The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-27

ures of the San Marco Library in Venice, was supposed to be unique. IL was. and is, very important as docu- ment because it contains practicaiiy all our knowledge of the third voyage or Christopher Columbus in which the great explorer first discovered the South American continent and followed its costline for some hundreds of miles. As the only surviving copy as 1t was believed, of a work prined at Venice in 1504 from material contained in some letters by Peter Martyr, one of the courtiers in attendance on the spanish sovereign. it was valued as few books are. '''.'
 Not many months ago. however, a disguished photographer and book-sel- Ter ofsthe Italian city of Florence hap pened upon an ancient volume bound in fragments of medieval manuscript with its corners all nibbled away by mice. On examination he found that it consisted in the main of seaman's guide, printed at Venice in 1490--such a one as Columbus himself may have been familiar with before he under took his memorable voyage in 1492. Bound with this "portolano," as 1t is called was, according to a fashion that was common in the days. of the Renaissance, a perfect copy of the 'ong-sought Libretto of 15O4. From the copy in Venice the title page is missing; this has 1t in perfect state of preservation.
 Knowing that he had unearthed a treasure the bookseller forwith conf- municated by cable with the John Car ter Brown Library, Providence, for he knew, as all students of American his tory know, that the library of Ameri- cana. or early American books and IAk% kn1 rxys%k %k- Brown University is the most complete collection of its kind in the world, and that the rare. volume would unques- tionally be wanted in Providence if the means for it's purchase were at hand.
 The bibliographer had judged wisely. A message was hastily wired back to Florence to accept the proposition that the Libretto become at once the prop erty of the John Carter Brown Library, the authorities of which have the ann bilious design of securing either a copy or facsimile of everything printed in or about North or South America from Columbus discovery through the year 1900. &Ha j[t pA& z. IIE
 The cable message. it may be added arrived in the nick of time, for a rumor of the discovery had got abroad and telegrams were pouring in from libra ries and individual collectors of Europe The photographer was shortly after visited by a famous bookseller of Paris who sought to secure the treasure and little later by a gentleman from Brazil, owner of one of the best South American libraries, who made the trip to Florence for the express purpose of securing the book, if possible.
 The incident lllpstTates the interna- tional reputation which foresiht ex- tending over the past three quarters of a century has bought to this collection of books either printed in America of in Europe about the American colonies prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Begun as a private library by John Carter Brown of the class 1916 at Brown University, enlarged by his widow and his sons. the late John Nich- olas, and Harold Brown, and recently bequeathed to Brown University, 1t has a value which cannot be estimated in terms of money-though MT. Francis w Halsey, author of The Deluge of Books" has asserted that if it were put on sale 1t would bring at auction not less than a million dollars and probably more. It's real value, of course, ap- pears in it's celebrity among the learn ed of all the earth; in the uses to which it can be put by students of American history.
 
 early American history-that is with reference to original documents-with- | out visiting Providence, which has sev- eral libraries of prime importance. To the John Carter Brown Library in the | days when, under private management | it was still always courteously thrown oren to any properly accredited stu dent. went among many others Profes- sor Moses Colt Tyler, Justin winsor and John Fiske.
 The present usefulness of such a H. brary, while 1t is already supreme in its field. is as yet by no means so great as 1t may become. The plan Is to have fl contain eventually either an original oi everything printed before 1901 or a photographic facsimile or a body of detailed information about it. This ac complished, the materials for the study of early American history at Browr University will be absolutely complete
 Such an undertaking is a large one as everyone knows who has ever dip ped into Americana" and discoveret how very busy the printing presses of early times were They had nt books which circulated into the hun dreds of thousands but of the makinI of little editions of a few hundred copies each there was almost no end for the inkpots were stirred upoI very slight occasion, in the days of ou disputatious ancestors. One biblio graphy of the works printed in tn English colonies between 1889 and l76 gives 9S90 titles and these are estimat ed by a good authority not to be nor, than one-quarter of all that actual, were printed and bound in those years All this, of course, without any ac count of the immense number of work, printed in Spanish-and Portuguese speaking America, and without accoun of the works about America whic were published on the other side of tn Atlantic but which properly belong f. any collection of Americana
 So that large as the John Carte Brown collection Is with its nearl 1S,000 volumes much remains to b done, with the cooperation of scholar and collectors everywhere to give that transcendent importance whic was the originator's idea The habit o turning over valuable works to this Ii brary, on the principle that 1t can mak best use of them, Is an established on of the librarian a large number of re cent accessions by gift are reported along with the purchase of many treas ures of prime value.
 The John Carter Brown collection are thoroughly acc -ssible withal, 8 everyone finds who wishes to consu
 the volumes in a beautiful building the southeastern corner of the middl campus of Brown University. Anon
 the collecti are not less than fiV