Part 42 (1/2)
Between 1603 and 1609--only 25 years afterwards--Cardinal Federigo Borromeo built, endowed, and furnished the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan.
A plain Ionic portico, on the cornice of which are the words BIBLIOTHECA AMBROSIANA, gives access to a single hall, on the ground floor, 74 ft.
long by 29 ft. broad (fig. 120). The walls are lined with bookcases about 13 ft. high, separated, not by columns, but by flat pilasters, and protected by wire-work of an unusually large mesh, said to be original. At each corner of the hall is a staircase, leading to a gallery, 2 ft. 6 in.
wide. The cases in this gallery are about 8 ft. 6 in. high. Above them again is a frieze consisting of a series of portraits of saints in oblong frames. The roof is a barrel-vault, ornamented with plaster-work. Light is admitted through two enormous semi-circular windows at each end of the room. No alteration, I was informed when I visited the library in 1898, has been permitted. Even the floor of plain tiles, with four tables (one at each corner), and a central brazier, is left as the Cardinal arranged it.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 120. Ground-plan of the Ambrosian Library at Milan.
Reduced from that given by P. P. Boscha.]
A good idea of the appearance of this n.o.ble room will be obtained from the general view (fig. 121)[498]. The way in which the books were arranged was evidently thought remarkable at the time, for a contemporary writer says of it ”the room is not blocked with desks to which the books are tied with iron chains after the fas.h.i.+on of the libraries which are common in monasteries, but it is surrounded with lofty shelves on which the books are sorted according to size[499].”
This library was part of a larger scheme which included a college of doctors, a school of art, a museum, and a botanic garden; all of which were amply endowed. The library was to be open not merely to members of the college, but to the citizens of Milan and all strangers who came to study there; but the severest penalties awaited those who stole a volume, or even touched it with soiled hands; and only the Pope himself could absolve them from such crimes[500].
Before many years were over these novelties in library arrangement and library administration found a ready welcome in France, where Cardinal Mazarin was engaged in the formation of a vast collection of books intended to surpa.s.s that of his predecessor Richelieu[501]. Even then his library was public; all who chose to come might work in it on Thursdays from 8 to 11 in the morning, and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. At a later period of his life, when he had removed to a palace now included in the Bibliotheque Nationale, he was able to build a library in accordance with his magnificent ideas. An accident of construction placed this room over the stables, a conjunction which afforded endless amus.e.m.e.nt to the pamphleteers of the time. It was finished at the end of 1647; and in the following year the Cardinal threw it open, the first public library given to Paris. _Publice patere voluit, censu perpetuo dotavit, posteritati commendavit_, said the inscription which he placed over the door of entrance. I need not attempt to recover from the somewhat conflicting accounts of admiring contemporaries the exact dimensions and arrangements of this gallery, for the bookcases still exist almost unaltered in the Bibliotheque Mazarine. One detail deserves notice because it may have been borrowed from the Ambrosian Library. There is said to have been a staircase in each of the four corners of the room by which access to a gallery was obtained[502].
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 122. Bookcases in the Bibliotheque Mazarine, Paris.
From a photograph by Dujardin, 1898.]
Mazarin died in 1661, and, in accordance with his will, a college, to be called _Le College des Quatre Nations_, was founded and endowed, and the library was removed into it. The college was suppressed at the Revolution, and the buildings are now occupied by the _Inst.i.tut de France_, but the library remains practically intact. It occupies two rooms at right angles to each other with a united length of about 158 ft., and a width of 27 ft.
They are admirably lighted by 17 large windows.
The bookcases (fig. 122), from the original library in the Palais Mazarin, were placed round the new room. At first they terminated with the cornice, surmounted by the bal.u.s.trade which protected the gallery mentioned above, and the roof was arched. In 1739, when additional shelf-room was required, and the roof was in need of repair, it was agreed to construct the present flat ceiling, and to gain thereby wall-s.p.a.ce of sufficient height to accommodate 20,000 additional books. The gallery thus formed is approached by two staircases constructed at the same time[503].
If the elevation of these cases (fig. 123) be compared with that of the cases in the Escrial (fig. 119), I feel sure that my readers will agree with me in admitting that the French example was copied from the Spanish.
The general arrangement is the same, and especially the really distinctive features, namely, the division by columns, and the presence of a desk. It will be observed that the French example is the larger of the two, being 18 ft. high from the floor to the top of the cornice. The desk, moreover, is 4 ft. from the floor, so that it was evidently intended to be used standing.
I am aware that Naude, the librarian employed by Mazarin to collect books for him, did not visit Spain, nor was Mazarin himself ever in that country. There is therefore no evidence to connect his library with that of Philip II., but in justification of my theory I submit that the resemblance is too close to be accidental, and that in all probability the library at the Escrial had been much talked of in the world of letters.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 123. Elevation of a bookcase and section of a desk in the Bibliotheque Mazarine, Paris.]
The convenience of placing book-shelves against a wall was soon accepted in England, but at first in a somewhat half-hearted fas.h.i.+on. The earliest instance of this, so far as I know, is to be met with in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, where the first stone of the eastern wing was laid in 1610, and completed, with the fittings, in 1612[504].
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 124. A portion of the bookcases set up in the eastern wing of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, built 1610-1612.
From Loggan's _Oxonia Ill.u.s.trata_, 1675.]
Advantage was taken of the whole of the wall-s.p.a.ce provided by this extension, and it was lined with a bookcase extending from floor to ceiling. In order to provide easy access to the upper shelves, a light gallery was provided, the pillars of which were utilised to support a seat for the readers, because, the books being still chained, desks and seats were indispensable. These cases still exist almost unaltered, but their appearance as first constructed has been preserved to us in Loggan's print, taken about 1675, part of which is here reproduced (fig. 124).
In 1634 (13 May) the first stone was laid of the enlargement of the library towards the west, corresponding exactly to the wing at the opposite end erected twenty-four years before[505]. The fittings were on the same plan, but of a more elaborate and highly finished design, the plain supports of the former work being replaced by Ionic columns supporting arches with frieze and cornice, and a heavy bal.u.s.trade for the gallery above.
I now come to the influence exercised upon the architecture and fittings of libraries by Sir Christopher Wren, and I shall be able to shew that though he did not actually introduce the wall-system into England, he developed it, adapted it to our requirements, and by the force of his genius shewed what structural changes were necessary in order to meet the increased number of books to be accommodated. Wren never visited Italy, but in 1665 he spent about six months in Paris, where he made the acquaintance of the best painters, sculptors, and architects, among whom was the Italian Bernini. From him he might easily obtain information of what was pa.s.sing in Italy, though he describes him as ”the old reserved Italian” who would hardly allow him a glimpse of a design for which, says Wren, ”I would have given my skin.” French work he studied enthusiastically, and after giving a list of places he had visited says, ”that I might not lose the impressions of them I shall bring you almost all France in paper.” Among other things he specially records his admiration for what he terms ”the masculine furniture of the Palais Mazarin,” though he does not specially mention the library; but, as Mazarin had died four years before, his palace would have been practically dismantled, and the only furniture likely to attract Wren's attention would have been his bookcases[506].
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 125. Entrance to Wren's Library at Lincoln Cathedral, with part of the bookcase which lines the north wall.]
The first piece of library work executed by Wren in England was at Lincoln Cathedral, 1674, where after the Restoration a new library was required.
Dr Michael Honywood, who had been appointed Dean in 1660, offered to build one at his own cost, and to present to it the books which he had collected in Holland. The site selected was that formerly occupied by the north alley of the cloister, which, through faulty construction, had fallen down, and lain in ruins for a long period.
The building consists of an arcade of nine semicircular arches supported on eight Doric columns. The upper storey, containing the library, has eleven windows in a similar cla.s.sical style, and above there is a bold entablature ornamented with acanthus leaves. The library is 104 ft. long by 17 ft. 6 in. wide and 14 ft. high; the ceiling is flat and perfectly plain. In addition to the windows above mentioned there is another at the west end. The entrance is at the east end through a richly ornamented door (fig. 125). The s.h.i.+eld in the centre of the pediment bears the arms of Dean Honywood.