BOOK II. Chapter I. facement and mutilation of those noble sculptures, for the collection of which the great Cardinal had sent his Libraries built. agents all over Europe); and another portion became that brilliant 'Salon' of Madame de Lambert, of which Fontenelle said "It was an honour to be admitted to it. It was almost the only drawing room which had kept itself free from the epidemic of gambling, and in which people continued to meet for rational conversation." A third portion of this vast edifice was destined to be the scene of the bold projects, the delirious dreams, the brief triumphs, and the memorable ruin of John Law, his "Royal Bank," and his "Company of the Indies." Nor is it improbable that the desire of the Regent to efface as completely as possible all trace and memorial of the disastrous projects of Law, was the decisive reason which led him to assign the Mazarin Palace for the reception of the books of the Royal Library, when the small house in which Colbert had placed them (in 1666) had ceased to afford adequate accommodation. The removal was commenced in the year 1724. The partitions of some of the smaller rooms were removed, and some additional galleries constructed. The subjoined plan shews the arrangement of the entire edifice as it stood when the alterations which are now (1858) in progress were commenced. A and B, the former Hôtel Tuboeuf', etc., purchased by Card. Mazarine. These houses had been erected by the President Duret de Chivry. C, the buildings around this court were added by the Cardinal, and after his death formed the Hôtel de Nevers,' having been bequeathed to Philip de Mancini, Duke of Nevers. D, 'Préau de la Bourse.' E, Houses, built upon the former gardens of the Mazarine Palace. a and f, Courts of communication between the officers' apartments and the Library. b, c, d, e, Houses and apartments occupied by the officers of the Library. 9, Former communication with the court of the Hôtel Tuboeuf.' h, Former principal entrance. j, Principal store-room on the ground-floor; Receiving office for Prints in the Mezzanine; Director's apartments on the first floor. k, Architect's office. 1, Entrance to the gardens. m, Gallery for books, constructed by Visconti, in 1832. P, Ethnographical collection. q, Entrance from Rue Richelieu. r, s, t, u, Grand staircase, vestibules, etc.) v, Room for exhibition of Maps. Above it, Reading-room for MSS. x, Another map-room (Maps in relief, etc.). y, Store-room of the great work on Egypt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Collection of Printed Books. 10, Room for new purchases, etc. 11, Bookbinding-room, etc. 12, Globe-room. Repository of imperfect works. 13, Works in parts. 14, Antiquities-The Zodiac, etc. 15, Vestibule. Above Nos. 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 15, is the great Reading-room. 16, Staircase leading to the Reading-room. 17, Mazarine Gallery.-Above it, the great gallery of MSS. 18, Books unbound. 19 and 20, Catalogues. 21, 22 and 23, Offices and Porter's Lodge. 24, The Arcade Colbert.' 25, Store-Room.-Above 24 and 25, is the Cabinet of Medals and Antiquities. 26, Court. 27, Keeper's Residence with entrance from the Rue Colbert. BOOK II. Chapter I. Libraries butli. BOOK 11. Chapter I. It will be obvious that in the buildings thus far reLibraries built. viewed there has been little regard to economy of space, or to the readiest and cheapest provision for future enlargement. In many cases pre-existing circumstances may have hindered or made needless any consideration of the preferability, for example, in this point of view, of a circular ground plan, enclosed, or capable of enclosure, within an outer square. Ducal Library at Of such an arrangement,-save that the central structure is an oval, instead of a circle, and the outer building, consequently, a parallelogram instead of a square, we have an example in the celebrated Library of Wolfenbüttel, constructed by Duke Anthony Ulrich, between the years 1706 and 1710. The central rotunda is lighted by a lofty lantern, supported by twelve great pillars, which are cased with presses for books, and thus form, as it were, an inner hall. The walls forming the oval are similarly cased 1 "Dieser, in länglich runder Form, 90 F. lang, 70 F. breit, und 4 Stockwerke hoch, ist der Hauptgedanke des ebenso schönen als zweckmässigen Bauplanes, und überrascht jeden Besucher durch seine würdigen Verhältnisse, deren Ausführung nur in den Nebensachen der eiligen Vollendung wegen noch Einiges zu wünschen übrig lässt."-Petzholdt, Handbuch deutscher Bibliotheken (1853), 402. BOOK II. Chapter 1. on both sides. The outer parallelogram is 150 feet in length and 110 feet in breadth, and contains in each Libraries built. corner a quintagonal room, appropriated to the rarer and choicer books, the collection of Bibles, the manuscripts, and the catalogues. This outer portion of the building is three stories high, and the arrangement is repeated on the upper floor, affording, it will be perceived, a large amount of shelf-room, and enhancing, by contrast, the imposing aspect of the rotunda within. at Oxford. This idea was partially adopted by Gibbs in his well Radcliffe Library known Radcliffe Library at Oxford, but he treated it much as the gipsies were said to treat stolen children. Like greater architects of an earlier day, he seems to have given himself very little trouble about the proper arrangement and display of the books, or the due accommodation of the readers. No one, I think, who should first look upon the building in ignorance of its contents, would ever imagine it to be a Library, and a not inattentive |