Portugal stands in much the same position as Spain, except that its books have never been so much in demand abroad as those of its neighbour. By the breaking up of the libraries of the convents, the national library, established at Lisbon in 1796, has been considerably enriched; but Senhor Innocencio da Silva, the author of the excellent bibliographical dictionary of Portuguese books now publishing, remarks in almost every page that some book he is describing is not to be found in the national library. Of many of the books he has only to mention that they were in the library of Lord Stuart de Rothesay, which was sold a few years ago in Loudon. At that sale, extensive purchases were made for the British Museum, which already pos sessed some of the finest and rarest works in Portuguese literature, by the accession of the King's and the Grenville libraries. The Cancioneiro ' of Resende, the first two editions of Camoens's ' Luciad,' the early editions of Barros and Castanheda, the Hebrew Pentateuch, which was the first book printed in Portugal, are probably united in no other library, and they are here associated with a good collection of general Portuguese literature, not wanting in the recent productions of both Portugal and Brazil.
France and England have now been in close connection, whether as friends or foes—but always as rivals—for about 800 years, and the con test which has been carried on in many a field in Europe, Asia, and America, has been carried on in the field of literature also. For about the first 400 years, up to the invention of printing, the French language flourished in England, and our libraries are rich in manu scripts in that language, many of which were written by Englishmen ; for part of the last 400 years the French language has often been more widely known and more extensively used in countries with which France had scarcely any connection, in Russia and Poland, than among its insular neighbours. Printing flourished in France from the moment that a German doctor of the Sorbonne invited German printers to Paris— it rose at once into elegance, and began from the first to command a foreign market. There are books in English printed for Anthony Vernal, of Paris. and some of the choicest volumes in the library of King Henry VII.. of England, now In the Britian Museum, are volumes on sauce. printed fur the same Verard. The contemporary library of the k France is nut so rich in specimens of the Pane printer. In France, Indeed, as in other countries, the books in the national Luaguage appear not to have ranked in such high estimation for " library looks as those which were in foreign languages, or were brought from abroad—were in Creek or Latin, or tame from Italy. It in France, however, in 1556 that the idea appears to have which has ranee -been imitated in every country—free or despotic, tnnrarclical or republican—of levying a " royalty " upon booksellers of one or more copier of the works they printed. Henry If., in 1556, issued an urdinance that a copy of every book issued in France should be deposited in the Royal Library. Had this order been always obeyed, and had the books thus obtained been always preserved, a great good would certainly have been effected ; but in all countries, free or despotic, these orders have been often disobeyed—a fate which they probably Aare with all other orders, but in this case the effect of the disobedience, instead of wearing out, becomes niers perceptible with the lapse of centuries. Without such a regulation, however, no very largo assem-i
hive of French literature would probably have been formed in France at all, for the great collectors of libraries in that country, in the 16th and pith centuries, seem to have had their thoughts turned more to the acquisition of beautiful copies, on vellum or large paper, in mag nificent bindings, than to the formation of complete sets of the sources of information in any branch of literature, knowledge, or history. It is related of the great collection of the President De Thou, that the owner, in some instances, supplied paper of his own to the printers of a book for a peculiar copy to be struck off, that he bought several copies of a volume to pick out from many the best impression of particular sheet., and finally that he bound his library so sumptuously that when the collection came to be dispersed the books were sold for less than the cost of the binding. With all due appreciation of "a choice Thuanus," those who do not regard a book merely as a piece of fur niture• must be permitted to smile at some of these particulars. The age of Louis XIV. spread through a large portion of Europe a taste for the French language and literature, which became so exclusive and prevailed so long, that, as is well known, the library of Frederick the threat cormiated entirely of volumes in the French language. This taste, however, was almost exclusively for books of the age of Louis and after it, and led to no dispersion out of France of the productions of an earlier period. Indeed, in France itself these productions were looked upon with disregard till long after a fervour had been awakened in England fur Caskets and Wynkyn de Wordes. As the Elizabethan Age preceded the age of Louis XIV., and as the English Commonwealth preceded the French republic, so the age of enthusiasm for black-letter in London preceded that age of enthusiasm for black letter which now prevails in Paris. The present period in France is equivalent to the period of the Roxburgh sale in England; and it appears to have had an analogous effect in preventing, for a time, rench Looks from leaving France. Even when they have quitted the country they have in general only passel into the hands of Frenchmen, sa. for instance, the library of M. Cigengue, which has in this year (1860; crossed the Channel to join the library of the Duke of Auniale, at Twickenham. There is still hope of recovery-of these for the great library at Perin, but it has not always succeeded hi obtaining the rarities of ancient French literature which have been first discovered in other parts of Europe. Until the year 1845, only five or six of the French farces of the 16th century were known to exist in different libraries in France, and the best French bibliographers, even those who gave their special attention to dramatic literature, had heard of no more. In that year a volume was discovered at Augsburg, containing sixty-four dramatic pieces of this peculiar kind, and it was sold by 31r. Ardor, the German bookseller, to the British Museum. The French antiquaries could not at lint believe that the volume was genuine, but all doubt has been removed by the publication of a transcript from this unique and remarkable volume at Paris.