Page:On the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV.djvu/8

 of S. Peter's; and as for any Library private to the Pope, I conceived that it would be impossible to disinter its history from the secret archives of the papacy. One day, however, while working in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, my friend M. Léon Dorez told me that he had seen in Rome some volumes of Accounts dealing with these earlier libraries—that the books were chained to the desks—and that he had made a few extracts for his own use. Subsequently, with his usual kindness, he gave me some of these, and referred me, for fuller information, to the work of M. Eugène Müntz, Les Arts à la Cour des Papes. I there read, with the greatest interest, minute details of what the French call the installation of the Library by Sixtus IV., drawn up by Platina, the Librarian; and it was evident that if I could find the room or rooms to which these payments referred, I should be able to reconstruct the Library. With this object in view, I went to Rome in March, 1898, with letters of introduction to Father Ehrle, Librarian of the Vatican, and to others, in the hope of obtaining permission to examine parts of the palace not usually accessible to strangers. I was received with the greatest kindness and courtesy, and was about to begin the examination of the rooms once occupied by the Library of Sixtus IV., when Father Ehrle put into my hands an essay by M. Paul Fabre, La Vaticane de Sixte IV., which had appeared in the Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire of the École Française de Rome for December 1895, but of the existence of which I had never heard. On reading it, I found that M. Fabre had completely anticipated me; he had done exactly what I had come to Rome to do, and in such a masterly fashion that I could not hope to improve upon his work. After some consideration I determined to verify his conclusions by carefully examining the locality, and to make a fresh ground plan of it for my own use. I have also studied the authorities quoted by Müntz from my own