Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/212

* LIBRARIES. 194 LIBRARIES. doubtless exislod duiiiij.' the til'tli and fourth tenturies B.C.. and there may be some truth in the stories of the colleetioii of books by the earlier tyrants, such as I'isistratus and Poly- crates: but these were of moderate size, even the library of Aristotle probably containiuf; only a few hundred rolls. It is with the founding of the Alexandrian Library (q.v.) by the first of the Ptolemies that the history of the great classical libraries begins. The library of Per- gamuni, a formidable rival to that of Alexan- dria, was fomidcd probably by Attains 1.. and was largely increased by the fostering care of his successors.' It was ultiniaUly removed to Alex- andria, being sent l)y Antony as a gift to Cleo- patra. At the time of this transference it contained, according to Plutarch. 200,000 vol- umes. At Rome interest in literature developed slowly, but we are told that the library of the kings' of ilaccdon was brouglit to Rome by ^milius Paulus (B.C. 1G7). In the first century B.C. there were some notal>le jirivate collections, as that of the grammarian Tyrannion. estimated at 30.000 rolls, and the carefully selected and valuable collection of Atlicus. the friend of Cicero. Civsar is said to have planned a public library; and Pliny states that C. Asinius Pollio (B.C. 39) erected from the spoils of his Parthian victories the first pulilic library in Rome, in the temple of Libertas. near the Forum; l)it accord- ing to Plutarch this honor should be given to Lucullus. Another library was established by Augustus on the Palatine, in connection with his new temple of Apollo. This was divided into Greek and Latin sections. Another was placed by the same Emperor in the Portico of Octavia. Tiberius and later emperors contin- ued this work. Especially famous was the Ulpian library, established by Trajan, which soon surpassed all others in Rome, and was later removed from the Forum of Trajan to the Baths of Diocletian. Nearly 1700 :ISS. and fragments of MSS. have been found in a library room at Herculancum, about 400 of which have been more or less unrolled and deciphered. In the ancient libraries the books, usually rolls of pa|)yrus, were kept in closets, in somewhat small rooms, which, however, seem to have been arranged for the use of the books. Catalogues were prcjiared. and the tablets of Alexandria were valuable sources for literary history. The librarian was commonly a distinguished scholar, and at all times seems to have ranked as an important public officer. The first librarian of whom we have any record was a Babylonian named Amil-anu, who lived about IfiOO n.c, one of whose signet cylinders is in the British Mu- seum. Xeliemiah is said to have foinuled >a li- brary, and references in the Books of Samuel and Kings to other books impl.v the existence of some collection in which these works miglit be foimd. Eusebius mentions an early Christian library founded by the martyr Alexander, Bishop of .Terusalem. who died A.n. •2.50. Saint Pamphilus. another Christian martyr (A.n. 300). foinded at Ca>sarea a public library of about 30.000 volumes, chiefly theological, which is said to have been destroyed by the Arabs in the seventh century. Saint .Jerome had a large library, and made frequent use of that at C.Tsarea ; in one of his letters he refers to the use of church libraries as though each church had one. Saint .ugustine, on his deathbed, a.d. 430. requested that the li- brary of the church at Uipiio and all the MSS. should be carefully preserved. In the primitive monasteries of Tabenna, founded by Pachomius, in the depths of the Thebaid, there was a library in every house. Julian the Apostate (a.d. 303) founded libraries of a different character, upon which he inscribed the words : "Some love horses, some birds, others wild beasts, but from boyhood I have been possessed with the desire of acquiring and owning books." Constantine the Great founded (A.D. 33G) a library at Constantinople, which at his death is said to have cmilained 0000 volumes ; it grew under .lulian and Theo- dosius the Younger to 120.000 volumes. In it was deposited the only authentic copy of the pro- ceedings of the Council of Nice, and among its curiosities were a MS. of Homer, one hundred and twenty feet in length, written in letters of gold on serpents' skin, and a copy of the Four Gospels bound in plates of gold weighing fifteen pounds and enriched with precious stones. This library was destro.ved by fire luider Zeno. A later collection, extending to 33.000 volumes, is said to have been destroyed by Leo 111., 'the Icon- oclast,' A.u. 730. The triple" fire at the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders, in 1203, eclipsed all previous ones in dcstruetivencss. Two hundred and fifty years later came the final dis- aster of the Ottoman conquest. Despite all these losses, possibly throu.eh some of them, the great libraries of Eurojie owe to Constantino])le some of their choicest treasures. Through the Middle Ages books and learning were preserved bv the monasteries, especially those of the Benedictines, beginning at Monte- Cassino, a.d. 530. Each Benedictine house in- stituted first a library, then the scriptorium or writing-room, where MSS. were copied for sale or exchange, and lastly the school, ojien to all who desired instructioii. JIany famous lib?aries of Europe had their nuclei in these Benedictine collections. Notable among these are the li- braries of Monte-Cassino. Fleury on the Loire (c.fioO), Corbie (662). Hersfeld. Ratisbon. Corvei (q.v.). Reichenau (724), Fulda (744). Saint Gall (820), and Clugny (910). England is indebted to the Benedictines for her earliest library, that of Christ Church, Canterbury (.596). and for Saint Peter's of York, Saint Cuthbert's at Durham, and those at Peterborough, Wearmouth (647), Bury Saint Edmunds, Reading, and Saint Albans. The Franciscans had a considerable librarv at Oxford, to which Adam de Murisco left his books, 1253. The Bodleian was opened in 1602. The library of the University of Cambridge dates from 1475. Charlemagne established libraries in his cloister- schools at Aix-la-Chapelle and Tours, to which Alcuin brought the training he had secured at Saint ilary's. in York, England. With the fourteenth century came the estab- lishment in Germany of the university* libraries, at Prague ( 1348) ,' Heidelberg (1386), Leipzig (1409) ; and the first public town libraries, the outcome of humanism, at Ratisbon (1430), Vienna (1440. opened to the public in 1575), and Frankfort (1484). The suppression of the monasteries after the Reformation gave an im- pulse to the foundation of the royal and town libraries. Many important ones were es- tablished in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- turies: Gottingen (1737), Bonn (1818), Strass-