,000 articles and 6,000 pieces of music. The

printer, not the publisher, is bound to make the deposit, so

that if the text and the illustrations are printed at

different places there is a chance, unless everyone is

careful, that the library will have an imperfect copy. But the

greatest trouble comes from periodicals, of which the

Bibliothèque Nationale receives 3,000. What would some of our

librarians think of this who are inclined to boast or to

lament that they receive 300? Every number of every newspaper

in France must be received, sent for if it fails to come,

registered, put on its pile, and at the end of the year tied

up in a bundle and put away (for only the most important are

bound). … The titles of new books are printed in a bulletin

in two series, French and Foreign (causing a printer's bill of

5,000 francs a year). This began in 1875 for the foreign, and

in 1882 for the French. These bulletins are cut up and the

titles mounted on slips, which are fastened in a Leyden

binder, three making a small folio page. The result is a

series of 900 volumes, less easy to consult than a good card

catalog, very much less easy than the British Museum pasted

catalog, the Rudolph books, or the Rudolph machine. … The

books received at the Bibliothèque Nationale before 1875 and

1882 are entered on some 2,000,000 slips, which are divided

between two catalogs, that of the old library ('fonds

ancien'), and of the intermediate library ('fonds

intermédiarie'). In each of these catalogs they are arranged

in series according to the subject divisions given above and

under each subject alphabetically. There is no author catalog

and the public are not allowed to consult these catalogs. If

then a reader asks for a work received before 1875 the

attendant guesses in which 'fonds' it is and what subject it

treats of; if he does not find it where he looks first he

tries some other division. No wonder it takes on an average

half an hour for the reader to get his book. I must bear

witness to the great skill which necessity has developed in

the officials charged with this work. Some of their successes

in bringing me out-of-the-way books were marvellous. On the

other hand, when they reported certain works not in the

library I did not feel at all sure that they were right, and I

dare say they doubted themselves. All this will be changed

when the library gets a printed alphabetical catalog of

authors and has made from it a pasted alphabetical catalog of

subjects. The author catalog, by the way, is expected to fill

40,000 double-columned quarto pages. … The library now has

50 kilometres (31 miles) of shelves and is full. A new

store-house is needed and a public reading room ('salle de

lecture'), which can be lighted by electricity, and be opened,

like the British Museum, in the evening."

_C. A. Cutter,

Notes on the Bibliothèque Nationale

(Library Journal, June, 1894)._

LIBRARIES: France:

Paris Municipal Libraries.

"The Bibliothèques Municipales de Paris have undergone a rapid

development within the last few years. In 1878 there were only

nine altogether, of which five were little used, and four

practically unused. A special Bureau was then appointed by the

Municipal Council to take charge of them, with the result that

altogether 22 libraries have been opened, while the number of

volumes lent rose from 29,339 in 1878 to 57,840 in 1879, to

147,567 in 1880, to 242,738 in 1881, and to 363,322 in 1882.

… A sum of 3,050 francs is placed at the disposal of each

library by the Municipal Council, which is thus appropriated;

Books and Binding, Fr. 1,750; Librarian, 1,000; Attendant,

300. The amount of the sums thus voted by the Municipal

Council in the year 1883 was 110,150 fr. For the year of 1884

the sum of 171,700 fr. has been voted, the increase being

intended to provide for the establishment of fifteen new

libraries in Communal Schools, as well as for the growing

requirements of some of the libraries already established. The

individual libraries are not, of course, as yet very

considerable in point of numbers. The stock possessed by the

twenty-two Bibliothèques Municipales in 1882 was 87,831

volumes, of which 20,411 had been added during that year.

Information received since the publication of M. Dardenne's

Report places the number in 1883 at 98,843 volumes. … The

libraries are open to the public gratuitously every evening

from 8 to 10 o'clock, and are closed on five days only during

the whole year. Books may be read in the library or are lent

out for home use. … Music is lent as well as books, the

experiment having been first tried at the Mairie of the second

arrondissement, in 1879, and having proved so successful that

nine arrondissements have followed suit, and the total number

of musical issues from the ten libraries in 1882 was 9,085.

… Beside these libraries under the direction of the Mairies,

there are a certain number of popular free libraries

established and supported by voluntary efforts. Without

dwelling upon the history of these libraries, all of which

have been formed since 1860, it may be stated that there are

now fourteen such libraries in as many arrondissements."

_E. C. Thomas,

The Popular Libraries of Paris

(Library Chronicle, volume 1, 1884, pages 13-14)._

{2012}

"The Journal Officiel' contains in the number for August 29,

of this year (1891), the substance of the following account:

… The city of Paris has now 64 public libraries, all of

which send out books and accommodate readers in their halls;

they are open at the times when the factories and shops are

closed. … The libraries are kept in the mayoralty buildings

or ward district school-houses; a central office provides for

the administration and support, while in each precinct a

committee of superintendence attends to the choice and

ordering of new accessions. All expenses are paid by the city,

which, in its last budget, in 1890, appropriated therefor the

trifle of 225,000 francs. On every library in full use are

bestowed yearly about 2,400 francs, while 14,000 francs are

employed in founding new ones. The number of books circulated

in 1890 was 1,386,642, against 29,339 in 1878, in the nine

libraries then existing. In 1878 there was an average of only

3,259 readers for each library, and in the last year the

average was 23,500, which shows a seven-fold use of the

libraries."

_Public Libraries in Paris;

translated from the Börsenblatt,

October 7, 1891

(Library Journal, May, 1892)._

LIBRARIES: France:

Other Libraries.

A library of importance in Paris second only to the great

National is the Mazarin, which contains 300,000 volumes (1,000

incunabula), and 5,800 manuscripts. The Library of the

University has 141,678 volumes; the Library of the Museum of

Natural History has 140,850 books and 2,050 manuscripts; the

Sainte-Genevieve Library contains 120,000 volumes and 2,392

manuscripts; the Library of the City of Paris, 90,000 volumes

and 2,000 manuscripts. The principal libraries of the

provincial cities are reported as follows: Caen Municipal

Library, 100,000 volumes, 620 manuscripts; Dijon Municipal

Library, 100,000 volumes, 1,558 manuscripts; Marseilles City

Library, 102,000 volumes, 1,656 manuscripts; Montpelier City

Library, 120,000 volumes; Nantes City Library, 102,172

volumes, 2,231 manuscripts; Rheims Library, 100,000 books and

1,700 manuscripts; Lyons City Library and Library of the

Palace of Arts, 160,000 volumes and 1,900 manuscripts;

Toulouse City Library, 100,000 volumes and 950 manuscripts;

Rouen City Library, 132,000 printed books and 3,800

manuscripts; Avignon, 117,000 volumes and 3,300 manuscripts;

Bordeaux, 160,000 volumes, 1,500 manuscripts; Tours, 100,000

volumes and 1,743 manuscripts; Amiens, 80,000 volumes, 1,500

manuscripts; Besançon, 140,000 volumes and 1,850 manuscripts.

_Minerva, 1893-94._

LIBRARIES:

Italy.

"There are in Italy between thirty and forty libraries which

the present National Government, in recognition of former

Governmental support, is committed to maintain, at least in

some degree. It is a division of resources which even a rich

country would find an impediment in developing a proper

National Library, and Italy, with its over-burdened Treasury,

is far from being in a position to offer the world a single

library of the first class. … Italy, to build up a library

which shall rank with the great national libraries of the

future, will need to concentrate her resources; for though she

has libraries now which are rich in manuscripts, she has not

one which is able to meet the great demands of modern

scholarship for printed books. … If with this want of

fecundity there went a corresponding slothfulness in

libraries, there would be little to be hoped of Italy in

amassing great collections of books. In some respects I have

found a more active bibliothecal spirit in Italy than

elsewhere in Europe, and I suspect that if Italian unification

has accomplished nothing else, it has unshackled the minds of

librarians, and placed them more in sympathy with the modern

gospel which makes a library more the servant than the master

of its users. I suspect this is not, as a rule, the case in

Germany. … I have certainly found in Italian librarians a

great alertness of mind and a marked eagerness to observe the

advances in library methods which have taken place elsewhere

during the last five and twenty years. But at the same time,

with all this activity, the miserable bureaucratic methods of

which even the chance stranger sees so much in Italy, are

allowed to embarrass the efforts of her best librarians. …

In the present condition of Italian finances nothing adequate

to the needs of the larger libraries can be allowed, and the

wonder is that so much is done as is apparent; and it is

doubtless owing to the great force of character which I find

in some of the leading librarians that any progress is made at

all. During the years when the new Italian kingdom had its

capital in Florence a certain amount of concentration started

the new Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale on its career; and when

later the Government was transferred to Rome, the new capital

was given another library, got together in a similar way,

which is called the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele.

Neither collection is housed in any way suited to its

functions, and the one at Florence is much the most important;

indeed it is marvellously rich in early printed books and in

manuscripts."

_J. Winsor,

The condition of Italian Libraries

(The Nation, July 9, 1891)._

LIBRARIES:

The Vatican Library.

"Even so inveterate a hater of literature as the Calif, who

conquered Alexandria and gave its precious volumes to the

flames, would have appreciated such a library as the Vatican.

Not a book is to be seen—not a shelf is visible, and there is

nothing to inform the visitor that he is in the most famous

library in the world. … The eye is bewildered by innumerable

busts, statues, and columns. The walls are gay with brilliant

arabesques, and the visitor passes through lofty corridors and

along splendid galleries, finding in every direction something

to please and interest him. … The printed books number about

125,000 volumes and there are about 25,000 manuscripts. The

books and manuscripts are enclosed in low wooden cases around

the walls of the various apartments, the cases are painted in

white and gold colors, and thus harmonize with the gay

appearance of the walls and ceilings. … The honor of

founding the Vatican Library belongs to Pope Nicholas V., who,

in 1447, transferred to the Palace of the Vatican the

manuscripts which had been collected in the Lateran. At his

death the library contained 9,000 manuscripts, but many of

them were dispersed under his successor, Calixtus III. Sixtus

IV. was very active in restoring and increasing the library.

In 1588, the present library building was erected by Sixtus

V., to receive the immense collection obtained by Leo X. In

the year 1600 the value of the library was greatly augmented

by the acquisition of the collection of Fulvius Ursinus and

the valuable manuscripts from the Benedictine Monastery of

Bobbio, composed chiefly of palimpsests. …

{2013}

The next acquisition was the Library of the Elector Palatine,

captured in 1621, at Heidelberg, by De Tilley, who presented

it to Gregory XV. It numbered 2,388 manuscripts, 1,956 in

Latin, and 432 in Greek. In 1658 the Library founded by Duke

Federigo de Urbino—1,711 Greek and Latin manuscripts—was

added to the valuable collection. One of the most valuable

accessions was the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden,

containing all the literary works which her father, Gustavus

Adolphus, had captured at Prague, Bremen, etc., amounting to

2,291 manuscripts, Greek and Latin. In 1746 the magnificent

library of the Ottobuoni family, containing 3,862 Greek and

Latin manuscripts, enriched the Vatican collection. After the

downfall of Napoleon and the restoration of the peace of

Europe in 1815, the King of Prussia, at the suggestion of

Humboldt, applied to Pope Pius VII for the restoration of some

of the manuscripts which De Tilley had plundered from the

Heidelberg Library. The Pope, mindful of the prominent part

taken by Prussia in the restoration of the Papal See,

immediately complied with the royal request, and many

manuscripts of great value to the German historians were sent

back to Germany."

_E. L. Didier,

The Vatican Library

(Literary World, June 28, 1884)._