Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/410

 404 LIBRARY there are many others of 50,000 and upward. The largest private library in Germany is that of the prince von Oettingen at Wallerstein in Bavaria, containing 100,000 volumes; that of Prince Thurn and Taxis at Ratisbon has near- ly as many ; and there are several other private collections numbering nearly 50,000 volumes. The library of Strasburg, which contained about 220,000 volumes of printed books and many valuable manuscripts, was partly burned during the siege of the city by the Germans in 1870 ; it has since been restored by contribu- tions from the German publishers, and now has at least 80,000 volumes more than when injured. Austria possesses a number of valua- ble libraries besides those mentioned in the table. In Vienna the library founded by Fran- cis I. has 75,000 volumes, and the private col- lections of the archduke Albrecht and of the princes Liechtenstein, Esterhazy, Schwarzen- berg, and Metternich have over 50,000 each. The private library of Prince Lobkowitz at Prague contains 70,000 volumes, and he has another of 40,000 in his castle of Raudnitz on the Elbe. In Prague are also the private libraries of the princes Kinsky and Fursten- berg, containing respectively 40,000 and 30,000 volumes. The university of Gratz has 70,000 volumes, those of Innspruck and Olmtitz 60,- 000 each, and that of Lemberg 55,000. In 1870 Cisleithan Austria had in all her pub- lic and private libraries 5,756,066 volumes. In Holland, the university of Leyden has 90,000, and that of Utrecht 75,000 volumes. In Bel- gium, the libraries of Ghent, Liege, and Louvain have about 90,000 volumes each. In the city and province of Rome there were in the va- rious convents previous to their suppression libraries containing in the aggregate 770,000 printed volumes and 12,000 manuscripts. These were all taken possession of by the government, and will be in part distributed, it is reported, among the other great libraries, and the re- mainder formed into a new public library. The Alessandrina library in Rome has 70,000 volumes. The national library of Florence was formed in 1864 by the union of the Maglia- becchian (founded in 1714) and the Palatine or library of the Pitti palace. The Marucellian of Florence contains about 60,000 volumes, and the Riccardian about 30,000. The Brancaccian of Naples has more than 75,000, and the libra- ry of the university of Palermo more than 80,000 volumes. According to the report of the minister of public instruction for 1871-'2, the total number of public libraries in Italy, including university, lyceum, gymnasium, and former convent libraries, was 687. In Russia, the universities of Kazan and Kharkov possess each about 70,000 volumes, and that of Dorpat has 80,000. The great imperial library of St. Petersburg owes many of its treasures to the spoils of Poland, particularly of the Zaluski library of Warsaw, which, when transported to Russia by Suvaroff in 1795, contained 300,- 000 volumes of printed books and many valu- able manuscripts. The national library in Lis- bon is wholly the growth of the present cen- tury. When the reigning family of Portugal emigrated to Brazil in 1807, the royal library was carried to Rio de Janeiro ; it now forms the imperial library of Brazil, and numbers upward of 100,000 volumes. The private li- brary of the late royal family of Spain con- tained nearly 100,000 volumes; that of the Escurial, although rich in manuscripts, has only about 40,000 printed books. Switzerland possesses 25 public and cantonal libraries, which contain in the aggregate 925,000 vol- umes. Those at Neufchatel, Lausanne, Bern, Aargau, Geneva, Lucerne, and Basel contain from 50,000 to 95,000 volumes each. There are also in Switzerland 1,629 other libraries, containing about 700,000 volumes. Constan- tinople has several libraries, but they are all very small, and do not contain in the aggregate more than 40,000 or 50,000 books. The khe- dive of Egypt is making efforts to build up a large library in Cairo, and he has already ac- quired a very valuable collection of manuscripts of the Koran, among which is said to be the oldest copy known. Hopes were entertained by scholars that the opening of Khiva by the Russians in 1873 would furnish traces of the famous library of Samarcand, founded by Tamerlane and enlarged by his successors, but the result did not justify the expectations. Of the libraries of China and Japan but little is known, but there is said to be one con- taining 300,000 volumes in Peking, and one of 150,000 volumes in Tokio (Yedo), the latter being particularly rich in Chinese literature. The libraries of the United States, public and private, numbered in 1860, according to the census of that year, 27,730, and con- tained in the aggregate 13,316,379 volumes. The census of 1870 shows a remarkable in- crease, the number of libraries having reached 164,815, and the total number of volumes 45,528,938. Of these libraries, 108,800 were private, containing in the aggregate 26,072,420 volumes, and 56,015 public, with 19,456,518 volumes. The public libraries are classed as follows: United States congressional, 190,000 volumes ; United States departmental, 115,185 ; state and territorial, 653,915; town, city, &c., 1,237,430; court and law, 426,782; university, college, and school, 3,598,537; Sunday school, 8,346,153; church, 1,634,915; historical, lit- erary, and scientific societies, 590,002 ; charita- ble and penal institutions, 13,890; benevolent and secret associations, 114,581 ; circulating, 2,536,128. According to the report of the United States commissioner of education for the year 1872, there were 1,080 public libraries in the United States, each containing 1,000 volumes and upward. Of these, 150 had from 10,000 to 25,000 volumes each, 37 from 25,000 to 50,000 each, and 15 more than 50,000. The following table shows the con- dition of the most important libraries of the United States in 1874: