Special Libraries

mss, vols, biblioteca, century, founded, library, printed and contains

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Modena.

At Modena is the Biblioteca Estense, founded by the Este family at Ferrara in 1393; it was transferred to Modena by Cesare D'Este in 1598. Muratori, Zaccaria and Tiraboschi were librarians here. The printed vols. number 151,057, the in cunabula 1,600, the mss. 8,567, besides the 4,958 mss. and the I0o,000 autographs of the Campori collection.

The oldest library at Naples is the Brancacciana, founded in 1647 by Cardinal F. M. Brancaccio, and opened by his heirs in 1675. The Regia Biblioteca di Parma was founded definitely in 1779 by the grand-duke Philip, who employed Paciaudi to organize it. It contains 323,208 vols. and 5,290 mss., including De Rossi's biblical and rabbinical mss. Also worthy of note are the Bibl. Pubblica or governativa of Lucca, and that of Cremona.

The Ambrosiana.

Among the great libraries not under Gov ernment control, the most important is the Ambrosiana at Milan, founded in 1609 by Cardinal Fed. Borromeo. It contains 400,000 printed vols., 3,00o incunabula and io,000 mss. Amongst the mss. are a Greek Pentateuch of the 5th century, the famous Peshito and Syro-Hexaplar, a Josephus on papyrus, supposed to be of the 5th century, several palimpsest texts, and a 7th century copy of St. Jerome's commentary on the Psalms, full of contemporary glosses in Irish, Gothic fragments of Ulfilas, and a Virgil with notes in Petrarch's handwriting. Cardinal Mai and Pope Pius XI. were former custodians here. At Genoa the Biblioteca Franzoniana (40,00o vols.), founded about 1770 for the instruction of the poorer classes, is noteworthy as being the first European library lighted up at night for the use of readers.

Monte Cassino.

The monastery of Monte Cassino (529) is due to St. Benedict, and is the prototype of all Western religious houses. The library now extends to about 70,000 vols., and that belonging to the monks contains about the same number. But the chief glory of Monte Cassino consists of the archivio, which is quite apart; and this includes more than 30,00o bulls, diplomas, charters and other documents, besides ',coo mss. dating from the 6th century downwards. There are good written catalogues, and descriptions with extracts are published in the Bibliotheca Casinen sis. The monastery was declared a national monument in 1866. At Ravenna the Biblioteca Classense has a loth century codex of Aristophanes. At Vercelli the Biblioteca dell' Archivio Capito lare comprises nothing but mss., all of great antiquity and value,

amongst them an Evangeliarium S. Eusebii, supposed to be of the 4th century; also a famous codex of Anglo-Saxon homilies.

La Cava.

Tre Monastero della S. Trinia, at La Cava dei Tirreni, in the province of Salerno (beginning of the nth cen tury), has only some ro,000 vols., but these include mss. from the 8th to the r4th century, amongst them a Codex Legum Longo bardorum, dated 1004, besides a well-known geographical chart of the r 2th century, over roo Greek mss., and about r,000 charters beginning with the year 840, more than 200 of which belong to the Lombard and Norman periods. The library is now national prop erty, the abbot holding the office of keeper of the archives.

Not a few of the communal and municipal libraries are of great extent and interest: Bologna (18o1); Brescia, Civica Quiriniana (1747); Ferrara (1753); Macerata, the Mozzi-Borgetti (1783 1835, united 1855) ; Mantua; Novara, Negroni e Civica and 189o) ; Padua; Palermo (176o) ; Perugia (1852), founded by P. Podiani; Siena (1758), founded by S. Bandini, fine art collec tion; Venice, Museo Civico Correr (183o) ; Verona (1792, public since 1802) ; Bertoliana (1708). Italian librarians are organized and there is a school for professional training in the Archigin nasio at Bologna Spain and Portugal.—Most of the royal, State and university libraries of Spain and Portugal have Government control and support.

The chief library in Spain is the Biblioteca Nacional (formerly Real) at Madrid (1716), with 1,210,520 printed books, including 2,412 incunabula, 30,172 mss. and 120,00o prints. Theology, canon law, history, etc., are very complete. The collection of prints was principally bought from Don Valentin Carderera in 1865. Other Madrid libraries are Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1738 (5o,000 vols., and 8,400 mss.), which contains Spanish books of great value, including the Salazar collection. In 1808, the year the Escorial contained approximately 30,00o printed vols. and 3,400 mss., Joseph removed the collection to Madrid, but when it was returned by Ferdinand ro,000 vols. were missing. There are now about 40,000 printed volumes. The Biblioteca Pro vincial y Universitaria of Barcelona (1841) contains about roo, 000 vols., and that of Seville (1767) has iio,000 volumes. Among other provincial and university libraries is that of Salamanca (1254).

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