LIBRARIES.

Library, in common language, means either an apartment or edifice destined to contain books placed regularly upon shelves, or the books themselves which are therein disposed and arranged. It is in the latter sense only that the term is employed in the present article. The necessity of preserving, in distinct forms, writings relating to particular subjects, first led to the formation of books; and the convenience of being able to compare different writings on the same subject, or to consult various writings on different subjects, naturally suggested the assemblage of books, any considerable collection of which constitutes a library.

Hence in almost all parts of the world where civilization has made any considerable progress, traces may be discovered of the existence of libraries. At the period of the Spanish invasion of South America, for instance, emblems or pictural representations were employed instead of writing, letters being wholly unknown; in Yucatan and Honduras there were books composed of the leaves of trees; and in the kingdom of Mexicothe natives had a library, histories, and calendars, in which they painted such things as had proper figures by their natural representations, and such as had none, by means of various other [7:13:286]characters, so that they expressed in this way whatever they pleased.^[1. Herrera, decade ii. book ix. c. 4. ] This may be considered as a library in its earliest stage; for all those which are described as having belonged to the ancients were composed of rolls, which, though different in form from our books, supplied the place of them, and, when collected, constituted a library, even in the modern acceptation of that term.

The origin of libraries is involved in obscurity. According to some, the distinction of having first made collections of writings belongs to the Hebrews; but others ascribe this honour to the Egyptians. Those who support the former opinion contend that the care which the Hebrews bestowed in preserving their sacred books, in which the history and fortunes of their ancestors, as well as their laws, were recorded, became an example to other nations; whilst those who hold the latter opinion maintain that, as the civilization and learning of Egypt were of much higher antiquity than in almost any other country with the history of which we are acquainted, and as the art of writing was known and practised therein from the earliest times, indeed long before knowledge had dawned amongst any other people, so it maybe presumed that collections of books first began to be made in that region where the art of writing seems to have been originally invented. This question, however, is not one which it is of importance to discuss. It is sufficient to observe, that, in ancient Egypt, the priests appear, from the earliest times, to have kept records or archives, in a character expressly appropriated for the purpose, and hence called hieratic or sacerdotal; that consequently every sacred college contained a library, composed in part at least of such archives; and that, besides, they had written books, in which were inscribed all the knowledge, whether of science or of art, which had either descended to them from their predecessors, or had been the fruit of their own labour and research.

I. ANCIENT LIBRARIES.

As the earliest form of the graphic art appears to have consisted in inscribing or engraving characters on stone, metal, wood, or other durable substance, so the first public libraries were composed exclusively of archives deposited in the temples, that the acts relating to history and public law might there be preserved. This will be found to hold true almost universally. Men invariably begin with what is absolutely necessary to their well-being; and it is only after the lapse of a long interval that time and the progress of improvement add the useful to the necessary, and the ornamental to the useful.

Osymandyas, one of the ancient kings of Egypt,^[2. He is supposed to have lived 600 years after the Deluge, or about the year of the world 2250. ] is said to have been the first who founded a library, and established it in a division or compartment of the edifice which has sometimes been called his palace and sometimes his tomb. On the entrance was inscribed the words, Aυχ ι ης larĝiiov, Medicine of the Soul ; whilst the sculptures upon the walls represented a judge, with the image of truth suspended from his neck, and many books or rolls lying before him. Such is the account given by Diodorus,^[3. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. c. 2. ] who had himself visited Egypt, but who merely mentions the fact, without giving us any information as to its contents. It probably contained works of very remote antiquity, and also the books accounted sacred by the Egyptians, all of which perished amidst the destructive ravages which accompanied and followed the Persian invasion under Cam byses. There was also, according to Eustathius and other ancient writers, a fine library at Memphis, deposited in the temple of Phtha, from which Homer has been accused of having stolen both the Iliad and the Odyssey, and afterwards published them as his own. (See the article Homer.) From this charge, however, the bard has been vindicated by various writers, and by different arguments.

But the most superb library of Egypt, perhaps of the ancient world, was the one founded by Ptolemy Soter, at Alexandria, and enriched by successive sovereigns of that country. About the year 290 b. c. Ptolemy Soter, a learned prince, founded an academy at Alexandria, called the Museum, where there assembled a society of learned men, who were devoted to the study of philosophy and the sciences; and for their use he formed a collection of books, the number of which has been variously computed, by Epiphanius at 54,000, and by Josephus at 200,000.^[4. Encyclopédie, tom. ii. art. Bibliothèque; Joseph. Ant. Jud. lib. xii. c. 2. ] His son Ptolemy Philadelphus, an equally liberal and enlightened prince, collected great numbers of books in the temple of Serapis, in addition to those accumulated by his father, and at his death left in it about 100,000 volumes. He had agents in every part of Asia and of Greece, commissioned to search out and purchase the rarest and most valuable writings; and amongst those he procured were the works of Aristotle, purchased of Neleus,^[5. Athenaeus, lib. i. c. 4, ed. Schweighaeuser. ] and the Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures, designated the Septuagint, which was undertaken at the suggestion of Demetrius Phalereus,, who first executed the office of librarian to this monarch. The measures adopted by Ptolemy Philadelphus, for augmenting the Alexandrian Library, were pursued by his successor Ptolemy Euergetes, with unscrupulous vigour. He caused all books imported into Egypt by Greeks or other foreigners to be seized and sent to the academy or museum, where they were transcribed by persons employed for the purpose; upon which the copies were delivered to the proprietors, and the originals deposited in the library. He borrowed of the Athenians the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus; caused them to be transcribed in the most elegant manner possible; retained the originals for his own library; and returned to the Athenians the copies which had been made of them, with fifteen talents^[6. Upwards of L.3000 sterling. ] for the exchange. As the museum, where die library was originally founded, stood near the royal palace, in the quarter of the city called Bruchion, the books were at first deposited there; but when this building had been completely occupied with books to the number of 400,000 volumes, a supplemental library was erected within the Serapeion, or temple of Serapis; and the books there placed gradually increased to the amount of 300,000 volumes; thus making, in both libraries, a grand total of 700,000 volumes.

The Alexandrian Library continued in all its splendour until the first Alexandrian war, when, during the plunder of the city, the Bruchion portion of the collection was accidentally destroyed by fire, owing to the recklessness of the auxiliary troops. But the library in the Serapeion still remained, and was augmented by subsequent donations, particularly by that of the Pergamean Library, amounting to 200,000 volumes, presented by Mark Antony to Cleopatra; so that it soon surpassed the former both in the number and in the value of its contents. At length, after various revolutions under the Roman emperors, during which the collection was sometimes plundered and sometimes re-established, it was utterly destroyed by the Saracens, under the orders of the Caliph Omar, when they acquired possession [7:13:287]of Alexandria, a. d. 642. Amrou, the victorious general, was himself inclined to spare this inestimable treasury of ancient science and learning; but the ignorant and fanatical caliph, to whom he applied for instructions, ordered it to be destroyed. “If,” said he, “these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran, or book Allah, they are useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.” The sentence of destruction was executed with blind obedience. The volumes of parchment or papyrus were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city; and such was their incredible number, that six months were scarcely sufficient for their combustion.^[7. Hartwell Horne, lntrod. to the Study of Bibliography, vol. i. p. vi. et seq. Gibbon [Deel. and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ix. p. 10) has endeavoured to disprove the positive account given by Abulfaragius, by means of negative arguments. It should be con-idered, however, that the direct and positive statement of an historian of such unquestionable credit as Abulfaragius, cannot be set side by arguments of a negative and hypothetical character. Besides, Gibbon’s references to Aulus Gellius, Ammianus Marcelli-tus, and Orosius, are foreign to the purpose; inasmuch as the destruction referred to by these writers is that which took place in he time of Julius Caesar, after which the library was restored, and continued to flourish, until it was annihilated by the Saracens, in onsequence of the decree of Omar. ]

The ancient Greeks, whose poetry has been to us the primary source of all our profane literature, had as yet no other theology than the system which resulted from observations made on the theory of the different parts of nature, when the Hebrews, in the books of Moses, cited by one of those ancient historians who copied the chronicles,^[8. Hellanicus apud Justinum, Ad Groecos Cohortat, p. 18. ] read the account of the creation, and, along with it, a summary of the traditions of fifteen centuries of continuous history. These books composed the first collection of the Hebrews; but subsequently this people, like most others, had their archives. Those which Herod caused to be burned, with the intention of destroying the monuments of the ancient families, appear to have reached as far back as the very origin of the nation.^[9. Eusebius, Historia Eccles, lib. i. c. 7∙ ] But though he consigned the public records to the flames, those of individuals were beyond his power, and afterwards served to re-establish the history of this subjugated people. There also existed libraries, properly so called, in Judaea. One in particular is supposed to have been attached to, if not kept in, the temple of Jerusalem, and the Hebrew authors speak of “the multitude of books an expression which seems to imply that the collection was not confined to the sacred books alone, but included others, relating probably to the laws and institutions of Moses, and the history of the Jewish nation. The books, particularly those of history, had indeed become so numerous, that Judas Maccabeus caused extracts to be made and circulated from those contained in the library of Nehemiah,^[10. Inferebantur autem in descriptionibus, et commentariis Nehemiae haec eadem; et ut construens bibliothecam congregavit de regio-ibus libros, et prophetarum, et David, et epistolas Regum, et de Donariis. (Machab. lib. ii. c. ii. v. 13.) Considerantes enim mul- ’ tudincm libror um... hoc opus breviandi causa suscepimus. [Machab. lib. ii. c. ix. v. 25.) ] mentioned in the second bookof Esdras, in which also were preserved the writings of the prophets, the compositions of David, the letters of the Hebrew kings, and the records of offerings. As the Jews dwelt alone, and were not reckoned amongst the nations, we know nothing of their early literature, beyond the books which are contained in the Old Testament. It has been supposed, however, that they had some cities celebrated on account of the sciences which were there cultivated. Amongst these may be mentioned the town called by Joshua Kiriath-sepher, or the City of Letters, which was ũtuated near the confines of the tribe of Juda. In later •rues, the university or school of Tiberias was not less celebrated. It is probable that this and other academies of the same description were furnished with libraries.^[11. Encyclopédie, tom. ii. p. 229. ]

Scripture also mentions a library of the kings of Persia, which some suppose to have consisted of the historians of that nation, and of memoirs on the affairs of state, but which appears rather to have been a depository of the laws, charters, and ordinances of the Persian kings. In the Hebrew text it is stated that a search was made “in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon,” for a decree issued by Cyrus ordaining a temple to be built at Jerusalem; the ordinance sought for, however, was found, not in Babylon, but at Acmetha, in Media.^[12. Ezra, chap. v. verse 17; and vi. 1, 2∙ ] It appears that “the house of the rolls” was not a library belonging to the Persians, but a collection of the records or archives of the kingdom. There was formerly a considerable library at Susa, the residence of the Persian sovereigns, where Metasthenes consulted the annals of the Persian monarchy, in search of materials for his history. This library is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus; but, like that referred to by Ezra, it seems rather to have been a collection of laws and records, than an assemblage of books on science or learning.

Amongst the Greeks, as amongst other nations, the first libraries consisted merely of archives, deposited, for the sake of preservation, in the temples of the gods. The sacred books, of which mention is made by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, under the denomination of Deltoids, were of this description. Amongst the most ancient people of Greece these archives comprehended also the genealogies of the royal families; the successions of the priesthood, which served to fix historical epochs; and the titles of public property, engraved, according to their importance, on marble and on brass. Tacitus attests the existence of one of these titles, which was dated twelve hundred years before his time, and the authenticity of which was recognised by the senate in the time of Tiberius.^[13. “Auditae dehinc Lacedaemoniorum et Messeniorum legationes, de jure templi Dianae Limnatidis, quod suis a majoribus, uaque in terra dicatum, Lacedaemonii firmabant annalium memoria, vatumque carminibus...Contra Messenii, veterem inter Herulis posteros divisionem Peloponnesi, protulere, suoque regi Dentheliatem agrum, in quo id delubrum cessisse; monimentaque lŋ s rei sculpta saxis, et aere prisco manere.” (Tacitus, Anńal, lib. iv. sect. 43.) ] Amongst the archives were likewise preserved the ancient chronicles, of which the historians of an epoch anterior to the Peloponnesian war had confined themselves to transcribing the contents, with a rigorous fidelity, without either adding or retrenching any thing, not even the circumstances invented in the fictions of mythology, which criticism soon learned to discriminate and to separate from the actual facts.^[14. Dionysius Halicarnasseus, de Thucyd. Judic. p. 133. ] Of Grecian literature or history we have no authentic information prior to the wars of Thebes and of Troy; and it would therefore be fruitless to seek for any traces of books in that nation before those events. The Lacedaemonians had no books; amongst them writing was considered as a superfluous accomplishment. At Athens, on the contrary, the sciences and literature were diligently cultivated.

Pisistratus the tyrant was the first who established a public library in that city, though Strabo ascribes to Aristotle the honour of having rendered this important service[7:13:288] to his countrymen. In this library he deposited the works of Homer, which he had collected with great difficulty, and at a very considerable expense; and the Athenians themselves were at great pains to increase the collection. The fortunes of this library were various and singular. It was transported to Persia by Xerxes; brought back by Seleucus Nicator; plundered by Sylla; and at last restored by the Emperor Hadrian. On the invasion of the Roman empire by the Goths (a.d. 260), Greece was ravaged; and in the sack of Athens they had collected all the libraries, and were upon the point of setting fire to this funeral pile of ancient learning, when one of their chiefs interposing, dissuaded them from the design, observing at the same time, that as long as the Greeks were addicted to the study of books, they would never apply themselves to that of arms.

Next to the Alexandrian Library, that of Pergamus was the most conspicuous, and, according to Plutarch, contained 200,000 volumes. It was founded and successively enriched by the kings of Pergamus called Eumenes, all of whom were zealous promoters of the arts, and to one of whom we are indebted for the invention of parchment (charta Pergamena). Attalus surpassed all his predecessors in magnificence, and after their example devoted part of his treasures to the purchase of the principal works or writings of his age. As already noticed, the Pergamean library was presented by Antony to Cleopatra, in order to form the foundation of a new library at Alexandria. Vitruvius makes honourable mention of both these libraries.^[15. Tertull. Apol. c. 18. Vitruvius, lib. vii. ∖ η proefat. “lieges Attalici,” says he, “^magnis philologiae dulcedinebus inducti, cum egregiam Bibliothecam Pergami ad communem delectationem instituissent; tunc item Ptolemaeus, infinito zelo cupiditatisque incitatus studio, non minoribus industriis ad cundem modum contenderat Alexandriae comparare.” (Argentorati, 1807·) ] There were other collections of less magnitude, amongst which has been mentioned that of Tyran-nion, a grammarian contemporary with Pompey, which is said to have contained about 30,000 volumes.

These particulars, scanty as they may no doubt seem, are nevertheless sufficient to show that the libraries of Greece, in ancient times, were both numerous and extensive. But a question of much more immediate interest here presents itself, viz. as to whether any of the treasures with which they were enriched still remain undiscovered, and where these may be supposed most likely to be found. On this subject various conjectures have been formed, particularly in regard to the remains of the ancient Greek historians. It is well known that many manuscripts had been collected at a vast expense in Greece for the library of Buda, which was destroyed by the Turks in the year 1526. In this library Alexander Brassicanus had seen the whole of the Hyperides with scholia, the works of many of the Greek fathers, and also those of the classical writers. From it issued parts of Polybius and of Diodorus Siculus. A manuscript of Heliodorus, from which was afterwards printed the first edition of the Aethiopica, likewise belonged to it, having been found by a soldier, who carried it to Vincentius Obsopaeus. Neander, speaking of this collection, says, “Ex media Graecia inaestimandis sumptibus emerat Matthias Corvinus rex.”^[16. Epistola, p. 10. ]

Constantinople and Athos have contributed the greater number of the manuscripts which are still extant in different parts of Europe. Until a comparatively recent period there were monasteries full of learned men at Byzantium, and every monastery had its library. The Turks, on their conquest of Constantinople, did not indulge m that indiscriminate destruction which has sometimes been imputed to them. Mahommed II. secured the library of the Greek emperors, which his successors preserved until it was destroyed by Amurath IV. At Byzantium, Constantine Lascaris transcribed many of the works which were afterwards conveyed to the Royal Library at Madrid; and in this city were procured those manuscripts which, having been presented to Hurtado de Mendoza by Solyman II., were left by the former to the library of the Escorial. Possevin has given partial catalogues of some of the libraries at Constantinople; and an early traveller, who visited that city in the year 1597, mentions a valuable collection which he had seen there, though without specifying its contents. With respect to Athos, it appears that there were deposited in one library alone, two hundred manuscripts originally obtained from the monasteries upon the mountain; and a great part of those formerly at Moscow had been collected by the monk Arsenius, in Athos, at the suggestion of the patriarch Nico. Thessaly, Chios, Corfu, Crete, Cyprus, Chalce,^[17. The island in the Propontis or Sea of Marmora. ] Rhodes, and Epidauria, may also be mentioned as places which, at different times, have supplied manuscripts.^[18. If the life of Professor Biornstahl had been prolonged, we should probably have received much valuable information concerning the libraries in the monasteries of Thessaly. He had visited all of them, and had resided many days at Triccala for the express purpose of copying a Greek manuscript belonging to a monastery. But having been attacked by fever at the foot of Mount Olympus, he remained ten days without medical assistance, after which he was taken to Salonica, where he died in July 177θ∙ Since his death, no one appears to have resumed the search which he had so diligently pursued. ]

Mr Walpole is of opinion, that notwithstanding the acquisitions which have already been made, researches in the Levant should not be intermitted. By these many manuscripts may still, according to him, be rescued from destruction. No care whatever appears to have been taken to preserve them. Dr Covell mentions having seen, in the monasteries of Mount Athos and elsewhere, vast heaps of manuscripts of the Fathers, and other learned authors, all covered over with dust and dirt, many of them rotten and spoiled, and never in any instance placed upon shelves or arranged in good order. Mr Walpole also thinks that an inquiry should be made into the truth of what was stated to Hemsterhusius by some Greeks, viz. that part of the comedies of Menander was still extant. “Application,” says he, “might be made to the Greek nobles of the Phanar, many of whom are versed in ancient Greek, and probably the possessors of some valuable manuscripts. Parts of the first book of the Demonstratio Evangeliea of Eusebius were printed by Fabricius, from a manuscript belonging to Prince Mavrocordato; and a copy of the Greek Orators, now in England, was once the property of a Greek noble.” This, however, is, we fear, much too sanguine. It is probable that many Greek manuscripts have experienced the treatment which works of the same sort have met with in other countries. Poggius, whilst at the council of Constance, found a manuscript of Quintilian upon the table of a pickling shop. Masson met with one of Ago-bardus in the hands of a bookbinder, who was preparing to use it for the back of a book; and one of Asconius was about to be employed for the same purpose. In the roof of a Benedictin monastery, Musculus discovered some of the works of Cicero, and the whole of Ovid. Numbersŉf manuscripts in Greece are irrecoverably. lost, either by design or accident,“by the casualties of war or the havoc of revolution; and of those which may hereafter be met with, it can scarcely be supposed that almost any will prove to be of much value, or of any great antiquity.
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A list of the theological manuscripts in the library of Patmos has been given by Possevin; and another, copied by the Marquis of Sligo, has been published by Mr Walpole. The actual catalogue contains the titles of ninety-two manuscripts, and about 400 printed volumes; but the Greek compiler has not stated any circumstance relating to the manuscripts by which an estimate of their value may be formed. He gives no information concerning the form of the letters or that of the spirits, or upon any of those subjects by which a knowledge of their respective dates might be obtained. But there is one manuscript mentioned in the catalogue, in regard to which it is impossible not to feel more than ordinary curiosity. We allude to a manuscript of Diodorus Siculus, an accurate inspection of which would probably determine whether the hopes which were oftener than once entertained, of recovering the lost books of that historian, were in this instance also to be disappointed.^[19. See Mr Walpole’s observations on this subject, published in Dr Clarke’s Travels. ] But, without dwelling longer upon particulars, we may observe, that notwithstanding the sanguine expectations entertained by the admirers of ancient learning, very few valuable manuI (scripts have latterly been discovered; and, with the exception of the fragments of ancient authors, deciphered from palimpsest or rescribed manuscripts, it must be admitted, that those accidentally rescued from destruction have, in general, been either of comparatively modern date or of but little consequence. Neither the inquiries which have been extended to the African states, nor the excavations and researches made at Herculanum and Pompeii, have recovered the lost historians, or indeed brought to light ιny works of importance.^[20. Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom. vii.; Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique par deux Bénédictins; Villoisou, A∏ecdota lmca, torn. ii.; Fabricius, Bibliotheca Groeca, tom. xiv.—A letter written at Patmos on the 28th of February 1832, by Professor Ehiersch of Munich, gives some interesting information respecting the library of that celebrated island. “We left Geronta on .he 23d February,” says he, “and reached this island, after experiencing the fury of a violent storm. The town is situated upon he summit of a mountain in the rear of the harbour, and, rising above it like a citadel, stands the monastery of John the Baptist.” ÍLfter the travellers had dried themselves in a storehouse at the harbour, they proceeded to pay their respects to the Hegumenos of he monastery, and the patriarch of Alexandria, who was upon a visit to his birth-place, Patmos; and Thiersch and his companions met hearty welcome under the prelate’s roof, and were received in the far-famed library of the fraternity of monks, which was their rincipal inducement to visit the island; but, as far as manuscripts connected with ancient literature were concerned, they found one of striking importance. A codex of Diodorus Siculus, extending from the eleventh to the eighteenth book, contained nothing ut what has appeared in print; and the readings, so far as Thiersch had an opportunity of investigating them, were not of much iterest. lie attached greater value to a manuscript of Paulus Aegineta, which is of the ninth or tenth century, and upon a care-ιιl examination of which he expresses a confident opinion, that valuable emendations may in consequence be made on the text of ⅛ineta’s work. The library contains enough in grammatical treatises, glossaries, lexicos, and scholia, to afford employment to a oung philologist for six months at least; and it is particularly rich in ancient manuscripts of the Bible, amongst which are a Greek þanuscript of the book of Job, another of two of the Gospels with commentaries, a third exhibiting the musical characters of the h ’ eek church, and others containing the works of some of its fathers. As these are considered in the light of sacred relics, none of ,hem have been injured, and they are in a respectable state of preservation. But the heathen manuscripts, on the contrary, he altered about and cut to pieces; whilst those on cotton paper, having been severely treated by the moths, were, in the course of I he last century, thrown by the monks into the oven which they used for baking their bread; an act of literary sacrilege for which i . *ιese monastic destroyers deserved to have been themselves baked in their own oven. Three or four, which chance saved from deruction, were purchased by Dr Clarke, and are now safely deposited in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. (Journal of Education, vol. PP∙ 17G, 177-) ] (See thearticle Herculaneum.) Rome was still in its infancy when the archives of the Etruscans contained a continuous collection of public acts, and particularly an uninterrupted series of births and deaths, that enabled that people to fix the unequal duration of the eight centuries of their previous history, which hey reckoned up to about the middle of the sixth century before Christ. The details given by Censorinus in Varro, prove that the Etruscans kept regular registers of births and deaths, from the epoch of their first establishment in Italy, which Larcher refers to the year 1344 before Christ; that, the eighth century thereafter, to which lie Etruscan histories were written, must have been the sixth before the Christian era, in which other histories appeared that arc no longer extant; and that, during these eight hundred years, the most extended term of human life was nearly the same as at the present day. In the works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, of Plutarch, and other ancient authors, we also discover scattered glimpses of the history of Italy in the most remote times, and learn that the tribes or races by whom the Etruscans were surrounded had also their historical archives. It may even be supposed that the Romans, in causing their Capitoline marbles to be engraved, followed, amongst others, the example of Praeneste; a city much more ancient than Rome, and which had long continued the practice of classifying as well as engraving its municipal records. Such were the sources consulted by several historians who treated of the antiquities of different Italian nations, particularly Zenodotus of Troezene, who composed a history of the Ombrians.

If the ancient Greeks had but few books, the ancient Romans possessed still fewer. Incessantly occupied in military expeditions, defensive wars, and the aggrandisement of their empire, that warlike people had no leisure, and, probably, as little inclination, to cultivate letters. It was not until they had subdued Magna Graecia that they began to emerge out of barbarism, nor until they had accomplished the conquest of Greece itself, that a taste for the arts, sciences, and books was diffused amongst them. They became civilized by frequent contact and familiarity with civilization. The immediate consequence of the conquest of Greece was a more frequent intercourse with the Greeks, at once their subjects and their masters; and in proportion as they became acquainted with the literature and arts of that refined people, the asperity of character and manners which had distinguished this nation of conquerors began to disappear.

The first library established at Rome was that founded by Paulus Aemilius, b. c. 167. Having subdued Perses, king of Macedonia, he enriched the city of Rome with the library of this conquered monarch, which was subsequently augmented by Sylla.^[21. Such is the statement of Isidorus {Origines, 1. vi. c. 4), though Plutarch (⅛ Vit. Aemil. tom. ii. p. 180, ed. Bryan) expressiv says ιat he reserved for his sons, who were literary men. the books taken from the library of King Perses. ] On his return from Asia, where he had successfully terminated the first war against Mithridates, Sylla visited Athens, whence he took with him the library of Apellicon the Teian, in which were the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus. Lucullus, another conqueror of Mithridates, was not less distinguished by his taste for books. The number of volumes in his library was immense; and they were written in the most distinct and elegant manner possible. But the use which he made of his collection was still more honourable to that princely Roman than the acquisition or possession of it. His library was open to all; and the Greeks, who visited Rome, resorted to the galleries and portico of Lucullus as to the retreat of the Muses, where they spent [7:13:290] whole days in conversation on literary subjects. But although both Sylla and Lucullus liberally gave public access to their literary treasures, still their libraries can, in strictness, be considered as only private collections. Amongst the various projects which Julius Caesar had formed for the embellishment of Rome was that of a public library, which should contain the largest possible collection of Greek and Latin works; and he had assigned to Varro the duty of selecting and arranging them; but this design was frustrated by the assassination of the dictator, and the establishment of public libraries did not take place until the reign of Augustus.

The honour of suggesting these valuable institutions is ascribed by the elder Pliny^[22. “Qui primus bibliothecam dicando, ingenio hominum rem publicam fecit. (Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxv. c∙ 2.) Ovid also ascribes this honour to Pollio. {Tristia, lib. iii. el. 1.) ] to Assinus Pollio, who erected a public library in the Court of Liberty on the Aventine Hill. Augustus, amongst other embellishments which he bestowed upon Rome, erected two public libraries, viz. the Octavian and the Palatine. The Octavian Library, which was thus denominated in honour of the emperor’s sister, stood in the porticoof Octavia; and the charge of it was committed to Melissus, who had been manumitted by Augustus. The Palatine Library was added by Augustus to the temple of Apollo, which he had erected on the site of that part of the Palatine House which had been struck by lightning. There were deposited the corrected books of the Sybils; and, from two ancient inscriptions quoted by Lipsius and Pitiscus, it would seem that it consisted of two distinct collections, one Greek and the other Latin. This library having survived the various revolutions of the Roman empire, existed until the time of Gregory the Great, whose mistaken zeal led him to order all the writings of the ancients to be destroyed.^[23. Plutarch, in Marcello; Suet, de IUust. Gram. c. 41; Idem in August, c. 29; Lipsius de Biblioth. c. 7; Pitiscus, Lexico, torn· ί· p. 276; Brucker, Hist. Crit∙ Philosoph, tom. i. p. 20. ] The successors of Augustus, though they did not equally encourage learning, were not altogether neglectful of its interests. Suetonius informs us that Tiberius founded a library in the new temple of Apollo; and we learn from some incidental notices, that he instituted another in his own house, called the Tiberian Library. Vespasian, following the example of his predecessors, established a library in the Temple of Peace, which he erected after the burning of the city by order of Nero; and even Domitian, in the commencement of his reign, restored at great expense the libraries which had been destroyed by the conflagration, collecting copies of books from every quarter, and sending persons to Alexandria to transcribe volumes in that celebrated collection, or to correct copies which had been made elsewhere. Various writers have asserted that there was a library attached to the Temple of the Capitol; but they have not informed us by whom it was founded. Lipsius ascribes it to Domitian, whilst Donatus refers it to the Emperor Hadrian, by whom it was at least enlarged, if not founded, and who probably erected the Tiburtine Library, at Tibur, in the vicinity of Rome.^[24. Suet, in Tiber, c. 74, et in Vespas, c. 9; Aul. Gell lib. xvi. c. 8; Lipsius de Biblioth. c. 20; Suet, in Domitian, c. 20. ] But the most magnificent of all the libraries founded by the sovereigns of imperial Rome was that of the Emperor Ulpius Trajanus, from whom it was denominated the Ulpian Library. It was erected in Trajan’s Forum, but afterwards removed to the Viminal Hill, to ornament the baths of Diocletian. In this library were deposited the elephantine books, written upon tablets of ivory, wherein were recorded the transactions of the emperors, the proceedings of the senate and Roman magistrates, and the affairs of the provinces. It has been conjectured that the Ulpian Library consisted of both Greek and Latin works; and some authors affirm that Trajan commanded all the books which could be found in the cities he had conquered to be immediately conveyed to Rome, in order to increase his collection. The library of Domitian having been consumed by lightning, in the reign of Commodus, was not restored until the time of Gordian who rebuilt the edifice, and founded a new library, adding thereto the collection of books bequeathed to him by Quintus Serenus Samonicus, the physician, amounting, it is said, to no less than 72,000 volumes. Donatus conjectures that this library was deposited in the palace of Pompey.^[25. Encyclopédie, tom. ii. art. Bibliothèque ; Euseb. in Commodo; Capitolinus, in Vit. Gordiani Junioris, c. 18; Donatus, Roma Vetus, lib. iii. c. 8, p. 119. ]

In addition to the imperial libraries, there were others to which the public had access in the principal cities and colonies of the empire. Pliny mentions a public library which he had founded for the use of his countrymen; and Vopiscus informs us that the Emperor Tacitus caused the historical writings of his illustrious namesake to be deposited in the libraries. The number of calcined volumes, which have been excavated from the ruins of Herculanum and Pompeii would also seem to indicate that collections of hooks were common in those cities. (See the article Herculaneum). But the irruptions of the barbarians who overran and desolated the western empire proved more destructive to the interests of literature than either volcanoes or earthquakes, and soon caused the disappearance of those libraries which, during several centuries, had been multiplied in Italy. The libraries of the East, however, escaped this devastating torrent; and both Alexandria and Constantinople preserved their literary treasures, until the capture of those cities by the Saracens and the Turks, who finally subverted the Roman empire in the East.^[26. Hartwell. Horne, Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, vol. i. p. xv. et seq∙ ]

When Constantine the Great (a. d. 336) made Byzantium the seat of his empire, he decorated that city with splendid edifices, and called it after his own name. Desirous to make reparation to the Christians for the injuries they had suffered during the reign of his predecessor, he commanded the most diligent search to be made after those books which Diocletian had doomed to destruction; he caused transcripts to be made of such as had escaped the fury of the Pagan persecutor; and, having collected others from various quarters, he formed the whole into a library at Constantinople. On the death of Constantine, however, the number of books in the imperial library was only 6900; but it was successively enlarged by the Emperors Julian and Theodosius the younger, who augmented it to 120,000 volumes. Of these, more than half were burned, in the seventh century, by the command of the Emperor Leo III. who thus sought to destroy all the monuments that might be quoted in proof respecting his opposition to the worship of images. In this library was deposited the only authentic copy of the Council of Nice; and it is also said to have contained the poems of Homer, written in gold letters, together with a magnificent copy of the Four Gospels, bound in plates of gold, enriched with precious stones; all of which were consumed in the conflagration. The convulsions which distracted the lower empire were by no. means favourable to the interests of literature. In the eleventh century learning flourished for a short time during the reign of Constantine Porphyrogennetus; and this emperor is said to have employed many [7:13:291] learned Greeks in collecting books, and forming a library, the arrangement of which he himself superintended. But the final subversion of the eastern empire, and the capture of Constantinople in 1453, dispersed the literati of Greece over western Europe, and placed the literary remains of that capital at the mercy of the conqueror. The imperial library, however, was preserved by the express command of Mohammed, and continued, it is said, to be kept in some apartments of the Seraglio; but whether it was sacrificed in a fit of devotion by Amurath IV. as is commonly supposed, or whether it was suffered to fall into decay from ignorance and neglect, it is now certain that the library of the Sultan contains only Turkish and Arabic writings, and not one Greek or Latin manuscript of any importance.

Upon the whole, it appears that books were abundant, both at Rome and at Constantinople, and that learned men in Those cities had at their command greater resources than might at first be supposed. Some idea of the quantity of books accessible to persons of study and research may be formed from the great number of references and citations to be found in the works of some authors, particularly in those of Strabo, Pliny, and some others.

II.—LIBRARIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

General epithets and figurative expressions frequently convey a meaning which is calculated to mislead. Hearing constantly of “the dark ages,” “the period of intellectual night,” and “the season of winter in the history of man,” we are apt to imagine that, during the time thus designated, the human mind was utterly palsied, and all learning extinct. But in fact, throughout that period, reason, though misdirected, was not asleep; philosophy was rather bewildered than inert; and learning was immured, but not lost. In no part of that long period which extends from the reign of the Emperor Justinian, when Greek and Roman literature everywhere lay open to the light of day, to the fall of Constantinople and the revival of learning in the fifteenth century, do we entirely lose the traces even of the classic authors, much less of sacred literature; for in each intervening age, and in every quarter of Europe, there were writers whose works, being still extant, afford abundant evidence of their acquaintance with most of the principal authors of more remote times.^[27. Taylor, History of the Transmission of Ancient Books to Modern Times, pp. 8G, 87. ] When the empire of the west sunk under the overwhelming pressure of barbarian invasion, those institutions which hadbeen founded and nurtured in the midst of civilization, were, no doubt, swept away by the torrent which desolated Italy, and spread its ravages over all parts of the empire. But learning, though expelled from her ancient establishments, and forced from her favourite haunts, found a safe asylum in the monasteries, which, amidst all the violence and anarchy that reigned without, remained in undisturbed tranquillity, respected even by the barbarians who had overthrown an empire.

It is doubtless true that little comparatively is recorded of the libraries of those ages which intervened between the fall of the Roman empire and the revival of letters in Europe about the middle of the fifteenth century. But, as we shall immediately have occasion to show, every age produced learned and inquisitive men, by whom books were highly prized, and industriously collected. Cassiodorus, minister of Theodore, king of the Goths, retired to a monastery which he had built, and there founded a library for the use of the monks, about the middle of the sixth century. At a later period, Charlemagne, distinguished as a patron of learning, instituted, near Lyons, a library, which, according to the statements of historians, contained books bound in a magnificent manner. After this the monasteries almost exclusively possessed libraries, which were increased by the accessions of centuries; and had the zeal of religious reformation been as little destructive to learning as the invasions of the northern barbarians, numberless monuments of ancient learning which are now irrecoverably lost might have been in the hands of every scholar.

The monastic institutions seemed as if framed for the special purpose of transmitting the remains of ancient literature, sacred and profane, through a period in which, except for so extraordinary a provision, they must inevitably have perished. Though there were considerable diversities in the rules and practices of the different orders of monks, the elements of the monastic life were in all orders and in every country the same; and, generally speaking, wherever there was a monastery there was also a manufacture of books. The transcription of ancient works, the only mode in which, anterior to the invention of printing, they could be multiplied and preserved, was a favourite employment among the inmates of these peaceful retreats; and an opinion of meritoriousness attached to the labour, served to animate the diligence, and to encourage the perseverance, of the labourer.^[28. “This book, copied by Μ. N. for the benefit of his soul, was finished in the year 948; may the Lord think upon him !” Such is the subscription of many of the manuscripts of the middle ages; and to us, we confess, there is something almost affecting in iţs pious simplicity. ] If in some monasteries the monks employed themselves in transcribing nothing but missals, legends, and romances, others enriched their libraries with splendid copies of the works of the fathers of the church, and of the Holy Scriptures; and not a few laboured to reproduce such of the classical authors as they were acquainted with or could obtain access to. This system of transcription, to which alone we arc indebted for all that remains of ancient learning, was carried on to an extent of which those who are unacquainted with the history of the middle ages can form no conception. We have already had occasion to advert to the occupation of the inmates of the monastic establishments on Mount Athos, the lofty promontory which stretches from the Macedonian coast far into the Aegean Sea; and we have also noticed the immense number of manuscripts which have at different times issued from these establishments. Many manuscripts still extant prove that the copying of books was likewise practised to a great extent during the middle ages, in the monasteries of the Morea, and in those of Euboea (Negropont), and of Crete (Candia). The latter island seems indeed to have been a place of refuge for learned men during the disastrous period which preceded the fall of the eastern empire; in its monasteries they found an asylum and the means of subsistence. In Calabria and the kingdom of Naples, fifty religious establishments have been mentioned, from which proceeded a large number of the books afterwards collected in the libraries of Rome, Florence, Venice, and Milan.^[29. Taylor, History of the Transmission of Ancient Books, p. 83. ] In the monasteries of western Europe, also, especially in those of the British islands, the same system of transcription was carried on. Books were multiplied, and, by their multiplication, preserved, whilst the knowledge of their contents was extended. In a word, it is mainly to the labours of these establishments, that we are indebted for the remains of the classic authors, and the preservation of the sacred books, which they so carefully transcribed.
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Under the impression produced by certain loose modes of speaking in relation to the deep and universal ignorance which is said to have prevailed in Europe during seven centuries, the existence of a large number of manuscripts of the classical authors, executed during those very ages, presents a great apparent difficulty. From what motive, it may be asked, or for whose use, were these works transcribed so frequently as to be found in all parts of Europe on the revival of learning? Was this an employment which ignorance would have selected, or which ignorance could have encouraged and promoted? A rapid survey of those ages of darkness, as they are called, will to some extent furnish a solution of the difficulty, by proving that, during these times of general intellectual lethargy, there were not a few individuals who cultivated letters with ardour, and to whom the preservation of books was a matter of the most lively interest. The names which we are about to mention bear but a small proportion to the total number which might be produced, it being sufficient for our purpose to refer to one or two writers in each century; but brief as our exposition must necessarily be, it will nevertheless serve to show that learning was not then comp'ete-ly abandoned to neglect and oblivion.

The sixth century abounds with writers in all departments of literature, many of whose works, having descended to modern timcs, afford evidence of the undiminished diffusion of general learning. Amongst these may be mentioned Procopius, the historian; Agathias, his continuator; Boethius, author of the Consolation of Philosophy; FIcsychius, the lexicorapher; Proclus, a Platonic philosopher; Fulgentius and Cassiodorus, ecclesiastical writers; Priscian, the grammarian; Gildas, an Anglo-Saxon historian; Evagrius Scholasticus, an ecclesiastical historian; Simplicius, the commentator of Aristotle and Epictetus; Ammianus Marcellinus, a critic and historian whose works contain very copious references to ancient literature; and Stephen of Byzantium, a grammarian and geographer. The seventh century produced fewer writers than perhaps any other period of equal extent within the compass of history. The only names deserving to be mentioned are those of Theopbylact of Simocatta, who wrote a history of the Emperor Mauritius; and Isidore, an ecclesiastical writer.

In the latter part of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century flourished the Venerable Bede, whose writings afford a proof of the general diffusion of books of all classes in that age. Bede displays extensive if not profound learning, the whole of which he had acquired from the sources ordinarily accessible to monastic students. He was a poet, a rhetorician, an arithmetician, a chronologist, a geographer, a philosopher, and an historian;^[30. Sixtus Sennensis, a learned Italian of the sixteenth century, quoted by Blount, in his Censura Celebriorum Authoruni. ] he was versed in the profane authors, says Bale, beyond any man of that age, and derived his physics and general learning, not from turbid streams, but from pure fountains, that is, from the principal Greek and Latin authors. Even during his life, and whilst he still continued to write, his works were, by the ordinance of the British bishops, appointed to be read in the churches.^[31. When it is remembered that Bede passed his life in a remote monastery (St Peter and St Paul, on the Tyne, in the diocese of Durham), his various learning is at least a proof that the means of acquiring it were within his reach. ] Alcuin, a disciple of Bede, contributed much, by his learning, and his influence at the court of Charlemagne,^[32. Charlemagne laboured zealously to restore learning both in the church and out of it. He invited learned men to his court, employed them in making Latin translations of the Greek classics and the Fathers; founded public schools; and introduced regulations tor making a certain degree of education indispensable to all who held office in the church. Muratori, speaking of the exertions of this prince, js also loud in praise or Great Britain and Ireland, “which, in the study of the liberal arts,” says he, “surpassed all other nations of the West in those times.” “Nor,” he adds,must we omit to record the diligence of the monks of those countries, who raised and maintained the glory of letters which everywhere else was languishing or fallen.” ] to assist that enlightened prince in his endeavours to effect the restoration of literature. He was skilled in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages; he gave lectures in all the sciences; he founded many public schools; and his works, historical and theological, which are still in part extant, justify the reputation he enjoyed.^[33. Alcuin, in his letters, quotes familiarly Virgil, Ovid, and Horace. ]

Haban Maurus, a disciple of Alcuin, taught theology, philosophy, poetry, and rhetoric, at Paris, in the school established there by the Anglo-Saxon monks. According to Trithemius, he was well versed in the Holy Scriptures, and thoroughly learned in profane literature. He enriched the monastery of Fulda, on the Rhine, with a large collection of books; founded a school there; and trained in every branch of learning two hundred and seventy monks belonging to the establishment. He was created archbishop of Mayence in 847, and died in 856. One of the first professors in the university of Oxford was John Scot, a man of considerable acquirements. He afterwards went to France, where he translated some Greek authors into Latin, but so literally that his versions were almost unintelligible. His writings display various learning; but they were condemned as heretical by the church, on account of his opinions relative to the eucharist. Being forced to leave France, he took refuge in an English monastery, which, however, afforded him no asylum. At the instigation of the monks, he was, like Cassianus, killed by his scholars, with their iron styles. Contemporary with Scot was Photius, with whom no author of that, or of several succeeding ages, can be compared. Educated for secular employments, and for some time engaged in the service of Michael III., he was by that emperor forcibly invested with the dignity of patriarch of Constantinople (856), in the room of Ignatius; and, that he might pass regularly to this office, he was made monk, reader, sub-deacon, deacon, priest, and patriarch, all in the course of six days. From the office thus violently thrust upon him he was expelled by Basilius, the successor of Michael; but, at the head of a band of soldiers, he repossessed himself of the patriarchate, of which, however, he was at length finally 7 deprived, by similar means, and upon this retired to a monastery, where he ended his days. Before his elevation he had composed the MyriobibUon, which, in the form of criticisms, analyses, and extracts, contains accounts of more than two hundred and seventy works, exhibits numerous valuable fragments from authors whose works have perished, and affords important aid in ascertaining the genuineness of many 7 remains of ancient literature.

Though of the existing manuscripts so large a number were executed in the tenth century, as to prove that, in the reproduction of books, great activity prevailed in that age, yet it presents the names of but few authors whose works have descended to modern times. Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, wrote an universal history which is still∙cxtant, and, though crowded with fabulous narratives, displays considerable learning.

The eleventh century is much richer in distinguished names. Avicenna, an Arabian physician, reduced the science of medicine to a systematic form, including almost every thing that had been written on the subject by his predecessors, and was, besides, well versed in Greek literature. Michael Psellus, a Greek physician, wrote upon subjects of all kinds, and was celebrated for the extent of his acquirements both in sacred and in profane [7:13:293]learning. Lanfranco, an Italian, created archbishop of Canterbury by William the Norman, promoted learning amongst the clergy, and was esteemed accomplished in the literature of his age. Anselm, the disciple and successor of Lanfranco, was also in repute for general learning. The works of Suidas, like those of Photius, contain a treasure of various learning upon points of criticism and literary history; whilst his lexico, besides the definitions of words, includes accounts of ancient authors, and quotations from works which have since perished. Sigibert, a monk of Brabant, has left a chronicle of events from the year 381 to his own time, and a work containing lives of illustrious men; he was, besides, profoundly versed in the Scriptures, and inferior .to none of his countrymen in general learning.

The name of Anna Comnena distinguishes the early portion of the twelfth century. She wrote a history of the reign of her father, the Emperor Alexius Conmenus; a work which displays a masculine understanding, and an extensive acquaintance with literature and the sciences. During this century England produced several eminent writers, particularly William of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Joseph of Exeter,^[34. ' Author of two Latin poems, one on the Trojan war, and another on the war of Antioch, or the Crusade. ] and, somewhat later, Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, esteemed the most learned man of western Europe in those times. Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, flourished towards the close of the twelfth century. His commentaries on Homer, besides serving to elucidate the Greek language by important criticisms, contain innumerable references to the Greek classics, and thus furnish the means of ascertaining the integrity and genuineness of the text of those authors, as it has descended to our times. John and Isaac Tzetzes, critics and grammarians of Constantinople, are still consulted as commentators upon some of the Greek authors.

Robert Grostest, or Greathead, bishop of Lincoln, was , celebrated for his skill in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, as well as for the bold resistance he offered to the exactions of the supreme pontiff.^[35. Camden says of Greathead, “he was versed in the languages, and in general literature, in a degree scarcely credible, when the ⅛' e in which he lived is considered; a terrible reprover of the pope, the adviser of his king [Henry III.], and a lover of truth.” ] Matthew Paris, the English historian, displays in his works an acquaintance with ancient learning,anda familiar knowledge of the antiquities of his native country. He vigorously opposed the papal usurpations in England; and his reputation for learning i and virtue enabled him to effect a considerable reformation in many of the English monasteries. He died in the year 1259. The works of Albert, surnamed the Great, a Dominican friar, and afterwards (in 1260) bishop of Ratisbon, fill twenty-one volumes, forming a sort of encyclopaedia of the learning and science of the age. Like Roger Baeon, Albert of Ratisbon incurred amongst his contemporaries the suspicion of dealing in magic. Learning, in the more restricted sense of the term,, that is, the knowledge of books, was too common to excite wonder or envy; but science, or a knowledge of nature, acquired by experimental investigation, was so rare, that it seldom failed to engender both, and to occasion perilous accusations of a correspondence with infernal agents.

The revival of learning is usually reckoned to have commenced in the fifteenth century; but even in the fourteenth a decided advancement in almost every department of literature is discernible. Gross and degrading 1 gnorance was wearing away from the bulk of the community in several parts of Europe; the educated classes were acquiring a better taste and more expanded views; and a general awakening of the energies of the human mind was perceptible. This needs no other evidence than is afforded by the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccacio, Chaucer, and Gower, which were not merely produced in that period, but extensively read and admired. During no part of that long tract of time which extends from the decline of learning in the sixth century till its revival in the fifteenth, had there been a total extinction of the knowledge of ancient literature; and those inestimable treasures which the religious houses had saved from the ravages of revolution, anarchy, and barbarism, now began to be drawn forth and studied. The continuance of the eastern empire till the middle of the fifteenth century, afforded an uninterrupted protection to Greek learning during those periods when western Europe was laid waste by the Gothic nations; and hence, on the revival of letters, the study of the Greek authors first engaged the attention of those individuals whom an awakening impulse now directed to the cultivation of learning. But that of the kindred authors of Rome soon followed; and the monuments of ancient wisdom and genius which had been preserved in the monasteries, furnished ample materials for laying the foundations of a new and more extensive, if not more perfect, edifice of civilization.

More than half a century before the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, the learned men of the imperial city, apprehending the approaching ruin of the empire, began to emigrate into Italy, where they opened schools, and became the preceptors of princes, as well as the guides of the public taste, which they directed towards the study of the classical writers of Greece and Rome. The fall of Constantinople, in 1453, filled the Italian cities with these learned strangers. At this period the Italians required only to receive some kind of direction, and to be provided with the means of study. They had for some time been placed in those peculiar circumstances which have almost always proved favourable to the advancement of the human mind. A number of independent states were crowded upon a narrow space, throughout which the same language, diversified by dialects, prevailed, exhibiting, in a sort of reflected or secondary form, that of ancient Italy'. The energy’, rivalry, and munificence which accompany commerce, kept the whole mass of society in movement; whilst the influence of a religion, which seeks to recommend itself by every embellishment that the genius of man can devise or execute, overruled the debasing tendency of successful trade, and directed the ambition of princely merchants towards objects more refined and intellectual than those which wealth usually selects as the means of distinction.

The formation of libraries, suggested or favoured by the mportation of manuscripts from Constantinople, proved the means not only of making more widely known the works of the Greek authors (which had never fallen into oblivion), but of prompting those researches which issued in the recovery of the Latin writers, many of whom had long been forgotten. The appetite for books being thus revived and quickened, neither labour nor expense was spared in accumulating them; learned men were despatched in all directions throughout Europe, Western Asia, and Africa, to collect manuscripts; and, in the course of a few years, most of the authors now known were brought together in the libraries of Rome, Naples, Venice, Florence, Vienna, and Paris. Aided by the munificence of princes and popes, the scholars of the fifteenth century applied themselves to the discovery, restoration, and publication of the remains of Greek and Roman literature; and, in the course of sixty or eighty years, most of the [7:13:294] works now known were committed to the press. Since that time additional discoveries have been made; but the principal improvements of a subsequent date have consisted in the emendation of the text of ancient authors, partly by a more extensive collation of manuscripts than the first editors possessed the means of instituting, and partly also by the lights and aids of a cautious and judicious criticism.^[36. Taylor, Hist, of the Transm. of Ancient Books, p. 10G. “This restoration,” continues Mr Taylor, ςζ of the remains of ancient works to their pristine integrity, has not been effected like that of a dilapidated building or mutilated statue, by the addition of ∏e" r materials in an imagined conformity with the plan and taste of the original work, but by the industrious collection and replacement of the very particles of which it first consisted.” ]

The invention of printing, by virtually exempting books from the operation of the law which subjects all human things to decay, has also greatly promoted the process of their renovation. By giving to the issue of an edition of a standard work a degree of importance several hundred times greater than that which belonged to the transcription of a single copy, it has called for a proportionally larger amount of learning, diligence, and caution, in the work of revision; and, by enabling each successive editor to avail himself of the labours of his predecessors, all the advantages resulting from the concentration of many minds upon the same subject have further been secured. Since the fifteenth century, therefore, the lapse of time, instead of gradually impairing and corrupting the literary remains of antiquity, has incessantly contributed to their renovation; what was then unknown or doubtful, imperfect or corrupted, has been ascertained, restored, and completed; and the learning and industry of the four centuries which have since elapsed, being constantly directed towards the same object, have left but few questions of literary antiquity open to controversy. Books are no longer liable to the hazard of extinction from political changes or the decline of learning in this or that country. Unless an universal devastation should overtake every region of the civilized world, the body of learning and science now extant can neither perish nor suffer corruption. And thus it is that the written records of distant ages, as well as the products of modern genius, industry, and research, are secured from extinction by a mode of conservation less liable to extensive hazard than any other that can be imagined.^[37. Taylor, History of the Transm. of Ancient Books, ρ. 108. ]

III. MODERN LIBRARIES.

Louis Jacob, a Carmelite who wrote on the subject of libraries about the middle of the seventeenth century, enumerates above eleven hundred collections of books, ancient and modern.^[38. See Traité des plus belles Bibliothèques, passim. ] Many of these were no doubt contained in monasteries, which have since been suppressed, and others did not perhaps possess sufficient consequence to merit specification; but still the numerical amount of them must satisfy the reader as to the impracticability of attempting to comprise, in an article like the present, a complete list, much less a detailed description, of such collections. All that we propose, therefore, under this head, is to extract from the materials before us such particulars as, when thrown together in a condensed form, may serve to convey an accurate idea of the general character, contents, and classification of the principal modern libraries of Europe; and, with this view, as well as for convenient reference, we shall arrange them under their respective heads of British Libraries, and Foreign Libraries. Oritish Libraries.

The principal libraries in Great Britain are those of the British Museum and other institutions in London, Lambeth, Oxford, Cambridge, and Althorp, in England; the Advocates’, Writers’, and College Libraries, Edinburgh, and those of the universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, in Scotland; and, lastly, that of Trinity College, in the capital of Ireland.

The library of the British Museum, which is now considered as the great national depository of science, literature, art, and antiquities, has been composed of various collections successively obtained, and is chiefly remarkable for its numerous and valuable manuscript acquisitions.

The department of printed boohs consisted originally of the libraries of Sir Hans Sloane and Major Edwards, which were acquired about the middle of last century. In 1757, George II., by an instrument under the great seal, added the library of the kings of England, the printed books of which had been collected from the time of Henry VIL, and the manuscripts from a much earlier date. This collection was very rich in the prevailing literature of different periods; and it included, amongst others, the libraries of Archbishop Cranmer, of Henry prince of Wales, and of Isaac Casaubon. His majesty annexed to his gift the privilege which the royal library had acquired in the reign of Queen Anne, of being supplied with a copy of every publication entered at Stationers’ Hall. The same department was further enriched, in 1763, by a donation from George III. of a collection of pamphlets and periodical papers published in England between 1640 and 1660, and chiefly illustrative of the civil wars in the time of Charles I., by whom the collection was commenced.

It would be vain to attempt a detailed enumeration of all the additions which have since been made, whether by gift or by purchase. Amongst the smaller acquisitions may be mentioned Dr Thomas Birch’s library; two collections of books on musical science from Sir John Hawkins, and one from Dr Charles Burney; Garrick’s collection of old English plays; numerous classics from the library of Mr Thomas Tyrwhitt, with his manuscript notes; Sir William Musgrave’s collection of biography; a collection of classics, enriched with Dr Bentley’s manuscript notes; a library of ceremonials, processions, and heraldry, from Mrs Sophia Sarah Banks; and a collection of Italian history and topography, from Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Amongst the larger and more important are, the general library collected by the Rev. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode; the law library of Mr Francis Hargrave; the library of science which belonged to the Baron de Moll of Munich; the libraries of Μ. Guin-guené, author of the Histoire Littéraire d’Italie, and of the Rev. Dr Charles Burney; and Sir Joseph Banks’s library of natural history. Four separate collections of tracts, illustrative of the revolutionary history of France, have been purchased at different times by the trustees, in the exercise of the powers with which they are invested. One of these was the collection formed by the last president of the parliament of Bretagne, at the commencement of the revolution; two others extended generally throughout the whole revolutionary period; and the fourth consisted of a collection of tracts published during the reign of the hundred days in 1815; forming altogether a body of materials for the history of the revolution as complete in regard to France as the collection of pamphlets and tracts already mentioned is with respect to that of the civil wars of England in the time of Charles I. Another feature of the Museum Library is its progressive collection of newspapers from the appearance of the first of these publications in 1588. Sir Hans Sloane had formed a great collection for his day. But to this was [7:13:295]ιdded, in 1818, the Burney collection, purchased at the estimated value of L.1000; and since that period the commissioners of stamps have continued periodically to forward to the Museum, copies of all newspapers deposited by the publishers in their office.

In 1823, the Royal Library collected by George III. was presented to the British nation by his successor, George IV., ιnd ordered by parliament to be added to the library of the British Museum, but to be kept for ever separate from the >ther books in that institution. The general plan of its formation appears to have been determined on by George III. soon after his accession to the throne; and the first extensive purchase made for it was that of the library of Mr Joseph Smith, British consul at Venice, in 1762, for vhich his majesty paid about L.10,000. In 1768, Mr (afterwards Sir Frederick) Barnard, the librarian, was despatched o the Continent by his majesty; and, as the Jesuits’ houses vere then being suppressed, and their libraries sold, through-nit Europe, he was enabled to purchase, upon the most l dvantageous terms, a great number of valuable books, including some very remarkable rarities,^[39. Amongst these may be mentioned the Florence Homer of 1488, which formerly brought L.120, but was purchased by Sir Fre-erick Barnard for 10s. ] in France, in Italy, ιnd in Germany. Under the judicious directions of Mr Bar-ιard, the entire collection was formed and arranged; it was cd, during a period of sixty years, by an annual expenditure >f about L.2000; and it is in itself perhaps one of the most :omplete libraries of its extent that was ever formed. It ontains selections of the rarest kind, particularly of scarce looks which appeared in the first ages of the art of print-ng; it is rich in early editions of the classics, in books rom the press of Caxton, in English history, and in Ita-ιan, French, and Spanish literature; and there is likewise ∣ι very extensive collection of geography and topography, ιnd of the transactions of learned academies. The num-ιer of books in this library is 65,250,^[40. Sir Henry Ellis, in his evidence before the Select Committee on the British Museum (Minutes, 500), states the number loosely .t 70,000 volumes; but, in this estimate, every tract in the library is probably considered as a separate volume. ] exclusively of a √cry numerous assortment of pamphlets; and it appears to ιave cost, in direct outlay, about L.130,000, but is estimated as worth at least L.200,000.^[41. Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Royal Library, 18th April 1823. ] When the King’s Lib-ary was added to that which previously belonged to the duseum, the number of duplicate volumes in the two col-ectioιιs was found to be about 21,000 volumes, of which he committee of the House of Commons recommended that ∣iot more than 12,000 should be disposed of; and hence, )y the gift of George IV.. a clear addition was made to the ⅛ational library of between 40,000 and 50,000 volumes.

The aggregate of the collections here enumerated, aug-nented annually by gifts, by claims under the copyright ιcts, and by grants of money from parliament, have now placed the department of printed books in the British Museum upon a respectable footing; though, in peint of extent at least, it is still far inferior to the principal libraries of the Continent, particularly those of Berlin, Göttingen, Dresden, Naples, Vienna, Copenhagen, St Petersburg, Munich, and Paris.^[42. So far from it being true, as stated by Sir Henry Ellis, that “there are few libraries abroad which equal the Museum Library n extent,” Mr Edwards has shown (Letter to Benjamin Hawes, Esq. Μ. P. p. 34, et seq.) that there are at least nine which exceed ţ, some of them greatly; and several others of nearly equal extent, as those of Wolfenbuttel (190,000), Stuttgard (197,000), Madrid 200,000), &c. The extent respectively of the nine libraries which exceed that of the British Museum is thus stated by Mr Edvards j [table] s,or is the extent of some of these great libraries their only recommendation; what they possess being well selected, and admirably irranged. (See Russell’s Tour in Germany, vol. i. p. 252, Edinb. 1828.) ] The number of printed volumes in the library, officially returned to parliament, is 220,000, not 240,000, as stated by Sir Henry Ellis, in his evidence;^[43. Report, Minutes of Evidence, 2419. ] and nearly L.2000 is expended annually in the purchase of old and of foreign publications. In the department of recent continental literature, numerous deficiencies have been pointed out by Mr Edwards, especially in German literature, in French history, in philosophy and legislation, and in the belles-lettres;^[44. See his Letter to Benjamin Hatties, Esq. Μ. P., containing “Strictures on the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee ' n the British Museum,” pp. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. ] deficiencies which, it is to be hoped, will ere long be supplied. According to Sir Henry Ellis, however, “the Museum Library is not decidedly poor in any class.”

The nucleus of the department of manuscripts, at the establishment of the British Museum, was formed by the Harleian, the Sloane, and the Cottonian collections. The next addition made to this department was that of the manuscripts of the ancient royal library of England, conferred by George II. in 1757. In this last collection, which contains the acquisitions of our kings from the time of Richard II. to the date of the grant by George II., there are a number of valuable manuscripts. Of these, one of the most remarkable is the Codex Alexandrinus, a present from Cyril, patriarch of Constantinople, to King Charles I. It is in four quarto volumes, written upon fine vellum, probably between the fourth and sixth centuries, and is believed to be the most ancient manuscript of the Greek Bible now extant, in uncial characters. Many of the other manuscripts came into the royal collection at the time when the monastic institutions of Britain were destroyed; and some of them still retain upon their spare leaves the honest and hearty anathemas which the donors denounced against those who should alienate or remove the respective volumes from the places in which they had been originally deposited. This collection abounds in old scholastic divinity, and possesses many volumes, embellished by the most expert illuminators of different countries, in a succession of periods down to the sixteenth century. In it are also preserved an assemblage of the domestic music-books of Henry VIII., and the Basilicon Doron of James I. in his own handwriting. The Cottonian collection, which was purchased for the use of the public in 1701, and annexed by statute to the British Museum in 1753, is especially rich in historical documents [7:13:296]from the time of the Saxons to that of James I. It likewise contains the numerous registers of English monasteries; the charters of Edgar and of Henry I. to Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, written in gold letters; and the manuscript called the Durham Book, being a copy of the Latin Gospels, with an interlinear Saxon gloss, written about the year 800, illuminated in the most elaborate style of the Anglo-Saxons, and believed to have once belonged to the Venerable Bede. This collection is also rich in royal and other original letters, and comprises the correspondence of most of the great personages, not only of this country,‘but throughout Europe, from the earliest periods at which letters were written until the commencement of the seventeenth century. The Harleian collection is still more miscellaneous, though historical literature in all its branches forms one of its principal features. It is particularly rich in heraldic and genealogical manuscripts, in the visitations of counties, and in English topographical collections; in parliamentary and legal proceedings; in originals, copies, and calendars of ancientrecords; in abbey registers; in manuscripts of the classics, amongst which is one of the earliest known of the Odyssey of Homer; in missals, antiphonars, and other service-books of the Catholic church; and in ancient English poetry. It possesses two very early copies of the Latin Gospels, written in gold letters; and also contains a large number of splendidly illuminated manuscripts, besides an extensive mass of correspondence. It further includes about three hundred manuscript bibles or biblical books, in Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek, Arabic, and Latin; nearly two hundred volumes of writings of the fathers of the church; and works on the arts and sciences, amongst which is a tract on the steam-engine, with plans, diagrams, and calculations by Sir Samuel Morland. The Sloane collection consists principally of manuscripts on natural history, voyages and travels, on the arts, and especially on medicine. It comprises the chief of Kaempfer’s manuscripts, with the voluminous medical collections of Mayerne, including the annals of his practice at the court of England from 1611 to 1649; and it also contains a collection of medical and other scientific correspondence, with numerous manuscripts on history, poetry, and miscellaneous subjects. Some of the drawings of animals in this collection are exceedingly rich and accurate; two volumes upon vellum are from the pencil of Madame Merian; and one relates entirely to the insects of Surinam.

In 1807, the collection of manuscripts formed by the first Marquis of Lansdowne was added to these libraries, having been purchased by parliament for L.4925. It consists in part of the Burghley and Caesar papers, supplementary to the Cottonian collection, but principally of a large assemblage of Bishop Kennett’s manuscripts, and numerous collections of an historical kind.^[45. Amongst the single volumes is a manuscript of Hardyng’s Chronicle, a French version of the sacred Scriptures upon vellum, five volumes of Saxon homilies, and a íac-simile of the Vatican Virgil, executed by Bartoli in 1G42. To these may be added, a Chinese map, and nearly two hundred drawings, in the first style of eastern art, representing the dresses, customs, and natural history of the interior of China. ] Another large collection of manuscripts, almost exclusively belonging to the faculty of the law, was purchased in 1813, of the representatives of Mr Francis Hargrave. Amongst these, besides numerous copies of early reports, is an abridgment of equity in forty-three volumes, by Sir Thomas Sewell, master of the rolls. A collection of manuscripts, chiefly of the Greek and Latin classics, which had been formed at a vast expense by the Rev. Dr Charles Burney, was purchased in 1818. Amongst these is the Townley Homer, a manuscript of the Iliad, similar to that of the Odyssey in the Harleian collection;^[46. This manuscript was purchased by Dr Burney, at the price of six hundred guineas. ] two early manuscripts of the Greek rhetoricians; a volume of the mathematical tracts of Pappus; and a Greek manuscript of Ptolemy’s Geography, adorned with maps of the fifteenth century. Two oriental collectionshave also been added. One of these, made by Mr C. J. Rich whilst British consul at Bagdad, and purchased by parliament in 1825 contains, amongst other rare manuscripts, several copies of the Syriac version of the Scriptures, which are believed to be of great antiquity. The other, a collection made in different countries of the East, and consisting chiefly of Arabic and Persian manuscripts, was bequeathed to the Museum in the year 1827, by the collector, Mr J. F, Hull. In 1829, a small but valuable collection of manuscripts, partly relating to French history, and partly of a literary character, was bequeathed to the Museum by the Earl of Bridgewater, accompanied by a small real estate, and a sum of L∙7000 to be invested, and the interests, as they became available, applied in the purchase of manuscripts. The last distinct collection is that of the Howard-Arundel manuscripts, acquired from the Royal Society in 1831, partly by exchange, and partly by purchase at an estimated value of L.3560. It consists of more than five hundred volumes, contains many manuscripts of interest in almost every branch of learning, and is rich in materials for the history of our own country and language. The ancient rolls and charters of the Museum, many thousands in number, form another division of the department of manuscripts, with a distinct catalogue. These records and deeds partly belong to the Cottonian, Harleian, and Sloane collections, and partly are accumulated additions, being chiefly illustrative of English history, and of monastic and other property.

These are the larger and separate collections. The Donation Manuscripts, as they are called, consist of smaller collections, which have either been acquired by purchase or are the gifts or bequests of individuals. Amongst these may be specified, Madox’s collections for the history of the Exchequer; Rymer’s materials for his Ecedera, used and unused; Dr Birch’s historical and biographical manuscripts; the decisions of the judges upon claims made in the city of London after the great fire of 1666; Sir William Musgrave’s obituary; Cole’s collections for a history of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire, with materials for an Athena Cantabrigieuses ; various Coptic and other ancient manuscripts taken from the French in Egypt; Ducarel’s abstracts of the archiepiscopal registers at Lambeth; a long series of calendars of the Originalia Rolls from 1 Henry VIII. to 2 James I.; Sir Andrew Mitchell’s diplomatic correspondence with every part of Europe, during his residence at the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia; Sir William Burrell’s and Mr William Hayley’s joint collections for the history of Sussex; Mrs Banks’s manuscripts on heraldry, processions, and archery; Abbot’s drawings and descriptions of American insects, in seventeen vols. quarto; Wollay⅛ collections for Derbyshire; Sir Joseph Banks’s foreign correspondence; Essex’s and Kerrich’s collections on Gothic architecture and costumes; the Stepney papers; the papers of the Count de Puisaye, chiefly relating to the Chouan war and the Royalists of La Vendée, from 1793 to 1825, in a hundred and seventeen vols.; the Jermyn collections for a history 7 of Suffolk, in forty-one vols. folio; the materials collected by Archdeacon Coxe, whilst employed in the compilation of his various historical and other works, in two hundred and six vols.; numerous manuscripts, illustrative of Italian history, selected from the collection of the Earl of Guilford; three hundred and ten rolls commonly known as the Chancellor’s Rolls, being duplicates of the great rolls of [7:13:297]the Pipe, between 9 Henry II. and 17 James I.; the topographical collections of Samuel, and Daniel Lysons, being chiefly materials for the Magna Britannia and “Environs of London Egyptian Papyri, partly purchased from Mr Salt and others, and partly presented by Mr J. G. Wilkinson; an extensive collection of ancient Irish manuscripts, including one or two copies of the Brehon Laws; and a selection, made at an expense of more than L.2000, from the manuscripts possessed by Mr Richard Heber. The total number of manuscripts in the Museum is about 25,000.^[47. Through some want of attention and management, the Museum has lost some collections which it might otherwise have obtained, particularly that of Mr Richard Gough, who left his books and manuscripts to the Bodleian Library (Minutes of Evidence, 407-1474. Appendix to Report, 413.) In regard to the contents of the Museum Library, see the article under that head in the Penny Cyclopaedia. ]

The catalogues of the printed boohs are chiefly in two series; first, the printed catalogue of 1812, with manuscript enlargements, now far exceeding in bulk the original, in twenty-two volumes folio; and, secondly, the catalogue of the library of George III. in five volumes imperial folio, with an addendum. There is likewise a catalogue of the geographical and topographical collection attached to the library of George III. printed in one volume folio to match the general catalogue of this library, and also in two volumes 8vo, 1834. All the catalogues are alphabetical; and there is yet no general classed catalogue,^[48. Of the library of George III. there is a classed catalogue in manuscript, made by Sir Frederick Barnard, at Buckingham House; but this,” says Mr Edwards, “is not in the reading-room.” ] although a sum considerably exceeding L.5000 has been paid by parliamentary grants as “expenditure on account of a classed catalogue,” and an admirable example of such a work has been furnished in the catalogue of the library belonging to the London Institution.^[49. This catalogue comprehends, first, a synoptical table of the classes; secondly, a plan of the arrangement, in classes, of the books themselves; thirdly, a general classed catalogue of all the books; fourthly, an index of authors’ names and works; and, fifthly, an index of anonymous works, and of many different subjects of which some account is to be found in the library.” As to foreign classed catalogues, it is only necessary to mention two examples; first, that of the library of Göttingen, prepared by the celebrated Heyne; and, secondly, that of St Petersburg, an account of which is given in the appendix to the Report on the British Museum, p. 464, et seq. But that of the London Institution is allowed to be in several respects superior to either. ] The want of such a catalogue is undeniably a great inconvenience. As are the catalogues of a library, so will be its utility.^[50. Cousin, Report on Prussian Education, in which there are some excellent observations on this subject. ] “What good is the use of a library of more than 200,000 volumes,” says Heeren, ζ if one knows not what it contains, or knows not where hat which it does contain is to be found.”^[51. Heyne's Biographisch dargestcllt, von A. H. L. Heeren, Göttingen, 1812, in 8vo. ] The catalogues of the manuscripts are, 1. That of the manuscripts of the old royal library, by David Casley, 1734, in 4to; 2. That of manuscripts heretofore undescribed, by S. Ayscough, 1782, in two vols. 4to; 3. That of the Cottonian manuscripts, by Joseph Planta, 1802, in folio; 4. That of the Harleian manuscripts, by H. Wanley and R. Nares, 1808, n four vols. folio; 5. That of the Hargrave manuscripts, by d. Ellis, 1818, in 4to; 6. That of the Lansdowne manuscripts, by F. Douce and H. Ellis, 1819, in folio; and, 7. That of the Arundel manuscripts, by J. Forshall, 1834, in folio. Manuscript catalogues of the additions in the departments of printed books and manuscripts to the latest time ∕re kept in the Museum reading-room. There is also a serrate manuscript catalogue of the collection of tracts relating to the civil wars in the reign of Charles I.; and a separate catalogue of the Cole manuscripts; besides copies f the catalogue of the Royal Library, printed privately by George IV.

The library of the Royal Society is a repository consisting chiefly of books of science and general literature, Inch may be consulted by all the fellows, and from which books may also be borrowed by them under the regulations prescribed by the statutes; nor have the Society, at any time that is remembered, ever refused to lend books or manuscripts to learned men not belonging to their corporation, who bad occasion to consult them. The titles of the books presented to the Society have been inserted at the end of the later volumes of their Transactions; they possess no further catalogue. The library of the Royal Institution was founded by a few gentlemen, for the immediate use of the subscribers to that establishment; but any person may, upon the recommendation of a patron, always have access to it. This collection contains the best and most useful edition of almost every Greek and Roman classic, with the best translations in English, and some in other modern languages; the class of mathematical science in all its branches is very full, including the best scientific journals, and transactions of learned societies; and the historical department, founded on the collection of Mr Astle, which was purchased by the managers at the formation of the library, is, in its various divisions and subdivisions, exceedingly interesting. A catalogue, methodically arranged, with an alphabetical index of authors, by William Harris, was printed in 1809, in 8vo. The library of the London Institution was commenced under the direction of Professor Porson, and has been admirably selected. Next to that of topography, the departments of classical literature, mathematics, and history, are the most amply stocked. It is also rich in bibliography, there being few works absolutely necessary to be consulted by the bibliographical student, which may not be found in this valuable collection. In the “introductory preface” to the methodical catalogue of the library, recently published, there are some judicious remarks as to the importance of classed catalogues. The library of the Surrey Institution, though less numerous than either of the two preceding ones, presents a choice collection of the most useful books in the different departments of literature, together with some rare and curious works. The catalogue is systematically arranged, with an alphabetical index of authors.^[52. Hartwell Horne, Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, vol. ii. pp. G26, 6'27∙ ]

The library of printed hooks founded by Archbishop Bancroft in the reign of King James I. occupies the four galleries over the cloisters of Lambeth Palace. The number of volumes contained in this library is estimated at upwards of 25,000, many of which are of extreme rarity. In ecclesiastical history and in biblical literature, few collections contain so large a number of scarce and curious editions. The class of English topography is also extensive and valuable. The first catalogue of printed books was drawn up by Bishop Gibson; it was afterwards transcribed in a fair hand by Dr Wilkins, and has been continued by his successors to the present time. The manuscripts, many of which are extremely valuable, are arranged in seven sets or divisions, distinguished as Codices Lambethiani, Whartoniani, Careworn, Tenisoniani, Gibsoniani, Miscellanei, and Suttoniani. This department, besides being rich in copies of the sacred writings, contains Expositions of the Fathers of the Church; Missals, and Hours of the Holy Virgin; a number of papal bulls; various treatises of Wickliffe; manuscripts relating to the history of France, and other European nations, particularly Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, and Holland; seventeen volumes in folio [7:13:298]of the Shrewsbury correspondence, besides several letters to and from Charles II.; and certain manuscripts on heraldry and genealogy, written or corrected by Lord Burghley. But perhaps the two greatest curiosities in this collection are the ancient French version and exposition of the Apocalypse, ornamented with miniature paintings; and the Latin copy of the Apocalypse, also beautifully illuminated, which is supposed to have been written in the thirteenth century. A catalogue of these manuscript treasures, compiled by the Rev. H. J. Todd, the keeper, was printed in 1812, in one volume folio, at the expense of the Archbishop of Canterbury.^[53. Repertorium Bíbliographicum, or Some Account of the most celebrated British Libraries, p. 93. ]

The different colleges of Oxford and Cambridge have all libraries of various extent attached to them; but in each university there is at least one great or principal library, as the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and that of Trinity College, besides the Public or University Library, at Cambridge.

The Bodleian Library, so called from the name of its illustrious founder, was instituted towards the close of the reign of Elizabeth, by Sir Thomas Bodley, who, having become disgusted with some court intrigues, resigned all his employments about the year 1597, and immediately afterwards undertook the generous task of restoring the public library at Oxford, which had been despoiled of its contents in the reign of Edward VI. With this view, he despatched from London a letter to the vice-chancellor, offering not only to restore the building, but to provide a fund for the purchase of books, and the maintenance of proper officers. This offer being thankfully accepted, he commenced his undertaking by presenting to the library a large collection of books purchased on the Continent, and valued at L.10,000. He also collected 1294 rare manuscripts, which were afterwards increased to G818, independently of 1898 in the Ashmolean Museum. Other collections and contributions were also, by his example and persuasion, presented to the new library. The most important of these, perhaps, was a considerable portion of the very valuable library which had belonged to Jerom Ossorius, the Cicero of Portugal, successively bishop of Sylvas and of Algarve, in which last see he died in 1580. This library having fallen to the share of the Earl of Essex, amongst the booty which had been takeif in the expedition against Cadiz in 1598, part of it was by him presented to Bodley, in order to enrich the collection he was then forming. The additions thus made soon swelled to such an amount that the old building was no longer sufficient to contain them. The edifice was accordingly enlarged; and when Bodley had succeeded in enriching his collection beyond his most sanguine expectation, he drew up for its government a body of statutes, which have since been incorporated with those of the university. The Bodleian Library was first opened to the public on the 8th of November 1602; and, since 1780, a fund of more than L.4C0 a year, arising from a small addition to the matriculation fees, and a moderate annual contribution by such members of the university as are admitted to the use of the library, have been established for the purchase of books. It would require a volume to contain an enumeration of the many important additions which have been made to this library by its numerous benefactors, or to admit even a sketch of its ample contents in almost every branch of literature and science.^[54. Chalmers, Hist, of the Colleges, <^-c. attached to the University of Oxford, vol. ii. p. 460, et seq. Repertorium Biblioyraphicum, p∙ 6^∙ ] It is supposed to contain upwards of 160,000 volumes of printed books, and about 30,000 volumes of manuscripts. The oriental manuscripts are the rarest and most beautiful to be found in any

European collection; and the first editions of the classics procured from the Pinelli and Crevenna libraries, rival those at Vienna. In a word, it is exceedingly rich in many departments in which most other libraries are deficient, and it forms altogether one of the noblest collections of which any university can boast; but a complete catalogue of the valuable stores of literature contained in it is still, we regret to say, a desideratum;^[55. Hartwell Horne, Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, vol. ii. p. 629. ] and, for want of a classed catalogue, the general utility of the collection is materially abridged. The first catalogue of the printed books was published by Dr Hyde in 1674, and another of the manuscripts was printed in 1697. A fuller catalogue of the books, compiled by Bowles, Fisher, and Langford, was printed in 1738, in two volumes folio; but, from the'immense increase of the collection since that period, this, as well as the others, has become of little use. A catalogue of the manuscripts relating to oriental history, drawn up by Professor Urie, was printed in 1787, in one volume folio. In 1795, there was also printed a Notitia of first, early, or Aldine editions of certain Hebrew, Greek, and Latin works contained in the library, the articles indicated being all of the greatest rarity; and, in 1812, appeared the first part of a catalogue by Professor Gaisford, of the manuscript collection purchased by Dr Edward Daniel Clarke, in his travels through various parts of Europe and Asia. But no complete or general catalogue, either of the printed books or the manuscripts, has yet been published; and for this reason it is impossible to give any specific or satisfactory account of this magnificent collection.

The riches of the Bodleian Library are very imperfectly known to the world, and its stores are increasing faster than they can be catalogued; yet the library is not generally accessible, even to the students of the university; and the arrangements are such, that the very persons engaged in teaching have but a limited use of it. The average number of daily readers is stated to be about half a dozen; whilst, in the British Museum, it is at least one hundred and fifty. The books of the Bodleian Library are not allowed to go out, and, by this restriction, its utility is greatly abridged. The use, to a reasonable extent, of a collection which is certainly one of the best in the world, would of itself form a strong inducement to study at Oxford; and it is inconceivable how this advantage should have been withheld, considering that the terms in which Sir Thomas Bodley made his donation to the university present no obstacle whatever to the lending out of books.^[56. A Few Words on the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1833, 8vo. Journal of Education, vol. v∙ p. 288, et seq. ]

The libraries of the different colleges are many of them considerable, some of them extensive, and not a few of them enriched with much that is both curious and rare. Bishop Rede contributed the first part of the collection of books in Merton College, which has since been augmented, both in manuscripts and in printed books, by the liberality of succeeding benefactors. University College Library possesses a considerable collection of printed books and manuscripts, together with some works of art. Baliol College Library suffered by the depredations of the visitors appointed by’ Edward VI.; but the damage was afterwards repaired by a supply of books from Durham College, and by successive donations. The library of Queens College contains some curious manuscripts, chiefly heraldic and political, a valuable series of coins, a collection of numismatical works, and a fine orrery. The books of New College occupy two spacious apartments, and there is also a collection of manuscripts. The library of Lincoln College is chiefly remarkable for a collection of Greek and [7:13:299] Latin manuscripts made by Sir George Wheler in his travels. That of All-Souls’ College is an excellent collection; it was admirably arranged, under the superintendence of Sir William Blackstone; and the greatest facility is consequently afforded in consulting any class. In the library of Brazen-nose College, the ancient custom of chaining the books to the shelves was strictly observed until the year 1780, when this conservative practice was abandoned. This collection is of considerable extent and value. The library of Corpus Christi College is enriched with a valuable set of Aldine classics, with many manuscripts and printed books, of great rarity and in excellent preservation, and with the manuscripts of Twyne and Fulman, the Oxford antiquarians. The Aldines were collected by the founder, Richard Fox. In 1755, Lord Coleraine gave to this library a large and valuable collection of Italian literature. The library of Christ Church would probably have exceeded that of any contemporary establishment, had Wolsey been able to complete his original design, which was, not only to supply it with such books as had appeared since the invention of printing, but also with copies of the most valuable manuscripts in the Vatican. This collection is principally composed of the extensive and valuable library bequeathed by the Earl of Orrery, amounting to 10,000 volumes; of that left to the college by Wake archbishop of Canterbury, consisting of printed books and manuscripts, with a collection of coins and medals; and of the contributions of a number of benefactors. In 17G7, the numismatical series was further enriched by the collection of British and English coins belonging to Dr Barton, and, in 1780, by that of oriental coins collected by Dr R. Brown, canon and regius professor of Hebrew. The library of Trinity College was instituted by the founder, Sir Thomas Pope, who was also the first contributor of books. The collection was afterwards enlarged by various benefactions, and is now one of considerable extent. The library of St John’s College contains a valuable collection of printed books and manuscripts given by Archbishop Laud; many specimens of natural and artificial curiosities, ι and relics of antiquity; with a collection of Greek, Roman, and English coins, bequeathed by Dr Rawlinson, along with his books. In the library of Wadham College are many early printed books, and a good collection of classics and works on theology, together with French, Italian, and Spanish literature. The library of Worcester College is a considerable collection, and particularly rich in architectural books and manuscripts. The Radcliffe Library, so called from the munificent founder, Dr Radcliffe, who left L.40,000 for the erection of a public library in Oxford, with an endowment of L.150 a year to a librarian, and L.100 for the purchase of books, is an extensive and valuable collection, and contains some valuable but neglected manuscripts.^[57. The state in which William Augustus Schlegel found a manuscript fragment of the Rαmαyαηα in the Radcliffe Library, shows that the condition of oriental manuscripts in England is not satisfactory, and that things least used are not always best cared for. The following is his own account of the matter :—“We commenced a diligent search; at last we drew forth from a press which had long been unvisited, the separate and tom portions of manuscripts, covered with dust and dirt, and leaves rolled up together promiscuously. Oh, what destruction did I then see! Nothing was ever scattered more confusedly from the Sybil’s cave into every quarter of the heavens, when the leaves on which she used to write her oracles were carried away by a sudden storm. I was not able to examine them all, for I was in haste to return home, it being late in the autumn. I selected, however, from the midst of that disgraceful contusion, a fragment of the Ramayana, and I put together almost the entire manuscript of the poem ‘ ãc Crisĭmi utiφανιια. (Sri Bharagavata-l ’ ∙ι ∏ ∣∣∣ l γ jum ļ re-arranged as many of the leaves as I could find, in their order. I had already noticed the unusual antiquity of the w ∏ting, and I read with no small astonishment these dates at the end of the books, ‘ Samvat, 1461-1463,’ a. d. 1405-1407∙ The most ancient in the King’s Library at Paris is a manuscript of the same poem, which was written sixty-five years after, " Samvat, ıu_8, a. n. 1472.’ The university of Oxford, therefore, although still ignorant of its wealth, possesses a manuscript which is most are, and indeed unique in Sanscrit literature.” This statement requires no comment. (Journal of Education, vol. i. pp. 403, 404.) Early in the present century, a public infirmary, and an astronomical observatory, now amply supplied with astronomical instruments, were erected from the funds still in the hands of Dr Radcliffe’s trustees. ]

'Ihe library of Trinity College, Cambridge, is extensive, and contained in a very magnificent structure built by Sir Christopher Wren, being two hundred feet in length, forty in breadth, and thirty-eight in height. The collection is separated into thirty classes, distributed in cases of oak; and the books are both numerous and valuable. Amongst other literary curiosities, there are some interesting manuscripts in the handwriting of Milton. They are contained in a thin folio volume, which was discovered by Professor Mason amongst the papers of Sir Henry Puckering, and consist of the original copy of the Masque of Cornus; several plans of Paradise Lost, composed at the period when he intended to have made that subject the groundwork of a tragedy; and the poems of Lycidas, Arcades, and several others. Here are also the Arabic manuscripts left by Dr Gale, and the collection relating to English antiquities by his son Dr Roger Gale; Sir Isaac Newton’s copy of his Principia, with his manuscript notes, and his letters to Roger Coles; and the voluminous Shakspeare manuscripts and printed books of Edwa* - d Capell, a catalogue of which was printed by Mr Steevens.^[58. Repertorium Bibliographlcum, p. 110. ] ʹ

The University or Public Library of Cambridge is extensive, and contains much that is valuable or curious both in the department of printed books, and in that of manuscripts. The printed books comprise a fine series of editiones principes of the classics, and a very considerable proportion of the productions of Caxton’s press. The most important acquisition made by this library was that of the collection which had belonged to Dr Moore, bishop of Ely, amounting to 30,000 volumes, which were munificently purchased for six thousand guineas by his majesty King George I., who presented them to the library, and further gave L.2000 towards fitting up the apartments destined for their reception. Bishop Moore’s collection, which is singularly rich in the productions of the early English printers, was offered to the Earl of Oxford for L.6000, and on his refusal was purchased and presented as has just been mentioned. A method of arranging the books in the public library of Cambridge was long ago proposed by Dr Middleton, but no catalogue of them has yet been printed. The number of volumes in this library must now considerably exceed 100,000. Amongst the manuscripts contained in it are, 1. the celebrated manuscript of the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, known by the name of the Codex Bezoe, which was presented to the university by that distinguished reformer; 2. Magna Charta, written on vellum; 3. several very valuable manuscripts purchased at the sale of Dr Askew’s collection; 4. some curious Syrian manuscripts presented by the Rev. Dr Buchanan;^[59. See Chalmers’s History of the Colleges, ķc. of Oxford, passim; also Athena: Oxonienses, Bliss’s edition. ] 5. a Coptic manuscript written upon long narrow papyrus, with an ancient stylus; and, G∙ a Koran upon cotton paper, superbly executed.

The library ofBene’t College contains a number of manuscripts. Those which were collected after the dissolution of the monasteries relate to the writings of the fathers, school divinity, the reformation, civil and ecclesiastical affairs, and the 1 concerns of various religious houses; and [7:13:300] many of them are in the old Saxon character. St John’s College Library contains one of the most valuable and extensive collections of books in the University, particularly in biblical and classical literature, and is also enriched with some first editions which came originally from the Harleian collection. The Pepysian Library, Magdalen College, is so called from the founder, Samuel Pepys, secretary to the admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. who bequeathed to this college his valuable library, together with his prints and drawings. It is remarkable for a collection of old English ballads, in five volumes folio, begun by Mr Selden, and continued to the year 1700; and two volumes of Scottish poetry, consisting of pieces by Gawin Douglas, Dunbar, Lindsay, Drummond, James I. and other poets. Dr Percy, in his Reliques, has made a judicious selection from the former; and, in 1776, Mr Pinkerton published copious extracts from the latter. Pepys’s collection of prints and drawings, illustrative of the history of London, and his rare British portraits, are particularly valuable.^[60. Repertorium Bibliographieum, p. 109, art. Pepysìan Library, 8cc. ]

The library of Earl Spencer, at Althorp, Nottinghamshire, though a private collection, is eminently deserving of notice here, not so much by reason of its extent, which is very considerable, as on account of the unrivalled treasures which it contains in several departments of literature, sacred as well as profane. This library, amounting to not less than 45,000 volumes, exclusively of the Cassano collection purchased in 1820, was entirely formed by the late Earl Spencer, within a period of time not exceeding twenty-four years; and it is unquestionably the richest private collection in Britain, perhaps in Europe.^[61. Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana, preface, London, 1814, in four vols. royal 8vo, with a supplementary volume. ] The foundation of the department of books printed in the fifteenth, and of valuable first editions published in the sixteenth century, was laid by the purchase of the collection of Count Reviczky, a foreign nobleman who had occupied himself in accumulating rare and curious works of a peculiar description. But many scarce and valuable impressions of the classical authors were afterwards obtained; and in the departments of literature and the belles-lettres it was enriched with some magnificent acquisitions. Impressions of Bibles and Testaments, and of portions of the sacred text in almost all languages, are to be found in this extraordinary collection; the departments of classical literature, in the Greek, Latin, and Italian languages, are of equal, if not greater extent and value; whilst the choice, condition, and splendour of the entire collection are such as render it quite unique and unrivalled.^[62. Dibdin, Oedes Altlwrpianoe, vol. i. p. 37∙ ] But, perhaps, its most remarkable feature is the unexampled assemblage to be found in it of works illustrating the origin and progress of typography. It contains several books, consisting of impressions taken from carved wooden blocks previously to the invention of metallic types, and thus exhibiting the earliest specimens of stereotype printing. In others, engraved figures constitute the principal part, to which is added a small proportion of text, and only one side of the leaf is employed, the other being left blank. Such is the Ars Memorandi Notabilis per Eiguras, supposed to have been thrown off previous to the year 1430, and consisting of a number of rude cuts of the principal events recorded in the Gospels, with text on the opposite page; and such, also, is the Ars Moriendi, the subject of which is a sick man in bed, surrounded by grotesque and hideous figures of angels and demons. The taste of the time inclined to the monstrous or the absurd. In the former work St Luke is represented by a bull standing on his hind legs, whilst St Mark is depicted as a rampant lion. The Historia Veteris et Novi Testamenti seu Biblia Pauperum, also in this collection, is supposed to have been executed prior to the year 1450, and is by some considered as the earliest specimen of block-printing. Amongst the early printed and scarce bibles in the Althorp Library, may be mentioned the Mazarin Bible, printed between 1450 and 1455; one supposed to be the work of Albert Pfister, prior to 1460; Fust and Schoeffer’s Bible, 1462; that by Sweyheym and Pannartz, 1471; a Dutch Bible, 1477; Prince Radzivil’s Bible in Polish; besides other early copies in the .different languages of Europe. The same collection contains the Latin Psalter of Fust and Schoeffer, printed in 1457, being the first printed to which a date is affixed; and another of nearly equal rarity, printed in 1459. Many of the earliest editions of the classics, beautiful copies on vellum, and the works of all the celebrated printers of the fifteenth century, add to the value of this unrivalled collection. The Cassano Library,^[63. So called from the Duke di Cassano Serra, a Neapolitan nobleman, by whom it was sold to Earl Spencer. ] purchased by Earl Spencer in the year 1820, and soon afterwards united with his general collection, formed a valuable addition to the Althorp Library. Amongst other rarities, it contained the famous edition of Horace, printed at Naples in 1474, by Arnoldus de Bruxella, of which there is no other known copy; that of Terence, printed by Riessinger, without date, but probably not later than 1471; the earlier productions of the Neapolitan press; rare editions of the early Italian classics; specimens of early printing at Rome, including the edition of Juvenal by Ulric Han; together with all the rare editions of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and other Roman poets.^[64. See Supplement to the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, forming vol. v. of that Descriptive Catalogue of the Books printed in the Fifteenth Century, &c. London, 1823. ]

We come now to Scottish libraries, and shall commence with the largest as well as richest of the number; that of the Faculty of Advocates. The plan of forming a library appears to have been adopted by the Faculty as early as the year 1680. The author and active promoter of the scheme was Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh. It was originally intended that it should consist merely of the works of lawyers, and of such other books as were calculated to advance the study of jurisprudence. This may be inferred from the inaugural address delivered by Sir George Mackenzie when the library was first opened, and from several other papers relative to the subject. At its commencement, this library had no certain fund allotted for its maintenance. It depended upon and owed its increase to the donations of benefactors, together with such sums as the Faculty from time to time placed at the disposal of the curators. In the year 1700, the apartment where the library was kept being nearly destroyed by fire, it was removed to the place which it partly still occupies, namely, the ground floor of the Parliament House. During the nine years immediately following, it must have increased considerably,^[65. In 17θ7, the library received a large donation of books in natural history, to which many of the most costly and magnificent works on that branch of science have since been added. ] since by the act passed in the eighth year of Queen Anne’s reign, the privilege of receiving a copy of every book entered at Stationers’ Hall was conferred upon it, alongst with eight other libraries, four of which were Scotch, being those attached to the universities of St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh.

The department of printed books comprehends, in a greater or less degree, almost every branch of science, [7:13:301]philosophy, jurisprudence, literature, and the arts. As might be expected, the collection of law-books is extensive; but it is much more complete in ancient than in modern works, many important treatises on foreign jurisprudence being still wanting. The historical collection, which is exceedingly valuable, contains almost every work of consequence that has been published in Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and Sweden. This department alone comprehends upwards of 20,000 volumes. The collection of Greek and Roman classics, though it cannot vie with some others, is also choice and extensive, including several first and many early editions. The library is rich in modern poetry and belles-lettres, and, besides the miscellaneous department, contains a very considerable collection of voyages and travels. It is defective in the great branch of mathematical and physical science; in archaeology or antiquities; in early as well as modern Italian literature; and, generally, in foreign literature of a recent date. Amongst the separate collections are, the Astorga library, the Thorkelin collection, and that of old Scottish books. A collection of Spanish books, amounting to about 3400 volumes, which had formerly belonged to the library of the Marquis of Astorga, was purchased from a London bookseller in 1824, for the sum of L.3000. It consists principally of works on Spanish history, including the old chronicles, as well as of books on law and theology, with a sprinkling of the old Spanish poems and romances. The Thorkelin collection, so called from Professor Thorkelin, to whom it originally belonged, contains about 1200 volumes, chiefly on northern law, history, and antiquities. Of the Scottish books, those relating to old Scottish poetry are exceedingly rare and curious. They amount to between three and four hundred volumes, and their number is likely to be still further increased by the zeal and research of the present librarian, Dr Irving, who has already made many important additions to this collection, partly by the acquisition of new articles, and partly by detaching curious pieces from other collections, and putting them in a distinct and more accessible form. His labours in this department, with which he is intimately conversant, have been beyond all praise; and he is constantly on the watch to take advantage of every opportunity that offers for augmenting its treasures. There is also a collection of German dissertations, amounting to upwards of 100,000, called Count Diedrich’s collection, which was purchased by Sir William Hamilton, on account of the library, for the trifling sum of L.80. This library is not rich in typographical rarities. It contains few Caxtons, and, with the exception of the Mentz Bible, and some specimens of early printing in Scotland,^[66. The first production of the Scottish press preserved in this library should not pass unnoticed. It is a breviary composed by he bishop of Aberdeen for the use of his cathedral, and printed in the year 1509; and it consists of two volumes in small octavo, but of he first volume the title-page and some leaves at the end are wanting. The second volume, printed in 1510, has at the beginning a calendar, and at the end these words: “Opido Edinburgensi impresso jussu et impensis honorabilis viri Walteri Chepman ejusdemopidi Mercatoris quarto die Junii milesimo CCCCC decimo.” On the outside of this leaf is a wooden engraving representing a man and woman clothed in skins of beasts, with their shoulders bare, and their heads adorned with wreaths of flowers; whilst between them stands a tree, from which is suspended a shield with W. C. in cipher. ] has but little to interest those who delight in the productions of the press during the infancy 3Í the art. The total number of printed volumes contained in the library does not, it is thought, fall much short of 150,000.

The department of manuscripts, though not so extensive is in some other libraries of the same class, is neverthe-ess of great interest and value with reference to the civil, and particularly the ecclesiastical history of Scotland. Soon after the foundation of the library, the Faculty appear to have turned their attention to the collection of manuscripts; and this important department now consists >f nearly 1700 volumes, of which about 250 have been added within the last fifteen years. The most valuable portion of the manuscripts is that which relates to the ecclesiastical state of Scotland immediately preceding the era of the Reformation, and includes, amongst other things, thirteen chartularies or volumes of records of the different religious houses, which escaped the general destruction in which the edifices themselves were then involved. Considerable light is also thrown on the civil and ecclesiastical history of Scotland at a later period, by the documents and other materials contained in the collections of Sir James Balfour, Sir Robert Sibbald, and Wodrow the historian. Balfour’s collection, which consists of upwards of sixty volumes, was purchased at a considerable expense in 1698. About the half of it consists of original state papers, and several very curious royal letters written in the times of James VI. and Charles I. From these, selections were made by Lord Hailes, and printed in 1762 and 1765. The Annals of Scotland, compiled by Sir James Balfour, were also printed in 1824, 1825, in four volumes 8vo. But there still remain unprinted some manuscripts on genealogy and heraldry, besides a considerable number of curious documents. Sir Robert Sibbald’s collection, consisting of upwards of thirty volumes, was purchased by the Faculty in 1723. It is chiefly of a topographical and literary character; but the substance of the greater part relating to topography has already been published. Wodrow’s collection is by far the most voluminous, consisting of upwards of 160 volumes. It was chiefly from this immense mass of materials that that laborious writer compiled his History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland; but by far the greater portion of the collection, containing many curious original documents not to be met with elsewhere, is still unprinted. His correspondence with many eminent literary characters, embracing a period of more than thirty years (from 1694 to 1726), and extending to about thirty volumes, is also full of curious information respecting the literature and history of the period to which it refers. A collection of original documents belonging to the reigns of James V., Queen Mary, and James VI., was presented to the library by the Earl of Balcarrasin the year 1712; these papers have lately been arranged and bound, and now consist of nine volumes folio. This department also contains Lord Fountainhall’s collections, in his own handwriting, including his decisions, historical notices, diary,and other matters. We may likewise notice the curious and interesting papers of Paton, Murray, Anderson, and Hutton, all of which have recently been arranged and bound in several folio and quarto volumes; and also those collected by Mr Scott of Perth, consisting of about twenty volumes folio, and comprising the Blackfriars charters, in three volumes, extracts from the records of the Church of Perth, in four volumes, the records of the Hospital from 1577 to 1732, extracts from the records of the Kirk-session, a chronicle, and a register of baptisms and deaths. Amongst the Scottish historical records are, letters-from James V., and the Earl of Arran, governor of the kingdom in the infancy of Queen Mary, to the kings of England, France, Norway, and Portugal, to the Duke of Guise, the Earl of Suffolk, and others, from 1539 to 1542: also original letters by Queen Mary, addressed to her mother the queendowager, during the early years of that beautiful but ill-fated princess; by Anne of Denmark, queen of James VI.; by Prince Henry and Prince Charles, his sons; by [7:13:302]the Princess Elizabeth, his daughter; and by the Elector Palatine and his son to James VI., entirely of a familiar nature.

The same department includes a number of manuscripts on heraldry, genealogy, and Scottish law, besides many of a miscellaneous nature. It also contains several early manuscripts of the classics, and a few illuminated missals. Amongst the former may be mentioned a very fine copy of Horace, belonging to the thirteenth century; the plays of Terence, executed in the year 1436; a copy of the Epigrams of Martial, in perfect preservation, which, from the style of the writing, has been ascribed to the ninth century, and is supposed to be one of the most ancient manuscripts of the Epigrams extant;^[67. An account of this manuscript was published by Mr Dalyell in 1811, in 8vo, two copies of which were printed on vellum. ] a copy of Valerius Maximus, beautifully written on vellum, dated 1398; Lactantius De Opificio Dei, a gem of its kind; the mathematical collections of Pappus of Alexandria, written in beautiful Greek, with admirably-executed diagrams; besides portions of several classics, as Cicero, Ovid, Juvenal, and Persius, all of considerable antiquity. A manuscript copy of St Jerome’s translation of the Bible, supposed to have been written about the tenth century, and said to have been found in the Abbey Church of Dunfermline during the reign of David I.; the Auchinleck manuscript, from which Sir Walter Scott printed the Romance of Sir Tristrem; and Bannatyne’s manuscript, in two volumes folio, being a collection of ancient poems made by different learned Scotchmen, lovers of antique song, and “written by Geo. Bannatyne in the time of bis youth, 1568 ;”^[68. Bannatyne’s manuscript was presented to the library, in the year 1772, by the Earl of Hyndford. ] likewise adorn this department of the library. It was from the Bannatyne collection that Allan Ramsay selected the poems which were printed in the Evergreen; and from the same source Lord Hailes extracted a volume, which was printed in the year 1770. In 1825, about a hundred volumes of Icelandic manuscripts, amongst which are several ancient Sagas, were purchased of Professor Magnuson of Copenhagen, and added to the collection; and in the following year, Mr Elphinstone, and Mr Erskine, formerly of Bombay, presented to the library some valuable Persian and Sanscrit manuscripts. Not long ago a beautiful manuscript of the Hebrew Bible was purchased in Germany; it is in two large folio volumes; and the Pentateuch, besides the original, has also the Chaldaic paraphrase. A manuscript of the Corpus Juris Civilis, well executed, but of Uncertain date and doubtful authority, and, in several respects, exceedingly defective, was likewise purchased several years ago.

The building which contains the bulk of the Advocates’ Library is not only confined, but is in several parts exceedingly dark and inconvenient. The historical department, however, has been separated from the rest of the collection, and arranged in a spacious and elegant apartment, with convenient side-rooms, recently provided for its reception, being intended to form the grand entrance to a large building which it is proposed to erect for the reception of the great body of the library, as soon as the necessary funds can be obtained. The library is governed by five curators, one of whom goes out of office annually by rotation, and another is elected in his stead from amongst the body of the Faculty. Under the curators are a principal keeper or librarian, and several assistants. The library is supported partly by the acquisitions which it is continually making in virtue of the right conferred upon it by the copy-right act, and partly by an annual sum paid to the curators for the use of the establishment out of the revenue of the Faculty. No public institution in Great Britain, or perhaps in Europe, is conducted with greater liberality than the Advocates’ Library. Strangers arriving in Edinburgh are freely admitted without introduction; and any one who is at all known is never denied the privilege of resorting to, and of reading or writing in, the library. Very eminent men have been keepers of this collection, particularly Thomas Ruddiman, David Hume and Adam Ferguson. The present librarian, Dr Irving, well known by his Life of Buchanan and other works, is a distinguished scholar, a learned civilian, and eminently skilled in ancient Scottish history, biography, and poetry.

The first volume of the general catalogue was begun in 1735, and printed in 1742, under the superintendence of the learned Ruddiman and Mr Walter Goodall; the second, consisting of later acquisitions, was compiled by Mr Alexander Brown; and this was followed by a third volume, printed in 1807, all in folio; but the manuscript additions which have since been made are at least equal to other two printed volumes of the same size. There are manuscript catalogues of the Astorga and Thorkelin collections; but as yet there exists no separate catalogue of the manuscripts. A catalogue of the law-books was printed in 1831, in one volume 8vo. There is no classed catalogue of the Advocates’ Library, nor even a classed index to the general catalogue, which would be a great convenience to those engaged in scientific or literary pursuits.

The library of the Writers to his Majesty’s Signet is an excellent and valuable miscellaneous collection of books in science, law, history, geography, statistics, antiquities, literature, and the arts; and it has recently been rendered much more accessible by the ample and spacious accommodation provided for it. It is contained in two large and beautiful apartments, both under the same roof, with small rooms adjoining. The accommodation altogether is perhaps superior to that of any library in Britain. The books arc arranged in classes or departments, not in conformity to any particular bibliographical system, but with reference simply to the nature and extent of the collection, and the circumstances necessary to be attended to in placing it in the particular apartments which it occupies. The arrangement, however, is such as to afford facilities for reference, and to exhibit, in a general way, the component parts or branches of the collection. The upper apartment, in which about 14,000 volumes have already been placed, contains the following classes, viz. theology and ecclesiastical history; general and particular history, biography, and antiquities; arts and sciences; transactions of learned societies, encyclopaedias, and dictionaries; polygraphy, or the collected works of authors who have treated on various subjects; classics, translations, and works illustrative of the classics; .and, lastly, belles-lettres and miscellaneous literature in the learned as well as in foreign languages. The lower apartment, and the adjoining small rooms, contain the classes of civil, Scottish, English, and foreign law; British and Irish history, biography, antiquities, topography, and statistics, with all works relating to these heads; geography, voyages and travels; bibliography; belles-lettres, in the English language, and the miscellaneous productions of British literature; besides collections of periodical publications, parliamentary reports, and parliamentary debates, with a collection of maps suspended in spring cases. The class comprising works relating to the history, biography, antiquities, topography, and statistics of the British empire, forms the most extensive department of this collection, and is, in fact, nearly complete in most of its subdivisions. The choice and condition of the books generally, and the rarity, value, and splendour of many, deserve particular notice; and, indeed, this library, though supported exclusively from the funds of the Society to which it belongs, possesses some [7:13:303]of the noblest and most expensive works ever published, either abroad or at home. The number of volumes may be estimated at nearly 50,000. There is a classed catalogue, formed on De Bure’s system, and very skilfully executed, which was printed in the year 1805; but this applies only to a small portion of the collection, which has been very greatly increased since the catalogue in question was prepared. An alphabetical catalogue of the whole collection has been printed, in progressive parts; and to this there is now (1836) in the Press, a classed index, which will, in a great measure, supply all the advantages of a catalogue raisonné. The government of the library is vested in a body of curators, elected by the Society; and under them are a principal librarian and several assistants. Here, as is the case of the Advocates’ Library, the utmost liberality is shown to strangers, and to literary men generally.

ļ Like most other college libraries, that of the University !of Edinburgh was founded by a donation; and, for a long period, the casual contributions of benefactors constituted its principal means of support as well as of increase. In 1580, Mr Clement Little, commissary in Edinburgh, bequeathed his library, consisting of about 300 volumes, chiefly theological, to Edinburgh and the Kirk of God; and this small collection was, not long afterwards, transferred by the Town Council to the College, which they were then instituting. Little’s bequest thus laid the foundation of the University Library. But it was subsequently augmented, partly by the donations of citizens, and still more by the benefactions of persons who had received their education in the College. Amongst the latter may be mentioned, Dr Robert Johnston, the Rev. James Nairne, and, above all, Drummond of Hawthornden, i∣one of the favourite sons of the Scottish muse. Drummond bequeathed to the College his whole library, consisting of about 500 volumes; and the gift is the more valuable, because, independently of the high reputation of the donor, the collection is enriched with many rare specimens of our early literature, and may indeed be considered as altogether unique and unrivalled. In 1763, the library of the incorporation of surgeons was added to that of the >College, in consequence of an agreement, which has event-aally proved eminently advantageous to the former body, whatever may be the case in as far as regards the interests )f the University. This collection consisted of about 500 'volumes, almost entirely professional, and now of very little "value. The principal bequest which the library has more recently received is that of Dr William Thomson, who, in 1808, left it about 600 volumes, chiefly on medical subjects, hi a testamentary bequest by the late General Reid, who was educated at this university, mention is made of the ibrary, as an object to the improvement and extension ∣∣bf which, his munificent legacy is, amongst other things, '.o be applied. The funds by which the library is maintained, and its progressive enlargement secured, are, ma-riculation fees, fees on graduation in three faculties, a lonation of L.5 from each professor on his induction, an i mnual payment of L.20 by the College of Surgeons, occasional donations of books, and its acquisitions as one of the privileged libraries; but from the sums tlļus realized ire of course to be deducted the salaries of the persons employed in the establishment. The ordinary managenent of the library is vested in nine curators appointed annually by the Senatus Academicus, four of whom retire from office every year, and are immediately succeeded by an equal number of professors next in seniority, who are willing to undertake the duty. Four of these curators are from the medical, one from the theological, and four from the general department, including classes neither medical nor theological.^[69. Report of Commissioners on the Universities and Colleges of Scotland, App. p. 167, et seq. ] This library consists of about 90,000 printed volumes, including some great typographical rarities; and the accommodation now provided for it is of the most magnificent description, the library-hall being by far the most spacious and noble apartment in Scotland. As to the collection generally, it contains much that is valuable, and a good deal that is both curious and rare; but, considered as a repository of varied information in science and literature, it is unequal and defective, being redundant in some branches and deficient in others. Its most ample department is that of medicine, a purely professional one, and more largely replenished than any other with obsolete matter. Those of natural philosophy and natural history are tolerably supplied with the works belonging to them. But the case is different in the departments of metaphysical, ethical, and political science, in all of which the deficiencies are still great, though, happily, in the way of being gradually supplied. In classical literature, too, including under that head all that relates to the exposition and illustration of the ancient authors, there are perhaps few great libraries more defective.^[70. Edin. Evid. p. 648, quoted in the App. to the Report of the Commissioners on the Univ, and Coll, of Scotland, p. 172. ] It is to be hoped, however, that every exertion will be made, not only to supply obvious and glaring deficiencies, but also to give to the collection that character of generality, founded upon the possession of all that is most useful and interesting in every branch of knowledge, which constitutes the best recommendation of a great public library. This it is which has imparted to the library of Göttingen its great and acknowledged excellence. The only catalogue yet printed is one of the books relating to medicine, arranged alphabetically according to the names of the authors.^[71. Catalogus librorum ad rem medicam spectantium in Bibliotheca Academiae Edinburgensis, secundum auctorum nomina disposi-us. Editio altera. Edinburgh 1798, 8vo. ] In addition to the public, there is attached to the university a theological library, founded towards the close of the seventeenth century, and now containing about 5000 volumes.

The history of the library of Glasgow College, though curious and interesting, is chiefly a register of the numerous successive donations by which it was gradually formed. Amongst the names of its early benefactors we find that of George Buchanan, who, it appears, presented to the college twenty volumes, consisting entirely of Greek works, chiefly classics,^[72. Such as the works of Plutarch, Plato, Demosthenes, Apollonius, Aristophanes; Strabo, and Euclid. ] and made other benefactions, the extent of which cannot now be ascertained. This library is said to contain upwards of 30,000 volumes; and the funds for its support are derived from the interest of certain small sums bequeathed by individuals, from graduation fees, and from the contributions of students, including the interest accruing from the deposit money. It also enjoys the privilege of receiving books from Stationers’ Hall.^[73. Appendix to Report of Commission, p. 278, et seq. ] Amongst the manuscripts in this library are several volumes by Wodrow, principally on biography. A catalogue of the printed books, by Professor Arthur,^[74. Catalogus impressorum librorum in Bibliotheca Universitatis Glasguensis, secundum literarum ordinem dispositus. Labore et ι∙udio Archibald! Arthur, A. Μ. Glasguae, 1791, 2 vols. folio. Printed by Andrew Eoulis. ] appeared in 1791, and, we presume, is the one still chiefly consulted, though consider able additions must have been made since it was printed.

There was very early a library in each of the colleges at St Andrews; but no mention is made of an university library until about the commencement of the seventeenth century. At that period, there occurs a notice of such a [7:13:304] collection; and a catalogue of its contents, made at the time, is still extant, the books being chiefly presents from James VI. and the members of his family. With this public university library, those of St Salvator’s and St Mary s Colleges came, in process of time, to be incorporated; and, rather more than half a century ago, that of St Leonard s College, the best of the collections, was conjoined with the rest. As now constituted, the library is supported by the interest of money made up out of the excess of the receipts above the expenditure of its funds, the surplus rent of some teinds and lands held in lease from the exchequer, certain fees on graduations, and an annual payment by every student of the university, exclusively of its right to receive books from Stationers’ Hall.^[75. App. to Report, p. 413. ] It contains about 35,000 printed volumes, and is, upon the whole, an excellent collection. There is a printed catalogue to the year 1826, and a progressive manuscript one since that time.

There is reason to believe, that from the first institution of the university of Aberdeen there was a collection of books at King’s College, but no particular record of the library or its management, prior to the year 1634, is now to be found. The collection is considerable, containing from 15,000 to 20,000 printed volumes, and a number of manuscripts. Amongst the latter are, a splendid copy of the Koran, said to have belonged to Tippoo Sahib; a work on Hindu theology, written upon fine vellum, and rolled on a piece of ivory like the volumina of the ancients; and a Shaster in Sanscrit, written on the leaves of trees. This library is entitled to a copy of every book entered at Stationers’ Hall. Its funds, however, arc altogether inadequate, not only for the purchase of new, and particularly foreign publications,· but even for binding the books obtained from Stationers’ Hall, in the way proper for a public library. The library of Marischal College had its origin in a collection of books made at the time of the Reformation by the magistrates of Aberdeen, and partly procured from the suppressed monasteries of that city.^[76. These books. were retained in one of the churches, under the care of the magistrates, and were called the Town’s Library, and Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica. On the 19th of May 1624, Mr Thomas Reid, Latin secretary to James VI., bequeathed his books to the college, and left 6000 merks to the town, the interest of which was to be applied as a salary to a librarian. Reid’s collection was afterwards united to the Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica, and to the books bequeathed by Dr Liddel, and other benefactors; and the whole, forming one collection, was deposited in the college, of which it now constitutes the public library. (See Appendix to the Report of Commission on the Uni ersitics and Colleges of Scotland, p. 361.) ] The number of volumes in it is about 11,000. The funds for supporting this library arise from fees of graduation, and the interest of a sum of money amounting to rather more than L.900. The principal and professors of Marischal College have a right to the use of the books transmitted from Stationers’ Hall, and deposited in the library of King’s College.^[77. App. to Report, p. 361. ]

The library of Trinity College, Dublin, owed its establishment to a very curious incident. In the year 1603, the Spaniards were defeated by the English at the battle of Kinsale. Determined to commemorate their victory by some permanent monument, the soldiers collected amongst themselves the sum of L.1800, which they agreed to apply in the purchase of books for a public library, to be founded in the then infant institution of Trinity College. This sum was placed in the hands of the celebrated Usher, who immediately proceeded to London, and there purchased the books necessary for the purpose. It is a curious coincidence, that

Usher, whilst occupied in purchasing these books, met in London Sir Thomas Bodley, engaged in similar business, with a view to the establishment of his famous library at Oxford. From this commencement, the library of Trinity College was at different periods increased by many valuable donations, including that of Usher’s own collection consisting of 10,000 volumes, until at length its growing magnitude requiring a corresponding increase of accommodation, the present library-hall, a magnificent apartment of stately dimensions, was erected in the year 1732. In 1787 the entire collection consisted of 36,047 volumes of printed books, and 1111 volumes of manuscripts and prints. But since that time great additions have been made to the library. When the French invaded Holland in 1794, the collection of Pensionary Fagel, amounting to upwards of 20,000 volumes, was removed to England, where, in 1802, it was purchased by the College for the sum of L.8000, granted for the purpose by the trustees of Erasmus Smith.^[78. Vι, e i a g. e ^ c .°fl ec flθ n being at first intended for sale by public auction, a classed catalogue by Mr Samuel Paterson was printed nı the beginning < 1802. Speaking generally of this collection, in the preface Mr Paterson says, “It is one genuine library, which has been accumulating in the family of Fagel, a name of the first respectability, and which has borne in succession the highes dvι offices in the united states of the Netherlands upwards of one hundred and twenty years. It abounds in many of the choicest books in theology and ecclesiastical history, in classical and philological learning, and in most branches of polite literature, arts, and sciences; it inc udes almost all the great corpora of history, antiquities, and diplomatic science; the books of prints, ar-chaio ogical, numismatical, and topographical (which are very numerous), are commonly of the best impressions: as an historical, geogiap ncal, genealogical, and statistical library, it may justly rank among the most distinguished.” ] Another important addition was made to the original collection by the acquisition of the valuable classical and ltalian books which had belonged to Mr Quin; and, altogether, the library of Trinity College now forms one of the first order, at least in this country. In the department of printed books, the total number of volumes is now supposed to fall little short of 100,000. The Usher manuscripts amount to 693, the Stearne to 135, the Stearneand Alexander to 77, and those presented by other persons to upwards of 200 volumes. Usher’s manuscripts may be classed into Bibles, and parts of Bibles, with commentaries; breviaries, missals, Roman rituals, the works of the fathers, and oriental writers; systematic, scholastic, and polemic writers; catalogues, philosophical, medical, and historical; and, lastly, Irish histories and genealogies, civil and ecclesiastical. The subjects of the Stcarne manuscripts are somewhat similar to these, with the exception that some of them treat of forensic subjects.^[79. Warburton, &c. History of the City of Dublin, vol. ii. p. 937, et seq. London, 1818, in 4to. Repertorium Bibliograpliicum, art- Trinity College Library, London, 1829, in 8vo. ] In this department of the collection, there is preserved the Gospel of St Matthew, along with other fragments of Scripture, written in Greek capitals, and ascribed by Dr Barrett to the sixth century.

Foreign Libraries.

Having described the principal libraries of Great Britain and Ireland, we shall now proceed to those of foreign countries, and, in particular, endeavour to give some account of the principal collections in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden. This account, however, must necessarily be brief and imperfect; for, owing to the magnitude of the subject, the space we can devote to the whole would scarcely be sufficient for an adequate description of the treasures contained in the Vatican or the Royal Library at Paris.

The libraries of France may be divided into those of the capital, and those of the departments. The principal libraries[7:13:305] of the capital are, the Royal Library, the Mazarin Library, the library of the Arsenal, the library of St Genevieve, the City Library, and the libraries of the Chamber of Peers, the Chamber of Deputies, the Institute, and the University. The libraries of the departments are two hundred and fifty in number, exclusively of those which are specially annexed to learned bodies, to establishments of public utility, to colleges, and other institutions.

The Royal Library of Paris is justly considered as the finest in Europe. It was commenced under the reign of King John, who possessed only ten volumes, to which 900 were added by Charles V., many of them superbly illuminated by John of Bruges, the best artist in miniatures of that time. Under Francis I. it had increased to 1890 volumes, and under Louis XIII. to 16,746. In 1684 it possessed 50,542 volumes; in 1775 it amounted to 150,000; and by 1790 it had increased to about 200,000. At present it contains about 700,000 printed volumes, and 80,000 manuscripts. In 1667, Louis XIV. having ordered all the medals and curiosities contained in the royal residences to be collected together, caused them to be deposited in the library. Learned antiquarians, sent into foreign countries, augmented this collection; rare and precious objects were successively acquired; and the library at present possesses the richest and most varied collection that exists in Europe. The cabinet of engravings, also founded by Louis XIV., is composed of paintings on vellum, designs, and an immense collection of prints and maps, from the discovery of engraving to the present time. It contains 1,400,000 prints or engravings, and 50,000 maps and charts.

The Royal Library is at present divided into the following departments: viz. Isŕ, printed books; 2ćZ, manuscripts, charters, and diplomas; 3űř, coins, medals, engraved stones, and other antique monuments; 4Λ⅞, engravings, including geographical charts and plans. These four departments form four distinct establishments, which, by their importance and the richness of their treasures, exceed every thing of the kind that is to be found in other countries. It is indispensable that the library should every year make the acquisition either of foreign books or of French works in which it is deficient; and it is equally obliged to purchase manuscripts, prints, charts, and medals. A decree of 1556, which fell into desuetude during the troubles of the Fronde, but was renewed in 1689, imposed on publishers the obligation of furnishing to the Library of the King copies of all works printed by privilege; and each copy required to be bound. At present the law prescribes the deposit of copies of all books printed; but the other condition is dispensed with. In consequence of this privilege, the Royal Library receives annually about 9000 volumes stitched; and the number of foreign books sent to it, or acquired by purchase, may be estimated at from 2000 to 3000 volumes. Now, as the price of the binding of each volume is, on an average, three francs, it follows that a sum amounting to about 36,000 francs, or L.1450, would be necessary, every year, to defray the expense of binding alone. But as the funds have for many years been insufficient to meet the whole of this expense, the library has at present more than 120,000 volumes stitched or in boards, and of these there are about of - 1 000 which urgently require binding. There are likewise 15,000 manuscripts which either require to be bound, )r of which the binding should be renewed.^[80. See Reposes aux Questions adressées au Gouvernement François sur tes Bibliothèques, Appendix to Report on the British Museum, pp. 525, 526. ]

The additions from the Vatican Library, selected by the French commissioners in 1797, were particularly valuable, amounting to 501 manuscripts. Of these, twenty were Hebrew; forty Syriac; nineteen Coptic; eleven Chinese; 133 Greek, amongst which were the celebrated Codex Vaticanus of the Septnagint; 176 Latin, including the famous Virgil of the seventh century, Terence of the tenth, Horace of the eleventh, Caesar of the twelfth, Plautus of the eleventh, Pliny of the tenth, and Ovid of the twelfth centuries; besides many other manuscripts illustrative of the history of the ninth and tenth centuries. Numerous manuscripts in modern languages were also seized in virtue of the compulsory treaty of Tolentino, particularly the Commedia of Dante, transcribed by Boccacio, the Arcadia of Sannazaro, Michel Angelo’s letters, and also those of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn; besides 136 early printed books, thirteen Etruscan vases, and 737 ancient coins. To these must further be added the manuscripts collected by the French in other parts of Europe, to which their victorious eagles had penetrated. But the events of 1814 and 1815 were followed by as complete a restitution of the literary treasures as of the works of art acquired by right, or rather by abuse, of conquest. Of the contents of this magnificent, nay matchless collection, it would far exceed our limits to give any details, or even to enumerate the choicest articles. It is rich in every branch and department, unique in some, scarcely surpassed in any, unrivalled in all taken together. Of books printed on vellum, it contains at once the finest and most extensive collection in the world.^[81. The number of books printed on vellum, contained in the Royal Library at Paris, amounts to 1467, exclusively of those ret. 0r . ιn 1814 and 1815. The total number of books of this sort extant does not exceed 2700. Lord Spencer’s collection, which is lfi e ,J. lest ιn this country, contains only 108∙ (Van-Praët, Catalogue des Livres imprimés sur Velin de la Bibliothèque du Roi. Paris, m six vols. 8vo.) ] Excepting on Sundays and holidays, the Royal Library is open daily, from ten until two o’clock; every book is brought that is required; and literary men of known respectability are permitted to take books to their own residences. The annual expense of the establishment is 274,000 francs, or nearly L.11,000 sterling, which is provided for in the budget. The principal librarian is the celebrated Hellenist, Μ. Letronne, with the title of director-president; the conservators, or keepers, are MM. Van-Praët, Magnin, Champollion-Figeac, Hase, Silvestre de Sacy, Raoul-Rochette, Thevenin, and Jomard, all men of distinguished eminence. The actual administration of the library is conducted in conformity with the principles and rules prescribed in an Ordonnance du Roi, dated 26th March 1833.^[82. Ordonnance du Roi, et Règlement concernant la Bibliothèque Royale, 26 Mars 1833. Appendix to Report on the British Museum, λ °∙ H, p, 405, et seq. ]

There is no complete catalogue of this vast collection. That of Labbe, printed in 1653. in 4to, treats of some manuscripts, which are divided into historical and chronological, biblical and theological, epistolary and diplomatic, technical and philological. Anicetti Mellot’s catalogue of the manuscripts in the Royal Library was printed at Paris, 1739-1744, in four vols. folio. The first volume contains the oriental manuscripts; the second, the Greek manuscripts; the third and fourth comprise those in the Latin language. The catalogue of the printed books, arranged by Sallier Boudot, in six vols. folio, comes down only to the year 1753. Besides these, there are notices and extracts of the manuscripts in the Royal and National Libraries, Paris, 1787-1804, in seven vols. 4to, and a catalogue of the Sanscrit manuscripts in the former collection, by Hamilton and Langles, Paris, 1807, 8vo. There is no classed catalogue.^[83. Le Prince, Essai Historique sur la Bibliothèque du Roi, Paris, 1782; Horne, l’ntrod. to Study of Bibliography, vol. ii. p∙ 567, et seq. ]

This library was founded by Cardinal Mazarin. The [7:13:306]formation of it was intrusted to the learned Gabriel Naudé, who, having first selected all that suited his purpose in the booksellers’ shops in Paris, travelled into Holland, Italy, Germany, and England, where the letters of recommendation of which he was the bearer enabled him to collect many very rare and curious works. In 1648, this collection consisted of 40,000 volumes, and was already a public library, though that of the king did not become one until 1737. Cardinal Mazarin by his will bequeathed it to the college which he founded, and which, until the epoch of the Revolution, bore the name of the founder. At present it contains 90,000 printed volumes, and 3437 manuscripts. It is remarkable for a great number of collections containing detached pieces, and small treatises, which date as far back as the fifteenth century, and exist nowhere else; nor has any other library so complete a body of the ancient books of law, theology, medicine, and the physical and mathematical sciences. It also possesses a most precious collection of the Lutheran or Protestant authors. In one of the halls are placed models in relief of the Pelasgic monuments of Italy and of Greece; in another is a terrestrial globe, eighteen feet in diameter, formed of plates of copper, and executed by order of Louis XVI. This monument, which is unique in Europe, is unfortunately not finished; a sum of 25,000 francs (L.1000) would be necessary to provide it with the requisite circles. The Mazarin Library is habitually frequented by more than an hundred readers. It is supported by an annual grant of about L.1400, provided for in the budget.^[84. Bibliothèques Royales, App. to Report, note (Μ), art. 47, p. 567∙ ] Al. Petit-Radel is the principal librarian.

This library, founded by the Marquis de Paulmy, formerly ambassador of France in Poland, was, in 1781, acquired by the Count d’Artois, who conjoined with it nearly the whole of the library of the Duke de Vali. re. It consists of more than 175,000 volumes, of which about 6000 are manuscripts. It possesses the most complete collection extant of romances, since their origin in modern literature; of theatrical pieces, or dramas, from the epoch of the moralities and mysteries; and of French poetry since the commencement of the sixteenth century. It is less rich in other branches, but it has all works of importance, and, in particular, contains historical collections which are not to be found elsewhere. The library of the Arsenal has always attracted the attention of the learned from all parts of Europe. It is constantly frequented by more than sixty readers, who there apply themselves to scientific and literary researches. The annual grant for its support is 36,000 francs, or L.1440. Μ. Charles Nodier is principal librarian.^[85. Ibid. App. to Report, ubi supra. ]

The foundation of this library dates as early as the year 1624, when Cardinal de Rochefoucauld, having reformed the Sainte-Geneviève, made it a present of 600 volumes. In 1687, the abbey had already 20,000 printed volumes, and 400volumesof manuscripts. In 1710, Letellier, archbishop of Paris, bequeathed to it all his books. At the epoch of the Revolution it possessed 90,000 printed volumes and 3000 manuscripts; at present it contains 160,000 volumes and 3500 manuscripts. In it may be found all the academical collections, and a complete set of Aldines; it is particularly rich in historical works; and its most remarkable manuscripts are Greek and oriental. Its typographical collections of the fifteenth century are not more valuable for their number than the high state of preservation in which they are found. This fine library is daily frequented by upwards of two hundred persons, of whom more than a half are students in the different faculties. It is supported by an annual grant from the public treasury of

40,500 francs, or upwards of L.1600. The principal librarian is M. de Laney.^[86. Ibid. App. to Report, ubi supra. ]

The City Library contains 50,000 volumes, and is supported by a grant of 7500 francs from the funds of the municipal council. 1he library of the Chamber of Peers contains 16,000 volumes, and has allotted to it a sum of 10,000 francs for the purchase of booksand to defray the expense of binding. 1he library of the Chamber of Deputies contains 50,000 volumes, and receives annually a sum of 12,000 francs for the same objects. The University Library, which is placed in the buildings of the Sorbonne, consists of 40,000 volumes, and is very useful to the students of the different faculties, who frequent it in the intervals between the lectures or prelections. It expends annually a sum of about 1800 francs.^[87. Réponses aux Questions, &c. in the Appendix to Report, No. 18, p∙ 52C∙ ]

The foundation of the library of the Institute was the old City Library (Jl3ibliothequx de la VillC), which consisted of scarcely 20,000 volumes. At present this excellent and useful collection amounts to nearly 80,000 volumes. It is not yet complete in any department; but it nevertheless exhibits the best possible selection of the principal works in all the important branches of human knowledge; and it may be truly said that it is kept up to the actual state of science and learning. In the acquisitions which are made, the objectis not to search for rare editions, but to obtain such as possess some peculiar merit. Academical collections of all kinds and of all countries, magazines and journals of science and literature in all languages, are to be found in it in greater number than any where else. The library increases daily. Numerous works are presented to the Institute, which, on its part, is constantly making new acquisitions; and the premises allotted for its accommodation have become insufficient to contain its accumulations. This collection is reserved for the members of the five academies of which the Institute is composed; but all strangers presented by them are admitted, and it is de facto public. As it is open everyday during seven hours, the service therein is more severe than in the other libraries, which are only open four hours, and en ; o y vacations. The number of books has been quadrupled since the institution of the library, and yet the number of the conservators and assistants remains the same. The annual expense of the establishment, though arranged with the strictest economy, amounts to 46,500 francs, or about L.1860.^[88. Notes sur le Budget du Ministère de l’ Instruction Publique, chap. vii. Appendix to Report, p. 564. ]

The provincial libraries of France, as they are supported at the expense of the different cities, are naturally placed under the immediate direction of the mayors and municipal councils'; but they are not the less on that account under the superintendence of the superior authority of the minister of public instruction. Their number, as already stated, exceeds 250, exclusively of those attached to societies, colleges, and other institutions. Amongst the most considerable are those of Bordeaux (115,000), Lyons (100,000), Aix (75,000), Besançon (56,000), Amiens (48,000), Versailles (40,000), Marseilles (35,000), Toulouse (30,000), &c. The catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Lyons, 1518 in number, is one of the most interesting which has issued from the French press (Paris et Lyon, 1812, in three vols. 8vo). The preliminary disquisition contains notices of the ancient libraries of Lyons; the historical essay on manuscripts contains a neat account of the materials anciently used in writing; the biography of writers who have treated of the subject, though brief is worthy of attention; and the manuscripts are classed and described with equal judgment and learning.^[89. Reponses, Ac. App. to Rep. ubi supra ; Edwards, Letter to Benjamin Hawes, Μ. ľ. p. 36 (note); Horne, Introd, to Bibliog. vol. ii. p∙ ι>13- ]
[7:13:307]

The number of public libraries in Spain is much greater than has commonly been supposed; nor have the science and literature of that country sunk to such a state of depression as some have been pleased to represent. Few nations, it is true, have ever been doomed to pass through so long and dreary a course of misgovernment; in none have bad laws corruptly administered, and a system of civil polity at variance with every sound principle, done more to cramp the energies and debase the general character of the people. But in spite of the evils which have thus been entailed upon her, Spain is by no means the degraded and benighted country which many have been led to suppose. Her scientific and literary institutions are respectable; several of her establishments are admirable; and some of her collections are unique. The very extravagance and absurdity of her fiscal regulations and expurgatory prohibitions have served to defeat their own operation; and the contrabandistas have ministered to those wants which, under a better and more healthy system, would have been supplied by the regular dealer.^[90. Le fisc prélève des droits aux frontières des royaumes de Navarre, d’Aragon, de Castille, de Valence, de Grenade, à cours de l’Ebre, autour de seigneuries de Catalogne et de Biscaye, vers les frontières de Portugal; d’où la cherté des denrées ou marchandises, et les avantages de la contrabande. On estime à vingt mille hommes l’armce des contrabandicrs en Espagne." (Mortonval, Conde de Villamayor). ] This applies to books as well as to other articles; for where there is a demand, no law can prevent the supply, though it may change the direction in which it flows. Hence the quantity of books of every kind in general circulation has at all times been much greater than persons unacquainted with the real state and condition of that country could have imagined. But our business here is with the public and permanent collections of Spain, which are, the Royal Library at Madrid, the library of the Escurial, and the libraries of the provinces.

There are in Madrid four public libraries, which are constantly open from nine in the morning until two in the afternoon, holidays excepted. Of these, the principal is the Biblioteea Peal, which was, several years ago, removed to a building erected for the purpose in the square beside the palace. This noble collection is open to all, as far at least as the printed books are concerned. The reading-tables are placed in three spacious apartments, corresponding to as many sides of the edifice, which is built round a court, with a fine stair-ease in the centre; in the middle of these rooms are rows of tables provided with writing materials and chairs; and against£the walls are the book-shelves, numbered and tastefully ornamented. The catalogues are kept in a small room apart, where there are two or three persons in attendance to answer the inquiries of the stranger, and to furnish him with the number and shelf where any particular work may be found. The service of the library is excellent. The principal attendants, ten in number, are respectable literary men, who find here a maintenance, and leisure to follow their different pursuits. The Royal Library contains 200,000 printed volumes, and from 4000 to 5000 manuscripts, amongst which are many valuable Greek, Latin, and Arabic manuscripts, and unedited works, chiefly Spanish. The establishment of the library consists of one principal librarian, D. Joaquin Patino, six keepers, and the ten attendants already mentioned. The Monetario, or cabinet of medals, is arranged in an elegant and beautiful apartment, and contains an unrivalled collection of

Celtic, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Gothic, Arabic, and modern coins and medals, in excellent preservation. “Le cabinet des médailles de Madrid,” says Μ. Faure, “est sans doute le plus remarquable de l’Europe. Tandis que Paris, qui l’emporte si incontestablement sur la capitale des Espagnes par les monumens des arts et de l’antiquité, n’a que cent mille médailles dans sa collection, il y en a cent quatre-vingt-trois mille dans celle de Madrid: cent cinquante mille sont classées dans l’ordre le plus parfait; trente-trois mille sculement restent à'classer. Ces preuves matérielles du passage des Celtes, des Tyriens ou Phéniciens, des Carthaginois, des Romains, des Vandales, des Sueves, des Alains, des Goths, des Maures sur eette malheureuse terre qu’ils se sont arrachée les uns aux autres, reconcile avec les Espagnols, dont on a d’ailleurs tant d’occasions d’accuser 1’- indifférence. On trouve dans cette collection précieuse de quoi applaudir au zèle de ceux qui l’ont formée et de ceux qui l’entretiennent avee tant de soin.”^[91. Faure, Souvenirs du Midi, ou l’Espagne telle qu'elle est, pp. 43, 44, Paris, 1831, in 8vo. ] A still more recent traveller, speaking of the Biblioteea Peal, says, “It is one of many institutions which awaken the admiration of the stranger in Spain, as being at variance with the pervading decay.”^[92. A Year in Spain, vol. i. p. 243, et seq. London, 1831, in 8vo. ] The only catalogue that has been printed is one of the Greek manuscripts, by D. Juan Yriarte (Madrid, 1769, folio); a work rarely to be met with, the king of Spain having reserved the whole impression for presents.

The convent of the Escorial, situated upon the southern declivity of the Guadarrama chain, about half way up the mountain, owes its existence to a vow made by Philip II. during the crisis of the battle of Saint-Quintin. It derives its name from San Lorenzo del Escorial,^[93. Escorial is formed from the Spanish word escoria, signifying dross. It is commonly applied to all places where there are old or exhausted mines. ] to whom it was dedicated, and has been often described. At present we have only to do with the literary treasures contained in this magnificent edifice. In the library of the Escorial there are about 130,000 printed volumes, and between 4000 and 5000 manuscripts, of which 567 are Greek, 67 Hebrew, and 1800 Arabic. The Arabie manuscripts were originally much more numerous;^[94. In a fortress belonging to the emperor of Morocco, there were found 4000 Arabic manuscripts, which were carried to Paris f or sale; but not being prized in that capital, they were transported to Madrid, where about 3000, including the most valuable, were selected for the library of the Escorial by order of Philip II. ] but a large proportion of them was consumed by the fire which, in 1671, destroyed a great part of the library, and all that remains is the number just stated. Besides these, which are extremely curious, there arc detached manuscripts of great rarity and value, particularly one of the Four Gospels, written on 160 leaves in gold letters, and supposed to be of the tenth century; a treatise by St Augustin, De Eaptismο Parvulorum, said to be in his own handwriting; the original works of St Teresa; and a parchment roll containing an original Greek manuscript by St Basil. The books are placed, whimsically enough, with their backs to the wall, so that the edges of the leaves are turned outwards, and the titles of the works written thereon. This was the practice of Arias Montanus, whose library formed the basis of that of the Escorial; and the same absurd method has continued to be followed for the sake of what is called uniformity. The library of the Escorial was founded by Charles V.^[95. It is not a little singular, that in the return of the “Public Libraries and Archives of Spain,” made to Lord Palmerston by Mr Villiers, and printed in the Appendix to the Report on the British Museum (p. 511, et seq.), no notice whatever is taken of the library of the Escorial; whilst the regulations of a provincial library (that of the Junta of Commerce at Coruna) are inserted at full length. ] ’ There is no printed catalogue of the books; and that of the learned Casiri includes only the Arabic manuscripts rescued from the conflagration [7:13:308]of 1671, with a few others subsequently acquired. This catalogue, however, is particularly valuable, inasmuch as each manuscript is not only enumerated, but its age and the author’s name, when known, are also given, together with occasional extracts both in the original Arabic and in the Latin language.^[96. Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurìalensis, Madrid, i76O-i77θ, in two vols. folio. ]

The number of provincial libraries in Spain is considerable. The more extensive and important are those of Toledo (30,000), Salamanca (24,000, with 1500 MSS.), Santiago University at Coruña (17,307, with forty-one MSS.), and Valladolid (13,000). But at Malaga, Peruel, Seville, Murcia, Lugo, Cervera, Oviedo, Palma, and some other places, not to mention the library of the Asturian Institute, and that of the Junta of Commerce at Coruña,^[97. '- See Appendix to the Report on the British Museum, pp. 514, 515, et seq. ] are collections of books varying from 3000 or 4000 to between 9000 and 10,000 volumes each.

Italy is rich in literary institutions of all kinds, particularly in noble collections of books and manuscripts. Indeed there is scarcely a city in the whole peninsula without its library; and many of those which are considered as small collections in that country would be differently estimated in most others. It is to be regretted, however, that of some of the larger collections, as for instance the Ambrosian Library at Milan, no adequate account can be given, owing to the inaccessibility of the necessary materials.

Amongst the libraries of Italy, that of the Vatican, at Rome, stands pre-eminent, not more for its grandeur and magnificence, than for the inestimable treasures with which it is enriched. The origin of this library is attributed by some to Pope Hilarius, who, in the fifth century, founded one in the Lateran Palace. But although it is probable, that, even prior to that period, the Roman church must have possessed a considerable stock of books for the use of its clergy, yet it may be supposed that the pontiffs were too much occupied with the dangers and difficulties of the times, to have either the leisure or the means necessary for the formation of libraries. That a good many volumes, however, had been collected at an early period, seems pretty certain; nor is it less so, that Pope Zacharias considerably augmented their number about the middle of the eighth century. Still Nicholas V., learned himself, and a distinguished patron of letters, is justly considered as the founder of the Vatican Library; for of the collections of his predecessors little remained when he ascended the papal throne, the books having been either lost or destroyed by the frequent removals from Rome to Avignon, and from Avignon to Rome. This pontiff added above 5000 manuscripts to the original collection, placing all in the Vatican; and Calixtus III. is said to have enriched it with many volumes saved from the libraries of Constantinople, when that city fell into the hands of the Ottomans. From this period, it continued to increase in a regular progression, receiving almost every year vast additions, sometimes even of whole libraries, owing not only to the favour of the pontiffs and various princes, but also to the well-directed zeal of its librarians, many of whom have been men of eminent talents as well as of high rank and extensive influence.^[98. Eustace, Classical Tour through Italy, vol. ii. pp. 57, 58, London, 1817, in 8vo. ] Under the reign of Pope Urban VIII. a most valuable addition was made by the purchase of the library at Heidelberg, belonging to the Elector Palatine; and those of the Dukes of Urbino, and Christina queen of Sweden, were likewise annexed to the collection in the Vatican. The same pontiff despatched Leo Allatius into Germany for the purpose of selecting the most valuable books to be sent to Rome;^[99. Allatius wrote in Italian a tract on the conveyance of the Palatine Library to Rome, which tract was translated into Latin by Quade, and published at Gryphiswald, 1708, in 4to. ] ł and by these acquisitions, conjoined with the liberality of subsequent popes, the Vatican Library became the richest perhaps in the world, at least in manuscripts, before the most valuable of these were conveyed to Paris in the year 1797.

This magnificent library consists of three divisions or compartments, besides the vestibule; the ante-room, the double gallery, and the great saloon or hall. The vestibule contains Chinese works relating to geography and chronology, together with two columns bearing ancient inscriptions. The ante-room is appropriated to the two keepers of the library, and the secretaries, or rather interpreters, seven in number, who can speak the principal languages of Europe, and who attend for the convenience of learned foreigners. In this apartment are also accommodated those engaged in translating from the Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Greek, and Latin languages; and it is open daily for the use of students, Thursdays and holidays alone excepted. Passing from the ante-room, the visitant enters a double gallery of two hundred and twenty feet in length, which strangers at first conceive to be the whole library; but at its extremity there opens upon the astonished visitant, in almost interminable perspective, another gallery, which, according to some, exceeds a thousand English feet in length,^[100. Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 383, Edinburgh, 1822, in 8vo. Mr Eustace (Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 5G), makes the great hall only 800 feet in length, which seems more likely to be correct. ] and forms the great saloon or hall of the Vatican, with various rooms and cabinets annexed. These galleries and apartments, all vaulted and painted with varied effect by painters of different eras and talents, constitute the receptacle of this noble collection. The books are all kept in close cases; and in the Vatican the stranger seeks in vain for that imposing display of volumes which he may have seen and admired in other libraries. The number of these has never been accurately stated; some confine it to 200,000, others raise it to 400,000, and some swell it to more than 800,000,^[101. Eustace, Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 57. ] ’ whilst not a few, carrying exaggeration into the other extreme, reduce it as low as 90,000, and even below 50,000, or the number of the manuscripts. This monstrous discrepancy has been occasioned partly by the want of a catalogue, and partly also by the books being kept in close cases; but when we take into view the successive accumulations of so many centuries, and consider the number of entire libraries which have, at different times, been combined with this vast collection, we shall not probably err in estimating the total number of printed volumes at upwards of 500,000, amongst which is a choice collection of books printed in the fifteenth century.

But the superiority of this library consists not so much in the quantity of printed books it contains, as in the number of its manuscripts, which are said to exceed 50,000.^[102. The pumber of manuscripts, like that of printed books, has been variously stated. In Starke’s Guide (art. Biblioteca Vaticana, c. vii.) it is set down as “forty thousand.” The authoress of Rome in the Nineteenth Century (vol. ii. p. 380) informs us that the col lection amounts to “ upwards of thirty thousand.” And Mr Eustace says that it is supposed to exceed “fifty thousand.’ The last estimate, we have reason to believe, is the nearest to the truth. As to the authoress of Rome, she evidently writes on a subject which she had not examined. Vasi, after describing the rarities of the Vatican, speaks of it as “arrichita collo spoglio di moltissime librerie di Europa, e di altrove ancora; tanto che in oggì non vi è una simile.” (Itinerario di Roma, p. 503, Rome, 1777.) ] Some of these manuscripts are of the highest antiquity, such as [7:13:309]that of Virgil of the fifth century, written in capital letters, and illuminated with miniatures, representing the Latins and Trojans in the respective dresses of their own times; a Terence equally ancient; another of the ninth century, illuminated with ancient masks; a Greek Bible of the sixth century, written in capital letters, according to the Septuagint version, and from which all the subsequent copies have been taken; and the Gospels of St Luke and St John, written in the tenth century, and bound in ivory. Amongst the rare manuscripts in this splendid collection may also be mentioned, several Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian Bibles; a very large Hebrew Bible presented to the library by the Duke of Urbino, for which the Venetian Jews offered its weight in gold; a Greek manuscript containing the Acts of the Apostles, written in gold letters, and presented to Innocent VIII. by the queen of Cyprus; a Missal written in 1118; another adorned with miniatures by Giulio Clovio, the scholar of Giulio Romano, and the finest miniature-painter of his time; a large Breviary, ornamented with beautiful miniatures, and presented to the library by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary; the Annals of Baronius, in twelve volumes, written with his own hand; several volumes of Ecclesiastical History, by the learned Onofrio Panvinio; a Martyrology, curious on account of its antiquity and its miniatures; a manuscript of Pliny, with five miniatures of animals; a beautiful copy of Tasso’s Gierusalemme Liberata ; a Dante adorned with exquisite paintings, begun by the Florentine school, and finished by Giulio Clovio; a treatise on the Seven Sacraments by Henry VIII. of England; several Letters between that royal wife-killer and Anne Boleyn; several papers written by Martin Luther; and manuscripts on Egyptian papyrus. This library possesses a very fine cabinet of medals, which was carried off by the French, but compulsorily restored, after the events of 1814 and 1815. There is also attached to it a chamber filled with a fine collection of prints, to which admission can only be obtained by a particular order; and in another are deposited the secret archives of the Vatican, to which, of course, there is no admission at all. A cardinal is always nominal librarian; but the actual head of the Vatican Library is the celebrated Angelo Maio, so distinguished for the discoveries which he has made by deciphering the palimpsest or rescribed manuscripts.^[103. The palimpsest or rescribed manuscripts are those in which the ancient writing has been totally or partially obliterated, to make w ay for later compositions, merely to save parchment. From manuscripts thus barbarously manipulated, Signor Maio has recovered part of Cicero’s celebrated treatise De Repubĭica ; the correspondence between Fronto and Marcus Aurelius, before and after the latter became emperor; a fragment of an oration by Q. Aurelius Symmachus, with the supplements of two other orations; and the supplement to the Ulpian Commentaries. ] In fine, there is every reason to conclude that the riches of this department have by no means been fully explored, and that an abundant harvest yet awaits future inquirers who to the requisite skill join inflexible perseverance.

The other libraries at Rome, of sufficient importance to deserve notice, are the Barberini collection, containing about 50,000 printed books, and several thousands of manuscripts; the Colonna Library, distinguished for about four hundred volumes of books and engravings, printed or executed in the fifteenth century; and the collection of the Roman College, in which is contained the library and museum of Athanasius Kircher, the German Jesuit, so famous for his misapplied learning and ingenuity, not to add imaginative vagaries, on the subject of Egyptian hieroglyphics.^[104. Vasi, Itinéraire, p. 552. ]

The Ambrosian Library, notwithstanding its appellation, has no connection with antiquity, and owes its existence entirely to the munificence of Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, nephew of Charles Borromeo, and his successor in the see of Milan. This prelate began to collect books, when a student at Rome; and enlarging his plan as he advanced in age and dignities, he, when raised to the archbishopric of Milan, erected an edifice, placed in it his collection, and opened it to the public under the title of Bibliotheca Ambrosiana. This library contains between 40,000 and 50,000 printed volumes, and upwards of 15,000 manuscripts; and there is annexed to it a gallery of pictures, statues, antiques, and medals, comprising many articles of great rarity and value. In the department of manuscripts is a collection of the various works of Leonardo da Vinci, enriched with his drawings and designs: it was presented by a citizen of the name of Galeas Arconati, who generously refused a vast sum for the precious treasure, and, to secure the possession of it to his country, consigned it to the Ambrosian Library as to an inviolable sanctuary. The sanctuary, however, was violated by the French—“di Pa-rigile vagabonde belve,”—in 1791, who seized the cherished relic of Leonardo’s genius, and sent it off to Paris, tumbled and tossed in the common massy>f plunder;^[105. Eustace, Classical Tour, vol. iv. p. 27, et seq. ] but what an abuse of victory enabled them to carry off, the fortune of war at length compelled them to restore. The same department also includes a Virgil with annotations by Petrarch, in his own handwriting; a Pliny, a Plato, and a Cicero of the second century; and a Josephus, on papyrus, written on both sides of each leaf. It is to be regretted, however, that the manuscript treasures of this collection have not been particularly described. Signor Angelo Maio, now librarian of the Vatican, formerly held the same office in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, and there commenced those researches relating to palimpsest or rescribed manuscripts, which have issued in the recovery of some ancient remains believed to have been for ever lost, and entitled this ingenious and indefatigable scholar to the lasting gratitude of the learned.^[106. No account of this collection, that we are aware of, has appeared in recent times. Oppicelli’s Monumenta Blblioth. Αmbros. was printed at Milan in 1618, 8vo; and Boscha de Orig ’ . et Stat. Bibl. Ambros, was published in the ninth vol. of Muratoris Thesaurus, part vi. An Oratio de nsu et fructu librorum Blblloth. Ambros, appeared at Leyden in 1623, 8vo. ] The other libraries of note in the Lombardo-Venetian territory are those belonging to the universities of Pavia and Padua. These libraries contain about 50,000 volumes each, and are open ten months in the year, c four hours in winter and six in summer, every day excepting Wednesdays, Sundays, and holidays.^[107. Boiletino Statisticoed Economicodi Milano, 1833. ]

Bologna, celebrated for its scientific and literary insti-. tutions, and its academy for the encouragement and promotion of art, boasts likewise a great public library. This extensive collection, consisting of above 100,000 printed volumes, and from 4000 to 5000 manuscripts, is contained in the Manfredi Palace, and is open to the public six days in the week. In the same palace are, an observatory, furnished with an excellent astronomical apparatus; a large [7:13:310] chemical laboratory; a cabinet of natural history; an experimental cabinet, with all kinds of instruments for physical operation; two halls of architecture, civil and military; a gallery of antiquities, another of statues, and a third of paintings; with halls of anatomy and midwifery.^[108. Eustace, Classical Tour, vol. i. p. 164. ] An establishment so complete in itself, and so concentrated for all the purposes of education and study, is nowhere else to be found. The other universities of the Roman states are also possessed of considerable collections of books. That of Perugia, founded as early, as 1307, has a library of 30,000 volumes; that of Ferrara, founded at a much later period, has a library containing no less than 80,000 volumes; and the three universities of Macerata, Urbino, and Camerino, have each libraries, though upon a smaller scale.^[109. Serristori, Saggio Statìstico dcli Italia, 1833. ]

The public libraries at Florence are the Mediceo-Lau-renzana, or Laurentian; the collection bequeathed to the public by Magliabechi, by whose name it is distinguished; the Marucelliana; the Riccardiana, which was purchased not long since of the Riccardi family; and the library of the Belle Arti, containing the books which were taken out of the suppressed convents.

The Mediceo-Laurentian Library, which is contained in the convent annexed to the church of San Lorenzo, was commenced by Cosmo de’ Medicis, the father of a line of princes whose name and age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning. “His credit,” says Gibbon, “was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind: he corresponded at once with Cairo and London; and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek books were often imported by the same vessel.”^[110. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. xii. p. 136. ] As the natural disposition of this princely merchant led him to take a very active part in collecting the remains of classical antiquity, so his wealth and extensive commercial intercourse enabled him to gratify his taste to the fullest extent. He enjoined his friends and correspondents, as well as the missionaries who travelled into remote countries, to search for and procure ancient manuscripts in every language and upon every subject. He availed himself of the services of the most learned men, his contemporaries; and the situation of the eastern empire, then falling into ruins, afforded him an opportunity of obtaining many valuable works in the Hebrew, Greek, Chaldaic, Arabic, and Indian languages. After the death of Cosmo, his son pursued the same object with steady perseverance, and added considerably to the treasures which had been accumulated by his father. But although the ancestors of Lorenzo de’ Medicis had laid the foundation of the Laurentian library, the honour of raising the superstructure belonged to Lorenzo himself, whose assiduity and liberality in enlarging his collection of books, manuscripts, and antiquities, were unbounded. To this object his time and his fortune, exceeding that of princes, were equally devoted. Shortly after the death of Lorenzo, however, this matchless collection was dispersed by the French troops under Charles VIII. in resentment of some imaginary insult; and in the perpetration of this sacrilegious deed, “the Gallic herd” were joined by the Florentines themselves, who openly carried off, or secretly purloined, whatever they could discover that was most rare, curious, and valuable. The library, however, was subsequently restored by the perseverance and liberality of Leo X. who caused it to be removed to Rome; but it was reconveyed to Florence by his successor Clement VII., who, by a bull dated the 15th of December 1532, made provision for its future security. ^[111. Roscoe, Life of Lorenzo de’ Medicis, vol. i. pp. 37, 38, and vol. ii. pp. 60, 254, 284, et seq∙ ] This library, the noblest monument which the Medicis have left of the glory of their line, contains about 100,000 printed volumes, and 9000 manuscripts, many of them of great rarity and value. The latter have been described in a catalogue of eleven folio volumes, undertaken and executed by the learned Bandini, formerly librarian, at the suggestion of the Emperor Francis I. who presented him with a sum of money towards the expense, and made him promises of further assistance, which, however, were rendered unavailing by the death of that sovereign.^[112. Roscoe, Life of Leo X. vol. iv. p. 181, note, 8vo ed. See also Bibliotheca Leopoldino-Laurentrana ; sive Catalogus Μanuscriptorum qui jussu Petri Leopoldì in Laurentíanam translati sunt,.8ic. Florence, 1791, 1792, 1793, c. ] The Laurentian Library is under the charge of Signor del Faria, who receives annually 396 scudi, or about L.94 sterling.

Magliabechi, from being a servant to a dealer in vegetables, raised himself to the honourable office of librarian to the Grand Duke of Tuscany at Florence, and became one of the most eminent literary characters of his time. The force of natural talent overcame all the disadvantages of the humble condition in which he had been born, and placed him in a situation to make his name known and respected. But he endeavoured to deserve still better of his countrymen, by presenting them, some time before his death in 1714, with his large and valuable collection of books, together with what remained of his fortune, as a fund for its support. This constituted the foundation of the Magliabechian Library, which, by the subsequent donations of several benefactors, and the bounty of some of the grand dukes, was so much increased both in number and value, that it may now vic with some of the most considerable collections in Europe. The books printed in the fifteenth century have been described by the Abbate Follini, the present librarian, who dedicated his catalogue^[113. Catalogus Codicum soeculo xv. impressorum, qui in publica Bibliotheca Magliabechiana Florentiae adservantur. Florence, 1793-1795, in three vols. folio. ] to Ferdinand III.; but there is no general catalogue of the library. It is particularly rich in the early productions of the Italian press, which are described alphabetically, with much accuracy of detail; and to these are added brief notices of the lives of the different authors, derived from the most authentic sources. The Magliabechian Library is supposed to contain 150,000 printed volumes, and 9000 manuscripts; and the public are admitted to it every day of the year, except on Sundays and festivals. The Librarian has an annual stipend of 240 scudi, but not more than 100 scudi are expended annually in the purchase and binding of books.^[114. Appendix to the Report on the British Museum, pp. 488, 489. ] The further extension of this collection is, therefore, effectually precluded, otherwise than by donations.

The Marucellian, containing50,000 volumes, is also under the charge of Signor del Faria of the Laurentian, and it is open every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The Riccardi collection is managed by the Canon Bianchi and a sub-librarian; it contains 26,000 volumes. The collection of the Belle Arti consists of 11,000 volumes, and is open to the public every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The disbursements on account of these various libraries are made by their respective librarians, under the control of the minister of the interior; the sums expended, however, are but trifling. The libraries of the universities of Pisa and Sienna are valuable, each of them possessing about 50,000 volumes, to which an annual addition of [7:13:311]books to the value of 100 scudi is respectively made. In almost all the provincial towns of Tuscany, there are also to be found public libraries more or less extensive, which are all placed under the control of the communal magistrates.^[115. Appendix to the Report on the British Museum, ubì supra. ]

There are five public libraries at Naples, viz. the Royal Library, the Brancacciano Library, the library of the University, the library of the Military Staff, and the library of the Monks of St Jerome. The Royal Library contains about 300,000 printed volumes and 6000 manuscripts; the University possesses 50,000 volumes; the Convent of St Jerome has an equal number; the Brancacciano contains 10,000; and the Military Staff has 10,000. The public have free admission to read in these libraries, but no books are allowed to be taken away. They are all open every day, for about six hours, excepting on holidays, when they are closed. The expenses of the Royal Library arc included in those of the Museum, of which it forms part. It is entitled to two copies of all books printed in the kingdom of Naples; and 4000 ducats (L.687) are annually appropriated to the purchase of foreign books. The expenses of the library of St Jerome are defrayed out of the funds of the Convent to which it belongs; but, like the Brancacciano, the Military Staff, and the University Libraries, it is entitled to one copy of every book printed in the kingdom of Naples. This collection is singularly rich, chiefly in ancient books. There are no public libraries in any of the provincial towns, excepting Foggia and Lucera; but in every diocese there is a library belonging to the see, to which, upon application, admission may at all times be readily obtained.^[116. App. to Report, pp. 490, 491. ]

The remaining libraries in Italy are numerous, and some of them considerable, particularly those of Venice and Turin. In the library of St Mark at Venice, there is a copy of the Gospel of the evangelist of that name, which is affirmed to have been written by himself. This library was founded in the fourteenth century, the ςpllection having been begun by Petrarch, who bequeathed his books to the republic. Cardinal Bessarion, by his will, added to the library the curious collection of manuscripts which he had formed in Constantinople, in Egypt, and in Greece; and further additions were subsequently made to it by other cardinals. The library of St Mark is deposited in two apartments, one of which is appropriated to manuscripts, whilst the other contains the printed books. Though small when compared with other libraries of the Continent, this collection includes many rare and valuable articles.^[117. Balbi, in the appendix to his Essai Statistique, gives some very extraordinary particulars of the Αrehiviο Generate at Venice, to which great attention is paid by the Austrian government. This unparalleled collection contains 8,664,709 stitched quires, divided into 1890 departments, and arranged in 298 apartments. But whether its value corresponds with its magnitude, is a point on which we have been left to our own conjectures. See Athenaenm for the 19th March 1836. ] The library attached to the university of Turin contains 112,000 printed books, and a rich collection of manuscripts. It is open to the public in general every day except festivals. Connected with the university are several museums, particularly that of Egyptian antiquities, purchased by the king, of Mr Drovetti, which is one of the richest and most valuable in Europe. Attached to the university of Genoa, which now belongs to the king of Sardinia, is a library, consisting of about 45,000 volumes.^[118. The General Sardinian Calendar for 1831. ] Several public and private libraries at Padua contain a number of manuscripts; as do also the chapters of Verona, Novara, and Vercelli. From a rescribed manuscript discovered by Niebuhr, the Romaŋ historian, in the collection of the chapter of Verona, was deciphered and published no inconsiderable portion of the Institutions of Gaius, which served as a model to Justinian, or rather to Tribonian, in framing that elementary exposition of principles which is prefixed to the Digest. The library at Mantua is inconsiderable. The library of Messina in Sicily contains a valuable collection of Greek manuscripts, described in a catalogue, printed in the ninth volume of Graevius’s Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiae Siciliae. ^[119. Horne, Introd. to the Study of Bibliography, pp. 600-605. ]

The libraries of Germany, taking that name in its widest acceptation, are, some of them, of the first order, and many of them extensive and important; but, from the length to which this article has already extended, we must confine our notices exclusively to the principal collections, which we shall describe in the order, not of place or of time, but of their relative magnitude and value.

The Imperial Library at Vienna is perhaps inferior only to that of the Vatican and the Royal Library at Paris, for the rarity and value of its contents. It was founded by the Emperor Frederick III. who spared no expense to enrich it with printed bocks as well as manuscripts in every language. By the munificence of succeeding emperors, numerous important and valuable accessions were made to the collection; amongst which may be mentioned the large and interesting library of Prince Eugene, and a considerable portion of the Buda Library, founded by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. The Imperial Library occupies eight spacious apartments; and a ninth is appropriated to a very valuable collection of medals and other curiosities.^[120. “Ce cabinet est encore plus remarquable par la collection de toutes les monnoies, qui est unique dans le inonde, quoiqu’elle ne soit pas absolument complète.” (Voyage de deux Français, tom. iv. p. 144, Paris, 1796.) It is∙not equal to the Monetario at Madrid. ] It contains 350,000 volumes of printed books, and 16,000 volumes of manuscripts.^[121. Stein, Geographie und Statistik, vol. ii. p∙ 363. Balbi, Statisques snr les Bibliothèques de Vienne, 1835. ] The books are disposed according to their sizes, and comprise almost a complete series, exhibiting the origin and progress of the typographic art. The number of works printed in the fifteenth century exceeds 12,000, amongst which are four out of the five incunabula on vellum, printed by Pannartz at Rome. Here also is a copy of the Soncino Bible, printed in 1488, by far the scarcest, and perhaps the most valuable of all the impressions; a copy of the first edition of Apuleius, printed in 1469, on vellum, and unique; and a copy of the first edition of Aulus Gellius, printed the same year, on vellum, and also unique. These two treasures were once the property of Cardinal Bessarion, and are comparatively but recent acquisitions of the imperial collection. The Florence Dante of 1481, with the commentary of Landino, and the plates of Baldini from designs by Boticelli, is likewise in this library. This is the finest copy extant, excepting that in Earl Spencer’s collection, each of which possesses twenty copperplates.^[122. Dibdin’s Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. pp. 291, 486, 518. See also his Library Companion, pp. 22, 581, 7ð2. ] The Cimelia, or remarkable rarities, are twenty-four in number. Amongst these are, a tablet of bronze, containing the original senatus-consultum or decree of the Roman senate for the suppression of the Bacchanalians, passed in the year 186 before Christ;^[123. This is the same decree which is cited by Livy (lib. xxxix. c. 18); it was found in Calabria, on the estate of Prince Cigala. (Voyage de deux Français, tom. v. p. 136.) ] Tabula Peutingeri-ana, a travelling map of the Roman empire in the fourth century, on parchment; several palimpsests procured from the monastery of Bobbio; and the great roll of Mexican picture writings, published by Lord Kingsborough. A few [7:13:312]of the manuscripts deserve to be mentioned, on account of their singular rarity. Amongst these are, a Mexican manuscript, with coloured figures, on human skin; a manuscript of Livy, of the fifth century, of which a few pages are wanting; a manuscript of St Mark’s and St Luke’s Gospels, written in gold and silver characters; and a manuscript of Dioscorides, with coloured drawings of plants, written in the fifth century, by order of the Princess Julia Anicia, only daughter of the Emperor Olybrius. This precious manuscript was brought from Constantinople in 1550, by the celebrated Busbequius,^[124. ' Of th ιs manuscript Dioscorides Busbequius himself has given a very interesting account. See Busbequ∙'i Evistoloe lib iv ∏ 391 ] ambassador from Charles V. to the Porte, by whom about 300 other Greek manuscripts were collected in the Turkish capital, including a manuscript of Pliny’s Historia Naturalis, of contemporary date. Besides these there are, in this collection, fragments of Genesis in uncial Greek, the letters silver embossed on purple parchment, richly ornamented with miniature paintings; a fragment on papyrus, containing the decrees of the third council of Constantinople, held in the year 680; codex clathratus, or fragments of the most ancient German translation of the Gospel of St Matthew, written in the early part of the eighth century;^[125. These fragments were found in some old bindings of book ] a German Bible in six volumes folio, richly illuminated, written for the Emperor Wenceslas, in the fourteenth century; a French manuscript of the fourteenth century, written in large letters, according to the ancient orthography, profusely illuminated, and containing the history of Tristan, the celebrated knight of the Round Table; together with many other rare, curious, and interesting manuscripts. The Greek manuscripts in the Imperial Library have been described by Lambecius, Nessel, and Kollarius, whose labours were confined to this class; and in the important and accurate work of Denis may be found an ample account of the Latin, with a few notices of oriental manuscripts, the ages of the different manuscripts being stated where these could be ascertained. Besides the cabinet of medals, there is also attached to the library a superb collection of engravings, consisting of 473 large folio volumes, 510 volumes of different sizes, and 215 folio cartoons. The collection of music contains 6000 volumes, theoretical and practical; and that of autographs exceeds 8000 pieces, classed under the heads of monarchs and princes, ministers and statesmen, poets, philosophers, and men of learning or science, generals and renowned warriors, artists, and others. The sum allowed for the purchase of new books is about L.2000 annually. The Imperial Library is open to the public every day except on Sundays, holidays, and the vacations.^[126. Balbi, Statistiques sur les. Bibliothèques de Vienne; Horne, Introd, to Bibliog. ]

In Vienna, the University Library ranks next to the Imperial Library, but the number of books in it is not stated by Balbi. It received the collections which belonged to the convents suppressed by Joseph II.; and since 1806 it has had a right to a copy of every work printed in Lower Austria. Amongst what are called the private libraries, the most important is that of Military Archives, established in 1801, upon a plan devised by the Archduke Charles. It contains 6626 works on military science and art; twenty large folio volumes of bulletins, gazettes, and journals, with an index; seventy-three atlasses, with about 3000 charts, maps, and plans, of various kinds; and a small collection of manuscript military memoirs, amongst which are those of Montecuculi, who commanded the imperialists opposed to Turenne, and of Prince Eugene. The libraries of oriental literature, of natural history, of the Philharmonic Society, and of the Imperial Archives, are also of great value. In the last are preserved the archives of Venice, and Marino Sanudo’s original history of that republic, in fifty-six volumes, which was unknown when Μ. Daru published his celebrated work. Of the libraries belonging to individuals, the most remarkable are those of Prince Metternich, Μ. Von Hammer, and Mr Castelli. Von Hammer possesses an unrivalled collection of Turkish manuscripts. Mr Castelli’s is a dramatic collection, containing upwards of 10,000 German dramas, original and translated; about 500 manuscripts; 700 portraits of actors, actresses, and dramatists; and an unique collection of play-bills from the year 1600. The total number of libraries, public and private, in Vienna, is forty-five; and even the latter are accessible to students furnished with proper introductions.^[127. See an abstract of Balbi’s Essai Statistique in the Athenoeurn of the 19th March 1836. ]

The Royal Library at Munich is the most extensive collection in Germany, containing 500,000 volumes of printed books and 16,000 volumes of manuscripts; thus exceeding the Imperial Library at Vienna by 150,000 printed volumes, and equalling it in the number of manuscripts. From a discourse on the origin and increase of the library at Munich, delivered in 1784, by the Canon Steigenberger, the librarian, and translated into Latin by Vitali, it appears that the Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Greek, and Latin manuscripts contained in this library then formed a precious treasure; and, since the period to which this discourse refers, numerous and important additionshave been made to all the departments of the collection. The ancient manuscripts relative to the art of music amount to a great number, and are exceedingly curious·^[128. Burney’s Present State of Music in Germany, vol. i. p. 129. ] A catalogue of the Greek manuscripts in this library, compiled by Ignatius Hardt, was printed at Munich in 1806.^[129. It is entitled Catalogus Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliothcece Regiae Bavaricae, 4to. ] The Royal Library is deposited, not in the palace, but in a college formerly belonging to the Jesuits, where it occupies a handsome building. It is ope v n to the public at certain hours each day, Sundays and holidays excepted.^[130. Voyage de deux Français, vol. i. p. I7. ] Besides the Royal Library, Munich has its University Library, which contains 160,000 printed books.^[131. A more particular account of this library may be found in Schaden’s Beschreibung der Haupstadt München, p. 78, 1833, 2d ed. ]

The king of Saxony’s library at Dresden contains 300,000 volumes of printed books, besides 150,000 dissertations, and 2300 volumes of manuscripts. The valuable library that formerly belonged to Count Bunau forms part of this noble collection, which is most complete in general history, and in Greek and Latin classic authors. Amongst the printed books are some of the rarest specimens of early typography, .including 600 of the Aldine editions, and many on vellum, besides a copy of the first edition of the Orlando Furioso, printed by Mazocco, “colľ assistenza delľ autore,” in 1516, and other rarities. In the department of manuscripts are, a Mexican manuscript, written on human skin, containing, according to Thévenot, a calendar, with some fragments of the history of the Incas; Liber de re militari, on vellum, with superb paintings in fine preservation, presented to an elector of Saxony, by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary; the original manuscript of the Heveries of Marshal Saxe, bearing at the end that he had composed this work in thirteen nights during a fever, and completed it in December 1733; a fine copy of the Koran, taken from a Turk by a Saxon officer, at the last siege of Vienna, and said to have formerly belonged to Bajazet II.; [7:13:313]a Greek manuscript of the Epistles of St Paul, of the eleventh century; and a very fine collection of portraits of the most celebrated persons of the seventeenth century, by Rabel, a French artist, the outlines only having been engraved.^[132. Voyage au Nord de l’Europe, vol. i. p. 71, et seq. ] An extensive collection of antiquities is preserved, in twelve apartments under the library, below which are eighteen vaulted cellars, stored with a vast quantity of valuable porcelain, partly of foreign, and partly of Dresden manufacture. The expenses of the Royal Library are defrayed by the state. The sum of 2500 dollars, equal to L.375, is allowed yearly for the purchase of books, binding, &c. The only other public library in Saxony is that at Leipzig, which is principally intended for the use of the university of that city; it is under the control of the minister of public worship, and contains 110,000 printed volumes, and 2000 volumes of manuscripts. There are printed catalogues of all the collecτ tions at Dresden, excepting those of natural history and of engravings. These libraries are open to the public, except on Sundays and holidays.^[133. Appendix to Report, p. 495. ]

The library attached to the university of Göttingen contains 300,000 printed volumes, and 5000 volumes of manuscripts. But its extent is its least recommendation; for it is not only the most complete amongst the universities, but there are very few royal or public collections in Germany which can rival it in real utility; and if not in Germany, where else? It is not rich in manuscripts, even including the acquisitions which it made from Helmstadt, when the university of that place was dissolved; and many other libraries, as Mr Russell justly observes, surpass it in typographical rarities, and specimens of typographical luxury; but none contains so great a number of really useful books, in almost every branch of human knowledge, This library is mainly indebted for the pre-eminence it has obtained to the labours and exertions of the illustrious Heyne. In the year in which he came to Göttingen as second librarian, the entire control of the library was committed to him, and he became chief. From this moment commenced at once its extension and its improvement. When Heyne went to Göttingen, it already possessed a library of from 50,000 to 60,000 volumes, which, compared with those of most universities, was a considerable collection. At his decease it had, according to the most moderate computation, increased, exclusively of extraordinary acquisitions, to upwards of 200,000 volumes. But this increase of number was its smallest claim to admiration. At the commencement of this period entire departments of learning were wholly wanting; at its close not only were these deficiencies supplied, but the library had become proportionally rich in every department, and, in point of completeness, unrivalled. It would be interesting to trace the manner in which this change was effected; but neither our plan nor our space admits of such details. The system of catalogues appears to be somewhat complete. There are, in fact, four catalogues connected with each other. Every addition to the library is first entered in the Manual of the year, in which are concisely written the title and date of the book, and the day of its reception. Then the book is entered with its full title in the Accession-Catalogue, which is also commenced with every year, and forms at its close four volumes; the first containing entries of books on theology; the second, of books on jurisprudence; the third, of those on history; and the fourth, miscellaneous works. These two catalogues are intended more particularly for the use of the librarians; the remaining two are for readers. The third of the series is a complete Alphabetical Catalogue, in which every book is entered under the author’s name, when given, or, when not given, but known, with a reference thereto under the chief word of the title. Every book of which the author’s name is not known, is entered under such chief word of title; and, on one side, are also entered the date and form, with reference to the entries of the same book in the Manual and the Accession-Catalogue; on the other is entered the head of the classed catalogue to which the book belongs. Lastly, the book is entered in the Classed or Scientific Catalogue, according to its subject, and is then placed in that division of the library to which it belongs. The alphabetical catalogue answers the question, whether a certain book is in the library, and where it is to be found; and the scientific or classed catalogue shows what books are contained in the library upon any given subject. Such is a brief account of the mechanism of this very extensive library. A full exposition of it would require the scientific schematismus upon which the whole is founded, and would lead us to take a general survey of human knowledge.^[134. Heeren, C. G. Heyne' s Biographisch dargestellt, Göttingen, ]812, in 8vo. “Was hülfe eine Bibliothek von mehr als 200,000 bander,” says Heeren, “wenn man nicht wuszte was man hatte, wenn man nicht wusztewo das was man hat, zu finden sey ?” (Ubi supra.) ]

The Royal Library at Berlin contains 250,000 volumes of printed books, and 5000 volumes of manuscripts. This collection includes works upon almost all the sciences, and in nearly all languages, but it is perhaps most complete in the sciences. Amongst the manuscripts are several Egyptian deeds, written on papyrus, in the demotic or enchorial character, but whether with or without Greek registries, we have not ascertained. Professor Kosegarten, in his first commentation on the Ancient Literature of the Egyptians,^[135. De Prisea Aegyptiorum Litteratura, Commentatio prima, tab. ix. et seq. ] has published fac-similés of a considerable portion of one of these, and of the exordia of twelve others, with interlinear translations in Latin, according to Dr Young’s method of interpretation. The same department also includes several manuscripts of Lacroze, the celebrated author of the Coptic Lexico, particularly his reply to Bergier, in which he mentions the additions made to the Royal Library, the librarians, the number of books at the time when he wrote, and the curious articles contained in the collection. No complete catalogue has ever, so far as we know, been printed. Heinrick’s Notitia, printed in 1687, 4to, and his Pandectoe Brandenbur-gicae, printed in 1699, folio, are both incomplete, the latter including only the first two letters of the alphabet; but, even if they had been finished works, they could have afforded little or no help in ascertaining the actual contents of the collection. A good analytical account of this library is still a desideratum.

The public library at Stuttgart contains 197,000 printed volumes, and 1800 volumes of manuscripts. It is divided into three departments, each of which is under the superintendence of one of the librarians, who are charged with the purchase and binding of books, the keeping of catalogues, and other duties. The general government of the library is vested in directors, who endeavour, as far as their means allow, to procure every thing that is of real worth or value. Recommendations from any of the authorities of the state, for the purchase of particular works, are invariably attended to. All booksellers in the kingdom are required to furnish a copy of every work published by them. To certain persons, and under certain regulations, books are allowed to be lent out from the library. The [7:13:314]annual expense of the establishment amounts to about 7000 florins, of which about 4000 are expended in the purchase of books; and it is defrayed out of the public treasury. There is a provincial library at Tubingen.^[136. Appendix to Report, p. 486. ]

The library of Wolfenbuttel is little inferior to that of Stuttgart; it contains 190,000 printed volumes, with a few manuscripts. Besides the libraries connected with various public institutions, as the Seckenburg Museum, and the institution of Staendel for the Fine Arts, there is a public library at Frankfort, called the Stadt Bibliothek. This collection contains 50,000 volumes of printed books, and 500 volumes of manuscripts, of which 20 are Abyssinian, 12 Turkish and Persian, 6 Hebrew, 2 Indian and Burmese, and the rest in Latin, German, and other languages. No catalogue of this library has been published since 1728; but a new descriptive one is, it seems, in progress. The annual expense, which amounts to about 4400 florins, is principally contributed by the public treasury.^[137. Appendix to Report, pp. 492, 493. ] The library of Naumburg was founded in the sixteenth century by Julius Pflug, bishop of that place, who is celebrated in ecclesiastical history as a zealous opponent of the Reformation, and as one of the three divines deputed by Charles V. to draw up the plan of the Interim in 1548. In the seventeenth century this library received a further augmentation by the purchase of the collection of books formed by Thomas Reinesius. The printed books and manuscripts, though fewjn number, are of considerable value. Amongst the latter are the Scholia of Olympiodorus on several of Plato’s Dialogues, written in the sixteenth century; a fragment of Orpheus’s Argonautics, of the fifteenth; the Olympic Odes of Pindar, of the sixteenth, apparently transcribed from an ancient manuscript; the Cassandra of Lycophron, with the Commentary of Tzetzes, dated 1438; and several tracts of Jamblichus, on the Pythagorean philosophy, belonging to the fifteenth century.^[138. Horne, Introduction to Bibliography, vol. ii. p. 582. ] From these manuscripts Müller, in his excellent catalogue, printed at Leipzig (1806- 1811, in 8vo) has given a selection of various readings.^[139. There is a library at Berne, in Switzerland, containing 35,000 printed volumes, and upwards of 1000 manuscripts, philological, classical, and historical; but it is not of sufficient importance to deserve a separate notice. ]

There are many libraries in Holland, indeed almost every city has one, but the principal collection is that belonging to the university library of Leyden. This library was founded by William I. prince of Orange, and is justly celebrated throughout Europe for the many valuable specimens of Greek and oriental literature with which it abounds. To it Joseph Scaliger bequeathed his fine collection of Hebrew books; and it was further enriched by the learned Golius, on his return from the East, with many Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Chaldaic manuscripts. In addition to these, it received the collections of Holmanus, and particularly those of Isaac Vossius and Ruhnken; the former containing a great number of valuable manuscripts, supposed to have once belonged to Christina queen of Sweden; and the latter, an almost entire series of classical authors, with a collection of manuscripts, perhaps unique, amongst which are to be found copies of several that were consumed by fire in the Abbey of St Ger-ιnain-des-Prez. The library at Leyden is computed to contain 60,000 printed volumes, and 14,000 volumes of manuscripts, many of which, as we have seen, are equally curious and valuable.^[140. Horne, Introduction to Bibliography, vol. ii. pp∙ 593, 594. See also the art. Leyden. ] Of the public library at Amsterdam, Peignot drily remarks that it would be more useful if the books it contains were arranged in better order and method.^[141. Peignot, Diet, de Biblioth. tom. i. p. 99. ]

At Brussels there are two principal libraries; one of which, composed of printed books, belongs to the city, and the other, consisting entirely of manuscripts, belongs to the government. The former was founded on that which formerly appertained to the house of Burgundy, a family that gave to Flanders several counts or earls, by whose liberality it was enriched with numerous valuable manuscripts which, it would appear, are now separated from the collection. Santander^[142. Mémoire historique sur la Bibliothèque publique de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 1809, in 8vo. ] traces the history of this library through its various fortunes, having been successively burned, buried under ground, and decimated by French commissaries on the capture of Brussels. Though restored to its ancient splendour by the care of Count de Cobentzel and of Prince Stahremberg, minister plenipotentiary of the empress-queen, its prosperity was of short duration. For, when the French armies overran the Netherlands, and occupied Brussels, in 1797, Laurent, the representative of the people, caused seven waggon-loads of books and manuscripts to be taken from the Burgundy Library; and some time afterwards, Wailly, Leblond, and others, deputed to commit a second spoliation, selected about 200 manuscripts for the National (RoyaD Library at Paris. In 1797, a place was provided for the reception of the books belonging to the. Burgundy Library; and in 1798, the collection was enriched with all that was most valuable from the great depot of the Cordeliers, which was then broken up. Since that period the Brussels Library has, by gradual acquisitions, become more extensive than ever, and at present contains 140,000 volumes of printed books. The library of the government, as it is called, comprises 15,000 volumes of manuscripts, which, however, have not been particularly described. The city library is open four days in the week, from ten o’clock in the morning until two in the afternoon, and the public have free access to the collection. The ordinary annual expense of this establishment amounts to 4800 francs (a mere trifle), but additional sums are from time to time granted for the purchase of books. The library of the government is open every day from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon; and the annual expense amounts to 10,000 francs. The first of these establishments is supported by the city, the second by the government out of the public treasury. The provincial libraries of Belgium are those of Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Liège, Louvain, Mons, Namur, and Tournay, three of which (those of Ghent, Liège, and Louvain) are under the direction of the universities established at these places, whilst the others are under the superintendence of the local authorities.^[143. Appendix to Report, p. 486. ]

It is well known that a noble library, rich in valuable manuscripts, had been formed at Buda, by the celebrated Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary; but this collection was dispersed, on the capture of Buda by the Turks under Solyraan in 1526; and Cardinal Bozman in vain offered the conqueror two thousand crowns to restore this part of the spoil. Some of the books which belonged to it have been found in the Imperial Library at Vienna, in that of Wolfenbuttel, and in the private collection of Morelli, librarian of St Mark’s at Venice.^[144. Morhof, Polyhist. lib. i. c. 4, § 21. Delandine, Bibliothèque de Lyon, tom. ii. pp. 67, 68∙ Morelli, Bibliotheca Graea, tom. i-PP∙ 330, 405, 417∙ ] By the liberality of Count Sczecheny, his private collection at Pesth has become the library of the kingdom of Hungary. The books are entered alphabetically in the catalogue and supplements, [7:13:315]and classed in the indexes according to the subjects. Μ. de Miller, librarian to the count, having discovered several works printed at Gros-waradin in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, published an account of them at Pesth in 1804.^[145. Fragmenta veteris Typographies Magno-varadensìs, Pesth, 1801, in 8vo. ]

Of Poland it may be said, in a bibliographical as well as political sense, Stat magni nominis umbra. The literary treasures of that ancient kingdom have gone to enrich its principal spoiler; and it is at Petersburg rather than at Warsaw that we must seek for evidence of what it originally possessed. What is called the King’s Library at Warsaw does not much exceed 20,000 volumes, most of which are modern; but it contains a manuscript, in three folio volumes, with nearly two hundred fine drawings, descriptive of the antiquities excavated at Velleia between the years 1760 and 1765. The university of Warsaw, founded by the Emperor Alexander in 1816, had accumulated a library of about 150,000 volumes; but, since the events of 1830 and 1831, every book and pamphlet in it, conceived to be hostile to the Russian government, have been removed, and numbers of scientific works have likewise been abstracted and sent off' to St Petersburg. The university of Cracow has also attached to it a library, containing about 4000 manuscripts, amongst which is a Latin encyclopaedia, in a large folio volume, written by Paul of Prague in 1459. But the most extensive and valuable collection in Poland was that which Count Zaluski and his brother had formed, and which, in 1747, was devoted to the public. The Zaluski Library, called also the Library of the Republic, originally consisted of 300,000 volumes, including upwards of 50,000 duplicates, which were subsequently disposed of; and by the sale of these, together with the losses sustained by various depredations, the collection was supposed, in 1791, not greatly to exceed 200,000 volumes. At length, in 1795, this library was unceremoniously seized by Suwarof, hastily packed up, and despatched to St Petersburg, to aggrandise the conqueror with the literary spoils of Poland.

The Imperial Library of St Petersburg is, according to Mr Edwards, “the creation of but a few years.”^[146. Letter to Benjamin Hawes, Esq. Μ. P. p. 35, note. ] ʹ We confess our inability to understand what this gentleman means by the word “creation” here employed by him. A robber does not surely create the wealth which he forcibly appropriates. Considerably more than half the actual contents of the Imperial Library were obtained by one act of wholesale spoliation. The French, when they conquered Italy and Belgium, decimated the libraries of those countries. But the Russians, when they triumphed over the independence of Poland, carried off entirely the largest collection of books which that country could boast of. The original founder of this library was Joseph, count de Zaluski, bishop of Kiof. In the space of forty-three years he had acquired, at his own expense, above 200,000 volumes. His brother, Andrew Zaluski, bishop of Cracow, enriched this numerous collection, as well with books drawn from the museum of John III. king of Poland, as with those which he collected from the libraries of his uncles, Andrew Olszofski, primate of the kingdom of Poland, Prince Andrew Chrysostom, bishop of Warmia, and Louis Bartholomew, bishop of Plock; and after having joined to these the collection in his own cabinet, he transferred the whole, in 1742, to a house which had previously belonged to the family of Danilovitch, and had probably come to him by inheritance. In 1747 he rendered it public, and fixed an annual income or endowment for its support and increase. After thedeath of this prelate, his brother, Joseph Zaluski, still further augmented it by the addition of a great number of volumes, and, by his will, made in 1761, bequeathed it, along with the house in which it was deposited, to the college of Jesuits at Warsaw.^[147. “The celebrated library of Zaluski at Warsaw,” says Denis, in his Introduction to the Knowledge of Books, “was opened to the public in i747. It must contain at present near 300,000 volumes. Benedict XIV. in 1752. issued a bull of excommunication against those who should dare to commit depredations on this library; but, notwithstanding, many books were carried off, particularly during the late troubles. In 1747, the laborious librarian, Ianozki, made notices of the rare books printed in Polish; and, in 17ð2, he published a catalogue of the manuscripts in this library. After the death of its founder, the Bishop of Kiey, the king and the commonwealth took possession of this treasure, in spite of the attempts made by the heirs to retain it.” (Denis, Einleitung in die Bücherkunde, Wien, I777, th. i p. 184.) ] After the suppression of that order in 1773, it was placed under the care of the commission of education, and at last transferred to St Petersburg in 1795, as already mentioned. This transportation being made by land, and along roads which the late season of the year rendered impracticable, several cases suffered much from the inclemency of the weather, others were broken or damaged, and the books which they contained spoiled, misplaced, or separated, and the sets broken. The collection was conveyed to the imperial cabinet in two convoys, and after the inventory had been completed on the 23d of February 1796, it was found that the collection still amounted to 262,640 volumes, and 24,573 prints. This library, thus seized and carried off, and which had been packed in such haste at Warsaw, that the books had been huddled in without any order, so that the volumes of the same work were found dispersed in different cases, comprised in general all that relates to the sciences, the arts, and the belles-lettres. The theological, and, after it, the historical and literary branches, were the most considerable. The theological department alone comprehended above 80,000 volumes. It was also rich in topography, especially the histories of towns; and the literary branch included a precious collection of classical books and works on bibliography; but the departments of philosophy, mathematics, physics, voyages, and antiquities were very incomplete.^[148. See Precis Historique sur la Fondation, T Acquisition, et l’ Arrangement de l’a Bibliothèque Imperial, Appendix to Report, p. 457, et seq. ] Such was the “creation” which formed the basis of the Imperial Library at St Petersburg, and but for which that collection, instead of now ranking in the first class, would scarcely have been entitled to a place in the third.

This library, augmented by various other collections, amounts to about 400,000 printed volumes, and 16,Uθθ volumes of manuscripts. Its management is detailed at length in the Appendix to the Report of the Select Committee on the British Museum (p. 449, et seq.), to which we refer. The total annual expense for the support of the Imperial Library, and paying the salaries of the employes, amounts to 45,000 roubles; and the paltry sum of 7000 roubles is the utmost that is allowed in any year for the purchase of books; from which we may infer that its principal chance of further increase depends, not on the liberality of the Russian government, but on the probability of some new conquest, followed closely by a fresh act of spoliation. The public is admitted to the library every Tuesday from eleven o’clock in the forenoon to three in the afternoon, to visit the establishment, and on the Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays of each week, to read or make extracts therein.

A most laudable attempt is making to introduce a new bibliographical system of classification, which we shall en_ [7:13:316]deavour to describe as briefly as possible, by exhibiting the plan of the catalogues as stated in the official returns.^[149. Essai sur un Nouveau Système Bibliographique, § iii. Redaction des Catalogues. Appendix to Report, p. 461, et seq. ] These are, 1st, Le catalogue alphabétique des livres, par ordre des matières; 2d, Le catalogue alphabétique des auteurs ; and, 3d, Le catalogue raisonné, ou les matières seront classées d’après le nouvel ordre bibliographique, avec des observations sur les livres et sur les éditions rares. Their redaction must be exemplified rather than described. The books already entered in the catalogues of the different sections of the library have their titles re-transcribed on separate feuillets, or slips of paper, after the following model:

Danicoum Monumentorum Libri Sex: e spissis antiquitatum tenebris et in Dania ac Norvegia extantibus ruderibus cruti ab Οώα Worm. D. Medicinae in Acad. Haffh. professore pubi.

Hafĩŉiae, apud Joachimum Moltkenium, Bibliopolam ibidem primar. A° MDCXLIII.

The feuillets, or slips, thus prepared, are daily distributed amongst the employes, each intrusted with a particular division, and taking the titles belonging thereto, which are arranged in portfolios, for the purpose of facilitating their assortment. If a book treat of several subjects, it is first entered under that to which it most immediately belongs, and afterwards under the others. Each employé then inscribes on these feuillets, severally, the initial letter of the title, the author’s name, the class, division, section, and position in the library, of the book, its size and number, as in the following model:
[table]

The slip, thus prepared, is transferred to the employés engaged on the several catalogues; 1st, to the alphabetical catalogue, in the order of subjects; 2d, to the alphabetical catalogue, in the order of authors’ names; and, 3d, to the catalogue raisonne, or classed catalogue; so that all of these proceed simultaneously without the least difficulty or confusion. With regard to the first, in the alphabetical order of subjects, it is held sufficient to inscribe in the catalogue the titles of books in an abridged form, which it is unnecessary to exemplify. It appears by the official returns, that the number of books put in order is about 103,000, and that the number already entered in the catalogues amounts to about 90,000.^[150. Appendix to Report, pp. 448, 480. ]

The Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg was instituted by Peter the Great, who, in his travels, had observed the benefits resulting from public societies for promoting the advancement of knowledge. The library of the Academy originated in 2500 volumes which the Czar had, more Rossico seized at Mittau in his Swedish campaign, and which Catharine I. presented to the newly-instituted society. It continued to increase, by the bounty of succeeding Czars, and, in 1802, received an important addition in the library and cabinet of Count Boutourlin, purchased by the Emperor Alexander. This collection is now open to the public two days in the week, and contains about 70,000 volumes. Some interesting particulars relating to this library may be found in the works of different authors.^[151. See Coxe’s Travels in Russia, c. 17; Storch’s Picture of St Petersburg ; and Voyage au Nord de l’Europe, tom. iii. p. 212, et seq∙ ]

There are three public libraries at Copenhagen, viz. the King’s Library, the University Library, and Classen’s Library. The “King’s Library contains 400,000 volumes of printed books, and 20,000 volumes of manuscripts. The University Library contains about 110,000 printed volumes, all collected since the year 1728, when the original library was destroyed by fire; together with 1761 Icelandic, 202 oriental, and 1228 other manuscripts, partly classical, partly connected with Danish history, besides manuscript collections of the classics. Classen’s Library contains about 35,000 printed volumes, but possesses no manuscripts. These libraries, consisting of 568,000 volumes printed and manuscript, are accessible to all respectable householders, and likewise to strangers introduced by such; and, besides, the books are, under certain restrictions, allowed to circulate. The King’s Library is general, and about equally complete in all the branches of human knowledge. The University Library is also to a certain extent general, but the main body of the collection has been made chiefly with reference to academical education. Classen’s Library consists principally of books of geography, travels, natural history, and agriculture. The administration of these libraries seems to be equally economical and efficient, and is conducted solely with a view to public utility, which, in this case, means public instruction.^[152. Appendix to Report, p. 483. ]

The public libraries, in Sweden are the Royal Library, situated in the northern wing of the king’s palace at Stockholm, and the library called Benzielstjerna-Engeström, founded by private individuals, but to which admission is readily granted on recommendation. The Royal Library, which was founded by Gustavus Vasa, and enlarged by the liberality of succeeding sovereigns, contains 70,000 volumes of printed books, with 2500 volumes of manuscripts, besides 16,500 diplomas, and isopen to the public every day excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays; besides, books are lent out on respectable recommendation. The library of Benzielstjerna Engeström contains about 12,000 volumes of printed books, and 3000 volumes of manuscripts, rich in materials for Swedish biography. Besides these, there are libraries attached to the different academies. The number of provincial libraries in Sweden, including those of the universities of Upsala and Lund, is thirteen. That of Upsala, which was founded by Gustavus Adolphus, is the largest in Sweden, and contains 100,000 printed volumes, with 600 volumes of manuscripts. A catalogue of the collection, by Professor Aurivi-lius, was printed in the year 1814, in two vols. 4to.^[153. One of the apartments of this library contains a deposit, the supposed contents of which have excited much conjecture and speculation amongst the learned. The deposit alluded to consists of a large box, upon which stands another of smaller dimensions, both of which are secured by means of strong chains and locks. These were presented to the university by Gustavus III. with strict injunctions thåt they should not be opened for fifty years. When that period expires, which will be in the year 1842, they will probably be found to contain a history of his own time, with various documents, letters, &c. ] The [7:13:317] library of Lund was founded at the same time as that university, by Charles X., and possesses about 40,000 volumes. These libraries are supported and increased by an annual grant from the state, and by a fee paid by each student on entering the universities. They are open every day, and each student can borrow books, on the responsibility of a professor, or of some other respectable person. In those provincial towns where large public schools, called gymnases, are established, there are also public libraries, to the number of about eleven in all. These libraries, which have been founded by private individuals, are kept up much in the same way as those belonging to the universities.^[154. Notices sur les Bibliothèques Publiques en Suède, Appendix to Report, p. 497, et seq. ]

In the United States of North America there are forty-three incorporated colleges or universities, of which thirty have libraries of greater or less extent, containing altogether 128,118 volumes. The largest college library is that of Harvard, which contains 30,000 volumes; and the next is that of St Mary’s College, Baltimore, which possesses 10,000 volumes. Besides these, there are four colleges which have libraries to the amount of about 8000 volumes each. A catalogue of the library at Harvard College, Massachusetts, was printed in 1830, in three volumes 8vo; from which it appears that the number of books, which, in 1790, amounted to only 12,000 volumes, now exceeds 30,000, besides several thousands of tracts. The first and second volumes of this catalogue contain a list of the books in alphabetical order; and the third consists of a systematic or classed index to the alphabetical catalogue. There are several other considerable libraries in the United States, as the Public Library at Philadelphia, the Congress Library at Washington, and a few others ofless note. The Loganian Library, which, in 1791, was incorporated with the Philadelphia Public Library, contained about 15,000 volumes, amongst which were many rare works in classical literature.^[155. Journal of the American Education Society; Christian Examiner, Boston; Catalogue of Books belonging to the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1807, i∏ 8vo. ]

Oriental libraries are, in general, but limited collec- . tions, the contents of which possess little interest or value to Europeans. Their general character, however, will be most satisfactorily indicated by the description of some of them.

At Constantinople there are, within the walls of the seraglio, two libraries, which were founded by Achmed III. and Mustapha HL, and enriched with books acquired by themselves or their successors. These libraries contain upwards of 20,000 volumes, and are gradually increased, either by purchase, by donations made to the sultan by his grandees, or by confiscations of the effects of public officers, amongst which books are commonly to be found.^[156. D’Ohsson, Tableau général de l’ Empire Ottomane, tom. ii. pp. 487-494. ] Much uncertainty has prevailed, and many erroneous reports have been circulated, respecting the contents of these libraries. The Abbé Sevin, who arrived at Constantinople in December 1728, failed to obtain admission into the sultan’s library; and, deterred by the assurances he had received, that Amurath IV. had caused all the Greek manuscripts to be burned, he deemed any further research or inquiry to be hopeless; whilst succeeding travellers, relying on statements of a different kind, have confidently asserted that in these libraries were preserved the ancient collections of the Greek emperors.^[157. It is not a little singular that Dr E. D. Clarke has made no mention whatever of the libraries of the seraglio, although he has given a detailed, and, upon the whole, picturesque description of its interior. ] More fortunate than his predecessors, however, Toderini, after three years’ unremitting attempts during his residence at Constantinople, found means to procure transcripts of the catalogues of the libraries in the seraglio, through the instrumentality of a page who clandestinely copied a few lines every day.^[158. Catalogo della Libreria della Seraglio, trasportato da Constantinopoli a Venezia, dalľ Abbate Giamabattista Toderini, nel anno 178θ, in 8vo. See also Della Lette atu a Turchescha, tom. ii. pp. 53-81, and in Turkish at the end of the same volume. ] From the inquiries of the learned Abbate, it appears that the merits of this double collection had been greatly exaggerated. The libraries of the seraglio are much inferior to some of those which are open to the public. Commentaries, explanations, marginal notes, and other writings on the Koran, form the subjects of the largest portion; to which succeed treatises on jurisprudence (also accompanied with notes and commentaries), on philosophy, logic, astronomy, arithmetic, medicine, and ethics. The historical works are few in number, and chiefly confined to the Ottoman empire. There are some manuscripts in the Greek, Latin, and other European languages; but no traces whatever have been discovered of the lost decades of Livy, of the writings of Homer or Tacitus, or of those parts which are wanting to complete the works of other ancient authors.^[159. Toderini, Letteratura Turchesclia, tom. ii. pp. 51,53, et seq. ]

Besides those of the seraglio, Constantinople possesses thirty-two public libraries, all varying in extent, but more or less celebrated for the number and value of their manuscripts, which are neatly bound in red, green, or black' morocco. The Mahommedans have a peculiar method of indorsing, placing, and preserving their books. Each volume, besides being bound in morocco, is preserved from dust in a case of the same material; and on it, as well as on the edges of the leaves, the title is written in large and legible characters. The books are placed one upon another in presses ornamented with trellis-work, and arc disposed along the wall, or in the four corners of the library. All these collections are open to the public throughout the year, excepting on Tuesdays and Fridays; the librarians are as polite and attentive as Turks can be, to those whom curiosity or love of study attract thither; and every one is at liberty, not merely to peruse, but to make extracts from, the books, and even to transcribe them entirely, provided this be done within the walls of the library. To facilitate literary researches, each library is furnished with a catalogue, containing the title, and giving a short account of the subject of each volume. Theology, including the Koran and commentators thereon, jurisprudence, medicine, ethics, and history, are the sciences chiefly cultivated by the Osmanlecs. The books are all written with the greatest care, on the finest vellum; the text of each page is enclosed in a highly ornamented and gilt frame-work; the beginning of each chapter or section is splendidly illuminated; and the prices of the manuscripts vary in proportion to the beauty of the characters.^[160. D’Ohsson, tom. ii. pp. 488, 489; Toderini, tom. ii. p. 32, et seq. ] Under the reign of the present sultan, Mahmoud, the introduction of European discipline, and, to a certain extent, of European customs and manners, is fast paving the way for a still more important innovation; the introduction of European knowledge and civilization, with the subversion of those fanatical prejudices which, nurtured by ignorance and inflamed by religion, present [7:13:318]the most formidable obstacle to the improvement of nations.^[161. The publication of the Ottoman States Gazette, under the title of Takioimi Wokai, or Tables of Events, has proceeded with great spirit since its first appearance in January 1832,∙ and contains a variety of articles which throw considerable light on the nature of the reforms which are in progress throughout every department of the state. In this respect, the Takwimi Wokai is a • < more interesting paper than the Moniteur Ottoman, which is by no means the French original of the former, as the public may pernaps have been led to conclude. ]

The library of the convent of Mount Sinai was found by Mr Burckhardt to contain a great number of Arabic manuscripts, and some Greek books; but the former proved to be of little literary value; and of the latter, Burck-bardt carried away two beautiful Aldine editions, a Homer, and an Anthology. The priests refused to show him their Arabic memorandum-books previous to the fifteenth century; but from those which he was permitted to inspect, he copied some very interesting documents concerning the former state of the country.^[162. Travels in Nubia, p. 1xviii. ]

Of the libraries in India, whether composed of European or of native works, the want of the requisite information prevents us from attempting to give any details. The following account of the largest library at Goa, that of theAu-gustinian monks, extracted from the journal of a tour made by Sir James Mackintosh, is almost the only notice of the kind that we have met with, and it is certainly by no means flattering, “The books,” says he, “are about 10,000, chiefly Latin and Portuguese, with a few Spanish, a very few Italian and Greek, no French, and of course no English, and none of any other language. There are not above twenty printed since the close of the seventeenth century. There are a few bad editions of classics, but not a complété edition even of Cicero himself; a great many schoolmen, casuists, and canonists, with some jurists; very little history, scarcely any of modern times, except a little Portuguese; about ten volumes of Portuguese and

Spanish poetry; no morals, but as the handmaid or rather slave of superstition; no politics, no political economy, no astronomy, no chemistry, no zoology, no botany, no mineralogy, and no book even on mathematics by Euclid. I did not know before that the world had produced 10,000 such useless and pernicious books, or that it had been possible to have formed a large library, with so curious an exclusion of whatever is instructive or elegant.”^[163. Life of the Right Hon. Sir James Mackintosh, vol. ii. p. 85, London, 1836, 8vo, 2d edition. ] At the different presidencies, and in some other parts of British India, are collections, more or less extensive and valuable, of European and native productions; but they have not been particularly described. Of the native libraries of India, we know but little. That of Tippoo Sahib, which fell into the hands of the British when his capital was taken, consisted, according to Stewart’s catalogue, of nearly 2000 volumes, many of them highly ornamented. In China and Japan, and likewise in the capital of the Burman empire, there are considerable collections, though of the precise nature of their contents we still remain entirely ignorant.

Having thus completed our laborious survey, which we have endeavoured to render as complete as the materials to which we have had access would admit, it now only remains to refer the reader to the article Bibliography, as containing various inquiries intimately connected with the present subject; and which may, in fact, be said to constitute the Science of those who are intrusted with the formation and superintendence of Libraries. (a.)