Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/392

 380 The Library. It was not until the succeeding pontificate of Paul III. (1534- 1550) that the library began to revive from its misfortunes and to recover something of its former splendour. Tiraboschi informs us that the custom of conferring the office of librarian on a cardinal arose in the reign of this pope, who passed a decree to that effect. But Mazzuchelli has thrown some doubts on this. 1 In 1542 we find MSS. and documents which had been left at Avignon recovered and restored to Rome. 2 The task of recover- ing lost books was undertaken by Marcello Cervino, afterwards Marcellus II. 8 The regesta for certain years of the reign of Gregory IX. (1227-1241), Clement IV. and Clement VI., were recovered by him in 1548 and 1553.* A catalogue of the Greek books, made in 1555, Giusseppe Cozza, the sub-librarian of our own day, found at Naples among the Farnese MSS. In 1566, forty-four more MSS. were brought from Avignon (he really brought 100, but 56 of these had to be returned nine days later). At the same time he brought 157 more volumes of regesta, 70 volumes relating to the Schism and a host of other documents. 5 In 1580 we have an account of the library from Montaigne who visited it. " It consists," he says, " of five or six rooms leading out of one another." "The library," he adds, "was open every morning almost without any difficulty." 6 Eight years later, in 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada, the whole position of the library was altered by Sixtus V., who caused the present magnificent edifice to be built by Domenico Fontana, joining the two galleries of Bramante. The great hall is 77 yards long, 48 feet wide and 29 feet high. It was paved with marble by Pius IX. 7 The erection of this wing only occupied one year. 8 Sixtus V. also established the printing press of the Vatican, on which I hope some day to speak at length. 9 The 1 7th century saw the addition of four notable collections of books. First, in 1600, came the library of Fulvio Orsini, bequeathed by him to the Vatican, which has been described as 1 Roscoe, Life of Leo X., Notes. 2 Ibid., p. 80. J Cervino gave all his own library to the Vatican in 1549. Ibid. 4 //to/., p. 87. 5 /fotf.,p. 115. he adds. 7 Baedeker, ad loc. p. 4. 3 The second cross gallery, known as the Braccio Nuovo, was not erected till 1821 by Paul VII. The architect was Rafael Stern.
 * Muntz, pp. 131-5. Montaigne's last statement is hardly borne out by what
 * Mariano Ugolini, La nuova biblioteca Leonina nel Vaticano (Roma, 1893),