BOOK V. Chapter VIII. Switzerland. It is under the control of a Library Committee apThe Libraries of pointed by the Cantonal Council. Works in Technology and Professional books are little sought for; it being the aim of the Committee to add to the Library works of more intrinsic importance, especially in the following classes: (1.) Bibliography and Literary History; (2.) History, and more especially that of Switzerland; (3.) Geography, Voyages and Travels, and Statistics; (4.) Jurisprudence, Politics, and Political Economy; (5.) Philosophy and Education; (6.) The Polite Literature of Modern Nations; (7.) Natural History, with Physics and Chemistry; (8.) Philology; (9.) Encyclopædical Works; and, finally, such works only in the special literature of the Arts and Professions, as are at once of marked value, and not of very common occurrence. The Reference Library is freely accessible, during three days in the week, for five hours daily in summer; and four hours in winter; but books are lent out of the Library to subscribers only. The average yearly number of such subscribers ranges from forty to fifty, and that of the volumes lent is about 1500. Cantonal Library of Lausanne. Aarau has also a Cantonal School Library of 4000 volumes; a Theological Library of 3000 volumes; a Medical Library of 3000 volumes, and a Naturalists Library of 2000 volumes. The Cantonal Library at Lausanne has about 45,000 volumes of printed books, and, perhaps, 300 MSS. But for a long period, Lausanne contained a literary treasure (noticed in an earlier page of this volume), which had more powerful charms for British eyes than anything they could see in the Public Library. The latter, how LIBRARY OF THE BENEDICTINES AT EINSIEDELN. 505 BOOK V. ever, has now succeeded to the possession of some scanty fragments of the dispersed Library of Edward Gibbon. The Libraries of Chapter VIII. Switzerland. Benedictines of The Library of the famous Benedictine Abbey of Library of the Einsiedeln is probably, in a sense, coeval with the Monastery itself, which dates from the tenth century. But fire and sword have unhappily destroyed or dispersed its earlier treasures. After the stormy period of the Reformation, the restoration and augmentation of the Library became a prime object of care and exertion with many of the successive Abbots, and several important collections were added, some by purchase, and others by gift. During the last century a new building was erected for the Library. Until the period of the French Revolution, the proceeds of the printing press of the Abbey was an important source of income for the augmentation of the Library; but at that epoch it ceased. About 1840, the books were counted, and the number stated at 21,800 volumes. Of these about 840 are MSS.,-many of them of the 11th and 12th centuries, and nearly all of them of considerable value. Of books printed before 1520, there are more than 900 volumes. At the sale, in 1840, of the Library of Hurter, an important selection of historical works was purchased. Dr. Petzholdt has printed an interesting document of the 28. February 1332, which records the gift of ten books, containing seventeen distinct works, nearly all of which are chronological, save the Cronica Martini.' The present number of volumes is about 26,000. Amongst the books which in the old monastic fashion are read aloud at meal times, the English traveller will some BOOK V. Chapter VIII. times notice translations of the works of our own Lin The Libraries of gard and Cobbett.1 Belgium. The Burgundian Library. § 3. THE LIBRARIES OF BELGIUM. The old Ducal House of Burgundy stood second to no reigning family in Europe in its love of letters, and its pains to amass fine books. But some of the choicest of its treasures were recklessly sold to defray the personal expenses of the penniless Maximilian of Austria, and others were stripped of their precious covers and adornments, that those might be turned to like account. The Regent Margaret, Aunt of Charles V., may be considered as, virtually, the restorer of the old Burgundian Library, though she was so unwittingly. The enlightened statesman Viglius induced Philip II. to order her books at Brussels to be conjoined with those belonging to the various royal residences. From this act arose the Bibliothèque de Bourgogne of the last century. M. de La Serna Santander has traced the history of this Library through its various misfortunes, it having been successively exposed to the perils of fire, of interment, and of spoliation by the commissaries of Marshal Saxe. Part,—but only the smaller part, it is believed,—of these spoils was long afterwards recovered. In 1772, it received considerable augmentations from the collections of the suppressed Jesuits, and was opened to the Public. Though it had been restored, in some degree, to its ancient splendour by the care of Count de Cobentzel, and of Prince Stahrenberg, minister-ple 1 Petzholdt, ut supra, 24-25; 45-47; 111-113; 140; 221-225; 419431; Murray, Handbook for Switzerland, etc. 7th Edition, 212, etc. THE BURGUNDIAN LIBRARY. 507 nipotentiary of the Empress Queen, its prosperity was BOOK V. Chapter VIII. Belgium. of short duration. For, when the French armies overran The Libraries of the Netherlands, and occupied Brussels, in 1794, Laurent, as "Representative of the French people," caused seven waggon-loads of books and manuscripts to be taken from the Burgundian Library; and some time afterwards, Wailly, Leblond, and Faujas, deputed to commit a second spoliation, selected 171 manuscripts more, and a considerable number of printed books, for the National Library at Paris. In 1795, a place was provided for the reception of the surviving books belonging to the Burgundian Library, which was then placed under the care of La Serna Santander as Chief Librarian; and, in 1798, the collection was enriched with all that was most valuable from the great depôt of the Cordeliers, which was then broken up. La Serna remained at the head of the Library until 1812, when the consequences of an act of political temerity compelled him to resign his office. He was succeeded by Charles van Hulthem, who filled the office until 1826. But it was not until 1827, that the Burgundian Library became thoroughly accessible to the Public. It was then united with the Library of the City of Brussels, and placed under the keepership of an eminent bibliògrapher and estimable man, M.Sylvain Van de Weyer, since well known to Englishmen in a different sphere of public life. The Library of Brussels had been almost as unfortunate in its vicissitudes as were the Burgundian MSS. Originally formed from the confiscated collections of the Jesuits, it was rich in choice books, but it had suffered many and grievous losses. The fine private Li BOOK V. Chapter VIII. brary brought together by Van Hulthem, who died in The Libraries of 1832, has been the most important element in the comBelgium. position of the present royal collection. It had been formed with great judgement, and was especially rich in Belgian history; nor is it undeserving of record that not a few of the volumes of this Library had (in a very unusual manner) helped to make Belgian history, in some of its not least glorious pages; many a substantial and venerable folio of Van Hulthem's having done duty by way of breastwork for the Belgic volunteers, during their obstinate conflict with the Dutch troops in September 1830. This collection amounted to 29,350 distinct printed works, in about 63,000 volumes, and to 1016 MSS. It was purchased by the government, in 1837, for £11,640, exclusive of some incidental expenses. There is a printed catalogue of it, well compiled by Voisin, in six octavo volumes. Two years afterwards the conjoined collections, including that of the City, which had been public from 1794, were opened as the national collection of Belgium. Since that period the Brussels Library has by systematic acquisitions, become still more extensive, and at present it contains upwards of 205,000 volumes of printed books, and about 19,700 MSS., each distinct work or article being counted, " "Nothing", says a recent reader there, "can exceed the comfort of the Reading-Room."1 Voisin, Documents pour servir à l'histoire des Bibliothèques de Belgique, 119-159; Mémoire Historique sur la Bibliothèque Publique de Bruxelles (Bruxelles, 1809); Peignot, Catalogue d'une partie des Livres composant la Bibliothèque des Ducs de Bourgogne, au XV. Siècle (Dijon, 1841); Scheler, Gründung der Königlich Belgischen Staatsbibliothek zu Brüssel, 1842 (Serapeum, iii, 23); Bibliotheca Hulthemiana, (Bruxelles, 1836); Foreign Office Returns of 1850, 160, 161; De Reiffenberg, Annu |