Imperial Library

“ Petersburg Imperial Public Library, 1,050,000 volumes, 28,000 manuscripts. LIBRARIES: England: The King's Library and the British Museum. "No monarch of England is known to have been an extensive collector of books (in the modern acceptation of the term) except George III., or, if the name of Charles I. should be added, it must be in a secondary rank, and with some uncertainty, because we have not the same evidence of his collection of books as we have of his pictures, in the catalogue which exists of them. A royal library had, indeed, been established in the reign of Henry VII. ”

“ In 1772 there was a general search for all literary works worthy of preservation, and ten years later a voluminous collection of these was published, embracing many rare books taken from the great encyclopædia of the Emperor Yung Lo. A descriptive catalogue of the Imperial Library, containing 3460 works arranged under the four heads of Classics, History, Philosophy, and General Literature, was drawn up in 1772-1790. It gives the history of each work, which is also criticised. ”

“ The ancient history of libraries in Japan is analogous to that of China, with whose civilization and literature it had close relations. Since about 1870, however, the great cities and institutions have established libraries on the European model.
Perhaps the most extensive library of the empire is that of the Imperial Cabinet (1885) at Tokio with over 500,000 vols., consisting of the collections of the various government departments, and is for official use alone. The University Library (1872) is the largest open to students and the public; it contains over 400,000 vols. ”

“ The new library was finished and inaugurated in 1850; and although the external architecture is somewhat plain and heavy, the interior is highly artistic, with many a mural painting by master hands. Formerly this library possessed a very curious collection of crayon sketches, portraits of personages of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which were transferred by an imperial decree to the library of the Rue de Richelieu. It can support this loss, however, rich as it is in quaint and valuable specimens of art. ”

“ Application, accordingly, was made by the Trustees to the Treasury; a sum was granted to enable them to send again into Egypt, and Mr. Tattam readily undertook the commission. |Treasury grant, in 1841, for further researches.| The time was most opportune. Had much more delay been interposed, these manuscripts, which, perhaps, constitute the greatest accession of valuable literature which has been brought from the East into Europe since the taking of Constantinople, |Quart. Review, as before.| would, in all probability, have been now the pride of the Imperial Library at Paris. ”

“ The chief reason for this is no doubt the cherished tradition that libraries are to be made as large as possible, because they are the repositories of the literature of the ages and the storehouse for every kind of printed matter. The museum idea of a public library, however, is now giving place to the workshop idea, and few librarians nowadays of average-sized municipal libraries hold the view that it is their function to provide and retain every book, irrespective of its value or appeal, and to attempt to rival the British Museum or Bibliothèque Nationale on a reduced scale. ”

“ The general public is comparatively indifferent to bibliographical rarities, and books which are merely curious or scarce should not be bought from the present restricted funds of British municipal libraries. There is a certain advantage in making a small special collection, on the museum plan, to trace and illustrate the evolution and history of printing and book production from the original manuscript forms, but the general connection of incunabula and rare specimens of typography by modern municipal libraries is neither possible nor desirable. ”

“ Thus in such places as Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, the Free Libraries should be smaller British Museums, and in this spirit their founders have worked; but in smaller and less important towns a more modest object has to be kept in view, and the wants of readers, more than those of consulters of books, have to be considered. ”

“ Many of the “Pocket” series also dealt with the settlement of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys from 1780 to 1815, and with the Far West from 1849 to 1869. This “Pocket” series is bibliographically known as Type B of the Beadle publications, while the original yellow-backed books belong to Type A.
The next two groups—Types D and E—have a common title, the “Boy’s Library of Sport, Story and Adventure,” and are distinguished from one another by the larger size and earlier issuance of the Type D items. They are imperial octavo in size, whereas the Type E publications are ordinary octavos. ”

“ England would then possess a complete index to the growth of the national library, and the world would have the nearest approach to a register of all literature that, in the absence of any feasible scheme for a universal catalogue by co-operation among public libraries, it seems likely to obtain. ”

“ The one great advantage which European libraries possess over American consists in the stores of ancient literature which the accumulations of the past have given them. This advantage, so far as manuscripts and early printed books are concerned, can never be overcome. With one or two hundred thousand volumes as a basis, what but utter neglect can prevent a library from becoming a great [308] and useful institution? The most moderate share of discrimination, applied to the selection of current literature, will keep up the character of the collection as a progressive one. ”

“ The illustrations borne by all the titles of this series will be found to possess unusual interest, but some of the drawings have an especial fascination. Notable in such regard are “Giant George” (No. 246) ; “Sierra Sam’s Pard” (No. 253) ; “The Scalp King” (No. 288) ; and “Ker-Whoop, Ker-Whoo” (No. 318) .
The largest group of all, in the Library exhibit, is that representing the Type M publications of Beadle. These were collectively known as the Dime Library, of which each issue was an imperial octavo of thirty-two pages, with an illustration on the front cover. ”

“ Next to the Bibliothèque nationale of France, comes the Library of the British Museum, with 2,000,000 volumes, very rich both in manuscripts and in printed books in all languages. A liberal Parliamentary grant of $60,000 a year for purchase of books and manuscripts keeps this great collection well up to date as to all important new works, besides enabling it constantly to fill up deficiencies in the literature of the past. ”

“ As a natural consequence of the revival of learning in the fourteenth century, private libraries began to increase in size and in number, and the collection of books was no longer left to monks and priests. King John of France gathered a little library, some say of only twenty volumes, which laid the foundation of the great Royal Library, now the Bibliothèque Nationale. ”

“ It is easy now to collect, for books of interest are to be found on all sides; but in old times this was not so, and we must therefore admire the more those men who formed their libraries under the greatest difficulties. In a book devoted to the formation of libraries it seems but fair to devote some space to doing honour to those who have formed libraries, and perhaps some practical lessons may be learned from a few historical facts. ”

“ The mission of the national library is the simplest: its character is determined for it by the enactment which in most civilised states constitutes it the general receptacle of the national literature, good, bad, and indifferent, and imposes the corresponding obligation of rendering itself the epitome of foreign literatures, as far as its means allow. Every such library is the mirror of its time, and perhaps even its services to contemporaries are of less real account than those which it performs for posterity in preserving the image of the past. ”

“ There is scarcely, in the whole British Museum, a less satisfactory book than his catalogue of the Royal library. Thus, the student is hampered by the want of a guide, and must hew paths for himself through the luxuriant growth and accumulations of many centuries. In point of mere size, the Royal library ranks third among the four great collections acquired by the British Museum at the time of its foundation—the Harleian numbering 7639 MSS. ”

“ It will continue to make demands on the liberality of successive generations, which will be the more readily met the more the voluminous development of literature enforces the conviction that, next to positive addition to the world's stock of information, the most important service to culture is the preserving, arranging, and rendering accessible the stores which the world already possesses. The recovery of the catalogue of the Alexandrian Library, if a less delightful, would probably be a more substantial gain to knowledge than the recovery of any individual author. ”

“ The love of books will often form a tie of connection between very divergent characters, and in dealing with men who have formed libraries we can bring together the names of those who had but little sympathy with each other during life.
George III. was a true book collector, and the magnificent library now preserved in the British Museum owes its origin to his own judgment and enthusiastic love for the pursuit. Louis XVI. cared but little for books until his troubles came thick upon him, and then he sought solace from their pages. ”

“ It would add enormously to the educational resources of London, for example, if, in return for an annual Government grant, the general public could have access to the reading-rooms of some of the more important literary, scientific and artistic libraries, especially those which are rich in the current periodical literature of other countries. ”

“ Secondly, the old and rare, as well as the critical, editions of ancient Classics, ought never to be sought for in vain in this Collection. Nor ought good comments, as also the best translations into modern languages, to be wanting. Thirdly, with respect to foreign literature, arts, and sciences, the Library ought to possess the best editions of standard works for critical purposes or for use. The Public have, moreover, a right to find, in their National Library, heavy as well as expensive foreign works, such as Literary Journals; Transactions of Societies ”

“ The Alexandrian kings saw to it that there were students to make use of their library, for they built near it a Museum, so called because it was, so to speak, a temple of the Muses, in which it was possible to follow the Muses, to cultivate the humanities, free from all cares, even from the labour of providing food and lodging, since the students in it were supported from the public funds. How admirable an institution! ”

“ It is thought by some that an open access library is itself a book exhibition, but even with this system, and certainly with the indicator system, there are many things that can be exhibited with advantage. Such works as Williams’s History of the Art of Writing, the facsimiles published by the British Museum, and other large treasure houses ”

“ The object of this paper is to give a short account of the sliding-press or hanging book-press now in use at the British Museum, and to suggest the importance of its introduction elsewhere where possible, and of regard being had to it in forming the plans of libraries hereafter to be built. Every successful library is destined to be confronted sooner or later with the problem how to enlarge its insufficient space. ”

“ The more these type collections are adopted and utilized, the greater will become the value of museums for elementary science teaching, and as most museums are unable to collect and display specimens of everything in the world, it is obvious that they must do as libraries have to do—select only what is best, most typical and instructive, and leave indiscriminate collecting to the great universal museums supported by the State. ”

“ Its absence from the primitive plan brings out two points very clearly: (1) how few books even a wealthy community could afford to possess for several centuries after the foundation of the Order; (2) how strictly the Order adhered to prescribed arrangements in laying out its Houses, for even those built, or rebuilt, after books had become plentiful, do not admit a Library as an indispensable item in their ground-plan. ”

“ The common people nowadays should be encouraged in their interest in their own country, its description, history, politics, biography, mineral resources, literature. The people will inquire for these books, and they should be provided for them. Wait until the library is larger before investing much money in the history of worn out empires, simply because such and such a person wants them, or because some library anywhere from two to twenty times as large has them. ”

“ Of Public Libraries first in order come the great libraries of a nation, such as the British Museum. These are supplied by means of the Copyright Law, but the librarians are not from this cause exonerated from the troubles attendant on the formation of a library. There are old books and privately printed and foreign books to be bought, and it is necessary that the most catholic spirit should be displayed by the librarians. ”