The Penn's Grove record., 1882-01-21

also, they inscribed what they wishe,
preserved, upon the dried, hardene,
leaves of the palm. Leather ant
parchment, or differently prepared
skins, are of later origin. Parchmen
was perfected, in Pergamus, ESQ year
before Christ, although it is mentioned
as in use, in the y ear $40, and Herodo
tus says that books, in his time, wer,
written upon skins. The invention
of cotton paper is due to the Chinese
in the ninth century. In Spain, more
than two hundred years sfterward
the Moors substituted hemp and liner
for cotton, and in some of the ole
libraries are found evidences of the
ingenious invention of this people.
How Manuscripts We're Preserved.
1t is an interesting fact in history,
and worthy of remembrance, that the
ancient monasteries as beingth the homes
of learning, and as the only asylums
free from the wars and the pillage of
the ages, preserved to our day the
richest, as well as the earliest treas
1res, of the learning of the world.
Outside the monasteries, men waged
war inside these peaceful abodes, the
inmates toiled, and although, as Glib
bon says, "Sophocles and Tacitus
we're compelled to resign the parch-
ment to missals, homilies and golden
legends" yetitmust be acknowledged,
that the monks faithfully performed a
noble work, in preserving for posterity
precious documents of antiquity
which, without their diligence, would
certainly have persisted.
When parchments, by dint of labor
and long serious toll, accumulated,
forming piles of manuscript room
high, libraries were formed and,
carefully laid away, on shelves and in
inches designed by the monks for
their preservation, the crolls sought
rest, awaiting other times and other
days for removal and transmission.
The ~storehouse of the library encased
them from the seasons and from decay.
The library became the inventory of
the intellect. Here was gathered and
classified that vast amount of knowI-
edge which man, during all the CEN
turtles, had taken so much pains to
work out. and digest, and increase.
and make available. The scholar
sought the library as a shrine. A
monastery became almost as well
known from the number of its books,
as from the piety and austerity Of its
clustered inmates; princes formed
libraries in their palaces a nation be-
came measured in the rank of civil
cation by the number of its public
institutions set apart for learning, by
the thousands of books it kept open
and constantly held up for the perusai
of all the people.
AS early as the sixth century, the
following authors were preserved in
manuscript in the library of Cassie
dorus. Considering the times, the
difficulty of handling sc vast a mate
rial, of sorting it so admirably in
form and detail, it is difficult which
to admire most, the collection itself or
the labor that prese rived it. Here is
the list, found in an Italian author of
undoubted veracity Homer, Hippo
crates. Aristotle, Euclid, Plato,
Ennius, Terence, Archimedes, Lucre-
thus, Vano, Sallust, Cicero, Virgil,
Appolonius, Valenus, Seneca, Luca-
nus, Probus, DESCRIBES, Pliny, Quin-
lillian, Flavius, Ptolemy, Censorin IS,
Apuleus, Galian, Porphyrus, Donatus,
Macrobius, Eusebius, Socrates, Sozo-
meme, and Boetius. Many of these
works, it is true, are not entire some
of them are mere fragments, but of
all of them we possess something,
whilst of some we have no Reason to
doubt, that we have all they wrote,
and il anything yet remains, time and
search may more and all reveal.
In Pompeii and Hereulaueum,
many ancient Greek manuscripts
were found. In l745, Paderni discov-
cred, in these two cities, III manu-
scripts, of which eighty were Latin
and 337 Greek. English scientists de-
voted much time and money to de-
cipher these ancient scrolls, but owing
to the obliterated characters of the
manuscripts, and the extreme diff
Guilty ofdeciding upon a key together
with the ~inadequacy of the keys pro-
vided, little Roadway was made and
much labor seemed bestowed in vain.
Time, however, and further study
may shed light upon these very manu-
scripts, which are preserved with
great care, in Florence. Among the
ancient manuscripts, the Greek is the
most valued, after Greek the Latin.
The best manuscripts are in Rome and
in Florence.
Italy may be said to be the land of
libraries. Every small town has some
thing in the shape of rare old books
and most valuable manuscripts, but
it is in the two above mentioned cities
that the best collections are found.
The Vatican library is perhaps the
most exhaustive in the world. Flor
ence, however, lays claim to some
very fine old treasures, and may be
said to be, as well as Rome, a city, not
only of the fine arts, but of choicest
literary productions. Among Fiol en-
tine libraries are the Ricardian, the
Marucellian and the Santa Maria,
The first has the finest specimens Of
old parchment in Hebrew, Greek.
Arabic and Latin in the world.
Genoa, Turin and Milan have also
very important book and manuscript
treasures.
He who reigns within himself, anG
rules passions, desires and fears, il