Part 656

In a work entitled "Essai Statistique sur les Bibliothèques de Vienne," published in 1835, M. Adrien Balbi entered into an examination of the literary and numerical value of the principal libraries of ancient and modern times. M. Balbi, in this work, shows that "the Imperial Library of Vienna, regularly increasing from the epoch of its formation, by means equally honorable to the sovereign and to the nation, held, until the French revolution, the first place among the libraries of Europe. Since that period, several other institutions have risen to a much higher numerical rank. … No one of the libraries of the first class, now in existence, dates beyond the fifteenth century. The Vatican, the origin of which has been frequently carried back to the days of St. Hilarius, in 465, cannot, with any propriety, be said to have deserved the name of library before the reign of Martin the Fifth, by whose order it was removed from Avignon to Rome in 1417. And even then, a strict attention to the force of the term would require us to withhold from it this title, until the period of its final organization by Nicholas the Fifth, in 1447. It is difficult to speak with certainty concerning the libraries, whether public or private, which are supposed to have existed previous to the fifteenth century, both on account of the doubtful authority and indefiniteness of the passages in which they are mentioned, and the custom which so readily obtained, in those dark ages, of dignifying every petty collection with the name of library. But many libraries of the fifteenth century being still in existence, and others having been preserved long enough to make them the subject of historical inquiry before their dissolution, it becomes easier to fix, with satisfactory accuracy, the date of their foundation. We find accordingly, that, including the Vatican, and the libraries of Vienna, Ratisbon, and the Laurentian of Florence, which are a few years anterior to it, no less than ten were formed between the years 1430 and 1500. The increase of European libraries has generally been slowly progressive, although there have been periods of sudden augmentation in nearly all. Most of them began with a small number of manuscripts, sometimes with a few printed volumes, and often without any. To these, gradual accessions were made, from the different sources, which have always been more or less at the command of the sovereigns and nobles of Europe. In 1455, the Vatican contained 5,000 manuscripts. … Far different was the progress of the Royal Library of Paris. The origin of this institution is placed in the year 1595, the date of its removal from Fontainebleau to Paris by order of Henry the Fourth. In 1660, it contained but 1,435 printed volumes. In the course of the following year, this number was raised to 16,746, both printed volumes and manuscripts. During the ensuing eight years the library was nearly doubled; and before the close of the next century, it was supposed to have been augmented by upwards of 100,000 volumes more."

_G. W. Greene, Historical Studies, pages 278-281._

"The oldest of the great libraries of printed books is probably that of Vienna, which dates from 1440, and is said to have been opened to the public as early as 1575. The Town Library of Ratisbon dates from 1430; St. Mark's Library at Venice, from 1468; the Town Library of Frankfort, from 1484; that of Hamburg, from 1529; of Strasburg, from 1531; of Augsburg, from 1537; those of Berne and Geneva, from 1550; that of Basel, from 1564. The Royal Library of Copenhagen was founded about 1550. In 1671 it possessed 10,000 volumes; in 1748, about 65,000; in 1778, 100,000; in 1820, 300,000; and it now contains 410,000 volumes. The National Library of Paris was founded in 1595, but was not made public until 1737. In 1640 it contained about 17,000 volumes; in 1684, 50,000; in 1775, 150,000; in 1790, 200,000."

_E. Edwards, A Statistical View of the Principal Public Libraries in Europe and the United States Of America, (Journal of the Statistical Society, August., 1848)._

{2010}

LIBRARIES: Modern. Germany.

According to "Minerva" (the "Year-book of the Learned World"), for 1893-94, the Royal Library at Berlin contains 850,000 printed books and 24,622 manuscripts; the Münich University Library, 370,000 books and 50,000 pamphlets, including 2,101 incunabula; the Leipsic University Library, 500,000 printed books, and 4,000 manuscripts; Heidelberg University Library, 400,000 bound volumes (including 1,000 incunabula), and 175,000 pamphlets and "dissertationen," with a large collection of manuscripts; Dresden Royal Public Library, 300,000 printed books (including 2,000 incunabula), 6,000 manuscripts, and 20,000 maps; Freiburg University Library, 250,000 volumes and over 500 manuscripts; Königsberg University Library, 220,000 volumes and 1,100 manuscripts; Tübingen University Library, 300,000 volumes and 3,500 manuscripts; Jena University Library, 200,000 volumes and 100,000 "dissertationen"; Halle University Library, 182,000 books and 800 manuscripts, besides 12,800 books, 35,000 pamphlets and 1,040 manuscripts in the Ponickausche Bibliothek, which is united with the University Library; Hamburg City Library, about 500,000 printed books and 5,000 manuscripts; Frankfort City Library (April, 1893), 326,139 volumes; Cologne City Library, 105,000 volumes, including 2,000 incunabula; Augsburg City and Provincial Library, about 200,000 volumes (including 1,760 incunabula) and 2,000 manuscripts; Göttingen University Library, 456,000 volumes of books and 5,300 manuscripts; Gotha Public Library, 200,000 printed books, including 1,029 incunabula, and 7,037 manuscripts, of which 3,500 are oriental; Greifswald University Library, 143 volumes of printed books and about 800 manuscripts; Bamberg Royal Public Library, 300,000 volumes, 3,132 manuscripts; Berlin University Library, 142,129 volumes; Bonn University Library, 219,000 volumes, including 1,235 incunabula, and 1,273 manuscripts; Bremen City Library, 120,000 volumes; Breslau University Library, 300,000 volumes, including about 2,500 incunabula, and about 3,000 manuscripts; Breslau City Library, 150,000 volumes and 3,000 manuscripts; Erlangen University Library, 180,000 volumes; Hanover Royal Public Library, 180,000 books and 3,500 manuscripts; Hanover City Library, 47,000 volumes; Carlsruhe Grand-ducal Library, 159,842 books and 3,754 manuscripts; Kiel University Library, 217,039 volumes, 2,375 manuscripts; Colmar City Library, 80,000 volumes; Marburg University Library, 150,000 volumes; Strasburg University Library, 700,000 volumes; Strasburg City Library, 90,000 volumes; Weimar Grand-ducal Library, 223,000 volumes and 2,000 manuscripts; Würzburg University Library, 300,000 volumes.

_Minerva, 1893-94._

"The Munich library, … in matter of administration, resembles the British Museum. Here one finds carefully catalogued that great wealth of material that appears only in doctorate theses, and for this reason is most valuable to the historic student. No tedious formalities are insisted upon, and orders for books are not subjected to long delays. The Vienna library moves slowly, as though its machinery were retarded by the weight of its royal imperial name. The catalogue is not accessible, the attendants are not anxious to please, and the worker feels no special affection for the institution. But at the royal library of Berlin there exists an opposite state of affairs—with the catalogue at hand one can readily give the information needful in filling up the call card. This being a lending library, one occasionally meets with disappointment, but, as the privilege of borrowing is easily had, this feature can have a compensatory side. The most marked peculiarity found here is the periodic delivery of books. All books ordered before nine o'clock are delivered at eleven; those before eleven, at one; those before one, at three; and those after three are delivered the same day if possible. This causes some delay, but as soon as the rule is known it has no drawback for the continuous user, and for the benefit of one who wants only a single order there is placed at the outer door of the building a box into which one can deposit the call card, and returning at the proper time find the book waiting in the reading room above. This saves the climbing of many steps, and enables one to perform other duties between ordering and receiving. As far as I know, here alone does one purchase the call cards, but as the price is only twenty cents per hundred the cost is not an important item."

_J. H. Gore, Library Facilities for Study in Europe (Educational Review, June, 1893)._

In Berlin, "the report of the city government for 1889-00 reckons 25 public free libraries; 334,837 books were read by 14,900 persons, i. e., 17,219 volumes less than last year. The expenses were 26,490 marks, the allowance from the city treasury 23,400 marks [less than $6,000]."

_The Library Journal, May, 1892._

LIBRARIES: France: The Bibliothèque Nationale.

"The history of the vast collection of books which is now, after many wanderings, definitely located in the Rue de Richelieu, divides itself naturally into three periods, which, for the sake of convenience, may well be called by three of the names under which the Library has, at different times, been known. The first period is that in which the Library was nothing more than the private collection of each successive sovereign of France, which sometimes accompanied him in his journeys, and but too often, as in the case of King John, or that of Charles VII., shared in his misfortunes; it was then fitly called the 'Bibliothèque du Roi.' This period may be considered as ending in the time of Henry IV., who transferred the royal collection from Fontainebleau to Paris, and gave it a temporary home in the College de Clermont. Although its abode has often been changed since, it has never again been attached to a royal palace, or been removed from the capital. The second period dates from this act of Henry the Fourth's, and extends down to the Revolution of 1780, during which time the Library, although open with but slight restrictions to all men of letters who were well recommended, and to the general public for two days a week, from the year 1692, was not regarded as national property, but as an appendage of the Crown, which was indeed graciously opened to the learned, but was only national property in the same sense that the Queen's private library at Windsor is national property. {2011} Although still called the Bibliothèque du Roi during this period, it may well be here spoken of, for the sake of distinction, as the Bibliothèque Royale down to the Revolution. In 1791, the King's library was proclaimed national property, and it was decreed that it should henceforth be called 'Bibliothèque Nationale,' which name it bore till the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French, in 1805, when it was styled 'Bibliothèque Impériale.' Of course it was Bibliothèque Royale again in 1815, 'Nationale' in 1848, and once again, in 1852, was declared to be the 'Bibliothèque Impériale.'"

_Imperial Library of Paris (Westminster Review, April, 1870)._

After the fall of the Second Empire, the great library again became "Nationale" in name. According to a report made in the spring of 1894, the Bibliothèque Nationale of France contained, at the end of the previous year, 1,934,154 "'numbers,' forming at least 2,600,000 volumes." This report was made by a committee of twenty persons, appointed to consider the advisability and method of printing the catalogue of the library. The conclusions of the committee are favorable to the printing of the catalogue.

_The Nation, May 17, 1894_.

Books come to the National Library "in three ways: from (1) gifts, about 3,000 a year; … (2) purchase, 4,500 (the library has $20,000 a year to spend on books and binding); (3) copyright, 22,000 articles and 6,000 pieces of music. The printer, not the publisher, is bound to make the deposit, so that if the text and the illustrations are printed at different places there is a chance, unless everyone is careful, that the library will have an imperfect copy. But the greatest trouble comes from periodicals, of which the Bibliothèque Nationale receives 3,000. What would some of our librarians think of this who are inclined to boast or to lament that they receive 300? Every number of every newspaper in France must be received, sent for if it fails to come, registered, put on its pile, and at the end of the year tied up in a bundle and put away (for only the most important are bound). … The titles of new books are printed in a bulletin in two series, French and Foreign (causing a printer's bill of 5,000 francs a year). This began in 1875 for the foreign, and in 1882 for the French. These bulletins are cut up and the titles mounted on slips, which are fastened in a Leyden binder, three making a small folio page. The result is a series of 900 volumes, less easy to consult than a good card catalog, very much less easy than the British Museum pasted catalog, the Rudolph books, or the Rudolph machine. … The books received at the Bibliothèque Nationale before 1875 and 1882 are entered on some 2,000,000 slips, which are divided between two catalogs, that of the old library ('fonds ancien'), and of the intermediate library ('fonds intermédiarie'). In each of these catalogs they are arranged in series according to the subject divisions given above and under each subject alphabetically. There is no author catalog and the public are not allowed to consult these catalogs. If then a reader asks for a work received before 1875 the attendant guesses in which 'fonds' it is and what subject it treats of; if he does not find it where he looks first he tries some other division. No wonder it takes on an average half an hour for the reader to get his book. I must bear witness to the great skill which necessity has developed in the officials charged with this work. Some of their successes in bringing me out-of-the-way books were marvellous. On the other hand, when they reported certain works not in the library I did not feel at all sure that they were right, and I dare say they doubted themselves. All this will be changed when the library gets a printed alphabetical catalog of authors and has made from it a pasted alphabetical catalog of subjects. The author catalog, by the way, is expected to fill 40,000 double-columned quarto pages. … The library now has 50 kilometres (31 miles) of shelves and is full. A new store-house is needed and a public reading room ('salle de lecture'), which can be lighted by electricity, and be opened, like the British Museum, in the evening."

_C. A. Cutter, Notes on the Bibliothèque Nationale (Library Journal, June, 1894)._

LIBRARIES: France: Paris Municipal Libraries.

"The Bibliothèques Municipales de Paris have undergone a rapid development within the last few years. In 1878 there were only nine altogether, of which five were little used, and four practically unused. A special Bureau was then appointed by the Municipal Council to take charge of them, with the result that altogether 22 libraries have been opened, while the number of volumes lent rose from 29,339 in 1878 to 57,840 in 1879, to 147,567 in 1880, to 242,738 in 1881, and to 363,322 in 1882. … A sum of 3,050 francs is placed at the disposal of each library by the Municipal Council, which is thus appropriated; Books and Binding, Fr. 1,750; Librarian, 1,000; Attendant, 300. The amount of the sums thus voted by the Municipal Council in the year 1883 was 110,150 fr. For the year of 1884 the sum of 171,700 fr. has been voted, the increase being intended to provide for the establishment of fifteen new libraries in Communal Schools, as well as for the growing requirements of some of the libraries already established. The individual libraries are not, of course, as yet very considerable in point of numbers. The stock possessed by the twenty-two Bibliothèques Municipales in 1882 was 87,831 volumes, of which 20,411 had been added during that year. Information received since the publication of M. Dardenne's Report places the number in 1883 at 98,843 volumes. … The libraries are open to the public gratuitously every evening from 8 to 10 o'clock, and are closed on five days only during the whole year. Books may be read in the library or are lent out for home use. … Music is lent as well as books, the experiment having been first tried at the Mairie of the second arrondissement, in 1879, and having proved so successful that nine arrondissements have followed suit, and the total number of musical issues from the ten libraries in 1882 was 9,085. … Beside these libraries under the direction of the Mairies, there are a certain number of popular free libraries established and supported by voluntary efforts. Without dwelling upon the history of these libraries, all of which have been formed since 1860, it may be stated that there are now fourteen such libraries in as many arrondissements."

_E. C. Thomas, The Popular Libraries of Paris (Library Chronicle, volume 1, 1884, pages 13-14)._

{2012}

"The Journal Officiel' contains in the number for August 29, of this year (1891), the substance of the following account: … The city of Paris has now 64 public libraries, all of which send out books and accommodate readers in their halls; they are open at the times when the factories and shops are closed. … The libraries are kept in the mayoralty buildings or ward district school-houses; a central office provides for the administration and support, while in each precinct a committee of superintendence attends to the choice and ordering of new accessions. All expenses are paid by the city, which, in its last budget, in 1890, appropriated therefor the trifle of 225,000 francs. On every library in full use are bestowed yearly about 2,400 francs, while 14,000 francs are employed in founding new ones. The number of books circulated in 1890 was 1,386,642, against 29,339 in 1878, in the nine libraries then existing. In 1878 there was an average of only 3,259 readers for each library, and in the last year the average was 23,500, which shows a seven-fold use of the libraries."

_Public Libraries in Paris; translated from the Börsenblatt, October 7, 1891 (Library Journal, May, 1892)._

LIBRARIES: France: Other Libraries.

A library of importance in Paris second only to the great National is the Mazarin, which contains 300,000 volumes (1,000 incunabula), and 5,800 manuscripts. The Library of the University has 141,678 volumes; the Library of the Museum of Natural History has 140,850 books and 2,050 manuscripts; the Sainte-Genevieve Library contains 120,000 volumes and 2,392 manuscripts; the Library of the City of Paris, 90,000 volumes and 2,000 manuscripts. The principal libraries of the provincial cities are reported as follows: Caen Municipal Library, 100,000 volumes, 620 manuscripts; Dijon Municipal Library, 100,000 volumes, 1,558 manuscripts; Marseilles City Library, 102,000 volumes, 1,656 manuscripts; Montpelier City Library, 120,000 volumes; Nantes City Library, 102,172 volumes, 2,231 manuscripts; Rheims Library, 100,000 books and 1,700 manuscripts; Lyons City Library and Library of the Palace of Arts, 160,000 volumes and 1,900 manuscripts; Toulouse City Library, 100,000 volumes and 950 manuscripts; Rouen City Library, 132,000 printed books and 3,800 manuscripts; Avignon, 117,000 volumes and 3,300 manuscripts; Bordeaux, 160,000 volumes, 1,500 manuscripts; Tours, 100,000 volumes and 1,743 manuscripts; Amiens, 80,000 volumes, 1,500 manuscripts; Besançon, 140,000 volumes and 1,850 manuscripts.

_Minerva, 1893-94._

LIBRARIES: Italy.

"There are in Italy between thirty and forty libraries which the present National Government, in recognition of former Governmental support, is committed to maintain, at least in some degree. It is a division of resources which even a rich country would find an impediment in developing a proper National Library, and Italy, with its over-burdened Treasury, is far from being in a position to offer the world a single library of the first class. … Italy, to build up a library which shall rank with the great national libraries of the future, will need to concentrate her resources; for though she has libraries now which are rich in manuscripts, she has not one which is able to meet the great demands of modern scholarship for printed books. … If with this want of fecundity there went a corresponding slothfulness in libraries, there would be little to be hoped of Italy in amassing great collections of books. In some respects I have found a more active bibliothecal spirit in Italy than elsewhere in Europe, and I suspect that if Italian unification has accomplished nothing else, it has unshackled the minds of librarians, and placed them more in sympathy with the modern gospel which makes a library more the servant than the master of its users. I suspect this is not, as a rule, the case in Germany. … I have certainly found in Italian librarians a great alertness of mind and a marked eagerness to observe the advances in library methods which have taken place elsewhere during the last five and twenty years. But at the same time, with all this activity, the miserable bureaucratic methods of which even the chance stranger sees so much in Italy, are allowed to embarrass the efforts of her best librarians. … In the present condition of Italian finances nothing adequate to the needs of the larger libraries can be allowed, and the wonder is that so much is done as is apparent; and it is doubtless owing to the great force of character which I find in some of the leading librarians that any progress is made at all. During the years when the new Italian kingdom had its capital in Florence a certain amount of concentration started the new Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale on its career; and when later the Government was transferred to Rome, the new capital was given another library, got together in a similar way, which is called the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele. Neither collection is housed in any way suited to its functions, and the one at Florence is much the most important; indeed it is marvellously rich in early printed books and in manuscripts."

_J. Winsor, The condition of Italian Libraries (The Nation, July 9, 1891)._

LIBRARIES: The Vatican Library.