How to Form a Library, 2nd ed. Wheatley Henry Benjamin

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      Petrarch was a book-loving poet, and he is said to have met the book-loving ecclesiastic Richard de Bury at Rome. He gave his library to the Church of St. Mark at Venice in 1362; but the guardians allowed the books to decay, and few were rescued. Boccaccio bequeathed his library to the Augustinians at Florence, but one cannot imagine the books of the accomplished author of the Decameron as very well suited for the needs of a religious society, and it was probably weeded before Boccaccio's death. The remains of the library are still shown to visitors in the Laurentian Library, the famous building due to the genius of Michael Angelo.

      Cardinal John Bessarion gave his fine collection (which included about 600 Greek MSS.) to St. Mark's in 1468, and in the letter to the Doge which accompanied his gift, he tells some interesting particulars of his early life as a collector. He writes, "From my youth I have bestowed my pains and exertion in the collection of books on various sciences. In former days I copied many with my own hands, and I have employed on the purchase of others such small means as a frugal and thrifty life permitted me to devote to the purpose."

      The Rev. Joseph Hunter printed in 1831 a valuable Catalogue of the Library of the Priory of Bretton in Yorkshire, and added to it some notices of the Libraries belonging to other Religious Houses, in which he gives us a good idea of the contents of these libraries. He writes, "On comparing the Bretton Catalogue with that of other religious communities, we find the libraries of the English monasteries composed of very similar materials. They consisted of—

      1. The Scriptures; and these always in an English or the Latin version. A Greek or Hebrew Manuscript of the Scriptures is not found in Leland's notes, or, I believe, in any of the catalogues. In Wetstein's Catalogue of MSS. of the New Testament, only one (Codex 59) is traced into the hands of an English community of religious.

      2. The Commentators.

      3. The Fathers.

      4. Services and Rituals of the Church.

      5. Writers in the Theological Controversies of the Middle Ages.

      6. Moral and Devotional Writings.

      7. Canon Law.

      8. The Schoolmen.

      9. Grammatical Writers.

      10. Writers in Mathematics and Physics.

      11. Medical Writers.

      12. Collections of Epistles.

      13. The Middle Age Poets and Romance-Writers.

      14. The Latin Classics.

      15. The Chronicles.

      16. The Historical Writings of doubtful authority, commonly called Legends.

      Most of the manuscripts which composed the monastic libraries were destroyed at the Reformation."

      Humphry Plantagenet Duke of Gloucester, whose fame has been so lasting as the 'good Duke Humphry,' was also a book-collector of renown; but most of the old libraries we read about have left but little record of their existence: thus the Common Library at Guildhall, founded by Dick Whittington in 1420, and added to by John Carpenter, the Town Clerk of London, has been entirely destroyed, the books having, in the first instance, been carried away by Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset.

      Although, as we have seen from Mr. Hunter's remarks, there was a considerable amount of variety in the subjects of these manuscript collections, we must still bear in mind that in a large number of instances the contents of the libraries consisted of little more than Breviaries and Service Books. It has been pointed out that this fact is illustrated by the union of the offices of Precentor and Armarius in one person, who had charge of the Library (Armarium) and its great feeder, the Writing-room (Scriptorium), as well as the duty of leading the singing in the church. Many lists of old libraries have been preserved, and these have been printed in various bibliographical works, thus giving us a valuable insight into the reading of our forefathers.

      When we come to consider libraries of printed books in place of manuscripts, we naturally find a greater variety of subjects collected by the famous men who have formed collections. Montaigne, the friend of all literary men, could not have been the man we know him to have been if he had not lived among his books. Like many a later book-lover, he decorated his library with mottoes, and burnt-in his inscriptions letter by letter with his own hands. Grotius made his love of books do him a special service, for he escaped from prison in a box which went backwards and forwards with an exchange of books for his entertainment and instruction.

      Grolier and De Thou stand so pre-eminent among book collectors, and from the beauty of the copies they possessed the relics of their libraries are so frequently seen, that it seems merely necessary here to mention their names. But as Frenchmen may well boast of these men, so Englishmen can take pride in the possession of the living memory of Archbishop Parker, who enriched Cambridge, and of Sir Thomas Bodley, who made the Library at Oxford one of the chief glories of our land.

      Old Lists of Books are always of interest to us as telling what our forefathers cared to have about them, but it is seldom that a list is so tantalising as one described by Mr. Edward Edwards in his Libraries and Founders of Libraries. Anne of Denmark presented her son Charles with a splendid series of volumes, bound in crimson and purple velvet. Abraham van der Dort, who was keeper of Charles's cabinet, made an inventory of this cabinet; and having no notion of how to make a catalogue of books, he has managed to leave out all the information we wish for. The inventory is among the Harleian MSS. (4718), and the following are specimens of the entries:—

      "Im'pris 19 books in Crimson velvet, whereof 18 are bound 4to. and y^e 19th in folio, adorn'd with some silver guilt plate, and y^e 2 claspes wanting. Given to y^e King by Queen Ann of famous memory.

      Item, more 15 books, 13 thereof being in long 4to. and y^e 2 lesser cover'd over also with purple velvet. Given also to y^e King by y^e said Queen Ann."

      Most of the famous private libraries of days gone by have left little record of their existence, but Evelyn's collection is still carefully preserved at Wotton, the house of the Diarist's later years, and Pepys's books continue at Cambridge in the cases he had made for them, and in the order he fixed for them. In a long letter to Pepys, dated from Sayes Court, 12th August, 1689, Evelyn gives an account of such private libraries as he knew of in England, and in London more particularly. He first mentions Lord Chancellor Clarendon, to whom he dedicated his translation of Naudé's Advice, and who "furnished a very ample library." Evelyn observes that England was peculiarly defective in good libraries: "Paris alone, I am persuaded, being able to show more than all the three nations of Great Britain." He describes Dr. Stillingfleet's, at Twickenham, as the very best library.4 He did not think much either of the Earl of Bristol's or of Sir Kenelm Digby's books, but he says Lord Maitland's "was certainly the noblest, most substantial and accomplished library that ever passed under the spear."

      In a useful little volume published at London in 1739, and entitled, A Critical and Historical Account of all the Celebrated Libraries in Foreign Countries, as well ancient as modern, which is stated to be written by "a Gentleman of the Temple," are some "General Reflections upon the Choice of Books and the Method of furnishing Libraries and Cabinets." As these reflections are interesting in themselves, and curious as the views of a writer of the middle of the eighteenth century on this important subject, I will transfer them bodily to these pages.

      "Nothing can be more laudable than forming Libraries, when the founders have no other view than to improve themselves and men of letters: СКАЧАТЬ