BOOK V. Chapter IV. Italy. a room filled with a fine collection of prints, to which admission can only be obtained by a particular order; The Libraries of and in another are deposited the secret archives of the Vatican, to which, of course, there is no admission at all. A Cardinal is always nominal Librarian. Of the difficult accessibility of this great storehouse, at almost all periods of its history, it were easy to adduce a long chain of testimony. Some years since, Cardinal Consalvi somewhat relaxed the prevailing restrictions, but the liberality scarcely survived its author. "The Papal government," writes Von Raumer, in 1839, "has returned to the old seclusion and exclusion."1 "Of all the tombs in the world, the Vatican Library is the most impressive," says Mr. Samuel Laing in 1842; "Book-cases well stocked; no readers; no [accessible] catalogue." The privilege of consulting books," says Sir George Head, a year or two later; "is merely nominal, in consequence of the imperfect state of the catalogue; and, in point of fact, the multitudinous volumes on the shelves may be compared to a mine..... whence only a few particular objects, considered as the staple curiosities of the region, are extracted." 3 Even the return to the inquiries of the Foreign Office, in 1851, after describing the authorized regulations as to access, adds, "There are few days in the year in which it is open to the Public." In fine, there is .... 1 F. von Raumer, Italy, ii, 119, 120. 2 Laing, Notes of a Traveller (1842), 423. 3 Head, Rome, a Tour of many days, iii, 222-231. 4 Appendix to Report from Select Committee on Public Libraries, 1851, 14. BOOK V. ample evidence that this Library has yet to be explored The Libraries of and that an abundant harvest awaits those future in Chapter IV. Italy. Other Libraries of Rome. quiriers who to the requisite skill may join inflexible perseverance and happy fortune. The other Libraries at Rome, of sufficient importance to claim notice, are the Barberini collection, containing between 30,000 and 40,000 volumes of printed books, and about 7000 manuscripts. This collection was formerly open to the public, but has ceased to be so, "on account of extensive robberies which took place some years ago." (2.) The Casanata Library, bequeathed by Cardinal Casanate to the Dominican convent in the Piazza della Minerva, in 1700, together "with suitable funds to render it one of the first in Italy and Europe." It occupies magnificent apartments. According to the official return of Monsignore Barardi (1851), "the number of volumes exceeds 200,000, (not counting pamphlets, miscellaneous works, and plays, which exceed the number of 3000.)" The accessibility of the Library is liberal. There are also said to be 4500 MSS. (3.) The Angelica Library, founded by Angelo Rocca, and the first collection opened to the Public in Rome (1604), containing 84,819 4 1 Mr. Petre to Mr. Scarlett, 2d June 1851 (Foreign Office Returns, 1851, 40.) 2 4000 Roman crowns (£833), according to M. Beuchot (art: "Casanate," in the Biographie Universelle), is the revenue of this foundation, part of which is applied to theological tuition. 3 This number is somewhat startling, but the statement is clear and precise. There is, at all events, no doubt that, as respects printed books, the Casanata is the largest Library in Rome. 4 Head, ut supra, i, 317. Comp. Handbook of Rome, (1858), 152. BOOK V. Chapter IV. Italy. printed books, 2945 MSS., and 60,960 tracts (opuscoli).! The number of persons frequenting it—no ticket of ad- The Libraries of mission being requisite is stated to be from 30 to 40 daily. It includes the collections of Pignoria, Holstenius, and Passionei. (4.) The Alexandrine, or “Sapienza" Library, founded by Alexander VII., also the founder of the Library in the Chigi palace, (now, I believe, closed like the Barberini, save by special favour.) It appears to contain about 80,000 printed volumes, and 3000 MSS. The reigning Pope has given permission, granted to no other Library in Rome, for the keeping this Library open to the Public in the evening.2 (5.) The Corsini Library, founded by Clement XII., occupies eight rooms in the Corsini palace, and is stated to contain about 60,000 printed volumes, and 1300 MSS., with 60,000 engravings. Its manuscript collection is poor in classics, but abounds in documents illustrative of the history, both political and literary, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.3 (6.) The Franciscan, or Aracalitana Library, containing, according to Sir George Head (1841), 18,000 volumes; but according to the Foreign Office Returns (1851), though "despoiled of the greater part of its most valuable works after the French invasion, it has still from 40,000 to 50,000 volumes. (7.) The Lancisiana Library, founded in 1721, and placed in the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, 5 1 Foreign Office Returns, ut supra, 42. 2 Ibid., 43. 3 Archives des Missions Scientifiques, 1, 376 (1850). Comp. Handbook of Rome (5th Edit. 1858), 254. 4 Head, ut sup., ii, 37. 5 Foreign Office Returns, ut sup., 43. BOOK V. Chapter IV. Italy. with "from 30,000 to 40,000 volumes." 1(8.) The Library of The Libraries of the Roman College (Jesuits), said to contain 70,000 volumes; and (9.) the Vallicellana Library (sometimes termed Library of the Oratory); chiefly noticeable for its manuscripts. They includé many ancient classics of interest, and are singulary rich in materials for French history, especially in respect to the relations which have subsisted between the Court of France and the Papal See. Thus, if these statements be trustworthy, the nine chief Libraries of Rome contain more than 41,000 volumes of MSS., and 700,000 of printed books. Ambrosian Li brary at Milan. 3 The Ambrosian Library at Milan owes its existence to the munificence of Cardinal Frederick Borromeo, nephew of Charles Borromeo, and his successor in the see of Milan, (1609). This prelate began to collect books, when a student at Rome; and enlarging his plan as he advanced in age and dignities, he, when raised to the archbishopric of Milan erected an edifice, placed in it his collection, and opened it to the Public, under the title of Bibliotheca Ambrosiana. Some of its choicest treasures carry back the visitor's imagination to the remote antiquity of the seventh century, when the monastery of Bobbio was founded by Scottish and Irish monks in the heart of the Apennines. Evelyn visited it in 1646, and thus recorded his impressions: Dr. Ferrarius, he writes, "took us in his coach to see the Ambrosian Library, where Cardinal F. Borromeo has expended so 1 Foreign Office Returns, ut supra, 42. 2 Head, ut sup., i, 320. 3 Archives, ut supra, 374. BOOK V. Chapter IV. Italy. vast a sum on this building, and in furnishing it with curiosities..... Several drawings by Da Vinci we could The Libraries of not see, the Keeper of them being out of town, and he always carrying the keys with him .... Lord Marshal told me that a huge folio contained four hundred leaves full of scratches of Indians," &c.1 When, in 1690, Montfaucon visited the Ambrosiana, it had accumulated 40,000 volumes, conveyed, he says, "from Thessaly, Chio, Corfu, the country of Otranto, and Calabria.”2 Two or three years later our own Addison paid a similar visit, and his first reflection is," to show the Italian genius, they have spent more money on pictures than on books. .... Books are, indeed, the least part of the furniture that one ordinarily goes to see in an Italian Library." So variously does the same object impress different beholders, and so true is it that the eye sees what it brings. In 1729, the Ambrosiana was visited by the painstaking German traveller, Keysler, who was told that it contained 15,000 MSS. and 45,000 volumes of printed books. As to the first named number he was, not unreasonably, sceptical. But he bears willing testimony to their inestimable value. The MS. that appeared to him as the most curious thing in the whole Library was, he says, the "Translation of Josephus' History of the Jews, by Rufinus.... reputed to be above..... 1100 years old. It is written on the bark of a tree. Here are also St. Ambrose's works, writ on vellum, and most 1 Evelyn, Diary, etc., i, 226, 227. 2 Montfaucon, Diarium Italicum, c. ii. 3 Addison, Remarks on several parts of Europe, 32. |