Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/424

 412 The Library. Petrarch's Trionfi. At once a search was made, when it was discovered that no less than forty-one miniatures were missing from the Omelia and seventeen illuminations from the Trionfi. The " Professor," who had been previously convicted of thefts in various libraries, was arrested. The looseness of supervision which permitted the man to obtain possession of the contents of the Vatican Library calls for some correction. ttbe public ^Librarian an& titles of Ibonour. AT first sight it would certainly appear that the connection of the librarian of a public library with the distribution of titles of honour is extremely remote. In one all-important personal sense this is indeed a fact. Though (it is surely safe to assert) the dignity of his person and his distinguished mental attainments together render him competent to lend increased distinction (should opportunity offer) to even such con- spicuously dignified orders as " the Garter, or the Thistle, or the Bath," his modesty, so manifest to all men, enables him to smile with superior disregard of gilded emptinesses when bearers of Her Majesty's favours pass by on the other side, or, " once in a century or so," convey an odd K.C.B. or C.B. to the official heads of the craft at the British Museum. At the same time he is fully sensible that to endow a University is less worthy of recognition and applause than to successfully plumb the varied temperaments of public library readers ! But though undisturbed by that unhealthy excitement which a Prime Minister's pleasing intimations are so well calculated to promote, he still takes the liveliest interest in the issues of the official lists of honours conferred, which appear at times of State rejoicing or the overthrowing of Her Majesty's Governments. If he is a librarian mindful of his business (and is he not in a con- stant state of concern for the best interests of his profession ?) he will take care that marks of Royal favour do not pass unnoticed and un- noted. If, on the other hand, he is neglectful, his catalogue will suffer in accuracy ; for such a person as Professor Sir William H. Flower would without doubt remain, in one part of the world at least, a plain untitled personage with nothing to distinguish him from every-day folk except the literary fruits of his erudition. Further, it is not unreasonable to suspect that the present President of the Royal Society might per- chance become possessed in his catalogue of two distinct individualities : here Sir William Thomson the exponent of " Lighthouse characteristics," there Lord Kelvin, the demonstrator of the " Molecular Tactics of a Crystal." It will be allowed that even in reputedly well-informed quarters such errors as these are not always absent. In the interests of good cata- loguing they should be rendered impossible in every quarter. If a concerted effort were made to place on permanent record those titles of honour from time to time conferred upon writers of books, which may be needed for catalogue purposes, there would be fewer errors of omission than at present. I consider it very desirable that, if possible, lists should at frequent intervals be published in the organ of the Library Association : as desirable distinctly, and as important to cataloguers as the inclusion of lists of pseudonyms and anonyms ; for it is not without the bounds of possibility that even the most industrious seeker after knowledge in this direction may by some mischance fail to note this disposal of a K.C.S.I. or that accession to the peerage. The list should, moreover, have regard for newly-appointed ecclesiastical dignitaries, from Canon to Archbishop or Cardinal.