Page:A Brief Outline of the Histories of Libraries.djvu/99

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Of Libraries
93

We note that libraries were placed in the baths, as we did above in the case of the Ulpian library, which was in the Baths of Diocletian. If you ask why, I would say because the Romans, while caring for the body in the bath, found their minds at ease, and discovered that then was a favourable time, especially for those who were deeply engrossed in affairs, to read or to be read to. For a like reason they had books in their villas and country seats. There also they found a leisure and a freedom from care which were favourable to reading.

A decision of the jurisconsult Paulus calls attention to this custom of having libraries: "In a