Count Boineburg evinced a keen interest. It was to BOOK V. Chapter VI. of Germany. his prompting that we own the curious letter of Con- Town Libraries Erfurt has also a Synod Library, founded in 1646. BOOK V. Chapter VI. of Germany. It is said to include some Hebrew MSS. of value which Town Libraries were purchased from the Jews at the time of their expulsion'; some valuable MS. materials for the history of Erfurt, and a series of rare editions of the Holy Bible. 2 In the year 1445, Dr. Conrad Kühnhofer presented Town Library of some books to the Senate of Nuremberg as the foun Nuremberg. dation of a Town Library (zur Zierlichkeit und löblichen Dingen der Stadt zu einer Liberey zu gebrauchen); but it was not until the Reformation had brought in its train the dissolution of Monasteries that any thing very effectual was done either for the collection of books, or for their proper accommodation and arrangement. The Augustinians, the Dominicans, and the Carthusians were then made to contribute their respective collections towards the augmentation of the Town Library. In 1525, the books thus collected were placed in a building which Dr. Petzholdt describes as the Auditorium Aegidianum, and which a recent traveller calls the "Scottish Cloister of St. Giles." In 1538, they were removed from thence to their present abode, in the vacated monastery of the Dominicans. The first important augmentation which followed was the gift by Jerome Paumgärtner, the friend of Luther and Melanchthon, of his Library (in 1565), an example which was soon and extensively imitated by physicians, jurists, and theologians in a long and honourable series. In the middle of the eighteenth century, 1 Keysler, Travels through Germany, etc., iv, 331. 2 Petzholdt, ut supra, 116-183: Foreign Office Returns of 1850. TOWN LIBRARY OF NUREMBERG. 441 BOOK V. Chapter VI. of Germany. Collections add ed to the old Town Library. a collection of special value which had been formed by C. J. Imhoff, and which included a remarkable Biblio- Town Libraries theca rerum Norimbergensium, was obtained by bequest. In 1766, the Senate purchased for 15,000 florins the Library of A. R. Solger, containing about 8500 volumes, famous for its fine series of editions of the fifteenth century, as well as for other merits. Shortly afterwards, another Lutheran clergyman bequeathed a Bibliotheca Melancthoniana of nearly 2000 volumes. The Syndicus C. S. Zeitler bequeathed in 1773 a curious collection, extending to nearly 1000 volumes, and con-. sisting exclusively of the works of writers who had taught Jurisprudence at Altdorf. mentations since 1800. During the present century the Senate of Nuremberg Further aughas increased the utility of the Town Library, by incorporating with it three distinct collections of books, which were already public but had been elsewhere located. These were (1.) the collection of books chiefly relating to Nuremberg and its vicinity, which had been brought together by Professor G. A. Will of Altdorf, and is known as the Bibliotheca Norica- Williana; (2.) the Marperger collection of works, both printed and MS., chiefly in the class Jurisprudence, extending to several thousand volumes; and (3.) a collection of about 700 volumes of works, chiefly in Ascetic Theology, which had been designated Convertitenbibliothek. The present contents of the Library are stated to exceed 50,000 volumes of printed books, and about 800 MSS. Among the latter are some precious Biblical MSS.; some of the productions of the indefatigable 'CobblerPoet', Hans Sachs; a very curious Hebrew MS. (mis BOOK V. Chapter VI. of Germany. cellaneous in its contents, and said to include valuable Town Libraries materials for Jewish History during the Middle Ages) which was seized on the expulsion of the Jews from Nuremberg in 1499; the original MS. of Melancthon de anima; a finely illuminated prayerbook which, perhaps, belonged once to "la plus belle Katharine du monde,' the "très-chère et divine déesse," of our own Henry V., for in it is written: "La liver du Roy de France Charles, "Doné a Madame la Roigne d'Engleterre;" and, finally, one half of the autograph MS. of Albert Durer's Vier Bücher von Menschlicher Proportion,—the remainder of which is in the Royal Library at Dresden. Of the printed books it may be enough to say that it is deservedly famous not only for the rarities prized by collectors but for the intrinsic worth of its contents generally. Keysler, who visited it nearly a century and a half ago, praised the City Council of that day for "sparing no cost to enrich the Library with every valuable new book that is published;" and, although he greatly mistook the extent of the Library -ascribing to it, about 1730, "near 60,000 volumes— his testimony on other points may not be altogether untrustworthy, since his account shews that he personally examined not a few of the books and made many painstaking enquiries into the history of the collection. After mentioning Luther's Bible as having been "taken out of a fire, without receiving any damage" he proceeds to add: here are also shewn some writing tablets of the Elector John Frederick, containing sermons "which, according to his custom, he took down while Luther was preaching." Two other small matters of some interest are noted by Keyssler, but they must be taken on his authority only, since there is no mention of either in Dr. Petzholdt's excellent "Handbook":-The one that "the original catalogue of every collection as it came from the Convent is still very carefully preserved; "the other, that "the Rev. Mr. Dilherr, who is Librarian, has settled a capital sum of 1000 Gulden, ... the annual interest of which is applied to the purchase of books." A recent tourist, Mr. Whitling, concludes his notice of this fine old Library, with a remark which I earnestly hope may no longer hold good,-he states that from the use of the lower part of the building as a storehouse, for very inflammable materials, the collection was then (1848) in daily peril of destruction. 1 1 BOOK V. Chapter VI. Town Libraries of Germany. Hamburgh. The Public Libraries of Hamburgh are numerous and The Libraries of important. Those of chief note are the City Library and the Commercial Library. The former was founded in 1529, and now contains about 200,000 volumes of printed books, exclusive of a series of Dissertations, the number of which is nearly 20,000. The MSS. are about 5000. The Commercial Library dates from 1735, contains more than 40,000 printed volumes, and is unquestionably the best special collection of its kind in Europe. It has no MSS. of much importance, save on the history of Hamburgh itself. On this subject there is a very valuable collection of books and documents, partly printed and partly MS. There is also an exten 'Petzholdt, ut supra, 280-283; Keysler, ut supra, iv, 365-367; Whitling, Pictures of Nuremberg, i, 141. |