Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/347

 The Vatican Library. 335 dence is in existence as to the actual preservation of the archives before the 4th century. In speaking earlier of the division of Rome into regions, I should have added that for the purposes of registration there were appointed, in each, notaries : so that we have now arrived at the point at which the work of organization had become crystallized. In charge of the books and documents of each church was the reader, or lector ; under him was an amanuensis, or scribe (exceptor), chosen at an early age, and advanced to the status of reader as he grew up. Superintending the registration, as early as the year 338, were the notaries, over whom eventually a superintendent (primicerius] was placed, possibly by Pope Julius (337-352), from whom the series of men were drawn who, in a later age, became known as the librarians of the Apostolic See. One of the earliest mentioned is Surgentius, to whom a book of Arator the sub-deacon On the Acts of the Apostles was handed over by Pope Vigilius in the year 544 to be placed among the archives of the Church. As early as. 526 we find one Boniface, superintendent of the notaries, searching by command of Pope John I., as to the date of Easter ; and he brought out of the archives of the Roman Church the letter of Pascasinus and Bishop of Lilybea, sent to Leo the Great in 444. An interesting confirmation of the fact that grades of work were already established is shown by the inscription placed by Pope Damasus (366-384) over the Archivum constructed by him, together with the Church of St. Lawrence, near the theatre of Pompey. He speaks of his father as in turn, amanuensis, reader, deacon, priest (exceptor, lector, levita, sacerdos}, and to his own rising in the same way and thence to the apostolic chair. Hinc pater exceptor lector levita sacerdos Creverat, hinc meritis quoniam melioribus actis H : nc mihi provecto Christus cui summa potestas Sedis Apostolicae volvit concedere honorem Archibis fateor volvi nova condere tecta Addere praeterea dextra laevaque columnas Quae Damasi teneant proprium per saecula nomen. And it is most probable, according to De Rossi, that in this basilica of St. Lorenzo, before the scriptorium instituted by Julius, and before the peace of Constantine, from expressions used, the treasury of the archives existed, which at the end of the 4th century had not yet been established at the Lateran. Even the