spring; for oblivion covereth the glory of the world. But God hath provided a remedy for us in books, without which all that were ever great, would have been without a memory. Towers fall to the earth, triumphal cities perish, nor can any king or pope confer a lasting privilege, unless by books. Finally, think what convenience or learning there is in books; how easily, how secretly, how securely, we may lay bare without shame to books the poverty of human ignorance. These are the masters who instruct us without rods, without anger, and without money. If you approach, they sleep not; if you interrogate them, they do not hide themselves; if you mistake, they do not murmur or laugh. O books, alone liberal and making liberal, who give to all, who ask and emancipate all who serve you. The tree of life you are, and the river of paradise, with which the human intelligence is irrigated and made fruitful. The contemplation of truth is more perfect by books, which do not suffer the acts of the intelligence to be interrupted; therefore, books seem to be the most immediate instruments of speculative felicity; consequently, no price ought to hinder a man from the purchase of books, unless on account of the malice of the seller, or the need of waiting for a more convenient time; for as wisdom is an intinite treasure, the value of books is ineffable, and therefore Aristotle, whom Averroes thinks was given as a rule in nature, gave 72,000 sestercii for a few books of Speusippus. The monks, who are so venerable, are accustomed to be solicitous in regard to books, and to be delighted in their company, as with all riches, and thence it is that we find in most monasteries such splendid treasures of erudition, giving a delectable light to the path of laics. O that devout labor of their hands in writing books; how preferable to all georgic care ! O devout solicitude, by means of which neither Martha nor Mary can be corrupted. Truly the love of books is the love of wisdom, and a sensual or avaricious life cannot be combined with it; Therefore some one says, "Nulla libris erit apta manus ferrugine tincta, Ambos crede mihi non tenet una domus." No one can serve books and mammon; for the former reveal God. Truly an image of future beatitude is the contemplation of sacred letters, in which one time, the Creator, at another, the creature is seen, and from a perpetual torrent of delight faith is drawn: how admirable is t'.e power of books, while by them we behold the universe, and as if in a ceatain mirror of eternity, the things which are not as if they were ! We ascend mountains, we dive into abysses, we see creatures of all kinds, we distinguish the properties of earthly bodies, and we even pass to comtemplate those that are heavenly. Lo, thus by books we attain to the reward of beatitude, while we are as yet only travellers journeying towards it.”* On promotion to great dignities in the state, monks loved to make donations *Philobiblion, 15. S, It of books to the houses they left. Thus Simon Langham, abbot of St. Alban should rise up against us !"* The house-diaries of abbeys are very particular in noticing donations to the library. Thus in the annals of Corby, in Saxony, we read "This year 1094, John de Mantrop gave to the library a folio book in Arabic, brought from Pannonia. In 1097, Marchwartus made a law that every novice on the day of his profession, should give a useful and valuable book to the library. He desired also that every superior of a monastery subject to ours, should collect a chronicle of his house, and send it to him to be a memorial for future ages. In 1215, Balthasar Rummer of St. Ansgarius gave us a manual, in which all his holy labors in the north are briefly and studiously noted, according to years and days. In 1379, Joachim de Bramburg gave to the library various Arabic and Hebrew books, which had been formerly taken in war in Hungary." Laymen also co-operated. St. Louis left his books to be divided between the Franciscan and Dominican orders. Malatesta Novello of Rimini built and furnished a noble library in the Franciscan convent of Cesena. Henry III., archduke of Bavaria, gave a noble library to the abbey of Tagernsee, where he spent many hours of devout meditation. The spirit of private collectors was hardly known. In every town in Italy, indeed, as Gerbert observes, books in abundance were to be found. Frederic II. formed an excellent library,§ as did in the fourteenth century Robert, king of Sicily. The crusades probably caused a number of Greek books to be brought to Italy. Coluccio Salutato, Petrarch, Niccolo Niccoli, and Thomas of Sarzana, afterwards Pope Nicholas V. were all eminent instruments in collecting and collating classical manuscripts; but still these men were far removed from seeking to have private libraries. Petrarch wished to sell his books in order to erect a chapel of the Blessed Virgin.¶ Nic * Id. c. 8. +Jaeck. Gallerie der Klöster Deutschlands. § Petri de Vin. Lib. iii. Ep. 67. ¶ Epist. 34. Tirab. iii. 3. 1. coli's library at Florence was placed in a monastery; and also in the following age, the public libraries founded by private persons were always attached either to a monastery or to a church. One may pause here an instant to admire the wisdom of these men in this respect. "It is natural," says Blume, "that the property of communities should endure longer than what individuals may have accumulated for themselves. I know of no library which has been kept together in the hands of a private family for longer than 200 years. They are either dispersed or transferred to a foundation. Therefore it would be useless to write a history of private libraries."* What an affecting comment on this statement might be furnished by the letter of John Francis Picus of Mirandula, on the death of his uncle John Picus, to Baptist the Carmelite, in which, after observing that his death is as admirable as his life, since he departed full of holiness and charity, he adds, "It is not yet known what is to be done with his rich library. I hope, however, that I may be able to collect and arrange all the fragments and particles of his writing. Alas! fallacious hopes and vain desires! I beheld many chests full of scraps, nor did I find any thing which could be brought into light on its own feet. O if you had seen what things he had conceived, what he had undertaken, you would scarcely have been able to refrain from tears. In him revived all the philosophers and theologians, all the ancients and moderns, if not excelled, at least, if you will believe a disciple who loved him, equalled. Do you and these who are under you pour out prayers to Christ for this friendly man."+ What is to be done with his library? Such is the sad question now at every scholar's death, which the wiser men of the middle ages in general took care to obviate, by collecting books for abbeys rather than for themselves. Muratori treats on the libraries of the monasteries, and gives some catalogues of books left to them by monks. The library of Fulda, which perished in the thirty years' war, dated from the Carlovingians. Down to the beginning of the seventeenth century its collection of manuscripts was precious. Twelve monks had always This vast library, the ad been constantly employed in writing out books for it.§ miration of the Italian philosophers of the fifteenth century, was divided inta forty-eight classes. Some fragments of its catalogue in the time of Charlemagne exist: the books were then chiefly lives of the holy fathers and monastic rules.|| The library of Corby in Germany, was also immense. This was plundered in the wars of the sixteenth century, and transferred to that of Wolfenbüttels.¶ library of Gemblours, so rich in the historical antiquities of Belgium, was more than 700 years old at its late dispersion. In the abbey of St. Gall, in the eighth century, there were still but few books. The abbot Gotzbert was the first to enlarge the collection. The abbots Grimald and Hartmot enriched it with their + Epist. Lib. i. T The * Blume, Iter Italicum, i. Antiq. Italiæ, Diss. xliii. § Ziegelbauer, Hist. Lit. de l'Ord. S. Ben. 1. 483. Brower, Antiquitates Fuldenses, 45. I Schannat. Hist. Fuldensis, P. i. THeeren, Gesch. d. Class. Lit. i. 162. private collections. The former gave the Epistles of St. Paul, Missals and Gospels, Homilies, Works of the Fathers, Lives of the Saints, a book on astronomy, another on medicine, a Virgil, a Chronica Julii Cæsaris, De Vita Caroli Imperatoris, De Bonitate Hludovici Imperatoris, De Regibus Merovingorum, and Epistola Alexandri de Situ India. It is not to be wondered at, that the books in this abbey were found by Poggius and Cincius concealed and neglected in the tower, when we consider the deplorable state to which it had been reduced for some time previous by the enemies of the monks, and by the barbarous lay nobles who had destroyed theancient discipline.* For as Trithemius remarks, whenever there was decay of discipline, the library, like every thing, was neglected, as in the abbey of St. Martin, at Spanheim, till the year 1459,† when it again deserved the epithet of Bibliothecam illam solemnem.‡ When the reformers came to St. Gall, many precious manuscripts and records were seen carried out by children. through the streets. Some were taken from them by the magistrates and laid up in the council-house. In one chest were found more than 600 brief but very old charters. There was also a census of the nobles and plebeians in the time of Louisle-Débonnaire. Some of these manuscripts came into the hands of Goldast, others into those of Schobinger.§ In the books of the archives of St. Gall there are notices of the place from which each came. Thus in manuscripts of the ninth century we read, "Hæc a coenobio S. Dionysi venit expositio;" again, "Istud, de vitibus a palatio Aquisgrani venit;" again, "Ado Episcop. Wienensis reliquias S. Desiderii cum actibus ejus vitæ misit ad S. Gallum." The library of Lobes, of which, the abbots were great promoters of learning, was also very great and precious. Trithemius increased the library of his abbey, enriching it with many and most rare MSS. on parchment and paper. During the twenty years when he used to visit different abbeys of his order in various provinces, he was able to examine all their libraries, and wherever he found a duplicate copy of a book which he had not, he procured it either by purchase or promise of another in its stead. "It happened often," he says, "in different monasteries and orders, that I found many volumes of astronomy, music, mathematics, philosophy poesy, oratory, history medicine, and art, which the good fathers either did not understand, or, fearing they might be an occasion of violating their holy rule, asked me to take away for myself, and to give them others printed, which they more wanted. So in the course of twenty years I have brought to this abbey about 2000 volumes. I have not seen or heard in all Germany of such a rare and wonderful collection as this became, containing such a number, not alone of common books, but of rare, hidden, secret, wonderful books, such as are scarcely to be found any where else.” The manuscripts from this monastery, with those of the abbey of Lorsch, which were also precious, were removed to the Vatican in the time of Pope Gregory *Ildefons Von Arx. ii. § In Notis ap Vadiani Farrag. iii. Trithem. Nepiachus. + Epist. ii. 3. XV., when the library of Heidelberg was presented to the Holy See by Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, in the year 1622. says, In France the monasteries were very rich in books. Stephen Pasquier cannot sufficiently express his admiration of them. "Though much," he "has been lost through the length of years and the misfortunes of our time, one may still gather out of the libraries of the mona-teries, plusieurs beaux brins dont l'on peut embellir le public."* "I cannot omit mentioning," says Paradin, "that at St. John's in Lyons there are certain very ancient books written on the bark of trees, of which one is legible and contains a commentary on the Psalms; but the other, which is unbound and torn, is written in old characters, which, to confess the simple truth, cannot be read, though the letters are fine and clear. To many who are not skilled in such matters, they seem to be Greek letters, but they are Latin characters, of which the form only is unlike ours; so that, however clever a man may be, he would find it hard to read a page in a week. These are, in fact, the works of St. Avitus, archbishop of Vienne. Some think that they are witten on linen, others that it is on junk of the Nile, others that it is on little pieces of wood glued together. It is impossible to divine exactly what they are. Certainly they are venerable and worthy of being preserved, through reverence for antiquity." The library of the abbey of Cluny before the Protestants pillaged and burnt it in the sixteenth century, was deemed one of the wonders of the world, and in fact it equalled that of the emperors at Constantinople. The literary treasures in the abbeys of St. Remy at Rheims, of St. Benedict on the Loire, of St. Victor and St. Germain at Paris, and of St. Denis after its discipline had been reformed by Suger, were also immense. The most important manuscripts of the Petavian Library, collected by Paul Petau, and afterwards purchased by Vossius, from his son Alexander, for 40,000 livres, which forms the kernel of the present Alexandrine Library in the Vatican, came in 1562 out of the plundered abbey of St. Benoit-sur-le-Loire, from which Bongars also enriched his collection. The library of St. Victor was full of the most rare and excellent books. Frequently the original manuscripts of the great men who had rendered particular abbeys illustrious were preserved in them. Thus in Gembloux Dom Martene saw that of the chronicle of Sigebert, the letters of Guibert, and some works of St. Ratherius. In the twelfth century the library of the abbey of St. Médard at Soissons was celebrated; and Vincent of Beauvais speaks with rapture of that of St. Martin at Tours. Respecting the libraries in the Italian abbeys, we find abundant details in the interesting work of Blume. The library of the Augustinian hermits at Padua was celebrated; writers of the middle ages speak of it with admiration.§ Many of the manuscripts had been written there, though Tomasini found that many were lost or damaged, the Paris *Recherches de la France, iii. 19. Gervaise, Vie d' Abbeillard, v. Hist. de Lyons, liv. ii. § Comment. Savonarolæ de laudibus Patavii. |