LARGEST LIBRARY IN THE WORLD.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1611, 30 November 1912, Page 6

LARGEST LIBRARY IN THE WORLD.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM. DR. FORTESCUE ON ITS FUTURE Of the joys of book-reading dozens ol famous authors have toid us all that thero is to tell. Of the moan of th« Preacher, that of the making' of many books there is no end, little or nothing is heard, although there never was a time when books issued from the press in greater numbers. "Vanity of vanities," cried tho' same great doctrinaire, "all ia vanity." Walk through the miles—yes, miles and miles!—of books and pamphlets and publications at the British Museum (says tho London "Daily Telegraph"), and you will faucy, and maybe rightly 60, that tho greatest of vanities is authorship. How many tales there are here waiting to be read! How many lives mutely craving one' 6 confidence! How many tragedies or penmanship, never to be listened to! Singularly poignantly did George Gissing tell of these men and women writers in tho "New Grub Street." All that the average man can, and need, read of the world's wit and wisdom may b» placed on a few shelves in anyone's room. Yet here is a' whole city—a world—made up of many new and old Grub Streets, with here aafl there a lane of Arcady. Not inappro' priately is the colour sdhemo of this mellow. world of books that have fallen from the press and been 6Wept aside—a ooloui scheme made up of browns, and greys, and faded reds, like the leaves in Vallombrosa! Yet the story of it all, and of its aggregation, is singularly arresting, and no ona. knows more about it than Dr. G. K. Fortesque, the Keeper of Printed Books, who retired recently after forty-two years' service.

"The Youngest and Largest Library." "Let us commence," said Dr. Fortescuo to tiiu "Daily Telegraph's" representative, "by recalling that the British Museum is. the youngest of the great libraries of Europe. The history of such libraries' as the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, the. Vatican Library, or the libraries oi Vienna or Munich, goes back for many centuries. Nevertheless, we can claim to-. day to be not only the largest in the world,' but one of the most valuable, and this in spite of some early drawbacks. For a long time we had no regular income. If any special boots wore wanted there, was no way of getting them except by means ol a special grant from the Treasury. Moreover, the staff of the Museum was largely recruited from the ranks of men who w«ro elderly—distinguished men of letters, and others not so distinguished., Perhaps the most eminent custodian of this class .was, Cary, the translator of Dante. ' "It was not until an obscure' Italian refugee, Antonio Panizzi, afterwards 4 ,to become the famous Sir Antony Panizzi, was appointed Keeper of Printed Books, in 1837, that tho library began .to take rank a 6 one. of the greatest libraries of Europe. It is to Panizzi we owe the. regular grants for all\ purposes, such as purchasing, printing, ana binding!. Not only did he obtain the regular assistance of the Treasuit, but he secured to the library its' full rights under the Copyright ■■ Act of 1843,. began the great catalogue of printed books, the great circular reading-room-surrounded with five galleries, and was the author of many technioal improvements for tho care and systematising of the work , of librarianship. When Panizzi took charge of the library he found a collection of 250,000 boobs, some of them verv valuable, but all of them ill-cared, for, .ill-arranged, and ill-catalogued. When he relinquished his task, after - thirty.: years' unremitting and strenuous toil, he bequeathed to future generations a . great and ordered library of 1,500,000 books, containing in itself the material for further growth, and second in importance only to the Bibliothequ« Nationale. • - • • "I entered the Museum in 1870, five 'years-after Panizzi retired. On the last occasion I had the honour of meeting Gladstone he said, 'I hope you men of the Museum never cease to give thanks to the great man who made you what you are.' Miles of Bookshelves.; , "Since Panizzi's.time the growth has been no less rapid, until at tie present moment the library contains at least 3,500,000, and possibly i,000,000. bookß. The - comparative figures are. approximately.:— ; •British Museum ...... ( ' 3,500,000; ( to 4,000,000 Bibliothequo Nationale, Paris... 3,500,000: Imperial Library, St. Petersburg 1,881,623 ■Congress Library, New York'...' 1,793,158 Royal Library, Berlin 1,400,000 Royal Library, Munich 1,100,000 Imperial Library,-Vienna Victor Emanuel Library, Rome 800,000 Bodleian Library '. 1... . WjMjJJ Royal Library, Brussels 600,000 Advooates''Library, Edinburgh... 665,000 Vatican Library !S?'S5? Trinity College Library, Dublin 321,341 "I cannot give the precise figures bo cause of the variation of methods of computation. We receive every year. 120,000 ■ pieces.' A 'piece' -is the technical d» '•scription of - anything . printed from a single sheet to an edition of . Vpltairo in eighty-seven volumes. It is difficult to state how many volumes are included m the number of -pieces,' but it is an understatement to say that 50,000 volumes would represent our increase any year, inis i« not a matter of congratulation, I agree, Indeed, it is somewhat alarming to me, as I look back, to reflect that no fewei than 2,000,000 books have been added si_nc« I came here. 'As to the future,; it iswell, terrific to think what the ui«reas« ■will be in the course of the century that lies before us.- Truly, 'of the making.of many books there is no end. Librarians will no longer-be able to count the number of books. Presumably they will speak of having so many miles of them, iliere are at least forty-six miles of baofehelves at the present time, enough to stretch from London to Brighton.