BOOK V. Chapter IV. Italy. Another and larger catalogue was completed in 1856, The Libraries of by the late learned and laborious bibliographer, Giuseppe Molini (who died in December of that year), to whom the Magliabechiana is also indebted for an improved rearrangement; but there is no printed catalogue of the Library. It is particularly rich in the early productions of the Italian press, which are described by Follini alphabetically, with much accuracy of detail; and to these descriptions are added brief notices of the lives of the different authors. The Magliabechian Library is under the same roof with the Uffizi Gallery. It contains about 140,000 volumes of printed books,' and 10,000 manuscripts. Among its richest treasures are, the Mentz Bible of 1462, on vellum; the first edition of Homer, printed at Florence, 1488, also on vellum, with miniatures, and presented to Pietro de' Medici; a copy, on vellum, of the Dante of 1481, embellished with miniatures within and nielle without, presented by Landino to the senate of Florence; a "I volumi stampati si possono giudicare circa 140,000, compresi i duplicati che per ordine superiore sono stati già verificati e separati (Official Returns to Foreign Office, 1850, p. 368)." According to Molini, these duplicates amount to 11,000; and many of them occur again and again in other Florentine Libraries. This superfluity of books in one direction, combined as it is with paucity of books-foreign ones especially-in another, constitutes one of his arguments for combining the six Libraries of the city into three main collections: (1.) Medical; (2.) Legal; (3.) General,—containing all the MSS., and all the printed books relating neither to medicine nor to law. With the bulk of the duplicates he proposes to enrich the provincial collections. (Progetto di Riordina mento per le Pubbliche Librerie di Firenze, Fir., 1848, 8vo, p. 3.) The plan has suggestive worth in it, beyond the limits of Tuscany. Some very partial effect has been already given to it, I believe, but the Tuscan returns of 1850 contain no allusion to the subject. The main Libraries of Florence continue as yet to be distinct collections. magnificent copy of the Anthologia of Lascaris, 1494, BOOK V. Chapter IV. Italy. also a present to Pietro de' Medici; with other vellum The Libraries of copies, of singular beauty, of the Florentine history of Leonardo Aretino (Acciaioli's translation, Ven. 1476); and of the Argonautica of Apollonius (Flor. 1496). These are volumes which would give importance to any Library. The Marucellian contains 33,435 volumes of printed books, and 1375 volumes of MS.; the Riccardi collection about 20,000 volumes of printed books, and 3600 MSS., many of them of the highest value. The collection of the Belle Arti contained, when the official returns of 1835 were made, 11,000 volumes.' There is no mention of it in those of 1850. The disbursements on account of these various Libraries are made by their respective Librarians, under the control of the Minister of the Interior; the sums ordinarily expended, however, are but trifling. The Biblioteca Palatina, or Private Library of the Grand Duke in the Pitti Palace, dates but from 1815; (the old Library of the Pitti having been distributed by Duke Leopold amongst the various public collections of the city). The Poggiati collection, and a part of that of Count Reviczky were its groundwork. Literary researches meet with no obstruction, but as it is not public property, there is no account of its extent in the recent official returns. Valery states that, when he visited it, the number of printed volumes exceeded 1 App. to Report of Select Committee on British Museum (1835), 489. The Marucellian Other Florentine and Tuscan Libraries. BOOL V. Chapter IV. Italy. 80,000, and that of MSS. was nearly 1500. It is, unThe Libraries of questionably, a splendid collection, and in all probability keeps better pace with the progress of publication abroad than does any other Library in Florence. Its strength, too, in Italian literature is proverbial. Amongst the Cimelia of the Palatine Library are the MSS. of Machiavelli, rich in correspondence and in State Papers (although a portion of them has found its way to the British Museum); and those of Galileo, including a noble series of letters (now in course of publication), and of works published by his assistants, and annotated by himself. This collection which includes the papers of Torricelli, of Viviani, and other eminent philosophers-amounts to more than 300 volumes.1 The Libraries of the University of Pisa and of the city of Sienna are valuable, the former possessing about 62,500 volumes," and the latter about 35,000 volumes of printed books, and 3417 MSS.,3 to which an annual addition of books to the value of 100 scudi is respectively made. In almost all the provincial towns of Tuscany, there are also to be found public Libraries, more or less extensive, which are all placed under the control of the communal magistrates.* Neapolitan Li braries. 1 There are four public Libraries (or Libraries so called), at Naples, viz. the Royal Library, the Brancac-, cian Library, the Library of the University, and the 1 Valery, Voyages. etc., book x, c., 18. 2 Foreign Office Returns, ut supra (1850), 372. [Comp. the statement as to annual increase.] BOOK V. Chapter IV. Italy. Library of the Oratorian Priests of St. Philip Neri. The Royal Library (Biblioteca Borbonica) contains about The Libraries of 200,000 printed volumes and 4000 MSS.; the University possesses 25,000 volumes; the convent of St. Philip Neri has but 18,000 printed volumes, and 60 MSS.; the Brancacciana contains 70,000 volumes of printed books, and about 1000 volumes of MSS., relating chiefly to Neapolitan history.' This Library was founded by the bequest of Carlo Brancaccio in 1688. The Public have free admission to read in these Libraries, but no books are allowed to be taken away. They are all professedly open every day, for periods varying from six hours to two hours daily, excepting on holidays, when they are closed. But how easily liberality on paper may be turned into its opposite in practice, will be seen by the testimony of an English visitor, to- The Royal Liwards the close of 1856:-"Nominally open from twelve brary of Naples. to two o'clock," he says, "the Borbonica is twice aweek closed at one, under pretence of cleansing,.... and on fête days innumerable. .... Having entered, the difficulty is to find the books, for there is scarcely any arrangement,—and why should there be when so many are prohibited?.... Not only are Filangieri, Bentham, the Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève, for instance, refused, but the Kosmos. At all events, an express permission must be obtained from Rome to read it."2 Valery has mentioned a peculiarity in the arrangements here which is probably unique: "One room is set apart for the blind, who pay persons to read to them. 1 Foreign Office Returns of 1851, 33. .... 2 Letter from Naples, published in the London Athenæum 1857, p. 117. BOOK V. Chapter IV. Italy. The picturesque image of Dante must be often realized 999 1 The Libraries of there, 'Lo mento, a guisa d'orbo, in su levava. The expenses of the Royal Library are included in the same grant with those of the Brancacciana. It is entitled to two copies of all books printed in the kingdom of Naples, and 4000 ducats (£687) are annually appropriated to the purchase and binding of books. The expenses of the Library of St. Philip Neri, or of the "Girolomini,” are defrayed out of the funds of the Convent to which it belongs. The Brancaccian and University Libraries are, each of them, entitled to one copy of every book printed in the city of Naples. This collection is rich. in ancient books. Its special show volume is a finely illuminated copy of the Tragedies of Seneca. The Royal Library was originally formed of the old Farnesian Library, brought from Rome to Naples by Charles III.; and of those of the Jesuits, and various suppressed convents. The collection of early printed books is considerable, and has been described in a catalogue by the Chevalier de Licteriis, (Naples, 1828-41, 4 vols., folio.)3 Here are copies of the Catholicon of 1460, and the Bible of 1472, both upon vellum; the Petrarch of 1470, the Dante of Mantua; the first edition of the celebrated mediæval legist, Bartholus, of Sasso Ferrato, 1471; the first book printed at Naples, and other specimens of the early Neapolitan press. But the most choice book is one of the three or four 1 Valery, ut supra, book xiii, c. 6. 2 Foreign Office Returns, 1851, 33. 3 Codicum Sæculorum XV. Impressorum qui in Regia Bibliotheca adservantur Catalogus. The first volume of a general catalogue of the printed books appeared in 1832, but has had no successor. |