you CHAP. II. How to inform ones self and what we ought to know concerning the erecting of a Library AMongst these now my Lord I conceive there are none more profitable and necessary than to be first well instructed ones self before we advance on this enterprise concerning the order and the method which we ought precisely to observe to accomplish its end And this may be effected by two means sufficiently easie and secure The First is to take the counsel and advice of such as are able to give it concert and animate us viva voce supposing that they are capable to do it men of Letters sober and judicious and who by being thus qualified are able to speak to the purpose discourse and reason well upon every subject or for that they also are pursuing the same Enterprise with the esteem and reputation of better successe and to proceed therein with more industry precaution and judgment than others do such as are at present M M. de Fontenay Hale du Puis Riber des Cordes and Moreau whose examples one cannot erre in following since according to the saying of Pliny the younger Stultissimum esset ad imitandum non optima quaeque sibi proponere and for what concerns you in particular the variety of their procedures may continually furnish you with some new addresse and light which will not be peradventure unserviceable to the progresse and advancement of your Library by the choice of good Books and of whatsoever is the most curious in every one of theirs The Second is to consult and diligently to collect those few Precepts that may be deduc'd from the Books of some Authors who have written but sleightly upon this matter as for instance The Counsel of Baptista Cardonius the Philobiblion of Richardus de Bury the life of Vincentius Pinelli the Books of Possevine de cultura ingeniorum of that which Lipsius has made concerning Libraries and of all the several Tables Indexes and Catalogues and govern ones self by the greatest and most renowned Bibliotheques which were ever erected since to pursue the advice and precept of Cardan His maxime in unaquaque re credendum est qui ultimum de se experimentum dederint In order to this you must by no means omit and neglect to cause to be transcrib'd all the Catalogues not only of the great and most famous Libraries whether ancient or modern publike or private with us or amongst strangers but also of the Studies and Cabinets which for not being much knownn or visited remain buried in perpetual silence A thing which will no way appear strange if we consider four or five principal reasons which have caused me to establish this proposition The first whereof is That a man can do nothing in imitation of other Libraries unlesse by the means of their Catalogues he have knowledge of what they contain The second For that they are able to instruct us concerning the Books themselves the place the time and the form of their Impression The third Because that a minde which is generous and nobly born should have a desire and an ambition to assemble as in one heap whatsoever the others possesse in particular ut quae divisa beatos efficiunt in se mixta fluant The fourth For that by this means one may sometimes do a friend service and pleasure and when we cannot furnish him with the Book he is in quest of shew and direct him to the place where he may finde some Copie a thing very feasible by the assistance of these Catalogues Finally Because it is altogether impossible that we should by our own industry learn and know the qualities of so vast a number of Books as it 's requisite to have it is not without reason that we follow the judgments of the most intelligent and best versed in this particular and then to deduce this Inference Since these Books have been collected and purchas'd by such and such there is reason to believe they deserv'd it for some circumstance unknown to us And in effect I may truly say that for the space of two or three years that I have had the honour to meet sometimes with M. de F. amongst the Book-sellers I have frequently seen him buy Books so old ill bound and wretchedly printed that I could not chuse but smile and wonder together till that he being afterwards pleas'd to tell me the cause and the circumstances for which he purchas'd them his reasons seemed to be so pertinent that I shall never otherwise think but that he is a person the best versed in the knowledge of Books and discourses of them with more experience and judgment than any man whatsoever not only in France but in all the world besides CHAP. III. The Number of Books which are requisite THe first Difficulty having been thus deduced and explain'd that which ought to follow and approach us neerest obliges us to enquire if it be to purpose to make any great provision of Books to render thereby our Library famous if not by the quality of them yet at least by the unparallel'd and prodigious quantity of its Volumes For it is certainly the opinion of very many that Books are like to the Laws and Sentences of the Iurisconsults which as one sayes aestimantur pondere qualitate non numero and that it appertains to him only to discourse handsomely upon any point of Learning who is least conversant in the several Readings of those Authors which have written upon it and really it seems that those gallant Precepts and Moral Advertisements of Seneca Paretur Librorum quantum satis est nihil in apparatum Onerat discentem turba non instruit multoque satius est paucis te auctoribus tradere quam errare per multos Quum legere non possis quantum habeas sat est te habere quantum legas and divers other like it which he gives us in five or six places of his Works may in some measure favour and fortifie this opinion by the authority of so great a Person But if we would entirely subvert it to establish our own as the most probable we need only fix our selves upon the great difference which there is between the Industry of a particular man and the Ambition of him who would appear conspicuous by the Fame of his Bibliotheque or 'twixt him that alone disires to satisfie himself and him that only seeks to gratifie and oblige the Publique For certain it is that all these precedent reasons point only to the Instruction of those who would judiciously and with order and method make some progress in the Faculty which they pursue or rather to the condemnation of those that shew themselves sufficiently knowing and pretend to great abilities albeit they no more discern this vast heap of Books which they have already assembled then did those crooked persons to whom King Alphonsus was wont to compare them that huge bunch which they carried behind their Back which is really
and Commentators which are to be found in every Facultie not forgeting those which are lesse vulgar and by consequent more curious As for Example with the several Bibles the Fathers and the Councels for the gross of Theology with Lyra Hugo Tostatus Salmeron for the positive with S. Thomas Occhâ—â— Durandus Peter Lombard Henricus Magnus Alexander of Ales Aegidius Romanus Albertus magnus Aureolus Burleus Capreolus Major Vasques Suarez for the Scholiastick with the Body of the 〈◊〉 Civil and Canon Laws Baldus Bartholus Cujus Alciat du Moulin for the Law with Hippocrates Galen Paulus Aeginetus Oribasius Aetius Trallian Avicen Avenzoar Fernelius for Physick Ptolomy Pirmicus Haly Cardan Stotlerus Gauricus Iunctinus for Astrologie Halhazen Vitellio Bacon Aquillonius for the Opticks Diophantes Boetius Iordan Tartaglia Siliscus Lucus de Burgo Villefranc for Arithmetick Artemidorus Apomazar Sinescus Cardonius for Dreams And so with all the other which it would be too long and troublesome to specifie and enumerate precisely In the second place To procure all the old and new Authors that are worthy of consideration in their proper Languages and particular Idioms The Bibles and Rabbies in Hebrew the Fathers in Greek and Latine Avicenne in Arabick Bocacio Dante 's Petrarch in Italian together with their best Versions Latine French or such as are to be found These last being for the use of many persons who have not the knowledge of forrein Tongues and the former for that it is very expedient to have the sources whence so many streams do glide in their natural chanels without art or disguise and that we ordinarily meet with a more certain efficacy and richness of conception in those that cannot retain and conserve their lustre save in their native languages as Pictures do their colours in proper lights not to speak of the necessity also which one may have for the verification of Texts and passages ordinarily controverted or dubious Thirdly Such Authors as have best handled the parts of any Science or Faculty whatever it be As Bellarmine for Controversies Tolet and Navarr Cases of Conscience Vesalius Anatomie Matthiolus the History of Plants Gesner and Aldrovandus that of Animals Rondoletius and Salvianus that of Fishes Vicomercatus that of Meteors c. In the fourth place All those that have best commented or explained any Author or Book in particular as Pererius upon Genesis Villalpandus Ezechiel Maldonat the Gospels Monlorius and Zabarella the Analyticks Scaliger Theophrastus History of Plants Proclus and Marsilius Ficinus upon Plato Alexander and Themistius upon Aristotle Flurancius Rivaultius Archimedes Theon and Campanus Euclide Cardan Ptolomie And this should be observed in all sorts of Books and Treatises antient or modern who have met with Commentators and Interpreters Next all that have written and made Books and Tracts upon any particular subject be it concerning the Species or Individuals as Sanchez who hath amply treated de matrimonio Sainctes and Perron of the Eucharist Gilbertus of the Loadstone Maier de volucri arborea Scortia Vendelinus and Nugarola concerning the Nile The same to be understood of all sorts of particular Treatises in matter of Law Divinity History Medecine and what ever else there may be with this discretion neverthelesse that he which most approches to the profession which he pursues be preferred before any other Moreover All such as have written most successefully against any Science or that have oppos'd it with most Learning and animosity howbeit without changing the principles against the Books of some of the most famous and renowned Authors And therefore one must not forget Sextus Empiricus Sanchez and Agrippa who have professedly endeavoured to subvert all the Sciences Picus Mirandula who has so learnedly refuted the Astrologers Eugubinus that has dashed the impiety of the Salmones and irreligious Morisotus that has overthrown the abuse of Chymists Scaliger who has so fortunately oppos'd Cardan as that he is at present in some part of Germany more followed then Aristotle himself Casaubon who durst attaque the Annals of that great Cardinal Baronius Argentenius who hath taken Galen to taske Thomas Erastus who has so pertinently refuted Paracelsus Carpenter who has so rigorously oppos'd Ramus and finally all those that have exercis'd themselves in the like conflicts and that are so linkt together that it were as great an error to read them separately as to judge and understand one party without the other or one Contrary without his Antagonist Neither are you to omit all those which have innovated or chang'd any thing in the Sciences for it is properly to flatter the slavery and imbecillity of our wit to conceal the small knowledge which we have of these Authors under the disdain which we might have because they oppose the Antients and for that they have learnedly examin'd what others were used to receive as by Tradition And therefore seeing of late more then thirty or fourty Authors of reputation have declared themselves against Aristotle that Copernicus Kepler Galilaeus have quite altered Astronomie Paracelsus Severinus the Dane Du Chesne and Crollius Physick and that divers others have introduced new Principles and have established strange and unheard of Ratiocinations upon them and such as were never foreseen I affirm that all these Authors are very requisite in a Library since according to the common Saying Est quoque cunctarum novitas gratissima rerum and not to insist upon so weak a reason that it is certain the knowledge of these Books is so expedient and frugiferous to him who knows how to make reflection and draw profit from all that he sees that it will furnish him with a million of advantages and new conceptions which being received in a spirit that is docile universal and disingag'd from all interests Nullius addictus jurare in verba Magistri they make him speak to the purpose upon all subjects cure the admiration which is a perfect signe of our weaknesse and enables one to discourse upon whatsoever presents it self with a great deal more judgment experience and resolurion then ordinarily many persons of letters and merit are used to do One should likewise have this consideration in the choice of Books to see whether they be the first that have been composed upon the matter on which they treat Since 't is with mens Learning as with water which is never more fair pure and limpid then at its source All the Invention comeing from the First and the Imitation with repetition from others as 't is easy to perceive that Reuchlin who first writ of the Hebrew Tongue and the Cabal Budeus of the Greek and of Coyns Bodinus of a Republique Cocles of Physiognomie Peter Lombard S. Thomas of Scholastical Divinity have done better then those many others which ingag'd themselves in writing since them Moreover ought one also to take notice whether the Subjects of which they treat be trifling or less vulgar curious or negligent spinie or facil seeing what we use to say of all things else
that be not common may be so appositely applyed to curious new Books Rara juvant primis sic major gratia pomis Hibernae pretium sic meruere rosae Under the notion then of this precept we should open our Libraries and receive them therein who first wrote of Subjects the least known and that have not been treated of before unless in Fragments and very imperfectly as Licetus who hath written de spontaneo viventium ortu de lucernis antiquorum Tagliacotius how to repair a decayed Nose Libanius and Coclinus of the Magnetick Oyntment Secondly All curious and not vulgar Authors such as are the books of Cardan Pomponacius Brunus and all those who write concerning the Caball Artificial Memory the Lullian Art the Philosophers Stone Divinations and the like matters For though the greatest part of them teach nothing but vain and unprofitable things and that I hold them but as stumbling blocks to all those who amuse themselves upon them yet notwithstanding that one may have wherwithal to content the weaker wits as well as the strong and at the least satisfie those who desire to see them to refute them one should collect those which have treated on them albeit they ought to be accounted amongst the rest of the Books in the Library but as Serpents and Vipers are amongst other living Creatures like Cockle in a Field of good wheat like Thorns amongst the Roses and all this in imitation of the world where these unprofitable and dangerous things accomplish the Master-piece and the Fabrick of that goodly composition And this Maxime should lead us to another of no less consequence which is not to neglect the works of the principal Heresiarchs or Fautors of new Religions different from ours more common and revered as more just and veritable For it is very likely since the first of them not to speak of the new ones have been chosen and drawn out from amongst the most learned personages of the precedent Age who by I know not what Fancie and excessive love to novelty did quit their Cassocks and the Banner of the Church to enroll themselves under that of Luther and Calvine and that those of the present time are not admitted to the excercise of their Ministry till after a long and severe Examen in the three Tongues of the Holy Scripture and the chief points of Philosophy and Diinity There is a great deal of likelihood I say that excepting the passages controverted they may sometimes hit very luckily upon others as in many indifferent Treatises they have done on which they often travail with a great deal of Industry and Felicity And therefore since it is necessary that our Doctors should finde them in some places to refute them since M. de T. has made it no difficulty to collect them that the antient Fathers and Doctors had them that divers religious persons preserved them in their Libraries that we make it no Scruple to have a Thalmud or an Alcoran which belch a thousand Blasphemies against Jesus Christ and our Religion infinitely more dangerous then these that God permits us to make profit of our enemies and according to that of the Psalmist Salutem ex inimicis nostris de manu omnium qui oderunt nos that they are prejudicial but to them onely who destitute of a right conduct suffer themselves to be transported with the first puff of wind that blows And to conclude in a word since the intention which determines all our actions to good or evil is neither vitious not cauterised I conceive it no extravagance or danger at all to have in a Library under caution nevertheless of a license and permission from those to whom it appertains all the Works of the most learned and famous Hereticks such as have been and divers others of lesser consequence Quos fama obscura recondit This also ought to be retained as a Maxime that all the bodies and assemblies of several Authours writing upon the same subject such as are the Thalmud the Councels the Biblotheques of the Fathers Thesaurus Criticus Scriptores Germanici Turcici Hispanici Gallici Catalogus testium veritatis Monarchia Imperii Opus magnum de Balneis Authores Gyneciorum De Morbo Neapolitano Rhetores antiqui Grammatici Veteres Oratores Graeciae Flores Doctorum Corpus Poetarum and all those which contain such like Collections ought of necessity to be put into Libraries forasmuch as they save us first of all the labour of searching an infinity of Books extreamly curious and rare and secondly because they spare abundance of other and make room in a Library Thirdly for that they handsomly comprehend in one Volume what we should be otherwise long in searching with a great deal of pains and in divers places and finally because they are less expensive they being nothing so chargeable to purchase as they would be should one buy separately all the Authours which they contain I hold it also for a tenent as necessary as any of the precedent that one should draw out and make election from amongst the great number of those who have written and do daily write those who appear as an Eagle in the Clouds and as a Star twinkling and most refulgent in the midst of obscurity I mean those great Witts which are not of the common alloy Quorum que ex ore profuso Omnis posteritas latices in dogmata ducit And of whom one may make use as of Masters the most expert in the knowledge of all things and of their works as of a Seminarie perfectly sufficient to enrich a Library not onely with all their Books but even 〈◊〉 the least of their Fragments Papers loose Sheets and the very words which escape them For as it would be amiss to employ the place and the money in amassing all the world and I know not what gallimauphry of certain vulgar and despicable Authours so would it be a notorious oblivion and fault unexcusable in those who make profession of having all the best Books to neglect any of Them for example of Erasmus Chiaconus Onuphrius Turnebus Lipsius Genebraâ—d Antonius Augustinus Casaubon Salmasius Bodinus Cardan Patricius Scaliger Mercurialis and others whose works we are to wink and take 〈◊〉 without choice carefull that we be not cheated in Books rampant with Authours infinitely more rude and gross since as one cannot possess too much of that which is good and exquisitely chosen so neither can one have too little of that which is bad and of which we have no hopes of receiving any profit or utility Neither must you forget all sorts of Common places Dictionaries Mixtures several Lections Collections of Sentences and other like Repertories seeing it is as so much way gone and Matter ready prepared for those who have the industry to use them with due advantage it being certain that there are many who speak and write wonderfull well who have yet seen but very few Volumes besides those which I have mentioned whence it is that
INSTRUCTIONS Concerning Erecting of a LIBRARY Presented to My LORD The PRESIDENT De MESME BY GABRIEL NAUDEUS P. And now Interpreted BY JO. EVELYN Esquire LONDON Printed for G. Bedle and T. Collins at the Middle-Temple Gate and I. Crook in St. Pauls Church-yard 1661. To the Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of CLARENDON Viscount CORNBERY Baron HYDE of HYNDON Lord High Chancellour of England Chancellour of the Vniversity of Oxford and one of the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council MY LORD I have had so great a thirst to testifie to your Lordship and to publish to the World the extraordinary Zeal which I have for your service that pretending to so little merit of my own and yet having so many obligations upon me I am to be excus'd if in making use of anothers Labours to accomplish my design I take occasion by this Dedication to declare to the world how immense your favours are and how prone I am to acknowledge them to the utmost of my Talents And perhaps it will be more acceptable to your Lordship that I express this rather by putting an excellent Authour into your hands of which I pretend onely to have been the Interpreter than whilst that learned person discourses so well of excellent Books to have multiplied the number of the ill-ones by some production of my own I have made choice my Lord of this Argument to present to your Honour because I esteem it the most apposite and the most becoming as it has an aspect to your Lordships noblest Character which is to be as well L. Chancellour of the most famous University of the World as L. High Chancellour of England and because I think worthily to preside over Men of Letters is a greater dignity than to be born to the name of Empire so as what was said of the great Themistius in the Epigramm may with equal truth be applied to your Lordship in all the glorious steps which you have ascended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That you were never less than now you are especially since your Lordships Titles are not so much the product of your Fortune as the effect of your Merits verifying by your universal knowledge the Rank you hold over the Learned Republique as well as over the Political which is in summ to be the greatest and most accompplish'd Minister that this Nation has ever celebrated But in nothing does this appear more conspicuous and for which your Lordship has greater cause to rejoice in then that God has enlightn'd your great Mind with a fervour so much becoming it in the promoting and encouraging of the ROYAL SOCIETY which is in one word to have dared a nobler thing than has been done these fifty Ages and more that the Knowledge of Causes and the Nature of Things have layn concealed from us and that the World has continu'd without once having assum'd the Courage and Resolution which our Illustrious Prince and your Lordship have shewed in establishing and cultivating a Design so worthy and perfective of Humane Felicity as far at least as in this life men may hope to attain it My Lord This is your Honour and this is truely to fix and to merit it For let men talk what they please of the Laurells of Conquerours the Titles of great men illustrious and ample Posterity all the pleasures of the lower senses how exalted soever by the effects of Opulence and Fortune which make indeed a great noise and stir for the time and whilst the World is in the Paroxysme bear much before them dazling the eyes of the Vulgar and flattering the weaker discernements They arrive not to the least perceptible degree of that Dignity and true honour which a man may raise to himself by noble and virtuous Actions Because there is nothing solid in them they last but for a moment in their using languish and expire He that would lay a Foundation of true and permanent Honour that would place it beyond the reach of Envy must qualifie it with something more noble and intellectual and which is not obnoxious to the common vicissitudes because by whatever circumstances such a worthy Design may happen to be discompos'd it will nevertheless be celebrated as long as Virtue shall have an Advocate here and when the World shall become so deprav'd that there is nothing sincere remaining in it God himself will remunerate it hereafter If the Soveraignes and Puissances of the Earth having sated themselves with their Triumphs over Men and Provinces enlarged their Dominions and establish'd their estates would one day think as our glorious Prince has begun to them of extending and amplifying the Bounds and Empire of real Philosophy in pursuite of those Magnalia Naturae to the glory and contemplation of the Maker and the universal benefit of Mankind how happy would such Princes be how fortunate their People And truely this has made me frequently to consider wherein the felicity of that great Monarch consisted whose heart was so enlarged with knowledge improv'd to the good of his Subjects where silver was as the stones of the streets for abundance and the conveniences of life so generally affluent Certainly it is by such a Design as our own Solomon and your Lordship is about to favour that even We may hope for those glorious times again and by which the publique health may be confirm'd our Lives produced knowledge and conversation improv'd and joy and contentedness become as universal as the Air which gives us breath For my Lord what can be more glorious and worthy a Prince to which God himself has said Dixi Dii estis I have said ye are Gods then by this means to aid and to comfort Mankind which is environ'd with such variety of Miseries And to emancipate and redeem the rest who by the utmost of their endeavours aspire to more happiness to be freed from the Pressures Errours and infinite Mistakes which they fall into for want of Experiences and competent subsidiaries to essay them But to accomplish this my Lord There is certainly nothing more expedient than in pursuite of that stupendious Idea of your Illustrious Predecessor to set upon a Design no way beneath that of his Solomons House which however lofty and to appearance Romantic has yet in it nothing of Impossible to be effected not onely considering it as Himself has somewhere defin'd the Qualifications but as your Lordship has design'd the Instruments and may in time the Materials as all the World must needs acknowledge that shall but cast an eye over the Catalogue of such as have already devoted themselves Because but for the mistake which they made in honouring me with their suffrages I should not blush to pronounce the Royal-Society furnish'd with an Assembly as accomplish'd for that noble and great Attempt as Europe or the whole World besides has any to produce And that my Lord because it does not consist of a Company of Pedants and superficial persons but of Gentlemen and Refined Spirits that are
very seasonably reproch'd by Seneca in the places before alledged and in plainer terms yet where he sayes Quo mihi innumerabiles libros Bibliothecas quarum dominus vix tota vita sua indices perlegit As by that Epigram also which Ausonius so handsomly addresses ad Philomusum Emptis quod libris tibi Bibliotheca referta est Doctum Grammaticum te Philomuse putas Hoc genere et chordas et plectra et barbita conde Omnia mercatus cras Cithraeâ—dus eris That thou with Books thy Library hast fill'd Think'st thou thy self learn'd and in Grammar skill'd The stor'd with Strings Lutes Fiddle-sticks now bought To morrow thou Musitian may'st be thought But you my Lord who have the reputation of knowing more then can be taught you and who deprive your self of all sort of contentments to enjoy and plunge your self as it were in the pleasure which you take in courting good Authors to you it is that it properly aptains to possess a Bibliotheque the most august and ample that hath ever been erected to the end it may never be said hereafter that it was only for want of a little care which you might have had that you did not bestow this Piece upon the Publique and of your self that all the actions of your life had not surpassed the most heroick exploits of the most illustrious persons And therefore I shall ever think it extreamly necessary to collect for this purpose all sorts of Books under such precautions yet as I shall establish seeing a Library which is erected for the publick benefit ought to be universal but which it can never be unlesse it comprehend all the principal Authors that have written upon the great diversity of particular Subjects and chiefly upon all the Arts and Sciences of which if one had but considered the vast numbers which are in the Panepistemon of Angelus Politianus or in any other exact Catalogue lately compiled I do not at all doubt but that you will be ready to judge by the huge quantity of Books which we ordinarily meet with in Libraries in ten or twelve of them what number you ought to provide to satisfie the curiosity of the Readers upon all that remains And therefore I do nothing wonder that Ptolemy King of Aegypt did not for this purpose collect one hundred thousand Volumes as Cedrenus will have it not four hundred thousand as Seneca reports not five hundred thousand as Iosephus assures us but seven hundred thousand as witnesse and accord Aulus Gellius Ammianus Marcellinus Sabellicus Volaterran Or that Eumenes the son of Attalus had collected two hundred thousand Constantine a hundred and twenty thousand Sammonicus Praeceptor to the Emperour Gordian the younger sixty two thousand Epaphroditus a simple Grammarian only thirty thousand And that Richard of Bury Monsieur de Thou and Sir Tho. Bodley have made so rare a provision that the Catalogues only of either of their Libraries do amount to a just Volume For certainly there is nothing which renders a Library more recommendable then when every man findes in it that which he is in search of and could no where else encounter this being a perfect Maxime That there is no Book whatsoever be it never so bad or decried but may in time be sought for by some person or other since according to that of the Satyrist Mille hominum species rerum discolor usus Velle suum cuique est nec voto vivitur uno And that it is commonly amongst Readers as it was with Horace's three Guests Pâ—scentes vario nimium diversa palato There being no better resemblance of Libraries then to the Meadow of Seneca where every living creature findes that which is most proper for him Bos herbam Canis leporem Ciconia lacertum And besides we are to believe that every man who seeks for a Book judges it to be good and conceiving it to be so without finding it is forced to esteem it curious and very rare so that coming at last to encounter it in some Library he easily thinks that the Owner of it knew it as well as himself and that he bought it upon the same account that excited him to search after it and in pursuit of this conceives an incomparable esteem both of the Owner and of the Library which coming afterwards to be published there will be need but of few like encounters joyn'd to the common opinion of the Vulgar Cui magna pro bonis sunt to satisfie and recompence a man that accounts it never so little honour and glory in all his expences and pains And besides should one enter into the consideration of times of places and new inventions no man of Judgement can doubt but that it is much easier at present to procure thousands of Books then it was for the Antients to get hundreds and that by consequent it would be an eternal shame and reproch in us to come beneath them in this particular which we may surmount with so much advantage and facility Finally as the quality of Books does extreamly augment the esteem of a Library amongst those who have the means and the leasure to understand it so must it needs be acknowledged that the sole quantity of them brings it into lustre and reputation as well amongst Strangers and Travellers as amongst many others who have neither the time nor the conveniency of exactly turning them over in particular as may easily be judged by the prodigious number of Volumes that there must needs be an infinity of good ones signal and remarkable Howbeit neither to abandon this infinite quantity without a definition nor to put those that are curious out of hopes of being able to accomplish and finish so fair an enterprise it would me thinks be very expedient to do like those Physitians who prescribe the quantity of Drugs according to their qualities and to affirm that a man can never fail in collecting all those which shall have the qualities and conditions requisite and fit to be placed in a Library Which that we may discern one must be carefull to take with him divers Theorems and praecautions which may with more facility be reduc'd to practice as opportunity happens by those who have the routine and are vers'd in Books and who judge of all things maturely and without passion then possibly be deduced and couch'd in writing seeing they are almost infinite and that to speak ingenuously some of them combat the most vulgar opinions and maintain Paradoxes CHAP. IV. Of what Quality and Condition Books ought to be I Will now say notwithstanding 〈◊〉 to omit nothing which may serve us for a Guide in this Disquisition that the prime Rule which one ought to observe is in the first place to furnish a Library with all the chief and principal Authors as well antient as modern chosen of the best Editions in gross or in parcels and accompanied with their most learned and best Interpreters
they commonly say the Calepine which they take for all kind of Dictionaries is the livelyhood of the Regents And if I should affirm it of many even amongst the most famous persons it would not be without reason since one of the most renound amongst the last had above fifty of them which he perpetually studied and who having encountred a difficult word at the first offering of the Book of Equivocals as it was presented to him he had recourse immediatly to one of these Dictionaries and transcribed out of it above a page of writing upon the margent of the said Book and that in presence of a certain Friend of mine and of his to whom he could not abstain from saying that those who should see this remark would easily believe that he had spent above two dayes in composing it though he had in truth but the pains onely of transcribing it And in earnest for my part I esteem these Collections extreamly profitable and necessary considering the brevity of our life and the multitude of things which we are now obliged to know e're one can be reckoned amongst the number of learned men do not permit us to do all of our selves besides seeing it is not granted every man nor in all ages to have the means to labour at his own cost and charges and without borrowing from others what ill is there in it I pray if those who are so industrious to imitate nature and so to diversifie and appropriate to their subject what they extract from others ut etiam si apparuerit unde sumptum sit aliud tamen esse quam unde sumptum est appareat do make bold with those who seem not to have been made but to lend and draw out from the Reservatories Magazines which are destin'd for this purpose since we ordinarily see that both Painters and Architects make excellent and incomparable pieces by the assistance of Colours and Materials which others grinde and prepare for them Lastly we should upon this occasion reduce to practice that same Aphorisme of Hippocrates which advertises us to yield something to time to place and to custom that is to say that some kinde of Books be sometimes in vogue and reputation in one Countrey and not so in another and in the present age which were not in the past it is more expedient to make a good provision of these than of the other or at least to have such a quantity of them as may testifie we comply with the times and that we are not ignorant of the mode and inclination of men And hence it proceeds that we frequently find in the Libraries of Rome Naples and Florence abundance of Positive Theologists in those of Milan and Pavia store of Civil Law in those of Spain and antient ones of Cambridge and Oxford in England a number of Scholasticks and in those of France a world of Histories and Controversies The same diversity may be also observed in the succession of ages by reason of the vogue which have had the Philosophy of Plato that of Aristotle the Scholastique the Tongucs and Controversies which have every one had their turns domineer'd in several times as we see that the study of the Ethicks and Politicks do at present employ the greatest part of the most vigorous witts of this our age whilst the weaker sort amuse themselves with Fictions and Romancâ—es of which I shall onely say what has formerly been verified by Symmacus upon the like narration Sine argumento rerum loquacitas morosa displicet These ordinary precepts and maximes being so amply explain'd there remains now no more to accomplish this Title of the Quality of Books then to propose two or three others which will undoubtedly be received as very extravagant and very fit to thwart the common and inveterate opinion which many have taken up that esteem no Authours but by their number or bulk of their Volumes and judge onely of their value and merit by that which uses to make us despise all other things viz. their age and caducity like that of the old man in Horace who is represented to us in his works Laudator temporis acti Praesentis censor castigatorque futuri The nature of these prepossessed spirits being for the most part so taken and in love with those Images and antique pieces that they would not so much as look at the greatest upon any Book whatever whose Authour were not older than the Mother of Evander or the Grandsirs of Carpentras nor believe that time could be well imployed which was spent in reading any modern Books since according to their maxime they are but Rapsodists Coppiers or Plagiaries approach in nothing to the Eloquence the learning and the noble conceptions of the Antients to whom for this respect they hold themselves as firmly united as the Polypus does to the Rocks without departing in the least or from their Books or doctrine and which they never think to have sufficiently comprehended till they have chewed them over all their life time and therefore it is nothing extraordinary if in conclusion of the whole sum and when they have sufficiently sweat and tired themselves they resemble that same ignorant Marcellus who vaunted up and down in all places where he came that he had read Thucidides eight times over to that Nonnus of whom Suidas speaks that he had read his Demosthenes ten times without ever being able once to plead or discourse of any thing And to speak really there is nothing more apt to make a man a Pedant and banish him from common sense then to despise all Modern Authors to court some few only of the Antient as if they alone were forsooth the sole Guardians of the highest favours that the wit of man may hope for or that Nature jealous of the honour and reputation of her elder sons would to our prejudice put forth all her abilities to the extreams that she might Crown them alone with all her graces and liberality Certainly I do not imagine that any except those Gentlemen the Antiquaries can satisfie themselves with such Opinions or feed themselves with such Fables since so many fresh Inventions so many new Opinions and Principles so many several and unthought of Alterations so many learned Books of famous Personages of new Conceptions and finally so many Wonders as we daily behold to spring up do sufficiently testifie that the wits are stronger more polite and abstracted than ever formerly they were and that we may truly and assuredly affirm at this present day Sumpserunt artes hac tempestate decorem Nullaque non welior quam prius ipsa fuit Or make the same judgement of our age as Symmachus did of his own Habemus faeculum virtute amicum quo nisi optimus quisque gloriam parit hominis est-culpa non temporis From hence we may infer that it would be a fault unpardonable in one who professes to store a Library not to place in it Piccolomini Zabâ—arell
Achillinus Niphus Pomponacius Licetus Cremoninus next the old Interpreters of Aristotle Alciat Tiraqueaneus Cujas du Moulin after the Code and Digest the sum of Alexander of Hales and Henry of Gaunt next that of S. Thomas Clavius Maurolicus and Vietâ—a after Euclide and Archimedes Montagne Charon Verulam next to Seneca and Plutarch Fernelius Sylvius Fusthius Cardan next to Galen and Avicen Erasmus Casaubon Scaliger Salmasius next to Varro Commines Guicciardin Sleiden next to Titus Livius and Cornelius Tacitus Ariosto Tasso du Bartas next to Homer and Virgil and so consequently of all the Modern most famous and renouned Authours since if the capricious Boccalini had undertaken to ballance them with the Antients he had haply found a great many of them more inconsiderable and but very few which do at all surpass them The second Maxime and which haply will not less seem a Paradox than the first is directly contrary to the opinion of those who esteem of Books onely as they are in price and bulk and who are much pleased and think themselves greatly honoured to have Tostatus in their Libraries because it is in fourteen Volumes or a Salmeron because there are eight neglecting in the mean time to procure and furnish themselves with an infinity of little Books amongst which there are often found some of them so rarely and learnedly composed that there is more profit and contentment to be found in reading them than in many others of those rude heavy indigested and ill polished masses for the most part At least so true is that saying of Seneca Non est facile inter magna non desipere and that which Pliny said of one of Cicero's Orations M. Tullii Oratio fertur tima quae maxima cannot be applyed to these monstrous and Gigantine Books as in effect it is almost impossible that the witt should alwayes remain intent 〈◊〉 these great works and that the heaps and grand confusion of things that one would speak choak not the fancy and too much confound the ratiocination whereas on the contrary that which ought to make us esteem small Books which nevertheless treat of serious things or of any noble and sublime subject is that the Authour of them does perfectly command over his subject as the Workman and Artist does over his matter and that he may chew concoct digest polish and form it according to his fancy then those vast collections of such great and prodigious Volumes which for this cause are oftentimes but the Panspermia Chaos's and Abysses of Confusion rudis indigestaque moles Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum And hence it is that there results a success so unequal as may be observed between the one and the other for example 'twixt the Satyrs of Persius and Philelphius the Examen of Witts of Huarto and that ef Zara the Arithmetick of Ramus and that of Forcudel Machiavels Prince and that of more than fifty other Pedants The Logick of du Moulin that of Vallius The Annales of Volufius and the History of Salust Epictetus Manuel and the moral Secrets of Loriotus The works of Fracastorius and an infinite of Philosophers and Physicians so true is that which S. Thomas has well spoken Nusquam ars magis quam in minimis tota est and what Cornelius Gallus was wont to proâ—â—â—â— himself of hsi small Elogies Nec minus est nobis per pauca volumina famae Quam quos nulla satis Bibliotheca capit But that which on this encounter makes me most to admire is that such persons should neglect the Works and Opuscles of some Authour whilst they remain scattered and separated which afterwards burn with a desire to have them when they are collected and bound together in one Volume Such will neglect for example the Oration of Iames Criton because they are not to be found Printed together who will nevertheless be sure to have those of Raymondus Gallâ—tius Nigronius Bencius Perpinianus and divers other Authours in his Library not that they are better or more disert and eloquent than those of this learned Scotchman but because they are to be found in certain Volumes bound up together Certainly should all little Books be neglected there were no reckoning to be made of the Opuscles of S. Augustin Plutarchs Morals the Books of Galen nor of the greatest part of those of Erasmus of Lipsius Turnebus Mazaultius Sylvius Calcagninus Franciscus Picus and many like Authours no more than of thirty or fourty minor Authours in Physick and Philosophy the best and most antient amongst the Greeks and of divers other amongst the Divines because they have all of them been divulged separately and apart one after another and in so small Volumes that the greatest of them do not frequently exceed half an Alphabet And therefore since one may unite under one Cover that which was separate in the impression conjoyn with others what would be lost being alone and in effect we may meet an infinity of matters which have never been treated of but in these little Books onely concerning which it may rightly be said as Virgil does of Bees Ingentes animos angusto in corpore versant It appears to me to be very expedient that we should draw them out of their Stalls and old Magazines and from all places wherever we encounter them to bind them up with those which are of the same Authour or treat of the same matter to place them afterwards in our Libraries where I assuâ—â— my self they will make the industry and diligenee of those Esculapius's to be admir'd who are so well skill'd to joyn and reassemble the scattered and separated members of those poor Hippolitus's The third which at first appearance one would conceive to be contrary to the first does in particular combat the opinion of those who are so wedded and besotted to all new Books that they totally neglect and make no esteem not onely of all the Antients but of the Authours which have had the vogue appeared flourishing and renouned since six or seven hundred years that is to say since the age of Boetius Symmachus Sydonius and Cassiodorus down to that of Picus Politianus Hermolaus Gaza Philelphus Pogius and Trapezontius such as are divers Philosophers Divines Iuris-consults Physitians and Astrologers who by their black and Gothick impressions disgust our most delicate students of this age not suffering them so much as to cast an eye upon them but with a blush and to the disdaining of those who composed them All which properly proceeds from hence that the ages or those witts which then appeared have had 〈◊〉 Genisu's and different inclinations not long harping upon the same string of like study or affection to the Sciences or having nothing so assured as their vicissitude 〈◊〉 change as in effect we see that immediatly after the birth of the Christian Religion not to take things any higher the Philosophy of Plato
was universally followed in the Schools and the greater part of the Fathers were Platonists and so continued till Alexander Aphrodiseus gave it a forceable justle to instal that of the Peripateticks and traced the way to the Greek and Latine Interpreters who were so wedded to the Explication of Aristotles Text that a man should yet erre in it without much benefit if the Questions and Scholasticks introduced by Abelardus had not put themselves amongst the 〈◊〉 to domineer over all with the greatest and most universal approbation that was ever given to any thing whatsoever and that for the space of about five or six ages after which the Hereticks did recal us to the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and occasioned us to read the Bible and the Holy Fathers who had continually been neglected amidst these Ergotismes and in pursuite whereof Controversie comes now in request as to what concerns Theologie and the Questionaries with the Novators who build upon new Principles or else re-establish those of the antients Empedocles Epicurus Philolaus Pythagoras and Democritus for Philosophy The rest of the Faculties being not exempted from like alterations amongst which it has evermore been the custom of the Witts who follow these violences and changes as the Fish do the Tyde to think no more of what they have once quitted and to speak rashly with the Poet Calphurnius Vilia sunt nobis quaecunque prioribus annis Vidimus sordet quicquid spectavimus olim Insomuch as the greatest part of good Authours by this means remain on the sands abandon'd and neglected by every man whilst our new Censors or Plagiaries possesse their places and enrich themselves with their spoils And it is in earnest a very strange and unreasonable thing that we should follow and approve for example the Colledges of Conimbre and Suarez in Philosophy and should come to neglect the works of Albertus Magnus Niphus Aegidius Saxonia Pomponacius Achillinus Herviâ—us Durandus Zimares Buccaferrus and a number of the like out of which all the great Books which we now follow are for the most part compiled and transcribed word for word That we should have an incomparable esteem of Amatus Thrivierus Capivaccius Montanus Valesius and almost of all the modern Physitians and be ashamed to furnish our Libraries with Books of Hugo Senensis Iacobus de Forlivio Iacobus de Valesius Gordonus Thomas Dinus and all the Avicenists who have really followed the Genius of their Age rude and dull as to what concerned the barbarity of the Latine tongue but who have yet so far penetrated into the profundities of Physick according to Cardans own confession that divers of our modern for want of sufficient resolution constancy and assiduity to pursue and imitate them are constrained to make use of some of their Arguments to revest them a la mode and make their braggs and parade whilst they themselves dwell onely upon the topps of flowers and superficial language or without advancing farther Decerpunt flores summa cacumina captant What shall we then say that Scaliger and Cardan two of the greatest personages of the last age consenting both in the same point concerning the 〈◊〉 of Richard Suissent otherwise called the Calculator who lived within these three hundred years to place him in the rank of ten of the rarest witts that ever appeared whilst we are not able to find his works in all the most famous Libraries And what hope is there that the Sectatots of Occham Prince of the Nominals should eternally be deprived of once seeing his works as well as all Philosophers those of the great and renouned Avicen In earnest me thinks that it is wholly for want of judgement in the choyce and cognizance of Books to neglect all these Authours which are so much the more to be sought after as they are more and may hereafter challenge the place of Manuscripts since we have almost lost all hopes that they should ever be printed Finally the fourth and last of these Maximes concerns onely the choice and election which one ought to make of Manuscripts in opposition 〈◊〉 that custome receiv'd and introduced by many from the great reputation of our present Criticks who have taught and accustom'd us to make more account of one Manuscript of Virgil Suetonius Persius Terence or some others amongst the old Authours than of those gallant persons who have never yet been either seen or printed as if there were any likelyhood that men should presently pursue the capriciousness imaginations or cheats of these modern Censurors and Grammarians which uselesly apply the flower of their age in forging of empty conjectures and begging the corrections of the Vatican to alter correct or supply the Text of some Authour who hath haply already confirmed the labour of ten or twelve men though one might very easily â—e without it Or that it were not a miserable thing and worthy of commiseration to suffer to be lost and rot amongst the hands of some ignorant possessors the elucubrations and labours of an infinity of great personages who have sweat and wrought perhaps all their lives long to impart us the knowledge of something that was never known before or elucidated some profitable and necessary matter And yet nevertheless the example of these Censors haâ— been such and their authority so strong and forceable that notwithstanding the disgust which Robortel and others amongst them hath given us nay even of these Manuscripts themselves yet have they so far bewitched the world in search of them that they are the onely things now in request and judged worthy of being placed in our Bibliotheques Tanta est pâ—enuria mentis ubique In nugas tam prona via est And therefore since it is the very Essence of a Library to have a great number of Manuscripts because they are at present in most esteem and less â—ulgar I conceive my Lord with respect to your better judgement that it would be extreamly requisite for you to pursue as you have begun in furnishing your Library with such as have been composed clearly and full upon any gallant subject conformable to those which you have already made search of not onely here but at Constantinople and whatsoever is to be obtain'd of many other Authours Antient and Modern specified by Neander Cardan Gesner and all the Catalogues of the best Libraries and not of all those Copies of Books which have been already printed and which at best are onely capable to assist us with some vain and trifling conjectures and yet it is not my intentions that men should undervalue and neglect all these kind of Books as well knowing by the example of Ptolomy what esteem one should alwayes have of Autographes or of those two sorts of Manuscripts which Robortel in relation to Criticism prefers before all others Lastly to close this point concerning the quality of Books I add that as well concerning Books of this sort as printed ones you must
not onely observe the aforesaid circumstances and choose them accordingly as for instance be the question about Bodins Republique to infer that he ought to be had because the Authour has been the most famous and renouned of his age and who amongst the moderns has first treated on this subject that the subject is exceedingly necessary and in much request in the times wherein we live that the Book is common translated into several tongues and printed almost every five or six years but this we are also to observe viz. to buy the Book if the Authour be good though the matter it self be but vulgar and trivial or when the subject of it is difficult and little known though the Authour thereof be not much esteemed and thus practise a World of other Rules as upon occasion we encounter them since it were impossible to reduce them to an Art or Method which makes me conceive such a man worthily to acquit himself of such a charge who has not a perverted judgement temerarious stuft with extravagances and preoccupied with these childish opinions which excite many persons to despise and suddenly to reject whatsoever is not of their own 〈◊〉 as if every one were obliged to govern himself according to the caprices of their fantasies or as if it were not the duty of a discreet and prudent man to discourse of all things indifferently and never to judge according to the esteem which both one or the other admits of them but rather conformable to the sentiment which we ought to have in respect of their proper nature and use CHAP. V. By what Expedients they may be procured HAving now my Lord shewed by these three first Points what one ought to pursue to inform himself in the erecting of a Library with what quantity of Books it is expedient to furnish it and of what quality they ought to be chosen That which now ensues is to enquire by what means a man may procure them and what we are to do for the progress and augmentation of them Upon all which I shall truly affirm that the first precept which is to be given on this subject is that a man studiously preserve those which are actively acquired and that he yet obtain new ones every day not suffering any to be lost or embezled at any hand Tolerabilius enim est faciliusque sayes Seneca non acquirere quam amittere ideoque laetiores videbis quos nunquam fortuna respexit quam quos deseruit Add that t' will never be this way to augment much if that which you have collected with so much pains and industry come to be lost and to perish for want of care And therefore Ovid and the wisest men had reason to say that it was no less vertue to preserve a thing well than to acquire it so Nec minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri The second is that we neglect nothing which is worth the reckoning and which may be of use be it either to our selves or others such as are Libels Placarts Theses Fragments Proofs and the like which one ought carefully to unite and gather according to Titles and subjects of which they treat because it is the onely expedient to render them considerable and so order it Ut quae non prosunt singula juncta juvent Otherwise it ordinarily comes to pass that whilst we despise these little Books which appear onely as meâ—â—â— baubles and pieces of no consideration we happen to lose a world of rare collections and such as are sometimes the most curious pieces of the whole Library The third may be deduced from the means that were practis'd by Richard de Bury Bishop of Durham great Chancellour and L. Treasurer of England which consists in publishing and making known to every body the affection which we have to Books and the extraordinary desire which we have to erect a Library for this being once divulged and communicated it is certain that if he who designes it be in sufficient credit and authority to do his friends pleasure there will not be a man of them but will take it for an honour to present him with the most curious Books that come into his hands and that will not voluntarily admit him into his Study or in those of his friends briefly who will not strive to aid and contribute to his intention all that he can possibly as it is very well observed by the same Richard de Bury in these proper terms which I therefore the more willingly transcribe because his Book is very rare and of the number of those which are lost through our neglect Succedentibus sayes he prosperis Regiae majestatis consecuti notitiam in ipsius acceptati familia facultatem suscepimus ampliorem ubilibet visitandi pro libitu venandiquasi faltus quosdam delicatissimos tum privatas tum communes tum regularium tum saecularium Bibliothecas and a little after Praestabatur nobis aditus facilis regalis favoris intuitu ad librorum latebras libere perscrutandas amoris quippe nostri fama volatilis jam ubique percrebuit tantumque librorum maxime veterum ferebamur cupiditate languescere posse vero quemlibet per quaternos facilius quam per pecuniam adipisci favorem Quamobrem cum supradicti Principis auctoritaâ—e suffulti possemus obesse prodesse proficere afficere vehementer tam majoribus quam pusillis affluxerunt loco Enceniorum munerum locoque donorum jocalium Coenulenti quaterni ac decrepiti Codices nostris tam aspectibus quam affectibus pretiosi tunc nobilissimorum Monasteriorum aperiebantur armaria reserabantur scrinia cistulae solvebantur c. To which he yet adjoyns the several Voyages which he made himself in quality of Ambassador and the great number of learned and curious persons whose labour and industry he made use of in this research and what yet induces me to believe that these practises would have some effect is that I know a person who being curious of Medalls Pictures Statues Intaglia's and other Cabinet pieces hath collected by this sole industry above twelve hundred pounds worth without ever having disbursed four And in earnest I hold it for a Maxime that every civil and good natur'd man should alwayes second the laudable intentions of his friends provided they be not prejudicial to his own So that he that has Books Medalls Pictures which come to him by chance rather than out of affection to them may easily be perswaded to accommodate such of his friends 〈◊〉 he knows to desire and is curious of them I shall willingly add to this third Precept the craft which Magistrates and persons of authority may practise and exercise by means of their dignities but I would not more nakedly explicate it than by the simple narration of the Strategem which the Venetians made use of to obtain the best Manuscripts of Pinellus immediately after his decease for upon the advice which they had that they were about
Spectators you will cause all the backs of such as shall be bound as well in Rough as in Calveskin or Morroccin to be gilded with filets and some little flowers with the name of the Authors for which you may have recourse to the Guilder that is used to work for the Library as also to the Binder to repair the backs and peeled covers restitch them accommodate the transpositions new paste the Mapps and Figures cleanse the spoiled leaves and briefly to keep all things in a condition fit for the ornament of the place and the conservation of the Books Nor is there any necessity of seeking for and amassing in a Library all these pieces and fragments of old Statues Et Curios jam dimidios humeroque minorem Corvinum Galbam auriculis nasoque carentem It being sufficient to have good Copies drawn from such as are most famous in the profession of Letters that thereby a man may at once make judgement of the wit of the Authours by their Books and by their bodies figure and physiognomy by these Pictures and Images which joyn'd to the description which many have made of their lives may serve in my opinion as a puissant spurre to excite a generous and well-born Soul to follow their track and to continue firm and stable in the wayes and beaten paths of some noble enterprise and resolution Much less ought one to employ so much gold on the Cieling Ivory and glass upon the Walls the Cedar Shelves and Marble Floors seeing this is not now in use nor do they now place their Books upon Desks as the antients did but upon Shelves that hide all the Walls but in lieu of such gildiâ—â—â— and adornings one may supply it in Mathematicà l Instruments Globes Mapps Spheres Pictures Animals Stones and other curiosities as well Artificial as Natural which are ordinarily collected from time to time with very little expence Finally it would be a great forgetfulness if after we have thus furnisht a Library with all things requisite it should not have the Shelves garnish'd with some sleight searge buckrom or canvas fitted on with nails silve red or gilt as well to preserve the Books from dust as to render a handsom ornament and grace to the whole place and also should it be unprovided of Tables Carpets Seats Brushes Balls of Jasper Conserves Clocks Pens Paper Ink Penne-knifes Sand Almanacks and other small moveables and such like Instruments which are of so little cost and yet so necessary that there is no excuse for such as neglect to make this provision CHAP. IX What ought to be the principal scope and end of such a Library ALL things being in this equipage there remains nothing more for the accomplishment of this discourse than to know what ought to be its principal end and use for to imagine that after all this pains and expence these lights are to be set under a Bushel and condemn so many brave witts to a perpetual silence and solitude is ill to understand the scope of a Library which nor more nor lesse than Nature herself Perditura est fructum sui si tam magna tam praeclara tam subtiliter dicta tam nitida non uno genere formosa solitudine ostenderit scias illam spectari voluisse non tantum aspici Therefore I shall tell you my Lord with as much freedom as affection for your service That in vain does a man strive to put in execution any of the foresaid Expedients or be at any notable charge for Books who has not a design to devote and consecrate them to the publick use or denies to communicate them to the least who may reap any benefit thereby so true is that sayingof the Poet Vile latens virtus quid enim demersa tenebris Proderit obscura veluti sine remige puppis Vel lyra quae reticet vel qui non tenditur arcus So far was it one of the principal Maximes of the most sumptuous and splendid amongst the Romans or of those who were most affected to the publique good to enrich many of those Libraries to bequeath and destine them afterwards to the use of all the learned men so that even according to the calculation of Peterus Victor there were nine and twenty at Rome and as Pulladius reports thirty seven which were so evident indications of the grandieur magnificence and sumptuosity of the Romans that Pancirolus had reason to attribute to our negligence and to range amongst those memorable things of Antiquity which descended not to our times these assured testimonies of the opulency and good affection of the Antients towards those who made profession of Letters and that with so much more reason as that there are at present as far as I can understand none save those of the Knight Bodley in Oxford of Cardinal Borromeus at Milan of the Augustine Fryers at Rome where one may freely enter and without difficulty all the rest as that of Muretus Fulvius Ursinus Montalto and the Vatican Of Medicis and Petrus Victor at Florence of Bessarion at Venice of St. Anthony of Padoua of the Iacobins at Boulogne of the Augustines at Cremona of Cardinal Siripandus at Naples of Frederick Duke of Urbin of Nunnesius at Barcelona of Ximenes at Compluteneâ— of Ranzovius at Brandeburg of Foulcres at Ausbourg and finally the Kings at S. Victor and of M. de T. at Paris which are all of them fair and admirable but neither open to every one nor so easie of access as are the three precedent for to speak of the Ambrosian of Milan onely and shew how by the same means it surpasses as well in greatness and magnificence as in obliging the publique many of those that were even amongst the Romans is it not a thing altogether extraordinary that any one may come into it almost at all hours he will stay as long as he pleases see read extract what Authors he desires have all the means and conveniences to do it be it in publique or particular and that without any other labour than visiting it himself at the ordinary dayes and hours placing himself in the seats destin'd for this purpose and asking of the Bibliothecary for those Books which he desires to make use of or of any three of his servants who are well stipendiated and entertain'd as well for the service of the Library as of all those who come every day thither to study in it But to regulate this liberty with civility and all those precautions which are requisite I suppose it would be expedient to make election and choice in the first place of some honest person learned and well experienc'd in Books to give together with the charge and requisite stipends the title and quality of Bibliothecary unto as we see it has been practis'd in all the most renoun'd Libraries where divers gallant men have alwayes thought themselves much honoured in executing this charge and have rendred it most illustrious and recommendable by their great