A brief outline of the history of libraries
Date: 2026-03-20T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Libraries -- History -- To 400

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Title: A brief outline of the history of libraries

Author: Justus Lipsius

Translator: John Cotton Dana

Release date: March 20, 2026 [eBook #78256]

Language: English

Original publication: Chicago, IL: A. C. McClurg & Co, 1907

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78256

Credits: Dori Allard and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES ***

LITERATURE OF LIBRARIES IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

EDITED BY
JOHN COTTON DANA AND HENRY W. KENT

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY
1907

A BRIEF OUTLINE OF

THE HISTORY OF

LIBRARIES

An Edition of two hundred and fifty copies in this form and one of twenty-five copies on Large Paper were printed at The Merrymount Press, Boston, in May, 1907

A BRIEF OUTLINE OF

THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES

BY

JUSTUS LIPSIUS

TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND EDITION

(ANTWERP, THE PLANTIN PRESS
JOHN MORETUS, 1607)

THE LAST FROM THE HAND OF THE AUTHOR

BY

JOHN COTTON DANA

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
MDCCCCVII

COPYRIGHT, A. C. McCLURG & CO., 1907

PUBLISHED, JUNE 1, 1907

D. B. UPDIKE, THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON

NOTE

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Few of the biographers of Justus Lipsius have devoted their attention to that part of his writings which, in an English translation by John Cotton Dana, is here offered to lovers of libraries. They have found matters of greater importance to the world at large in the chief things of his life,—his theological, historical and literary writings. Mr. Peter Bayle, in his famous General Dictionary, which first appeared in 1697, and afterwards Englished, in 1710, says in this connection, as an introduction to his own contribution to Lipsius’s biography:

“I might relate a great many curious particulars concerning him; but as others[1] have already collected them, and have not even omitted what relates to his education and his early learning, I am obliged to confine myself to such particulars as they have not mentioned.” These particulars related to one of Lipsius’s greatest faults, for which he was chiefly censured,—his inconsistency with regard to religious beliefs,—and they take on an additional interest when treated by Bayle, who was himself given to tasting of religion at all its different founts. With gossipy pen, he briefly summarizes the facts in Lipsius’s stormy theological career, which to a sixteenth-century mind, and even to one of the eighteenth century, must have seemed as important as it was chequered.

The theologian of a century or so ago undoubtedly found that Lipsius had contributed something to religious thought, but to us, in this century of freedom in such matters, Justus Lipsius is chiefly a subject for antiquarian curiosity, just as he was to Bayle. It would be idle to speculate on the present-day value of his Diva Virgo Hallensis, or his Diva Sichemiensis, written for the Jesuits, when late in his life he had accepted the professorship of Latin in the Colegium Buslidanium at Louvain and had become, to quote from Bayle, “a bigot, like a silly woman.” The polite literature which Lipsius taught at Louvain, in a manner “very glorious to him,” is quite unread to-day; it is unnecessary now when so much polite literature has been, and is constantly being, added to the world’s carefully shelved stock. Whatever defects of matter or style our writer may have had, like all the humanists he served a great purpose in retailing to further generations—and especially to librarians—the opinions of the classic writers on the history of libraries. It is not for us, who have received so great a favour at his hands, to criticise his scholarship, as some have done,—as does one writer who says, speaking of one of his mental tendencies, “The other, derived from his Jesuit training, showed itself in his merely rhetorical or verbal view of classical literature, of which the one interest lay in its style.” Neither need we concern ourselves with his tendency to change his religious point of view,—now Jesuit, now Lutheran, now Calvinist, now Romanist. To Lipsius bibliophiles owe their thanks because he published the first history of libraries, in the modern sense of the word,—a history which is as fresh and useful to-day as it was when it was written. Only a man of great scholarship could have written such a story, requiring the searching of the original authorities in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and only the scholarship of the sixteenth century—careful, conscientious and leisurely—could have brought together all the facts that Lipsius did. All of the histories since his time have borrowed freely from our author, or, like Edwards, have used his references for further elaboration of their texts.

If, however, but few of his biographers have devoted themselves to a matter which must have been of no small interest in Lipsius’s life (judging from his enthusiastic manner of treating it), one, at least, has done full justice to it,—a Frenchman, Étienne Gabriel Peignot, who, born in Arc-en-Barrios in 1767, devoted his whole life to the cause of bibliography. The account of this scholar written by Simonnet, in his Essai sur la vie et les ouvrages de Gabriel Peignot, 1863, deserves to be on the shelves of every librarian, certainly of every bibliographer.

Early in his career Peignot planned a great bibliographical work, of which his Manuel Bibliographique, published in 1804, was a first part, and his Dictionnaire Raisonné de Bibliologie a second. The Manual is chiefly devoted to Lipsius, having for its opening chapter a life of our author, followed by a translation of the Syntagma. Peignot tells us that the plagiarism of Lipsius by authors who have not thought it worth their while to mention their indebtedness to him was one of the reasons why he was led to give the Syntagma the chief place in his own book,—he wished to secure to this learned man his just due.

In his “Notice préliminaire sur Juste Lipse et ses ouvrages” Peignot gives a selected list of Lipsius’s works dated from 1599, wherein it is seen that the book in which we are interested, J. Lipsi de Bibliothecis Syntagma, Antverpiae, came, like all of the others, “ex officina Plantiniana, apud J. Moretum.”[2] This, to the librarian, is a fact worthy of special note, because it gives the evidence of the friendship that existed between the printer, John Moretus, son-in-law of the great Plantin, founder of the house, “first printer to the king, and the king of printers,” and Lipsius, covering a long period of years.

In the house of Christopher Plantin at Antwerp, now known as the Plantin-Moretus Museum, in the room called, since the sixteenth century, the “Room of Justus Lipsius,” the bust of the friend of the house looks down from its place of honour over the entrance door. And so, just as Lipsius’s name is closely linked with one of the great epochs of printing, it has also a part in the history of the development of the library idea. Whatever the facts concerning his theology, polite literature or other writings, whatever the final vote on the value of his style, the little tract, here reprinted, in the hands of friends of libraries will justify the faith that Lipsius had in his claim to fame, when, in hanging a votive silver pen before an altar of the Virgin, he wrote:

“O Blessed Virgin, this pen, the interpreter of my mind, which soared up as high as the sky; which searched the most hidden recesses of land and sea; which always applied itself to learning, prudence and wisdom; which dared to write a treatise on constancy; which explained civil and military matters, and such as relate to the taking of cities; which described, O Rome, thy greatness; which variously illustrated and cleared up the writings of the ancients,—that pen is now, O Blessed Virgin, consecrated to thee by Lipsius, for by thy assistance have they all been completed. Let thy kind influence constantly attend me for the future; and in return for that vanishing fame which my pen gained, vouchsafe to grant, O Divine Lady, a continual joy and life to your devoted servant, Lipsius.”

H. W. K.

New York, February, 1907

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Teissier, Additions aux Éloges de M. de Thou, ii. 381, 432; Bullart, Académie des Sciences, ii. 190; Balliet, Enfans Célèbres, 184.

[2] Ed. 1. De Bibliothecis Syntagma, Antwerp, 1602; Ed. 2. Helmstadt, 1620; Ed. 3. Antwerp, 1629. In his Opera Omnia, 1610-30, 1637, 1675.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

This translation has been made from the second edition, “the last from the author’s hand,” Antwerp, Plantin Press, John Moretus, 1602.

The French version by Gabriel Peignot, in his Manuel Bibliographique, Paris, 1800, was found very helpful in translating Lipsius’s rather crabbed Latin; I was greatly aided also by a first draught of an English translation kindly made for me by Miss I. McD. Howell, of the Newark, New Jersey, Free Public Library. Mr. W. W. Bishop, reference librarian in the library of Princeton University, gave most valuable assistance, both on difficult points in the Latin and on many historical allusions. I am, of course, responsible for all errors.

J. C. D.

Newark, January, 1907

TO THE READER

TO THE READER

You have before you my brief outline of the history of libraries, that is, of books. Where shall we who are constantly making use of books look for a worthier subject for our pen? Yet I never should have dreamed of writing this outline had I not been inspired thereto by the zeal in such matters of the noble Prince to whom I have just dedicated it.

That such as he should labour to encourage and inspire men to good deeds and high endeavour—this I think a thing most helpful to us all. And how few do give themselves generously to this task! All thoughts seem now to turn to low and sordid things. Scorning the ancient and holy truths, how eagerly to-day do men search out doctrines whose only charm is that they seem new!

To these one might well repeat the ancient line: “Though broad and well known is the highway, you choose a narrow and obscure path.”

For ourselves, we hold fast to the old and the established; and we study, we point out the way, and we set forth examples—often, so I hope and trust, to some useful purpose.

And may you, O Gentle Reader, look with favour upon our work.

A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES

CHAPTER I

Bibliotheca and Libraria—what do these words signify? The Kings of old had Libraries, especially those of Egypt.

The word bibliotheca is used to signify any one of three things: a place in which books are kept, a bookcase, or books themselves. The Greek word, bibliotheca, came into use among the Romans. They also used the word libraria; but it is more exact to understand by that word a shop where books are kept for sale. Collections of books, bibliothecae, date from the earliest days, and, if I am not mistaken, were established as soon as letters were invented. The art of writing must have arisen almost as soon as man began to learn and to think; and this art would not have been profitable if books had not been preserved and arranged for present and future use.

At first these collections were private undertakings, each person gathering for himself and his family; in the course of time kings and dynasties took up the custom and collected books, not only for use, but also to gratify their ambition and to add to their renown. Indeed, it was scarcely within the power of a private person to collect many books, since the process of copying them was a slow and expensive one; though our lately discovered most useful art of printing has now simplified it.

Osymandyas of Egypt was of all kings the first, as far as history shows, to have a library of any note. Along with other famous deeds he established, says Diodorus, a library of sacred literature, and placed over the entrance the inscription: “Here is Medicine for the Mind.” Though he was one of the earliest of the Egyptian kings, I do not doubt that his example was thereafter faithfully followed, even if the library he is said to have founded never in fact existed; for in Egypt there have always been libraries, especially in temples, under the care of priests. Many facts may be cited as evidence for the truth of this statement, among others this one about Homer: a certain Naucrates accused Homer of plagiarism, and said that when the latter went to Egypt he found there the books of a woman, Phantasia, who had written the Iliad and the Odyssey and placed them in the temple of Vulcan at Memphis; and that there Homer saw them, appropriated them, and published them as his own. As far as Homer is concerned I think this story false; but it establishes the fact in question, that it was the custom in Egypt to have libraries.

CHAPTER II

The Alexandrian Library, of which Philadelphus was the founder and the chief benefactor. The variety and number of books in it. Burned, and restored.

Though other libraries of Egypt are little known, we learn that that of Ptolemy Philadelphus was famous and highly renowned. He was the son of Ptolemy Lagus, second of the name and of the line of the Greek kings of Egypt. Being a patron of the arts and sciences he was, of course, a lover of books, and founded the great library of Alexandria, aided by the instruction and example, perhaps even by the very books themselves, of Aristotle. For Aristotle, as I shall note later, had a library which was remarkable for the number and excellence of its books. Speaking of this library, Strabo says that Aristotle was the first private collector of books of whom we have any knowledge, and that he taught the kings of Egypt the principles of classification. This passage from Strabo, however, must be read with care and be properly interpreted; for Aristotle was by no means the first to form a library, and as he lived before the time of Philadelphus, he could not have taught him, save as I have said, by example. Perhaps what Athenaeus says is true, that Aristotle left his books to Theophrastus, he to Neleus, and that from the latter Ptolemy bought them, and transferred them, with others which he purchased in Athens and Rhodes, to fair Alexandria. Other writers, however, do not assent to this statement, as I shall show presently. This much is admitted, however, that he founded a library and collected for it books of every kind from all parts of the world, even seeking out the sacred books of the Hebrews. As soon as the fame of the wisdom of the Hebrews reached his ears, he sent and demanded the books which contained it, and employed men skilled in such matters to translate them into Greek for the common use of all. This translation was called the Septuagint from the number of persons who were engaged in making it. It was made, according to Epiphanius, in the seventeenth year of the reign of Philadelphus, in the one hundred and twenty-seventh Olympiad. Demetrius Phalereus had charge of this library. He was an exile from his native Athens, and was renowned both for his writings and his works. The King held him in high esteem and entrusted to his care the library, and other matters of even greater importance.

Philadelphus likewise collected books from the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and even from the Romans, and had them translated into Greek. I quote Georgius Cedrenus, who says, “Philadelphus had the sacred books of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Romans, as well as some in other languages, to the number of a hundred thousand volumes, translated into Greek, and placed them in his library at Alexandria.” I note especially two things in this quotation: first, the diligence shown in translating into the common tongue books in foreign languages,—a very useful custom in my opinion and one which should be adopted to-day by you, O Princes; and second, the statement as to the number of books. This number is very large, it is true, but not large enough if it is meant to include all the books in the library. I think it was not so meant; but that Cedrenus had in mind only the translations, and that the works in the original Greek far surpassed the number of translations. Other writers who have mentioned this library say it was much larger than Cedrenus says it was. Our friend Seneca reports that four hundred thousand volumes, a most precious monument of royal munificence, perished in the flames. Most precious, indeed; beyond all gold or rarest gems! How much more precious if their number had been greater still! And greater in fact it was. This number of Seneca’s falls short of the truth, and must be extended to seven hundred thousand. Let Josephus tell us. He says that Demetrius, the librarian I have mentioned, was once asked by Philadelphus how many books he had in the library, and replied that he had two hundred thousand volumes, and hoped soon to have five hundred thousand.

So you see how the library grew under his hands; then consider how much larger it must have grown to be in later years, under other kings, successors of Philadelphus. A. Gellius frankly says that the number rose to seven hundred thousand. To quote him exactly, “A prodigious number of books was collected, either by purchase or by copying, by the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt, nearly seven hundred thousand volumes.” Ammianus, from whom I shall quote shortly, says the same, and Isidore also, if his words be properly emended. “In Alexandria, in the days of Philadelphus, there were,” he says, “seventy thousand books.” I think that he should have said seven hundred thousand.

A precious treasure! But, alas, though it was the offspring of man’s immortal spirit it was not itself immortal! For all this vast store of books, whatever their number may have been, perished in the flames. Caesar, in the civil war with Pompey, fought with the Alexandrians in the city itself. He set fire to the ships for his own protection; from the ships the flames spread to houses near the harbour, then to the library itself, and consumed it utterly.

Shame be to Caesar for having brought about, even though without intent, this irreparable loss! Yet he himself does not mention it in the third book of his History of the Civil War; and, later, Hirtius did not speak of it. But others did; Plutarch, for example, and Dion; and Livy also, as may easily be shown by a reference to Seneca, who says, after the words above quoted, “Another has praised the library, even Livy, who says that it had been a splendid monument to the culture and the enlightened zeal of kings.” These are the very words used by Livy in speaking of the fire, and of the praise due the library itself and the kings who had collected it.

Ammianus also speaks of this lamentable conflagration, and says: “Among all the temples in Alexandria the Serapeum was preëminent; in it was formerly a library of inestimable value containing, according to the concurrent testimony of the ancient monuments, seven hundred thousand volumes, collected with patient zeal by the Ptolemaic kings. All of these books were consumed by fire when the state, under the dictatorship of Caesar, was disrupted by the Alexandrian war.” He wishes to make it appear that this happened while the city was being plundered. A. Gellius says the same: “All these books were burned in the earlier Alexandrian war” (here he is in error; it was in the later war, under Antony), “when the state was disrupted; and the burning was not intentional or premeditated, and possibly was done by the auxiliary soldiers.” He excuses Caesar, and with some reason; for did ever any one love books and the humanities more than he? He also excuses the Roman soldiers, and lays the blame on the foreign auxiliaries.

If one consults Plutarch and Dion one may see that they do not think the burning took place during the sack of the city.

Such, then, was the end of this noble library; destroyed in the one hundred and eighty-third Olympiad, after enduring scarcely two hundred and twenty-four years. Yet it lived again,—not the same collection, of course, for that were impossible; but a similar one,—and in the same building, the Serapeum. Cleopatra, she who became famous through her amours with Antony, reëstablished the library. She received from him, as the beginning or foundation of the new collection, the Attalic or Pergamene library. She accepted the entire collection as a gift and had it brought to Alexandria; then she again decorated the buildings and increased the collection, with the result that even in the time of the Christian fathers it was widely known and much used. Tertullian says, “To this day are to be found in the library of Ptolemy in the Serapeum books in Hebrew characters.” Note that, according to this remark of Tertullian’s, the library was again installed in the Serapeum, that is, in its porticoes or galleries; and note, further, that Strabo and others tell us that the Serapeum was near the harbour and the ships. Note, once more, that it was called the Ptolemaic library, though it was in fact not the original library, but a similar one; for the original Hebrew texts and the original translation called the Septuagint had perished in the flames. And yet once more note that the reputation and ancient authority of this library were so great that Tertullian uses it as an argument in his exhortation and admonition to the heathen.

For my part, I believe that the library existed as long as did the Serapeum itself, which was a temple of massive construction and of great size, and that, as reported by certain ecclesiastical writers, the Christians, during the reign of Theodosius the Great, demolished it utterly, as a monument of superstition.

CHAPTER III

Libraries in Greece, especially those of Pisistratus and Aristotle. That at Byzantium.

Concerning the libraries of Egypt I have given few and unimportant facts, though the collections themselves were perhaps many and of great importance. But history here is dimmed by the mists of time. The same must be said also of the history of the libraries of Greece. Athenaeus incidentally refers to the more important of them when he praises his friend Laurentius for his skill in classifying books, and says that in this art he surpassed Polycrates of Samos, Pisistratus the Tyrant, Euclid the Athenian, Nicocrates the Cyprian, Euripides the poet, and Aristotle the philosopher. I have little of detail to say about any of these men. Of Pisistratus it should be noted that A. Gellius gave to him the honour of being the pioneer in this art of forming a library; though Polycrates had one at about the same time. A. Gellius says, to quote his very words, “Pisistratus the Tyrant is said to have been the first to make for public use in Athens a collection of books on the liberal arts.” Here, then, was indeed a great man,—he was called the “Tyrant,” but the word did not convey at that time the odium it does to-day,—and to him we owe the text of Homer collected and arranged as we now have it. At that period critical studies, as we now call them, that is, the collation and emendation of texts, were much followed by princes, and even by kings. This library, founded by Pisistratus, was added to from time to time by the Athenians, until Xerxes carried it away when he captured Athens. Many years afterwards Seleucus Nicanor, King of Syria, very generously caused the books of this library to be returned to Athens. They remained there until the time of Sulla, who captured and plundered the city. But even after that, I am sure we must believe the library was again established; for how could a city be, as Athens was, the mother of the arts without the aid of books? Indeed there must have been many libraries there in later years. Hadrian, for example, so Pausanias wrote, erected in Athens a temple to the Panhellenic Jove, and placed in it a library.

Of Euclid, Athenaeus says that he was an archon and one of the more learned of the magistrates; nothing more.

Of Aristotle, Strabo speaks in terms of highest praise, and I have already quoted his words. I also cited the statement from Athenaeus that Aristotle’s library came finally into the possession of the Ptolemies. Strabo and some others, however, seem to question this statement. “The books of Aristotle,” says Strabo, “which were left to Neleus, were finally handed on to certain descendants of his who were men of no learning. By them the books were kept under lock and key, and were not used. Then they were buried under ground and much injured by worms and mould; but finally were purchased at a great price by Apellicon of Teos. He had the books, now sadly worm-eaten and tattered, transcribed, though not faithfully or with good judgement, and published. On his death Sulla, then master of Athens, seized the books and sent them to Rome, where Tyrannion the grammarian made use of them and, so it is reported, rearranged them and to some extent corrupted their text.” Plutarch tells the same or a very similar story in his life of Sulla. If it is true, how could the books of Aristotle have come from Neleus to Philadelphus, as Athenaeus says they did in the passage quoted above? Perhaps we can reconcile the two statements, and this is my conclusion, by supposing that Neleus retained Aristotle’s own writings, his original manuscripts, as a precious heritage for his own family, and sold the rest of the books, written by others, to Philadelphus.

I do not recall any other matters worth relating about the libraries of Greece. I do not need to say that the Romans, after they conquered the country, undoubtedly took to Italy many collections of books.

Perhaps I should simply mention the Byzantine library of the time of the Emperors. Zonaras and Cedrenus say that under the Emperor Basiliscus, the library in Byzantium, into which had been gathered a hundred and twenty thousand volumes, was destroyed by fire. Among the books was the gut of a great dragon, one hundred and twenty feet long, on which was written in letters of gold the whole of the Iliad and the Odyssey. But this library, being in Thrace and not in Greece, ought not to be considered as among the Grecian libraries.

CHAPTER IV

The Attalic Library, of which Eumenes was the founder. Certain errors of statement about it made by Pliny and Vitruvius. Its size and the length of time it existed.

The Attalic or Pergamene library, in Asia, was almost as illustrious as the Alexandrian. When the Attalic kings, minor powers at first, became great and rich through an alliance with the Romans, they adorned their capital city in many ways and erected in it a library. Strabo regarded Eumenes, the son of King Attalus, as the founder of this collection. “Eumenes,” he says, “built the city and beautifully adorned it as it now is, with temples and a library.” Pliny says, “According to Varro there was a rivalry over their respective libraries between Ptolemy and Eumenes, and the former forbade the exportation of paper from his kingdom, and the latter of parchment from his.” Jerome, in his letter to Chromatius, and Aelian, made similar statements, though they say it was Attalus who was jealous of Ptolemy, and not Eumenes. Concerning neither of them, however, can the story be true; for, as a comparison of dates will show, they both lived almost a century after Philadelphus. How, then, could there have been between them the jealousy which Pliny speaks of? Unless, indeed, “Ptolemy” is used simply in reference to the kings of Egypt in general, and refers here not to Philadelphus but to Ptolemy the Fifth, generally called Ptolemy Epiphanes, who was a contemporary of Eumenes. He perhaps, though he was not at all distinguished for his zeal in regard to libraries, forbade the exportation of paper, in fear lest another new library should rival his own more ancient one.

The erroneous or careless statement just noted is still more crudely put by Vitruvius. He says, to quote him directly, “After the Attalic kings, led by their great interest and delight in literature, established for general enjoyment a superb library at Pergamum, Ptolemy, stirred to a boundless zeal by their example, and rivalling them in activity, endeavoured to establish at Alexandria a library equal to theirs.” How absurd the statement! As if the Attalic kings antedated the Alexandrian in this art! As if, in this field of books, the latter caught from the former their zeal, or looked to them for example! Why, the exact opposite was true; for the Ptolemies practised the art of establishing libraries long before the Attalic kings had ever thought of it. It is possible, of course, that here again the writer alludes, without naming him, to one of the later Ptolemies. But even then it remains true that the Pergamene library never rivalled the Alexandrian in either resources or age. Plutarch writes to this effect where, mentioning both libraries, he says that Antony the Triumvir, fascinated by the charms of Cleopatra, gave to her the library at Pergamum, in which were two hundred thousand volumes. I use the word “volumes” and not “titles,” for I think the word which Plutarch uses refers to several works bound together in one volume, and that these several works are not counted in giving the size of the library.

This Pergamene library ceased to exist, then, soon after the destruction of the first Alexandrian one; but lived again in the latter when it was reëstablished. Was it set up again in its own city? Certainly Strabo’s words, quoted above, if carefully considered, seem to imply that it was. For he says, “was erected where it now is.” What does he mean by “now”? Plainly the time when he, Strabo, was writing, which was in the reign of Tiberius. So it appears that the victorious Augustus, who annulled much that Antony did, either brought the library back to its old home in Pergamum, or, what is more probable, caused it to be copied again and reëstablished it. But on this point I do not venture to speak with certainty.

CHAPTER V

Roman libraries; private ones; and the first public library, that of Asinius Pollio.

Having spoken of such libraries of foreign peoples as seem worthy of mention, let us pass to those of Rome, which are nearer to us in both place and time.

Slow enough at first was the growth of love of books and interest in the humanities among the Romans; for the Romans were children of Mars, not of the Muses. But at last, by God’s grace, here also culture took root and refinement gained in esteem, though slowly at first, as it always does. Isidore notes that Aemilius Paulus was the first to bring to Rome any large number of books, and this he did after he had conquered Perseus, King of the Macedonians; then Lucullus did the same after the pillage of Pontus. Thus he names two who brought books to Rome. But they did not make them accessible to the public. Concerning Aemilius I have read nothing further; of Lucullus, Plutarch speaks at great length. He says: “His delight in books and his free expenditure for them should be highly praised. For he acquired many of them, and very beautifully written ones; and showed the same liberality in respect to their use that he showed in respect to their purchase. His library was open to every one; and in the adjoining colonnades and exedras learned Greeks were especially made welcome. Here they came, as to a temple of the Muses, and passed the time pleasantly together free from all cares. And often Lucullus himself came to these colonnades and walks, and joined the learned in their conversations, and took part in their philosophical discussions.”

From which you may see, Most Illustrious Prince, how free and open this library was; and that though he retained the title to it himself, he gave the unrestricted use of it to the learned, just as you so generously do with your own.

To Aemilius and Lucullus one may add the name of Cornelius Sulla, afterwards dictator, as a founder of libraries. He brought from Greece and Athens to Rome a very large number of books and arranged them to form a library. About this Lucian has written, as well as Plutarch.

But after all these things were done, a true public library for Rome had not yet been established. The thought of such an institution was first conceived by the great and glorious Julius Caesar, and would by him have been carried to its conclusion had not the fates forbidden. Suetonius says, “He planned to open to the public libraries formed of as many books in the Greek and Latin languages as he could bring together, and to give to Marcus Varro the duty of organizing and managing them.” This was truly the plan of a generous spirit, and of a wise one also; for who in all the world was better fitted than Varro, most learned in Greek and Roman letters, to carry out such a scheme? But Caesar was not destined to realize his thought. Augustus, his adopted son, added a library to the other adornments and glories he gave to the city. At his suggestion and inspired by him, Asinius Pollio, orator, senator, and noble, erected a temple of liberty, so Suetonius says, and placed in it a library which he made free to all. Isidore says, “Pollio was the first to establish a public library in Rome, one composed of books in Greek and in Latin, and decorated with busts of famous authors. He placed it in the public hall, which he magnificently adorned with the spoils of war.” “Spoils of war” refers to those taken from the Dalmatians, whom he had just conquered. Pliny remarks that Asinius Pollio was the first to establish a library which made free to all the wisdom of all.

It seems plain from these writers that this library was in the Hall of Liberty, on the Aventine Hill. I think it was rather rearranged or reconstructed for the library than built especially for it. It had been in existence a long time before Pollio’s day. Plutarch and other writers say that it dated from the time of Tiberius Gracchus, father of the Gracchi. Pollio, it would seem, refitted it and dedicated it to this glorious use. Ovid’s words should be noted here, for he says,—his book, Tristia, is supposed to be speaking,—“Liberty did not permit me to enter her hall; that hall in which were first opened to the public the books of the wise.” I do not think the words he uses in these lines have reference, as some think, to a gathering of poets. The book—for, as I have said, it is a book which Ovid’s verse makes us suppose is speaking—frankly complains that it was not received into the library of Asinius, that library which was the first to open to public use the writings of learned men.

CHAPTER VI

The Libraries of Augustus, the Octavian and the Palatine. Their Librarians and Custodians.

It was, then, under Augustus that this the first public library was established. Soon there were two others, also due to him. The first, the Octavian, he founded in honour of his sister, and gave it her name. Of this Dion Cassius says, in his chronicle of the year 721, “Augustus built a colonnade and in it established a library, which he named after his sister Octavia.” Plutarch seems to ascribe this work to Octavia herself, when he says, “In honour of Marcellus, his mother Octavia built a library and dedicated it to his memory; Augustus built a theatre and gave to it the name of Marcellus.” I think Plutarch is here in error, for the note of Dion’s places the erection of the Colonnade of Octavia ten whole years before the death of Marcellus. He adds that these memorials were erected from spoils of the Dalmatians, and his words draw attention to the remarkable fact that the first and second libraries of Rome were both due, in a certain sense, to barbarians.

Suetonius, in speaking of Melissus the grammarian, says that after he was freed he soon became intimate with Augustus, and at the latter’s request undertook, and very efficiently, the task of arranging the library in the Colonnade of Octavia. It is my opinion that it was in the upper part of the colonnade, as safer and more appropriate, since the lower part was used as a promenade. Ovid again makes his little book of verse say, “I seek another temple, near the theatre; and this also was forbidden to my feet.” The book complains that it is spurned by the library, and incidentally tells where the library was,—near the theatre of Marcellus. He calls the building, which was in fact a portico, a temple, because in it, as Pliny says, was an altar to Juno, and certain beautiful statues.

Still another library was founded by this same Augustus, the Palatine, so called because it was in the royal palace itself. Suetonius says, “He built the temple of Apollo in that part of his house on the Palatine Hill which had been struck by lightning, and was thereby, as the priests interpreted the fact, marked out as a spot dear to God. To the temple he added porticoes, in which he placed a library of books in Latin and in Greek.” This happened in the seven hundred and twenty-sixth year of the city, as one may learn from the opening lines of Dion’s History, book LIII.

It seems, then, that Ovid followed the order of the dates of their establishment in his reference to the libraries of Rome, when he named, in the following quotation, first the Asinian, next the Octavian, and last the Palatine.

From thence we to Apollo’s temple went,

To which by steps there is a faire ascent:

Where stand the signs in faire outlandish stone,

Of Belus and of Palammed the sonne.

There ancient bookes, and those that are more new,

Doe all lye open to the Reader’s view.
I sought my brethren there, excepting them,
Whose haplesse birth my father doth condeme.
And as I sought, the chiefe man of the place,
Bid me be gone out of that holy space.[3]

Here Ovid shows, among other things, that there was a librarian or custodian of the Palatine library. Suetonius tells us he was C. Julius Higinus. In his Celebrated Grammarians he says, “This man presided over the Palatine library; though meanwhile he followed his profession and taught many.” Later there was a special custodian for the books in Greek, and another for those in Latin. On an ancient marble tablet are inscribed these words:

ANTIOCHUS
IN CHARGE OF THE LATIN BOOKS
IN THE LIBRARY OF
TI. CLAUDIUS CAESAR
IN THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO

On another:

C. JULIUS FALYX
IN CHARGE OF THE GREEK BOOKS
OF THE
PALATINE LIBRARY

There are other similar inscriptions.

To this Palatine library Pliny refers when he says, “We may see in the library in the temple of Augustus a Tuscan statue representing Apollo, fifty feet in height.” This quotation, however, may point to the library of Vespasian Augustus, which was in the temple of Peace. But Pliny refers very plainly to the Palatine library when he says, “The old Greek letters were almost the same as the Latin letters of the present time, as is shown by an ancient Delphic tablet of bronze, dedicated to Minerva, which is now in the Palatine—that gift of emperors—in the library.” I am led to believe, from the words of John of Salisbury, that this library was in existence in Rome for a very long time, since he writes, “The learned and most holy Gregory not only banished astrology from the court; but also, as is reported by them of old time, gave to the flames those writings of approved merit, and whatever else the Palatine library in Apollo’s temple possessed. Preëminent among these were some which seemed designed to reveal to men the will of the celestial beings and the oracles of the higher powers.”

This quotation is worthy of note.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] W. Saltonstall’s translation, 1637.

CHAPTER VII

The Libraries of Tiberius, of Trajan, of Vespasian; also the Capitoline; other unknown Libraries.

We have seen that two libraries were established in Rome by the Emperor Augustus, a most zealous patron of the arts and sciences. What may be said of other Roman libraries? Certainly there were others; and there even seems to have been a spirit of rivalry among the rulers of that time in regard to them, each contending for the palm as founder of libraries. For example, Tiberius, soon after the death of Augustus, established one within the limits of the royal palace itself, on that part which fronts on the Via Sacra. Students of the subject think that here were Tiberius’s own special apartments; and A. Gellius locates the library in them when he says, “While Apollinaris and I were sitting in the library in the house of Tiberius.” Vopiscus makes the same statement in effect, for he tells us that he used the books in the Ulpian library and also those in the apartments of Tiberius.

It seems that in due course Vespasian also collected a library and placed it in the temple of Peace, as we gather from A. Gellius’s remark, “We sought very diligently for the Commentary of L. Aelius, the teacher of Varro, and found it, and read it, in the library in the temple of Peace.” Galen also mentions it in his Treatise on the Compounding of Medicines.

Another library was gathered by Trajan, of which A. Gellius also speaks. “We happened,” he says, “to be sitting in the library in the temple of Trajan.” This is the one which is commonly called the Ulpian, from the family name of the Emperor Trajan. Vopiscus says, “I learned these things from the elders; and I read them also, in the books of the Ulpian library;” also, “If you are still in doubt, consult the books in Greek, then look up also the linen books, the ancient chronicles, which the Ulpian library can show to you whenever you wish.”

I am of the opinion that this Ulpian library was at first in the forum of Trajan, where the other monuments erected by that emperor were placed; and was afterwards moved to the Viminal Hill to adorn the Baths of Diocletian. If so moved, why not by Diocletian himself? Vopiscus would lead us to think it was, for he says, “I make use especially of the books of the Ulpian library, which in my time was in the Baths of Diocletian.” When he expressly says that in his time it was in a certain place, he plainly implies that it had previously been in another place.

Let us pass now to the Capitoline library, concerning which Eusebius says, in speaking of the reign of the Emperor Commodus, “The lightning struck the Capitol and started a great fire, which consumed the library and the houses near it.” Orosius relates the incident more at length: “Upon the city falls the punishment for the crimes of the emperor. The Capitol was struck by lightning, and a terrible conflagration burst forth, which devoured both the library, which had been gathered by men of old with so much zeal and care, and all the adjoining dwellings.”

Who was the founder of this library? We cannot be sure, but we may surmise that it was Domitian. At one time he narrowly escaped death in the Capitol, and there, after he became emperor, he erected a temple; and if the temple, why not the library within it? No record, it is true, remains to prove that he did. Suetonius speaks of the matter in a very vague way where he says, “He, Domitian, was at great pains to reëstablish the library which had been burned, and at large expense sought for books in all parts of the world, and sent savants to Alexandria to copy and edit books there for his library.” We note from this that even then the Alexandrian was looked upon as the source and very foster-mother of all other libraries, and that these others sought from her carefully edited and beautifully written books to replace their corrupted versions. Moreover, these other and later libraries were preserved through the enlightened interest of the princes of their day, for if this had not been so, how could there have been so many libraries at the time of P. Victor, that is, in the reign of Constantine? Victor says that he noted, among other remarkable things in Rome, twenty-nine public libraries; two of which were especially noteworthy, the Palatine and the Ulpian.

Alas, of how many of these have we no record whatsoever! Out of all the twenty-nine we discovered, for all our diligence, traces of seven only, and of these have rescued from oblivion hardly more than their names.

CHAPTER VIII

Of the Tiburtine Library; also of certain of the more important Private Libraries. These latter were sometimes found in the Baths, sometimes in the Country Houses.

Concerning the greater part of the Roman public libraries I have learned nothing, as I have said; not even of those within the city.

There was one at Tibur, near Rome, about which A. Gellius says, “We recall having found it written in that same book of Claudius in the library at Tibur.” And again, “He brought it from the library of Tibur, which was at that time very conveniently located in the temple of Hercules.” Here and elsewhere we note that the libraries were often placed in or near temples. And why should not the sacred productions of human genius be deposited in consecrated buildings? It is possible that the Emperor Hadrian established this library at Tibur, for it is well known that he took much pleasure in that spot, and spared no expense in adorning it with many and very beautiful buildings.

It seems evident to me that in all the cities and colonies of the empire libraries were found and the arts and humanities were cultivated.

Certain of the wealthy citizens, it appears, had their own private libraries, some of them very noble ones, partly for use and partly for the sake of the reputation for learning which they gave.

For example, there is Tyrannion the grammarian, in the reign of Sulla, who had three thousand volumes. Epaphroditus of Chaeronea, also a grammarian by profession, is another example. Suidas says of him that he lived at Rome from the time of Nero to that of Nerva, and was so assiduous a purchaser of books that he collected thirty thousand of them, and they of the best and rarest. I applaud this last example, not so much, of course, for the great number of books he collected as for the good taste he showed in choosing them. I should like to believe that this Epaphroditus was the one who had among his slaves Epictetus, the very head of the true philosophy. Certainly they were contemporaries. But the rank and occupation of the two men were very different, the book-collector being a grammarian, according to Suidas, while the owner of Epictetus was one of the bodyguards of Nero. Whoever he was, Samonicus Serenus surpassed him in his zeal for book-collecting, for he had a library in which there were sixty-two thousand volumes. When he died he left his books to Gordian the Less, afterwards emperor. The gift is reported by Capitolinus with these words of praise, “This has immortalized Gordian; for men of letters will never cease to speak of the gift of so vast and splendid a library.”

Consider, O Most Illustrious Prince, how this love of books brings favour and high renown,—such favour and renown as should be granted without limit to great men like yourself.

Those I have named, and a few besides, are known to have had notable libraries. There were, of course, many others of whom we know nothing. Seneca shows that the habit of book-collecting was very common in his time, and condemns it. You ask, why did he condemn it? “Because,” he says, “they acquired books not that they might enjoy them, but simply for show. To most of these newly rich, ignorant even of the elements of belles-lettres , books are not aids to study, but simply ornaments of dining-rooms.” A little further on he adds: “Why, in the homes of the idlest of the rich you will find all that orators or historians have written, with bookcases built clear to the ceiling! Formerly a library gave a home an air of culture; one is now put in, like a bathroom, simply as a necessary part of the equipment of a house.” A sad state of affairs, I admit. And yet it is to be wished that our own rich men had the same taste in luxuries; for a collection of books can always be of use and value to some one, even if not to the owner.

We note that libraries were placed in the baths, as we did above in the case of the Ulpian library, which was in the Baths of Diocletian. If you ask why, I would say because the Romans, while caring for the body in the bath, found their minds at ease, and discovered that then was a favourable time, especially for those who were deeply engrossed in affairs, to read or to be read to. For a like reason they had books in their villas and country seats. There also they found a leisure and a freedom from care which were favourable to reading.

A decision of the jurisconsult Paulus calls attention to this custom of having libraries: “In a legacy of real estate any books and any library which are in the house pass to the legatee.” Pliny says, speaking of his own villa, “A bookcase is built into the wall, thus forming, as it were, a little library.” Martial praises the library at the country-place of a certain other Julius Martial, as follows:

Thou lovely country library,
Whence thy lord views the city nigh,
If, ’mongst his serious studys, place
My wanton muse may find, and grace,
To these sev’n books afford a roome,
Though on the lowest shelf, which come
Corrected by their author’s penn.[4]

FOOTNOTES:

[4] Translation from a sixteenth century MS. Bohn.

CHAPTER IX

The Decoration of Libraries with Ivory and with Glass. Bookcases and Shelves, Tables and Seats.

I have now gone rapidly over the early history of libraries and have mentioned those of which time has not destroyed all records. As to what I have written, I must confess that it is but a trivial mention of a great subject,—as the old saying goes, “a drop of water out of a full bucket.” Yet I have said enough, perhaps, to act as an incentive or to serve as an example.

I shall add a few words on the decoration of libraries and the arrangement of their books.

From Isidore I learn that the more experienced architects did not think that the ceilings of libraries should be gilded, or that the floors should be made of any but Carystian marble; this because the glitter of gold is rather tiring to the eyes, while the green of Carystian marble rests them.

This is good advice from whomever it may have come. True it is, as my own experience proves, that a brilliant light is disturbing to the attention and makes writing difficult; and green is a colour which seems to rest and refresh the eyes.

Boethius adds something further to this subject of decoration, when he says, in his book on Consolation, “The walls were decorated with ivory and glass.” Does he mean the walls of the room itself? It would seem so, for the bookcases or shelves were not placed against the walls, in which case the ornamentation of the latter would not have been seen, but were set out in the room, just as they are in most public libraries to-day. Glass cut in squares, circles, ovals, and rhomboids was used like marble tiles, to ornament the walls, though oftener the arches and the ceilings. Pliny says in his Natural History, book XXXVI, “Tiles made of earth they transformed into glass and put on the arches; and this is a recent invention.” It was, then, still a novelty in the time of Nero and Seneca. Yet Seneca speaks of it as a common thing, in letter LXXXVI, on baths, where he says, “Unless the arch is covered with glass.” On this point consult my work on the baths of the Romans.

That it was also used on the walls, Vopiscus, as well as Boethius, shows when he says in speaking of Firmus, “The house appears to have been covered over with squares of glass, with bitumen and other material between the squares.” I think the bitumen was here used to fasten the squares of glass to the wall, and not to join them to each other. The joints between the pieces of glass were more appropriately covered with ivory, as Boethius seems to say they were. Ivory was placed also on the bookcases themselves; whence the phrase, “ivory library,” in the Pandects. Seneca mentions bookcases made of cedar and ivory.

Common sense and the general fitness of the thing of course make it plain that there were bookcases in libraries; I would add the fact that the cases were numbered. Vopiscus so indicates when he says, “The Ulpian library has the elephant book in the sixth case.” Whether by “elephant” he means made of ivory or of the skin of an elephant, I cannot say. The old scholiast in commenting on this phrase, from Juvenal, “Hic libros dabit et forulos” (This one will furnish you with books and cases), gives as an equivalent phrase, “Armaria, bibliotheca” (A library and the books in it). I think the word foruli (pigeon-holes), as here used, properly means either compartments in the shelves, “nests” for the books, following Martial’s use of the word; or, in Seneca’s use of it, separate little cases for them. Sidonius speaks of these cases and of other things found in libraries. “Here,” he says, “is an astonishing number of books and you would think yourself in a library and could see the shelves (plutei) of the grammarians; or the seats (cunei) of Athenaeus; or the lofty bookcases (armaria) of the booksellers.” Plutei are the sloping tables on which books were placed for reading; cunei, the rows of seats, as explained in Athenaeus; and armaria, bookcases, generally wide and tall, as I have shown. These last Cicero seems to call pegmata in a letter to Atticus.

CHAPTER X

Statues of Learned Men sometimes placed in Libraries; a praiseworthy Custom which originated with Asinius.

A most appropriate method of decorating a library, one which ought to be imitated by us to-day but unhappily is not, is that of placing in it and near their writings the statues or busts of great authors. How delightful it must have been to the readers to see them, and how stimulating to the mind! We all wish to become familiar with the features and the general appearance of great men, with those material bodies in which dwelt their celestial spirits, and, lifting our eyes from their books, here they are before us! You could read the writings of Homer, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Pindar, Virgil, Cicero, and others, and at the same time feast your eyes upon the counterfeit presentment of each one. Again I say, a most beautiful custom, and why, Most Illustrious Friend, do we to-day not imitate it, under your leadership?

This idea seems to have originated with the Romans—not every good thing, after all, has come from the Greeks! Pliny is of this opinion. “Nothing,” he says, speaking in his most happy vein, “is more delightful than to have knowledge of the face and bearing of the authors one reads. Asinius Pollio, at Rome, apparently originated this idea of placing statues in libraries; that same Asinius who was the first, by founding a free library, to make the wisdom of mankind free to all. Whether the kings at Alexandria and Pergamum, who showed great zeal in the founding of libraries, had done the same before, I find it impossible to learn.” So it seems, as I have said, that Asinius was the originator of the idea; and Pliny says that he placed in a library, the first public one opened in the city (not, in the world, as some absurdly render the phrase), the statue of a living man, Marcus Varro, the first person to have that honour. Afterwards the same distinction was shown to others, either through courtesy or because it was justly due them; for example, to the poet Martial, who boasted that Stertinius wished to place a statue of him in his library. But for the most part this honour has been reserved for the dead, and for those who have, by common consent, proved their greatness.

Pliny says, “A certain custom, now just established, ought not to be passed by in silence. I refer to the fact that they place in libraries, not only the statues in gold, silver, or bronze of those whose immortal souls may be said to be speaking there through their books, but also the statues of those whose books are not there; and even imaginary statues of those of whom no portraits have been preserved.” He calls the custom a new one, meaning that it originated with Pollio. He says also that these statues of the dead were for the most part made of metal. I would add that they were also made of plaster, in which they were easily duplicated for private libraries. Juvenal says, “Though you may find everywhere busts of Chrysippus in plaster.”

Indeed I think the portraits were sometimes paintings, and that perhaps they placed portraits at the beginnings of books. Seneca says, “Those exquisite works of highest genius, illustrated with the portraits of their authors.” Suetonius says of Tiberius, “He placed their writings and their portraits in the public libraries among the old and accepted authors.” And Pliny in his letters remarks, “Herennius Severus, a most learned man, is very desirous to place in his own library the statues of Cornelius Nepos and Titus Atticus.” So, according to these two writers, both statues and portraits were used. Pliny also says, in speaking of Silius Italicus, “He owned many villas in these same places, and in them he had many portraits; moreover, he not only owned them, he almost worshipped them, especially the portrait of Virgil.” Vopiscus says of Numerian that a certain oration of his was held to be so eloquent that it was decided that a statue be made of him as an orator, not as emperor, and placed in the Ulpian library with this inscription: “To Numerian, Emperor, the greatest Orator of his time.” Sidonius, justly boasting of a statue erected to himself in the same place, says, “Nerva Trajan has seen fit to place an enduring statue of me, in honour of my writings, among other authors in both libraries.” By “both libraries” he means that his statue was set up in the Greek as well as in the Latin library.

Small portraits or statues were, it seems, often placed on brackets projecting from the cases or shelves on which stood the works of the writers they represented. I quote a line from Juvenal, “And bids the bust of Cleanthes guard the shelf on which his works repose.”

The same custom is referred to in the distich which was inscribed on a bust of Virgil: “No harm can come to a poet who is honoured by having both his verse and his bust upon the library shelf;” meaning that he has attained to lasting fame who lives both in his books and in his sculptured likeness. Note also the seals or medallions above the shelves referred to by Cicero in a letter to Atticus. In Cicero’s day they ornamented libraries with statues of the gods as well as of authors.

CHAPTER XI

A word about the Alexandrian Museum. Learned men dwelt in it supported from the Public Funds. Kings and Emperors made this Museum their special Care.

I have nothing further that seems worth saying on this subject of libraries, except a few words about their use. If they stand empty, or with only an occasional visitor; if students do not frequent them and make use of their books, why were they ever established, and what are they save that “idle luxury in the garb of scholarship” to which Seneca alludes? The Alexandrian kings saw to it that there were students to make use of their library, for they built near it a Museum, so called because it was, so to speak, a temple of the Muses, in which it was possible to follow the Muses, to cultivate the humanities, free from all cares, even from the labour of providing food and lodging, since the students in it were supported from the public funds. How admirable an institution! Strabo gives us the best description of it:

“Part of the royal palace is a Museum, in which one may stroll or sit at ease, with a great hall, in which men of letters, who are members of the Museum, hold meetings and take their meals together. Moreover, this college, as we may call the Museum organization with its students, has a foundation or common fund for its support; and a priest, who is president of the Museum, formerly appointed by the kings of Egypt, but at the present time by the emperor.”

He says this was part of the royal palace. Doubtless the kings wished it to be near their own apartments that they might have at hand the learned men who were its inmates, and converse with them when they pleased; thus acquiring knowledge and training their minds. It had porticoes and exedras, the former being more for the exercise of the body, the latter for the training of the mind, as in them the students gathered, conferred, and held discussions. There was also a hall, where they ate together. Philostratus says the same thing in speaking of Dionysius, who was, he writes, “received into the Museum;” and then adds, “The Museum is the Egyptian banquet-hall of learning, which brings together all the men of letters from all parts of the world.”

Note particularly the words, “all the men of letters from all parts of the world,” for even if not to be taken literally they show that the number was very large and the expense very great. Timon the satirist calls our attention to the same points when he says, in his satirical and carping way, “Many people are supported at public expense in Egypt the populous, that they may idly browse among books and quarrel over them in the cave of the Muses.” Athenaeus, commenting on this passage, says, “Timon spoke of the Museum as a cave or cage, thus making sport of the philosophers maintained there, as if they were so many rare birds.”

Athenaeus, we see, calls them philosophers; but Strabo uses the more general phrase, “men of letters and savants;” and no doubt scholars of every sort were admitted. Strabo puts special stress on the word “men,” showing that boys and youths and those beginning their studies were not taught in the Museum, as they would be in a similar place to-day; but that admittance was rather a reward for erudition already attained, an honour rightly earned. At Athens, following a similar custom, those who deserved the honour were supported in the Prytaneum at public expense.

What think you of that, O Prince of to-day? Does not the wish rise within you to establish again this noble custom?

Continuing Strabo’s account of the Museum: he says a priest was appointed to manage its affairs, who was selected by the kings or emperors. The position must have been of great dignity, and one which it was thought the emperor himself should fill. One may ask if the emperor did not appoint all the officials? Philostratus seems to imply that he did, when he says, speaking of Dionysius the sophist, “The Emperor Hadrian appointed him satrap or governor of many people, and named those who should receive public honours, and those also who should be maintained at public expense in the Museum.” Again, speaking of Polemon, he says, “Hadrian made him a member of the Museum, where he lived at public expense.” Let me add that, though I have not so indicated in my translation, Philostratus uses in the phrase I have quoted a word meaning “circle,” from which it would seem that members were admitted in a certain order and in proper turn, some even being chosen before any vacancy had occurred. These no doubt waited in confidence and entered in due course, in the order of their appointment. A like custom prevails to-day among princes in conferring favours.

Athenaeus throws light on this matter of appointments to the Museum by the emperor when he says that a certain poet, Pancrates, very cleverly praised Hadrian’s favourite, Antinous, and that the emperor, delighted with the subtle flattery, ordered the poet to be supported free of expense at the Museum.

So much for the reports of Strabo and others on the Museum and its management.

Let me add that the inmates of the Museum by no means lived therein an idle and useless life (how could they, being men who were dedicated, as it were, to public service?), but were diligent in writing, in arguing, and reciting their own works. Spartianus testifies to this in his remark about Hadrian, to the effect that he propounded questions to the savants in the Museum at Alexandria, and in turn answered those they presented to him.

Let me note that Suetonius says that the Emperor Claudius added a second Museum to the original one and ordered that certain books be read there every day, and

I close,

O Most Illustrious Ruler, with the wish that you, a descendant of great men and born to do great things, may long continue in that work, worthy of the highest praise, which you have already begun,—the work of encouraging the production of books and the cultivation of the liberal arts among men, and so make your name for all time revered.

To you, John Moretus, because of the friendship which has bound together for now these many years you and our Plantin—alas, now no more!—and all his family and myself,—to you, I say, I entrust the printing and the publishing of this my Outline of the History of Libraries; to you and to no one else. And this my wish and will I thus declare in accordance with the law laid down by the great Emperor and the Kings.

JUSTUS LIPSIUS

LITERATURE OF LIBRARIES

SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

Edited by John Cotton Dana, Librarian of the Free Public Library, Newark, New Jersey; and Henry W. Kent, Librarian of the Grolier Club, New York City.

1. COTTON DES HOUSSAYES, JEAN BAPTISTE (1727-1783).
Concerning the Duties and Qualifications of a Librarian (Des Devoirs et de Qualities du Bibliothecaire).

2. DURY, JOHN (DURIE) (1596-1680).
The Reformed Librarie-Keeper. London, 1650.

3. KIRKWOOD, REV. JAMES (1650?-1708).
An Overture for founding and maintaining of Bibliothecks in every Paroch throughout this Kingdom. [Edinburgh], 1699.

4. BODLEY, SIR THOMAS (1545-1613).
Life, written by himself, 1609; with his First Draught of the Statutes of the Public Library at Oxford. (From Reliquiae Bodleianae, 1703.)

5. LIPSIUS, JUSTUS (1547-1606).
De Bibliothecis Syntagma. Antwerp, 1602. Translated into English for this series.

6. NAUDÉ, GABRIEL (1600-1653).
News from France; or, A Description of the Library of Cardinal Mazarini (London, 1652), and, The Surrender of the Library of Cardinal Mazarin.

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Transcriber’s Notes

On page 46, “reestablished” was replaced by “reëstablished”, reflecting the predominant spelling in the text. Otherwise, original spelling and punctuation has been retained.

New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES ***

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Table of Contents

- A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES

- INTRODUCTORY NOTE

- FOOTNOTES:

- TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
- TO THE READER
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V

- CHAPTER VI

- FOOTNOTES:

- CHAPTER VII

- CHAPTER VIII

- FOOTNOTES:

- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- Transcriber’s Notes
- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE