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Hungary.-Information about the chief libraries in Hungary under the dual monarchy was given annually up to 1911 in the Hungarian Statistical Year Book. The largest library in Hungary is the Szechenyi-Nationalbibliothek at Budapest, founded in 1802 by the gift of the library of Count Franz Szechenyi. It contains 400,000 printed vols. and 16,000 mss., and has II lending and four reference branches. The University library of Budapest (1635) includes 543,572 printed books and 3,401 mss. Since 1897 there has been in Hungary a chief inspector of museums and libraries. He has charge of a general catalogue of all the mss. and early printed books in Hungary.
After the war, the central bureau of public libraries organized exchange, distributing the literature received in this way from abroad. It also produces a general catalogue of accessions (which serves as a current national bibliography).
The library of the Benedictines at St. Martinsberg (I ith cen tury) is the central library of the order in Hungary, and contains nearly 170,000 vols. Its principal treasures were, on the seculari zation of the monasteries, distributed among the State libraries in Budapest.
most considerable libraries in the Re public are the University library, Prague (1366:1773) with 591, 245 vols., the National library at Prague (1918) with over 70,000 vols. and many State documents, and the Central library (1891) with 378,562 volumes.
During the i9th century, free libraries were founded by the clergy and school teachers, while the library periodical, Ceskci Osveta (i9o4), helped to spread a knowledge of Anglo-American popular library methods. By this each community was to estab lish a public library, administered by special locally-elected bodies; a minimum library tax of 5o, 6o, 7o or 8o hellers (o.75d., o.9d., i.o5d., or 1.2d.) per head is levied in towns of less than 5,000, 10,000 or ioo,000, or of over, io,000 inhabitants respec tively. All libraries thus established are controlled by the Ministry of Education, which issues statistics. In 1920 there were 3,343 libraries with 1,644,558 vols., 310,880 borrowers, 3,180,509 issues for home use, and a total income of 3,211,026 Czech crowns; in 1927 there were 15,355 libraries with
vols., 880,326 borrowers, 14,440,593 home issues, and income 16,275,308 Czech crowns. The average of readers to a library was 86o, and one book to every two readers. The expenditure per head was 1.55 Czech crown (2.33d.) as against the sum of one Czech crown (1.5d.) laid down by the law of 1919.
the former centre of civilization, Italy is the home of the oldest libraries. The Vatican at Rome and the Laurentian at Florence are sufficient in themselves to give Italy primacy in respect of rare and valuable mss., and for antiquity there are the venerable relics at Vercelli, Monte Cassino and La Cava. The local rights which so long impeded the unification of Italy created and preserved many libraries which would have been lost under a Central State. Italy is still, in spite of war and collectors, rich in books. Official statistics of 1896 gave particulars of 1,831 libraries, of which 419 are provincial and communal. In
there were 542 popular and circulating. A Bollettino for these biblioteche popolari was commenced in 1907, and a congress held at Rome in 1908.
libraries (bibli oteche governative) are under the minister of public instruction. The pre-Fascist Regolamento controlling them was issued in the Bolletino Ufficiale, Dec. 5, 1907. They consisted of the national central libraries of Rome (Vittorio Emanuele) and Florence, of the national libraries of Milan (Braidense), Naples, Palermo, Turin and Venice (Marciana) ; the Biblioteca governativa at Cremona ; the Marucelliana, the Mediceo-Laurenziana and the Riccardiana at Florence ; the governativa at Lucca ; the Estense at Modena; the Brancacciana and that of San Giacomo at Naples; the Palatina at Parma ; the Angelica, the Casanatense, and the Lancisiana at Rome; the university libraries of Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Genoa, Messina, Modena, Naples, Padua, Pavia, Pisa, Rome and Sassari; the Ventimiliana (with the university library at Catania) ; the Vallicelliana and the musical library of the R. Acad. of St. Cecilia at Rome ; the musical section of the Palatine at Parma; and the Lucchesi-Palli (added to the national library at Naples). The minister of public instruction is assisted by a technical board. Each library was to possess a general inventory, an accessions register, an alphabetical author-catalogue and a subject-catalogue. Catalogues of the special collections were next to be compiled. A general catalogue of the mss. was, in 1910, being issued together with catalogues of oriental codices and incunabula ; books are chosen by the librarians in Government libraries, and in the university libraries partly by a professional council. The rules (Boll. U fficiale, Sept. 17, 1908) allow lending to other countries under special circumstances.