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Title: The Private Library
What We Do Know, What We Don't Know, What We Ought to Know
About Our Books
Author: Arthur L. Humphreys
Release Date: February 24, 2009 [EBook #28174]
Language: English
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THE PRIVATE LIBRARY
_WHAT WE DO KNOW
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW
WHAT WE OUGHT TO KNOW
ABOUT OUR BOOKS_
BY
ARTHUR L. HUMPHREYS
_Fourth Edition._
LONDON: STRANGEWAYS & SONS
SOLD BY
HATCHARDS, 187 PICCADILLY, W.
MDCCCC
_PREFACE_
_WITH all the literature published on behalf of Free
Libraries--institutions which, after all, are of doubtful good--no one
so far has written a book to assist in making THE PRIVATE LIBRARY
combine practical useful qualities with decorative effect._
_For many years I have had opportunities of inspecting and reporting
upon Collections of Books in numerous Country Houses, and I must say
that the condition of books in the greater number of them is chaotic. A
man will talk about all his possessions--his pictures, his objets d'art,
his horses, his garden, and his bicycle, but rarely will he talk about
his books; and if he does so, all his geese are swans, or just as often,
all his swans are geese. There are servants in every house qualified to
do everything except handle a book. There is no reason why the Library
should not be just as much a place of amusement as the billiard-room,
where the men are usually to be found. Books are much more amusing than
billiards, and you may learn to play in jest or work in earnest with
books just as you take to any other amusement. The whole truth is that
at present books do not get a proper share of attention, and it is with
the desire to remedy such a condition of things that I have printed this
little volume, containing things that we do know, that we don't know,
and that we ought to know about our books._
_A. L. H._
187 PICCADILLY, W.
CONTENTS
PAGE
WHAT IS A GOOD EDITION? 1
WHAT IS A FINE COPY? 5
BOOK VALUES 9
ON THE CARE OF BOOKS 15
THE ART OF READING 25
COMMON-PLACE BOOKS 38
REFERENCE BOOKS 42
BOUDOIR LIBRARIES 46
BOOKBINDING 52
BOOK HOBBIES 65
OLD COUNTRY LIBRARIES 68
WEEDING OUT 80
THE CATALOGUE 81
CLASSIFICATION OF BOOKS 87
BOOKCASES 94
MISCELLANEOUS APPLIANCES 103
THE LIBRARY ANNEXE 106
A LIBRARIAN 115
THE LIBRARY ARCHITECTURALLY 119
MUNIFICENT BOOK-BUYING 133
THE MEDICI AND THEIR FRIENDS 137
THE DUKES OF URBINO 144
PIERESC 149
MR. RUSKIN'S ADVICE 150
INDEX 153
THE PRIVATE LIBRARY.
_What is a Good Edition?_
A good edition should be a complete edition, ungarbled and unabridged.
If the author is a classic, the _format_ of the copy chosen should in
some way represent the style of the author. _Gibbon_, for instance,
should be in large octavo or quarto, with print of a size to correspond.
This is not always possible, for English editions of books often aim at
mere cheapness, and of many great authors there exist no good editions.
Thus there is no suitable edition of the classics printed in England, as
there is and for long has been in France. A good edition is not
necessarily an expensive edition, nor is it necessarily noble and
generous in print and margin. The editions known as the 'Globe'
editions of Pope and others are good editions because (1) They are
complete; (2) Each one has been taken in hand and superintended by the
most competent scholar and has notes sufficient but not pedantic; (3)
Because they are well printed on paper of fair quality by printers who
give wages liberally to careful press readers; (4) Because each work
being a work of the first or classic order, it is bound in a simple and
unaffected style, without meretricious gold or tawdry ornament. Now the
'Globe' editions are fitting in their place as types of right editions
of the cheap kind. I will now take right editions of the more liberal
and expensive kind. The 'Cambridge' _Shakespeare_, the last issue, each
play in a separate volume, is right because (1) The print, paper,
spacing, and simplicity of binding, are suited to the dignity of the
work; (2) The edition has had brought to it fulness of knowledge and
rightness of judgment; (3) Each volume is light to handle and easy to
hold, and flexible in opening.
But it would be misleading to say that these are the only examples of
right editions. In other books which I might name, excellent work has
been brought to play which in the two types already named there was not
scope for. I would like therefore to take another instance, and name the
editions of Pope's _Works_, edited by Courthope and Elwin, of Walpole's
_Letters_, edited by Peter Cunningham, and Boswell's _Johnson_, edited
by Birkbeck Hill. These editions contain excellent and workmanlike
features, such as good arrangement and good indexing, with notes and
elucidations sufficiently ample. The size too of each volume is not
extravagant as in certain _éditions de luxe_. Now in order that we may
have good editions, there are, at least, ten people who must work well
together: (1) the Author, (2) the Publisher, (3) the Printer, (4) the
Reader, (5) the Compositor, (6) the Pressman, (7) the Paper Maker, (8)
the Ink Maker, (9) the Bookbinder, (10) the Consumer.[1] When these ten
people are not working in harmony, a book is spoilt. Too often the
author, without technical knowledge of book production, insists on
certain whims and fancies of his own being carried out. Too often the
publisher aims at cheapness and nothing more.
The publications issued by Pickering in the 'forties' and 'fifties' were
models of good workmanship. Pickering published and Whittingham printed,
and it was their custom to first sit in consultation upon every new
book, and painfully hammer out each in his own mind its ideal form and
proportions. Then two Sundays at least were required to compare notes in
the little summer house in Mr. Whittingham's garden at Chiswick. Here
they would discuss size and quality of paper, the shape of the printed
page, the number of lines, the size of the type, the form and comeliness
of the title-page.[2] In all technical details the _Edinburgh_ edition
of R. L. Stevenson's works is satisfying. Here are more 'lines of
beauty' than in almost any other modern printed book. As we handle it we
feel _satisfied_ that it _is right_. Perhaps it was such a _format_ that
Mr. Ruskin had in mind when he shaped out a scheme of a Royal series of
books, which should be models of good work all round. And though it is
necessary that we have cheap editions, and that books should circulate
everywhere, we want to save the book trade from shoddy work by keeping
good models before us. That we produce the best thought in the best
form, and not in any mean, shabby dress, ought indeed to be a serious
aim of everybody engaged in the matter.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Stevens' _Who spoils our English Books?_
[2] Stevens' _Who spoils our English Books?_
_What is a Fine Copy?_
To judge of a fine copy requires some years' handling of books. To some,
the school prize, in light brown calf, represents an ideal of book
beauty; to others, a padded binding and round corners. But these are
neither beautiful nor in any way fine copies. The school prize book is
not a fine copy (1) Because it is bound in a very perishable leather;
(2) Because its margins have been trimmed away and ploughed into; (3)
Because it is received in a form which renders it impossible to stamp
one's own individuality upon it; (4) It has gaudy and meaningless
ornaments stamped down the back. The padded binding is impossible as a
fine copy because it has had applied to it a wholly incongruous method
of preservation. Books require to be clothed, but not to be upholstered.
The round corners usually adopted by the upholster binder can claim no
advantage, and they rob the book of its natural neatness and squareness
of edge. School prize bindings and padded bindings are sins against the
sanctity of common sense. What then is a fine copy? Almost, though not
entirely, essential is it that it be in the original binding as put out
by the publisher, whether it be a paper covering, or cloth, or boards.
The reason for this is that in securing a book in such a condition one
has the book _in full measure_, and there is no necessity to undo
anything which has already been done. Now, if a book be bought in a
leather binding, the chances are that it is a leather binding which in
no way suits its new owner, and he therefore has not only to sacrifice
the binding, but in rebinding it he must sacrifice some of the margins
too. The novels of Scott and Marryat in their original boards are
delightful to handle. A fine copy should be a clean copy free from
spots. When a book is spotted it is called 'foxed,' and these 'foxey'
books are for the most part books printed in the early part of this
century, when paper-makers first discovered that they could bleach their
rags, and, owing to the inefficient means used to neutralise the
bleach, the book carried the seeds of decay in itself, and when exposed
to any damp soon became discoloured with brown stains.[3] A foxed book
cannot have the fox marks removed, and such a book should be avoided.
Ink marks can be removed, and a name written upon a title-page can
generally be entirely obliterated without leaving any sign that it has
been there. Here let me beg people who give presents of books never to
write upon title-pages, but upon the fly-leaf. Many thousands of
beautiful and valuable volumes are annually ruined for ever by their
owners cutting the name from the title. A cut title-page is irreparable.
A fine copy may be a bound copy, in which case the edges must not have
been cut down, though the top edge may have been gilded, and the binding
must be appropriate and not provincial in appearance. A provincial
binding lacks finish, the board used is too thick or too thin, or not of
good quality, and the leather not properly pared down and turned in. All
such things go to spoil good books. In North's _Lives of the Norths_
there is a passage which well describes the man of judgment in books.
Dr. John North, whose life forms part of this work, is most
picturesquely described in his book-loving habits. 'He courted, as a
fond lover, all best editions, fairest characters, best bound and
preserved. If the subject were in his favour (as the Classics), he cared
not how many of them he had, even of the same edition, if he thought it
among the best, _rather better bound, squarer cut, neater covers, or
some such qualification caught him_.' And then his biographer adds, what
is so true, and especially of books, 'Continual use gives men a judgment
of things comparatively, and they come to fix on what is most proper and
easy, which no man upon cursory view would determine.'
Large paper copies are not necessarily fine copies. When a cheap
trumpery piece of book-making is printed on hand-made paper or Japanese
vellum paper the result is vulgarity, just as when a common person
attempts to swagger about in fine clothes. No, a book must show good
binding and be appropriately apparelled, or it cannot be referred to as
a fine copy. In the matter of large paper copies it is necessary to
form a separate judgment in each case. One thing is certain, that the
man who collects large paper books as large paper books is a vulgarian
and a fool. He who collects such large paper books as mature judgment
determines are appropriate, and because he sees them to have genuine
points of merit over and above small paper copies, is a book lover. In a
charming little volume, written by an American bibliophile, I read the
following passage, confirming in part the foregoing:--
'Good editions of good books, though they may often be expensive, cannot
be too highly commended. One can turn to a page in inviting letterpress
so much easier than to a page of an unattractive volume.'[4]
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Blades' _Enemies of Books_ (p. 25).
[4] Ellwanger's _Story of my House_, p. 213.
_Book Values._
It would be impossible to tell all the causes which go towards
determining the value of a book and which cause it to fluctuate in
price. There is but one way to arrive at a reliable knowledge of book
values, and that is to begin stall-hunting as soon as you leave school
or college and continue until past middle age, absorbing information
from stalls, from catalogues, and from sale-rooms. The records of prices
at which books have been sold in the auction rooms, and which are
regularly issued, are useless in the hands of an inexperienced person.
To make up your mind on Monday that you are going to begin a career of
successful bargain-hunting and book-collecting is only to be defrauded
on all the other five remaining days. Experience must be bought, and an
eye for a good copy of a book, or for a bargain of any kind, only comes
after years of practice. I admit that if a man begins collecting some
particular class of books, say Angling books, he may sooner arrive at
safe judgment alone; but even here he has a pretty wide field to make
blunders in. When Gabriel Naudé wrote his pamphlet, _Avis pour dresser
une Bibliothèque_, he laid down his first rule thus:--'The first means
is to take the counsel and advice of such as are able to give it _viva
voce_.' This was written more than two hundred years ago, and still no
better advice could possibly be given to a book collector. By all means
find a man whom you can trust, and whose knowledge is ample, and stick
to him. Do not yourself bid in the auction room, or you will soon find
out your mistake. Place your list of wants and your list of commissions
in the hands of one good man whom you have reason to trust, and you will
then get your money's worth.
I have said that it is impossible to set down all the causes which
affect the prices of books, but in an old French bibliographical book,
by D. Clement,[5] the subject is gone into more minutely than it has
ever since been treated. First, there are causes which may be classed
under the heading of _Rarity_. Secondly, there are causes which must be
grouped under the head _Condition_.
According to Clement, there are two sorts of rarity in books; the one
absolute, the other conditional or contingent. There are rare editions
of very common books. There are books of almost common occurrence in
public libraries, which are rarely seen in the market. A book or an
edition of which but very few copies exist is called 'necessarily rare;'
one which is only with difficulty to be met with--however many copies
may be extant--he calls 'contingently rare.'
Under the first head he classes; (1) Books of which few copies were
printed; (2) Books which have been suppressed; (3) Books which have been
almost entirely destroyed by casual fire, or other accident; (4) Books
of which a large portion of the impression has been wasted--usually for
want of success when published; (5) Volumes of which the printing was
never completed; (6) Copies on large paper or on vellum.
Under the second head, he enumerates; (1) Books on subjects which
interest only a particular class of students; (2) Books in languages
which are little known; (3) Heretical, licentious, and libellous books;
(4) First editions of a classic author from MS.; (5) First productions
of the printing press in a particular town; (6) The productions of the
celebrated printers of the sixteenth century; (7) Books in the
vernacular language of an author who printed them in a foreign country;
(8) Books privately printed; (9) Works, the various parts of which have
been published under different titles, in different sizes, or in various
places.
Clement then analyses the degrees of rarity thus: (1) Every book, which
is no longer current in the trade, and requires some pains in the search
for it, is 'of infrequent occurrence;' (2) If there are but few copies
in the country in which we live, and those not easily met with, it is
'rare;' (3) If the copies are so dispersed that there are but few of
them, even in the neighbouring countries, so that there is increased
difficulty to procure them, it is 'very rare;' (4) If the number of
copies be but fifty or sixty, and those scattered, it is 'extremely
rare;' (5) And finally, every work of which there are not ten copies in
the world is 'excessively rare.' In all these cases, it must be supposed
that the book is a book sought for, and that the seekers are more
numerous than the sought.[6]
In the matter of _Condition_ and its effect upon price, long training is
required before all the qualities of a copy can be properly defined.
There are copies on 'vellum,' 'large paper,' 'fine paper,' 'coloured
paper.' There are 'crisp' copies, 'uncut' copies, 'tall' copies, 'ruled'
copies, and 'illustrated' copies, _cum multis aliis_.[7]
Fashion determines much as to price. As soon as it becomes a fad to
collect books relating to some particular subject, competition instantly
steps in, and prices go up. It may be well to state, for the benefit of
a very numerous and uninitiated public, that, _because a book is old, it
is not necessarily rare_. There are many thousands of people who have
most imperfect and valueless books, mostly on theology, or some
controversial abominations, and these people spend days wasting their
own and booksellers' time in seeking to sell at prices which their own
imagination alone has determined is right. Distrust the advertisements
of large paper editions. _Very_ few of them are worth purchasing, and
very few, indeed, increase in value. Fight against the first-edition
craze, which is the maddest craze that ever affected book collecting.
Again and again it must be repeated, and cannot be gainsaid, that _a
first edition may be the best, but in most cases it is the worst_. In
every case, inquire and find out which is the _best_ edition as to
completeness, good paper and print, and safe editing, if such has been
necessary, and then purchase a copy of that edition. One remark
finally. The prices of _all good books_ are going up, and any one who
lays out money with care within the next ten years will have the
enjoyment of his library and a good investment as well.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] D. Clement, _Bibliothèque curieuse_.
[6] Edwards, _Memoirs of Libraries_, ii. 647-649.
[7] Edwards, ii. 659.
_On the Care of Books._
The two things most neglected in houses are the trimming of lamps and
the care of the books. The condition of many libraries in large country
houses is most lamentable. In such neglect are they that it would take
months, and in some cases years, working day and night, to restore them
to a healthy condition. For, poor things! they are really so neglected,
that their covers become like the limbs of rheumatic people. If you
touch them they seem to shriek and cry with pain. They are either
parched for lack of a proper atmosphere, or else they are sticking
together with the damp or thickly covered with dust.[8] There is nothing
else in a house like this, and why are these things so? It is because
there are so few people who understand the care of books. I once read
the following in a daily paper, and thought I recognised in it a
familiar hand, that of Mr. Andrew Lang:--
'The foes of books are careless people--first of all. They tear pages
open with their thumbs, or cut them with sharp knives which damage the
margins. It is so difficult to keep paper knives, and ivory paper knives
are the favourite pasture of some scholars, who bite the edges till the
weapon resembles a dissipated saw. To avoid this temptation some employ
mediæval daggers, or skene dhus, but the edges spoil a book. Cigarette
ashes are very bad for books, so is butter, also marmalade. Dr. Johnson
and Wordsworth are said to have been very careless with their books. Dr.
Johnson used to clean his from dust by knocking them together, as Mr.
Leighton says housemaids do. Scott was very careful; he had a number of
wooden dummies made, and, when a volume was borrowed, he put the dummy
in its place on the shelf, inscribing it with the name of the borrower.
He also defended his shelves with locked brazen wires. "Tutus clausus
ero" ("I shall be safe if shut up"), his anagram, was his motto, under
a portcullis. Borrowers, of course, are nearly the worst enemies of
books, always careless, and very apt to lose one volume out of a set.
Housemaids are seldom bibliophiles. Their favourite plan is to dust the
books in the owner's absence, and then rearrange them on fancy
principles, mostly upside down. One volume of _Grote_ will be put among
French novels, another in the centre of a collection on sports, a third
in the midst of modern histories, while others are "upstairs and
downstairs, and in my lady's chamber." The diversity of sizes, from
folio to duodecimo, makes books very difficult to arrange where room is
scanty. Modern shelves in most private houses allow no room for folios,
which have to lie, like fallen warriors, on their sides.'
All that is very true, particularly about housemaids. Indeed, I have
rarely found any woman who cared sufficiently for her books to really
fondly tend them.
The principal enemy which books have is DAMP. This means ruination, more
perhaps to the paper than to the binding, though both suffer. A fungus
growth comes on the leather, and inside there come stains and 'fox'
marks. Damp is caused (1) through lack of fires or warmth; (2) through
too many sides of a room being exposed to the elements without having
the walls battened; (3) the thaw following a frost, proper means for
warmth not being adopted during the frost. The only remedy for damp is
the trying process of opening each volume and suspending it open, after
wiping with a dry cloth each page affected. The next worst enemies are
gas and heat.
Gas alone, provided the books are not placed high up, will not be nearly
so destructive as it is generally supposed; but all atmospheres heated
too highly are destructive. Mr. Poole, a very experienced American
librarian, has reported as follows, and, I think, very rightly:--
'The burning of many gas lights doubtless has a tendency to increase the
evil by increasing the heat. Yet the deterioration of bindings goes on
in the libraries where gas is never used. This fact shows that the chief
injury arises from heat, and not merely from the sulphurous residuum of
gas combustion.'
Mr. Poole made an experiment in the upper gallery of a library, and
found that--
'While the temperature of the floor was 65° Fahr., that of the upper
gallery was found to be 142°. Such a temperature dries up the oil of the
leather, and burns out its life. Books cannot live where men cannot
live.' Similarly, Mr. Blades wrote in his little manual:
'The surest way to preserve your books is to treat them as you would
your own children, who are sure to sicken if confined in an atmosphere
which is impure, too hot, too cold, too damp, or too dry. It is just the
same with the progeny of literature.'
In London particularly dust, smoke, and soot get at books and do great
damage. To have the top edges gilded is an excellent way to prevent dust
getting into the leaves. Books which have roughly trimmed tops harbour
dust much more readily, and it is with great difficulty removed from
such. If a book is very dusty, a small brush is perhaps the best means
to adopt to remove the offending particles. Books should not be either
swung together or beaten together. The carpet in a library should not
reach to the wall, or right to the cases, but should fall short so as to
be removed when required to be cleaned. A librarian at Bath gives the
following advice:--
'Our books are taken down once a year, in the month of August, to be
dusted, and, for the last four or five years, I have adopted a simple
plan. When the books are well dusted I take about half an ounce of the
best horn glue, and, having dissolved it in the usual way, I add to it
about a pint of warm water and a teaspoonful of glycerine, and stir it
well. Then dipping a soft sponge into the solution, I wash over the
backs of the books. If the leather is much perished or decayed, it will
unduly absorb the size, and a second touch over may be necessary. The
glycerine will have the effect of preventing the glue from drying too
hard or stiffening the leather. When dry, the books may be rubbed over
with a chamois leather. The above process, I find, helps to nourish the
leather, and to restore that property which the heated air has
destroyed. It also freshens up and greatly improves the appearance of
the volumes upon the shelves. The operation must be repeated once a
year at least.'
Bottles of preparation are sold ready made up for this purpose. Mr.
Blades warmly echoed the sentiment that housemaids and helps are seldom
bibliophiles, and, if, peradventure, one Eve in a family can be
indoctrinated with book reverence, there may be salvation for all the
books. Mr. Blades himself had a fine library, and goes fully into the
subject of the period of dusting and its methods.[9]
'Books _must_ now and then be taken down out of their shelves, but they
should be tended lovingly and with judgment. If the dusting can be done
just outside the room, so much the better. The books removed, the shelf
should be lifted quite out of its bearings, cleansed, and wiped, and
then each volume should be taken separately and gently rubbed on back
and edges with a soft cloth. In returning the volumes to their places,
notice should be taken of the binding, and especially when the books
are in whole calf or morocco, care should be taken not to let them rub
together. The best-bound books are soonest injured, and generally
deteriorate in bad company. Certain volumes, indeed, have evil tempers,
and will scratch the faces of all their neighbours who are too familiar
with them. Such are books with metal clasps and rivets on their edges;
and such, again, are those abominable old rascals, chiefly born in the
fifteenth century, who are proud of being dressed in real boards with
brass corners, and pass their lives with fearful knobs and metal
bosses. . . . . When your books are being dusted, don't impute too much
common sense to your assistants--take their ignorance for granted.'
Mr. Blades then points out certain dangers which beset the inexperienced
handler of books. Never lift a book by one of its corners. Do not pile
books up too high. Be careful not to rub the dust _into_ instead of
_off_ the edges. If mildew or damp is discovered, carefully wipe it
away, and let the book stand open for some days in a very dry spot--but
not in front of a fire. Be careful that no grit is on the duster, or it
will surely mark your books. Do not wedge books in too tightly.
Common-sense must dictate what is right, but every volume should _fit
easily_ in its place.
Children and servants are not to be classed as friendly to books, but
little lapses on their part are much more easily tolerated than the
ignorance of the person who ought to know better. Such people insist
upon having their books bound in hideous bindings, and mutilated almost
beyond recognition by the bookbinder's plough.
I will talk about bookbinding later, but this I will say, that in no way
can a book be easier ruined than by being placed unconditionally in the
hands of a bookbinder.
It is frequently supposed that the insect, known as the bookworm, is a
great enemy to books. 'Tis true where the bookworm exists it does
irreparable damage, but fortunately it is not an insect which may be
found every day. In America, they have, I believe, greater trouble from
these boring insects. They have 'fish bugs,' 'silver fish,' and 'bustle
tails,' scientifically known as _Lepisma Saccharina_. Another is known
as 'Buffalo Bug,' or 'Carpet Bug,' or the _Anthrenus varius_ of
scientists. A third is _Blatta Australasia_, a species of cockroach.
The following maxims may be learned by heart, or if preferred, they can
be bought by experience:
Do not bite your paper knife until it has the edge of a saw.
Do not cut books except with a proper ivory paper knife.
It is ruination to a good book not to cut it right through into the
corners.
Do not turn the leaves of books down. Particularly, do not turn down the
leaves of books printed on plate paper.
If you are in the habit of lending books, do not mark them. These two
habits together constitute an act of indiscretion.
It is better to give a book than to lend it.
Never write upon a title-page or half-title. The blank fly-leaf is the
right place.
Books are neither card-racks, crumb-baskets, or receptacles for dead
leaves.
Books were not meant as cushions, nor were they meant to be toasted
before a fire.
Valets and maids appear to take kindly to the packing of everything
except books. I will therefore say that only small quantities (twelve
volumes to twenty) should be packed in a parcel. Boxes, either
wine-cases, or boxes specially made, should be used. Books being very
solid and heavy should be packed in strong cases, and the method of
packing them should be to place them upright alternately on back and
edge in layers. By this means they can be fitted tightly to the case
they are meant to travel in. Leather bound volumes should be wrapped up
singly before being packed, and the box should be carefully lined with
paper so that any roughness on the wood of the box may not damage the
volumes.
Book and parcel post volumes should have three or four thicknesses of
paper, and if bound volumes a strawboard on either side as well as
paper.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Leighton (John), _Book-plate Annual_.
[9] _Enemies of Books._
_The Art of Reading._
First, how to read. The reason why so many people who read much know so
little, is because they read isolated books instead of reading one book
in connexion with another. The memory is trained by association, and if
you read two books in succession on one subject you know more than twice
as much as if you had read one book only. A good memory is a memory
which assimilates. Every one has a good memory for something. A good
memory rejects and sifts, and does not accept everything offered to it
like a pillar-box. Do not join reading societies, because they kill
individuality. Choose your subject, and work all round it. There is an
extensive literature on the subject of 'The Art of Reading,' 'The Best
Hundred Books,' &c. Most of it is useless and bewildering. The best
advice I have ever seen in print about reading was by Sir Herbert
Maxwell, and it appeared some years ago at the end of a _Nineteenth
Century_ article. It is as follows:
'If any young person of leisure were so much at a loss as to ask advice
as to what he should read, mine should be exceedingly simple--_Read
anything_ bearing on a definite object. Let him take up any imaginable
subject to which he feels attracted, be it the precession of the
equinoxes or postage stamps, the Athenian drama or London street cries;
let him follow it from book to book, and unconsciously his knowledge,
not of that subject only, but of many subjects, will be increased, for
the departments of the realm of knowledge are divided by no _octroi_.
He may abandon the first object of his pursuit for another; it does not
matter, one subject leads to another; he will have acquired the habit of
acquisition; he will have gained that conviction of the pricelessness of
time which makes it intolerable for a man to lie abed of a morning.'
The art of reading is a thing to learn, and with it comes the equally
valuable art of skipping.
Mr. Balfour's advice to readers is to learn the arts of skipping and
skimming, and the late Philip Gilbert Hamerton said:--'The art of
reading is to skip judiciously. The art is to skip all that does not
concern us, whilst missing nothing that we really need. No external
guidance can teach this; for nobody but ourselves can guess what the
needs of our intellect may be.'
No one knows how to skim and skip who has not first well threshed out
some subject for himself. No one can tear the heart out of a book who
has not first been through the student period. Advice is poured forth in
lengthy magazine articles, and lectures, but as far as I know there is
nothing which embodies such good sense on this subject, excepting Sir
Herbert Maxwell's advice above, as a tiny pamphlet, about two inches
square, written by Miss Lucy Soulsby, and sold for twopence. It is
rather absurdly called _Things in Books Clothing_!
Below are printed only such passages, gathered from many sources, as I
think are necessary to be known about the art of reading.
'It is true that the most absolute master of his own hours still needs
thrift if he would turn them to account, and that too many _never_ learn
this thrift, whilst others learn it late. . . . . Few intellectual men
have the art of economising the hours of study. The very necessity which
every one acknowledges of giving vast portions of life to attain
proficiency in anything, makes us prodigal where we ought to be
parsimonious, and careless where we have need of unceasing vigilance.
The best time-savers are a love of soundness in all we learn or do, and
a cheerful acceptance of inevitable limitations.'[10]
'In exchange for the varied pleasures of the fashionable life, the
intellectual life can offer you but one satisfaction, for all its
promises are reducible simply to this, that you shall come at last,
after infinite labour, into contact with some great _reality_; that you
shall know and do in such sort that you will feel yourself on firm
ground, and be recognised--probably not much applauded, but yet
recognised--as a fellow-labourer by other knowers and doers. Before you
come to this, most of your present accomplishments will be abandoned by
yourself as unsatisfactory and insufficient, but one or two of them will
be turned to better account, and will give you, after many years, a
tranquil self-respect, and, what is still rarer and better, a very deep
and earnest reverence for the greatness which is above you. Severed from
the vanities of the illusory, you will live with the realities of
knowledge as one who has quitted the painted scenery of the theatre to
listen by the eternal ocean or gaze at the granite hills.'[11]
'Reading, with me, incites to reflection instantly. I cannot separate
the origination of ideas from the reception of ideas. The consequence
is, as I read I always begin to think in various directions, and that
makes my reading slow.'[12]
'When a particular object has to be attained, reading cannot be too
special. There is an enormous waste of intelligence through a neglect of
this fact, but otherwise reading should "come by nature." When I look
through the list of The Best Hundred Books, I cannot help saying to
myself, "Here are the most admirable and varied materials for the
formation of a prig."'[13]
'Let us not be afraid of using a dictionary. _A_ dictionary? A dozen; at
all events, until Dr. Murray's huge undertaking is finished. And even
then, for no one dictionary will help us through some authors--say,
Chaucer, or Spenser, or Sir Thomas Browne. Let us use our full lexicon,
and Latin dictionary, and French dictionary, and Anglo-Saxon dictionary,
and etymological dictionary, and dictionaries of antiquity, and
biography, and geography, and concordances, anything and everything that
will throw light on the meanings and histories of words.'[14]
'To master a book, perhaps the best possible way is to write an essay
in refutation of it. You may be bound few things will escape you then.
The next best way may perhaps be to edit and annotate it for students,
though, if some recent hebdomadal animadversions upon certain Oxford
styles of annotation are well founded, this is questionable. The worst
way, I should think, would be to review it for a newspaper.'[15]
'Reading, and much reading, is good. But the power of diversifying the
matter infinitely in your own mind, and of applying it to every occasion
that arises is far better.'[16]
'A person once told me that he never took up a book except with the view
of making himself master of some subject which he was studying, and that
while he was so engaged he made all his reading converge to that point.
In this way he might read parts of many books, but not a single one from
"end to end." This I take to be an excellent method of study, but one
which implies the command of many books.'[17]
'Never read a book without pencil in hand. If you dislike disfiguring
the margins and fly-leaves of your own books, borrow a friend's; but by
all means use a pencil, if only to jot down the pages to be re-read. To
transcribe striking, beautiful, or important passages is a tremendous
aid to the memory; these will live for years, clear and vivid as day,
when the book itself has become spectral and shadowy in the night of
oblivion. A manuscript volume of such passages, well indexed, will
become in time one of the most valuable books in one's library.'[18]
'No man, it appears to me, can tell another what he ought to read. A
man's reading, to be of any value, must depend upon his power of
association, and that again depends upon his tendencies, his capacities,
his surroundings, and his opportunities.'[19]
* * * * *
I am fully convinced that the above passages condense all that is best
worth knowing upon the 'Art of Reading.'
Next in importance is what to read. Be very careful about reading books
which are recommended, because they are books of the hour. Fools step in
and say read this and that without thinking to put themselves in your
place. Because a book suits one person, it is only a rare chance that it
will suit a friend equally.
Before recommending a book to another with assurance, you must know the
book well, and the friend to whom it is recommended you must know much
better. Read the book which suggests something responsive and
sympathetic. No one can tell you this as well as you can find it for
yourself. Practice will teach you to choose a book, as practice has
taught you to choose a friend. You will almost be able to choose it in
the dark. There are affinities for books as for people, but this does
not come at once.
The proper appreciation of the great books of the world is the reward of
lifelong study. You must work up to them, and unconsciously you will
become trained to find great qualities in what the world has decided is
great. Novel reading is not a part of the intellectual life, it is a
part of the fashionable life.
Lamb says that Bridget Elia 'was tumbled early, by accident or design,
into a spacious library of good old English reading, without much
selection or prohibition, and browsed at will upon that fair and
wholesome pasturage.' And he adds, 'Had I twenty girls they should be
brought up exactly in this fashion.'
Ruskin says, 'there need be no choosing at all. Keep the modern magazine
and novel out of your girl's way; turn her loose into the old library
every wet day, and let her alone. She will find out what is good for
her.'
Mr. Ruskin notwithstanding, there will ever be a large public who will
read nothing unless it has a story in it.
Nearly all readers of books may be divided into two classes, those who
read as students towards some definite end, and those who read for
amusement. The latter class are greatly in the majority, and I have no
hesitation in saying that a love of fiction will always predominate over
a love of research, even in its light form. The student class, among
whom are many critics, usually fail to understand the position of the
fiction lovers, with the result that the fiction readers and fiction
itself get a great many jibes and taunts. To open this question would
involve a long argument, and would bring about no good. All experience
goes to prove that a very large section of the public, not being
students, loves to read the books of the hour, and great pleasure may be
got therefrom. The smaller section, trained to different habits, and
regarding books in a more serious light, put their collection of books
to different purposes, and, I know, get great pleasure therefrom. The
two classes can run parallel together, and one class should not try to
exterminate the other.[20] In country houses the books in billiard-rooms
and in the bedrooms should appropriately be fiction. Not many guests at
a house-party are in the frame of mind to take up serious books, nor are
there the opportunities given for application which such would require.
I think where the general house library is (as is very often the case)
not a living room, there is then much more reason for separating fiction
and light literature, and placing them in a very accessible position. It
will often be found advisable, as fiction accumulates, to weed out and
decide what volumes shall be bound and what rejected or placed in the
servants' library. Shelves should therefore be reserved for books which
are thus going through a period of probation.[21]
A fiction library may be made very interesting if it is so arranged as
to represent the history of France or of England, or any country. From
the boundless stores of fiction writers--in fact, from Scott alone
almost--a sequence of volumes may be arranged which, if read in proper
order, would make a very excellent romance history. Almost every
interesting episode of history has had its story woven into romance.
Thus there are, I believe, about eighteen historical romances relating
to the Monmouth rebellion alone.
'Much of love,' said Lord Bowen, 'has only been learned under the
instruction of some woman who has herself only learned it from a book.
Authoresses, indeed, have not unfrequently betrayed the key to some of
their sex's secrets. Were it not for _Northanger Abbey_ and Miss Austen,
some of the old mysteries of girlish friendship would have remained
untold, and we should never have known or understood the curiosity
which may lurk in a refined bosom at seventeen. Man would scarcely have
guessed but for _Jane Eyre_ the impression which can be made, it seems,
upon a heart by a middle-aged gentleman with the manners of a bear and
the composure of a prig. Furthermore, it is through women's novels that
we have had brought home to us most adequately what women who have
tasted it, or seen it, can best relate, the despicable egotism of a weak
man. Anzoleto in _Consuelo_, Tito in _Romola_.'[22]
It is important for every one to fix upon a time for everyday study, and
remember to read when you have a disposition so to do. Do not think that
spare moments not spent in reading are lost. Some spare time must be
kept for thinking. If you have 'nerves,' it is no good to read then;
read when the mind is quiet and receptive. This will probably be when
dressing in the morning, or at night before going to bed. Keep a small
bookcase in your dressing-room; in so doing you will learn the art of
going to bed well. Read at any time when curiosity is aroused as to any
person, place, or subject, and keep reference books at hand to answer
questions intelligently. Napoleon read all the new novels in a
travelling carriage, and pitched them out of the window as each was
finished. Active minds, to read advantageously, should seek a quiet
_sanctum_ of their own.
A very admirable suggestion was made a short time since, I think by Dr.
Ernest Hart, that it should be more a custom to have bookcases in
bedrooms. Many persons, and, I believe, notably Mr. Gladstone, read
before going to bed. I think all bedrooms should have a selection of
favourite books, and I do not think that novels are nearly so suitable
as books of short essays and sketches. Few people would sit up
sufficiently long to read a novel through, and many would therefore not
begin what they knew they would be unable to finish.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] P. G. Hamerton.
[11] P. G. Hamerton.
[12] H. W. Beecher.
[13] James Payn.
[14] _Blackwood's Magazine_, February, 1896.
[15] _Blackwood's Magazine_, February, 1896.
[16] Burke.
[17] Thirlwall.
[18] _Blackwood's Magazine_, February, 1896.
[19] J. S. Blackie.
[20] H. D. Traill.
[21] See Mr. Gladstone's ideas on the subject, in _Gladstone in the
Evening of his Days_, p. 145.
[22] Bowen's lecture on _Novel Reading_.
_Common-place Books._
Very numerous methods have been suggested whereby memory may be assisted
and the assimilation of our reading proceed without indigestion. A
reader is often pictured with note-book in hand, supposed to be
memorising what he is reading. There is no doubt that note-books are
very useful, but no note-book or commonplace-book should take the place
of the natural memory--and every one has a good memory for something.
Thomas Fuller has wittily said, 'Adventure not all thy learning in one
bottom, but divide it between thy memory and thy note-books. . . . . A
commonplace-book contains many notions in garrison, whence an owner may
draw out an army into the field on competent warning.'
Every one has his and her own way of keeping a commonplace-book. Mr.
Sala, I remember, once gave a minute account of his jottings in this
way:[23] 'Todd's _Index Rerum_ was, in its day, very little else than
an alphabeted book--a forerunner of what stationers now sell in various
sizes called _Where is it?_ The simplest form of commonplace-book is a
plain quarto MS. book ruled in an ordinary way, and in this entries may
be made without being alphabeted. Do not write extracts or notes right
across the line, but make your entries thus, having the keyword clear
and easy to be seen:--
'PICUS DE MIRANDOLA.--His extraordinary gifts. His
being sought after by women. Compare with H. T.
Buckle. See also Hallam's _Literary History_, Part
I. chap. iii.'
In the matter of note-books, I am sure that it is best for every one to
make notes in the way best suited to his convenience. Many, I think,
find that taking notes while reading a book is an undesirable
interruption. To such, it may be suggested to have slips of paper about
half an inch wide, and four or five inches long, and insert these at the
pages which contain anything notable. Then, when the book is finished,
go through and transcribe or memorise such passages as are thus marked.
I think it a great mistake to attempt too rigid a system in note-books,
or too much red tape of any kind, because whenever this is done, the
time and thought, which should be given to the matter of the extract
helping to fix it upon the memory, is given instead to the secondary
matter of keeping your note-books very neat.
FOOTNOTE:
[23] 'Periodically I am addressed by two constant and somewhat exigeant
classes of correspondents: the young gentlemen who wish me to give them
a list of the works requisite to form a journalist's library; and, next,
the esteemed individuals of both sexes and all ages who want me to tell
them how to keep a commonplace-book. I have replied to both these
questions over and over again; and to give yet another list of the books
which I think would be useful to professional writers for the press
would be to outrage the patience of my non-professional patrons. The
recipe for keeping a commonplace-book may, however, it is to be hoped,
be repeated without giving offence to any one. Here it is; and pray
observe that I have had it printed in small type, in order that the
susceptibilities of readers who want to be amused and do not require to
be instructed may not be wounded:--Procure a blank book, strongly bound,
big or little, according to the largeness or smallness of your
handwriting. Let the book have an index. It will be better if the paper
of the book were ruled. When in the course of your reading you come on a
passage which strikes you as worthy of being common-placed, copy it
legibly in your commonplace-book. Say that the passage is the following,
from Bacon's _Natural History_: "So the beard is younger than the hair
of the head, and doth, for the most part, wax hoary later." At the end
of this passage inscribe a circle or an ellipse, a square or a lozenge,
just as you choose to do; and in the inscribed space write with red ink
(better still with carmine) the figure 1. Then index the passage under
letter B. "Beard younger than hair of head. 1." If you wish to be very
careful in your common-placing, you may double index the passage by
turning to letter H, and indicating the passage as "Head, hair of, older
than beard." And so you may continue to transcribe consecutively all the
passages which strike you in the course of your reading: never omitting
to number the passage and to index it as soon as numbered. That is the
system adopted by the Distressed Compiler, and he has made constant use
of it for nearly forty years.'--G. A. SALA.
_Reference Books._
I have been very often asked for a book which will 'tell one
everything.' There is no such book, and there never could be such a
book. Omniscience may be a foible of men, but it is not so of books.
Knowledge, as Johnson said, is of two kinds, you may know a thing
yourself, and you may know where to find it.[24] Now the amount which
you may actually know yourself must, at its best, be limited, but what
you may know of the sources of information may, with proper training,
become almost boundless. And here come the value and use of reference
books--the working of one book in connexion with another--and applying
your own intelligence to both. By this means we get as near to that
omniscient volume which tells everything as ever we shall get, and
although the single volume or work which tells everything does not
exist, there is a vast number of reference books in existence, a
knowledge and proper use of which is essential to every intelligent
person. Necessary as I believe reference books to be, they can easily be
made to be contributory to idleness, and too mechanical a use should not
be made of them. Very admirable reference books come to us from America,
where great industry is shown, and funds for publishing them never seem
to be short. The French, too, are excellent at reference books, but the
inferior way in which they are printed makes them tiresome to refer to.
Larousse's _Grand Dictionnaire_ is a miracle.
A good atlas is essential as a reference book, and maps of the locality
where we live. A good map of old London is very useful in studying
_Pepys' Diary_ for instance. A good verbal dictionary is essential.
Sometimes several should be in use: thus, Halliwell's _Archaic
Dictionary_ and Nares' _Glossary_ are useful in studying Shakespeare.
Richardson's _Dictionary_ embodies all the good points of Johnson's
_Dictionary_, and is very excellent for quotations. Poetical
_Concordances_ and _Dictionaries of Quotations_, both prose and poetry,
are useful, though very rarely does one find the quotation required in
any professed book of quotations. A good _Biographical Dictionary_ is a
joy; such is Lippincott's, an American work. A good _Classical
Dictionary_ is also necessary, and may be supplemented by Smith's
_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_. It would be interesting to
see how far it would be possible to collect an ideal reference library,
and this, I think, has never been carefully done. It must be borne in
mind that reference books are not all books arranged alphabetically
(though the man who first wrote an alphabeted book should be Canonised).
Reference books consist of such works as Rawlinson's Historical Works,
Wilkinson's _History of the Ancient Egyptians_, and Fergusson's _History
of Architecture_. All such books are reference books, and many thousands
more. I think it will be found a good plan in the library to keep
reference books (viz., those which are likely to be in frequent use) in
a separate case--perhaps a revolving case--and in no library should this
section be neglected. Mr. Walter Wren, the well-known coach, once
lectured on 'What is Education?' and in his lecture he made the
following remarks:--
'I think the first thing that made me a teacher was my noticing, when a
boy, how men and women read books and papers, and knew no more about
them when they had read them than they did before. . . . . Lots of
people seem to know nothing, and to want to know nothing; at any rate,
they never show any wish to learn anything. I was once in a room where
not one person could say where Droitwich was; once, at a dinner of
fourteen, where only one besides myself knew in what county Salisbury
was. I have asked, I believe, over a hundred times where Stilton is, and
have been told twice--this when Stilton cheese was handed. I mention
this to show the peculiar conservative mental apathy of Englishmen.'
'A reader should be familiar with the best method by which the original
investigation of any topic may be carried on. When he has found it, he
appreciates, perhaps for the first time, for what purpose books are for,
and how to use them. . . . . No person has any claim to be a scholar
until he can conduct such an original investigation with ease and
pleasure.' The foregoing was the advice of a well-known American
librarian.
FOOTNOTE:
[24] Those who read everything acquire something, and especially they
acquire, as the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Wilberforce), once said, the
invaluable power of knowing where, when they wanted first-hand
information, they could most easily obtain it. That is the knowledge of
the lawyer; and the knowledge of the lawyer, if he is competent,
gradually becomes of the kind which qualifies him to be a
judge.--_Spectator_, January 2nd, 1897.
_Boudoir Libraries._
Women have their own way of loving books. They are very rarely students,
and more rarely still do they amass really great libraries, though many
of the famous women of history have done so. Yet a woman likes to have
her own books, and she likes, too, to have them separate from her
husband's or her brothers', or the general family collection. Most women
like tiny editions fitted into tiny cases.[25] Colour is much more to a
woman than to a man, and in the binding of her books she will very often
be very happily inspired. I think that it is in De Maistre's _Journey
Round my Room_ that he says, 'It is certain that colours exercise an
influence over us to the extent of rendering us gay or sad, according to
their shades.' Charming tiny bookcases are now sold in various woods and
in all sizes, and these have the advantage of being easily moved from
place to place. A very pretty effect can be produced by a book-screen,
but this, to be of service for taking books, must be placed in a room
larger than most boudoirs. In choosing bindings for small books do not
be surprised if, when bound, your books are not as flexible as they
should be. The easy opening of a book, and this particularly applies to
small books, depends very much upon the thickness of the paper used, and
small books printed on thick paper will never open well. Much blame is
often heaped upon binders in this direction which is by no means their
fault. Roan, parchment, vellum, morocco, and buckram are all suitable
for boudoir bindings. Very pretty effects are produced by binding a
series of small books in vellum with green lettering-pieces, and green
edges instead of gilded edges. White backs, with pink or blue
lettering-pieces, are also very dainty; and a pretty effect of another
kind is produced by dark brown polished calf, with round backs, raised
bands, and yellow edges.
Reference books, such as verbal dictionaries, dictionaries of
quotations, a classical dictionary, an atlas, or a biographical
dictionary, should always be to hand; and even when these are in the
large library, duplicates should be kept in the boudoir.
In a very charming book, already referred to, called _The Story of my
House_, there is certain practical advice which seems to be the result
of much experience and excellent taste on the part of the writer.
'With regard to the bookcases themselves, their height should depend
upon that of the ceilings, and the number of one's volumes. For
classification and reference it is more convenient to have numerous
small cases of similar or nearly similar size, and the same general
style of construction, than a few large cases in which everything is
engulphed. With small or medium-sized receptacles, each one may contain
volumes relating to certain departments or different languages, as the
case may be; by this means a volume and its kindred may be readily
found.'
'The style and colour of the bindings, also, may subserve a similar
purpose; as, for instance, the poets in yellow or orange, books on
nature in olive, the philosophers in blue, the French classics in red,
&c. Unless methodically arranged, even with a very small library, a
volume is often difficult to turn to when desired for immediate
consultation, requiring tedious search, especially if the volumes are
arranged upon the shelves with respect to size and outward symmetry.
This may be avoided by the use of small bookcases and a definite style
of binding.'
I think here that the boudoir library should have its own catalogue, and
every bookshelf marked or numbered. Every boudoir library should have a
catalogue.
'In a room ten and a half to eleven feet high, five feet is a desirable
height for the bookcases. Besides the drawers at the base, this will
afford space for four rows of books, to include octavos, duodecimos, and
smaller volumes. The shelves should, of course, be shifting. . . . . By
leaving the top of the bookcase twelve to thirteen inches wide, ample
space will be allowed for additional small books, porcelain, and
_bric-à-brac_. It must be borne in mind that tall bookcases, in addition
to the inaccessibility of the volumes in the upper shelves, have little,
if any, space for pictures on the walls above them.'
It may be appropriate here to remind readers of an essay in Addison's
_Spectator_ upon my Lady's Library.
'Some months ago, my Friend, Sir Roger, being in the Country, enclosed a
Letter to me, directed to a certain Lady, whom I shall here call by the
name of _Leonora_, and as it contained Matters of Consequence, desired
me to deliver it to her with my own Hand. Accordingly, I waited upon her
Ladyship early in the Morning, and was desired by her Woman to walk into
her Lady's Library till such time as she was in Readiness to receive me.
The very Sound of a _Lady's Library_ gave me a great Curiosity to see
it; and as it was some time before the Lady came to me, I had an
Opportunity of turning over a great many of her Books, which were ranged
together in very beautiful Order. At the end of the _Folios_ (which were
finely bound and gilt) were great Jars of _China_, placed one above
another in a very noble piece of Architecture. The _Quartos_ were
separated from the _Octavos_ by a Pile of smaller Vessels, which rose in
a delightful Pyramid. The _Octavos_ were bounded by Tea Dishes of all
Shapes, Colours, and Sizes, which were so disposed on a wooden Frame
that they looked like one continued Pillar indented with the finest
Strokes of Sculpture, and stained with the greatest Variety of Dyes.
That Part of the Library which was designed for the Reception of Plays
and Pamphlets and other loose Papers, was enclosed in a kind of Square,
consisting of one of the prettiest Grotesque Works that ever I saw, and
made up of Scaramouches, Lions, Monkies, Mandarines, Trees, Shells, and
a thousand other odd Figures in _China_ Ware. In the midst of the Room
was a little Japan Table, with a Quire of gilt Paper upon it, and on the
Paper a Silver Snuff-box, made in the Shape of a little Book. I found
there were several other Counterfeit Books upon the upper Shelves, which
were carved in Wood, and served only to fill up the Number, like Fagots
in the muster of a Regiment. I was wonderfully pleased with such a mixt
kind of Furniture, as seemed very suitable both to the Lady and the
Scholar, and did not know at first whether I should fancy myself in a
Grotto, or in a Library.'
FOOTNOTE:
[25] Napoleon was a great lover of small books. 'An insatiate reader
while on his travels, Napoleon complained, when at Warsaw, in 1807, and
when at Bayonne, in 1808, that his librarian at Paris did not keep him
well supplied with books. "The Emperor," wrote the secretary to Barbier,
"wants a portable library of a thousand volumes in 12mo., printed in
good type without margin, and composed as nearly as possible of forty
volumes on religion, forty of epics, forty of plays, sixty of poetry, a
hundred of novels, sixty of history, the remainder, to make up the
thousand, of historical memoirs. The religious works are to be the Old
and New Testament, the Koran, a selection of the works of the Fathers of
the Church, works respecting the Aryans, Calvinists, of Mythology, &c.
The epics are to be Homer, Lucan, Tasso, Telemachus, The Henriade, &c."
Machiavelli, Fielding, Richardson, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Corneille,
Racine, and Rousseau were also among the authors mentioned.'
_Bookbinding._
As far as I am aware there are only four bookbinders in London who may
be trusted not to mutilate a book, and there are only two who have any
sense of design and harmony of colour. In sending a book to be bound,
if you value the book, you cannot be too careful or minute in giving
instructions as to your wishes.
I think the best way to assist by advice is to picture a number of
everyday instances of people requiring books to be bound, and to take
such familiar cases instancing well-known books and show how each case
can best be dealt with.
First of all, the right leather to use for binding is morocco. This is
best; more durable, and a better choice of colour is given you.
Half-morocco is good, but see that you get a good wide strip of morocco,
and that it is not all cloth sides with a very narrow spine of leather.
Valuable books should never be cut down. In many cases the top edges may
be gilded which is a preservative from dust, but there are many other
cases where instructions should be given to 'gild on the rough,' the
three other sides should be left alone.
I will first take the case of the 'Cambridge' _Shakespeare_, the
hand-made paper edition, already spoken of, where each play has been
issued in a separate volume, and in all forty thin volumes. Now the
first question to settle is: Shall I have each of the forty volumes
bound separately, or shall I bind the forty in twenty double volumes? or
another question may arise in your mind, Shall I keep the book in its
neat linen cover as published, and get another small paper copy, and
bind that instead? Such questions must be settled--each one for himself.
All I will say now is that the large paper forty volume edition when
bound in twenty double volumes makes a very ideal copy of a great
English classic; so, presuming that it is to be bound, you must choose
the style of binding. It should rest between half-morocco and whole
morocco, the latter costing about double the former. I think
half-morocco is right for the book in most cases, whole morocco being
unnecessarily expensive. Then comes colour, which must largely be
referred to your own taste--olive-green, brown, dark red, and light
apple green, would all be appropriate colours to choose from. The binder
should have a book of colours and shades ready for you to select one
from. Be sure and see that you have a coarse-grained levant morocco,
which is much handsomer than the less good hard fine-grained morocco;
of course it should be a polished or crushed levant binding, though when
you see the pattern piece of leather it will be rough and unpolished. At
any rate select a colour which, when polished, will work '_clean_.' Do
not select anything _very light_ in morocco, it will probably not work
'clean,' but come out spotted even when new.
You will now select 'end papers.' These, I am sorry to say, are mostly
very ugly, though there have recently been made some beautiful cloudy
coloured papers, which now and then, and apparently by accident, are
very beautiful, and they are also rather expensive. Some of the Japanese
papers have pretty and very unobtrusive marblings worked upon them, and
occasionally, too, a brocade paper looks well; but for a classic, the
plainer the better, and very often a monotint end paper, or even a plain
white, looks exceedingly well. In the matter of end and side papers, it
is as well to know that these can very easily be altered even after the
book is finished. The revival of flat backs has been the cause of some
disputing. I think myself that the pleasure with which the trained eye
regards the flat back is sufficient excuse for it. As far as technique
goes, the flat back is, I believe, just as lasting and as flexible as
the round. Much must however be determined by the size and shape of the
book as to whether a flat back is adopted or not. The _Shakespeare_
which is now under consideration, when _bound in double volumes_, would,
I think, look well with a flat back, and with flat raised bands between
the panels; whereas, when bound in forty single volumes, it would be
better to have a round back.
As to decoration and finish, the most lamentable errors of taste are
often committed. Over-adornment is a curse. A person sees an attractive
pattern lying in a shop, and wants all his or her books bound like it,
without for a moment considering the anachronisms and impossible
combinations that will thereby be perpetrated. It is the same with
clothes. A man sees another man with a fine coat, and he straightway
thinks he, too, will have a coat of that same make and pattern. Never
does it occur to him to gauge the stature or character of the man who
was first wearing the coat. There is yet a good deal of the monkey and
the ape left in us. We seem to do our best to stifle our individuality,
and reduce our souls to one sad dead level of accursed and wicked
imitation. Some day we shall have our eyes opened, and then see that a
man may break the whole of the Ten Commandments at once, and yet he
shall be saved if he be not vulgar, and it is both senseless and vulgar
to copy old bindings on to modern books. The only decoration which the
copy of Shakespeare could require is a gilt line, or double gilt lines,
round the panels of the back. The full gilt back is fortunately becoming
extinct. It may well die.
Decoration of books should only be carried out when we are sure we have
an appropriate design, and when we are sure that the book is worth it.
There are now some other details to be looked after. I refuse to class
them as minor details, because towards the making of the perfect book
everything right is _essential_.
(1) The _Shakespeare_, being a book printed on paper of good quality,
should have the top edge gilt, but the other sides should be left
untouched or very slightly trimmed. (2) There should be one or two
markers in each volume, and the colour of these markers should
harmonise with the colour of the binding. (3) The lettering should be
chosen yourself. There should be a principal title _stamped boldly and
deeply_, and subordinate lettering stamped lower down and in smaller
type. Thus SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS or SHAKESPEARE merely in the top panel,
with the editor's name underneath, and then below should be lettered the
plays contained in each volume, and below that, at the foot, the date of
publication. (4) Three weeks to a month at least should be allowed for
the binding of such a work. (5) A folded copy in quires of a book is
always preferable to a cloth-bound copy. (6) If a binder should ever
suggest either a padded binding, a russia leather binding, or a tree
calf binding, you may instantly leave his premises, for he cannot
understand his business.
It will be understood that the rules which apply to the binding of this
Shakespeare equally apply to most other books. I propose, however, to
take such instances as I think present difficulties not already met, and
see how they can be overcome.
A second instance shall be the new edition of _Pepys' Diary_. The fact
that this, and many other books, are published volume by volume makes it
somewhat difficult to know whether to bind them at once or not to do so.
In the case of the new edition of _Pepys' Diary_, as neither the binding
of the large or small paper is unsightly, it should be left until
complete, one good reason for this being that, if it be bound volume by
volume as published, the binder will require a pattern volume each time,
and your pattern volume will be lying about his workshop each time a
volume is published. To register a pattern is by no means advisable in
the case of a really well-bound series of books. It may do well enough
for scientific and other journals, when great nicety of detail is not so
much required. In the case of well-bound volumes, a pattern should
accompany the order. A book like _Murray's Dictionary_, volumes of which
are slow in completing themselves, the parts of the volumes, current and
incomplete, should either be tied up in paper, and kept together, or
they should be placed between two pieces of millboard on the shelf where
they will finally be placed.
A third instance shall be an old book which requires repairing or
restoring. We will suppose that it is an old copy of _Clarissa Harlowe_,
which you have picked up on a country book-stall. Now the binding is
probably very much broken, and, being very dry, is getting rapidly
worse. It is time, therefore, that it went into hospital, and at the
bookbinder's hospital very clever operations are performed. To restore a
binding, paste is rubbed over the leather, and, after it is dry, it is
washed over with a thin solution of glue size. Again, when dry, the
volume is varnished and afterwards rubbed over with a cloth upon which a
few drops of sweet oil have been dropped. Here is one operation just in
outline. There are very many others, which I can only refer to. If there
are ink marks on any of the volumes of your _Clarissa_, which you wish
removed, this can probably be done so that no trace is left. Similarly
many grease-spots can be effectually removed. If a page is torn, it can
be repaired, or if a piece of it is missing, it can be facsimiled, and
the whole of the inside of the volume can be washed throughout. Never
destroy an old binding if you can help it, and never obliterate marks of
ownership, for it is interesting to trace the owners of a book. If a
bookplate is in your _Clarissa_, and you wish your own to appear,
transplant the former one to the end cover, and put your own in the
front if you wish. Never have such a book as we are now discussing cut
down. A book has recently been written and published by Mr. C. G. Leland
on _Mending and Repairing_, in which the author recommends the amateur
to repair his own books. I believe Mr. Leland is an expert hand at many
arts and crafts, but I do not think that every amateur should attempt
experiments in repairing his own books unless he means to give a great
deal of time to it, which very few would, I think, care to do.
The following remarks, taken from a review, I think by Mr. A. Lang, are
valuable:--'The binder is often very mischievous. He not only "cuts
down" books, impairing their shapeliness and ruining them for sale, nay,
even cutting off lines, but he is apt to lose fly-leaves, with imprints,
and rare autographs. What he rejects may have a merely fanciful or
sentimental interest, still that interest can be expressed in terms of
currency. An eighth of an inch in margin may represent a large sum of
money, and it is just as easy not to cut down the volume. Old bookplates
ought to be kept, on new bindings of old books. They are the pedigree of
a volume. The ancient covers, if discarded, should be examined. They are
often packed with fragments of old manuscripts, deeds, woodcuts, or
engravings. The ages have handed books on to us; it is our duty to hand
them on to coming generations, clean, sound, uninjured.'
The fourth case shall be paper-bound novels, English and French
editions, and Tauchnitz copies. I have no hesitation in saying that the
best material is Buckram. It has the merit of being good--that is to
say, durable, cheap, artistic, and not harsh to handle, as many linens
are. There are some half-a-dozen good colours in Buckram, and these,
when relieved by lettering-pieces of some contrasting colour, can be
made most decorative and economical. I believe buckram is in every way a
most excellent material for binding, and for students who buy and use
German and French text-books published in paper, this material is
excellent for their libraries as well.
Here may be added a few words as to Pamphlets and Magazines. It has
been recommended that Pamphlets be kept in boxes, which may be placed
upon the shelves as books, but this will not be found either convenient
or secure. The best way is to bind Pamphlets in volumes according to
size, or if _very_ numerous, according to date or subject, and let them
each be entered separately in the catalogue. In the cataloguing of
private libraries it is sometimes thought that certain sections, such as
pamphlets and magazines, are not worth entering, but the only safe rule
is that, if it is worth keeping, it is worth cataloguing. Single
pamphlets should be bound in limp roan, and volumes of pamphlets in
buckram or half-calf, with full lettering on the back.
Magazines, when they are kept complete, should, of course, be bound up
in their volumes, either yearly or half-yearly; but it often happens
that a magazine is bought for a single article, and many of these
accumulating, it is quite easy for such articles as are of special
interest to be taken from the remainder, and treated as pamphlets. In
the case of magazines and scientific periodicals of importance, it is
well to keep the covers and bind them at the end of each volume. Music
should be bound in limp roan in preference to limp calf, because the
latter would sooner show scratches and marks, particularly as a large
surface is exposed.
If you want your pamphlets and novels to look nice, beware of your
binder using what he calls his odd pieces, generally monsters of
ugliness.
Family papers, autograph letters, and MS. matter of all kinds should be
placed in the hands of an expert, with instructions to calendar them,
viz., catalogue them, giving a _précis_ of the contents of each one.
They should then be mounted and bound up in volumes, with abstract of
contents in front of the volume. It will be well to consider the
advisability of having typed copies made of the whole wherever
unpublished records exist.
Much, very much, more might be written about practical details in
bookbinding, but nothing is so valuable as experience, and a few
mistakes will be the best teacher. Remember that morocco is the best
material, whether it be half or whole morocco, pigskin is second, calf
is third, vellum is fourth, roan is fifth, buckram is sixth, though it
may frequently take the place of calf.
_Book Hobbies._
It has been remarked that only an auctioneer admires all schools of
literature. I think it is certain that the way to get most enjoyment
from books is to specialise a little. Mr. Pepys, it will be remembered,
collected Black Letter Ballads, Penny Merriments, Penny Witticisms,
Penny Compliments, and Penny Godlinesses, and what Pepys paid a penny
for are now worth much gold. Lord Crawford is, I believe, one of the
most enthusiastic among present day collectors, and I am told that he
spends many hours in arranging and cataloguing his extensive and curious
collection. As far as I can gather from the printed catalogues which
have been issued of Lord Crawford's library, he is rivalling Pepys in
his collection of ballads. Other subjects which he has taken up are
proclamations and Papal bulls. I cannot omit saying that if Lord
Crawford's example were followed by a few more rich men, they would find
therein very amusing hobbies. The catalogues of the Ballads and the
Proclamations in the Library at Haigh Hall have been compiled by Lord
Crawford's own hand, and there are no better catalogues of a private
collection in existence. The late Lord Braybrooke collected County
histories, and got together a most valuable and interesting collection.
But, judging from his own account of his collection,[26] it was too
general to be very interesting. There is hardly a more useful or
profitable book hobby than the collecting of Topographical books, but
each one should confine himself to one County, or at most two, and even
with discrimination in buying, a single County collection soon becomes
extensive. What should be aimed at in such a collection is the putting
together whatever will illustrate the archæology, general history, folk
lore, dialect, and natural history, of a district or County, and
wherever there is a Church and a Manor, there is a history. Each parish
history is the unit of the history of the nation, and any one
investigating the parochial history of a single parish will find much
national history written in between the lines. With regard to
topographical and genealogical books, I may say that the prices of these
are rapidly rising, and will continue to rise, owing largely to the
increasing competition in America for these books.
Sir Walter Gilbey has, it is well known, a fine collection of sporting
books. There is no sport but what has its literature, and if there is
one subject more than another, upon which the English mind is
unchanging, it is sport, and this being so, sporting books will always
offer a fine field for collectors. As the coaching age recedes farther
back, so it will be found that an increasing number of men will want to
read about what they no longer can hear _viva voce_. All out-door
subjects are good hobbies. Flower culture and the laying out of grounds,
birds and natural history generally are good subjects, but it must be
understood that no one can find another a subject, one can only
_suggest_, and that is all I propose to do here. Books offer a very
endless variety of hobbies. So I have merely named one or two highways,
and there is an endless maze of bypaths which offer delightful hunting
grounds. Dr. Johnson, it may be remembered, expressed a very sound
commonsense view of this matter to Boswell:
'When I mentioned that I had seen in the King's Library fifty-three
editions of my favourite _Thomas à Kempis_ . . . . in eight languages
. . . . Johnson said he thought it unnecessary to collect many editions of
a book which were all the same except as to paper and print. He would
have the original, and all the translations, and all editions having
variations in the text. He approved of the famous collection of the
editions of Horace by Douglas, and, he added, "Every man should try to
collect one book in that manner. . . . ."'
FOOTNOTE:
[26] _Murray's Magazine_, September, 1889.
_Old Country Libraries._
The library of Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford, which represented about the
maximum that an ordinary student would possess, consisted of
'A twenty bokes, clothed in black and red,
Of Aristotle and his philosophie,'
and these he kept 'at his beddes hed.'
Dr. Jessopp, in one of his learned papers,[27] has pointed out that in
the thirteenth century the number of books in the world was, to say the
least, small. A library of five hundred volumes would, in those days,
have been considered an important collection, and after making all due
allowances for ridiculous exaggerations, which have been made by
ill-informed writers on the subject, it may safely be said that nobody
in the thirteenth century--at any rate in England--would have erected a
large and lofty building as a receptacle for books, simply because
nobody could have contemplated the possibility of filling it. Here and
there amongst the larger and more important monasteries there were
undoubtedly collections of books, the custody of which was entrusted to
an accredited officer, but the time had not yet come for making
libraries well stored with such priceless treasures as Leland, the
antiquary, saw at Glastonbury, just before that magnificent foundation
was given as a prey to the spoilers. A library, in any such sense as we
now understand the term, was not only no essential part of a monastery
in those days, but it may almost be said to have been a rarity.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries we rarely meet with any
indications of a literary taste among the laity; the books they
purchased were more for ornament than use. But in the fifteenth century
we find books mentioned in a manner which would seem to indicate that
the laity were enabled to use them with pleasure. In 1395, Alice, Lady
West, left to Joan, her son's wife, 'all her books of Latin, English,
and French;' and from the memoranda of Sir John Howard, we learn that
that worthy knight could read at his leisure 'an Englyshe boke, callyd
_Dives et Pauper_,' for which, and 'a Frenshe boke,' in 1464, he paid
thirteen shillings and fourpence. The library of this member of the
Howard family was sufficiently extensive to enable him to select
therefrom, on the occasion of his going to Scotland, thirteen volumes
for his solace and amusement on the voyage.[28] In the Paston _Letters_
will be found a catalogue of the library of one of the members of this
fifteenth century family. In the monasteries books were, of course, used
and treasured long before they became part of the household goods of
rich laymen. The catalogue of the House of the White Canons, at
Titchfield, in Hampshire, dated 1400, shows that the books were kept in
a small room on shelves, and set against the walls. A closet of this
kind was evidently not a working place, but simply a place of storage.
By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the larger monasteries had
accumulated many hundred volumes, and it began to be customary to
provide for the collections separate quarters, rooms constructed for the
purpose. The presses in the cloisters were still utilised for books in
daily reference.[29] Duke Humphrey was a great book collector and patron
of letters, and presented to the University of Oxford many of the
illuminated treasures which he had collected. The magnificent collection
of Charles V. of France, also a great bibliomaniac, was brought by the
Duke of Bedford into England. This library contained 853 volumes of
great splendour, and the introduction of these books into England
stimulated a spirit of inquiry among the more wealthy laymen. Guy
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, collected a very fine library of early
romances, which about 1359, he left to the monks of Bordesley Abbey, in
Worcestershire. A list of this library will be found in Todd's
_Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_.
Mr. J. W. Clark has, with quite wonderful learning, drawn a picture of
student-life of the past with such graphic vigour that we can almost
reinstate Colet, Casaubon, and Erasmus, and picture them exactly as they
worked among their books. In Macaulay's chapter upon _The State of
England in 1685_, are given numerous facts about the difficulty the
clergy had in getting books, and the little desire there was among the
squires to possess libraries. Few knights of the shire had libraries so
good as may now perpetually be found in a servants' hall, or in the back
parlour of a small shopkeeper. An esquire passed among his neighbours
for a great scholar if _Hudibras_ and _Baker's Chronicle_, _Tarleton's
Jests_, and the _Seven Champions of Christendom_, lay in his hall window
among the fishing rods and fowling pieces. No circulating library, no
book society, then existed, even in the capital; but in the capital
those students who could not afford to purchase largely had a resource.
The shops of the great booksellers, near St. Paul's Churchyard, were
crowded every day and all day long with readers. In the country there
was no such accommodation, and every man was under the necessity of
buying whatever he wished to read. Macaulay further points out that
Cotton seems, from his _Angler_, to have found room for his whole
library in his hall window; and Cotton was a man of letters. In the
_Life of Dr. John North_ there is an account of that delightful person's
dealings with Mr. Robert Scott, of Little Britain, a very famous
bookseller in the seventeenth century.
Dr. John North is really a fascinating personality.[30] His soul was
'never so staked down as in an old bookseller's shop, for, having taken
orders, he was restless till he had compassed some of that sort of
furniture as he thought necessary for his profession.
'I have borne him company,' says his biographer, 'at shops for hours
together, and, minding him of the time, he hath made a dozen proffers
before he would quit. By this care and industry he made himself master
of a very considerable library, wherein the choicest collection was
Greek.'
Pepys wished that his name should go down to posterity as a man fond of
books. The arrangements for the settlement of his library after death
prove this. The numerous references throughout the _Diary_ show that he
had a passion for collecting, and showed good judgment in what he got
together. Pepys, like Dr. John North, dealt of Robert Scott, who, when
sending his distinguished customer four scarce books, the total cost of
which was only 1_l._ 14_s._, writes, 'Without flattery I love to find a
rare book for you.'[31]
R. SCOTT, the bookseller, to Mr. PEPYS.
'_June 30th, 1688._
'SIR,--Having at length procured Campion, Hanmer, & Spencer's Hist. of
Ireland, fol. (which I think, you formerly desired) I here send itt
you, with 2 very scarce bookes besides, viz. Pricaei Defensio Hist.
Britt. 4to, and old Harding's Chronicle, as alsoe the Old Ship of
Fooles, in old verse, by Alex. Berkley, priest; which last, though nott
scarce, yett soe very fayre and perfect, that seldome comes such
another; the Priceus you will find deare, yett I never sold it under
10_s._, and att this tyme you can have it of a person of quality; butt I
love to find a rare book for you, and hope shortly to procure for you a
perfect Hall's Chronicle.
'I am, Sir,
'Your Servant to command,
'ROBERT SCOTT.'
Campion, Hanmer, & Spencer fol. 0:12:0
Hardings Chronicle, 4to. 0: 6:0
Pricaei Defens. Hist. Britt. 0: 8:0
Shipp of Fooles, fol. 0: 8:0
------
1:14:0
======
The contents of Pepys' famous collections of Manuscripts, Books and rare
single-sheet literature are known more or less to students, and are
found by them to be of the utmost value. It is amusing to notice how
careful Pepys was not to admit into his library any 'risky' books.
Little did he think that the key to the diary would be one day
discovered. When he bought in the Strand 'an idle, rogueish, French
book, _L'Escholle des Filles_,' he resolved, as already stated, as soon
as he had read it, to burn it, 'that it might not stand in the list of
books, nor among them, to disgrace them, if it should be found.' He was
equally solicitous about Rochester's _Poems_.
Pepys' books were numbered consecutively throughout the library, and
therefore, when rearranged, they needed to be all renumbered. This was
done by Pepys himself, his wife, and Deb Willett, who were busy until
near midnight 'titleing' the books.
With so many references to Pepys and his book-collecting as we find in
the _Diary_, it is puzzling to read, under date, October 5, 1665, after
references to 'Sister Poll,' 'I abroad to the office, and thence to the
Duke of Albemarle, all my way reading a book of Mr. Evelyn's translating
and sending me as a present, about directions for gathering a library,
_but the book is above my reach_.' Pepys, one would think, had by this
time gone far enough in himself gathering a library to understand the
little pamphlet by Naudeus, librarian to Cardinal Mazarin, which Evelyn
translated, and which was issued in 1661, and which is now very rare.
There is a charming letter from Evelyn to Pepys, dated 12th August,
1689, giving very many interesting details of the private libraries of
the seventeenth century, and which goes a very long way to modify
Macaulay's rather overdrawn picture of the scarcity of books and private
libraries in 1685. This letter of Evelyn's might be compared with
Addison's picture of 'Tom Folio' in the _Tatler_.[36] Tom Folio stood
for a great book collector, Thomas Rawlinson.
The eighteenth century produced a host of great book collectors. William
Oldys, Humphrey Wanley, and Thomas Rawlinson just mentioned. These men
were great experts, who infected with enthusiasm many great patrons of
letters, such as Charles, Earl of Sunderland, the Earl of Pembroke, Lord
Somers, Lord Oxford, Topham Beauclerk, Colonel Stanley, and George Earl
Spencer, whose famous Library now at Manchester has been called the
finest private library in Europe. In his _Life of Sir Walter Scott_,
Lockhart has inserted a visitor's impression of the library at
Abbotsford. 'The visitor might ransack a library, unique, I suppose, in
some of its collections, and in all departments interesting and
characteristic of the founder. So many of the volumes were enriched with
anecdotes or comments in his own hand, that to look over his books was,
in some degree, conversing with him.' The catalogue of the Abbotsford
library was printed by the Maitland Club in 1838, and is one of the best
catalogues of a private collection ever printed.
FOOTNOTE:
[27] _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1884.
[28] Parker, _Domestic Architecture_.
[29] Putnam, _Books and their Makers_, vol. i.
[30] See _ante_, p. 8.
[31] Many interesting references to Pepys' Collections are found in Mr.
H. B. Wheatley's _Pepys, and the World he Lived in_. The following
extracts are taken from the same writer's new and final edition of the
_Diary_:--
_May 15, 1660._--'After that to a bookseller's and
bought for the love of the binding three books:
the French _Psalms_ in four parts, Bacon's
_Organon_, and Farnab. _Rhetor_.'[32]
_Dec. 26, 1662._--'Hither come Mr. Battersby; and
we falling into a discourse of a new book of
drollery in verse called _Hudebras_,[33] I would
needs go find it out, and met with it at the
Temple: cost me 2_s._ 6_d._'
_July 8, 1664._--'So to Paul's Churchyarde about
my books, and to the binder's, and directed the
doing of my _Chaucer_,[34] though they were not
full neate enough for me, but pretty well it is;
and thence to the clasp-maker's to have it clasped
and bossed.'
_Jan. 18, 1664-65._--'Up and by and by to my
bookseller's, and there did give thorough
direction for the new binding of a great many of
my old books, to make my whole study of the same
binding, within very few.'
_Aug. 24, 1666._--'Up, and despatched several
businesses at home in the morning, and then comes
Sympson to set up my other new presses[35] for my
books, and so he and I fell into the furnishing of
my new closett, and taking out the things out of
my old, and I kept him with me all day, and he
dined with me, and so all the afternoon till it
was quite dark hanging things, that is my maps and
pictures and draughts, and setting up my books,
and as much as we could do, to my most
extraordinary satisfaction.'
_Dec. 17, 1666._--'Spent the evening in fitting my
books, to have the number set upon each, in order
to my having an alphabet of my whole, which will
be of great ease to me. This day Captain Batters
come from sea in his fireship and come to see me,
poor man, as his patron, and a poor painful wretch
he is as can be. After supper to bed.'
_Dec. 19, 1666._--'Home full of trouble on these
considerations, and, among other things, I to my
chamber, and there to ticket a good part of my
books, in order to the numbering of them for my
easy finding them to read as I have occasion.'
_Jan. 8, 1666-67._--'So home and to supper, and
then saw the catalogue of my books, which my
brother had wrote out, now perfectly
alphabeticall, and so to bed.'
_Feb. 4, 1666-67._--'Mightily pleased with the
play, we home by coach, and there a little to the
office, and then to my chamber, and there finished
my catalogue of my books with my own hand, and so
to supper and to bed, and had a good night's rest,
the last night's being troublesome, but now my
heart light and full of resolution of standing
close to my business.'
_Feb. 8, 1667-68._--'Thence away to the Strand, to
my bookseller's, and there staid an hour, and
bought the idle, rogueish book, _L'escholle des
filles_, which I have bought in plain binding,
avoiding the buying of it better bound, because I
resolve, as soon as I have read it, to burn it,
that it may not stand in the list of books, nor
among them, to disgrace them if it should be
found. Thence home, and busy late at the office,
and then home to supper and to bed.'
[32] _Index Rhetoricus_, of Thomas Farnaby, was a book which went
through several editions. The first was published at London, by R.
Allot, in 1633.
[33] The first edition of Butler's _Hudibras_ is dated 1663, and it
probably had only been published a few days when Pepys bought it and
sold it at a loss. He subsequently endeavoured to appreciate the work,
but was not successful. The edition in the Pepysian Library is dated
1689.
[34] This was Speght's edition of 1602, which is still in the Pepysian
Library. The book is bound in calf, with brass clasps and bosses. It is
not lettered.
[35] These presses still exist, and, according to Pepys' wish, they are
placed in the second court of Magdalene College, in a room which they
exactly fit, and the books are arranged in the presses just as they were
when presented to the college.
[36] _Tatler_, No. 158.
_Weeding Out._
It is necessary that a large country-house library should occasionally
be weeded out and overhauled. The libraries which were formed in past
generations cannot be expected to suit present-day requirements. In a
great many country-house libraries there is little else than a great
mass of turgid theology, but very often buried among these are really
valuable books. Upon the death of the head of a family, the library
should be carefully gone over in order that the new owner may get an
idea of the books--a collection which he may be excused from knowing
much of as he did not collect it. The books should then be re-arranged
to suit the views of those who are most likely to use them, and certain
rejected volumes should be disposed of and others put in their places.
How much this is necessary might be illustrated by many anecdotes.
_The Catalogue._
I have said, under the heading 'Classification,' that it is not
advisable or necessary to attempt any rigid classification upon the
shelves. One good reason for this is that by so doing you are trying to
do what can so much better be done by a catalogue. No one who uses books
very much but sooner or later becomes grateful for the existence of an
alphabet and an arrangement by A B C. Carlyle once said, 'A library is
not worth anything without a catalogue; it is a Polyphemus without any
eye in his head, and you must confront the difficulties, whatever they
may be, of making proper catalogues.'
'The classification of Pepys' library was to be found in the catalogues,
and as Pepys increased in substance he employed experts to do this work
for him.'[37]
No catalogue is of any use unless you can tell from it (1) All that the
library possesses of the known books of a known author at one view, as
well as (2) All that it possesses, by whomsoever written, on a known and
definite subject.
The old catalogues were mostly very bad. Old methods have now given way
to newer and better bibliographical systems, and, to take the case of a
large country house, where books are scattered about in many rooms, a
catalogue is most essential. The catalogue should, in most cases, be in
MS., and not typewritten. Such an arrangement admits of additions being
made more easily. The printed catalogue is adopted where the library is
of special value, or if it has any particular class of books
predominating to make it of use as a bibliography of a special subject.
Lord Crawford's sectional catalogues of his library, already referred
to, are the most valuable lists I know of for student purposes, but I
believe very few people have ever seen them.
The catalogue of Lord Crawford's Proclamations, at Haigh Hall, is a
marvel of industry and accuracy. Mr. Locker Lampson's Rowfant Library
was catalogued, and the catalogue printed and sold, because it had
special value as a collection of Elizabethan poetry. Mr. Edmund Gosse's
Library catalogue was printed because it contained special collections
of seventeenth-century literature. Whether the library be a student's
library or a general library, a catalogue is essential. Gibbon had a
catalogue of his books. I have seen so many amateur attempts at
cataloguing private libraries that I am bound to say I do not think the
plan of cataloguing one's own books in any way answers. Any catalogue
may be better than no catalogue, but, if a catalogue is to be done, it
is better by far to call in the assistance of some one whose work it is.
It frequently happens that a family inherits a large library, and the
inheritors, not having formed the collection, naturally can know but
little, if anything, of its contents. Now, in such a case, and in many
other cases, the best plan is to have your books overhauled, sifted,
certain volumes weeded out, if necessary, others rebound, and the whole
remainder carefully catalogued and described, the cases being numbered
and the shelves lettered.
Very often the owner of a library sets out to catalogue his or her own
books, and makes the initial mistake of entering them one by one in a
MS. volume already bound up. Such a plan must end in failure and
disorder, because it is impossible by this means to get the titles
strictly alphabetical. Others I have seen commence writing the titles
from the backs of the books. Other difficulties which are encountered
are with anonymous books, and with such authors as used pseudonyms, and,
in some cases, many pseudonyms. Such was Henri Beyle, whose books bear
various disguises, such as De Stendhal, Cotonet, Salviati, Viscontini,
Birkbeck, Strombeck, César Alexandre Bombet. The British Museum Library
has ninety-one rules of cataloguing, forming, perhaps, the best
cataloguing code in the world; but for private libraries such
elaboration and detail is not necessary. The following are the main
rules to be adopted in private libraries:--[38]
1. The catalogue should be arranged in one general alphabet, this being
the most useful and the readiest form for reference. To render it, as
nearly as possible, a correct representation of the contents of the
library, each work has but one principal descriptive entry. The
shelfmark is confined to this entry--duplicate shelfmark references,
when the position of books is likely to be often altered, from the
accession of additions to the library, &c., leading to frequent and
unavoidable errors.
2. This entry is under the author's name when given on the title-page,
or otherwise known, as being the only arrangement which allows one
general rule to be followed throughout the catalogue.
3. Anonymous works, whose authors' names are unknown, are placed under
the subjects to which they relate.
4. Cross references are made:
from the subjects of biographies to the authors;
from the principal anonymous and pseudonymous works to the writer's
real names where known;
from works included in, or noticed in the title-pages of other
publications, to those publications.
5. To obviate the imperfections necessarily attendant on an alphabetical
arrangement, and for the greater facility of reference, short
classifications are introduced of the chief subjects on which the books
in the library treat, referring to the names of the authors in the same
general alphabet; thereby uniting the advantages of the alphabetical and
classified systems, and acting in some measure as a key to the
prevailing character of the library.
6. All authors' names are followed by full stops: any articles placed
under a writer's name, of which he is not the author, but which are
anonymous answers to, or criticisms on, his works; anonymous memoirs
placed under the subjects; or any entries whatever, in which the heading
name prefixed is not that of the author, are distinguished by a line
following the name.
7. The headings of the short classifications are distinguished by being
doubly underlined with red ink. The name to be referred to is singly
underlined, but when the reference is to another heading, and not to an
author, it is doubly underlined.
In preparing titles for the catalogue (whether it be intended to
transcribe or print them), it should be an imperative instruction that
they be written on slips of paper (or on cards) of uniform size. It is
also useful to include in them a word or two which may serve to identify
the origin of the books--whether by purchase, by copyright, or by
gift--and to indicate the date of their respective acquisition.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] Wheatley, _Pepys and the World he Lived in_, p. 84.
[38] I believe these rules were originally drawn up by Mr. B. R.
Wheatley.
_Classification of Books._
The classification of books, according to any set system, or according
to subjects upon the shelves of a library, is not easy, and for many
reasons it is not worth attempting. Unless the library is a very large
one, say, ten to twenty thousand volumes, with ample and adaptable
shelving, it is not to be desired. The main difficulty in shelf
classification lies in the fact that books on similar and kindred
subjects are issued in all sizes. There are books on Furniture, for
instance, in folio, in quarto, and in octavo. When shelf classification
is imperative, the folios are all put together, the quartos together,
and the octavos together. This is the nearest realisation of a shelf
classification, and by this method the folios may be far separated from
the quartos, and the quartos from the octavos. Moreover, if appearance
count for anything, as indeed it should in the most modest library, it
will be impossible to carry out any plan of shelf classification and
preserve at the same time an appearance of method and fitness. In
planning out how your books are to be placed, a great consideration is
the placing of them, so that books likely to be frequently referred to
shall be easy of access, and books less likely to be in request shall be
housed higher up.[39] Reference books should, as far as possible, be
placed together, and all easy of access. The main divisions into which a
private library classes itself are History and Biography, Fiction,
Poetry and Drama, Theology, Travel, Art, Belles lettres; but there are
so many considerations besides those of subject in any general
classification which should determine the position of a volume that I
must emphasise what has already been said about actual personal
convenience being first studied, and the library as arranged on the
shelves should be the result of personal convenience and graceful
effect. This is more particularly necessary when a library is in course
of expansion. The subjects which will expand quickest, and the space
they will require, can never be accurately gauged, and frequent
upheavals and readjustments will be necessary if any rigid plan is aimed
at. I would suggest that a separate shelf--or, if necessary, a separate
case--be reserved for unbound periodicals and for accessions, which are,
as it were, _sub judice_. Often, too, a separate case is necessary for
rare and handsome books, and a locked case for _facetiæ_. It is worth
while to observe that Pepys found that the best way to find his
numerous books was to number them consecutively throughout the
library.[40]
Numerous elaborate plans of book classification have been put forward,
principally by Americans, but in no way are they adaptable to the
requirements of private libraries, and I doubt very much the possibility
of comprehending them in such a way as to apply them in an intelligible
manner even to public libraries.
Mr. B. R. Wheatley, in an admirable paper upon Library arrangement,[41]
gives the following excellent practical advice:--
'If I had the planning of rooms for a private library, I should select
as the best possible arrangement a suite of three rooms, or one long
room or gallery divided by columns into three compartments, of which the
centre should be the largest, with several small contiguous ante-rooms,
the entrances to which, if so desired, might be concealed, for
uniformity or completeness of appearance, by filling them with sham or
dummy book-backs, the titles of which may be made an occasion for
witticism or joking allusion to local and family history.
'A good library arrangement is not achieved at once, but is a slow
growth through difficulties met and conquered. Some of the best portions
of it will be those which have flashed across your mind when there
seemed no pathway out of the thicket of difficulty in which you were
struggling. The arrangement of books, where the shelves are not made to
order to suit your plans, must naturally be of a progressive character
in its development in your mind.
'In some old libraries, collected mostly in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, there is such a preponderance of those portly
tomes in folio in which our sturdy ancestors delighted, that they
materially affect and disconcert our ordinary plans. I have known an
instance in which the library shelves projected slightly in their upper
part, and, there thus being an appropriate depth, I arranged on these
shelves two long parallel rows, completely round the room, of these
noble volumes of our old divines, State papers, Statutes, Treaties,
Trials, and our County histories; and the effect in strength and power
(as Ruskin might have said) of these long lines of large stout books of
nearly equal height and size was really magnificent. Sometimes you meet
with such a valuable and massive body of topography as will not allow of
its cavalierly being made a subsidiary section of the class of history,
and the form and weighty character of the folios suggest that some deep
and separate bookcases should be chosen in which it may assume the
important individuality that it deserves.
'Folios of a modern date, being of very unequal sizes, would have a
raggedness of outline which would be less observed nearer to the ground
than in the elevated position just referred to. As a general rule, a row
of folios on the lowest shelf will be succeeded by one of quartos, and
then above the ledge the octavos and duodecimos will be placed, but they
should not ascend in too rigid a law of gradual decrease. Rows of small
books at the top of a bookcase look as petty to the mind as to the eyes,
and, indeed, are in general more appropriately placed in dwarf bookcases
specially fitted for their reception.
'For small libraries, not exceeding 3000 to 4000 volumes, the letters of
the alphabet may be used for the cases, and small figures for the
shelves, on the principle of the greater including the less, the letters
having a more important appearance. But in larger libraries, where there
is a chance of the alphabet being doubled or trebled, one regular series
of large numbers for the cases, with small letters for the shelves, is
to be preferred.'
Books should be marked in pencil, with a shelf letter and a case number.
Long sets of books need be numbered in the first volume only.
In the case of collections of pamphlets each item ought to be separately
catalogued.
The catalogue should complement the arrangement on the shelves, and not
be tautological.
Tables of contents of collected editions given in catalogue.
A synoptical table of contents should be prefixed to the catalogue.
For those who desire a rough outline of headings into which a library
usually classifies itself, I will name one. The briefest is as
follows:--(1) Theology, (2) Philosophy and Science, (3) Art, (4)
Political Economy, (5) Law, (6) History and Literature.
FOOTNOTES:
[39] No bookshelves ought to be beyond the reach of a moderately tall
person.
[40] 'The books were numbered consecutively throughout the library, and,
therefore, when rearranged, they needed all to be renumbered. All hands
were pressed into this service, and we read that on the 15th of February,
1667-68, Pepys himself, his wife, and Deb. Willett were busy until near
midnight "titleing" the books for the year, and setting them in order.
They all tired their backs, but the work was satisfactory. . . . . (_See
ante_, p. 78.)
'The books are arranged in eleven curious old mahogany bookcases, which
are mentioned in the _Diary_ under date August 24, 1666. "Up and
dispatched several businesses at home in the morning, and then comes
Sympson to set up my other new presses for my books, and so he and I
fell into the furnishing of my new closett, and taking out the things
out of my old, and I kept him with me all day, and he dined with me, and
so all the afternoon till it was quite darke hanging things, that is, my
maps and pictures and draughts, and setting up my books, . . . . to my
most extraordinary satisfaction."'--Wheatley, _Pepys and the World he
lived in_, pp. 83-4.
[41] _Library Journal_, August, 1878.
_Bookcases._
The chief faults of bookcases arise from their being designed and made
by men who have never used a book. A first requisite in bookcases is
simplicity, bearing in mind that the books are the ornament and not the
bookcases. The cabinet-maker, among other things, is too fond of
embellishments, and sacrifices space to what seem odd angularities and
irregularities.
No bookcase should be above eight and a half feet in height. No ladder
should be necessary to get at books. If books are 'skied' up to the
ceiling they must suffer from the heated air. It is heat, not gas
merely, which damages books.
A room may be made to look very beautiful by being surrounded with fumed
oak bookcases, eight feet high. The shelves should be made movable with
Tonks' patent.[42] Mr. Gladstone[43] speaks of the looseness and the
tightness of movable shelves, the weary arms, the aching fingers, and
the broken finger-nails. This can be avoided by the use of the patent
here named. The bottom cases should be deeper and wider, to take quartos
and folios, but there should always be an extra shelf for turning a
folio section into an octavo section. Nineteen-twentieths of the books
in circulation are octavos and smaller volumes. On each side of the
fireplace there should be an arm projecting about four feet and a half.
The inner side of this should have a comfortable reading-seat, and on
the outer side, farthest from the fire, there may be shelves for books.
If the structural arrangements of the room admit of these projecting
arms being placed, without sacrifice of comfort, at a greater distance
from the fireplace, the books may be placed on the upper part of the
inner side as well, the lower part being used as a lounge.
It must be remembered that heat and excessive dryness are fatal to good
bindings and, indeed, to all parts of a book, and therefore no bookcase
should approach too near a fireplace, nor should bookcases be placed
backing upon hot-water pipes. The shelves should be edged with leather
and such leather must _not_ be stiffened by cardboard or brown
paper--simply leather, and there should be a roller shutter of silk to
draw down in front of the books during absence from home. The cases[44]
should everywhere be perfectly flush, without any sort of protruding
ornament. It will be found a great advantage to make the framework of
the various cases of equal dimensions, so that the shelves can be made
transferable. In estimating the extent of shelving which it may be
necessary to provide, we may calculate that in an ordinary library a
space two feet high and two feet wide will, on an average, contain
about thirty-five volumes, and it may be estimated roughly that every
thousand volumes in a library will require about a hundred square feet
of shelving.
If fixed shelves are made, the usual height will be--[45]
For folios 18 to 21 inches.
" quartos 12 " 15 "
" octavos 10 "
" smaller sizes 7 "
These spaces will allow ample room for the average sizes. The 'Atlas'
folios and 'Elephant' folios are best accommodated in single shelves, in
which they may be flat, or on trays or table cases.[46] Bear in mind
always to allow sufficient space for expansion. Nothing causes more
disorder than insufficient shelf accommodation. All cases should be
numbered and lettered, that is, each section should have a number, and
each shelf a letter. For the accommodation of expensive bindings or rare
books and MSS., a special case may sometimes be required. Very beautiful
specimens of such may be seen sketched in the books of Chippendale,
Sheraton, and Heppelwhite, but it is in all cases better to avoid glass
fronts and adopt ornamental brass wire work if any special protection be
needed.
The late Mr. Blades, a great expert in this matter, said, 'It is a
mistake to imagine that keeping the best-bound volumes in a glass-doored
bookcase is a preservative. The damp air will certainly penetrate, and
as the absence of ventilation will assist formation of mould, the books
will be worse off than if they had been placed in open shelves. If
securing be desirable, by all means abolish the glass and place
ornamental brass wire work in its stead.'[47]
'It is more important to see that the shelves intended for choice and
richly bound books should be covered with leather, and expressly such as
are intended for books of large sizes. In the case of books of special
value, the leather should be well padded, should be of the best quality,
and should have a polished surface.'[48]
In the _Nineteenth Century_ for March, 1890, already quoted from, Mr.
Gladstone wrote upon 'Books, and the Housing of them.' This paper showed
a sound grasp of the subject and showed Mr. Gladstone in a new and very
interesting light. Appended are some extracts from this paper, all of
which I think experts would agree to, _except the fixed shelves_, and
here, I think, any one who has handled books very much will be at issue
with Mr. Gladstone. He himself says:--'I have recommended that, as a
rule, the shelves be fixed, and have given reasons for the adoption of
such a rule. I do not know whether it will receive the sanction of
authorities, and I make two admissions. First, it requires that each
person owning and arranging a library should have a pretty accurate
general knowledge of the size of his books. Secondly, it may be
expedient to introduce here and there, by way of exception, a single
movable shelf.'
Now, a man must be able not only to gauge very accurately the limits of
his library and the various sizes of books, but he must be able to look
into the future if he would safely embark on fixed shelves. And this is
wholly impossible. Fixed shelves should only be adopted where cost has
to be reduced to a minimum, but in the majority of instances movable
shelves will be found preferable. The paragraphs which deal with
bookcases in Mr. Gladstone's article may here be given:--
'The question of economy, for those who from necessity or choice
consider it at all, is a very serious one. It has been a fashion to make
bookcases ornamental. Now, books want for and in themselves no ornament
at all. . . The man who looks for society in his books will readily
perceive that, in proportion as the face of his bookcase is occupied by
ornament, he loses that society; and conversely, the more that face
approximates to a sheet of book-backs, the more of that society he will
enjoy. And so it is that three great advantages come hand in hand, and,
as will be seen, reach their maximum together: the sociability of books,
minimum cost in providing for them, and ease of access to them.
'In order to attain these advantages, two conditions are fundamental.
First, the shelves must, as a rule, be fixed; secondly, the cases, or a
large part of them, should have their side against a wall, and thus,
projecting into the room for a convenient distance, they should be of
twice the depth needed for a single line of books, and should hold two
lines, one facing each way. Twelve inches is a fair and liberal depth
for two rows of octavos. The books are thus thrown into stalls, but
stalls after the manner of a stable. . . . This method of dividing the
longitudinal space by projections at right angles to it, if not very
frequently used, has long been known. A great example of it is to be
found at Trinity College, Cambridge, and is the work of Sir Christopher
Wren. He has kept these cases down to a very moderate height; for he
doubtless took into account that great heights require long ladders, and
that the fetching and use of these greatly add to the time consumed in
getting or replacing a book.'
It must here be added that Mr. Gladstone's plan is much more fitted for
a large public library than for the library of a private person, for
whom he is prescribing. Though the library in the form of an annexe[49]
is in many ways an ideal form for housing a large library, yet these are
hardly likely to be in the majority, and most people find that they have
to house their books in a circumscribed space, with no room for such
bays and projections as he suggests except perhaps one by the fireplace.
FOOTNOTES:
[42] Tonks' fittings are specially adapted for the shelves of book-cases
or other shelves, the adjustment of which has, from time to time, to be
varied to suit the varying requirements of a library, &c. The method
hitherto generally adopted for such shelves is to support them at each
end by two studs, the heads of which are mortised into the shelf, and
the pins driven or otherwise fitted into holes two or more inches apart,
bored in two rows into the upright frames; these holes are very seldom
accurately fitted to the pins, and even where so done in the first
instance, from the shrinking or expansion of the wood, they soon become
too large or too small for the pins, and the alteration of the
adjustment of a shelf is thereby rendered an extremely troublesome
operation. The patent fittings remedy this, and save both time and
trouble; in place of the rows of holes so far apart, metal strips
perforated at intervals of three-quarters of an inch for the reception
of the very simple but strong metal plates, which take the place of the
old studs, are mortised in and screwed to the frames. The insertion, at
the required intervals, of the plates into the perforations in these
strips is made instantaneously, consequently the position of a shelf can
be easily altered without an irritating expense of trouble, and waste of
time. The thinness of the plates renders any mortising in the shelf
unnecessary, and the small intervals between the perforations in the
strips enables the whole space occupied by the shelves to be used most
economically. These fittings, when used with a shelf sufficiently strong
itself to bear the weight, will support without strain more than half a
ton.
[43] _Nineteenth Century_, March, 1890.
[44] Edwards, _Memoirs of Libraries_, ii., 736.
[45] THE SIZES OF BOOKS.--The Associated Librarians of Great Britain
decided upon a uniform and arbitrary scale for the measurement and
description of the sizes of books. In consequence of the many and varied
sizes of papers now manufactured, the terms folio, quarto or 4to.,
octavo or 8vo., twelvemo or 12mo., and so on, as indicating the number
of folds in the printed sheets, can no longer be relied upon as a
definite guide to the sizes of books, hence the change, as follows:--
Large folio la. fol. over 18 inches.
Folio fol. below 18 "
Small folio sm. fol. " 13 "
Large octavo la. 8vo. " 11 "
Octavo 8vo. " 9 "
Small octavo sm. 8vo. " 8 "
Duodecimo 12mo. " 8 "
Decimo octavo 18mo. is 6 "
Minimo mo. below 6 "
Large quarto la. 4to. " 15 "
Quarto 4to. " 11 "
Small quarto sm. 4to. " 8 "
[46] Edwards, _Memoirs of Libraries_, ii., 739.
[47] Blades, _Enemies of Books_.
[48] Edwards, ii., 737.
[49] See p. 106.
_Miscellaneous Appliances._
Whether the library be considered as a workshop or a morning-room, there
are certain necessary appliances, which will contribute a great deal to
comfort, and the proper preservation of books. Thus, proper tables will
be required. Mr. Gladstone, I believe, has, or had, three tables in his
Temple of Peace--one for correspondence, one for politics, and one for
literary work. This, no doubt, is a very excellent plan to be followed
by those whose time is precious, and who have to divide each day up for
fixed duties. The 'Shannon' and other American tables are very excellent
for correspondence work, being fitted with pigeon-holes and drawers, and
I have no doubt but that equally well-made tables are made specially
fitted for literary work. Such a table should measure not less than six
feet by three; its top should be a clear, flat surface, and it should
stand firmly on its legs, and these legs should be four, and should not
be placed to be in the way of the person sitting at the table. An
ink-well should be sunk flush with the top of the case, and it should
have a brass cover. A knee-hole table is not the best for literary work,
but it may be the best for letter-writing. Of chairs, one good, firm,
hard-seated chair is necessary. Mr. Ellwanger[50] says, 'I have two
chairs for my reading--a stiff one for books I _have_ to read; a
luxurious one for books I like to read. My luxurious chair is of dark
green leather, a treat to sink into, modelled after the easy armchair of
the Eversley Rectory, known from its seductive properties as "Sleepy
Hollow."' A very prettily designed and useful hard-seated chair is that
known as the Goldsmith chair, being modelled upon the chair which
belonged to Oliver Goldsmith. A revolving bookcase is a very appropriate
article of furniture in a library. It may be made especially useful for
reference-books, or any such books as are being used together at one
time for purposes of study and comparison. These revolving bookcases are
made in all sizes, and can, of course, be made to suit any particular
requirement; thus I have seen them made with a top which can be raised
to a slope with a ledge like a standing desk, upon which a large atlas
can be rested and consulted. Apart from this, I strongly recommend the
use of a standing desk for health's sake when a great deal of writing
has to be done.
It frequently happens that books being taken from the shelf, the volumes
left behind fall down in an untidy heap. To obviate this, there is a
very simple form of metal book support sold, which keeps a half-filled
shelf neat and tidy. An alternative to this is the old plan of inserting
dummies, whereby no blanks are seen. As I have so strongly advocated
shelves the tops of which are within reach of the hand, I need not say
much about steps, but where steps are really needed, they should be
_very_ light, and capable of being easily lifted with one hand. They
should have an upright rod support rising about four feet above the top
step; this for the purpose of safety when using the steps. Cabinets of
drawers for prints and very large books should also be secured if
required, and cushioned desks for books with metal bosses or metal
mountings of any description. Last, but by no means least, let there be
good ink, and plenty of it; good pens, and a variety of them; and good
blotting-paper, frequently renewed; and paper-knives of various sizes.
FOOTNOTE:
[50] _The Story of my House._
_The Library Annexe._
What in many ways is an ideal library is a library housed in a building
specially constructed as an annexe to a residence. I feel sure that,
within the next ten years, there will be many moderately wealthy men who
will be anxious to form libraries and special collections of books,
housing them in this way. The idea is only new as applied to large
country mansions. Hitherto students of moderate means have managed to
construct buildings specially adapted for study and free from
interruption. The only instance of a library annexe attached to a
country mansion with which I am acquainted is the recent and very
notable instance at Hawarden, of which more later. The late Vicar of
Middleton Cheney, in Oxfordshire, and, I think, Dr. Jessopp, of
Scarning, have both found that their work has been assisted by library
annexes. Horace Walpole said of Topham Beauclerk that he had built a
library in Great Russell Street, that reached 'half-way to Highgate.'
Lord Bacon spent ten thousand pounds in building himself a retreat in
his grounds at Gorhambury.
Mr. Gladstone's scheme at Hawarden is likely to be followed by many
others. Of course the Hawarden library has been endowed, and made
practically open and free. It is the idea of a private library as a
temple of peace for the owner and his visitors which we would like to
see extended. One fancies that books might be on a better footing in
country houses if they had the honour of a separate building. Then they
would, at any rate, be on as good a footing as the stables or as the
greenhouse, which at present they are not. Books are not so much wall
covering, or so much furniture. They are much more; they should be
treated more like living creatures, and if only their owners would get
upon speaking terms with them, how readily would they get a response.
Roughly, then, one would like to see attached to every large country
establishment a book building, a centre of intelligence and light, where
we might be sure of finding a good atlas, a good biographical
dictionary, and good verbal dictionary. I do not understand why so
little importance has hitherto been attached to this. Such a building
should have a large central room and several separate small rooms for
private study. The illustrations in a charming little book called _Mr.
Gladstone in the Evening of his Days_ convey what is meant very well.
From this little volume I give extracts which seem very clear to any
one interested in this matter:--
'Everywhere about in the large room are books--books--books. The Iron
Library (the building is of iron) is arranged in the same ingenious way
as Mr. Gladstone's private library at Hawarden Castle. There are windows
on either side of the long room, and between these windows high
bookcases, running towards the centre of the room, are put up. There are
books on either side of these cases, and the part facing the centre of
the room is again arranged to hold books. It is truly marvellous how
many books can thus be stored without a single one being out of sight.'
'There is the same simplicity, the same quiet comfort, the same air of
repose, and the same absence of library conventionality about. . . . .'
'Through a door . . . . you reach the second room in the library, to
which Mr. Gladstone has given the name of the "Humanity room." It is
arranged on exactly the same plan as the first, and contains secular
works chiefly. You note Madame de Sévigné's _Letters_ on one shelf, in
neat and dainty little volumes; and yellow-backed Zola lower down.'[51]
Any one who proposed having a library as a separate building should
certainly study Mr. Gladstone's experiments at St. Deiniol's Library, or
procure _Mr. Gladstone in the Evening of his Days_, wherein are given
illustrations of the interior plan and general economy of the
structure. Certainly Mr. Gladstone's ideas as to the arrangement of
books as put forth in the _Nineteenth Century_ for March, 1890, are much
more applicable to an annexe library than to the housing of books in an
ordinary private dwelling. Thus the arrangement of the bays made by the
projections could not be carried out without extensive structural
alterations in one house out of twenty in the country, and not one house
out of a thousand in London. His ideas, however, are wholly practicable
and admirably thorough when applied to the annexe library. It is
interesting to see Mr. Gladstone's calculations as to shelf
accommodation. They were disputed at the time by some cavilling critics,
but have since been shown to be accurate. Mr. Gladstone is speaking[52]
of the bookcases round the walls and the projecting arms, and he
says:--'I will now exhibit to my readers the practical effect of such
arrangement in bringing great numbers of books within easy reach. Let
each projection be three feet long, twelve inches deep (ample for two
faces of octavos), and nine feet high, so that the upper shelf can be
reached by the aid of a wooden stool of two steps, not more than twenty
inches high, and portable without the least effort of a single hand. I
will suppose the wall-space available to be eight feet, and the
projections, three in number, with end pieces, need only put out three
feet five, while narrow strips of bookcase will run up the wall between
the projections. Under these conditions, the bookcases thus described
will carry about 2000 volumes.
'And a library forty feet long and twenty feet broad, amply lighted,
having some portion of the centre fitted with very low bookcases, suited
to serve for some of the uses of tables, will receive on the floor from
18,000 to 20,000 volumes of all sizes without losing the appearance of a
room . . . . while leaving portions of space available near the windows
for purposes of study. If a gallery be added, there will be accommodation
for a further number of 5000, and the room need be no more than sixteen
feet high.'
This estimate of shelf accommodation may be compared with one which was
made by Mr. Justin Winsor, the well-known librarian of the Harvard
library. He says:--'The book room of the Roxbury branch of the public
library of Boston is fifty-three feet long by twenty-seven feet wide,
and having three storeys of eight feet each in height will hold 100,000
volumes. . . . . I doubt if any other construction can produce this
result.'
The building at Hawarden cost, I believe, 1000_l._, but whether this is
with fittings or not I do not know. It is certain that for men whose
books are more numerous than costly the annexe plan is admirable, and
the difficulty of excluding damp where four walls are exposed to the
elements could surely be overcome. I do not think that Mr. Gladstone
makes any mention of iron bookcases, but these are often adopted, and
have been made in a very convenient form, particularly that called the
Radcliffe iron bookcase, arranged by Sir Henry Acland and Mr. W. Froude.
Of this I append a description written by Sir Henry Acland himself.
'The advantages of the bookcase consist in its great stability, in its
movability and neatness. It carries 500 average octavo volumes, 250 on
either side; it is seven feet high, and stands on any floor space on
forty-eight inches by eighteen inches. The cases may stand in any number
end to end, or down the centre of a passage, or be placed so as to form
squares of any dimensions multiple of the length of the cases, and
therefore may enclose studies lined with books, books being also on the
outside of the square. When the cases stand end to end they need not be
put close to each other, but may have a space in which are shelves of
any desired length. Therefore ten iron cases placed in a line, so as to
include a space of forty inches between each two cases, will carry the
contents of nineteen cases, or 5000 plus 4500 volumes, at the cost of
ten cases, plus the wooden shelves of nine. The iron framework costs
about 5_l._ 5_s._, and the wooden shelves about 25_s._ The iron portion
will carry only octavos, but the spaces as described above will carry
folios, because, to insure stability in the iron frames, diagonal ties
run down the centre and divide the shelves into two portions, viz., the
two frontages described above. But the stability being ensured in each
iron case independently, the intermediate shelves in the spaces may be
of the full width of the frames, namely, twenty inches.'[53]
FOOTNOTES:
[51] These notices of the Hawarden Library may be compared with the
accounts given in Dennistoun's _Dukes of Urbino_ of a great Florentine
library:--
'Adjoining (the main library) was a study, fitted up with inlaid and
gilded panelling, beneath which . . . . were depicted Minerva with her
ægis, Apollo with his lyre, and the nine muses, with their appropriate
symbols. A similar small study was fitted up immediately over this one,
set round with armchairs encircling a table, all mosaicked with _tarsia_,
. . . while in each compartment of the panelling was the portrait of
some famous author, and an appropriate distich. . . . To the right and
left of the carriage entrance into the great courtyard are two handsome
saloons, each about forty-five feet by twenty-two, and twenty-three in
height. That on the left contained the famous library of MS. collected
by Count Federigo; the corresponding one received the printed books
which, gradually purchased by successive dukes, became, under the last
sovereign a copious collection. Baldi, in his description of the palace,
printed in Bianchini's works, dwells on the judicious adaptation of the
former, its windows set high against the northern sky, admitting a
subdued and steady light which invited to study; its air cool in summer,
temperate in winter; its walls conveniently sheltered. . . . .'
[52] _Nineteenth Century_, March, 1890.
_A Librarian._
Until we have more properly trained librarians, it is useless to
recommend owners of private libraries to find a librarian, because at
present there are very few such men in existence who are properly
qualified. A love of books is not enough in a librarian. An orderly mind
and great receptive power are most essential. Practical knowledge of
bookbinding and a sense of colour are equally essential. He must have no
fads of his own to be ever thrusting forward. If he is mad on Geology or
Astronomy, he won't do. What, above all, he must know are the sources of
information.
A study in the 'Lives' of some of the great librarians would best show
what is here meant. Mr. Elton[54] names Antonio Maggliabecchi, the
jeweller's shop-boy, who became renowned throughout the world for his
abnormal knowledge of books. He never at any time left Florence; but he
read every catalogue that was issued, and was in correspondence with all
the collectors and librarians of Europe. He was blessed with a
prodigious memory, and knew all the contents of a book by 'hunting it
with his finger,' or once turning over the pages. He was believed,
moreover, to know the habitat of all the rare books in the world; and
according to the well-known anecdote he replied to the Grand Duke, who
asked for a particular volume: 'The only copy of this work is at
Constantinople, in the Sultan's library, the seventh volume in the
second bookcase, on the right as you go in.' A similar story was told by
Wendell Phillips, the American statesman, about a countryman of his own,
George Sumner. An Englishman came to Rome and was anxious to know
whether there was in the library of the Pope, the great library of the
Vatican, a certain book. . . . . The gentleman went to the Italians that
used the library. They referred him to the private secretary of one of
the cardinals, and after a moment's thought the secretary answered, 'No,
sir, I don't know; but there is a young man in the city from Boston, and
if the book is there he will know. They went to George Sumner, and
asked him if there was such a volume in the library. 'Yes, it is in the
tenth alcove, the third shelf, the seventh book to your right as you
enter.'
Similar stories, doubtless, could be told of Bradshaw, the Cambridge
University librarian, or of Thomas Ruddiman and George Buchanan.
Mr. Lloyd P. Smith[55] gives the following definition, among others, of
the qualifications of a librarian: 'Librarians, like editors and
proofreaders, are expected to know everything; and in one sense they
should know everything--that is, they should have that _maxima pars
eruditionis_, which consists in knowing where everything is to be found.
A librarian should be able, of his own knowledge, to answer many questions,
and especially the two questions which meet him at every turn, "Where
can I find such-and-such information?" and "What is the best work on
such-and-such a subject?" These are legitimate questions, which it
should be the pride of every librarian to answer offhand . . . . All
the book-learning in the world, however, will be insufficient for the
practical duties of his place, unless the librarian has also the organ
of order. His motto should be, "A place for everything and everything
in its place."'
'The book of regulations for the court and household of Guidobaldo I.
contains these rules for the administration of the library:--"The
librarian should be learned, of good presence, temper, and manners,
correct, and ready of speech. He must get from the gardrobe an inventory
of the books, and keep them arranged and easily accessible, whether
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, or others, maintaining also the rooms in good
condition. He must preserve the books from damp and vermin, as well as
from the hands of trifling, ignorant, dirty, and tasteless persons. To
those of authority and learning, he ought himself to exhibit them with
all facility, courteously explaining their beauty and remarkable
characteristics, the handwriting and miniatures, but observant that such
abstract no leaves. When ignorant or merely curious persons wish to see
them, a glance is sufficient, if it be not some one of considerable
influence. When any lock or other requisite is needed, he must take care
that it be promptly provided. He must let no book be taken away but by
the Duke's orders, and if lent, must get a written receipt, and see to
its being returned. When a number of visitors come in, he must be
specially watchful that none be stolen. All which is duly seen to by the
present courteous and attentive librarian, Messer Agabito."'[56]
FOOTNOTES:
[53] _Library Assoc. Report_, 1878, p. 75.
[54] _Great Book Collectors_, p. 74.
[55] _American Library Journal_, vol. i., p. 69.
[56] _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_, p. 159.
_The Library Architecturally._
Vitruvius, in his _Architecture_, lays down the rule that libraries
ought to face the east, because their use requires the morning light,
which will preserve their contents from decay; whereas, if the room
should face the south or west, they are liable to be damaged by damp.
Mr. J. W. Clark, the very learned historian of the University of
Cambridge, commenting on this, says that the first of these
considerations did influence early builders, but after the Reformation,
when considerations of personal comfort began to be generally accepted,
the library could be placed in the position which commanded the greatest
amount of warmth. Ancient libraries were never placed on the ground,
but usually on the first floor, or even higher, for the sake of
preserving their contents from the damp to which ground floors are
necessarily subject.[57]
The architect is very frequently a great enemy to the library.
Underestimating the amount of wall space likely to be required for the
housing of the books, or placing shelves and galleries in such a
position that the books are not readily got at. Frequently, too, a
country house has no room whatever designed either for study or the
reception of books. The entire collection of books should be accessible
without steps or ladders. Hot-water pipes should not approach nearer
than three feet to the books. Electric light is the best luminant, but
gas may safely be used provided there is sufficient ventilation.
The walls, which are towards the outer air, and even the others also, if
of brick or stone, ought to be battened.
I have taken from a very excellent book, Kerr's _Gentleman's House_,
such ideas and notes as I think are likely to be useful in arranging a
library in a country house. Mr. Kerr suggests two plans for a large
country house with a library.
'The idea which might first occur to the mind is that of a single
spacious apartment; but for convenience and in order to preserve the
domestic character, it is generally preferable to make use of several
smaller apartments as a _Suite of Libraries_. On this plan the
arrangement which is perhaps most favourable to considerations of
utility, and on the whole most characteristic, is to set out a given
width of clear passage way along the central line of the rooms, and then
to divide the space on each side into a succession of compartments or
bays, by means of transverse bookcases in pairs back to back; such bays
being only large enough to accommodate a reading table with sufficient
space around for reaching the books, opening the doors of the cases if
any, and so on. If the rooms be lighted from the roof, the lights ought
to correspond with the division into compartments, so that none of the
fronts of the bookcases shall be placed in shadow. If there be windows
in the walls, there ought to be one in each bay along one side of the
room or both as may be desired. Bookcases against the walls are
obviously most serviceable with the ceiling light; with side windows,
even when these are on a high level, there is always a difficulty in
reading the back lettering under the light; and when the windows are on
a low level, dwarf bookcases under them are practically of little use.
'As for _artistic treatment_, nothing can be more appropriate for the
character of a library than those effects which are at the command of
the architect in a suite of apartments of this kind, laid out probably
with some variety in the general forms as well as in the fittings, and
involving perhaps the introduction of sculptures and paintings of a
suitable kind. Elaborate effects, however, of whatever sort, and the
accommodation of any other works of art than those whose merits are
kindred to the character of the more proper contents, ought not to be
encouraged.'
A second or alternative plan is a large room with a gallery.
'As regards curiosities and other _artistic or scientific collections_,
these may very properly be accommodated, whether in upright cases to
correspond with the bookcases, or in cabinets to take the place of the
reading tables.
'The arrangements proper for the alternative plan of a large _single
library_ are obviously simple. A gallery is probably carried round the
apartment; the bookcases extend along the wall below and are reproduced
above; the light comes either from the roof or the upper part of the
walls; the floor area is generally occupied solely by reading tables and
cabinets. Objects of art and curiosity, when of large size, are more
prominently displayed by this arrangement, and the whole effect may be
made very imposing; but it is doubtful whether convenience and comfort
can by any means be so properly provided for as in the other model.
'There are questions of detail which might be further entered upon, but
a reference to what has already been advanced under the head of the
ordinary library will probably suffice.'
In other parts of his excellent manual, Mr. Kerr goes more into detail,
and refers to the various general purposes to which a library, as
distinct from a study, is put in a country house, as follows:--
'There is a certain standard room which constitutes the library of an
average gentleman's house, and the various gradations by which this may
be either diminished in importance or augmented are easily understood.
It is not a library in the sole sense of a depository for books. There
is, of course, the family collection, and the bookcases in which this is
accommodated form the chief furniture of the apartment. But it would be
an error, except in very special circumstances, to design the library
for mere study. It is primarily a sort of morning-room for gentlemen
rather than anything else. Their correspondence is done here, their
reading, and, in some measure, their lounging; and the billiard-room,
for instance, is not unfrequently attached to it. At the same time the
ladies are not exactly excluded.
'The _position_ of the room internally ought therefore to be in
immediate connexion with the principal dwelling rooms, so as to be
equally accessible; whilst, on the other hand, as regards external
influences, it ought to be kept sufficiently quiet (although this is
very seldom a practical problem), to prevent the interruption of reading
or writing. In accordance with these general ideas, and bearing out,
moreover, the somewhat sober effect which bookcases always produce, the
_style_ of design and decoration ought to be, although not devoid of
cheerfulness, certainly subdued in character.'
As regards aspect, Mr. Kerr is at one with the old Vitruvius already
referred to.
'It is not often easy to obtain a choice _aspect_ for the library, but
whenever this primary pleasantness can be had for it so much the better,
and it certainly ought never to be entirely neglected in this respect.
The reasons for preferring the south-east in the case of day rooms
generally have already been argued; for a library, perhaps, a rather
more eastward aspect is better, so that the sun may be off the windows
at least before noon; even due east might be preferred by some persons,
the sunshine being thus lost about half-past ten. In any case, however,
the morning sun is to be preferred to that of midday or afternoon. If
the room be large enough _end windows_ may be used to advantage here as
elsewhere. A _bay window_ also is often adopted.
'A difficult question which often arises is how sufficiently to provide
for persons engaged in writing a _front light from the left_. It is not
that a snug seat by the fireside, with a table conveniently at hand, and
a left front light, can by any possibility be provided for many persons
at once; but it is very unfortunate when no position whatever will
combine these advantages. In a library especially this problem must be
well worked out, and not for one writer only, but for several. Ingenuity
and perseverance will accomplish wonders, and therefore, with the help
of end light, a good library may be expected in this respect to be
brought very near perfection.
'The _fireplace_ ought to be placed so as to make a good winter
fireside, because this is in a measure a sitting-room.
'_Intercommunication_ is frequently made with the drawing-room, and
sometimes intimately, and this carries with it, no doubt, a certain sort
of convenience, because the two rooms can be thrown together
occasionally; but it is a question whether, in a good house, and looking
at such a question broadly, it is not, on the whole, a serious loss to
both rooms as regards their more proper purposes. A door to the
dining-room is not formally advisable, nor even one to the gentleman's
room, although both these arrangements are to be met with, and are
occasionally convenient. A communication with the billiard-room,
sometimes made, may give the library too completely the character of a
lounge, so as to render it somewhat unfit for its better purposes. When
the library of a small house is used as a study, by a clergyman, for
instance, or as the business room, a door to the dining-room may be so
useful as to be specially admissible, the dining-room being thus brought
to serve as a waiting-room for the occasion. The interposition, if
possible, of a lobby or small ante-room will, however, be an aid to
propriety in almost all these cases.
'It is to be observed that we have been hitherto dealing with the
ordinary library of an average house and no more; but when the owner is
a man of learning we must either add a _study_ or constitute the library
itself one. In the latter case, in order to prevent disturbance, the
door will be more conveniently placed, not in the main corridor, but
indirectly connected therewith. No door of intercommunication ought to
connect it with any other room (except possibly the gentleman's room),
and the position externally ought to be more than ordinarily secluded.
Double doors also may be required. In short, the library, which has
hitherto been a public room and somewhat of a lounge, becomes now
essentially a private retreat.
'When the books form a _large collection_, and strangers, perhaps, are
occasionally admitted for reading or reference, the library necessarily
assumes more extensive proportions, and its arrangements become more
complicated. For example, heating apparatus becomes very possibly
indispensable; the question comes up of ceiling lights; the apartments
are probably carried up to the height of two storeys, and galleries
formed around. Seclusion becomes again still more a point to be
considered.
'The library of the house should also be as comfortable as possible,
with broad easy chairs, low centre table for books and periodicals, a
large pedestal desk with circular revolving top, to shut up all papers
and keep them free from dust. This kind of desk I consider invaluable to
any man who really uses his library as a work-room, whether it be for
real literary work and study, or for the ordinary examination and
arrangement of household accounts; for it is quite impossible, on an
ordinary writing table, to keep papers clean or tidy, and this
circular-headed desk shuts down at once papers as they lie, which then
cannot be "tidied" by the housemaid, who would seem to take a pleasure
in putting away papers and notes in all kinds of out-of-the-way corners;
the desk should have plenty of drawers and pigeon-holes; these latter,
not as many of them are, an inch too narrow or two inches too wide for
ordinary letters, but all made for the objects for which they are
intended. It may seem absurd to say--think carefully of the use to which
the drawers are to be put--but how often are they practically useless or
wasteful of precious room, by being made shallower or deeper than is
required. The room should be surrounded with bookcases, the lower
portion made to take large books, and with some part of it covered in
with cupboard fronts, with shelving inside to file away periodicals and
papers; the shelf which this lower projection forms will do admirably
for the arrangement of ornaments, small busts, or other personal things,
with which a man crowds the room he really lives in; of course, I am
speaking to those who make a den or working-room of their library, and
not to those who fit a back room up with various tiers of shelving, on
which are arranged a library of books which are seldom looked at, and
where the room is only occasionally used, and that only for the purpose
of a cloak-room on grand occasions. Above this lower nest of cupboards
and shelving should be shelving arranged for various sizes of books,
part carried up all round the room, so as to be within easy reach; the
top of these will be found useful for china or busts, or other objects
of art, while the centre portions may be carried up to the ceiling to
give greater accommodation; all these breaks will take away from the
stiffness of the room, and, if properly arranged, will all assist in
making the library a room pleasant to work or play in. All this kind of
work can be made of plain deal, stained and polished, and is infinitely
cheaper than the elaborate movable cases of wainscot or walnut, in
which the aim of the designer seems often to make the frame-work as
expensive as possible, whereas, in truth, the books within are really
what should be thought of and cared for.
'The floor should be painted or stained and varnished all over, so as to
be easily cleaned and dusted, and everything that is likely to
permanently hold dust should be avoided. On the floor, thus painted, a
few cheap Indian or other rugs may be laid about in places where most
necessary and useful.
'Too much trouble cannot be taken to make the library a pleasant room to
live in; it should have everything arranged and adapted for use and
comfort, and not be stiff and dreary with any set arrangement. The
panels of the cupboard doors may be filled in with Japanese lacquer-work
or painted decoration, and here and there, in the recesses, nests of
shelves may be fitted with projecting brackets, designed as part of
them, for pieces of china, vases of flowers, or busts, and not looking
like bats stuck on to a barn door.
'I must not omit to say that in the lower portion of the bookcase
should be arranged drawers--not carried down to the floor, for these are
inconvenient--for use for prints and valuable photographs and sketches.
'The library should be essentially home-like, with the wall-space fitted
up as conveniently as possible; on the top of the bookcases or nests of
shelves, spring roller-blinds might be easily arranged in the cornices
to draw down at night or other times, and fasten with clips to protect
and preserve the books, &c., within them.
'I might offer many other suggestions for the decoration and furniture
of the rooms I have specially referred to. I trust those I have made
will be of some practical use, and that, above all, you will believe
that my aim throughout has been to avoid all dogmatic and set rules of
fashion or design, and to insist only that truth and beauty of form and
colour, combined with fitness and common sense, are the main elements of
all true artistic treatment in decoration and furniture of modern
houses.'[58]
FOOTNOTES:
[57] Willis and Clark, _History of Cambridge University_, vol. iii., p.
416.
[58] Edis, _Decoration and Furniture of Town Houses_, pp. 188-191.
_Munificent Book-buying._
Nordau has estimated that, in England alone, there are from eight
hundred to a thousand millionaires, and in Europe altogether, there are
at least a hundred thousand persons with fortunes of a million and even
more. One could hope that it might be considered a kindness now and then
to remind some of these millionaires of certain openings for their money
which do not, so far, seem to have occurred to them. Mr. Bernard Shaw
not long since pointed out in the _Contemporary Review_ an opening
whereby an Economic Library might be established, and do great lasting
honour to a possible founder. Rich men can always be found to vie with
one another in lavish expenditure over a ball or a wedding. Thousands of
pounds go for a racehorse and for stable management generally, and the
amount we spend upon sports annually is 38,000,000_l._, or about a pound
per head of the population. One hardly likes to say that any sum spent
upon sport and outdoor life is too much, but yet this sum is out of
proportion. One is jealous of horses and sport, not so much perhaps for
the amount spent upon them as much as because one sees that the man who
hunts and has racehorses, cares and knows about these things to the
extermination of all other interests. Life becomes ill balanced, whereas
it is necessary to touch life at many points. 'The strenuous scholar
pure and simple,' is becoming more rare, though the type of which the
late Mark Pattison was one will never quite die out. But it is not the
strenuous _scholar_ that one is so anxious to perpetuate, as it is the
strenuous and scholarly man of affairs and men of trained ability who
have mental muscle for parliamentary work and social problems. Such a
class ought to have many recruits from among the wealthier families.
It would assist very much towards this end if men of aptitude were
properly trained to act as custodians of books in private houses. The
art of knowing how to use books is one which must be learnt, and when
properly learnt there is very little indeed that may not be readily
found to hand in a library of but small dimensions.
There are, I believe, in England twenty-two packs of staghounds, and 182
packs of foxhounds. As every one of the masters of these packs must be a
rich man, I should like to know that he at any rate had a sound copy of
the _History_ of the county where he hunts; that he had in his smoking
room a good Encyclopædia, with fifty other good reference books, and a
hundred good novels.
The rich men of old combined patronage of learning with the pomp and
splendour of their lives. Lucullus distinguished himself by his vast
collection of books, and the liberal access he allowed to lovers of
books. 'It was a library,' says Plutarch, 'whose walls, galleries and
cabinets were open to all visitors; and the ingenious youths, when at
leisure, resorted to this abode of the Muses, to hold literary
conversations, in which Lucullus himself loved to join.' The Emperor
Augustus was himself an author and a book lover, and called one of his
libraries by the name of his sister, Octavia, and the other the temple
of Apollo. Tiberius had a library, and Trajan also, and these spent
constantly upon their books and the housing of them.
I have taken from Renaissance history pictures of several men who might
be taken as types which should exist in every highly civilised country.
They have been vividly and admirably pictured by biographers, and one
can only hope that the rich men of to-day may in five hundred years'
time have as lasting reputations as that of Cosimo, the princely patron
of learning, and Niccolo, the man of scholarship and refinement of
life.
_PASSAGES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE FOREGOING._
_The Medici and their Friends._
'The chief benefit conferred by Cosimo de' Medici on learning was the
accumulation and the housing of large libraries. During his exile he
built the library of S. Giorgio Maggiore at Venice, and after his return
to Florence he formed three separate collections of MSS. While the hall
of the Library of S. Marco was in process of construction, Niccolo de'
Niccoli died, in 1437, bequeathing his 800 MSS., valued at 6000 golden
florins, to sixteen trustees. Among these were Cosimo and Lorenzo de'
Medici, Ambrogio Traversari, Lionardo Bruni, Carlo Marsuppini, Poggio
Bracciolini, Giannozzo Manetti, and Franco Sachetti. At the same time
the estate of Niccolo was compromised by heavy debts. These debts Cosimo
cancelled, obtaining in exchange the right to dispose of the library. In
1441 the hall of the convent was finished. Four hundred of Niccolo's
MSS. were placed there, with this inscription upon each: _Ex hereditate
doctissimi viri Nicola de Nicolis de Florentiâ_. Tommasso Parentucelli
made a catalogue at Cosimo's request, in which he not only noted the
titles of Niccoli's books, but also marked the names of others wanting
to complete the collection. This catalogue afterwards served as a guide
to the founders of the libraries of Fiesole, Urbino, and Pesaro, and
was, says Vespasiano, indispensable to book-collectors. Of the remaining
400 volumes Cosimo kept some for his own (the Medicean) library, and
some he gave to his friends. At the same time he spared no pains to buy
codices, while Vespasiano and Fra Giuliano Lapaccini were employed in
copying rare MSS. As soon as Cosimo had finished building the Abbey of
Fiesole, he set about providing this also with a library suited to the
wants of learned ecclesiastics. Of the method he pursued, Vespasiano,
who acted as his agent, has transmitted the following account:--"One day
when I was in his room, he said to me, 'What plan can you recommend for
the formation of this library?' I answered that to buy the books would
be impossible, since they could not be purchased. 'What, then, do you
propose?' he added. I told him that they must be copied. He then asked
if I would undertake the business. I replied that I was willing. He bade
me begin at my leisure, saying that he left all to me; and for the
monies wanted day by day, he ordered that Don Arcangelo, at that time
prior of the monastery, should draw cheques upon his bank, which should
be honoured. After beginning the collection, since it was his will that
it should be finished with all speed possible, and money was not
lacking, I soon engaged forty-five copyists, and in twenty-two months
provided two hundred volumes, following the admirable list furnished by
Pope Nicholas V."'[59]
* * * * *
'Cosimo's zeal for learning was not confined to the building of
libraries or to book collecting. His palace formed the centre of a
literary and philosophical Society, which united all the wits of
Florence and the visitors who crowded to the capital of culture.
Vespasiano states that "he was always the father and benefactor of those
who showed any excellence." Distinguished by versatility of tastes and
comprehensive intellect, he formed his own opinion of the men of
eminence with whom he came in contact, and conversed with each upon his
special subject. When giving audience to the scholars, he discoursed
concerning letters; in the company of theologians he showed his
acquaintance with theology, a branch of learning always studied by him
with delight. So also with regard to philosophy. Astrologers found him
well versed in their science, for he somewhat lent faith to astrology,
and employed it on certain private occasions. Musicians in like manner
perceived his mastery of music, wherein he much delighted. The same was
true about sculpture and painting: both of these arts he understood
completely, and showed great favour to all worthy craftsmen. In
architecture he was a consummate judge, for without his opinion and
advice no building was begun or carried to completion.'[60]
* * * * *
'Never was there a time in the world's history when money was spent
more freely upon the collection and preservation of MSS. and when a more
complete machinery was put in motion for the sake of securing literary
treasures. Prince vied with prince, and eminent burgher with burgher, in
buying books. The commercial correspondents of the Medici and other
great Florentine houses, whose banks and discount offices extended over
Europe and the Levant, were instructed to purchase relics of antiquity
without regard for cost, and to forward them to Florence. The most
acceptable present that could be sent to a king was a copy of a Roman
Historian.'[61]
* * * * *
'Among the friends of Cosimo, to whose personal influences at Florence
the Revival of Learning owed a vigorous impulse, Niccolo de' Niccoli
claims our attention. . . . . His judgment in matters of style was so
highly valued that it was usual for scholars to submit their essays to
his eyes before they ventured upon publication. . . . . Notwithstanding
his fine sense of language, Niccolo never appeared before the world of
letters as an author. . . . Certainly his reserve in an age noteworthy
for display has tended to confer on him distinction. The position he
occupied at Florence was that of a literary dictator. All who needed his
assistance and advice were received with urbanity. He threw his house
open to young men of parts, engaged in disputations with the curious,
and provided the ill-educated with teachers. Foreigners from all parts
of Europe paid him visits. The strangers who came to Florence at that
time, if they missed the opportunity of seeing him at home, thought they
had not been in Florence. The house where he lived was worthy of his
refined taste and cultivated judgment, for he had formed a museum of
antiquities--inscriptions, marbles, coins, vases, and engraved gems.
There he not only received students and strangers, but conversed with
sculptors and painters, discussing their inventions as freely as he
criticised the essays of the scholars. . . . . Vespasiano's account of
his personal habits presents so vivid a picture that I cannot refrain
from translating it at length:--"First of all, he was of a most fair
presence; lively, for a smile was ever on his lips, and very pleasant in
his talk. He wore clothes of the fairest crimson cloth, down to the
ground. He never married, in order that he might not be impeded in his
studies. A housekeeper provided for his daily needs. He was, above all
men, the most cleanly in eating, as also in all other things. When he
sat at table, he ate from fair antique vases, and, in like manner, all
his table was covered with porcelain and other vessels of great beauty.
The cup from which he drank was of crystal, or of some other precious
stone. To see him at table--a perfect model of the men of old--was of a
truth a charming sight. He always willed that the napkins set before him
should be of the whitest, as well as all the linen." . . . . What
distinguished Niccolo was the combination of refinement and humane
breeding with open-handed generosity and devotion to the cause of
culture. He knew how to bring forward men of promise and place them in
positions of eminence.'[62]
* * * * *
'Lorenzo attracted to his villa the greatest scholars and most brilliant
men of the time, a circle which included Poliziano, Landino, Ficino,
Pico della Mirandola, Alberti, Pulci, and Michael Angelo. The interests
of this circle, as of all similar Italian circles of the time, were
largely absorbed in the philosophy and literature of Greece, and special
attention was devoted to the teachings of Plato. Plato's writings were
translated into Latin by Ficino, and the translation was printed in
1482, at the cost of Filippo Valvio. Ficino was too poor himself to
undertake the publication of his works, and this was the case with not a
few of the distinguished authors of the age. The presentation of books
to the public required at this time what might be called the endowment
of literature, and endowment which was supplied by the liberality of
wealthy patrons possessed of literary appreciation or public-spirited
ambition, or of both. As Symonds expresses it, "Great literary
undertakings involved in that century the substantial assistance of
wealthy men, whose liberality was rewarded by a notice in the colophon
or in the title-page." The formal dedication was an invention of a
somewhat later date.'[63]
* * * * *
'Of Palla degli Strozzi's services in the cause of Greek learning I have
already spoken. Beside the invitation which he caused to be sent to
Manuel Chrysoloras, he employed his wealth and influence in providing
books necessary for the prosecution of Hellenic studies. "Messer Palla,"
says Vespasiano, "sent to Greece for countless volumes, all at his own
cost. The _Cosmography_ of Ptolemy, together with the picture made to
illustrate it, the _Lives_ of Plutarch, the works of Plato, and very
many other writings of philosophers, he got from Constantinople. The
_Politics_ of Aristotle were not in Italy until Messer Palla sent for
them; and when Messer Lionardo of Arezzo translated them, he had the
copy from his hands." In the same spirit of practical generosity Palla
degli Strozzi devoted his leisure and his energies to the improvement of
the _studio pubblico_ at Florence, giving it that character of humane
culture which it retained throughout the age of the Renaissance. To him,
again, belongs the glory of having first collected books for the express
purpose of founding a public library. This project had occupied the mind
of Petrarch, and its utility had been recognised by Coluccio de'
Salutati, but no one had as yet arisen to accomplish it. "Being
passionately fond of literature, Messer Palla always kept copyists in
his own house and outside it, of the best who were in Florence, both for
Greek and Latin books; and all the books he could find he purchased, on
all subjects, being minded to found a most noble library in Santa
Trinità, and to erect there a most beautiful building for the purpose.
He wished that it should be open to the public, and he chose Santa
Trinità because it was in the centre of Florence, a site of great
convenience to everybody. His disasters supervened and what he had
designed he could not execute."'[64]
* * * * *
'Cosimo used to regret that "he had not begun to spend money upon public
works ten years earlier than he did." Every costly building that bore
his name, each library he opened to the public, and all the donations
lavished upon scholars, served the double purpose of cementing the
despotism of his house and of gratifying his personal enthusiasm for
culture. . . . . Of his generosity to men of letters, the most striking
details are recorded. When Niccolo de' Niccoli ruined himself, Cosimo
opened for him an unlimited credit with the Medicean bank.'[65]
FOOTNOTES:
[59] Symonds, _The Revival of Learning_, pp. 174, 175.
[60] _Ibid._, pp. 172-7.
[61] Symonds, _Revival of Learning_, pp. 139, 140.
[62] Symonds, _Revival of Learning_, pp. 180-2.
[63] Putnam, _Books and their Makers_, vol. i., p. 338.
[64] Symonds, _Revival of Learning_, p. 167.
[65] _Ibid._, pp. 172-3.
_The Dukes of Urbino._
'Mr. Roscoe has observed that "by no circumstance in the character of an
individual is the love of literature so strongly evinced as by the
propensity for collecting together the writings of illustrious scholars,
and compressing the 'soul of ages past' within the narrow limits of a
library." But it is not easy now to appreciate the obstacles attending
such a pursuit in the age of Federigo. The science of bibliography can
scarcely be said to have existed before the invention of printing, in
consequence of the extreme difficulty of becoming acquainted with works
of which there were but few copies, and these widely scattered, perhaps
scarcely known. Great outlay was required, either to search out or
transcribe manuscripts, and even the laborious habits which then
accompanied learning shrank from a task so beset by obstructions. Yet
there was a bright exception in Thomas of Saranza, whose learning
supplied the knowledge, and whose elevation to the triple tiara as
Nicholas V. procured him the opportunities necessary for amassing a
library. Not only did he found that of the Vatican, but he prepared for
Cosimo, _Pater patrie_, a list of authors for the infant collection of
S. Marco, at Florence, which, being recognised as a standard catalogue,
was adopted by Count Federigo. The longer life allowed to the latter
enabled him to outstrip these bibliomaniacs, and all contemporary
accumulators, until the fame of his library stood unrivalled.
Accordingly Ruscelli, in his _Imprese Illustri_, avers it to be
"notorious that the earliest and most famous collection formed out of
the ruins of antiquity was that of Urbino, from whence many excellent
authors were edited, and copies supplied."'[66]
* * * * *
'In no respect did he look to expense; and whenever he learned the
existence of any desirable book in Italy, or abroad, he sent for it
without heeding the cost. His librarian, Vespasiano, wrote, "It is now
above fourteen years since he began to make this collection, and he has
ever since at Urbino, Florence, and elsewhere, thirty-four transcribers,
and has resorted to every means requisite for amassing a famous and
excellent library."'[67]
* * * * *
'To the right and left of the carriage entrance into the great
courtyard, are two handsome saloons, each about forty-five feet by
twenty-two, and twenty-three in height. That on the left contained the
famous library of manuscripts collected by Count Federigo; the
corresponding one received the printed books, which, gradually purchased
by successive dukes, became under the last sovereign, a copious
collection. Baldi, in his description of the palace, printed in
Bianchini's work, dwells on the judicious adaptation of the former, its
windows set high against the northern sky, admitting a subdued and
steady light which invited to study; its air cool in summer, temperate
in winter; its walls conveniently shelved; the character and objects of
the place fittingly set forth in a series of rude hexameters inscribed
on the cornices. Adjoining was a closet fitted up with inlaid and gilded
panelling, beneath which Timoteo della Vite, a painter whose excellence
we shall attest in our thirtieth chapter, depicted Minerva with her
ægis, Apollo with his lyre, and the nine muses with their appropriate
symbols. A similar small study was fitted up immediately over this one,
set round with arm-chairs encircling a table, all mosaicked with
_tarsia_, and carved by Maestro Giacomo of Florence, while on each
compartment of the panelling was the portrait of some famous author, and
an appropriate distich. One other article of furniture deserves special
notice--a magnificent eagle of gilt bronze, serving as a lectern in the
centre of the manuscript room. It was carried to Rome at the devolution
of the duchy to the Holy See, but was rescued by Pope Clement XI. from
the Vatican library, and restored to his native town, where it has long
been used in the choir of the cathedral.'[68]
* * * * *
'Of Francesco Maria's literary pursuits we have various pleasing
memorials. Not satisfied with the valuable library of MSS. that had
descended to him from the Feltrian dukes, he formed another of standard
printed works. Indeed, he became an assiduous book-collector; and the
letters of his librarian, Benedetto Benedetti, in the Oliveriana
Library, are full of lists which his agents in Venice, Florence, and
even Frankfort are urged to supply. In his own voluminous
correspondence, we find constant offers from authors of dedications or
copies of their productions, the tone of which is highly complimentary
to his taste for letters. In 1603, the Archbishop of Monreale, in Spain,
transmits him the regulations he proposed to prescribe in bequeathing
his library to a seminary he had founded in his diocese, expressing a
hope that they might prove useful to the Duke's collection, "at this
moment without parallel in the world." Instead of quoting the vague
testimony of courtly compliment, as to the use which this philosophic
Prince made of these acquisitions, let us cite the brief records of his
studies, preserved in his own Diary. In 1585, "terminated an inspection
of the whole works of Aristotle, on which I have laboured no less than
fifteen years, having had them generally read to me by Maestro Cesare
Benedetti, of Pesaro."'[69]
* * * * *
'Francesco di Giorgio, in his _Treatise on Architecture_, mentions Duke
Federigo as holding out inducements for the learned men at his court to
illustrate the works of classic authors on architecture and sculpture.
But no testimony to his literary habits can be more satisfactory than
that of his librarian, Vespasiano, to the following purpose. The Duke
was a ready Latin scholar, and extremely fond of ancient history. As a
logician he had attained considerable aptitude, having studied
Aristotle's _Ethics_ along with Maestro Lazzaro, a famous theologian,
who became Bishop of Urbino, discussing with him the most intricate
passages. By the like process he mastered the Stagirite's politics,
physics, and other treatises; and having acquired more philosophy than
any contemporary prince, his thirst for new sources of knowledge induced
him to devote himself to theology with equal zeal. The principal works
of St. Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus were habitually read to him; he
preferred the former as more clear, but admitted that the latter
displayed more subtlety in argument. He was well acquainted with the
Bible, as well as the commentaries of Saints Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine,
and Gregory; also with the writings of the Greek fathers, such as Saints
Basil, Chrysostom, Gregory Naziazen, Nicetas, Athanasius, and Cyril.
Among the classic authors whom he was in the habit of reading or
listening to were Livy, Sallust, Quintus Curtius, Justin, Cæsar,
Plutarch, Ælius Spartianus, Æmylius Protus, Tacitus, Suetonius,
Eusebius. All men of letters visiting Urbino were hospitably
entertained, and several were always attached to his court. His
largesses to such were at all times liberal. He spent above 1500 ducats
in this way when at Florence, and remitted similar bounties to Rome and
Naples. He gave 1000 ducats to the learned Campano, professor of
belles-lettres at Perugia in 1455, who aided him in collecting ancient
MSS., and became Bishop of Teramo.'[70]
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Dennistoun, _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_, vol. i., p. 155.
[67] _Ibid._, vol. i., pp. 156-7.
[68] _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_, vol. i., pp. 153-5.
[69] _Ibid._, vol. i., p. 154.
_Pieresc._
'When any library was to be sold by public outcry, he took care to buy
the best books, especially if they were of some neat edition that he did
not already possess. He bound his books in red morocco, with his cypher
or initials in gold. One binder always lived in the house, and sometimes
several were employed at once "when the books came rolling in on every
side."' 'Your house and library' (says the dedication of a book to
Pieresc) 'are a firmament wherein the stars of learning shine; the desks
are lit with starlight, and the books are in constellations, and you sit
like the sun in the midst, embracing and giving light to them all.' 'The
library is to be open to all the world without the exception of any
living soul; readers were to be supplied with chairs and writing
materials, and the attendants will fetch all books required in any
language or department of learning, and will change them as often as is
necessary.'[71]
* * * * *
'Bouchard states, in his funeral oration on Pieresc, "To this his shop
and storehouse of wisdom and virtue, Peireskius did not only courteously
admit all travellers, studious of art and learning, opening to them all
the treasures of his library, but he would keep them there a long time,
with free and liberal entertainment; and at their departure, would give
them books, coins, and other things, which seemed most suitable to their
studies; also he freely gave them at his own expense, whatever things
they wanted, most liberally, even as to all other learned men, who were
absent, and whose names he had only heard of; whatever he had among his
books or relics of antiquity, which he thought might assist them in
their writings, he would send it them of his own accord, not only
without their desiring the same, but many times when they were ignorant
of such things.'[72]
FOOTNOTES:
[70] _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_, pp. 219, 220.
[71] Elton, _Great Book Collectors_, pp. 180-4.
[72] _The Library_, July, 1895.
_Mr. Ruskin's Advice._
'I say first we have despised literature. What do we, as a nation, care
about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries,
public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses? If a
man spends lavishly on his library, you call him mad--a biblio-maniac.
But you never call any one a horse maniac, though men ruin themselves
every day by their horses, and you do not hear of people ruining
themselves by their books. Or, to go lower still, how much do you think
the bookshelves of the United Kingdom, public and private, would fetch,
as compared with the contents of its wine-cellars? What position would
its expenditure on literature take as compared with its expenditure on
luxurious eating? We talk of food for the mind, as of food for the body:
now a good book contains such food inexhaustibly; it is a provision for
life, and for the best part of us; yet how long most people would look
at the best book before they would give the price of a large turbot for
it!'[73]
'It will be long yet before that comes to pass. Nevertheless, I hope it
will not be long before royal or national libraries will be founded in
every considerable city, with a royal series of books in them; the same
series in every one of them, chosen books, the best in every kind,
prepared for that national series in the most perfect way possible;
their text printed all on leaves of equal size, broad of margin, and
divided into pleasant volumes, light in the hand, beautiful and strong,
and thorough as examples of binder's work.'[73]
'I could shape for you other plans, for art galleries and for natural
history galleries, and for many precious, many, it seems to me, needful
things; but this book plan is the easiest and needfullest, and would
prove a considerable tonic to what we call our British constitution,
which has fallen dropsical of late, and has an evil thirst, and evil
hunger, and wants healthier feeding. You have got its Corn Laws repealed
for it; try if you cannot get Corn Laws established for it dealing in a
better bread--bread made of that old enchanted Arabian grain, the
Sesame, which opens doors, doors, not of robbers', but of kings'
treasuries.'[74]
* * * * *
'Whatever the hold which the aristocracy of England has on the heart of
England, in that they are still always in front of her battles, this
hold will not be enough, unless they are also in front of her
thoughts.'[75]
* * * * *
'But it is not gold that you want to gather! What is it? Greenbacks? No;
not those neither. What is it then--is it ciphers after a capital I?
Cannot you practise writing ciphers, and write as many as you want?
Write ciphers for an hour every morning, in a big book, and say every
evening, I am worth all those noughts more than I was yesterday. Won't
that do? Well, what in the name of Plutus is it you want? Not gold, not
greenbacks, not ciphers after a capital I? You will have to answer after
all, "No; we want, somehow or other, money's _worth_." Well, what is
that? Let your Goddess of Getting-on discover it, and let her learn to
stay therein.'[76]
* * * * *
'And the entire object of true education is to make people not merely
_do_ the right things, but _enjoy_ the right things--not merely
industrious, but to love industry--not merely learned, but to love
knowledge--not merely pure, but to love purity--not merely just, but to
hunger and thirst after justice.'[77]
FOOTNOTES:
[73] _Sesame and Lilies._
[74] _Sesame and Lilies._
[75] _Crown of Wild Olive_, p. 87.
[76] _Ibid._, p. 60.
[77] _Ibid._, p. 46.
INDEX
Abbotsford Library Catalogue, printed by Maitland Club, 80
Abbotsford Library, impressions of, 80
Accessions, on placing, 89
Acland, Sir H., the 'Radcliffe' bookcase, 113
Addison, Essay on 'My Lady's Library,' 50
Addison's picture of 'Tom Folio,' 79
Advertisements, which to distrust, 14
Ælius, 148
Æmylius Protus, 148
Agabito, librarian to the Duke of Urbino, 119
Albemarle, Duke of, 78
Alberti, 142
Ambrose, St., 148
American tables, 104
Angelo, Michael, 142
Angling books, 10
Anonymous Literature, how to catalogue, 84, 85
_Anthrenus varius_, bookboring insect, 23
Apollo Library, 135
Appliances for the library, 103
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 148
Arcangelo, Don, 138
_Archaic Dictionary_, 44
_Architecture_, by Vitruvius, 119
Aristotle, Inspection of the works of, 147
Aristotle's _Politics_, 143
Athanasius, St., 148
Augustine, St., 148
Augustus, Emperor, author and booklover, 135
Austen, J., _Northanger Abbey_, 36
Author, the, 3
---- whims and fancies of, 3
Autograph letters, how to catalogue, 64
Bacon, Lord, 36
---- his retreat at Gorhambury, 107
Bacon's _Natural History_, 40
---- _Organon_, 74
Baker's _Chronicle_, 72
Baldi's description of a Florentine palace, 110, 146
Balfour, Mr., advice on reading, 27
Barclay, A., _Ship of Fools_, 76
Basil, St., 148
Beauchamp, Guy, earl of Warwick, Library of early romances, 71
Beauclerk, T., 79
---- Library of, in Great Russell Street, 107
Bedford, Duke of, and Charles V.'s Library, 71
Beecher, H. W., on reading, 30
Benedetti, B., Book lists of, 147
---- librarian to Francesco Maria, 147
---- C., of Pesaro, 147
Beyle, Henri, Pseudonyms used by, 84
Bianchini's works, 110, 146
Bible, 148
Bibliography, Science of, when commenced, 144
Bibliomaniacs, Great, 71
Blackie, J. S., on reading, 32
_Blackwood's Magazine_, Extracts from, 30, 31, 32
Blades, W., _Enemies of Books_, 7, 21, 100
---- on the handling of books, 22
---- on the preservation of books, 19, 99
_Blatta Australasia_, a bookboring cockroach, 23
Bookbinding, 52
---- and the bookbinder, 23
---- colour, 49, 54
---- Covers, what to choose, 64
---- errors of taste, 56
---- gilding, 57
---- Good, what is fatal to, 97
---- leather, kind to choose, 54
---- lettering, 58
---- marbling, 55
---- provincial, 7
---- style and colour of, 49
---- style, 49, 54
---- the, remarks on, 61
---- what is good and bad, 5, 6
Books, accidentally destroyed, 12
---- arranging, difficulty of, 17
---- care of, 15, 16
---- ---- maxims for, 24
---- classification of, 87
---- commonplace, 38
---- contents of, how to master the, 31, 32
---- counterfeit, 52
---- dusting, 20, 21
---- enemies of, 7, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23
---- binding, fifteenth-century, 70
---- handling, 22
---- housing of, 100
---- metal bosses on, desks for, 106
---- packing, 24, 25
---- ------ Rare and handsome, 89
---- ------ Reference, 89
---- Rare, what constitutes, 11
---- ------ Why so called, 12
---- How to read, 32
---- Recommending, 33
---- Reference, 42
---- ------ List of good, 44
---- ------ On placing, 89
---- ------ Uses of, 43
---- Repairing, 60, 61
---- Restoring, 60, 61
---- Ruined, how often, 7
---- Shelfmarking, 93
---- Sizes of, as decided upon by the Associated Librarians of Great
Britain, 98
---- Suppressed, 12
---- Treatment of, 108
---- Valueless, 14
Bookcase, the 'Radcliffe' iron, 113
---- revolving, 105
Bookcases, 49, 94
---- at Trinity College, Cambridge, 102
---- beautiful specimens of, 99
---- for rare and beautiful books, &c., 99
---- glass doors undesirable, 100
---- height of, 50, 95
---- in bedrooms, 38
---- lettering and numbering, 93, 99
---- shelves covered with padded leather, 100
---- Tonks' patent fittings advisable, 95
Book-collecting, Revival in, at Florence, 140
Book collectors, early, 71
---- collectors of the eighteenth century, 79
---- hobbies, 65
---- readers, two classes, 34
---- screen, 47
Bookshelves, 130
Book support, metal, 106
---- values, 9
---- ---- how to determine, 9
Booksellers, Old London, 72
Bookworm, The, 23
Bordesley Abbey, and the Earl of Warwick's Library, 71
Boston Public Library, Roxbury Branch, dimensions of book-room, 113
Boswell, _Life of Johnson_, 3
Boudoir bindings, pretty effects of, 48
---- libraries, 46
---- library catalogue, 50
Bowen, on _Novel Reading_, 37
Bracciolini, Poggio, 137
Bradshaw, H., the Cambridge University Librarian, 117
Braybrooke, Lord, his collection of county histories, 66
British Museum Library Catalogue, 85
Brontë, C., _Jane Eyre_, 37
Bruni, Lionardo, 137
Buchanan, G., 117
Buckram binding, 62
Buffalo Bug, or Carpet Bug, 23
Burke, on reading, 31
Bustle tails, bookboring insects, 23
Butler's _Hudibras_, 72, 74
Cæsar, 148
_Cambridge University_, _History of_, by Willis and Clark, 120
Campano, Bishop of Teramo, 149
Campion, Hanmer and Spencer's History of Ireland, 75
Care of books, On the, 15
---- Maxims to be learned, 24
Carlyle, on a library catalogue, 81
Carpet Bug, or Buffalo Bug, 23
Casaubon, among his books, 72
Catalogue, a fifteenth-century, 70
---- Alphabetical system, advantages of, 86
---- Classification of the, 82
---- Sectional, Lord Crawford's, 83
---- The, 81
---- The, alphabetical arrangement of, 81
---- The, classified system, advantages of, 86
---- The, cross-references, 85
---- The, how not to make, 82, 84
---- The, expert advice on, 84
---- The, rules to be observed, 85
---- The, subjects, classification of, 86
---- The, preparing titles, 87
Chairs, Library, 104
Charles V. of France, library of, 71
Chaucer, Speght's edition (1602), 75
Chippendale, bookcase designs by, 99
Chrysoloras, M., 143
Chrysostom, St., 148
_Clarissa Harlowe_, 60
Clark, J. W., on the position of the library, 119
---- Student-life of the past, 72
Classic authors, list of, 148
Classics, no suitable edition in England as in France, 1
Classification, 81
---- of books, 87
Clement XI., Pope, and the eagle lectern, 147
Clement, D., _Bibliothèque curieuse_, 11
Clement, D., on degrees of rarity, 11, 13
Colet, among his books, 72
Collected editions, how to catalogue, 94
Commonplace books, 38
---- books, simplest form of, 40
Compositor, the, 3
Condition, as affecting the price of books, 13, 11
_Consuelo_, 37
Consumer, the, 3
Cosimo's generosity to men of letters, 144
---- Medicean library, 138
---- plan of the formation of a library, 138
---- versatility and comprehensive intellect, 139
---- zeal for learning, 139
Cotton's library, dimensions of, 73
Counterfeit books, 52
County collections, what should be aimed at, 66
---- Histories, on collecting, 66
Courthope's edition of Pope, 3
Crawford, Lord, Ballad catalogue, 83
---- Collection of books, pamphlets, ballads, &c., 65
---- Sectional catalogue, 83
Cross-references, when to make, 85
Cunningham, P., edition of Walpole's letters, 3
Curiosities, arrangement of, in library, 122
Cyril, St., 148
Damp, an enemy to books, 17
De Maistre's _Journey Round my Room_, 47
Dennistoun's _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_, 110, 145, 147, 149
Desk, standing, 105
Dictionaries, use of, 30
_Dives et Pauper_, 70
Drawings, safe keeping of, 106
Duns Scotus, 148
Dusting of books, 20, 21
Edis' _Decoration and Furniture of Town Houses_, 132
Éditions de luxe, 3
Education, What is? 45
Edwards, _Memoirs of Libraries_, 13, 97, 99, 100
---- on bookcases, 97, 99
Elizabethan Poetry, catalogue of, 83
Ellwanger's _Story of my House_, 9, 104
Elton, _Great Book Collectors_, 115, 149
Elwin's edition of Pope, 3
Enemies of books, 17, 18, 19, 21
Erasmus, among his books, 72
Eusebius, 148
Evelyn's directions for gathering a library, 78
---- Letter to Pepys on the Seventeenth Century libraries, 79
Eversley Rectory armchair, 105
Facetiæ, on placing, 89
Family papers, how to catalogue, 64
Farnaby, T., _Index Rhetoricus_, 74
Federigo, Count, famous library of MSS., 110, 146
---- Duke, Literary habits of, 148
Feltrian dukes, MSS., 147
Fergusson's _Architecture_, 44
Ficino, Translator of Plato, 142
Fiction Library, how to arrange, 36
Fiesole, Abbey of, on building a library at, 138
Fiesole Abbey, Library of, 138
Fifteenth Century Library Catalogue, 70
Fine Copy? What is a, 5, 6
First Edition Craze, fight against, 14
Fish Bugs, bookboring insects, 23
Florence, Revival in learning at, 140
---- _Studio Pubblico_, Improvement of the, 143
Florentine Library, Description of a great, 110
Floriculture, on collecting books on, 67
'Foxed' Book, A, 6
Foxhounds in England, 135
Francesco Maria's literary pursuits, 147
Froude, W., The 'Radcliffe' bookcase, 113
Fuller, T., on memory and note-books, 39
Gas, an enemy to books, 18
Genealogical books, rise in price of, 66
Getting-on, Goddess of, 152
Gibbon, Edward, 1
---- library catalogue, 83
Gilbey, Sir W., sporting books, 67
Gilding, Advice on, 57
Giorgio, F. di, _Treatise on Architecture_, 148
Gladstone, W. E., _Books, and the Housing of them_, 100
---- _Gladstone in the Evening of his Days_, 36, 108, 110
---- on library shelves, 96
Gladstone's Temple of Peace, Tables in, 104
Glastonbury, Treasures at, 69
'Globe' edition of English classics, 2
Goldsmith Chair, The, 105
Good Edition, how to make, 3
---- What is a, 1
Gosse, E., Library Catalogue, 83
Gregory, St., 148
Greek Fathers, writings of, 148
Greenbacks, 152
Guidobaldo I., Library Rules, 118
Haigh Hall, Ballad Catalogue at, 83
---- Library Catalogue, who compiled by, 65
Hallam's _Literary History_, 41
Hamerton, Philip G., Advice on reading, 27, 28, 29
Harding's _Chronicle_, 76
Hart, Dr. E., on books in bedrooms, 38
Hawarden Library annexe, 107
---- ---- Cost of, 113
Heat, an enemy to books, 18
Heppelwhite, Bookcase design by, 99
Hill, B., Edition of Boswell's Johnson, 3
Howard, Sir J., Library of, 70
'Humanity Room' at Hawarden, 109
Humphrey, Duke, 71
Ireland, History of, 75
Ink Maker, The, 3
Jerome, St., 148
Jessopp, Dr., Library annexe of, 107
---- on old libraries, 68
Johnson, Dr., careless with his books, 16
---- Life of, 3
---- on knowledge, 42
---- on the editions of _Thomas à Kempis_, 67
Johnson's _Dictionary_, 44
Justin, 148
Kerr's _Gentleman's House_, 120
Knowledge, On. Extract from the _Spectator_, 42
---- Two kinds of, 42
Lady's Library, how arranged, 51
Lamb, choice of books, 34
Lampson, L., Rowfant Library Catalogue, 83
Landino, 142
Lang, A., remarks on the 'binder,' 61
---- on the care of books, 16
Lapaccini, Fra G., a MS. copyist, 138
Large-paper copies, 8, 13
Larousse's _Grand Dictionnaire_, 43
Leather for binding, 53
Lectern, an historic eagle, 146
Leighton, J., _Book-plate Annual_, 15
---- Careless handling of books, 16
Leland, C. G., on _Mending and Repairing_, 61
---- Glastonbury treasures, 69
Leonora's library, how arranged, 51
_Lepisma Saccharina_, bookboring insects, 23
_L'Escholle des Filles_, 77
Librarian, A, 115
---- Qualifications of a good, 115, 117
---- The motto of a good, 118
Libraries, Classification of headings of, 94
---- in country houses, lamentable condition of, 15
---- Old country, 68
---- XIIth century, 69
---- XIIIth century, 69
---- XVIIth century, 72
---- Suite of, 121
---- Public, Originator of, 143
_Library, The_ Extract from, 150
Library, Appliances for the, 103
---- The, architecturally, 119
---- arrangement, On, 91
---- Arrangement of, two plans, 121
---- Artistic treatment of the, 122
---- Aspect for the, 125
---- An economic, 133
---- Curiosities in, 22
---- Decorations of the, 131
---- Enemy of the, 120
---- fireplace, 126
---- intercommunication, 126
---- On heating, 120, 128
---- On lighting, 120
---- Portable, Composition of a, 46
---- Position of the, 119, 124
---- rules, 118
---- Study attached to the, 127
---- Windows in the, 125
---- annexe, The, 106
_Library Association Report_, 1878, 115
---- _Journal_, Reference to, 91
---- ---- American, 117
Lionardo, M., translator of Aristotle's _Politics_, 143
Lippincott's _Biographical Dictionary_, 44
Livy, 148
Lockhart, _Life of Sir W. Scott_, 80
Lorenzo and his literary circle, 142
Lucullus' vast collection of books, 135
Macaulay, private libraries in 1685, 79
---- _State of England in 1685_, 72
Magazines, How to bind, 63
Maggliabecchi, Anecdote of, 116
---- his abnormal knowledge of books, 115
Manetti, Giannozzo, 137
Manuscripts, How to catalogue, 64
---- collecting and preserving at Florence, 140
---- Collection of ancient, 149
---- Famous library of, 110
---- of the Feltrian dukes, 147
---- Urbino's library of, 146
Marbling, what to choose, 55
Marryat, original binding of his novels, 6
Marsuppini, Carlo, 137
Maxwell, Sir H., advice on reading, 26
Medicean Library, 138
Medici, Cosimo de', on housing of large libraries, 137
---- The, and their friends, 137
---- Lorenzo de', 137
Memory and note-books, 39
Mending and repairing, 61
Middleton Cheney, Library annexe at, 107
Mirandola, P. della, 41, 142
Monastic libraries, Old, 69
Monmouth rebellion, romances on, 36
Monreale, Archbishop of, 147
Morocco leather, kind to choose, 54
Munificent book-buying, 133
Murray's _Dictionary_, 59
---- _Magazine_, on county histories, 66
Music, How to bind, 64
Napoleon, on the composition of a portable library, 46
---- a lover of small books, 46
---- and novel-reading, 38
Nares' _Glossary_, 44
Natural history, on collecting books on, 67
Naudé, G., _Avis pour dresser une Bibliothèque_, 10, 79
Naziazen, St. Gregory, 148
Niccoli, N. de', Home life and habits of, 141
---- literary dictator at Florence, 140
---- to whom he bequeathed his library, 137
Nicetas, 148
Nicholas V. Pope, Book list of, 139
_Nineteenth Century_, Extracts from the, 26, 68, 111
Nordau, millionaires in England, 133
North, Dr. John, his book-loving habits, 8
---- Dr. J., Library of, 73
---- Life of, 73
North's _Lives of the Norths_, 7
Notes, Suggestions on taking, 41
Novel-reading, 33
---- lecture on, 36, 37
Novels, how to bind, 62
Octavia Library, 135
Oldys, W., 79
Oliveriana Library, 147
Oxford, Lord, 79
---- University of. Duke Humphrey's collection of illuminated
treasures, 71
Pamphlets, how to bind, 63
---- how to catalogue, 63, 94
Paper, coloured, 13
---- fine, 13
---- hand-made, 8
---- Japanese vellum, 8
---- vellum, 13
---- knives, 16
---- maker, the, 3
Parentucelli, T., Catalogue of S. Marco Library, 137
Parker's _Domestic Architecture_, Reference to, 70
Paston _Letters_, 70
Pattison, Mark, a type of a scholar, 134
Payn, J., on the best hundred books, 30
Pembroke, Earl of, 79
Pepys' books, how numbered and titled, 78
---- book presses, 75
---- book presses at Magdalene College, 75
---- Collection of Ballads, &c., 65
---- Diary, 43, 59, 74, &c.
---- library catalogue, 76
---- library catalogue, classification of, 82, 89
---- a lover of books, 74
---- manuscripts, 77
---- single sheets, 77
Periodicals, Unbound, on placing, 89
Pesaro, Library of, 138
Petrarch, project of a public library, 143
Phillips, W., anecdote of George Sumner, 116
Pickering, Publications issued by, 4
Pieresc, and his books, 149
---- Funeral oration on, 150
Plato, Teachings of, 142
Plato's Works, 143
Plutarch, 148
---- on Lucullus' Library, 135
Plutarch's _Lives_, 143
Poetical Concordances, 44
Poliziano, 142
Poole, Mr., on enemies to books, 18
Pope, 'Globe' edition of, 2
Pope's Works, the edition of Courthope and Elwin, 3
Preservation of book covers, A recipe for, 20
Pressman, The, 3
Priceus, _Defensio Hist. Brit._, 76
Printer, The, 3
Prints, safe keeping of, 106
Private Library, divisions or classification of a, 89
_Psalms_, French, 74
Pseudonyms, how to catalogue, 84
Publisher, The, 3
Pulci, 142
Putnam's _Books and their Makers_, 71, 142
Ptolemy's _Cosmography_, 143
Quintus Curtius, 148
Quotations, Dictionary of, 44
Radcliffe bookcases, cost of, 114
Rare books, what constitutes, 12
---- why so called, 11
Rarity as affecting the price of books, 11
Rawlinson, T., 79
Reader, The, 3
Reading, The art of, 25
---- ---- literature on, 26
---- seat, 96
Record, unpublished, advisability of typing, 64
Reference books, 42
---- American, 43
---- French, 43
---- uses of, 43
Regulations, Book of, of Guidobaldo I, 118
Renaissance history, 136
Richardson's _Dictionary_, 44
Rochester's _Poems_, 78
Romances, Guy Beauchamp's library of, 71
_Romola_, 37
Roscoe, Mr., on book-collecting, 144
Rowfant Library Catalogue, 83
Ruddiman, T., 117
Ruskin, J., advice on book collecting, 150, 151
---- choice of books, 34
---- his scheme of a Royal series of books, 4
Ruskin's _Crown of Wild Olive_, 152
---- _Sesame and Lilies_, 151, 152
Sachetti, Franco, 137
Sala, G. A., On common-place books, 39, 40
Sallust, 148
Salutati, C. de, On utility of public libraries, 143
S. Giorgio Maggiore, Library of, 137
---- MSS. of, at Florence, 137
S. Marco, Catalogue of Library of, 138
Santa Trinità, Proposed public library at, 143
Scott, R., bill of books supplied to Pepys, 77
---- Bookseller of the XVIIth Century, 73
Scott, Sir W., Life of, 80
---- his care of books, 16
---- Novels of, original bindings of, 6
_Seven Champions of Christendom_, 72
Seventeenth Century Literature, Catalogue of, 83
Sévigné, Mme. de, Letters of, 109
Shakespeare, 'Cambridge' Edition of, 2, 53
'Shannon' Tables, 104
Shaw, G. B., on an economic library, 133
Shelf Classification, Difficulty of, 88
Sheraton, Bookcase designs by, 99
Silver Fish, bookboring insects, 23
'Sleepy Hollow,' an armchair at Eversley, 105
Smith, L. P., Qualifications of a Librarian, 117
Smith, W., _Greek and Roman Biography_, 44
Somers, Lord, 79
Soulsby, Miss Lucy, _Things in Book Clothing_, 28
Spartianus, 148
_Spectator_, Extract from, on Knowledge, 42
Spencer, George, Earl, 79
---- Earl, Library at Manchester, 79
Sport, Reference to, 133
Sporting books, on collecting, 67
Staghounds in England, 135
Stanley, Col., 79
Steps, Library, 106
Stevens, _Who spoils our English Books?_ 3, 4
Stevenson, R. L., Works. 'Edinburgh' Edition, 4
Strozzi, Palla degli, Greek learning, 142
---- originator of public libraries, 143
Subjects, Short, classification of, 85
Suetonius, 148
Sumner, G., Anecdote of, 116
---- his knowledge of books, 116
Sunderland, Charles, Earl of, 79
Suppressed books, 12
Symonds, On great literary undertakings, 142
---- _Revival of Learning_, 139, 140, 142, 144
Tables, Library, 104
Tacitus, 148
Tarleton's _Jests_, 72
_Tatler_--Addison's Picture of Tom Folio, 79
Tiberius, Library of, 135
Title-pages, ruined, 7
Titles, how to prepare, 87
Thirlwall, on reading, 31
_Thomas à Kempis_, Editions of, 68
Thomas of Saranza, founder of the Vatican Library, 145
Todd's _Gower and Chaucer_, 72
---- _Index Rerum_, 39
Tonk's Patent Fittings for Bookcases, 95
Topographical Books, on collecting, 66
---- Rise in price of, 66
Traill, H. D., on book readers, 35
Trajan, Library of, 135
Traversari, Ambrogio, 137
_Urbino_, _Dukes of_, 110, 144
---- _Memoirs of the_, 119
---- book-collecting by, 145
---- hospitality to men of letters, 148
---- Library of, 138
---- his collection of ancient MSS., 149
Valvio, G., Publisher of Plato (1482), 142
Vespasiano, a MSS. copyist, 138
---- on Casimo's plan of forming a library, 138
---- on Federigo's literary habits, 148
---- on the S. Marco Library Catalogue, 138
Vitruvius' _Architecture_, 119, 125
Walpole, H., on Beauclerk's library, 107
Walpole's Letters, edited by Cunningham, 3
Wanley, H., 79
Warwick, Earl of, Library of early romances, List of, 71, 72
Weeding out, 80
Wheatley, B. R., on library arrangement, 90
Wheatley, H. B., _Pepys and the World he lived in_, 74, 82, 90
_Where is it?_ 40
White Canons, Catalogue of the House of the, 70
Whittingham, Books printed by, 4
Whittingham's garden at Chiswick, 4
Wilberforce, Dr., on knowledge, 42
Wilkinson's _Ancient Egyptians_, 44
Willett, Deb., 78
Willis and Clark, _History of Cambridge University_, 120
Wordsworth, careless with his books, 16
Wren, Sir C., bookcases at Trinity College, Cambridge, 102
Wren, W., on Education, 45
Zola, 110
_London_: STRANGEWAYS, _Printers._
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 53, " ssued" changed to "issued" (issued in a separate)
Page 61, "cuttting" changed to "cutting" (even cutting off lines)
Page 64, "callendar" changed to "calendar" (instructions to calendar)
Page 153, "Aelus" changed to "Ælius" (Ælius, 148)
Page 153, "Aemylius" changed to "Æmylius" (Æmylius Protus, 148)
Page 155, "Lionardi" changed to "Lionardo" (Bruni, Lionardo, 137)
Page 156, Brontè changed to "Brontë" (Brontë, C.,)
Page 158, "Gentlemen's" changed to "Gentleman's" (Kerr's _Gentlemen's
House_, 120)
Page 158, "Lapaccim" changed to "Lapaccini" (Lapaccini, Fra G., a MS.
copyist, 138)
Page 158, "bookbinding" changed to "bookboring" (_Lepisma Saccharina_,
bookboring insects)
Page 158, "Th" changed to "The" (_Library, The_,)
Page 159, "Nazianzen" changed to "Naziazen" (Naziazen, St. Gregory, 148)
Page 162, "MMS." changed to "MSS." (Vespasiano, a MSS.)
Buckram is sometimes capitalized and sometimes not. This was retained.
This book hyphenates or not on a whim. For example: Common-place and
Commonplace. These were retained.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Private Library, by Arthur L. Humphreys
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