Page:On the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV.djvu/53

  regard plein de douceur et de magesté: son nom est escrit en sa base très antique…

Je la vis [la Bibliothèque] sans nulle difficulté; chacun la voit einsin et en extrait ce qu'il veut; et est ouverte quasi tous les matins, et si fus conduit partout, et convié par un jantilhomme d'en user quand je voudrois.

The statue of Aristides was placed by Pope Pius IV. (1559–65) in the Common Library, on one side of the door of entrance, opposite to the statue of S. Hippolytus, found in 1551 near the church of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura.

V. Administration.

Sixtus IV., like his predecessor Nicholas V., intended the library attached to the Holy See to be of the widest possible use. In the document appointing Demetrius of Lucca librarian, after Platina's death, he says distinctly that the library has been got together "for the use of all men of letters, both of our own age, or of subsequent time ;" and that these are not rhetorical expressions, to round a phrase in a formal letter of appointment, is proved by the way in which manuscripts were lent out of the library, during the whole time that Platina was in office. The Register of Loans, beginning with his own appointment and ending in 1485, has been printed by Müntz and Fabre, from the original in the Vatican Library, and a most interesting record it is. It is headed by a few words of warning, of which I give the general sense rather than a literal translation.

Whoever writes his name here in acknowledgment of books received on loan out of the Pope's library, will incur his anger and his curse unless he return them uninjured within a very brief period.

This statement is made by Platina, librarian to his Holiness, who entered upon his duties on the last day of February, 1475.