This establishment was founded in the fourteenth century by Charles the
Wise, and consisted at first of about twenty volumes! the number of
which naturally continued to increase rapidly as time went on. It has
now been enriched by a multitude of books and manuscripts saved from
the monasteries, collections seized from proscribed nobles, and plunder
from the libraries of Italy. So it is now one of the completest in the
world. The large building containing these treasures is in the Rue de
Richelieu, now called the Rue de la Loi. It is under the direction of
Messieurs Capperonier and van Praet. In the first room of the principal
floor a long table extends nearly the whole length of the apartment,
with benches placed on each side for the convenience of students. This
room is lined with books from floor to ceiling.
[Sidenote: CURIOUS MANUSCRIPTS]
Before the French irruption into Italy the National Library consisted
of 200,000 volumes, besides a large collection of manuscripts. It now
contains 300,000 printed books, which are already arranged in five
divisions, besides a vast number which Monsieur van Praet informed me
had not been even examined. The library is disposed with judgment and
knowledge. No catalogue has yet been published, but the directors are
preparing one, with a suitable explanation respecting the principal
authors and the names of the libraries from which the books were stolen.
Here are some very curious documents in manuscript relative to English
history, well worthy of reference to any author desirous of treating
of that subject. The celestial and terrestrial globes constructed by
Coronelli are preserved in one of the wings of the building; they are
thirty feet in diameter, their circles are gilded, the water is painted
blue, the land white, and the mountains with a green ground shaded
with brown. These are the largest globes in the world, they resemble
air ballons, and I cannot imagine any other mode for a philosopher to
use them than by putting himself in a little curule chair suspended by
ropes, and in this manner making the tour of the universe.
The manuscripts exceed 80,000 in number, 30,000 of which are on the
history of France and are called the Mazarin Gallery. The rest are
in foreign and dead languages, many written on vellum and superbly
illuminated. Many of these manuscripts contain most extraordinary
specimens of the state of poetry and genius in ancient times. Among
others here is this of Philippe d’Orleans, Comte de Vertus, who died
in 1420, aged twenty-four.