The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-08-17
After Centuries of Destruction, the Eternal;
City Can Still Boast of Many Mon
uments of Her Glory.
In the Past, Cardinals Who Have Been Great
Builders of Libraries Have Given
Their Books to the Vatican.

A half starved scholar who eked out
a livelihood by transcribing old deeds
in an attorneys office in Rome was re-
turning home one evening in the year
1880. after a hard days work, when
he stopped as was his wont at a shop in
Piazza Navona and bought a small loaf
of bread and some fried fish for his
evening meal, says the New York Sun.
He ate his supper, using the paper in
which the fish was wrapped as plate.
When, his frugal meal over, he picked
up the paper preparatory to- throwing
il away his practised eye detected that
it was an old manuscript
From force of habit he read it. The
manuscript was an autograph letter OF
Christopher Columbus.
Seven years before this incident a
bill was passed by the Italian Parlia-
ment which drove the nuns and monks
from their homes, deprived them of
their endowments and put their lands
and houses up for sale by public auc-
ton. The monastcries were plundered
of everything they contained, and the
booty, especially books and manu-
scripts, were carted off and roughly
stacked in some vacant rooms in the
Collegio Romano. from which the Jes-
uits had been expelled. ..
The man in charge of the rooms had
been selling the books and manuscripts
as waste paper by the hundredweight.
What remained of the collection after
the discovery made by the poor scholar
of Columbus letter has been gathered
up and now 1t forms part OF the Victor
Emmanuel Library.
For many centuries man and time
CO. operated to destroy everything that
belonged to- ancient Rome. Barbara
ans sacked the city and burned IT many
times over The EmpNors of the Ica st
plundered it and carried off works o..
art to adorn Constantinople. Marble
statues were broken up by builders in
the middle ages and burned for lime.
while bronzes were melted down for
quarry. 1t is truly wonderful that
after such wholesale destruction the
Rome of today can still boast of so
many monuments of her ancient glory.
1t is more wonderful still, that if
buildings intended to last forever and
art treasures of marble and bronze
could not withstand the combined ac-
ton Of time and man and were reduced
into dust, ancient parchments. manu-
instance Of the man who for seven
years sold books and manuscripts as
waste paper does not stand isolated;
who can tell how many pages of price
less manuscripts were used through
out Italy to wrap fried fish and other
edibles!
Then one should take into account
also the. great quantities of manu-
scripts that have perished by fire and
the books and codes that have been
stolen or bought and smuggled out Of
Italy. Even to this day every foreign
tourist that visits Rome can. if so in.
clined, purchase on old manuscript
book to take home to his friends in
stead Of a coral necklace or piece of
mosaic representing the Temple of
Vesta. 1t is true that the manuscript
may not be genuine. but manufactured
in Germany; still, since this trade has
sprung up it is an indication that be-
fore false manuscripts were supplied
genuine ones were sold
And yet in spite of all this if the
Vatican Library were the only one in
Rome the Eternal City would still take
precedence over all others for the
wealth of manuscripts it possesses. In
fact the Vatican Library by itself is
suncient to make any city famous.
The object of the present article is to
deal briefly with the private libraries