To this of comae there are exceptions ; we have heard of en Icelandic library 't Palermo; but they are rare. In his excellent history of literature, Tiraboechi, himself the librarian of 3!odena, takes particular notice of the progress. of libraries, century by century. An animated description of the Italian libraries is the principal feature in Valeria Voyaiai eu Italia' The rules of admission to these libraries are leas liberal than these which prevail in France and Germany, and the number of of closing is unusually large. There were In 1851, according to Ile I do's Spanish Encyclopaxlia, published in that year, 29 public libraries in Spain, oontaining altoe•ether about C27,200 voluuses—a number for the whole country less than is accumulated in $01110 single collections out of Seciu. The three most interesting were, the national library at Madrid, containing, slue° it had received the contributions of the conventual libraries, about 200,000 volumes ; the library of the Escurial, containing 21,000 volumes only of printed Looks and 4000 of manuscripts, chiefly Arabic; and the " Columbian " or cathedral library of Seville, remarkable fur possowing some works which one belonged to Columbus. The libraries of Portugal haVe had no "golden age." In the report on the national library published in 1841, a list which Is given of the foreign purchases of seven years occupies little more than four pages. The fate of one library in Portugal has been unique. In 1807, when the royal family emigrated to Brazil from the invasion of the French, the royal library sailed in the same fleet, and now forma the imperial library at Rio Janeiro. It all probably at the time of its arrival in Brazil the largest library in America.
France is in teeny respects a model to theTest of Europe with regard to libraries. It contains a collection of the first magnitude in the capital it has several others of only less importance both in the capital and the provinces, and scattered over its surface it has many Collections of different degrees of interest freely accessible. This deemiption, which implies high praise, is not in all its parts to any other country. The Royal Library of France dates its origin back to the 15th century, before the invention of printing, but it did not begin to be of real importance till the reign of Louis XIV. lie is meld to have found about 5000 volumes In it at the commeheeineut of his long reign, and to have left 70,600. Under Louis XIV. the col lection was not freely open to the public the Italian minister of his minority, Cardinal Ilazann, was far more advanced than his French master in this respect. The first library of 40,000 volumes, which 31axarin collected with the assistance and advice of his librarian, Nalic16, was treated, not as a private, but a public library. " From its doer," says Naud4, In a dialogue he published," shall resound that cry never yet. heard in th6 republic of letters—' Come, all ye who desire to read, and freely enter in.'" It was this library which was sold by auetiou, hi the course of the insurrection against by order of the Parliameut of Parte who directed that part of the proceeds should Le offered as a reward to whoever should capture the Cardinal dead or alive. The minister, after his triumph and return to undisputed liester, collected a second library, which he left to the public at his death, and which is now kept in the same building with the library of the Institute at Paris. It was probably the existence of this public collection which led to the opening of the royal one, which took place in 1737, some years after the grandson of Louis, seated on the throne of Spain, had already opened a public; library at 3Iadrid. It is difficult to trace with clearness the phases of publicity of the royal library which has often apparently been leas public than its regulations would imply, The judicious liberality of the minister Colbert, the favour with which eectemiens to the library from the exertion(' of h'rencli ambaseedors In foreign countriee were looked upon, and a number of favourable eircumstancee, hail gradually led, at the period of the Revo lution, to the accumulation of a collection of books which, though it appear. it was surpassed iu mere numbers by that of. Zalueki, was then the most valuable In Europe, and could °lily be rivalled in that respect by the Imperial collection at Vienna. In fuhei"pi however, its deficiencies were in tunny respects remarkable in Gkrinan end English especially. Great care had been bestowed, and justly, in amassing curious manuscripts from the furthest parts of Asia, and Feuruiont boasted that," for the literature of China, of l'artary, and of India, the king's library is-as theft the richest library In Europe' " but it hail no set—and it is doubtful if it has noW—of ' tlentl'eman'm Magazine.' The history of the library (luring the Revolution is pain fully interesting. Many of the librarians were involved in the calamities of that dreadful period. Barthelemy, the author of ' Anacharsim,' was tent to prison e three other*, Cares, Uirey.lthpid, and rd'Ormessete buffered by the guillotine; Champfort, the colleague of Cerra, on being arrested in the library, endeavuured to commit suicide, and thuugh not killed on the spot, died finally of the wounds inflicted. In the
height of all this, the Institution flourished, and the numerous smith. 'ideas it toads from the suppressed convents, raised it to the posItiun it still occupies, of the first library in Europe. Amid the storm that raged around, one political fanatic, lienriot, proposed to burn the whole collection. anal some courage and conduct were requisite to eppeee and avert the cxvoution of this And similar measures on smaller scale, which were proposed as a tribute to the popular aversion to priestcraft and monarchy. At the same time )proposals were occa sionally brought forward which were singularly judicious. In 1795, Viller, deputy of La Mayenne, presented to the Convention a report, in which he pointed out, among other things, as iniliepensably necessary, the purchase of the hooka printed from year to year in France, and of those printed from year to year abroad, and laid great stress on the importance of seizing opportunities as they occurred, and of die regarding the suggestions of a false economy, which, ho said, in such cameo does but multiply difficulties and lead to vain regrets, The Napoleonic period was chiefly distinguished, in regard to the library, by its passion for ourichiug it by foreign conquest. These trophies had more or leas completely to be restored when foreign conquerors were in their turn twice masters of Paris. After the the library quietly preserved its place at the head of European establish ments, without much need to guard against rivalry, and the subject of little commentary but praise. During this time it was customary to speak of Van l'raet, the librarian, as " the living catalogue,' and it appeared to be quite unsuspected that there was need of any other. After 1830, complaints beau to arise that so little had been done to reduce to order the chaotic mass that hail been thrown into the library in the revolutionary times, dud the more orderly accumulation since, that it was impossible to know what books were present in the library and what deficient, and an agitation gradually arose for a new and complete catalogue. 1)r. Martin Lister, in the account of his journey to Paris, in 1693, published in 1690, said, with much simplicity, "They work daily and hard at the catalogue, which they intend to print. . . . . They purpose to put it into the press this year, and to finish it within a twelvemonth." They began to print in 1735, and have not finished in the 162 years that have elapsed since the visit of Dr. Lister. Ten folio volumes of the work, perhaps the handsomest volumes of a catalogue that have ever been printed, did but commence the labour, and all intention of completing that edition of the catalogue has now been abandoned for about a century. In 1855 came out the first volume of a new catalogue, commencing the division 'History of France,' and six volumes of that division have now appeared, and une volume of 11e In regard to foreign languages, the errors iu these volumes are far from unfrequent, and oversights of various descriptions may be pointed out. Still the existence of a printed cata logue of such extent on so interesting a subject is a boon, and if it proceeds as it has begun, all Europe will hail its success. In 1858 a commission, which was appointed by the French government to inquire into the affairs of the library, sent a commissioner to England in the person of M. Prosper Wrinnie, the celebrated novelist and archeologist, who in a report made on his return, eulogised highly various of the arrangeinents introduced at the British Museum during Mr. Paeizzi'e administration, which he recommended for adoption in France. In the report of M. Roulatel, the Minister of Public Instruction, to the Empeior of the French in lfit10, the report of the commissioners is referred to as the recognised basis of the future administration of the library, and at the same tithe the Emperor's attention is called to thu necessity of increased exertion to save the great establishment of France from the danger of being surpassed by its foreign rivals. The libthry may now be estimated to comprise about 80,000 volumes —the number given iu a former part of this article (col. 206) being based on an erroneous assumption of the number of pamphlets, &e., as 735,000 instead of 750,000. M. Itoidand proposes the measure of incorporating, in the vast collection of Paris, all the books that it does not already possess which are to be found in the other public libraries of the capital—a measure which he supporta by thu authority of the first Napoleon. That he confines this proposal to the libraries of Paris ouly, and excepts the departments, shows, however, that the Minister anticipates opposition. No objection of any plaueibility could be opposed to the plan of including such books in the catelogue—a Plan which has already been carried, into effect in Bajot's catalogue of the four libraries of the French merino, in which the books in all tho four are given indiscriminately in one order of arrangement, with an indication of the collections in which they exist, sometimes in one only and sometimes in all the four.