LIBRARY (Lat. librarium, a bookcase), a collection of books designed for use and preservation; also the repository of such a collection. Although the English word comes directly from the Latin, the Romans usually designated a library by the Greek word bibliotheca, which has been adopted into almost every cultivated language excepting the English. Libraries are probably nearly coeval with the art of writing. The oldest of which we have any record is that of the Ramesseum, a temple founded in Thebes by Rameses II., in honor of his father Seti I., the Osymandias of Diodorus. According to Hecatæus, one of its rooms was the depository of the histories and records of the priests, a statement which seems to have been substantiated by the researches of Egyptologists. Another great library existed at an early date in Memphis, but the most famous of all ancient libraries was that founded early in the 3d century B. C. by the Ptolemies in Alexandria. (See Alexandrian Library.) Layard discovered in the ruins of the palace of Koyunjik the library of the Ninevite kings, consisting of a large number of tablets of clay, impressed before burning with inscriptions in cuneiform characters; they had originally been paged and preserved in cases. Several thousands of these tablets are now in the British museum. The Hebrews preserved their sacred writings in the temple. The kings of Persia also had collections of books and of archives. — According to Aulus Gellius and Athenæus, the first library established in Greece was founded at Athens by Pisistratus; but Strabo says that Aristotle's collection was the first. The former library is said to have been carried to Persia by Xerxes, and finally restored to Athens by the emperor Hadrian; the latter was purchased by Ptolemy Philadelphus and added to that of Alexandria. Polycrates also formed a library at Samos at an early date. Next to the Alexandrian library, that founded by Eumenes II., king of Pergamus, was the most celebrated of antiquity. Plutarch says it contained 200,000 volumes, and it probably continued to increase in numbers and value until the time of Mark Antony, who transported it as a present to Cleopatra to Alexandria, where it became a part of its more famous rival and finally shared its fate. About 167 B. C. Paulus Æmilius carried to Rome a library, the spoil of his campaign in Macedonia; but to Asinius Pollio belongs the honor of founding the first Roman public library, in the atrium libertatis on Mount Aventine. Sulla carried from Athens to Rome the library of Apellicon the Teian; Lucullus made a large collection, and his galleries and porticoes became a favorite resort for conversation; Varro, Atticus, and Cicero were enthusiastic collectors of books. One of the unfulfilled projects of Cæsar was the formation of a public library which should contain all the works in Greek and Latin literature. Augustus established the Octavian and Palatine public libraries, the latter of which continued until the time of Pope Gregory I. More important was the Ulpian library, founded by Trajan. At a later period 28 public libraries are mentioned as existing in Rome, besides many valuable private collections. All of these perished in the barbarian invasions. The library of Constantinople, founded by Constantine, and enlarged by Julian and the younger Theodosius to the number of 120,000 volumes, was partially burned by the iconoclasts in the 8th century under Leo the Isaurian. This disaster was repaired by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who restored and enlarged the collection. After the fall of the Byzantine empire it was preserved by the command of Mohammed II. in the seraglio, and was either destroyed by Amurath IV. or perished by neglect. Libraries were founded from the 9th to the 11th century, especially by the imperial family of the Comneni, in the cloisters on the islands of the archipelago and on Mt. Athos. — When Christian Europe was plunged in ignorance, the Moslems cultivated letters with assiduity, and made large collections of books. They had an important library in Alexandria and another in Cairo. The latter, which is said to have been the largest in the Mohammedan dominions, is said by some of the Arab writers to have numbered 1,600,000 volumes. Other great Arabian libraries were at Bagdad, Tripoli in Syria, and Fez. Under Moslem domination Spain possessed 70 public libraries; that at Cordova contained 400,000 volumes. — In the West, after the fall of the Roman empire, learning was confined to the monasteries, and almost all libraries, up to the 14th century, belonged to ecclesiastical institutions. They were generally small, comprising only the wreck of the collections dispersed by the barbarians. Among the cultivators of learning in the dark ages the Benedictines stood foremost, and to their careful reproduction of manuscripts the world is indebted chiefly for the preservation of the classics. At Monte Casino, Bobbio, and Pomposia in Italy; Cluny, St. Riquier, and Fleury in France; Marburg, Sponheim, Reichenau, and Korvei in Germany; St. Gall in Switzerland; Canterbury, Croyland, Yarrow, Bury St. Edmunds, Whitby, York, Durham, and Wearmouth in England, and other monasteries, were collected valuable libraries which became the nuclei of the great collections of later times. With the revival of learning began a new era in the history of libraries. The fall of Constantinople sent numbers of learned men into the West, who brought with them many valuable manuscripts. A zeal for the collection and preservation of books arose. Scholars traversed Europe and parts of Asia and of Africa in search of literary treasures, and in a few years most of the classic authors now known were to be found in the libraries of the great cities of Italy, Germany, and France. Several of the largest of the European libraries date from this period, among them those of Prague, Paris, Vienna, the Vatican, and the Laurentian of Florence, founded by Lorenzo de' Medici. The splendid collection made at Buda by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, which is said to have numbered 50,000 manuscripts, and that of Frederick, duke of Urbino, belong to this time. The former, which was scattered at the capture of Buda by the Turks in 1526, has been almost entirely lost, only about 125 of its treasures being known to exist. Nearly one half of these are preserved in the imperial library at Vienna. The Urbino library is partly in the Vatican and partly in other collections. The invention of printing, by increasing the number and reducing the cost of books, made possible the formation of many public libraries, which soon sprang up in all the considerable towns of Germany, Italy, and France; and in these and the several university libraries were gradually merged most of the small collections of the monasteries which were suppressed after the reformation. — The following table shows the condition in 1874 of all the larger libraries of Europe:
EUROPEAN PUBLIC LIBRARIES CONTAINING
100,000 VOLUMES OR MORE.
| PLACE. | Name. | When founded. |
Printed vols. |
MSS. | |||||
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In consequence of the rapid increase of many
of the European libraries, and discrepancies in
authorities, some of the figures in this table
vary from those previously given in articles
on the several cities and towns. It is probable
that other libraries are large enough to be
included in the list, but it is difficult to obtain
statistics regarding them. There are several
other collections in London which number
nearly if not quite 100,000 volumes; the library
of the university of Aberdeen has over
90,000, and that of St. Andrews nearly as
many. There are several private libraries in
England which number over 50,000 volumes
each. The five principal libraries of Great
Britain, the British museum, Bodleian,
Cambridge university, Advocates' of Edinburgh,
and Trinity college of Dublin, are each entitled
by statute to a copy of every book published
in the empire. In France, the town libraries
of Marseilles, Besançon, Versailles, and Grenoble
contain from 75,000 to 90,000 volumes
each; and those of Avignon, Caen, Chartres,
Le Mans, Nîmes, and Douai, from 50,000 to
75,000. The library of the Louvre in Paris,
which numbered 90,000 volumes, remarkable
for splendid bindings, was partly destroyed by
the communists in 1871. The two libraries of
St. Cloud and Meudon, which were removed
into Paris shortly before the siege, have since
been added to it, and probably it now contains
more volumes than before. In Germany, the
city libraries of Münster and Bamberg contain
more than 75,000 volumes each, the commercial
library of Hamburg has more than 60,000,
the university of Erfurt about the same, and
there are many others of 50,000 and upward.
The largest private library in Germany is that
of the prince von Oettingen at Wallerstein in
Bavaria, containing 100,000 volumes; that of
Prince Thurn and Taxis at Ratisbon has nearly
as many; and there are several other private
collections numbering nearly 50,000 volumes.
The library of Strasburg, which contained
about 220,000 volumes of printed books and
many valuable manuscripts, was partly burned
during the siege of the city by the Germans in
1870; it has since been restored by contributions
from the German publishers, and now
has at least 80,000 volumes more than when
injured. Austria possesses a number of valuable
libraries besides those mentioned in the
table. In Vienna the library founded by Francis
I. has 75,000 volumes, and the private
collections of the archduke Albrecht and of the
princes Liechtenstein, Esterházy, Schwarzenberg,
and Metternich have over 50,000 each.
The private library of Prince Lobkowitz at
Prague contains 70,000 volumes, and he has
another of 40,000 in his castle of Raudnitz
on the Elbe. In Prague are also the private
libraries of the princes Kinsky and Fürstenberg,
containing respectively 40,000 and 30,000
volumes. The university of Gratz has 70,000
volumes, those of Innspruck and Olmütz
60,000 each, and that of Lemberg 55,000. In
1870 Cisleithan Austria had in all her public
and private libraries 5,756,066 volumes.
In Holland, the university of Leyden has 90,000,
and that of Utrecht 75,000 volumes. In
Belgium, the libraries of Ghent, Liége, and Louvain
have about 90,000 volumes each. In the city
and province of Rome there were in the
various convents previous to their suppression
libraries containing in the aggregate 770,000
printed volumes and 12,000 manuscripts. These
were all taken possession of by the government,
and will be in part distributed, it is reported,
among the other great libraries, and the
remainder formed into a new public library.
The Alessandrina library in Rome has 70,000
volumes. The national library of Florence was
formed in 1864 by the union of the
Magliabecchian (founded in 1714) and the Palatine or
library of the Pitti palace. The Marucellian
of Florence contains about 60,000 volumes, and
the Riccardian about 30,000. The Brancaccian
of Naples has more than 75,000, and the library
of the university of Palermo more than
80,000 volumes. According to the report of
the minister of public instruction for 1871-'2,
the total number of public libraries in Italy,
including university, lyceum, gymnasium, and
former convent libraries, was 687. In Russia,
the universities of Kazan and Kharkov possess
each about 70,000 volumes, and that of Dorpat
has 80,000. The great imperial library of St.
Petersburg owes many of its treasures to the
spoils of Poland, particularly of the Zaluski
library of Warsaw, which, when transported
to Russia by Suvaroff in 1795, contained 300,000
volumes of printed books and many
valuable manuscripts. The national library in
Lisbon is wholly the growth of the present
century. When the reigning family of Portugal
emigrated to Brazil in 1807, the royal library
was carried to Rio de Janeiro; it now forms
the imperial library of Brazil, and numbers
upward of 100,000 volumes. The private
library of the late royal family of Spain
contained nearly 100,000 volumes; that of the
Escurial, although rich in manuscripts, has
only about 40,000 printed books. Switzerland
possesses 25 public and cantonal libraries,
which contain in the aggregate 925,000
volumes. Those at Neufchâtel, Lausanne, Bern,
Aargau, Geneva, Lucerne, and Basel contain
from 50,000 to 95,000 volumes each. There
are also in Switzerland 1,629 other libraries,
containing about 700,000 volumes.
Constantinople has several libraries, but they are all
very small, and do not contain in the aggregate
more than 40,000 or 50,000 books. The khedive
of Egypt is making efforts to build up a
large library in Cairo, and he has already
acquired a very valuable collection of manuscripts
of the Koran, among which is said to be the
oldest copy known. Hopes were entertained
by scholars that the opening of Khiva by the
Russians in 1873 would furnish traces of the
famous library of Samarcand, founded by
Tamerlane and enlarged by his successors, but
the result did not justify the expectations.
Of the libraries of China and Japan but little
is known, but there is said to be one
containing 300,000 volumes in Peking, and one
of 150,000 volumes in Tokio (Yedo), the latter
being particularly rich in Chinese literature.
— The libraries of the United States, public
and private, numbered in 1860, according
to the census of that year, 27,730, and
contained in the aggregate 13,316,379 volumes.
The census of 1870 shows a remarkable
increase, the number of libraries having reached
164,815, and the total number of volumes
45,528,938. Of these libraries, 108,800 were
private, containing in the aggregate 26,072,420
volumes, and 56,015 public, with 19,456,518
volumes. The public libraries are classed as
follows: United States congressional, 190,000
volumes; United States departmental, 115,185;
state and territorial, 653,915; town, city, &c.,
1,237,430; court and law, 426,782; university,
college, and school, 3,598,537; Sunday school,
8,346,153; church, 1,634,915; historical,
literary, and scientific societies, 590,002; charitable
and penal institutions, 13,890; benevolent
and secret associations, 114,581; circulating,
2,536,128. According to the report of the
United States commissioner of education for
the year 1872, there were 1,080 public libraries
in the United States, each containing 1,000
volumes and upward. Of these, 150 had
from 10,000 to 25,000 volumes each, 37 from
25,000 to 50,000 each, and 15 more than
50,000. The following table shows the
condition of the most important libraries of the
United States in 1874:
PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES
CONTAINING 25,000 VOLUMES OR MORE.
| PLACE. | Name. | When founded. |
No. of volumes. |
Rate of annual increase. | |||||
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These figures, which include bound volumes
only, do not fairly represent the value of the
libraries of the United States, as most of them
contain in addition many thousands of unbound
pamphlets. The public library of Boston, for
example, has more than 100,000 pamphlets
and unbound serials, the antiquarian society
of Worcester 70,000, the library of congress
50,000, &c. If these were counted as they
would be under the English law, which defines
the term book to include “every volume, part
or division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of
letterpress, sheet of music, map, chart, or plan
separately published,” many of our libraries
could be stated to contain several thousand
volumes more. The same or a similar rule is
followed also in many of the European
continental libraries, which will account partly for
their rapid increase in the last decade. The
number of volumes in college libraries in the
above table represents all the collections, legal,
theological, medical, &c., under the government
of the several institutions.