Page:On the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV.djvu/52

 with and without such covers are shewn in the view of the Library of the University of Leiden taken in 1610; and M. Fabre reminds us that globes still form part of the furniture of the Library of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, fitted up by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, 1630–40.

Comfort was considered by the provision of a brazier on wheels "that it may be moved from place to place in the Library ."

Before concluding, I must quote two important descriptions of this Library. The first is by Francesco Albertini, who, in 1510, only nineteen years after Platina's death, published the description of Rome known as Mirabilia Urbis Romæ.

De Bibliotecis novæ Urbis

In Palatio apostolico in Vaticano est illa præclara biblioteca a Syxto IIII constructa cum eius imagine, ac pulcherrimis picturis exornata cum his carminibus:

Templa [etc.] as quoted above.

Sunt picturæ Doctorum et alia carmina ut dicam in opuscule epitaphiorum.

Est et alia bibliotheca apud prædictam quæ græca dicitur ab eodem Syxto constructa cum camera custodum.

Est et tertia biblioteca pulcherrima, in qua sunt codices auro et argento sericinisque tegminibus exornati, a prædicto Syxto constructa, in quo loco Vergilii opera vidi litteris maiusculis conscripta.

Omitto strumenta geometriæ et astronomiæ et alia quæ in liberalibus disciplinis pertinent auro et argento picturis exornata.

The following description is by Montaigne:

Le 6 de Mars [1581] je fus voir la librerie du Vatican qui est en cinq ou six salles tout de suite. Il y a un grand nombre de livres atachés sur plusieurs rangs de pupitres; il y en a aussi dans des coffres, qui me furent tous ouverts; force livres écris à mein et notamment un Seneque et les Opuscules de Plutarche. J'y vis de remercable la statue du bon Aristide à tout une bele teste chauve, la barbe espesse, grand front, le