Oshkosh High School - Index Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

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APRIL INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN his adopted son, added a fine library to liis many other gifts to Rome. How- ever, Asinius Pollis, an orator and senator, was the first to establish a public library in Rome. Under the influence of Augustus, two libraries, the Octa- vian, founded in honor of his sister, and the Palatine, so called because it was in the royal palace itself, were established. The latter contained books in both Latin and Greek. Of this library, John of Salisbury says: The learned and most holy Gregory not only banished astrology from the court, but also, as is reported by those of old time, gave to the flames those writ- ings of approved merit, and whatever else the Palatine library in Apollo ' s temple possessed. Preeminent among these were some which seemed de- signed to reveal to men the will of the celestial beings and the oracles of the higher powers. Among the other libraries of Rome was that founded by Tiberius, in the royal palace soon after the death of Augustus. In time, Vespasian also collected a library which was placed in the temple of Peace. Trajan gath- ered another that is commonly called Ulpian. There was also the Capi- toline library, gathered by men of old and destroyed when the building was struck by lightning. It is thought that Domitian was its founder and he was at great pains to reestablish it, even sending servants to Alexandria to copy and edit books for his library. At the time of Constantine, there were twenty-nine public libraries in Rome. Many wealthy citizens had private libraries. Tyrannion, the grammar- ian, had three thousand volumes; Epaphroditus of Chaeronea is said have owned thirty thousand of the best and rarest, while Samonicus Serenus had a library of sixty-two thousand volumes which he left to Gordian the Less, afterward emperor. Undoubtedly there were many other private libraries of which we know nothing, for Seneca says: They acquired books, not that they might enjoy them, but simply for show. . . . Formerly a library gave a home an air of culture, one is now put in, like a bathroom, simply as a nec- essary part of the equipment of a home. The chief work of the medieval libraries was to transcribe and preserve. The Benedictine monks started many famous libraries in Europe, while the Augustinians and Dominicans were also distinguished for their care of libraries. Charlemagne established libraries in his cloister schools at Aix- le-Chapelle and Tours. In England, the first library was that of Christ Church, Canterbury, founded in 596 by the Benedictines. They also established the libraries of Saint Peter of York, Saint Cuthbert at Durham, and those at Petersbor- ough, Wearmouth (647), Bury Saint Edmonds, Reading, and Saint Alban. In Europe, they founded the libraries of Monte Cassino, Bobbio, Flemy-on- the-Loire (650), Corbel (662), Hersfeld, Ratisbon, Corvei, Reichnau (724), Fulda (774), Saint Gall (820), and Clugny (910). The largest of these monastic libraries contained only two thousand volumes. Page twenty

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APRIL INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN which had at that time been in existence for two hundred and twenty-four years. Cleopatra later reestablished the library on the same site. From Antony, she received the Attalic. or Pergamene, library as a foundation. She increased the collection and at the time of the Christian Fathers, it was widely known and much used. It was also called the Ptolemaic library, and it is reported by certain writers that during the reign of Theodosius the Great, it was destroyed by Christians, who regarded it as a monument of superstition. Pisistratus, the Tyrant, was probably the first to establish a public library in Athens. To him we owe the text of Homer, collected and arranged as we now have it. He began with a collection of books on the liberal arts and it was added to from time to time by the . ' Athenians until it was carried off by Xer.xes when he captured .Athens. Years later, it was returned by Seleucus Nicanor of Syria and remained there until Sulla captured and plundered the city. Aristotle also had a library and Strabo says the books were left to Neleus, who in turn left them to his descendants. These descendants seem to have been extremely ignorant, for they finally buried the books in the ground, where they moulded and became worm-eaten. They were at last purchased by . pellicon of Teos. who had them transcribed. At his death, they were seized by Sulla and sent to Rome, and it is undoubtedly true that the conquering Romans took many books from Greece. Other authorities say that Neleus left Aristotle ' s books to Philadelphus. The library of Byzantium contained twenty thousand volumes. These were destroyed by fire, and with them the skin of a great dragon one hun- dred and twenty feet long, on which was written in letters of gold the whole of the Iliad and the Odyssey. In Asia, the Attalic or Pergamene library was almost as famous as the Alexandrian. Strabo, Pliny, and others say the founder of this library was Eumenes. As mentioned above, the collection was given to Cleopatra by Antony, and its two hundred thousand volumes were the foundation of the second .Alexandrian library. It is thought by some that Augustus brought them back to Pergamum or caused it to be copied and reestablished in its old home. At Rome, interest in literature developed slowly. Aemilius Paulus was the first to bring to Rome any large number of books. He brought his collection from conquered Macedonia. After conquering Pontus, LucuIIus followed his example, and his library, although private, was open to all. With a large number of books brought from Athens, Cornelius Sulla estab- lished a library. The idea of a public library is supposed to have originated with Julius Caesar, whose death prevented him from carrying out his plans. Augustus, Page nineteen

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APRIL INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN The Franciscans had a considerable library at Oxford to which Adam ■de Murisco left his books in 1253. The Bodleian library, the foundation of the existing Oxford library, was opened in 1602. The library of the Uni- versity of Cambridge dates from 1475. In 1550, Edward VI destroyed all illuminated manuscripts belonging to the colleges as necessarily Popish. The custom of establishing libraries in connection with universities was begun in 1348 with the one at Prague. This was soon followed by a library at Heidelberg in 1386, Leipzig in 1409, Ratisbon in 1430, Vienna in 1440, and Frankfort in 1484. The Renaissance brought with it a zeal for letters that led to the formation of the great principal colleges, which were often made the bases of public libraries. The suppression of monasteries soon led to the founding of royal, ducal, and town libraries. Many of the important ones were established during the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- turies. AU the German universities have large libraries. Those of Prague, Heidelberg, and Leipzig have already been mentioned, and in 1737 one was founded at Gottigen and the one at Bonn in 1818. The royal libraries of Berlin, Vienna, Dresden, Munich, and other places are among the most notable collections today. The libraries of Austria and Germany are the best equipped for scientific research of any in the world. Spain is mentioned early in the history of libraries. Its first one was •established at the University of Palencini in 1212 and removed to Salamanca in 1254. The National library at Madrid has seven hundred thousand vol- umes and is the largest in the country. The Corvina library, established by Matthais Corvinus of Hungary about 1460, probably contained the largest and finest collection of manu- scripts in Europe. It originally contained more than fifty thousand volumes, but was dispersed by the Turks in 1527 and now specimens are to be found in more than thirty of the libraries of Europe. The library at Copenhagen, which was founded in 1479, has over eight hundred thousand volumes and is the largest in the Scandinavian peninsula. It is especially strong in Icelandic literature and has a fine collection of Persian manuscripts. The first library in Italy was founded at Florence in 1437 on a bequest by Nicoli, the Florentine Socrates, of his own collection of eight hundred manuscripts. Cosimo de ' Medici erected a building for it in 1444, and it was from, his grandson, Lorenzo de ' Medici, that it received the name Laurentian. Later, it was bought by Pope Leo X, but in 1521 Cardinal Giulio returned it to the city and had Michael Angelo erect a building for it. In Italy, it is surpassed only by the Vatican. The present Vatican library was erected in 1588 by Sixtus V. In 1658, it acquired the Urbini library, in 1746 the Ottoboni collection of German and Page twenty-one