, 1870-05-17

Alexander von Humbo1dt,s Library.
From. the North German Correspondent, April 20
The LAST number Of . transatlantic publica-
tion, called Slaman's 41ses5can Journal sur
p1ised uB NTH the news that the vs1uab1e Il
brary Of Alexander Won Humboldt WAS not
broken up and scattered AFTER his death, as
VAS generally supposed but has been with
great caze preserved intact up to fha present
day The complete collection, according 10
The same authority, is in the possession Of 3
Nj. Stevens, Of Vermont, resident in London,
nhn pa1chased the library ahortlJ afteE Hnm-
boldt's decesse- It Is this gentleman himself
who Assures us Of the TACT in the journal ws
haye named, and he adds thst not enc
third Of the 1000 volumes Of which the col
lection Is composed, are to be found oven in
TIE Rz1taa Museum The pecuniary value ct
Humboldt himself seemed to imagine.
This statement has elected reply In the
National Zeasrn9, from Herr J. LoNenberg,
who p1onounces the whole atYaiz to be 4 ''hutn-
bug" e1nanating probably from and ingenious
toned gentleman gives us the following inter-
esting particulars regarding the library which
belonged to Humboldt, and its fate afte1 tho
death Of the eminent philosopher:
This collection compzahended, besides
n, n,aps, ,engI;aripgs, ; medals, diPlomss; astro-
about 5000, End not 17,o00, volumes, the
money value Of which at the time Of his death
was greatly overestimated. The fortunate heir
to the personality OF the deceased found no
want Of touters to supply the newspapers with
sensational notices about its sale First it was
he ssrR9Fs6on q Berlin thep 5,t7} the Prnes neg
then again wealthy Engliahman or Amer1-
can who WIS designated as the fnteud-
ing purchaser, and it WIS confidently asserted
that Sc, 900 thaleIs bad been offered and re-
fused. : At lan8sh, N tho summer Of 1860. the
Nrz- how ~ t1rt nnr okoYxa
and booksellers, Mess1a. Asher i ca. for TO-
600 tha1e1s and sent to London, from which it
was forwarded, on account OF other parties,
to New York. The civil war had in the
meantime broken cut in the United States,
and, as there Was little prospect Of find
it was resolved to dispose Of the books BY
publc auction A catalogue was printed
which, however. aB is customary in s1ch mat
ters, contained tho titles Of large number OF
books that had never formed part Of Hum
boldt'a library. On the third dsJ Of the sale,
vera quite destroyed, and the books with
them This occurred in June, 1865, and Was
soon after the subject Of sn article IN the
Quarterly Rsrieso- What books Of Hunholdts
had escaped the disaster by being previously
purchased and removed from the Promises,
haa never been Asce1taiued-"
Tho writer goes On to say that Humboldt, on
returning from P4ris to Berlin in 1877, brought
rsry few books with him, as he had si7en
awsy the greater part Of collection 70 friends
before 1eayug the French capital The ibssr
~ be gradually formed IN Berlin from thst
period TIL the year Of his death (1953), con-
Ested chiefly Of books presented 70 him
BY authors md publishers for the
purpose = Of obtaining from him the
customary few lines Of thanks, which, though
Of courae purely pirate and personal,
were too often uuscTupulously published - =
Recommendation OF the wo1k- Many Of these
books, as may. Be supposed, wers osdy first
Volumes. It is true, The collection contained
many works Of great v1lue, such, foE Example,
IA the .Chaleogyuphid du Ausee Royo1 N
eighty-three volumes, great elephant SIZE,
w6ich WIS present to the philosopher from
KinE Louia Philippe The copy still aztsnt IN
the Louvre is believed to be the only one equal
to that Of Humboldt in elegance and
perfection Still, the writer assures us,
the pecuniary value Of the collection h.s neen
greatly exaggerated, and when be adds shH Ia 10
himself prepared the catalogue ate1 a.nr aa
boldts death, we must admit that oue Is estteo
qualified to give m opinion SeTet! o. t,oo s1
books, be adds, eontained short htelsi5' ~,
or critical observations On tcs :s;nIa-
gin in the handwriting OF the gTaAL hsen r.
bet however precious they might na;b to Is
4 scholar, it would haEs been lnposs.Dss ~
,;oo "a +ko,. . ,,,t;o,,}sr Ta1ua In money