As long as books have existed there have been book collectors. 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.

Englishmen may well be proud of Richard Aungerville de Bury, a man occupying a busy and exalted station, who not only collected books with ardour united with judgment, but has left for the benefit of later ages a manual which specially endears his memory to all book lovers.

He collected books, and often took them in place of corn for tithes and dues, but he also produced books, for he kept copyists in his house. Many of these books were carefully preserved in his palace at Durham, but it is also pleasant to think of some of them being carefully preserved in the noble mansion belonging to his see which stood by the side of the Thames, and on the site of the present Adelphi.

Petrarch was a book-loving poet, and he is said to have met the book-loving ecclesiastic Richard de Bury at Rome. He gave his library to the Church of St. Mark at Venice in 1362; but the guardians allowed the books to decay, and few were rescued. Boccaccio bequeathed his library to the Augustinians at Florence, but one cannot imagine the books of the accomplished author of the Decameron as very well suited for the needs of a religious society, and it was probably weeded before Boccaccio's death. The remains of the library are still shown to visitors in the Laurentian Library, the famous building due to the genius of Michael Angelo.

Cardinal John Bessarion gave his fine collection (which included about 600 Greek MSS.) to St. Mark's in 1468, and in the letter to the Doge which accompanied his gift, he tells some interesting particulars of his early life as a collector. He writes, "From my youth I have bestowed my pains and exertion in the collection of books on various sciences. In former days I copied many with my own hands, and I have employed on the purchase of others such small means as a frugal and thrifty life permitted me to devote to the purpose."

The Rev. Joseph Hunter printed in 1831 a valuable Catalogue of the Library of the Priory of Bretton in Yorkshire, and added to it some notices of the Libraries belonging to other Religious Houses, in which he gives us a good idea of the contents of these libraries. He writes, "On comparing the Bretton Catalogue with that of other religious communities, we find the libraries of the English monasteries composed of very similar materials. They consisted of—

Most of the manuscripts which composed the monastic libraries were destroyed at the Reformation."

Humphry Plantagenet Duke of Gloucester, whose fame has been so lasting as the 'good Duke Humphry,' was also a book-collector of renown; but most of the old libraries we read about have left but little record of their existence: thus the Common Library at Guildhall, founded by Dick Whittington in 1420, and added to by John Carpenter, the Town Clerk of London, has been entirely destroyed, the books having, in the first instance, been carried away by Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset.

Although, as we have seen from Mr. Hunter's remarks, there was a considerable amount of variety in the subjects of these manuscript collections, we must still bear in mind that in a large number of instances the contents of the libraries consisted of little more than Breviaries and Service Books. It has been pointed out that this fact is illustrated by the union of the offices of Precentor and Armarius in one person, who had charge of the Library (Armarium) and its great feeder, the Writing-room (Scriptorium), as well as the duty of leading the singing in the church. Many lists of old libraries have been preserved, and these have been printed in various bibliographical works, thus giving us a valuable insight into the reading of our forefathers.

When we come to consider libraries of printed books in place of manuscripts, we naturally find a greater variety of subjects collected by the famous men who have formed collections. Montaigne, the friend of all literary men, could not have been the man we know him to have been if he had not lived among his books. Like many a later book-lover, he decorated his library with mottoes, and burnt-in his inscriptions letter by letter with his own hands. Grotius made his love of books do him a special service, for he escaped from prison in a box which went backwards and forwards with an exchange of books for his entertainment and instruction.

Grolier and De Thou stand so pre-eminent among book collectors, and from the beauty of the copies they possessed the relics of their libraries are so frequently seen, that it seems merely necessary here to mention their names. But as Frenchmen may well boast of these men, so Englishmen can take pride in the possession of the living memory of Archbishop Parker, who enriched Cambridge, and of Sir Thomas Bodley, who made the Library at Oxford one of the chief glories of our land.

Old Lists of Books are always of interest to us as telling what our forefathers cared to have about them, but it is seldom that a list is so tantalising as one described by Mr. Edward Edwards in his Libraries and Founders of Libraries. Anne of Denmark presented her son Charles with a splendid series of volumes, bound in crimson and purple velvet. Abraham van der Dort, who was keeper of Charles's cabinet, made an inventory of this cabinet; and having no notion of how to make a catalogue of books, he has managed to leave out all the information we wish for. The inventory is among the Harleian MSS. (4718), and the following are specimens of the entries:—

Most of the famous private libraries of days gone by have left little record of their existence, but Evelyn's collection is still carefully preserved at Wotton, the house of the Diarist's later years, and Pepys's books continue at Cambridge in the cases he had made for them, and in the order he fixed for them. In a long letter to Pepys, dated from Sayes Court, 12th August, 1689, Evelyn gives an account of such private libraries as he knew of in England, and in London more particularly. He first mentions Lord Chancellor Clarendon, to whom he dedicated his translation of NaudÉ's Advice, and who "furnished a very ample library." Evelyn observes that England was peculiarly defective in good libraries: "Paris alone, I am persuaded, being able to show more than all the three nations of Great Britain." He describes Dr. Stillingfleet's, at Twickenham, as the very best library.[4] He did not think much either of the Earl of Bristol's or of Sir Kenelm Digby's books, but he says Lord Maitland's "was certainly the noblest, most substantial and accomplished library that ever passed under the spear."

In a useful little volume published at London in 1739, and entitled, A Critical and Historical Account of all the Celebrated Libraries in Foreign Countries, as well ancient as modern, which is stated to be written by "a Gentleman of the Temple," are some "General Reflections upon the Choice of Books and the Method of furnishing Libraries and Cabinets." As these reflections are interesting in themselves, and curious as the views of a writer of the middle of the eighteenth century on this important subject, I will transfer them bodily to these pages.

"Nothing can be more laudable than forming Libraries, when the founders have no other view than to improve themselves and men of letters: but it will be necessary, in the first place, to give some directions, which will be of great importance towards effecting the design, as well with regard to the choice of books as the manner of placing to advantage: nor is it sufficient in this case, to be learned, since he who would have a collection worthy of the name of a library must of all things have a thorough knowledge of books, that he may distinguish such as are valuable from the trifling. He must likewise understand the price of Books, otherwise he may purchase some at too high a rate, and undervalue others: all which requires no small judgment and experience.

"Let us suppose, then, the founder possessed of all those qualifications, three things fall next under consideration.

"First, the number of books; secondly, their quality; and, lastly, the order in which they ought to be ranged.

"As to the quantity, regard must be had, as well to places as to persons; for should a man of moderate fortune propose to have a Library for his own use only, it would be imprudent in him to embarrass his affairs in order to effect it. Under such circumstances he must rather consider the usefulness than the number of books, for which we have the authority of Seneca, who tells us that a multitude of books is more burthensome than instructive to the understanding.

"But if a private person has riches enough for founding a Library, as well for his own use as for the public, he ought to furnish it with the most useful volumes in all arts and sciences, and procure such as are scarcest and most valuable, from all parts, that the learned, of whom there are many classes, may instruct themselves in what may be useful to them, and may gratify their enquiries. But as the condition and abilities of such as would form Libraries are to be distinguished, so regard must likewise be had to places, for it is very difficult to procure, or collect books in some countries, without incredible expense; a design of that kind would be impracticable in America, Africa, and some parts of Asia; so that nothing can be determined as to the number of books, that depending entirely upon a variety of circumstances, and the means of procuring them, as has been observ'd before.

"As to the second topic, special care must be taken in the choice of books, for upon that alone depends the value of a Library. We must not form a judgment of books either by their bulk or numbers, but by their intrinsic merit and usefulness. Alexander Severus's Library consisted of no more than four volumes, that is the works of Plato, Cicero, Virgil, and Horace. Melanchthon seems to have imitated that Prince, for his collection amounted to four books only, Plato, Pliny, Plutarch, and Ptolemy.

"There is another necessary lesson for those who form designs of making libraries, that is, that they must disengage themselves from all prejudices with regard either to ancient or modern books, for such a wrong step often precipitates the judgment, without scrutiny or examination, as if truth and knowledge were confined to any particular times or places. The ancients and moderns should be placed in collections, indifferently, provided they have those characters we hinted before.

"Let us now proceed to the third head, the manner of placing books in such order, as that they may be resorted to upon any emergency, without difficulty, otherwise they can produce but little advantage either to the owners or others.

"The natural method of placing books and manuscripts is to range them in separate classes or apartments, according to the science, art, or subject, of which they treat.

"Here it will be necessary to observe, that as several authors have treated of various subjects, it may be difficult to place them under any particular class; Plutarch, for instance, who was an historian, a political writer, and a philosopher. The most advisable method then is to range them under the head of Miscellaneous Authors, with proper references to each subject, but this will be more intelligible by an example.

"Suppose, then, we would know the names of the celebrated Historians of the ancients; nothing more is necessary than to inspect the class under which the historians are placed, and so of other Faculties. By this management, one set of miscellaneous authors will be sufficient, and may be resorted to with as much ease and expedition as those who have confined themselves to one subject. In choice of books regard must be had to the edition, character, paper and binding. As to the price, it is difficult to give any positive directions; that of ordinary works is easily known, but as to such as are very scarce and curious, we can only observe that their price is as uncertain as that of medals and other monuments of antiquity, and often depends more on the caprice of the buyer than the intrinsic merit of the work, some piquing themselves upon the possession of things from no other consideration than their exorbitant price."

Dr. Byrom's quaint library is still preserved at Manchester in its entirety. Bishop Moore's fine collection finds a resting place in the University Library at Cambridge, and the relics of the Library of Harley, Earl of Oxford, a mine of manuscript treasure, still remain one of the chief glories of the British Museum. How much cause for regret is there that the library itself, which Osborne bought and Johnson described, did not also find a settled home, instead of being dispersed over the land.

It is greatly to the credit of the rich and busy man to spend his time and riches in the collection of a fine library, but still greater honour is due to the poor man who does not allow himself to be pulled down by his sordid surroundings. The once-famous small-coalman, Thomas Britton, furnishes a most remarkable instance of true greatness in a humble station, and one, moreover, which was fully recognized in his own day. He lived next door to St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, and although he gained his living by selling coals from door to door, many persons of the highest station were in the habit of attending the musical meetings held at his house. He was an excellent chemist as well as a good musician, and Thomas Hearne tells us that he left behind him "a valuable collection of musick mostly pricked by himself, which was sold upon his death for near an hundred pounds," "a considerable collection of musical instruments which was sold for fourscore pounds," "not to mention the excellent collection of printed books that he also left behind him, both of chemistry and musick. Besides these books that he left, he had some years before his death (1714) sold by auction a noble collection of books, most of them in the Rosicrucian faculty (of which he was a great admirer), whereof there is a printed catalogue extant, as there is of those that were sold after his death, which catalogue I have by me (by the gift of my very good friend Mr. Bagford), and have often looked over with no small surprize and wonder, and particularly for the great number of MSS. in the before-mentioned faculties that are specified in it."[5]

Dr. Johnson, although a great reader, was not a collector of books. He was forced to possess many volumes while he was compiling his Dictionary, but when that great labour was completed, he no longer felt the want of them. Goldsmith, on the other hand, died possessed of a considerable number of books which he required, or had at some time required, for his studies. "The Select Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Valuable Books, in English, Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and other Languages, late the Library of Dr. Goldsmith, deceased," was sold on Tuesday, the 12th of July, 1774, and the Catalogue will be found in the Appendix to Forster's Life. There were 30 lots in folio, 26 in quarto, and 106 in octavo and smaller sizes. Among the books of interest in this list are Chaucer's Works, 1602; Davenant's Works, 1673; Camoens, by Fanshawe, 1655; Cowley's Works, 1674; Shelton's Don Quixote; Raleigh's History of the World, 1614; Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, 1653; Verstegan's Antiquities, 1634; Hartlib's Legacie, 1651; Sir K. Digby on the Nature of Bodies, 1645; Warton's History of English Poetry, 1774; EncyclopÉdie, 25 vols., 1770; Fielding's Works, 12 vols., 1766; Bysshe's Art of Poetry; Hawkins's Origin of the English Drama, 3 vols., 1773; Percy's Reliques, 3 vols., Dublin, 1766; Sir William Temple's Works; and De Bure, Bibliographie Instructive.

A catalogue such as this, made within a few weeks of the death of the owner, cannot but have great interest for us. The library could not have been a very choice one, for there is little notice of bindings and much mention of odd volumes. It was evidently a working collection, containing the works of the poets Goldsmith loved, and of the naturalists from whom he stole his knowledge.

Gibbon was a true collector, who loved his books, and he must have needed them greatly, working as he did at Lausanne away from public libraries. After his death the library was purchased by 'Vathek' Beckford, but he kept it buried, and it was of no use to any one. Eventually it was sold by auction, a portion being bought for the Canton, and another portion going to America. There was little in the man Gibbon to be enthusiastic about, but it is impossible for any true book lover not to delight in the thoroughness of the author of one of the noblest books ever written. The fine old house where the Decline and Fall was written and the noble library was stored still stands, and the traveller may stroll in the garden so beautifully described by Gibbon when he walked to the historical berceau and felt that his herculean labour was completed. His heart must be preternaturally dull which does not beat quicker as he walks on that ground. The thought of a visit some years ago forms one of the most vivid of the author's pleasures of memory.

Charles Burney, the Greek scholar, is said to have expended nearly £25,000 on his library, which consisted of more than 13,000 printed volumes and a fine collection of MSS. The library was purchased for the British Museum for the sum of £13,500.

Charles Burney probably inherited his love of collecting from his father, for Dr. Burney possessed some twenty thousand volumes. These were rather an incumbrance to the Doctor, and when he moved to Chelsea Hospital, he was in some difficulty respecting them. Mrs. Chapone, when she heard of these troubles, proved herself no bibliophile, for she exclaimed, "Twenty thousand volumes! bless me! why, how can he so encumber himself? Why does he not burn half? for how much must be to spare that never can be worth his looking at from such a store! and can he want to keep them all?"

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. During that life in the Temple we all know so well from the sad reading of its incidents, books were not denied to the persecuted royal family. There was a small library in the "little tower," and the king drew up a list of books to be supplied to him from the library at the Tuileries. The list included the works of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Terence; of Tacitus, Livy, CÆsar, Marcus Aurelius, Eutropius, Cornelius Nepos, Florus, Justin, Quintus Curtius, Sallust, Suetonius and Velleius Paterculus; the Vies des Saints, the Fables de la Fontaine, TÉlÈmaque, and Rollin's TraitÉ des Etudes.[6]

The more we know of Napoleon, and anecdotes of him are continually being published in the ever-lengthening series of French memoirs, the less heroic appears his figure, but he could not have been entirely bad, for he truly loved books. He began life as an author, and would always have books about him. He complained if the printing was bad or the binding poor, and said, "I will have fine editions and handsome binding. I am rich enough for that."[7] Thus spoke the true bibliophile. Mr. Edwards has collected much interesting information respecting Napoleon and his libraries, and of his labours I here freely avail myself. Bourrienne affirms that the authors who chiefly attracted Napoleon in his school days were Polybius, Plutarch, and Arrian. "Shortly before he left France for Egypt, Napoleon drew up, with his own hand, the scheme of a travelling library, the charge of collecting which was given to John Baptist Say, the Economist. It comprised about three hundred and twenty volumes, more than half of which are historical, and nearly all, as it seems, in French. The ancient historians comprised in the list are Thucydides, Plutarch, Polybius, Arrian, Tacitus, Livy, and Justin. The poets are Homer, Virgil, Tasso, Ariosto, the TÉlÈmaque of FÉnÉlon, the Henriade of Voltaire, with Ossian and La Fontaine. Among the works of prose fiction are the English novelists in forty volumes, of course in translations, and the indispensable Sorrows of Werter, which, as he himself told Goethe, Napoleon had read through seven times prior to October, 1808. In this list the Bible, together with the Koran and the Vedas, are whimsically, but significantly, entered under the heading Politics and Ethics (Politique et Morale).[8]

Napoleon was not, however, satisfied with the camp libraries which were provided for him; the good editions were too bulky and the small editions too mean: so he arranged the plan of a library to be expressly printed for him in a thousand duodecimo volumes without margins, bound in thin covers and with loose backs. "In this new plan 'Religion' took its place as the first class. The Bible was to be there in its best translation, with a selection of the most important works of the Fathers of the Church, and a series of the best dissertations on those leading religious sects—their doctrines and their history—which have powerfully influenced the world. This section was limited to forty volumes. The Koran was to be included, together with a good book or two on mythology. One hundred and forty volumes were allotted to poetry. The epics were to embrace Homer, Lucan, Tasso, Telemachus, and the Henriade. In the dramatic portion Corneille and Racine were of course to be included, but of Corneille, said Napoleon, you shall print for me 'only what is vital' (ce qui est restÉ), and from Racine you shall omit 'Les FrÈres ennemis, the Alexandre, and Les Plaideurs. Of CrÉbillon, he would have only Rhadamiste and AtrÉe et Thyeste. Voltaire was to be subject to the same limitation as Corneille.'"[9] In prose fiction Napoleon specifies the Nouvelle HÉloise and Rousseau's Confessions, the masterpieces of Fielding, Richardson and Le Sage, and Voltaire's tales. Soon after this Napoleon proposed a much larger scheme for a camp library, in which history alone would occupy three thousand volumes. History was to be divided into these sections—I. Chronology and Universal History. II. Ancient History (a. by ancient writers, b. by modern writers). III. History of the Lower Empire (in like subdivisions). IV. History, both general and particular. V. The Modern History of the different States of Europe. The celebrated bibliographer Barbier drew up, according to the Emperor's orders, a detailed catalogue of the works which should form such a library. "He calculated that by employing a hundred and twenty compositors and twenty-five editors, the three thousand volumes could be produced, in satisfactory shape, and within six years, at a total cost of £163,200, supposing fifty copies of each book to be printed."[10] The printing was begun, but little was actually done, and in six years Napoleon was in St. Helena.

In his last island home Napoleon had a library, and he read largely, often aloud, with good effect. It is an interesting fact that among Napoleon's papers were found some notes on Geography written when a boy, and these close with the words—"Sainte-HÉlÈne—petite ile."[11]

In recapitulating here the names of a few of the famous men who have formed libraries it will be necessary to divide them into two classes, 1, those whose fame arises from their habit of collecting, and 2, those authors in whose lives we are so much interested that the names of the books they possessed are welcomed by us as indications of their characters. What can be said of the libraries of the Duke of Roxburghe, Earl Spencer, Thomas Grenville, and Richard Heber that has not been said often before? Two of these have been dispersed over the world, and two remain, one the glory of a noble family, and the other of the nation, or perhaps it would be more proper to say both are the glory of the nation, for every Englishman must be proud that the Spencer Library still remains intact.

Heber left behind him over 100,000 volumes, in eight houses, four in England and four on the Continent, and no record remains of this immense library but the volumes of the sale catalogues. Such wholesale collection appears to be allied to madness, but Heber was no selfish collector, and his practice was as liberal as Grolier's motto. His name is enshrined in lasting verse by Scott:—

The Duke of Sussex was a worthy successor of his father, George III., in the ranks of book-collectors, and his library is kept in memory by Pettigrew's fine catalogue.

Douce and Malone the critics, and Gough the antiquary, left their libraries to the Bodleian, and thus many valuable books are available to students in that much-loved resort of his at Oxford. Anthony Morris Storer, who is said to have excelled in everything he set his heart on and hand to, collected a beautiful library, which he bequeathed to Eton College, where it still remains, a joy to look at from the elegance of the bindings. His friend Lord Carlisle wrote of him—

Jacob Bryant the antiquary left his library to King's College, Cambridge. At one time he intended to have followed Storer's example, and have left it to Eton College, but the Provost offended him, and he changed the object of his bequest. It is said that when he was discussing the matter, the Provost asked whether he would not arrange for the payment of the carriage of the books from his house to Eton. He thought this grasping, and King's gained the benefit of his change of mind.

Among great authors two of the chief collectors were Scott and Southey. Scott's library still remains at Abbotsford, and no one who has ever entered that embodiment of the great man's soul can ever forget it. The library, with the entire contents of the house, were restored to Scott in 1830 by his trustees and creditors, "As the best means the creditors have of expressing their very high sense of his most honourable conduct, and in grateful acknowledgment of the unparalleled and most successful exertions he has made, and continues to make for them." The library is rich in the subjects which the great author loved, such as Demonology and Witchcraft. In a volume of a collection of Ballads and Chapbooks is this note written by Scott in 1810: "This little collection of stall tracts and ballads was formed by me, when a boy, from the baskets of the travelling pedlars. Until put into its present decent binding, it had such charms for the servants, that it was repeatedly, and with difficulty, recovered from their clutches. It contains most of the pieces that were popular about thirty years since, and I dare say many that could not now be procured for any price."

It is odd to contrast the book-loving tastes of celebrated authors. Southey cared for his books, but Coleridge would cut the leaves of a book with a butter knife, and De Quincey's extraordinary treatment of books is well described by Mr. Burton in the Book Hunter. Charles Lamb's loving appreciation of his books is known to all readers of the delightful Elia.

Southey collected more than 14,000 volumes, which sold in 1844 for nearly £3000. He began collecting as a boy, for his father had but few books. Mr. Edwards enumerates these as follows: The Spectator, three or four volumes of the Oxford Magazine, one volume of the Freeholder's Magazine, and one of the Town and Country Magazine, Pomfret's Poems, the Death of Abel, nine plays (including Julius CÆsar, The Indian Queen, and a translation of Merope), and a pamphlet.[12]

Southey was probably one of the most representative of literary men. His feelings in his library are those of all book-lovers, although he could express these feelings in language which few of them have at command:—

Mr. Henry Stevens read a paper or rather delivered an address at the meeting of the Library Association held at Liverpool in 1883, containing his recollections of Mr. James Lenox, the great American book collector. I had the pleasure of listening to that address, but I have read it in its finished form with even greater delight. It is not often that he who pleases you as a speaker also pleases you as writer, but Mr. Stevens succeeds in both. If more bibliographers could write their reminiscences with the same spirit that he does, we should hear less of the dullness of bibliography. I strongly recommend my readers to take an early opportunity of perusing this paper in the Liverpool volume of the Transactions of the Library Association.

Mr. Stevens, among his anecdotes of Mr. Lenox, records that he "often bought duplicates for immediate use, or to lend, rather than grope for the copies he knew to be in the stocks in some of his store rooms or chambers, notably Stirling's Artists of Spain, a high-priced book."

This is a common trouble to large book collectors, who cannot find the books they know they possess. The late Mr. Crossley had his books stacked away in heaps, and he was often unable to lay his hands upon books of which he had several copies.