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
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
to transport his Library from Padua to Naples they suddenly dispatched one of their Magistrates who seised upon a hundred Bales of Books amongst which there were fourteen of them that contain'd Manuscripts and two of them above four hundred Commentaries on all the affairs of Italy alledging for their reasons that though they had permitted the defunct Seigneur Pinelli in regard of his condition his design his laudable and reproachless life and principally the friendship which he ever testified towards the Republique to have Copies of their Archives and Registers of their affairs yet it was neither fit nor expedient for them that such pieces should come to be divulged discovered and communicated after his death whereupon at the instance of the Heirs and Executors of the Testament who were powerful and authorised they retained onely two hundred of these Commentaries which were placed in a Chamber apart with this inscription Decerpta haec Imperio Senatus e Bibliotheca Pinelliana The fourth is to retrench and cut off all the superfluous expences which many prodigally and to no purpose bestow upon the binding and ornaments of their Books and to employ it in purchasing such as they want that so they may not be obnoxious to that censure of Seneca who handsomly reproaches those Quibus voluminum suorum frontes maxime placent titulique and this the rather that the binding is nothing but an accident and form of appearing without which at least so splendid and sumptuous Books become altogether as useful commode and rare it becoming the ignorant onely to esteem a Book for its cover seeing it is not with Books as it is with men who are onely known and respected for their robes and their clothes so that it is a great deal better and more necessary for example to have a good quantity of Books well and ordinarily bound than to have a little Chamber or Cabinet full of washed gilded ruled and enriched with all manner of nicity lux and superfluity The fifth concerns the buying of them and that may be divided into four or five Articles suitable to the several expedients which may be observed in the practise Now amongst these I should willingly set down for the first the speediest easie and advantagious of all the rest that which is made by the acquisition of some other entire and undissipated Library I call it prompt and speedy because that in less than a dayes time one may have a goodly number of Books curious and learned which one shall not be able to amass and collect together during a mans whole life I call it facil because one spares both the pains and the time which would be consumed in purchasing them separately In fine I name it advantagious because if the Libraries which we buy be good and curious they serve to augment the credit and reputation of those who are enriched by them whence we see that Passe vinus so much esteems that of Cardinal de Ioyeuse for that it was composed of three others one whereof had been Monsieur Pitheus and for that all the most renouned Libraries have received their augmentation in this manner as for instance that of S. Mark at Venice by the donation of Cardinal Bessarion's that of the' Escurial by that great one which Hurtado de Mendoza had collected The Ambrosian of Milan by the ninety Bales which were added to it at once by that one sole naufrage and ruine of Pinelli's that of Leyden by above two hundred Manuscripts in the Oriental Languages which Scaliger bequeathed to it by his Testament and finally that of Ascanius Colomna by that incomparable one which Cardinal Sirlettus left it whence I conjecture my Lord that yours cannot but one day emerge one of the most famous and renouned amongst the greatest by reason of that of your Fathers which is already so famous and universally known from the relation which has been left to posterity by La Croix Fauchet Marsillius Turuebus Passeratius Lambinus and by almost all the gallant persons of that strain who have not been mindfull of the benefit and instructions which they have received of them After all which me thinks the means which nearest approaches to this first is to rummage and often to revisite the shops of frippery Booksellers and the old Stores and Magazines as well of Books bound up as of those which have so long remained in waste sheets so many years that there are many not much knowing and versed in this kind of search who conceive they can be of no other use then to hinder Ne toga cordivis ne penula de sit olivis albeit we often encounter very excellent Books amongst them and that the expence well managed one may chance to purchase more for ten crowns than one can otherwise buy for fourty or fifty should one take them in several places and pieces provided nevertheless a man have a sufficient stock of care and patience considering that one cannot say of a Library what certain Poets said of our City Quo primum nata est tempore magna fuit It being impossible so speedily to accomplish a thing of which Solomon tells us there is no end Libros enim faciendi non erit finis and to the finishing whereof though Monsieur Thuanus has laboured twenty years Pinelli fifty and divers others all their lives long yet are you not to believe that they are arrived to that utmost perfection which were to be wished one might attain to in point of a Library But since it is necessary for the growth and augmentation of such a piece to furnish it diligently with all the new Books of merit and consideration that are printed in all parts of Europe and that Pinelliâ— and the rest have for this purpose entertain'd correspondency with an infinite number of friends strangers and forreign Merchants It would be very expedient to put the same in practice or at least to make choice of two or three rich Merchants knowing and experienced in their vocation who by their various intelligences and voyages might furnish us with all kinds of novelties and make diligent perquisition of what ever we demand by Catalogues which thing it is not so necessary to practise for old Books forasmuch as the surest expedient to store ones self good cheap with them is to seek for them indifferently amongâ—â— the Stationers amongst whom the length of time and various occasions is us'd to disperse and scatter them I will not yet infer for all the good husbandry which we have proposed above that it is not sometimes necessary to exceed the limits of this Oeconomy to purchase at extraordinary prices some certain Books that are very rare and which one shall hardly get out of their hands who understand them but by this onely means But the temper which is to be observed in this difficulty is to consider that Libraries are neither built nor esteemed but for the service and benefit which one may receive from them and therefore one