The Care of Books Part 7

[72] _Epigrams_, VII. 17.

[73] Suet. _Aug._ 31. Libros Sibyllinos condidit duobus _forulis_ auratis sub Palatini Apollinis basi.

[74] _Sat._ III. 219.

[75] _Georg._ IV. 250.

[76] _De Re Rustica_, VIII. 8. Paxillis adactis tabulae superponantur; quae vel loculamenta quibus nidificent aves, vel fictilia columbaria, recipiant.

[77] _Ibid._, IX. 12. 2. The writer, having described bees swarming, proceeds: protinus custos novum loculamentum in hoc praeparatum perlinat intrinsecus praedictis herbis ... tum manibus aut etiam trulla congregatas apes recondat, atque ... diligenter compositum et illitum vas ... patiatur in eodem loco esse dum advesperascat. Primo deinde crepusculo transferat et reponat in ordinem reliquarum alvorum.

[78] Vegetius, _Art. Vet._, III. 32. Si iumento loculamenta dentium vel dentes doluerint.

[79] Vitruvius, _De Arch._, ed. Schneider, X. 9. Insuper autem ad capsum redae loculamentum firmiter figatur habens tympanum versatile in cultro collocatum, etc.

[80] Dr. Sandys, in his edition of Aristotle's _Const.i.tution of Athens_, 1893, p. 174, has shewn that in the office of the public clerk a similar contrivance was used, called [Greek: epistulion]: "a shelf supporting a series of pigeon-holes, and itself supported by wooden pedestals."

[81] Ulpian, _Digest_, 33. 7. 12. In emptionem domus et specularia et pegmata cedere solent, sive in aediticiis sint posita, sive ad tempus detracta.

[82] _Ibid._, 29. 1. 17. Reticuli circa columnas, plutei circa parietes, item cilicia, vela, aedium non sunt.

[83] _Sat._ II. 4. I do not think that these lines refer to a library. The whole house, not a single room in it, is full of plaster busts of philosophers.

[84] _Ep._ cv. (ed. Billerbeck); _Ad Att._ IV. 4, p. 2.

[85] _Ep._ cvi. (_ibid._); _Ad Att._ IV. 5.

[86] _Ep._ cxi. (_ibid._); _Ad Att._ IV. 8.

[87] This cut is given in _Antiquitatum et Annalium Trevirensium libri_ XXV. Auctoribus RR. PP. Soc. Jesu P. Christophoro Browero, et P. Jacobo Masenio. 2 v. fol. Leodii, 1670. It is headed: Schema voluminum in bibliothecam (sic) ordine olim digestorum Noviomagi in loco Castrorum Constantini M. hodiedum in lapide reperto excisum. See also C. G. Schwarz, _De Ornamentis Librorum_, 4to, Lips. 1756, pp. 86, 172, 231, and Tab. II., fig. 4. I learnt this reference from Sir E. M. Thompson's _Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography_, ed. 2, 1894, p. 57, _note_. The Director of the Museum at Treves informs me that all the antiquities discovered at Neumagen were destroyed in the seventeenth century.

[88] See above, p. 11.

[89] _Ibid._, p. 12.

[90] _Epigrams_, Lib. IX. _Introduction_.

[91] The whole relief is figured in Seyffert, _Dictionary of Cla.s.sical Antiquities_, ed. Nettles.h.i.+p and Sandys, p. 649.

[92] _De Architectura_, Lib. VII, Pref. [Aristophanes] e certis amiariis infinita volumina eduxit.

[93] _Digesta Justiniani Augusti_, ed. Mommsen. 8vo. Berlin, 1870. Vol.

II. p. 88. Book x.x.xII. 52.

[94] This is the date of the _Columna cochlis_. Middleton's Rome, II. 24 note.

[95] Nibby, _Roma Antica_, 8vo. Roma, 1839, p. 188.

[96] _Epist._ II. 17. 8. Parieti eius [cubiculi mei] in bibliothecae speciem armarium insertum est quod non legendos libros sed lect.i.tandos capit.

[97] I should not have known of the existence of this sarcophagus had it not been figured, accurately enough on the whole, in _Le Palais de Scaurus_, by Mazois, published at Paris in 1822. The sarcophagus had pa.s.sed through the hands of several collectors since Mazois figured it, and I had a long and amusing search for it.

[98] _Mittheilungen des K. D. Archaeologischen Inst.i.tuts Rom_, 1900, Band XV. p. 171. Der Sarkophag eines Arztes.

[99] The inscription is printed in full in _Antike Bilderwerke in Rom ...

beschrieben von Friedrich Matz., und F. von Duhn_, 3 vols., 8vo. Leipzig, 1881, Vol. II. p. 346, No. 3127^*.

[100] Garrucci, _Arte Christiana_, Vol. IV. p. 39. It would appear from some curious drawings on gla.s.s figured by Garrucci, _ut supra_ Pl. 490, that the Jews used presses of similar design in their synagogues to contain the rolls of the law.

[101] The original of this picture is 18 in. high by 9-3/4 in. broad, including the border. It could not be photographed, and therefore, through the kind offices of Miss G. Dixon, and Signor Biagi, Librarian of the Laurentian Library, the services of a thoroughly capable artist, Professor Attilio Formilli, were secured to make an exact copy in water colours.

This he has done with singular taste and skill. My figure has been reduced from this copy. The press has also been figured in outline by Garrucci, _Arte Christiana_, Vol. III., Pl. 126.

[102] The romantic story of the _Codex Amiatinus_ is fully narrated by Mr H. J. White in _Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica_, 8vo. Oxf. 1890, II. pp.

273-308.

[103] The _Octateuch_, or, the five books of Moses, with the addition of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.

[104] _Consol. Philosoph._, Book I. Ch. 5. Nec bibliothecae potius comptos ebore ac vitro parietes quam tuae mentis sedem requiro.

[105] _Origines_, Book VI. Ch. ii. c.u.m peritiores architecti neque aurea lacunaria ponenda in bibliothecis putent neque pavimenta alia quam a Carysteo marmore, quod auri fulgor hebetat et Carystei viriditas reficiat oculos.

[106] _Apol. adv. Rufinum_, ii. 20: Opera, ed. Vallarsi, II. 549.

[107] _De Origine Historia Indicibus scrinii et bibliothecae Sedis Apostolicae commentatio Ioannis Baptistae de Rossi...._ 4to. Romae, 1886, Chapter V. A brief, but accurate, summary of his account will be found in Lanciani's _Ancient Rome_, 8vo. 1888, pp. 187-190. Father C. J. Ehrle has given me much help on this difficult question.

[108] _Sidonii Apollinaris Opera_, ed. Sirmondi. 4to. Paris, 1652. Notes, p. 33. The words of this letter, which I have translated very freely, are as follows:

Sed dum haec tacitus mec.u.m revolvo, occurrit mihi quod in Bibliotheca studiosi saecularium litterarum puer quondam, ut se aetatis illius curiositas habet, praetereundo legissem. Nam c.u.m supra memoratae aedis ordinator ac dominus, inter expressas lapillis aut ceris discoloribus, formatasque effigies vel Oratorum vel etiam Poetarum specialia singulorum autotypis epigrammata subdidisset; ubi ad praeiudicati eloquii venit poetam, hoc modo orsus est.

The last three lines of the inscription are from the _aeneid_, Book I. 607.

I owe the most important part of the translation of Rusticus to Lanciani, _ut supra_, p. 196: that of Virgil is by Professor Conington.

[109] I have taken the text of the inscription, and my account of Agapetus and his work, from De Rossi, _ut supra_, Chap. VIII. p. lv.

[110] Ca.s.siodorus, _De Inst. Div. Litt._ Chap. x.x.x. pp. 1145, 46. Ed.

Migne. De Rossi, _ut supra_.

[111] Versus qui scripti sunt in armaria sua ab ipso [Isidoro] compositi.

_Cod. Vat. Pal._ 1877, a MS. which came from Lorch in Germany. De Rossi, _ut supra_. Chap. VII.

[112] _Isidori Opera Omnia_, 410. Rome, 1803. Vol. VII. p. 179.

[113] See Hen. Stevenson, _Topografia e Monumenti di Roma nelle Pitture a fresco di Sisto V. della Biblioteca Vaticana_, p. 7; in _Al Sommo Pontefice Leone XIII. Omaggio Giubilare della Biblioteca Vaticana_, Fol.

Rome, 1881.

[114] Signor Lanciani (_Ancient Rome_, p. 195) was the first to suggest a comparison between the Vatican Library and those of ancient Rome.