Page:The Californian volume 6 issue 36.djvu/3

 a bookstore. The times were propitious, Mr. Bancroft was untiringly ambitious and enterprising, and success crowned his undertaking in proportion to his efforts.

Being endowed by nature with the taste for literature. which urges most men similarly endowed into authorship, or at least into a professional career, Mr. Bancroft was wise enough to resist the temptation of risking all in the desire to follow this bent, and set himself resolutely to work to lay the foundation for not only a fortune, but some congenial brain-work outside of his business.

It is natural, perhaps, that, living in the exciting period of California's early annals, and witnessing the fascination which the unique experiences of that time exercised upon all minds alike, he should have his mind drawn toward history—the history of California. In 1856 he commenced collecting authorities on this subject, partly with a view to historical writing in the future, and partly to aid him in the preparation of certain publications issued by the firm.

Once begun, there was no limit to the desire to accumulate further information, and every book added to the collection was another suggestion of the use to which they should be put. Instead of being confined to merely local or Californian subjects, his library soon contained books of every kind of information about the adjacent countries; and then of the whole Pacific coast.

Having gained so much, he saw the value of completing his library with works of greater rarity; and not only himself traveled for that purpose in the Eastern States and Europe, but had his agents in all parts of the world, who watched the sales of private or rare collections, and sent him the catalogues, from which he selected the matter desired for his historical library.

The first great addition in bulk to the miscellaneous mass of books gathered up concerning the history of the Pacific coast was three thousand volumes from the Maximilian Library of Mexico. This lot was selected from the catalogue furnished by an agent; the Maximilian Library being a collection of books on Mexican and Spanish history and other subjects, which had employed Señor J. M. Andrade a life-time to collect from every conceivable quarter, and which that unfortunate emperor had purchased to found an imperial library for Mexico. On the close of his career they were smuggled out of the country, and offered for sale in Europe.

At a much later date the collection of José Fernando Ramirez, curator of the National Library of Mexico, and author of several important works, was also sold in London; and again Mr. Bancroft's agent purchased a considerable portion of it. Five hundred volumes were also collected in Mexico by Porter C. Bliss, Secretary of the United States Legation, for Mr. Bancroft's library. Among the various collections from that quarter are many venerable and curious books and valuable manuscripts.

To the manuscripts were added many from the Squier collection, as well as from a number of others sold at various times. Anything like a catalogue within the compass of this article would be inadmissible, if it were not useless and tiresome. It is perhaps sufficient to say that some of the manuscripts in the Central American and Mexican departments of the Bancroft Library were written in Latin nearly four hundred years ago; while aboriginal hieroglyphics are of much earlier date. One of the earliest original manuscripts in Latin is a pastoral letter of Joannes de Zumarraga, the first bishop of Mexico, who was appointed by Charles V., the date of which is 1534; though this is not the oldest manuscript in the library.

The historical value of some of these writings is nothing. They only serve to satisfy the curiosity of the reader, to know how certain things were done at a certain period of the world's history, and are simply classed as "rare." One of these is the Moralia S. Gregorii Pape, in thirty-five books, in doubled-lined Latin text, the lettering being small, close, and even; the margin bearing frequent references, in the Greek style. The running-title is in blue Roman numerals, with red tracery; the chapter divisions are marked in