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Title: A brief outline of the history of libraries
Author: Justus Lipsius
Translator: John Cotton Dana
Release date: March 20, 2026 [eBook #78256]
Language: English
Original publication: Chicago, IL: A. C. McClurg & Co, 1907
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78256
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES ***
Transcriber’s Note: Italicized text is surrounded by underscores:
_italics_.
[Illustration: LITERATURE OF LIBRARIES
IN THE
SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
EDITED BY
JOHN COTTON DANA AND HENRY W. KENT
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG
AND COMPANY
1907]
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF
THE HISTORY OF
LIBRARIES
_An Edition of two hundred and fifty copies in this form and one of
twenty-five copies on Large Paper were printed at The Merrymount
Press, Boston, in May, 1907_
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF
THE HISTORY OF
LIBRARIES
BY
JUSTUS LIPSIUS
TRANSLATED FROM THE
SECOND EDITION
(ANTWERP, THE PLANTIN PRESS
JOHN MORETUS, 1607)
THE LAST FROM
THE HAND OF THE AUTHOR
BY
JOHN COTTON DANA
[Illustration: (fleuron)]
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
MDCCCCVII
COPYRIGHT, A. C. McCLURG & CO., 1907
PUBLISHED, JUNE 1, 1907
D. B. UPDIKE, THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON
NOTE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Few of the biographers of Justus Lipsius have devoted their attention
to that part of his writings which, in an English translation by
John Cotton Dana, is here offered to lovers of libraries. They have
found matters of greater importance to the world at large in the
chief things of his life,--his theological, historical and literary
writings. Mr. Peter Bayle, in his famous _General Dictionary_, which
first appeared in 1697, and afterwards Englished, in 1710, says
in this connection, as an introduction to his own contribution to
Lipsius’s biography:
“I might relate a great many curious particulars concerning him; but
as others[1] have already collected them, and have not even omitted
what relates to his education and his early learning, I am obliged to
confine myself to such particulars as they have not mentioned.” These
particulars related to one of Lipsius’s greatest faults, for which
he was chiefly censured,--his inconsistency with regard to religious
beliefs,--and they take on an additional interest when treated by
Bayle, who was himself given to tasting of religion at all its
different founts. With gossipy pen, he briefly summarizes the facts
in Lipsius’s stormy theological career, which to a sixteenth-century
mind, and even to one of the eighteenth century, must have seemed as
important as it was chequered.
The theologian of a century or so ago undoubtedly found that Lipsius
had contributed something to religious thought, but to us, in this
century of freedom in such matters, Justus Lipsius is chiefly a
subject for antiquarian curiosity, just as he was to Bayle. It would
be idle to speculate on the present-day value of his _Diva Virgo
Hallensis_, or his _Diva Sichemiensis_, written for the Jesuits,
when late in his life he had accepted the professorship of Latin
in the Colegium Buslidanium at Louvain and had become, to quote
from Bayle, “a bigot, like a silly woman.” The polite literature
which Lipsius taught at Louvain, in a manner “very glorious to
him,” is quite unread to-day; it is unnecessary now when so much
polite literature has been, and is constantly being, added to the
world’s carefully shelved stock. Whatever defects of matter or style
our writer may have had, like all the humanists he served a great
purpose in retailing to further generations--and especially to
librarians--the opinions of the classic writers on the history of
libraries. It is not for us, who have received so great a favour at
his hands, to criticise his scholarship, as some have done,--as does
one writer who says, speaking of one of his mental tendencies, “The
other, derived from his Jesuit training, showed itself in his merely
rhetorical or verbal view of classical literature, of which the one
interest lay in its style.” Neither need we concern ourselves with
his tendency to change his religious point of view,--now Jesuit, now
Lutheran, now Calvinist, now Romanist. To Lipsius bibliophiles owe
their thanks because he published the first history of libraries,
in the modern sense of the word,--a history which is as fresh and
useful to-day as it was when it was written. Only a man of great
scholarship could have written such a story, requiring the searching
of the original authorities in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and only the
scholarship of the sixteenth century--careful, conscientious and
leisurely--could have brought together all the facts that Lipsius
did. All of the histories since his time have borrowed freely from
our author, or, like Edwards, have used his references for further
elaboration of their texts.
If, however, but few of his biographers have devoted themselves
to a matter which must have been of no small interest in Lipsius’s
life (judging from his enthusiastic manner of treating it), one, at
least, has done full justice to it,--a Frenchman, Étienne Gabriel
Peignot, who, born in Arc-en-Barrios in 1767, devoted his whole life
to the cause of bibliography. The account of this scholar written
by Simonnet, in his _Essai sur la vie et les ouvrages de Gabriel
Peignot_, 1863, deserves to be on the shelves of every librarian,
certainly of every bibliographer.
Early in his career Peignot planned a great bibliographical work, of
which his _Manuel Bibliographique_, published in 1804, was a first
part, and his _Dictionnaire Raisonné de Bibliologie_ a second. The
Manual is chiefly devoted to Lipsius, having for its opening chapter
a life of our author, followed by a translation of the _Syntagma_.
Peignot tells us that the plagiarism of Lipsius by authors who have
not thought it worth their while to mention their indebtedness to
him was one of the reasons why he was led to give the _Syntagma_ the
chief place in his own book,--he wished to secure to this learned man
his just due.
In his “Notice préliminaire sur Juste Lipse et ses ouvrages” Peignot
gives a selected list of Lipsius’s works dated from 1599, wherein
it is seen that the book in which we are interested, _J. Lipsi de
Bibliothecis Syntagma, Antverpiae_, came, like all of the others, “ex
officina Plantiniana, apud J. Moretum.”[2] This, to the librarian, is
a fact worthy of special note, because it gives the evidence of the
friendship that existed between the printer, John Moretus, son-in-law
of the great Plantin, founder of the house, “first printer to the
king, and the king of printers,” and Lipsius, covering a long period
of years.
In the house of Christopher Plantin at Antwerp, now known as the
Plantin-Moretus Museum, in the room called, since the sixteenth
century, the “Room of Justus Lipsius,” the bust of the friend of the
house looks down from its place of honour over the entrance door.
And so, just as Lipsius’s name is closely linked with one of the
great epochs of printing, it has also a part in the history of the
development of the library idea. Whatever the facts concerning his
theology, polite literature or other writings, whatever the final
vote on the value of his style, the little tract, here reprinted,
in the hands of friends of libraries will justify the faith that
Lipsius had in his claim to fame, when, in hanging a votive silver
pen before an altar of the Virgin, he wrote:
“O Blessed Virgin, this pen, the interpreter of my mind, which soared
up as high as the sky; which searched the most hidden recesses of
land and sea; which always applied itself to learning, prudence and
wisdom; which dared to write a treatise on constancy; which explained
civil and military matters, and such as relate to the taking of
cities; which described, O Rome, thy greatness; which variously
illustrated and cleared up the writings of the ancients,--that pen
is now, O Blessed Virgin, consecrated to thee by Lipsius, for by
thy assistance have they all been completed. Let thy kind influence
constantly attend me for the future; and in return for that vanishing
fame which my pen gained, vouchsafe to grant, O Divine Lady, a
continual joy and life to your devoted servant, Lipsius.”
H. W. K.
_New York, February, 1907_
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Teissier, Additions aux Éloges de M. de Thou, ii. 381, 432;
Bullart, Académie des Sciences, ii. 190; Balliet, Enfans Célèbres,
184._
[2] _Ed._ 1. _De Bibliothecis Syntagma_, Antwerp, 1602; _Ed._ 2.
Helmstadt, 1620; _Ed._ 3. Antwerp, 1629. _In his Opera Omnia_,
1610-30, 1637, 1675.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
This translation has been made from the second edition, “the last
from the author’s hand,” Antwerp, Plantin Press, John Moretus, 1602.
The French version by Gabriel Peignot, in his _Manuel
Bibliographique_, Paris, 1800, was found very helpful in translating
Lipsius’s rather crabbed Latin; I was greatly aided also by a first
draught of an English translation kindly made for me by Miss I. McD.
Howell, of the Newark, New Jersey, Free Public Library. Mr. W. W.
Bishop, reference librarian in the library of Princeton University,
gave most valuable assistance, both on difficult points in the Latin
and on many historical allusions. I am, of course, responsible for
all errors.
J. C. D.
_Newark, January, 1907_
TO THE READER
TO THE READER
_You have before you my brief outline of the history of libraries,
that is, of books. Where shall we who are constantly making use of
books look for a worthier subject for our pen? Yet I never should
have dreamed of writing this outline had I not been inspired thereto
by the zeal in such matters of the noble Prince to whom I have just
dedicated it._
_That such as he should labour to encourage and inspire men to
good deeds and high endeavour--this I think a thing most helpful
to us all. And how few do give themselves generously to this task!
All thoughts seem now to turn to low and sordid things. Scorning
the ancient and holy truths, how eagerly to-day do men search out
doctrines whose only charm is that they seem new!_
_To these one might well repeat the ancient line: “Though broad and
well known is the highway, you choose a narrow and obscure path.”_
_For ourselves, we hold fast to the old and the established; and we
study, we point out the way, and we set forth examples--often, so I
hope and trust, to some useful purpose._
_And may you, O Gentle Reader, look with favour upon our work._
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES
CHAPTER I
Bibliotheca _and_ Libraria--_what do these words signify? The
Kings of old had Libraries, especially those of Egypt._
The word _bibliotheca_ is used to signify any one of three things:
a place in which books are kept, a bookcase, or books themselves.
The Greek word, _bibliotheca_, came into use among the Romans. They
also used the word _libraria_; but it is more exact to understand
by that word a shop where books are kept for sale. Collections of
books, _bibliothecae_, date from the earliest days, and, if I am not
mistaken, were established as soon as letters were invented. The art
of writing must have arisen almost as soon as man began to learn and
to think; and this art would not have been profitable if books had
not been preserved and arranged for present and future use.
At first these collections were private undertakings, each person
gathering for himself and his family; in the course of time kings
and dynasties took up the custom and collected books, not only for
use, but also to gratify their ambition and to add to their renown.
Indeed, it was scarcely within the power of a private person to
collect many books, since the process of copying them was a slow
and expensive one; though our lately discovered most useful art of
printing has now simplified it.
Osymandyas of Egypt was of all kings the first, as far as history
shows, to have a library of any note. Along with other famous deeds
he established, says Diodorus, a library of sacred literature, and
placed over the entrance the inscription: “Here is Medicine for the
Mind.” Though he was one of the earliest of the Egyptian kings, I do
not doubt that his example was thereafter faithfully followed, even
if the library he is said to have founded never in fact existed; for
in Egypt there have always been libraries, especially in temples,
under the care of priests. Many facts may be cited as evidence for
the truth of this statement, among others this one about Homer:
a certain Naucrates accused Homer of plagiarism, and said that
when the latter went to Egypt he found there the books of a woman,
Phantasia, who had written the Iliad and the Odyssey and placed them
in the temple of Vulcan at Memphis; and that there Homer saw them,
appropriated them, and published them as his own. As far as Homer is
concerned I think this story false; but it establishes the fact in
question, that it was the custom in Egypt to have libraries.
CHAPTER II
_The Alexandrian Library, of which Philadelphus was the founder
and the chief benefactor. The variety and number of books in it.
Burned, and restored._
Though other libraries of Egypt are little known, we learn that
that of Ptolemy Philadelphus was famous and highly renowned. He was
the son of Ptolemy Lagus, second of the name and of the line of the
Greek kings of Egypt. Being a patron of the arts and sciences he
was, of course, a lover of books, and founded the great library of
Alexandria, aided by the instruction and example, perhaps even by
the very books themselves, of Aristotle. For Aristotle, as I shall
note later, had a library which was remarkable for the number and
excellence of its books. Speaking of this library, Strabo says that
Aristotle was the first private collector of books of whom we have
any knowledge, and that he taught the kings of Egypt the principles
of classification. This passage from Strabo, however, must be read
with care and be properly interpreted; for Aristotle was by no means
the first to form a library, and as he lived before the time of
Philadelphus, he could not have taught him, save as I have said, by
example. Perhaps what Athenaeus says is true, that Aristotle left
his books to Theophrastus, he to Neleus, and that from the latter
Ptolemy bought them, and transferred them, with others which he
purchased in Athens and Rhodes, to fair Alexandria. Other writers,
however, do not assent to this statement, as I shall show presently.
This much is admitted, however, that he founded a library and
collected for it books of every kind from all parts of the world,
even seeking out the sacred books of the Hebrews. As soon as the fame
of the wisdom of the Hebrews reached his ears, he sent and demanded
the books which contained it, and employed men skilled in such
matters to translate them into Greek for the common use of all. This
translation was called the Septuagint from the number of persons who
were engaged in making it. It was made, according to Epiphanius, in
the seventeenth year of the reign of Philadelphus, in the one hundred
and twenty-seventh Olympiad. Demetrius Phalereus had charge of this
library. He was an exile from his native Athens, and was renowned
both for his writings and his works. The King held him in high esteem
and entrusted to his care the library, and other matters of even
greater importance.
Philadelphus likewise collected books from the Chaldeans, the
Egyptians, and even from the Romans, and had them translated into
Greek. I quote Georgius Cedrenus, who says, “Philadelphus had the
sacred books of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Romans, as well as some
in other languages, to the number of a hundred thousand volumes,
translated into Greek, and placed them in his library at Alexandria.”
I note especially two things in this quotation: first, the diligence
shown in translating into the common tongue books in foreign
languages,--a very useful custom in my opinion and one which should
be adopted to-day by you, O Princes; and second, the statement as to
the number of books. This number is very large, it is true, but not
large enough if it is meant to include all the books in the library.
I think it was not so meant; but that Cedrenus had in mind only the
translations, and that the works in the original Greek far surpassed
the number of translations. Other writers who have mentioned this
library say it was much larger than Cedrenus says it was. Our friend
Seneca reports that four hundred thousand volumes, a most precious
monument of royal munificence, perished in the flames. Most precious,
indeed; beyond all gold or rarest gems! How much more precious if
their number had been greater still! And greater in fact it was. This
number of Seneca’s falls short of the truth, and must be extended to
seven hundred thousand. Let Josephus tell us. He says that Demetrius,
the librarian I have mentioned, was once asked by Philadelphus how
many books he had in the library, and replied that he had two hundred
thousand volumes, and hoped soon to have five hundred thousand.
So you see how the library grew under his hands; then consider how
much larger it must have grown to be in later years, under other
kings, successors of Philadelphus. A. Gellius frankly says that
the number rose to seven hundred thousand. To quote him exactly,
“A prodigious number of books was collected, either by purchase or
by copying, by the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt, nearly seven hundred
thousand volumes.” Ammianus, from whom I shall quote shortly,
says the same, and Isidore also, if his words be properly emended.
“In Alexandria, in the days of Philadelphus, there were,” he says,
“seventy thousand books.” I think that he should have said seven
hundred thousand.
A precious treasure! But, alas, though it was the offspring of
man’s immortal spirit it was not itself immortal! For all this vast
store of books, whatever their number may have been, perished in
the flames. Caesar, in the civil war with Pompey, fought with the
Alexandrians in the city itself. He set fire to the ships for his
own protection; from the ships the flames spread to houses near the
harbour, then to the library itself, and consumed it utterly.
Shame be to Caesar for having brought about, even though without
intent, this irreparable loss! Yet he himself does not mention it
in the third book of his _History of the Civil War_; and, later,
Hirtius did not speak of it. But others did; Plutarch, for example,
and Dion; and Livy also, as may easily be shown by a reference to
Seneca, who says, after the words above quoted, “Another has praised
the library, even Livy, who says that it had been a splendid monument
to the culture and the enlightened zeal of kings.” These are the very
words used by Livy in speaking of the fire, and of the praise due the
library itself and the kings who had collected it.
Ammianus also speaks of this lamentable conflagration, and says:
“Among all the temples in Alexandria the Serapeum was preëminent; in
it was formerly a library of inestimable value containing, according
to the concurrent testimony of the ancient monuments, seven hundred
thousand volumes, collected with patient zeal by the Ptolemaic kings.
All of these books were consumed by fire when the state, under the
dictatorship of Caesar, was disrupted by the Alexandrian war.” He
wishes to make it appear that this happened while the city was being
plundered. A. Gellius says the same: “All these books were burned in
the earlier Alexandrian war” (here he is in error; it was in the
later war, under Antony), “when the state was disrupted; and the
burning was not intentional or premeditated, and possibly was done
by the auxiliary soldiers.” He excuses Caesar, and with some reason;
for did ever any one love books and the humanities more than he? He
also excuses the Roman soldiers, and lays the blame on the foreign
auxiliaries.
If one consults Plutarch and Dion one may see that they do not think
the burning took place during the sack of the city.
Such, then, was the end of this noble library; destroyed in the one
hundred and eighty-third Olympiad, after enduring scarcely two
hundred and twenty-four years. Yet it lived again,--not the same
collection, of course, for that were impossible; but a similar
one,--and in the same building, the Serapeum. Cleopatra, she who
became famous through her amours with Antony, reëstablished the
library. She received from him, as the beginning or foundation of
the new collection, the Attalic or Pergamene library. She accepted
the entire collection as a gift and had it brought to Alexandria;
then she again decorated the buildings and increased the collection,
with the result that even in the time of the Christian fathers it was
widely known and much used. Tertullian says, “To this day are to
be found in the library of Ptolemy in the Serapeum books in Hebrew
characters.” Note that, according to this remark of Tertullian’s,
the library was again installed in the Serapeum, that is, in its
porticoes or galleries; and note, further, that Strabo and others
tell us that the Serapeum was near the harbour and the ships. Note,
once more, that it was called the Ptolemaic library, though it was in
fact not the original library, but a similar one; for the original
Hebrew texts and the original translation called the Septuagint had
perished in the flames. And yet once more note that the reputation
and ancient authority of this library were so great that Tertullian
uses it as an argument in his exhortation and admonition to the
heathen.
For my part, I believe that the library existed as long as did the
Serapeum itself, which was a temple of massive construction and of
great size, and that, as reported by certain ecclesiastical writers,
the Christians, during the reign of Theodosius the Great, demolished
it utterly, as a monument of superstition.
CHAPTER III
_Libraries in Greece, especially those of Pisistratus and
Aristotle. That at Byzantium._
Concerning the libraries of Egypt I have given few and unimportant
facts, though the collections themselves were perhaps many and of
great importance. But history here is dimmed by the mists of time.
The same must be said also of the history of the libraries of Greece.
Athenaeus incidentally refers to the more important of them when he
praises his friend Laurentius for his skill in classifying books, and
says that in this art he surpassed Polycrates of Samos, Pisistratus
the Tyrant, Euclid the Athenian, Nicocrates the Cyprian, Euripides
the poet, and Aristotle the philosopher. I have little of detail
to say about any of these men. Of Pisistratus it should be noted
that A. Gellius gave to him the honour of being the pioneer in this
art of forming a library; though Polycrates had one at about the
same time. A. Gellius says, to quote his very words, “Pisistratus
the Tyrant is said to have been the first to make for public use
in Athens a collection of books on the liberal arts.” Here, then,
was indeed a great man,--he was called the “Tyrant,” but the word
did not convey at that time the odium it does to-day,--and to him
we owe the text of Homer collected and arranged as we now have it.
At that period critical studies, as we now call them, that is, the
collation and emendation of texts, were much followed by princes,
and even by kings. This library, founded by Pisistratus, was added
to from time to time by the Athenians, until Xerxes carried it away
when he captured Athens. Many years afterwards Seleucus Nicanor, King
of Syria, very generously caused the books of this library to be
returned to Athens. They remained there until the time of Sulla, who
captured and plundered the city. But even after that, I am sure we
must believe the library was again established; for how could a city
be, as Athens was, the mother of the arts without the aid of books?
Indeed there must have been many libraries there in later years.
Hadrian, for example, so Pausanias wrote, erected in Athens a temple
to the Panhellenic Jove, and placed in it a library.
Of Euclid, Athenaeus says that he was an archon and one of the more
learned of the magistrates; nothing more.
Of Aristotle, Strabo speaks in terms of highest praise, and I have
already quoted his words. I also cited the statement from Athenaeus
that Aristotle’s library came finally into the possession of the
Ptolemies. Strabo and some others, however, seem to question this
statement. “The books of Aristotle,” says Strabo, “which were
left to Neleus, were finally handed on to certain descendants of
his who were men of no learning. By them the books were kept under
lock and key, and were not used. Then they were buried under ground
and much injured by worms and mould; but finally were purchased at
a great price by Apellicon of Teos. He had the books, now sadly
worm-eaten and tattered, transcribed, though not faithfully or with
good judgement, and published. On his death Sulla, then master of
Athens, seized the books and sent them to Rome, where Tyrannion the
grammarian made use of them and, so it is reported, rearranged them
and to some extent corrupted their text.” Plutarch tells the same
or a very similar story in his life of Sulla. If it is true, how
could the books of Aristotle have come from Neleus to Philadelphus,
as Athenaeus says they did in the passage quoted above? Perhaps we
can reconcile the two statements, and this is my conclusion, by
supposing that Neleus retained Aristotle’s own writings, his original
manuscripts, as a precious heritage for his own family, and sold the
rest of the books, written by others, to Philadelphus.
I do not recall any other matters worth relating about the libraries
of Greece. I do not need to say that the Romans, after they
conquered the country, undoubtedly took to Italy many collections of
books.
Perhaps I should simply mention the Byzantine library of the time
of the Emperors. Zonaras and Cedrenus say that under the Emperor
Basiliscus, the library in Byzantium, into which had been gathered
a hundred and twenty thousand volumes, was destroyed by fire. Among
the books was the gut of a great dragon, one hundred and twenty feet
long, on which was written in letters of gold the whole of the Iliad
and the Odyssey. But this library, being in Thrace and not in Greece,
ought not to be considered as among the Grecian libraries.
CHAPTER IV
_The Attalic Library, of which Eumenes was the founder. Certain
errors of statement about it made by Pliny and Vitruvius. Its
size and the length of time it existed._
The Attalic or Pergamene library, in Asia, was almost as illustrious
as the Alexandrian. When the Attalic kings, minor powers at first,
became great and rich through an alliance with the Romans, they
adorned their capital city in many ways and erected in it a library.
Strabo regarded Eumenes, the son of King Attalus, as the founder of
this collection. “Eumenes,” he says, “built the city and beautifully
adorned it as it now is, with temples and a library.” Pliny says,
“According to Varro there was a rivalry over their respective
libraries between Ptolemy and Eumenes, and the former forbade the
exportation of paper from his kingdom, and the latter of parchment
from his.” Jerome, in his letter to Chromatius, and Aelian, made
similar statements, though they say it was Attalus who was jealous of
Ptolemy, and not Eumenes. Concerning neither of them, however, can
the story be true; for, as a comparison of dates will show, they both
lived almost a century after Philadelphus. How, then, could there
have been between them the jealousy which Pliny speaks of? Unless,
indeed, “Ptolemy” is used simply in reference to the kings of Egypt
in general, and refers here not to Philadelphus but to Ptolemy the
Fifth, generally called Ptolemy Epiphanes, who was a contemporary of
Eumenes. He perhaps, though he was not at all distinguished for his
zeal in regard to libraries, forbade the exportation of paper, in
fear lest another new library should rival his own more ancient one.
The erroneous or careless statement just noted is still more crudely
put by Vitruvius. He says, to quote him directly, “After the Attalic
kings, led by their great interest and delight in literature,
established for general enjoyment a superb library at Pergamum,
Ptolemy, stirred to a boundless zeal by their example, and rivalling
them in activity, endeavoured to establish at Alexandria a library
equal to theirs.” How absurd the statement! As if the Attalic kings
antedated the Alexandrian in this art! As if, in this field of books,
the latter caught from the former their zeal, or looked to them
for example! Why, the exact opposite was true; for the Ptolemies
practised the art of establishing libraries long before the Attalic
kings had ever thought of it. It is possible, of course, that here
again the writer alludes, without naming him, to one of the later
Ptolemies. But even then it remains true that the Pergamene library
never rivalled the Alexandrian in either resources or age. Plutarch
writes to this effect where, mentioning both libraries, he says that
Antony the Triumvir, fascinated by the charms of Cleopatra, gave
to her the library at Pergamum, in which were two hundred thousand
volumes. I use the word “volumes” and not “titles,” for I think the
word which Plutarch uses refers to several works bound together in
one volume, and that these several works are not counted in giving
the size of the library.
This Pergamene library ceased to exist, then, soon after the
destruction of the first Alexandrian one; but lived again in the
latter when it was reëstablished. Was it set up again in its
own city? Certainly Strabo’s words, quoted above, if carefully
considered, seem to imply that it was. For he says, “was erected
where it now is.” What does he mean by “now”? Plainly the time when
he, Strabo, was writing, which was in the reign of Tiberius. So it
appears that the victorious Augustus, who annulled much that Antony
did, either brought the library back to its old home in Pergamum, or,
what is more probable, caused it to be copied again and reëstablished
it. But on this point I do not venture to speak with certainty.
CHAPTER V
_Roman libraries; private ones; and the first public library,
that of Asinius Pollio._
Having spoken of such libraries of foreign peoples as seem worthy of
mention, let us pass to those of Rome, which are nearer to us in both
place and time.
Slow enough at first was the growth of love of books and interest
in the humanities among the Romans; for the Romans were children
of Mars, not of the Muses. But at last, by God’s grace, here also
culture took root and refinement gained in esteem, though slowly at
first, as it always does. Isidore notes that Aemilius Paulus was
the first to bring to Rome any large number of books, and this he
did after he had conquered Perseus, King of the Macedonians; then
Lucullus did the same after the pillage of Pontus. Thus he names two
who brought books to Rome. But they did not make them accessible
to the public. Concerning Aemilius I have read nothing further; of
Lucullus, Plutarch speaks at great length. He says: “His delight in
books and his free expenditure for them should be highly praised.
For he acquired many of them, and very beautifully written ones; and
showed the same liberality in respect to their use that he showed in
respect to their purchase. His library was open to every one; and in
the adjoining colonnades and exedras learned Greeks were especially
made welcome. Here they came, as to a temple of the Muses, and
passed the time pleasantly together free from all cares. And often
Lucullus himself came to these colonnades and walks, and joined the
learned in their conversations, and took part in their philosophical
discussions.”
From which you may see, Most Illustrious Prince, how free and open
this library was; and that though he retained the title to it
himself, he gave the unrestricted use of it to the learned, just as
you so generously do with your own.
To Aemilius and Lucullus one may add the name of Cornelius Sulla,
afterwards dictator, as a founder of libraries. He brought from
Greece and Athens to Rome a very large number of books and arranged
them to form a library. About this Lucian has written, as well as
Plutarch.
But after all these things were done, a true public library for Rome
had not yet been established. The thought of such an institution was
first conceived by the great and glorious Julius Caesar, and would by
him have been carried to its conclusion had not the fates forbidden.
Suetonius says, “He planned to open to the public libraries formed
of as many books in the Greek and Latin languages as he could bring
together, and to give to Marcus Varro the duty of organizing and
managing them.” This was truly the plan of a generous spirit, and
of a wise one also; for who in all the world was better fitted than
Varro, most learned in Greek and Roman letters, to carry out such a
scheme? But Caesar was not destined to realize his thought. Augustus,
his adopted son, added a library to the other adornments and glories
he gave to the city. At his suggestion and inspired by him, Asinius
Pollio, orator, senator, and noble, erected a temple of liberty, so
Suetonius says, and placed in it a library which he made free to all.
Isidore says, “Pollio was the first to establish a public library in
Rome, one composed of books in Greek and in Latin, and decorated with
busts of famous authors. He placed it in the public hall, which he
magnificently adorned with the spoils of war.” “Spoils of war” refers
to those taken from the Dalmatians, whom he had just conquered. Pliny
remarks that Asinius Pollio was the first to establish a library
which made free to all the wisdom of all.
It seems plain from these writers that this library was in the Hall
of Liberty, on the Aventine Hill. I think it was rather rearranged
or reconstructed for the library than built especially for it. It
had been in existence a long time before Pollio’s day. Plutarch
and other writers say that it dated from the time of Tiberius
Gracchus, father of the Gracchi. Pollio, it would seem, refitted
it and dedicated it to this glorious use. Ovid’s words should be
noted here, for he says,--his book, _Tristia_, is supposed to be
speaking,--“Liberty did not permit me to enter her hall; that hall in
which were first opened to the public the books of the wise.” I do
not think the words he uses in these lines have reference, as some
think, to a gathering of poets. The book--for, as I have said, it
is a book which Ovid’s verse makes us suppose is speaking--frankly
complains that it was not received into the library of Asinius, that
library which was the first to open to public use the writings of
learned men.
CHAPTER VI
_The Libraries of Augustus, the Octavian and the Palatine. Their
Librarians and Custodians._
It was, then, under Augustus that this the first public library was
established. Soon there were two others, also due to him. The first,
the Octavian, he founded in honour of his sister, and gave it her
name. Of this Dion Cassius says, in his chronicle of the year 721,
“Augustus built a colonnade and in it established a library, which
he named after his sister Octavia.” Plutarch seems to ascribe this
work to Octavia herself, when he says, “In honour of Marcellus, his
mother Octavia built a library and dedicated it to his memory;
Augustus built a theatre and gave to it the name of Marcellus.” I
think Plutarch is here in error, for the note of Dion’s places the
erection of the Colonnade of Octavia ten whole years before the death
of Marcellus. He adds that these memorials were erected from spoils
of the Dalmatians, and his words draw attention to the remarkable
fact that the first and second libraries of Rome were both due, in a
certain sense, to barbarians.
Suetonius, in speaking of Melissus the grammarian, says that after he
was freed he soon became intimate with Augustus, and at the latter’s
request undertook, and very efficiently, the task of arranging the
library in the Colonnade of Octavia. It is my opinion that it was in
the upper part of the colonnade, as safer and more appropriate, since
the lower part was used as a promenade. Ovid again makes his little
book of verse say, “I seek another temple, near the theatre; and this
also was forbidden to my feet.” The book complains that it is spurned
by the library, and incidentally tells where the library was,--near
the theatre of Marcellus. He calls the building, which was in fact
a portico, a temple, because in it, as Pliny says, was an altar to
Juno, and certain beautiful statues.
Still another library was founded by this same Augustus, the
Palatine, so called because it was in the royal palace itself.
Suetonius says, “He built the temple of Apollo in that part of his
house on the Palatine Hill which had been struck by lightning, and
was thereby, as the priests interpreted the fact, marked out as a
spot dear to God. To the temple he added porticoes, in which he
placed a library of books in Latin and in Greek.” This happened in
the seven hundred and twenty-sixth year of the city, as one may learn
from the opening lines of Dion’s _History_, book LIII.
It seems, then, that Ovid followed the order of the dates of their
establishment in his reference to the libraries of Rome, when he
named, in the following quotation, first the Asinian, next the
Octavian, and last the Palatine.
From thence we to Apollo’s temple went,
To which by steps there is a faire ascent:
Where stand the signs in faire outlandish stone,
Of Belus and of Palammed the sonne.
There ancient bookes, and those that are more new,
Doe all lye open to the Reader’s view.
I sought my brethren there, excepting them,
Whose haplesse birth my father doth condeme.
And as I sought, the chiefe man of the place,
Bid me be gone out of that holy space.[3]
Here Ovid shows, among other things, that there was a librarian or
custodian of the Palatine library. Suetonius tells us he was C.
Julius Higinus. In his _Celebrated Grammarians_ he says, “This man
presided over the Palatine library; though meanwhile he followed his
profession and taught many.” Later there was a special custodian for
the books in Greek, and another for those in Latin. On an ancient
marble tablet are inscribed these words:
ANTIOCHUS
IN CHARGE OF THE LATIN BOOKS
IN THE LIBRARY OF
TI. CLAUDIUS CAESAR
IN THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO
On another:
C. JULIUS FALYX
IN CHARGE OF THE GREEK BOOKS
OF THE
PALATINE LIBRARY
There are other similar inscriptions.
To this Palatine library Pliny refers when he says, “We may see in
the library in the temple of Augustus a Tuscan statue representing
Apollo, fifty feet in height.” This quotation, however, may point to
the library of Vespasian Augustus, which was in the temple of Peace.
But Pliny refers very plainly to the Palatine library when he says,
“The old Greek letters were almost the same as the Latin letters of
the present time, as is shown by an ancient Delphic tablet of bronze,
dedicated to Minerva, which is now in the Palatine--that gift of
emperors--in the library.” I am led to believe, from the words of
John of Salisbury, that this library was in existence in Rome for a
very long time, since he writes, “The learned and most holy Gregory
not only banished astrology from the court; but also, as is reported
by them of old time, gave to the flames those writings of approved
merit, and whatever else the Palatine library in Apollo’s temple
possessed. Preëminent among these were some which seemed designed to
reveal to men the will of the celestial beings and the oracles of the
higher powers.”
This quotation is worthy of note.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] _W. Saltonstall’s translation_, 1637.
CHAPTER VII
_The Libraries of Tiberius, of Trajan, of Vespasian; also the
Capitoline; other unknown Libraries._
We have seen that two libraries were established in Rome by the
Emperor Augustus, a most zealous patron of the arts and sciences.
What may be said of other Roman libraries? Certainly there were
others; and there even seems to have been a spirit of rivalry among
the rulers of that time in regard to them, each contending for the
palm as founder of libraries. For example, Tiberius, soon after
the death of Augustus, established one within the limits of the
royal palace itself, on that part which fronts on the Via Sacra.
Students of the subject think that here were Tiberius’s own special
apartments; and A. Gellius locates the library in them when he says,
“While Apollinaris and I were sitting in the library in the house of
Tiberius.” Vopiscus makes the same statement in effect, for he tells
us that he used the books in the Ulpian library and also those in the
apartments of Tiberius.
It seems that in due course Vespasian also collected a library and
placed it in the temple of Peace, as we gather from A. Gellius’s
remark, “We sought very diligently for the Commentary of L. Aelius,
the teacher of Varro, and found it, and read it, in the library in
the temple of Peace.” Galen also mentions it in his _Treatise on the
Compounding of Medicines_.
Another library was gathered by Trajan, of which A. Gellius also
speaks. “We happened,” he says, “to be sitting in the library in
the temple of Trajan.” This is the one which is commonly called the
Ulpian, from the family name of the Emperor Trajan. Vopiscus says,
“I learned these things from the elders; and I read them also, in
the books of the Ulpian library;” also, “If you are still in doubt,
consult the books in Greek, then look up also the linen books, the
ancient chronicles, which the Ulpian library can show to you whenever
you wish.”
I am of the opinion that this Ulpian library was at first in the
forum of Trajan, where the other monuments erected by that emperor
were placed; and was afterwards moved to the Viminal Hill to adorn
the Baths of Diocletian. If so moved, why not by Diocletian himself?
Vopiscus would lead us to think it was, for he says, “I make use
especially of the books of the Ulpian library, which in my time was
in the Baths of Diocletian.” When he expressly says that in his time
it was in a certain place, he plainly implies that it had previously
been in another place.
Let us pass now to the Capitoline library, concerning which Eusebius
says, in speaking of the reign of the Emperor Commodus, “The
lightning struck the Capitol and started a great fire, which consumed
the library and the houses near it.” Orosius relates the incident
more at length: “Upon the city falls the punishment for the crimes
of the emperor. The Capitol was struck by lightning, and a terrible
conflagration burst forth, which devoured both the library, which had
been gathered by men of old with so much zeal and care, and all the
adjoining dwellings.”
Who was the founder of this library? We cannot be sure, but we may
surmise that it was Domitian. At one time he narrowly escaped death
in the Capitol, and there, after he became emperor, he erected a
temple; and if the temple, why not the library within it? No record,
it is true, remains to prove that he did. Suetonius speaks of the
matter in a very vague way where he says, “He, Domitian, was at
great pains to reëstablish the library which had been burned, and at
large expense sought for books in all parts of the world, and sent
savants to Alexandria to copy and edit books there for his library.”
We note from this that even then the Alexandrian was looked upon as
the source and very foster-mother of all other libraries, and that
these others sought from her carefully edited and beautifully written
books to replace their corrupted versions. Moreover, these other
and later libraries were preserved through the enlightened interest
of the princes of their day, for if this had not been so, how could
there have been so many libraries at the time of P. Victor, that is,
in the reign of Constantine? Victor says that he noted, among other
remarkable things in Rome, twenty-nine public libraries; two of which
were especially noteworthy, the Palatine and the Ulpian.
Alas, of how many of these have we no record whatsoever! Out of all
the twenty-nine we discovered, for all our diligence, traces of seven
only, and of these have rescued from oblivion hardly more than their
names.
CHAPTER VIII
_Of the Tiburtine Library; also of certain of the more important
Private Libraries. These latter were sometimes found in the
Baths, sometimes in the Country Houses._
Concerning the greater part of the Roman public libraries I have
learned nothing, as I have said; not even of those within the city.
There was one at Tibur, near Rome, about which A. Gellius says, “We
recall having found it written in that same book of Claudius in
the library at Tibur.” And again, “He brought it from the library
of Tibur, which was at that time very conveniently located in the
temple of Hercules.” Here and elsewhere we note that the libraries
were often placed in or near temples. And why should not the sacred
productions of human genius be deposited in consecrated buildings?
It is possible that the Emperor Hadrian established this library at
Tibur, for it is well known that he took much pleasure in that spot,
and spared no expense in adorning it with many and very beautiful
buildings.
It seems evident to me that in all the cities and colonies of
the empire libraries were found and the arts and humanities were
cultivated.
Certain of the wealthy citizens, it appears, had their own private
libraries, some of them very noble ones, partly for use and partly
for the sake of the reputation for learning which they gave.
For example, there is Tyrannion the grammarian, in the reign of
Sulla, who had three thousand volumes. Epaphroditus of Chaeronea,
also a grammarian by profession, is another example. Suidas says of
him that he lived at Rome from the time of Nero to that of Nerva,
and was so assiduous a purchaser of books that he collected thirty
thousand of them, and they of the best and rarest. I applaud this
last example, not so much, of course, for the great number of books
he collected as for the good taste he showed in choosing them. I
should like to believe that this Epaphroditus was the one who had
among his slaves Epictetus, the very head of the true philosophy.
Certainly they were contemporaries. But the rank and occupation
of the two men were very different, the book-collector being a
grammarian, according to Suidas, while the owner of Epictetus was
one of the bodyguards of Nero. Whoever he was, Samonicus Serenus
surpassed him in his zeal for book-collecting, for he had a library
in which there were sixty-two thousand volumes. When he died he
left his books to Gordian the Less, afterwards emperor. The gift
is reported by Capitolinus with these words of praise, “This has
immortalized Gordian; for men of letters will never cease to speak
of the gift of so vast and splendid a library.”
Consider, O Most Illustrious Prince, how this love of books brings
favour and high renown,--such favour and renown as should be granted
without limit to great men like yourself.
Those I have named, and a few besides, are known to have had notable
libraries. There were, of course, many others of whom we know
nothing. Seneca shows that the habit of book-collecting was very
common in his time, and condemns it. You ask, why did he condemn it?
“Because,” he says, “they acquired books not that they might enjoy
them, but simply for show. To most of these newly rich, ignorant
even of the elements of _belles-lettres_, books are not aids to
study, but simply ornaments of dining-rooms.” A little further on he
adds: “Why, in the homes of the idlest of the rich you will find all
that orators or historians have written, with bookcases built clear
to the ceiling! Formerly a library gave a home an air of culture; one
is now put in, like a bathroom, simply as a necessary part of the
equipment of a house.” A sad state of affairs, I admit. And yet it is
to be wished that our own rich men had the same taste in luxuries;
for a collection of books can always be of use and value to some one,
even if not to the owner.
We note that libraries were placed in the baths, as we did above in
the case of the Ulpian library, which was in the Baths of Diocletian.
If you ask why, I would say because the Romans, while caring for the
body in the bath, found their minds at ease, and discovered that then
was a favourable time, especially for those who were deeply engrossed
in affairs, to read or to be read to. For a like reason they had
books in their villas and country seats. There also they found a
leisure and a freedom from care which were favourable to reading.
A decision of the jurisconsult Paulus calls attention to this custom
of having libraries: “In a legacy of real estate any books and any
library which are in the house pass to the legatee.” Pliny says,
speaking of his own villa, “A bookcase is built into the wall, thus
forming, as it were, a little library.” Martial praises the library
at the country-place of a certain other Julius Martial, as follows:
Thou lovely country library,
Whence thy lord views the city nigh,
If, ’mongst his serious studys, place
My wanton muse may find, and grace,
To these sev’n books afford a roome,
Though on the lowest shelf, which come
Corrected by their author’s penn.[4]
FOOTNOTES:
[4] _Translation from a sixteenth century MS. Bohn._
CHAPTER IX
_The Decoration of Libraries with Ivory and with Glass. Bookcases
and Shelves, Tables and Seats._
I have now gone rapidly over the early history of libraries and have
mentioned those of which time has not destroyed all records. As to
what I have written, I must confess that it is but a trivial mention
of a great subject,--as the old saying goes, “a drop of water out
of a full bucket.” Yet I have said enough, perhaps, to act as an
incentive or to serve as an example.
I shall add a few words on the decoration of libraries and the
arrangement of their books.
From Isidore I learn that the more experienced architects did not
think that the ceilings of libraries should be gilded, or that the
floors should be made of any but Carystian marble; this because the
glitter of gold is rather tiring to the eyes, while the green of
Carystian marble rests them.
This is good advice from whomever it may have come. True it is, as my
own experience proves, that a brilliant light is disturbing to the
attention and makes writing difficult; and green is a colour which
seems to rest and refresh the eyes.
Boethius adds something further to this subject of decoration, when
he says, in his book on _Consolation_, “The walls were decorated
with ivory and glass.” Does he mean the walls of the room itself?
It would seem so, for the bookcases or shelves were not placed
against the walls, in which case the ornamentation of the latter
would not have been seen, but were set out in the room, just as they
are in most public libraries to-day. Glass cut in squares, circles,
ovals, and rhomboids was used like marble tiles, to ornament the
walls, though oftener the arches and the ceilings. Pliny says in his
_Natural History_, book XXXVI, “Tiles made of earth they transformed
into glass and put on the arches; and this is a recent invention.” It
was, then, still a novelty in the time of Nero and Seneca. Yet Seneca
speaks of it as a common thing, in letter LXXXVI, on baths, where he
says, “Unless the arch is covered with glass.” On this point consult
my work on the baths of the Romans.
That it was also used on the walls, Vopiscus, as well as Boethius,
shows when he says in speaking of Firmus, “The house appears to have
been covered over with squares of glass, with bitumen and other
material between the squares.” I think the bitumen was here used to
fasten the squares of glass to the wall, and not to join them to each
other. The joints between the pieces of glass were more appropriately
covered with ivory, as Boethius seems to say they were. Ivory was
placed also on the bookcases themselves; whence the phrase, “ivory
library,” in the _Pandects_. Seneca mentions bookcases made of cedar
and ivory.
Common sense and the general fitness of the thing of course make
it plain that there were bookcases in libraries; I would add the
fact that the cases were numbered. Vopiscus so indicates when he
says, “The Ulpian library has the elephant book in the sixth case.”
Whether by “elephant” he means made of ivory or of the skin of an
elephant, I cannot say. The old scholiast in commenting on this
phrase, from Juvenal, “Hic libros dabit et forulos” (This one will
furnish you with books and cases), gives as an equivalent phrase,
“Armaria, bibliotheca” (A library and the books in it). I think the
word _foruli_ (pigeon-holes), as here used, properly means either
compartments in the shelves, “nests” for the books, following
Martial’s use of the word; or, in Seneca’s use of it, separate little
cases for them. Sidonius speaks of these cases and of other things
found in libraries. “Here,” he says, “is an astonishing number of
books and you would think yourself in a library and could see the
shelves (_plutei_) of the grammarians; or the seats (_cunei_) of
Athenaeus; or the lofty bookcases (_armaria_) of the booksellers.”
_Plutei_ are the sloping tables on which books were placed for
reading; _cunei_, the rows of seats, as explained in Athenaeus; and
_armaria_, bookcases, generally wide and tall, as I have shown. These
last Cicero seems to call _pegmata_ in a letter to Atticus.
CHAPTER X
_Statues of Learned Men sometimes placed in Libraries; a
praiseworthy Custom which originated with Asinius._
A most appropriate method of decorating a library, one which ought
to be imitated by us to-day but unhappily is not, is that of placing
in it and near their writings the statues or busts of great authors.
How delightful it must have been to the readers to see them, and how
stimulating to the mind! We all wish to become familiar with the
features and the general appearance of great men, with those material
bodies in which dwelt their celestial spirits, and, lifting our
eyes from their books, here they are before us! You could read the
writings of Homer, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Pindar, Virgil, Cicero,
and others, and at the same time feast your eyes upon the counterfeit
presentment of each one. Again I say, a most beautiful custom, and
why, Most Illustrious Friend, do we to-day not imitate it, under your
leadership?
This idea seems to have originated with the Romans--not every
good thing, after all, has come from the Greeks! Pliny is of this
opinion. “Nothing,” he says, speaking in his most happy vein, “is
more delightful than to have knowledge of the face and bearing of the
authors one reads. Asinius Pollio, at Rome, apparently originated
this idea of placing statues in libraries; that same Asinius who was
the first, by founding a free library, to make the wisdom of mankind
free to all. Whether the kings at Alexandria and Pergamum, who showed
great zeal in the founding of libraries, had done the same before,
I find it impossible to learn.” So it seems, as I have said, that
Asinius was the originator of the idea; and Pliny says that he placed
in a library, the first public one opened in the city (not, in the
world, as some absurdly render the phrase), the statue of a living
man, Marcus Varro, the first person to have that honour. Afterwards
the same distinction was shown to others, either through courtesy
or because it was justly due them; for example, to the poet Martial,
who boasted that Stertinius wished to place a statue of him in his
library. But for the most part this honour has been reserved for
the dead, and for those who have, by common consent, proved their
greatness.
Pliny says, “A certain custom, now just established, ought not to
be passed by in silence. I refer to the fact that they place in
libraries, not only the statues in gold, silver, or bronze of those
whose immortal souls may be said to be speaking there through their
books, but also the statues of those whose books are not there; and
even imaginary statues of those of whom no portraits have been
preserved.” He calls the custom a new one, meaning that it originated
with Pollio. He says also that these statues of the dead were for
the most part made of metal. I would add that they were also made of
plaster, in which they were easily duplicated for private libraries.
Juvenal says, “Though you may find everywhere busts of Chrysippus in
plaster.”
Indeed I think the portraits were sometimes paintings, and that
perhaps they placed portraits at the beginnings of books. Seneca
says, “Those exquisite works of highest genius, illustrated with the
portraits of their authors.” Suetonius says of Tiberius, “He placed
their writings and their portraits in the public libraries among
the old and accepted authors.” And Pliny in his letters remarks,
“Herennius Severus, a most learned man, is very desirous to place in
his own library the statues of Cornelius Nepos and Titus Atticus.”
So, according to these two writers, both statues and portraits
were used. Pliny also says, in speaking of Silius Italicus, “He
owned many villas in these same places, and in them he had many
portraits; moreover, he not only owned them, he almost worshipped
them, especially the portrait of Virgil.” Vopiscus says of Numerian
that a certain oration of his was held to be so eloquent that it was
decided that a statue be made of him as an orator, not as emperor,
and placed in the Ulpian library with this inscription: “To Numerian,
Emperor, the greatest Orator of his time.” Sidonius, justly boasting
of a statue erected to himself in the same place, says, “Nerva Trajan
has seen fit to place an enduring statue of me, in honour of my
writings, among other authors in both libraries.” By “both libraries”
he means that his statue was set up in the Greek as well as in the
Latin library.
Small portraits or statues were, it seems, often placed on brackets
projecting from the cases or shelves on which stood the works of the
writers they represented. I quote a line from Juvenal, “And bids the
bust of Cleanthes guard the shelf on which his works repose.”
The same custom is referred to in the distich which was inscribed
on a bust of Virgil: “No harm can come to a poet who is honoured by
having both his verse and his bust upon the library shelf;” meaning
that he has attained to lasting fame who lives both in his books and
in his sculptured likeness. Note also the seals or medallions above
the shelves referred to by Cicero in a letter to Atticus. In Cicero’s
day they ornamented libraries with statues of the gods as well as of
authors.
CHAPTER XI
_A word about the Alexandrian Museum. Learned men dwelt in it
supported from the Public Funds. Kings and Emperors made this
Museum their special Care._
I have nothing further that seems worth saying on this subject of
libraries, except a few words about their use. If they stand empty,
or with only an occasional visitor; if students do not frequent them
and make use of their books, why were they ever established, and
what are they save that “idle luxury in the garb of scholarship” to
which Seneca alludes? The Alexandrian kings saw to it that there
were students to make use of their library, for they built near it
a Museum, so called because it was, so to speak, a temple of the
Muses, in which it was possible to follow the Muses, to cultivate the
humanities, free from all cares, even from the labour of providing
food and lodging, since the students in it were supported from the
public funds. How admirable an institution! Strabo gives us the best
description of it:
“Part of the royal palace is a Museum, in which one may stroll or
sit at ease, with a great hall, in which men of letters, who are
members of the Museum, hold meetings and take their meals together.
Moreover, this college, as we may call the Museum organization with
its students, has a foundation or common fund for its support; and
a priest, who is president of the Museum, formerly appointed by the
kings of Egypt, but at the present time by the emperor.”
He says this was part of the royal palace. Doubtless the kings wished
it to be near their own apartments that they might have at hand the
learned men who were its inmates, and converse with them when they
pleased; thus acquiring knowledge and training their minds. It had
porticoes and exedras, the former being more for the exercise of
the body, the latter for the training of the mind, as in them the
students gathered, conferred, and held discussions. There was also
a hall, where they ate together. Philostratus says the same thing
in speaking of Dionysius, who was, he writes, “received into the
Museum;” and then adds, “The Museum is the Egyptian banquet-hall of
learning, which brings together all the men of letters from all parts
of the world.”
Note particularly the words, “all the men of letters from all parts
of the world,” for even if not to be taken literally they show that
the number was very large and the expense very great. Timon the
satirist calls our attention to the same points when he says, in his
satirical and carping way, “Many people are supported at public
expense in Egypt the populous, that they may idly browse among
books and quarrel over them in the cave of the Muses.” Athenaeus,
commenting on this passage, says, “Timon spoke of the Museum as a
cave or cage, thus making sport of the philosophers maintained there,
as if they were so many rare birds.”
Athenaeus, we see, calls them philosophers; but Strabo uses the more
general phrase, “men of letters and savants;” and no doubt scholars
of every sort were admitted. Strabo puts special stress on the word
“men,” showing that boys and youths and those beginning their studies
were not taught in the Museum, as they would be in a similar place
to-day; but that admittance was rather a reward for erudition already
attained, an honour rightly earned. At Athens, following a similar
custom, those who deserved the honour were supported in the Prytaneum
at public expense.
What think you of that, O Prince of to-day? Does not the wish rise
within you to establish again this noble custom?
Continuing Strabo’s account of the Museum: he says a priest was
appointed to manage its affairs, who was selected by the kings or
emperors. The position must have been of great dignity, and one which
it was thought the emperor himself should fill. One may ask if the
emperor did not appoint all the officials? Philostratus seems to
imply that he did, when he says, speaking of Dionysius the sophist,
“The Emperor Hadrian appointed him satrap or governor of many people,
and named those who should receive public honours, and those also
who should be maintained at public expense in the Museum.” Again,
speaking of Polemon, he says, “Hadrian made him a member of the
Museum, where he lived at public expense.” Let me add that, though
I have not so indicated in my translation, Philostratus uses in the
phrase I have quoted a word meaning “circle,” from which it would
seem that members were admitted in a certain order and in proper
turn, some even being chosen before any vacancy had occurred. These
no doubt waited in confidence and entered in due course, in the order
of their appointment. A like custom prevails to-day among princes in
conferring favours.
Athenaeus throws light on this matter of appointments to the Museum
by the emperor when he says that a certain poet, Pancrates, very
cleverly praised Hadrian’s favourite, Antinous, and that the emperor,
delighted with the subtle flattery, ordered the poet to be supported
free of expense at the Museum.
So much for the reports of Strabo and others on the Museum and its
management.
Let me add that the inmates of the Museum by no means lived
therein an idle and useless life (how could they, being men who
were dedicated, as it were, to public service?), but were diligent
in writing, in arguing, and reciting their own works. Spartianus
testifies to this in his remark about Hadrian, to the effect that he
propounded questions to the savants in the Museum at Alexandria, and
in turn answered those they presented to him.
Let me note that Suetonius says that the Emperor Claudius added a
second Museum to the original one and ordered that certain books be
read there every day, and
I close,
O MOST ILLUSTRIOUS RULER, with the wish that you, a descendant
of great men and born to do great things, may long continue in
that work, worthy of the highest praise, which you have already
begun,--the work of encouraging the production of books and the
cultivation of the liberal arts among men, and so make your name for
all time revered.
To you, JOHN MORETUS, because of the friendship which has bound
together for now these many years you and our Plantin--alas, now
no more!--and all his family and myself,--to you, I say, I entrust
the printing and the publishing of this my OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY
OF LIBRARIES; to you and to no one else. And this my wish and will
I thus declare in accordance with the law laid down by the great
Emperor and the Kings.
JUSTUS LIPSIUS
LITERATURE OF LIBRARIES
SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES
_Edited by_ JOHN COTTON DANA, _Librarian of the Free Public Library,
Newark, New Jersey; and_ HENRY W. KENT, _Librarian of the Grolier
Club, New York City._
1. COTTON DES HOUSSAYES, JEAN BAPTISTE (1727-1783).
Concerning the Duties and Qualifications of a Librarian (Des
Devoirs et de Qualities du Bibliothecaire).
2. DURY, JOHN (DURIE) (1596-1680).
The Reformed Librarie-Keeper. London, 1650.
3. KIRKWOOD, REV. JAMES (1650?-1708).
An Overture for founding and maintaining of Bibliothecks in every
Paroch throughout this Kingdom. [Edinburgh], 1699.
4. BODLEY, SIR THOMAS (1545-1613).
Life, written by himself, 1609; with his First Draught of the
Statutes of the Public Library at Oxford. (From Reliquiae
Bodleianae, 1703.)
5. LIPSIUS, JUSTUS (1547-1606).
De Bibliothecis Syntagma. Antwerp, 1602. Translated into English
for this series.
6. NAUDÉ, GABRIEL (1600-1653).
News from France; or, A Description of the Library of Cardinal
Mazarini (London, 1652), and, The Surrender of the Library of
Cardinal Mazarin.
_250 copies on small paper, 6 vols., $12.00 per set._
_25 copies on large paper, 6 vols., $25.00 per set._
A. C. McCLURG & CO. PUBLISHERS
CHICAGO
Transcriber’s Notes
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reflecting the predominant spelling in the text. Otherwise, original
spelling and punctuation has been retained.
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
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Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
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