ntury, both on account of
the doubtful authority and indefiniteness of the passages in which they
are mentioned, and the custom which so readily obtained in those dark
ages of dignifying with the name of library every petty collection of
insignificant codices. But many libraries of the fifteenth century being
in existence, and others having been preserved long enough to make them
the subject of historical inquiry before their dissolution, it becomes
easier to fix with satisfactory accuracy the date of their foundation.
We find, accordingly, that during the fifteenth century ten libraries
were formed: the Vatican at Rome, the Laurentian at Florence, the
Imperial of Vienna and Ratisbon, the University at Turin, the
Malatestiana at Cesena, the Marciana at Venice, the Bodleian at Oxford,
the University at Copenhagen, and the City at Frankfort on the Maine.
The Palatine of Heidelberg was founded in 1390, dispersed in 1623,
restored in 1652, and augmented in 1816.

The increase of the libraries of Europe has generally been slowly
progressive, although there have been periods of sudden augmentation in
nearly all of them. They began with a small number of manuscripts;
sometimes with a few, and often without any printed works. To these
gradual accessions were made from the different sources which have
always been more or less at the command of sovereigns and nobles. In
1455 the Vatican contained 5000 manuscripts. In 1685, after an interval
of more than two centuries, the number of its manuscripts had only risen
to 16,000, and that of the printed volumes did not exceed 25,000. In
1789, but little more than a century later, the number of manuscripts
had been doubled, and the printed volumes amounted to 40,000.

Far different was the progress of the Royal, or as it is now called, the
National Library of Paris. The origin of this institution is placed in
the year 1595--the date of its removal from Fontainebleau to Paris by
order of Henry IV. In 1660 it contained only 1435 printed volumes. In
the course of the following year this number was raised to 16,746, both
printed volumes and manuscripts. During the ensuing eight years the
library was nearly doubled; and before the close of the subsequent
century, it was supposed to have been augmented by upwards of 100,000
volumes.

In most cases the chief sources of these augmentations have been
individual legacies and the purchase of private collections. Private
libraries, as our readers