Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/550

Rh destroyed by the French army in 1798, and owes its present rich ness almost entirely to testamentary gifts, among which may be mentioned those of Cardinals Borgia, Caleppi, and Pietro. It is a private collection for the use of the congregation and of those who belong to it, but permission may be obtained from the superiors. There are at least thirty libraries in Borne which are more or less accessible to the public. One is now in course of formation which will include everything relating to the emancipation of Italy.

At Subiaco, a few miles from Rome, the library of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Scolastica is not a very large one, comprising only 6000 printed volumes and 400 MSS., but the place is re markable as having been the first seat of typography in Italy. It was in this monastery that Schweynheim and Pannartz, fresh from the dispersion of Fust and Schoeffer's workmen in 1462, established their press and produced a series of very rare and important works which are highly prized throughout Europe. The Subiaco Library, although open daily to readers, is only visited by students who are curious to behold the cradle of the press in Italy, and to inspect the series of original editions preserved in their first home

The great national libraries are as follows:

The Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence, formed from the union of Magliabechi's library with the Palatina, is the largest in Italy. The Magliabechi collection became public property at his death in 1714, and, with the accessions made from time to time, held an independent place until 1862, when the Biblioteca Palatina (formed in 1815 from the old Pitti Library and the collections of Poggiali and Rzewuzky) was incorporated with it. An old statute by which a copy of every work printed in Tuscany was to be presented to the Magliabechi Library was formerly much neglected, but has been maintained rigorously in force since 1860. There are many valuable autograph originals of famous works in this library, and the MSS. include the most important extant codici of Dante and later poets, as well as of the historians from Villani to Machiavelli and Guicciardini. Amongst the printed books is a very large assemblage of rare early impressions, a great number of the Eapprcscntazioni of the 16th century, at least 200 books printed on vellum, and a copious collection of municipal histories and statutes, of testi di lingua, and of geographical and topographical maps. The MS. portolani, 25 in number, are for the most part of great importance; the oldest is dated 1417, and several seem to be the original charts executed for Sir Robert Dudley (duke of Northumberland) in the preparation of his Arcano del Marc. The annual increment of books in this library is about 12,000. It is open freely to the public, and about 50,000 readers annually make use of it. About 60,000 printed volumes and 2500 MSS. arc consulted annually, not including some 1500 books and 50 MSS., which are lent out yearly to certain students. The Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples, though only opened to the public in 1804, is the largest library of that city. The nucleus from which it developed was the collection of Cardinal Seripando, which comprised many MSS. and printed books of great value. Acquisitions came in from other sources, especially when in the year 1848 many private and conventual libraries were thrown on the Neapolitan market. The Biblical section is rich in rarities, com mencing with the Mainz Bible of 1462, printed on vellum. Other special features are the collection of tcsti di lingua, that of books on volcanoes and that of works printed at famous presses, parti cularly those executed by the typographers of Naples. The MSS. include a palimpsest containing writings of the 3d, 5th, and 6th centuries under a grammatical treatise of the 8th, 2 Latin papyri of the 6th century, over 50 Latin Bibles, and a great number of illuminated books with miniatures. There are more than 40 books printed on vellum in the 15th and 16th centuries, including a fine iirst Homer. There are several MS. maps and portolani, one of them dating from the end of the 14th century. About 10,000 readers use this library, consulting some 140,000 books yearly. The Bibliotheca Nazionale of Milan, better known as the Brera, founded in 1770 by a decree of the empress Maria Theresa, consists of 163,123 printed volumes and 3646 MSS., with a yearly increment of about 6000 volumes, and the annual number of readers is said to amount to 45,000. It comprises nearly 2300 books printed in the 15th century (including the rare Monte Santo di Dio of Bettini, 1477), 913 Aldine impressions, and a xylographic Biblia Paupcrum. Amongst the MSS. are an early Dante and autograph letters of Galileo, some poems in Tasso's autograph, and a fine series of illustrated service-books, with miniatures representing the advance of Italian art from the 12th to the 16th century. These were formerly in the Certosa at Pavia.—The Bibliotheca Nazionale of Palermo", founded from the Collegio Massimo of the Jesuits, with additions from other libraries of that suppressed order, is rich in 15th century books, which have been elaborately described in a catalogue printed in 1875, and in Aldines and bibliographical curiosities of the 16th and following centuries.—The Biblioteca Nazionale of Turin is extensively used by readers, whose annual number amounts to 120,000. The majority of the books are works for scientific study, but amongst them are several rarities, comprising a Sedulius MS. of the 5th century, the celebrated MS. of the DC Imitationc (on which the assignment of its authorship to Gersen is founded, see KEMPIS), and several productions of the earliest German and Italian printers. The Biblioteca Marciana, or library of St Mark at Venice, was founded in 1362 by a donation of MSS. from the famous Petrarch (most of them now lost), and instituted as a library by Cardinal Bessarion in the 15th century. It is open daily, and is used by about 40,000 readers annually. The precious contents include Greek MSS. of great value, of which more than 1000 were given by Cardinal Bessarion, important MS. collections of works on Venetian history, rare incunabula, and a great number of volumes, unique or exceedingly rare, on the subject of early geographical research. Amongst the MSS. is a Latin Homer in the autograph of Boccaccio, an invaluable codex of the laws of the Lombards, and the autograph MS. of Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent. Since the fall of the republic and the suppression of the monasteries afterwards, a great many private and conventual libraries have been incorporated with the Marciana.

Of the university libraries under Government control it is sufficient to notice the Biblioteca della Universith, at Bologna, founded in 1712 by Count Luigi F. Marsigli or Marsili. The MSS. comprise a rich Oriental collection of 547 MSS. in Arabic, 173 in Turkish, and several in Persian, Armenian, and Hebrew. Amongst the Latin codices is a Lactantius of the 6th or 7th century. The other noteworthy articles include a copy of the Armenian gospels (12th century), the Avicenna, with miniatures dated 1194, described in Montfaucon's Diarium Italicum, and some unpublished Greek texts. Amongst the Italian MSS. is a rich assemblage of municipal histories. Mezzofanti was for a long time the custodian here, and his own collection of books has been incorporated in the library, which is remarkable likewise for the number of early editions and Aldines which it contains. It possesses the Mainz Latin Bible dated 1462; the Lactuntius and Augustine DC Civitatc Dei printed by Schweynheim and Pannartz, the Foligno Dante of 1472, and a copy of Henry VIII.'s Assertio Sacramentorum with the royal author's autograph. A collection of drawings by Agostino Caracci is another special feature of worth. The Manfredi palace, in which the library is arranged, is a fine building begun in 1714 and finished in 1744. The grand hall with its fine furniture in walnut wood merits particular attention. The library is open to the public; the yearly number of readers is about 25,000, and of books consulted 40,000.

Of the remaining Government libraries the following may be named. The Biblioteca del Monastero della S. Trinith,, at La Cava dei Tirreni in the province of Salerno, is after the Biblioteca dell Archivio Capitolare at Vercelli the most ancient library in the Italian kingdom, its foundation being said to be contemporaneous with that of the Benedictine abbey itself (beginning of the 11th century). It only contains some 10,000 volumes, but these include a number of MSS. of very great rarity and value, ranging from the 8th to the 14th century. Amongst these is the celebrated Codex Legum Longobardorum, dated 1004, besides a well-known geographical chart of the 12th century, over 100 Greek MSS., and about 1000 charters beginning with the year 840, more than 200 of which belong to the Lombard and Norman periods. At Florence the Marucelli Library, founded in 1752, is remarkable for its artistic wealth of early woodcuts and metal engravings. The number of these and of original drawings by the old masters amounts to 80,000 pieces.— At Modena is the famous Biblioteca Palatina, sometimes called the Biblioteca Estense from having been founded by the Este family at Ferrara in 1393; it was transferred to Modena by Cesare D Este in 1598. Muratori, Zaccaria, and Tiraboschi were librarians here, and made good use of the treasures of the library. It is particularly rich in early printed literature and valuable codices. The oldest library at Naples is the Biblioteca Brancacciana, with many valuable MSS. relating to the history of Naples. Two planispheres by Coronelli are preserved here. It was founded in 1673 by Cardinal F. M. Brancaccio.—The Regia Biblioteca di Parma, founded definitively in 1779, owes its origin to the grand-duke Philip, who employed the famous scholar Paciaudi to organize it. It is now a public library containing 213,995 volumes, including 4000 MSS., with an annual increment of nearly 1000 volumes. Amongst its treasures is De Rossi's magnificent collection of Biblical and rabbinical MSS.

Chief among the great libraries not under Government control comes the world-famed Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana at Florence, formed from the collections of Cosimo the Elder, Pietro de Medici, and Lorenzo the Magnificent (which, however, passed away from the family after the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, and were repurchased by Cardinal Giovanni, afterwards Leo X.). It was first constituted as a public library in Florence by