This being the case, it is not easy to fix the exact period at which the present collection of books may be said to have been begun, and, as the history of their acquisition, apart from that of the room intended to contain them, is quite beside my present purpose, I will pass over this portion of the subject very rapidly. Those who wish to claim as great an antiquity as possible for the library would probably date its beginning from 1420, when Pope Martin V. entered Rome on the termination of the schism; but he was compelled by circumstances to put his literary tastes aside, and to leave to his successor, Eugenius IV. (1431–47), the restoration of most of the books which their predecessors had used at Avignon[1]; and a catalogue drawn up in November, 1443[2], enumerates about 340 volumes. Nicholas V. (1447–55) was a real lover of books, and increased his collection with so much energy and discretion, that he may well claim the title of founder of the Vatican Library. It was his intention, says one of his biographers, to build "a spacious library lighted by a range of windows on each side (ingens et ampla transversalibus utrimque fenestris)[3]" which he proposed to throw open to the public[4]. In the letter of commendation which he furnished to one of his collectors, he says expressly: "we are trying by every means in our power to obtain a library of Greek and Latin books such as the Pope and the Holy See ought to possess, for the general use of learned men[5]."
The library which Nicholas V. succeeded in accumulating was more than respectable, the Latin MSS. alone amounting to 824 volumes[6], as shewn by the catalogue made 16 April, 1455, for the use of his successor Calixtus III. This collection was arranged in eight presses, set against the wall of a room
- ↑ Müntz et Fabre, Bibliothèque du Vatican, pp. 1-6.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 6. The catalogue is printed, from the original in the Vatican, pp. 9-32.
- ↑ Manetti, in Muratori, S. R. I. iii. Pt. 2, col. 933 d. I owe this quotation to M. Fabre.
- ↑ Müntz et Fabre, p. 39.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 47.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 42. The catalogue is printed pp. 48-112.
