The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-09-04

of it's size or its commercial value as of Its manifold interest to philologists, Tn that respect, indeed, 1t is absolutely unique the first and possibly the last. of its peculiar character. The prince was a book collector of a type which has ceased to become common. He knew perfectly not only every one of his vast number of books. but almost every page of them; the varying tastes in book fancies, the craze for first edi- tions, the hue and cry after Aldines and Elzevirs did not affect or Influence him in any way. He started collect ing books as a philologist, and to the end of his days he kept up the quest for works of this description. Those who have been bitten with the pleasant mania for book-collecting will be best able to admire, if they are unable to emulate, the apparently hard-and-fast rules on which the late prince planned his library The result is, as we have said, unique.
 From his very early days the princes ambition appears to have been to form the finest collection of linguistic books ever brought together. His extraor- dinary knowledge of languages and dialects enabled him to be successful where most other men, or body of men, would have more or less failed. His opportunities of obtaining books were immensely increased during the Napol- comic regime. Books from all quarters of the globe poured in on one who was | known to value them beyond all other | treasures. He became the intimate | friend of all the great linguists of the | day. and from this most valuable source many of his rarest books have been obtained. When he possessed the means, he lavished it on books and
 since the fall of the empire very ma 1 terially narrowed his opportunities he
 has been known to deprive himself of
 the bare necessaries of life to secure
 a work not already in his library. l The princes zeal, indeed, can only l be described as bibliomanical. Abroad or at home, a booksellers shop was
 Paradise to him, and he has never been known to resist it's fascination. AL
 though he had nearly every principal
 European booksellers catalogue sent
 him, his chief delight was to hunt for
 books in propria persona. The result
 of all this is a library of about 25OOO
 volumes, comprising works or pam phlets in every language and dialect
 under the sun. An attempt" has been made at a catalogue of this libra ry by Mir. Victor Collins, who expended
 about eighteen months on the task,
 with a very fair amount of success.
 This attempt" comprising nearly 14,-
 900 entries, does not by any means in-
 clude the whole of the library, but it
 is sufficiently full to prove the variety
 and linguistic value of the books in the collection.
 This library Is now for sale en bloc
 Several attempts have been made to
 dispose of 1t, but so far without suc-
 cess. Some of these attempts have
 been frustrated by the altogether pro- hibitive pecuniary value placed upon 1.-the library. It was, we understood
 offered to the Marquis of Butte for f40,-
 900, if not more, and probably to pther
 likely purchasers for similarly high l amount In all probability the col
 lection cost the late prince quite that , sum, possibly indeed much more Its i literary and linguistic value is, as we have said, exceedingly great, and il
 would be a public misfortune if it were disposed in all directions piecemeal The charm of the library lies in it's com
 pleteness as whole, and the same may
 be said in an even more emphatic man.
 ner of its commercial value. In Feb. ruary last 500 duplicates from the col lection were offered for sale by auction . with the result that the absurd tota'
 of f70 13s, was obtained. This gives an average of under half crown pei . lot Many of these duplicates were : very rare, and included the finest col lection of Basque literature ever offered for sale. The same disaster would fol
 low the bulk of Prince Bonaparte's H. brary if it came into the auction room It is not twice in q century that a mar
 of the late Prince Bonaparte's learning and means takes up such an exception
 al phase of book-collectng.- g.--LofidOr Times.