Chapter III: Introduction: Assyrian Record-Rooms. Libraries in (1)

GREECE, ALEXANDRIA, PERGAMON, ROME. THEIR SIZE, USE,
CONTEXTS, AND FITTINGS. ARMARIA OR PRESSES. THE VATICAN
LIBRARY OF SIXTUS V. A TYPE OF AN ANCIENT ROMAN LIBRARY.

I propose, in the following Essay, to trace the methods adopted by man in different ages and countries to preserve, to use, and to make accessible to others, those objects, of whatever material, on which he has recorded his thoughts. In this investigation I shall include the position, the size, and the arrangement, of the rooms in which these treasures were deposited, with the progressive development of fittings, catalogues, and other appliances, whether defensive, or to facilitate use. But, though I shall have to trace out these matters in some detail, I shall try to eschew mere antiquarianism, and to impart human interest, so far as possible, to a research which might otherwise exhaust the patience of my readers. Bibliography, it must be understood, will be wholly excluded. From my special point of view books are simply things to be taken care of: even their external features concern me only so far as they modify the methods adopted for arrangement and preservation. I must dismiss the subject-matter of the volumes which filled the libraries of former days with a brevity of which I deeply regret the necessity. I shall point out the pains taken to sort the books under various comprehensive heads; but I shall not enumerate the authors which fall under this or that division.

The earliest repositories of books were connected with temples or palaces, either because priests under all civilisations have been _par excellence_ the learned class, while despots have patronised art and literature; or because such a position was thought to offer greater security.

I will begin with Assyria, where the record-rooms, or we might almost say the library, in the palace of Assur-bani-pal, King of Nineveh, were discovered by Mr Layard in 1850 at Kouyunjik, on the Tigris, opposite Mosul. The plan (fig. 1), taken from Mr Layard's work[1], will shew, better than a long description, the position of these rooms, and their relation to the rest of the building--which is believed to date from about 700 B.C. The long passage (No. XLIX) is one of the entrances to the palace. Passing thence along the narrower passage (No. XLII) the explorers soon reached a doorway (E), which led them into a large hall (No. XXIX), whence a second doorway (F) brought them into a chamber (No. XXXVIII). On the north side of this room were two doorways (G. G), each "formed by two colossal bas-reliefs of Dagon, the fish-god." "The first doorway," says Mr Layard, "guarded by the fish-gods, led into two small chambers opening into each other, and once panelled with bas-reliefs, the greater part of which had been destroyed. I shall call these chambers 'the chambers of records,' for, like 'the house of the rolls' or records, which Darius ordered to be searched for the decree of Cyrus concerning the building of the Temple of Jerusalem[2], they appear to have contained the decrees of the Assyrian kings, as well as the archives of the empire."

Mr Layard was led to this conclusion by finding, in these rooms, enormous quantities of inscribed tablets and cylinders of baked clay. "To a height of a foot or more from the floor they were entirely filled with them; some entire, but the greater part broken into many fragments, probably by the falling in of the upper part of the building.... These documents appear to be of various kinds. Many are historical records of wars, and distant expeditions undertaken by the Assyrians; some seem to be royal decrees, and are stamped with the name of a king, the son of Esarhaddon; others again ... contain lists of the gods, and probably a register of offerings made in their temples[3]."

So far Mr Layard. Subsequent researches have shewn that these two small rooms--they were 27 feet and 23 feet long respectively, with a uniform breadth of 20 feet--contained the literature as well as the official documents of Assyria. The tablets have been sorted under the following heads: History; Law; Science; Magic; Dogma; Legends: and it has been shewn (1) that there was a special functionary to take charge of them; (2) that they were arranged in series, with special precautions for keeping the tablets forming a particular series in their proper sequence; (3) that there was a general catalogue, and probably a class-catalogue as well[4].

Excavations in other parts of Assyria have added valuable information to Layard's first discovery. Dr Wallis Budge, of the British Museum, whom I have to thank for much kind assistance, tells me that "Kouyunjik is hardly a good example of a Mesopotamian library, for it is certain that the tablets were thrown about out of their proper places when the city was captured by the Medes about B.C. 609. The tablets were kept on shelves.... When I was digging at Derr some years ago we found the what I call 'Record Chamber,' and we saw the tablets lying _in situ_ on slate shelves. There were, however, not many literary tablets there, for the chamber was meant to hold the commercial documents relating to the local temple...." Dr Budge concludes his letter with this very important sentence: "We have no definite proof of what I am going to say now, but I believe that the bilingual[5] lists, which Assur-bani-pal had drawn up for his library at Nineveh, were intended 'for the use of students.'"

To this suggestion I would add the following. Does not the position of these two rooms, easily accessible from the entrance to the palace, shew that their contents might be consulted by persons who were denied admission to the more private apartments? And further, does not the presence of the god Dagon at the entrance indicate that the library was under the protection of the deity as well as of the sovereign?

As a pendant to these Assyrian discoveries I may mention the vague rumour echoed by Athenaeus of extensive libraries collected in the sixth century before our era by Polycrates[6], tyrant of Samos, and Peisistratus, tyrant of Athens, the latter collection, according to Aulus Gellius[7], having been accessible to all who cared to use it. It must be admitted that these stories are of doubtful authenticity; and further, that we have no details of the way in which books were cared for in Greece during the golden age of her literature. This dearth of information is the more tantalizing as it is obvious that private libraries must have existed in a city so cultivated as Athens; and we do, in fact, find a few notices which tell us that such was the case. Xenophon[8], for instance, speaks of the number of volumes in the possession of Euthydemus, a follower of Socrates; and Athenaeus records, in the passage to which I have already alluded, the names of several book-collectors, among whom are Euripides and Aristotle.

An allusion to the poet's bibliographical tastes has been detected in the scene of _The Frogs_ of Aristophanes, where AEschylus and Euripides are weighing verses against each other in the presence of Dionysus. AEschylus exclaims:

[Greek: kai meket' emoige kat' epos, all' es ton stathmon
autos ta paidi', he gyne, kephisophon,
embas kathestho syllabon ta biblia,
ego de dy' epe ton emon ero monon.]

Come, no more single lines--let him bring all,
His wife, his children, his Cephisophon,
His books and everything, himself to boot--
I'll counterpoise them with a couple of lines[9].

With regard to Aristotle Strabo has preserved a tradition that he "was the first who made a collection of books, and taught the kings of Egypt how to arrange a library[10]"--words which may be taken to mean that Aristotle was the first to work out the arrangement of books on a definite system which was afterwards adopted by the Ptolemies at Alexandria.

These notices are extremely disappointing. They merely serve to shew that collections of books did exist in Greece; but they give us no indication of either their extent or their arrangement. It was left to the Emperor Hadrian to build the first public library at Athens, to which, as it was naturally constructed on a Roman design, I shall return after I have described those from which it was in all probability imitated.

But, if what may be termed Greece in Europe declines to give us information, that other Greece which extended itself to Asia Minor and to Egypt--Greater Greece it would be called in modern times--supplies us with a type of library-organisation which has been of far-reaching influence.

After the death of Alexander the Great (B.C. 323) a Greek dynasty, that of the Ptolemies, established itself at Alexandria, and another Greek dynasty at Pergamon. Both were distinguished--like Italian despots of the Renaissance--for the splendour and the culture of their courts, and they rivalled one another in the extent and richness of their libraries; but, if we are to believe Strabo, the library at Pergamon was not begun until the reign of Eumenes II. (B.C. 197-159), or 126 years after that at Alexandria[11].

The libraries at Alexandria (for there were two)--though far more celebrated and more extensive than the library at Pergamon--need not, from my point of view, detain us for more than a moment, for we are told very little about their position, and nothing about their arrangement. The site of the earliest, the foundation of which is ascribed to Ptolemy the Second (B.C. 285-247), must undoubtedly be sought for within the circuit of the royal palace, which was in the fashionable quarter of the city called Brucheion. This palace was a vast enceinte, not a separate building, and, as Strabo, who visited Alexandria 24 B.C., says,

Within the precincts of the palace is the Museum. It has
a colonnade, a lecture-room, and a vast establishment
where the men of letters who share the use of the Museum
take their meals together. This College has a common
revenue; and is managed by a priest who is over the
Museum, an officer formerly appointed by the kings of
Egypt, but, at the present time, by the Emperor[12].

That the older of the two libraries must have been in some way connected with these buildings seems to me certain from two considerations. First, a ruler who took so keen an interest in books as Ptolemy, would assuredly have kept his treasures under his own eye; and, secondly, he would hardly have placed them at a distance from the spot where the learned men of Alexandria held their meetings[13].

At some period subsequent to the foundation of Ptolemy's first library, a second, called the daughter of the first[14], was established in connexion with the Temple of Serapis, a magnificent structure in the quarter Rhacotis, adorned so lavishly with colonnades, statuary, and other architectural enrichments, that the historian Ammianus Marcellinus declares that nothing in the world could equal it, except the Roman Capitol[15].

This brief notice of the libraries of Alexandria shews that the earlier of the two, besides being in a building dedicated to the Muses, was also connected in all probability with a palace, and the second with a temple. If we now turn to Pergamon, we shall find the library associated with the temple and [Greek: temenos] of Athena.

The founder selected for the site of his city a lofty and precipitous hill, about a thousand feet above the sea-level. The rocky plateau which forms the summit is divided into three gigantic steps or terraces. On the highest, which occupies the northern end of the hill, the royal palace is believed to have been built. On the next terrace, to the south, was the temple of Athena; and on the third, the altar of Zeus. External to those three groups of buildings, partly on the edge of the hill, partly on its sides, were the rest of the public buildings. The lower slopes were probably occupied in ancient times, as at present, by the houses of the citizens.

These magnificent structures, which won for Pergamon the distinction of being "by far the noblest city in Asia minor[16]," were in the main due to Eumenes the Second, who, during his reign of nearly forty years (B.C. 197-159), was enabled, by the wise policy of supporting the Romans, to transform his petty state into a powerful monarchy. The construction of a library is especially referred to him by Strabo[17], and from the statement of Vitruvius that it was built for the delight of the world at large (_in communem delectationem_), we may infer that it was intended to be public[18]. That he was an energetic book-collector, under whose direction a large staff of scribes was perpetually at work, may be gathered from the well-known story that his bibliographical rival at Alexandria, exasperated by his activity and success, conceived the ingenious device of crippling his endeavours by forbidding the exportation of papyrus. Eumenes, however, says the chronicler, was equal to the occasion, and defeated the scheme by inventing parchment[19]. It is probable that Eumenes not only began but completed the library, for in less than a quarter of a century after his death (B.C. 133) the last of his descendants bequeathed the city and state of Pergamon to the Romans. It is improbable that they would do much to increase the library, though they evidently took care of it, for ninety years later, when Mark Antony is said to have given it to Cleopatra, the number of works in it amounted to two hundred thousand[20].

The site of the acropolis of Pergamon was thoroughly explored between 1878 and 1886 at the expense of the German Government; and in the course of their researches the archeologists employed discovered certain rooms which they believe to have been originally appropriated to the library. I have had the accompanying ground-plan (fig. 2) reduced from one of their plates, and have condensed my description of the locality from that given in their work[21]. I have also derived much valuable information from a paper published by Alexander Conze in 1884[22].

Of the temple of Athena only the foundations remain, but its extent and position can be readily ascertained. The enclosure, paved with slabs of marble, was entered at the south-east corner. It was open to the west and to the south, where the ground falls away precipitously, but on the east and north it was bounded by a cloister in two floors. The pillars of this cloister were Doric on the ground-floor, Ionic above. The height of those in the lower range, measured from base to top of capital, was about 16 feet, of those in the upper range about 9 feet.

This enclosure had a mean length of about 240 feet, with a mean breadth of 162 feet[23]. The north cloister was 37 feet broad, and was divided down the centre by a row of columns. The east cloister was of about half this width, and was undivided.

On the north side of the north cloister, the German explorers found four rooms, which they believe to have been assigned to library purposes. The platform of rock on which these chambers stood was nearly 20 feet above the level of the floor of the enclosure, and they could only be entered from the upper cloister. Of these rooms the easternmost is the largest, being 42 feet long, by 49 feet broad. Westward of it are three others, somewhat narrower, having a uniform width of 39 feet. The easternmost of these three rooms is also the smallest, being only 23 feet long; while the two next have a uniform length of about 33 feet.

At the south-west corner of this building, but on a lower level, and not accessible from it, other rooms were found, the use of which is uncertain.

We will now return to the eastern room. The foundations of a narrow platform or bench extended along the eastern, northern, and western sides, and in the centre of the northern side there was a mass of stone-work which had evidently formed the base for a statue (fig. 2, A). The discovery of a torso of a statue of Athena[24] in this very room indicated what statue had occupied this commanding position, and also what had probably been the use of the room.

This theory was confirmed by the discovery in the north wall of two rows of holes in the stone-work, one above the other, which had evidently been made for the reception of brackets, or battens, or other supports for shelves[25], or some piece of furniture. The lower of these two rows was carried along the east wall as well as along the north wall. Further, stones were found bearing the names of Herodotus, Alcaeus, Timotheus of Miletus, and Homer, evidently the designations of portrait-busts or portrait-medallions; and also, two titles of comedies.

Lastly, the very position of these rooms in connexion with the colonnade indicates their use. It will be observed that the colonnade on the north side of the area is twice as wide as that on the east side--a peculiarity which is sufficient of itself to prove that it must have been intended for some other purpose than as a mere covered way. But, if it be remembered that libraries in the ancient world were usually connected with colonnades (as was probably the case at the Serapeum at Alexandria, and was certainly the case at Rome, as I shall proceed to shew) a reason is found for this dignified construction, and a strong confirmation is afforded for the theory that the rooms beyond it once contained the famous library.

When the Romans had taken possession of Pergamon, those who had charge of the city would become familiar with the library; and it seems to me almost certain that, when the necessity for establishing a public library at Rome had been recognised, the splendid structure at Pergamon would be turned to as a model. But, if I mistake not, Roman architecture had received an influence from Pergamon long before this event occurred. What this was I will mention presently.

No public library was established in Rome until the reign of Augustus. Julius Caesar had intended to build one on the largest possible scale, and had gone so far as to commission Varro to collect books for it[26]; but it was reserved for C. Asinius Pollio, general, lawyer, orator, poet, the friend of Virgil and Horace, to devote to this purpose the spoils he had obtained in his Illyrian campaign, B.C. 39. In the striking words of Pliny "he was the first to make men's talents public property (_ingenia hominum rem publicam fecit_)" The same writer tells us that he also introduced the fashion of decorating libraries with busts of departed authors, and that Varro was the only living writer whose portrait was admitted[27]. Pollio is further credited, by Suetonius, with having built an _atrium libertatis_[28], in which Isidore, a writer of the seventh century, probably quoting a lost work of Suetonius, places the library, with the additional information, that the collection contained Greek as well as Latin books[29].

The work of Pollio is recorded among the acts of generosity which Augustus suggested to others. But before long the emperor turned his own attention to libraries, and enriched his capital with two splendid structures which may be taken as types of Roman libraries,--the library of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, and that in the Campus Martius called after Octavia, sister to the emperor. I will take the latter first.

The _Porticus Octaviae_, or, as it was sometimes called, the _Opera Octaviae_, must have been one of the most magnificent structures in Rome (fig. 3). It stood in the Campus Martius, near the Theatre of Marcellus, between the Capitoline Hill and the Tiber. A double colonnade surrounded an area which measured 443 feet by 377 feet, with _Jani_, or four-faced archways, at the four corners, and on the side next the Tiber a double hexastyle porch, which, with a few fragments of the colonnade, still exists in a fairly good state of preservation[30]. Within this space were two temples, one of Jupiter, the other of Juno, a _curia_ or hall, in which the Senate frequently met, a _schola_ or "Conversation Hall[31]," and two libraries, the one of Greek, the other of Latin books. The area and buildings were crowded with masterpieces in bronze and marble.

This structure was originally built by Quintus Metellus, about 146 B.C.[32]. One of the temples was due to his own liberality, the other had been erected by Domitius Lepidus, B.C. 179. Now twenty years before, Metellus had fought in a successful campaign against Perseus king of Macedonia, in which the Romans had been assisted by Eumenes II.: and in B.C. 148, as Praetor, he received Macedonia as his province. Is it not possible that on one or other of these occasions he may have visited Pergamon, and, when designing his buildings in Rome, have copied what he had seen there? Again, in B.C. 157, Crates of Mallus, a distinguished grammarian, was sent from Pergamon as ambassador to Rome, and, being laid up there by an accident, gave lectures on grammar, in the course of which he could hardly have failed to mention the new library[33].

The buildings of Metellus were altered, if not entirely rebuilt, by Augustus, B.C. 33, out of the proceeds of his victorious campaign against the Dalmatians; with the additional structures above enumerated. The _schola_ is believed to have stood behind the temples, and the libraries behind the _schola_, with the _curia_ between them[34]. Thus the colonnades, which Metellus had restricted to the two temples, came at last to serve the double purpose for which they were originally intended in connexion with a library as well as with a temple.

The temple and area of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, which Augustus began B.C. 36 and dedicated B.C. 28, exhibit an arrangement precisely similar to that of the Porticus Octaviae. The size was nearly the same[35], and the structures included in the area were intended to serve the same purposes. The temple stood in the middle of a large open peristyle, connected with which were two libraries, one for Greek, the other for Latin books; and between them, used perhaps as a reading-room or vestibule, was a hall in which Augustus occasionally convened the Senate. It contained a colossal statue of Apollo, made of gilt bronze; and on its walls were portrait-reliefs of celebrated writers, in the form of medallions, in the same material[36].

Of the other public libraries of Rome--of which there are said to have been in all twenty-six--I need mention only three as possessing some peculiarity to which I shall have to draw attention. Of these the first was established by Tiberius in his palace, at no great distance from the library of Apollo; the second and third by Vespasian and Trajan in their Fora, connected in the one with the temple of Peace, and in the other with the temple dedicated in honour of Trajan himself.

Of the first two of these libraries we have no information; but in the case of the third we are more fortunate. The Forum of Trajan (fig. 4) was excavated by order of Napoleon I., and the extent of its buildings, with their relation to one another, is therefore known with approximate accuracy. The Greek and Latin libraries stood to the right and left of the small court between the _Basilica Ulpia_ and the _Templum Divi Trajani_, the centre of which was marked by the existing Column. They were entered from this court, each through a portico of five inter-columniations. The rooms, measured internally, were about 60 feet long, by 45 feet broad.

At this point I must mention, parenthetically, the library built by Hadrian at Athens. Pausanias records it in the following passage:

Hadrian also built for the Athenians a temple of Hera
and Panhellenian Zeus, and a sanctuary common to all the
gods. But most splendid of all are one hundred columns;
walls and colonnades alike are made of Phrygian marble.
Here, too, is a building adorned with a gilded roof and
alabaster and also with statues and paintings: books are
stored in it. There is also a gymnasium named after
Hadrian; it too has one hundred columns from the
quarries of Libya[37].

A building called the Stoa of Hadrian, a ground-plan of which (fig. 5) I borrow from Miss Harrison's _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_, has been identified with part at least of that which Pausanias describes in the above passage. A lofty wall, built of large square blocks of Pentelic marble, faced on the west side by a row of Corinthian columns, enclosed a quadrangular court, measuring 328 feet from east to west, by 250 feet from north to south. This court, entered through a sort of propylaea on the west side (N), was surrounded by a cloister or colonnade 27 feet wide, and containing 100 columns. None of those columns are standing, but their number can be accurately calculated from the marks of the bases still to be seen on the eastern side of the quadrangle.

Within this area are the remains of a building of uncertain use, and at present only partially excavated.

On the east side a row of five chambers, of which that in the centre was the largest, opened off from the colonnade[38].

AE, KI. Pier-arcade of the medieval church of the Panagia.
B. North-east angle of this church, of Roman work.
B, C, D, F. Portions of the Roman building which preceded the church.
L, M. Reservoirs.
N. Propylaea through which the court was entered.

]

If the ground plan of this structure (fig. 5) be compared with that of the precinct of Athena and library at Pergamon (fig. 2), a striking similarity between them will at once be recognised; and, whatever may have been the destination of the building within the cloistered area, there can, I think, be little doubt that the library was contained in the five rooms beyond its limits to the east. They must have been entered from the cloister, much as those at Pergamon were. It is possible that Hadrian may himself have visited Pergamon, for Trajan had built an imperial residence there; but, even if he did not do this, he would accept the type from the great libraries built at Rome by Augustus. It should be mentioned that S. Jerome specially commemorates this library among Hadrian's works at Athens, and says that it was of remarkable construction (_miri operis_)[39].

From this brief digression I return to the public libraries of Rome. In the first place those built by Augustus had a regular organisation. There appears to have been a general director called _Procurator Bibliothecarum Augusti_[40]; and subordinate officers for each division: that is to say, one for the Greek books, one for the Latin books. These facts are derived from inscriptions found in _Columbaria_. Secondly, it may be concluded that they were used not merely for reading and reference, but as meeting-places for literary men.

The Palatine libraries evidently contained a large collection of old and new books; and I think it is quite certain that new books, as soon as published, were placed there, unless there was some special reason to the contrary. Otherwise there would be no point in the lines in which Ovid makes his book--sent from Pontus after his banishment--deplore its exclusion. The book is supposed to climb from the Forum to the temple of Apollo:

Signa peregrinis ubi sunt alterna columnis
Belides et stricto barbarus ense pater
Quaeque viri docto veteres coepere novique
Pectore lecturis inspicienda patent.
Quaerebam fratres exceptis scilicet illis
Quos suus optaret non genuisse parens;
Quaerentem frustra custos e sedibus illis
Praepositus sancto iussit abire loco[41].

Where, set between each pair of columns from some
foreign quarry, are statues of the Danaids, and their
barbarous father with drawn sword; and where whatever
the minds of men of old or men of to-day have imagined,
is laid open for a reader's use. I sought my brethren,
save those of course whom their father would fain have
never begotten; and, while I was seeking for them in
vain, he who was set over the room bade me leave that
holy ground.

The second couplet can only mean that old books and new books were alike to be found there. The general nature of the collection, and its extent, may be further gathered from the advice which Horace gives to his friend Celsus:

Quid mihi Celsus agit? monitus multumque monendus
Privatas ut quaerat opes, et tangere vitet
Scripta Palatinus quaecunque recepit Apollo[42].

What is my friend Celsus about? he who has been
reminded, and must still be reminded again and again,
that he should draw upon his own resources, and be
careful to avoid the multifarious writings which
Palatine Apollo has taken under his charge.

A man might say now-a-days, "Trust to your own wits, and don't go so often to the library of the British Museum."

Aulus Gellius, who lived A.D. 117-180, speaks of "sitting with a party of friends in the library of the palace of Tiberius, when a book happened to be taken down with the title M. Catonis Nepotis," and they began asking one another who this M. Cato Nepos might be[43]. This library contained also public records[44].

The same writer tells a story of a grammatical difficulty which was to be settled by reference to a book _in templo Pacis_, in the forum of Vespasian; and again, when a particular book was wanted, "we hunted for it diligently," he says, "and, when we had found it in the temple of Peace, we read it[45]."

The library in the forum of Trajan, often called _Bibliotheca Ulpia_, was apparently the Public Record Office of Rome. Aulus Gellius mentions that some decrees of former praetors had fallen in his way there when he was looking for something else, and that he had been allowed to read them[46]; and a statement of Vopiscus is still more conclusive as to the nature of its contents. It tells us, moreover, something about the arrangement. In his life of the Emperor Tacitus (Sept. A.D. 275--Apr. 276) Vopiscus says:

And lest anybody should think that I have given too
hasty a credence to a Greek or Latin author, the Ulpian
Library has in its sixth press (_armarium_) an ivory
volume (_librum elephantinum_) in which the following
decree of the Senate, signed by Tacitus with his own
hand, is recorded, etc.[47]

Again, in his life of the Emperor Aurelian, the same writer records how his friend Junius Tiberianus, prefect of the city, had urged him to undertake the task, and had assured him that: "even the linen-books (_libri lintei_) shall be brought out of the Ulpian library for your use[48]."

Books could occasionally be borrowed from a public library, but whether from one of those in the city of Rome, I cannot say. The scene of the story which proves this is laid by Aulus Gellius at Tibur (Tivoli), where the library was in the temple of Hercules--another instance of the care of a library being entrusted to a temple. Aulus Gellius and some friends of his were assembled in a rich man's villa there at the hottest season of the year. They were drinking melted snow, a proceeding against which one of the party, a peripatetic philosopher, vehemently protested, urging against the practice the authority of numerous physicians and of Aristotle himself. But none the less the party went on drinking snow-water. Whereupon "he fetched a treatise by Aristotle out of the library of Tibur, which was then very conveniently accommodated in the temple of Hercules, and brought it to us, saying----[49]." But I need not finish the quotation, as it has no bearing on my special subject.

It is probable that numerous collections of books had been got together by individuals in Rome, before it occurred to Augustus and his friends to erect public libraries. One such library, that belonging to the rich and luxurious Lucullus, has been noticed as follows by Plutarch[50]:

His procedure in regard to books was interesting and
remarkable. He collected fine copies in large numbers;
and if he was splendid in their acquisition, he was more
so in their use. His libraries were accessible to all,
and the adjoining colonnades and reading-rooms were
freely open to Greeks, who, gladly escaping from the
routine of business, resorted thither for familiar
converse, as to a shelter presided over by the Muses.

The Romans were not slow in following the example set by Lucullus; and a library presently became indispensable in every house, whether the owner cared for reading or not. This fashionable craze is denounced by Seneca (writing about A.D. 49) in a vehement outburst of indignation, which contains so many valuable facts about library arrangement, that I will give a free translation of it.

Outlay upon studies, best of all outlays, is reasonable
so long only as it is kept within certain limits. What
is the use of books and libraries innumerable, if scarce
in a lifetime the master reads the titles? A student is
burdened by a crowd of authors, not instructed; and it
is far better to devote yourself to a few, than to lose
your way among a multitude.

Forty thousand books were burnt at Alexandria. I leave
others to praise this splendid monument of royal
opulence, as for example Livy, who regards it as "a
noble work of royal taste and royal thoughtfulness." It
was not taste, it was not thoughtfulness, it was learned
extravagance--nay not even learned, for they had bought
their books for the sake of show, not for the sake of
learning--just as with many who are ignorant even of the
lowest branches of learning books are not instruments of
study, but ornaments of dining-rooms. Procure then as
many books as will suffice for use; but not a single one
for show. You will reply: "Outlay on such objects is
preferable to extravagance on plate or paintings."
Excess in all directions is bad. Why should you excuse a
man who wishes to possess book-presses inlaid with
_arbor-vitae_ wood or ivory: who gathers together masses
of authors either unknown or discredited; who yawns
among his thousands of books; and who derives his chief
delight from their edges and their tickets?

You will find then in the libraries of the most arrant
idlers all that orators or historians have
written--book-cases built up as high as the ceiling.
Nowadays a library takes rank with a bathroom as a
necessary ornament of a house. I could forgive such
ideas, if they were due to extravagant desire for
learning. As it is, these productions of men whose
genius we revere, paid for at a high price, with their
portraits ranged in line above them, are got together to
adorn and beautify a wall[51].

A library was discovered in Rome by Signor Lanciani in 1883 while excavating a house of the 4th century on the Esquiline in the modern Via dello Statuto. I will narrate the discovery in his own words.

I was struck, one afternoon, with the appearance of a
rather spacious hall [it was about 23 feet long by 15
feet broad], the walls of which were plain and
unornamented up to a certain height, but beautifully
decorated above in stucco-work. The decoration consisted
of fluted pilasters, five feet apart from centre to
centre, enclosing a plain square surface, in the middle
of which there were medallions, also in stucco-work, two
feet in diameter. As always happens in these cases, the
frame was the only well-preserved portion of the
medallions. Of the images surrounded by the frames, of
the medallions themselves, absolutely nothing was left
_in situ_, except a few fragments piled up at the foot
of the wall, which, however, could be identified as
having been representations of human faces. My hope
that, at last, after fifteen years of excavations, I had
succeeded in discovering a library, was confirmed beyond
any doubt by a legend, written, or rather painted, in
bright red colour on one of the frames. There was but
one name POLONIVS THYAN ..., but this name told more
plainly the purpose of the apartment than if I had
discovered there the actual bookshelves and their
contents[52].

When I had the pleasure of meeting Signor Lanciani in Rome in April, 1898, he most kindly gave me his own sketch of the pilasters and medallion, taken at the moment of discovery. I am therefore able to reproduce exactly (fig. 6) one compartment of the wall of the library above described. The height of the blank wall below the stucco-work, against which the furniture containing the books stood, has been laid down as about 3 feet 6 inches, on the authority of Professor Middleton[53]. The remains of the medallion are still to be seen in the Museo del Orto Botanico, Rome. The person commemorated is obviously Apollonius Tyaneus, a Pythagorean philosopher and wonderworker, said to have been born about four years before the Christian era.

From notes and measurements made by Signor Lanciani and Prof. Middleton.]

A similar room was discovered at Herculaneum in 1754. A full account of the discovery was drawn up at once by Signor Paderni, keeper of the Herculaneum Museum, and addressed to Thomas Hollis, Esq., by whom it was submitted to the Royal Society. I will extract, from this and subsequent letters, the passages that bear upon my subject.

_Naples, 27 April, 1754._

... The place where they are digging, at present, is
under _Il Bosco di Sant' Agostino_.... All the buildings
discover'd in this site are noble; ... in one there has
been found an entire library, compos'd of volumes of the
Egyptian Papyrus, of which there have been taken out
about 250....[54]

_To the same._

_18 October, 1754._

... As yet we have only entered into one room, the floor
of which is formed of mosaic work, not unelegant. It
appears to have been a library, adorned with presses,
inlaid with different sorts of wood, disposed in rows;
at the top of which were cornices, as in our own times.

I was buried in this spot more than twelve days, to
carry off the volumes found there; many of which were so
perished, that it was impossible to remove them. Those
which I took away amounted to the number of three
hundred and thirty-seven, all of them at present
uncapable of being opened. These are all written in
Greek characters. While I was busy in this work I
observed a large bundle, which, from the size, I
imagined must contain more than a single volume. I tried
with the utmost care to get it out, but could not, from
the damp and weight of it. However I perceived that it
consisted of about 18 volumes, each of which was in
length a palm and three Neapolitan inches, being the
largest hitherto discovered. They were wrapped about
with the bark of a tree and covered at each end with a
piece of wood. All these were written in Latin, as
appears by a few words which broke off from them. I was
in hopes to have got something out of them, but they are
in a worse condition than the Greek[55]....

_From Sir J. Gray, Bart._

_29 October, 1754._

... They have lately met with more rolls of Papyri of
different lengths and sizes, some with the _Umbilicus_
remaining in them: the greater part are Greek in small
capitals.... The Epicurean Philosophy is the subject of
another fragment.

A small bust of Epicurus, with his name in Greek
characters, was found in the same room, and was possibly
the ornament of that part of the library where the
writings in favour of his principles were kept; and it
may also be supposed that some other heads of
philosophers found in the same room were placed with the
same taste and propriety[56].

Between 1758 and 1763, the place was visited by Winckelmann, who wrote long letters in Italian, describing what he saw, to Consigliere Bianconi, Physician to the King of Saxony. One of these, dated 1762, gives the following account of the library:

Ii luogo in cui per la prima volta caddero sott' occhio,
fu una piccola stanza nella villa d'Ercolano di cui
parlammo sopra, la cui lunghezza due uomini colle
braccia distese potevano misurare. Tutto all' intorno
del muro vi erano degli scaffali quali si vedono
ordinariamente negli archivi ad altezza d' uomo, e nel
mezzo della stanza v' era un altro scaffale simile o
tavola per tenervi scritture, e tale da potervi girare
intorno. Il legno di questa tavola era ridotto a
carboni, e cadde, come e facile ad imaginarselo, tutta
in pezzi quando si tocco. Alcuni di questi rotoli di
papiri si trovarono involti insieme con carta piu
grossolana, di quella qualita che gli antichi chiamavano
_emporetica_, e questi probabilmente formavano le parti
ed i libri d' un' opera intiera[57]....

The place in which they [the rolls] were first seen was
a small room in the villa at Herculaneum of which we
spoke above, the length of which could be covered by two
men with their arms extended. All round the wall there
were book-cases such as are commonly seen in
record-rooms, of a man's height, and in the middle of
the room there was another similar book-case or table to
hold writings, of such a size that one could go round
it. The wood of this table was reduced to charcoal, and,
as may easily be imagined, fell all to pieces when it
was touched. Some of these papyrus rolls were found
fastened together with paper of coarser texture, of that
quality which the ancients called _emporetica_, and
these probably formed the parts and books of an entire
work.

The information which these observers have given us amounts to this: the room was about 12 feet long, with a floor of mosaic. Against the walls stood presses, of a man's height, inlaid with different sorts of wood, disposed in rows, with cornices at the top; and there was also a table, or press, in the centre of the room. Most of the rolls were separate, but a bundle of eighteen was found "wrapped about with the bark of a tree, and covered at each end with a piece of wood." A room so small as this could hardly have been intended for study. It must rather have been the place where the books were put away after they had been read elsewhere.

Before I quit this part of my subject, I should like to mention one other building, as its arrangements throw light on the question of fitting up libraries and record-offices. I allude to the structure built by Vespasian, A.D. 78, to contain the documents relating to his restoration of the city of Rome. It stood at the south-west corner of the Forum of Peace, and what now exists of it is known as the Church of SS. Cosma e Damiano.

The general arrangement and relation to adjoining structures will be understood from the plan (fig. 7). The room was about 125 feet long by 65 feet broad, with two entrances, one on the north-west, from the _Forum Pacis_, through a hexastyle portico (fig. 7. 2), the other on the north-east, through a square-headed doorway of travertine which still exists (_ibid._ 1) together with a considerable portion of a massive wall of Vespasian's time. After a restoration by Caracalla the building came to be called _Templum Sacrae Urbis_. It was first consecrated as a church by pope Felix IV. (526-530), but he did little more than connect it with the _Heroon Romuli_ (_ibid._ 5), and build the apse (_ibid._ 4).

Reduced from a sketch taken in the 16th century by Pirro Ligorio.]

The whole building was mercilessly mutilated by pope Urban VIII. in 1632; but fortunately a drawing of the interior had been made by Pirro Ligorio in the second half of the sixteenth century, when the original treatment of the walls was practically intact. I give a reduced copy of a small portion of this drawing (fig. 8). As Lanciani says:

The walls were divided into three horizontal bands by
finely cut cornices. The upper band was occupied by the
windows; the lower was simply lined with marble slabs
covered by the bookcases ... which contained the ...
records ...; the middle one was incrusted with
tarsia-work of the rarest kinds of marble with panels
representing panoplies, the wolf with the infant
founders of Rome, and other allegorical scenes[58].

I explained at the beginning of this chapter that my subject is the care of books, not books themselves; but, at the point which we have now reached in regard to Roman libraries, it is necessary to make a few remarks about their contents. It must be remembered, in the first place, that those who fitted them up had to deal with rolls (_volumina_), probably of papyrus, but possibly of parchment; and that a book, as we understand the word, the Latin equivalent for which was _codex_, did not come into general use until long after the Christian era. Some points about these rolls require notice.

The length and the width of the roll depended on the taste or convenience of the writer[59]. The contents were written in columns, the lines of which ran parallel to the long dimension[60], and the reader, holding the roll in both hands, rolled up the part he had finished with his left hand, and unrolled the unread portion with his right. This way of dealing with the roll is well shewn in the accompanying illustration (fig. 9) reduced from a fresco at Pompeii[61]. In most examples the two halves of the roll are turned inwards, as for instance in the well-known statue of Demosthenes in the Vatican[62]. The end of the roll was fastened to a stick (usually referred to as _umbilicus_ or _umbilici_). It is obvious that this word ought properly to denote the ends of the stick only, but it was constantly applied to the whole stick, and not to a part of it, as for instance in the following lines:

... deus nam me vetat
Inceptos olim promissum carmen iambos
Ad umbilicum adducere[63].

... for heaven forbids me to cover the scroll down to
the stick with the iambic lines I had begun a song
promised long ago to the world.

These sticks were sometimes painted or gilt, and furnished with projecting knobs (_cornua_) similarly decorated, intended to serve both as an ornament, and as a contrivance to keep the ends of the roll even, while it was being rolled up. The sides of the long dimension of the roll (_frontes_) were carefully cut, so as to be perfectly symmetrical, and afterwards smoothed with pumice-stone and coloured. A ticket (_index_ or _titulus_, in Greek [Greek: sillubos] or [Greek: sittubos]), made of a piece of papyrus or parchment, was fastened to the edge of the roll in such a way that it hung out over one or other of the ends. As Ovid says:

Cetera turba palam titulos ostendet apertos
Et sua detecta nomina fronte geret[64].

The others will flaunt their titles openly, and carry
their names on an uncovered edge.

The roll was kept closed by strings or straps (_lora_), usually of some bright colour[65]; and if it was specially precious, an envelope which the Greeks called a jacket ([Greek: diphthera][66]), made of parchment or some other substance, was provided. Says Martial:

Perfer Atestinae nondum vulgata Sabinae
Carmina, purpurea sed modo culta toga[67].

Convey to Sabina at Ateste these verses. They have not
yet been published, and have been but lately dressed in
a purple garment.

Martial has combined in a single epigram most of the ornaments with which rolls could be decorated. This I will quote next, premising that the oil of cedar, or _arbor-vitae_, mentioned in the second line not only imparted an agreeable yellow colour, but was held to be an antiseptic[68].

Faustini fugis in sinum? sapisti.
Cedro nunc licet ambules perunctus
Et frontis gemino decens honore
Pictis luxurieris umbilicis,
Et te purpura delicata velet,
Et cocco rubeat superbus index[69].

His book had selected the bibliomaniac Faustinus as a patron. Now, says the poet, you shall be anointed with oil of cedar; you shall revel in the decoration of both your sets of edges; your sticks shall be painted; your covering shall be purple, and your ticket scarlet.

When a number of rolls had to be carried from one place to another, they were put into a box (_scrinium_ or _capsa_). This receptacle was cylindrical in shape, not unlike a modern hat-box[70]. It was carried by a flexible handle, attached to a ring on each side; and the lid was held down by what looks very like a modern lock. The eighteen rolls, found in a bundle at Herculaneum, had doubtless been kept in a similar receptacle.

My illustration (fig. 10) is from a fresco at Herculaneum. It will be noticed that each roll is furnished with a ticket (_titulus_). At the feet of the statue of Demosthenes already referred to, and of that of Sophocles, are _capsae_, both of which show the flexible handles.

I will next collect the information available respecting the fittings used in Roman libraries. I admit that it is scattered and imperfect; but legitimate deductions may, I think, be arrived at from it, which will give us tolerably certain ideas of the appearance of one of those collections.

The words used to designate such fittings are: _nidus_; _forulus_, or more usually _foruli_; _loculamenta_; _pluteus_; _pegmata_.

_Nidus_ needs no explanation. It can only mean a pigeon-hole. Martial uses it of a bookseller, at whose shop his own poems may be bought.

De primo dabit alterove _nido_
Rasum pumice purpuraque cultum
Denaris tibi quinque Martialem[71].

Out of his first or second pigeon-hole, polished with
pumice stone, and smart with a purple covering, for five
denarii he will give you Martial.

In a subsequent epigram the word occurs with reference to a private library, to which the poet is sending a copy of his works.

Ruris bibliotheca delicati,
Vicinam videt unde lector urbem,
Inter carmina sanctiora si quis
Lascivae fuerit locus Thaliae,
Hos _nido_ licet inseras vel imo
Septem quos tibi misimus libellos[72].

O library of that well-appointed villa whence a reader
can see the City near at hand--if among more serious
poems there be any room for the wanton Muse of Comedy,
you may place these seven little books I send you even
in your lowest pigeon-hole.

_Forulus_ or _foruli_ occurs in the following passages. Suetonius, after describing the building of the temple of the Palatine Apollo by Augustus, adds, "he placed the Sibylline books in two gilt receptacles (_forulis_) under the base of the statue of Palatine Apollo"[73]; and Juvenal, enumerating the gifts that a rich man is sure to receive if burnt out of house and home, says,

Hic libros dabit, et _forulos_, mediamque Minervam[74].

The word is of uncertain derivation, but _forus_, of which it is clearly the diminutive, is used by Virgil for the cells of bees:

Complebuntque _foros_ et floribus horrea texent[75].

The above-quoted passage of Juvenal may therefore be rendered: "Another will give books, and cells to put them in, and a statue of Minerva for the middle of the room."

The word _loculamentum_ is explained in a passage of Columella, in which he gives directions for the making of dovecotes:

Let small stakes be placed close together, with planks
laid across them to carry cells (_loculamenta_) for the
birds to build their nests in, or sets of pigeon-holes
made of earthenware[76].

In a second passage he uses the same word for a beehive[77]; Vegetius, a writer on veterinary surgery, uses it for the socket of a horse's tooth[78]; and Vitruvius, in a more general way, for a case to contain a small piece of machinery[79]. Generally, the word may be taken to signify a long narrow box, open at one end, and, like _nidus_ and _forulus_, may be translated "pigeon-hole." Seneca, again, applies the word to books in the passage I have already translated, and in a singularly instructive manner. "You will find," he says, "in the libraries of the most arrant idlers all that orators or historians have written--bookcases (_loculamenta_) built up as high as the ceiling[80]."

_Pegmata_, for the word generally occurs in the plural, are, as the name implies, things fixed together, usually planks of wood framed into a platform, and used in theatres to carry pieces of scenery or performers up and down. As applied to books "shelves" are probably meant: an interpretation borne out by the _Digest_, in which it is stated that "window-frames and _pegmata_ are included in the purchase of a house[81]." They were therefore what we should call "fixtures."

A _pluteus_ was a machine used by infantry for protection in the field: and hence the word is applied to any fence, or boarding to form the limit or edge of anything, as a table or a bed. _Plutei_ were not attached so closely to the walls as _pegmata_, for in the _Digest_ they are classed with nets to keep out birds, mats, awnings, and the like, and are not to be regarded as part and parcel of a house[82]. Juvenal uses the word for a shelf in his second Satire, where he is denouncing pretenders to knowledge:

Indocti primum, quamquam plena omnia gypso
Chrysippi invenias, nam perfectissimus horum est
Si quis Aristotelem similem vel Pittacon emit
Et iubet archetypos pluteum servare Cleanthas[83].

In the first place they are dunces, though you find
their houses full of plaster figures of Chrysippus: for
a man of this sort is not fully equipped until he buys a
likeness of Aristotle or Pittacus, and bids a shelf take
care of original portraits of Cleanthes.