The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-13

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Russia ................. 6S2O9O L."
The Pail MdH Gasette, commenting upon
this, SAYS
According to these figures, Great Britain
has in proportion to her population, the
smallest collection of books in her public
libraries of any European State, with the ex-
ception of Russia. II ought, however, first to
be ascertained whether any fixed principle as
TO what may or may not be considered
volume has been adopted in recording the
literary wealth of the several countries. AT
the Statistical Congress held IN London IN
1860. when this subject was under discussion,
IL was stated that in many public libraries it
was the custom to bind up every pamphlet
separately, and to enter it as separate
volume in the catalogue, whereas in the Bri-
fish Museum we bind our pamphlets in
volumes of two or three inches in thickness;
40 that in an enumeration of volumes we
should be at a disadvantage by mere COM
parison of numbers. At st. Petersburg, for
instance, there are about thirty thousand spe-
cifcations of English patents, all separately
bound and reckoned as thirty thousand
volumes, whereas in the British Museum the
same specifications are contained in one thou
sand volumes. 1t is manifest, therefore, that
in default of an approximate uniformity in
the practice of counting and classifying
volumes in different countries very little
reliance can be placed on these comparative
statistics.
"Our public libraries may be counted on
ones fingers, and with the solitary exception
of the national collection at the British
Museum, the few that we have are entirely
unsupported by the State. In Italy recent
enumeration shows that there are 2l0 Libraries,
of which l64 are open to the public, and 80 of
these are maintained by the Government.
OF 143 libraries the total revenue in 1868 was
100000, of which E20,0 was derived as
subVentions from the Government and $1,000
from the provincial and communal autho-
rites. In England we rest satisfied with main
tanning in the capital literary collection of
unrivalled richness and variety, leaving our
provincial cities and towns to provide for
their own intellectual requirements. In
Italy the State libraries are scattered
throughout almost every province. Tuscany
has of them, Lombardy 4, Emilia T. Cam
pagna A. Piedmont 3, and 2 each in Liguria
and Sardinia and Sicily. The provincial and
communal libraries number 100, of which II
are in Emilia, 15 in the Marches, 16 in Sicily, 10
in Lombardy, and 8 each in Piedmont and
Tuscany. Seventy one libraries belong to
scientific institutions and religious corpora
tions. Piedmont has the largest number of
libraries to which the public are not ad-
mitted-of a total of "A only l3 are open to
the public.
'"The 21O Italian libraries comprise III
general and 80 special collections; of the latter
25 are ecclesiastical, ii scientific and literary,
and are devoted to fine arts. Piedmont has
3, Sicily g. the Campagna 4, and the Marches
2 ecclesiastical libraries; of the. scientific
collections are in Piedmont, 2 in Tuscany, and
2 in Emilia; Lombardy has fine arts library;
and Tuscany the remaining 2. All the libra
ries together contain H. 149, 2S1 volumes, of
which 1923, SS9 are in Emilia, 1884, 567 in
Lombardy, 667, 9l3 in Tuscany.
$50 far as the nature of the works most
frequently in demand at the libraries furnishes
a clew to the intellectual tendencies of the
age, the following statistics are interesting
OF 9SS,5l0 works read in 1863 lS3 52S re-
lated to mathematics and the natural
sciences, l22, 496 history and philology, 70, 1884,
morals and philosophy, 1913, ,972 jurisprudence
and law, 26l, ,689 were works of general litera-
ture, l0l, 1877 encyclopedias, and the remain
ing 4,49l sacred and theological works.
M. Loua, a well-known French statistical
writer, remarks thereon:-'C'est une nouvelle
demonstration que Pesprit du steele aban-
dome de plus en- plus les etudes purement
scolastiques pour les sciences pOsitives.
'The people of the Campagna supply the
largest number of readers in proportion to the
volumes contained in the libraries of the pro-
vince; in Tuscany and Emilia the readers are
relatively fewest. In the Campagna, Lom-
bardy,s Piedmont and Tuscany, the readers
chose principally works relating to the posi-
tive sciences, literature and fine arts; while in
the southern provinces theological works were
more in demand, 'probablement, says NJ.
Loua, par suite de Organization encore
presque exclusivement cl6rcale de l6ducation
dams ces pays
''The Italian libraries do not appear to be in
very fourishing condition the expenses of
administration absorb two-thirds of their in
come, and what remains is insufficient for the
renewal of old and the purchase of new
works"