[1] _Puteal_ was the name given to an erection (or enclosure) on a
spot which had been struck by lightning; it was so called from its
resemblance to the stone kerb or low enclosure round a well
(_puteus_).
LIBON, a Greek architect, born at Elis, who was employed to build the
great temple of Zeus at Olympia (q.v.) about 460 B.C. (Pausanias v. 10.
3).
LIBOURNE, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement
of the department of Gironde, situated at the confluence of the Isle
with the Dordogne, 22 m. E.N.E. of Bordeaux on the railway to Angoulême.
Pop. (1906) town, 15,280; commune, 19,323. The sea is 56 m. distant, but
the tide affects the river so as to admit of vessels drawing 14 ft.
reaching the town at the highest tides. The Dordogne is here crossed by
a stone bridge 492 ft. long, and a suspension bridge across the Isle
connects Libourne with Fronsac, built on a hill on which in feudal times
stood a powerful fortress. Libourne is regularly built. The Gothic
church, restored in the 19th century, has a stone spire 232 ft. high. On
the quay there is a machicolated clock-tower which is a survival of the
ramparts of the 14th century; and the town-house, containing a small
museum and a library, is a quaint relic of the 16th century. There is a
statue of the Duc Decazes, who was born in the neighbourhood. The
sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a
communal college are among the public institutions. The principal
articles of commerce are the wines and brandies of the district.
Printing and cooperage are among the industries.
Like other sites at the confluence of important rivers, that of Libourne
was appropriated at an early period. Under the Romans _Condate_ stood
rather more than a mile to the south of the present Libourne; it was
destroyed during the troubles of the 5th century. Resuscitated by
Charlemagne, it was rebuilt in 1269, under its present name and on the
site and plan it still retains, by Roger de Leybourne (of Leybourne in
Kent), seneschal of Guienne, acting under the authority of King Edward
I. of England. It suffered considerably in the struggles of the French
and English for the possession of Guienne in the 14th century.
See R. Guinodie, _Hist. de Libourne_ (2nd ed., 2 vols., Libourne,
1876-1877).
LIBRA ("THE BALANCE"), in astronomy, the 7th sign of the zodiac (q.v.),
denoted by the symbol [symbol], resembling a pair of scales, probably in
allusion to the fact that when the sun enters this part of the ecliptic,
at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal. It is also a
constellation, not mentioned by Eudoxus or Aratus, but by Manetho (3rd
century B.C.) and Geminus (1st century B.C.), and included by Ptolemy in
his 48 asterisms; Ptolemy catalogued 17 stars, Tycho Brahe 10, and
Hevelius 20. [delta] _Librae_ is an Algol (q.v.) variable, the range of
magnitude being 5.0 to 6.2, and the period 2 days 7 hrs. 51 min.; and
the cluster _M. 5 Librae_ is a faint globular cluster of which only
about one star in eleven is variable.
LIBRARIES. A library (from Lat. _liber_, book), in the modern sense, is
a collection of printed or written literature. As such, it implies an
advanced and elaborate civilization. If the term be extended to any
considerable collection of written documents, it must be nearly as old
as civilization itself. The earliest use to which the invention of
inscribed or written signs was put was probably to record important
religious and political transactions. These records would naturally be
preserved in sacred places, and accordingly the earliest libraries of
the world were probably temples, and the earliest librarians priests.
And indeed before the extension of the arts of writing and reading the
priests were the only persons who could perform such work as, e.g. the
compilation of the _Annales Maximi_, which was the duty of the
pontifices in ancient Rome. The beginnings of literature proper in the
shape of ballads and songs may have continued to be conveyed orally only
from one generation to another, long after the record of important
religious or civil events was regularly committed to writing. The
earliest collections of which we know anything, therefore, were
collections of archives. Of this character appear to have been such
famous collections as that of the Medians at Ecbatana, the Persians at
Susa or the hieroglyphic archives of Knossos discovered by A. J. Evans
(_Scripta Minoa_, 1909) of a date synchronizing with the XIIth Egyptian
dynasty. It is not until the development of arts and sciences, and the
growth of a considerable written literature, and even of a distinct
literary class, that we find collections of books which can be called
libraries in our modern sense. It is of libraries in the modern sense,
and not, except incidentally, of archives that we are to speak.