, 1891-02-04
NOTED BOOK THIEVES.
HISTORICAL PERSoNAGEs WHO
STOLE UNIQUE VOLUMES.

The Well Dressed and InteIIIgent Look
Ing Glass which Librarians Fear-A
Bishop, an Inspector General. a Pope
and n Noted Priest Were Thieves
Book stealing is an art upon which
much ingenuity has been expended. One
never knows in what form 1t will next
break out. 1t is an incident by no means
uncommon in Booksellers row for a
bibliopole to be offered a book which
had been stolen from his next door
neighbor. There is something more than
a tradition to the effect that a bookseller
has on occasion purchased q book taken
a minute or two previously from the
shelves outside his shopl
Afayorite mode of stealing books from
public libraries is to procure a book, sit
down to read it and then wrap it up in
an overcoat, and after this to take up a
paper or magazine. The rest is easily
guessed The public libraries suffer in
all sorts Of ways, for here the accumu-
lated wisdom of the thief finds plenty of
scope. Some of the tribe have a mania
for old directories. Librarians complain
frequently of the clerical thief of ser
ohSNA
Novels and books of the b%ibliophile"
las the French call themJ one can under
stand being stolen; but sermons and
theology Women. more or less-gen-
orally more-respectably dressed, are
often objects of suspicion with libra
rians; for the "receptiyity" of cloaks is
infinite, and the feelings" of the culprit
must also be considered. As a general
IL H. eLsuE l. Ill l---
Gated, and frequently well to do.
HISTORICAL TIIEFrs.
Whatever may be the causes which
prompt a person to steal books there is
always this consolation-he is in good
company. This balm may not be a very
healing n to the soul of the person
whose books are stolen, but it must be
consolatory to the thief. when repenting
in prison, to know hat some great and
good men have been touched with the
same species Of insanity. Hearne. in his
johannes Glastoniensis." more thar
hints that Sir Thomas Bodley had a
weakness in this direction. "If you
hold" he warns Sir Henry Saville, amy
books so deare as that you would bee
loath to have him out of your sight, set
him aside etc. Moore, Bishop OF Ely
has likewise come under such q stigma.
The anecdote runs to this effect: A
gentleman calling on u friend who had a
very choice library found him unusually
busy in putting his best books out of
sight. Upon asking his view in this he
was answered, Don't you know the
Bishop of - dimes with me today"
The very king of book s~tealers was
Libri, who, as inspector general OF
French libraries under Louis Philippe,
had special facilities for helping himself
and whose known thefts have been
valued at eco, 900. The most interesting
illustration of this mans depredations
was exposed in 1868, when Lord Ash
burnham issued a translation of the
Pentateuch from a Latin Ms. which had
been purchased by the late Lord Ash
burnham from Libri, who had sold it
under the condition that it WAS not to
be published for twenty years. 1t had
been stolen in 1S47 from the Lyons
library and the last clause of the agree
ment, therefore, could be easily under
stood. Libri evidently was not one of
those whom Jules Janin describes as
people who don't think it thieving to
steal a book unless you sell it afterward."
fOPE AND PRIEST.
Innocent X, when still Mgr. Pam
philio, stole a book from Du Moustier.
who was himself a book thief, and ought
to have been en- courant with the de-
vices and designs of his own weaknesses.
1t is refreshing to come across an ex-
ample when the tables are SO completely
turned; and if anything would induce an
honest man to turn book thief it should
be the exhilarating fun of stealing from
another thief. 1t is reported, however,
that Du Moustier recovered the book,
and kicked the Cardinal out of the
house. Catherine de Medici went in for
stealing books by wholesale and bare
faced she seized the fine library of
Marshal Strozzi and promised to pay his
son for it in installments, but never a
farthing did he get.
OF another and equally extreme type
was the Spanish priest Don V~incento,
who sold books and then murdered the
purchasers to regain possession of his
coveted treasures. Like most of the
biblioklept tribe he came to grief at last.
The original edition q482) Of the ''Furs
Q ordinations fetes per los gloriosos Reys
de Arago ais regnicois del Regne de
Valencia" was offered for sale by auc-
ton, and after long and obstinate COM
petition was knocked down to a book
seller named Paxtot
A week afterward PaItot's shop was
burned down, and he was suffocated at
the same time. Suspicion vas directed
toward Don Vincento, whose residence
was searched, and there at length was
discovered the incunabule above named.
The priest was arrested, and at the
hearing he confessed-not from contri-
ton or the fear Of torments in the
next world, but because it appeared that
the volume was not unique, as had been
supposed. He sobbed violently when he
was condemned to be strangled, and the
only defense he vouchsafed was, "Ahi
your worship, my copy was not unique"
St James Gazette.