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THE rapidly increasing growth of the Imperial Library at Paris-seemed at length almost to have exhausted the capacities even of that vast accretion of buildings. Fears have been repeatedly expressed that the weight of books was too great for its stability.'

1 Count Léon de Laborde in his excellent, though unfinished, work, De l'organisation des bibliothèques dans Paris, asserts that whatever danger of this kind may have really existed, was owing to the absurdity of placing the heaviest loads on the topmost floors. "There are," he says, "rooms on the ground-floor which are almost empty, and rooms on the first floor which are scarcely filled; but on the third floor the books are closely packed, and on the fourth they are heaped up; the cases are multiplied, and means are ingeniously contrived for increasing the weight of the ten thousand annually in-coming volumes, as though it were sought to solve the problem: What weight will an old building carry, if it be loaded in a manner the most riskful, because most contrary to the plain rules of good sense?'" ... "But despite all this," he adds, "the Maza

BOOK II.

Chapter II. Libraries projected.

BOOK II.

Chapter II.

Libraries pro

jected.

Visconti's plan for reconstruct

Library.

Many were the plans for a new building, and many the projects for changing the site. In respect to their immediate purpose, these plans and projects are now things of the past, but a summary review of them will not the less, on that account, form useful material for the object now in hand.

M. Visconti's plan preserved a considerable portion ing the Imperial of the present building, but materially altered or simplified its internal arrangement, and completed the parallelogram by covering the ground between the Rue Vivienne and the Rue Colbert. He proposed to place

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the Reading Room in the centre of the great galleries for books, and to allot to the officers a separate building. The various departments of MSS., Prints, Medals, and Maps were to have had their accommodation-not always it would seem of the most suitable kindamongst the smaller apartments on either side.

rine Palace continues firm, and defies the projectors to construct more substantially, a building as wholesome, as dry, as well isolated, and as well adapted for the security of the choice treasures it contains." And he proceeds to shew that all the increased accommodation which is needed, may be obtained by judicious restorations and additions to the present buildings.

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BOOK II.

Chapter II.

jected.

plan for recon

Imperial Library.

Long afterwards, M. Léon de Laborde also prepared a well-studied and very elaborate plan for the Libraries prore-arrangement and partial re-construction of the present building, by which, as he conceives, space De Laborde's would have been afforded for the growth of the col-structing the lections, at the present average rate of increase, for three centuries to come. By this plan, the historical portions of the Mazarine Palace would be preserved; ample accommodation-within the building, yet sufficiently isolated to avoid the danger of fire,-would be afforded to the officers, and provision made both for the safe custody and the effective display of the treasures which the Library contains, in its MSS., its rare printed books, and its prints, medals, and other antiquities.

The subjoined plan shews the proposed arrangement of the principal floor, and presents, I think, no unsuitable model for a great Library of the first class.

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The arrangement proposed by M. de Laborde for

the 'Bureau des Conservateurs' is very ingenious, and

will be best illustrated by a cut:

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Plan of Benjamin Delessert.

Many years ago, the late M. Benjamin Delessert, distinguished both as a Member of the Chamber of Deputies, and as a botanist (and himself the collector of some 30,000 volumes of well-chosen books,) recommended the construction of a new building for the same Library, on that 'panopticon' principle, the application of which to prisons was so enthusiastically advocated by Bentham.

M. Delessert's ideas were developed in a Pamphlet entitled Projet d'une bibliothèque circulaire, published in 1835. His ground plan is as follows:

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and his descriptive remarks run thus:-

The officers and the readers will be placed in the centre of a vast rotunda, whence branch-off eight principal galleries, the walls of which form diverging

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BOOK 11.

Chapter II.

jected.

radii (like the spokes of a wheel) and have bookcases on both sides. This arrangement brings all the books Libraries prointo the closest possible approximation to the centre of the building, and thus facilitates both the service and the supervision of readers. A building thus constructed will admit of the shelving of 800,000 volumes in a space of 1900 square toises (or 12,350 square feet). Stone, Marble, Iron, Pottery, and Zinc would be the only materials employed. The edifice might be warmed by hot air apparatus, the furnaces and boilers of which should be placed in an isolated building. Four light iron galleries should be placed, one above the other, throughout the entire building, and no press or bookcase should be more than six feet high, so that the books might be taken down and returned to their places without the use either of ladder or steps, and the access to these galleries should be by spiral iron staircases, placed behind the columns of the rotunda. All the books should be in glazed cases under lock and key. The total expense of such a building (providing shelf room for 800,000 volumes, with ample accommodation for readers,) M. Delessert estimated at somewhat below 8,000,000 francs, or about £330,000. The principal objection which was stated to this plan (by Mr. de La Borde, in the valuable work to which I have already referred) was that it would involve considerable loss of space at the four angles of the "square within which the circular edifice would have to be erected;"--an ob-jection which seems very trivial, and lies open to the obvious answer that nothing would be easier than to turn that space to excellent account, for the sub

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