[879] Jugler, in his Hist. Litteraria, mentions none between that of the Rhine, and one established at Weimar in 1617, p. 1994.
Libraries. 37. Italy was rich, far beyond any other country, in public and private libraries. The Vatican, first in dignity, in antiquity, and in number of books, increased under almost every successive pope, except Julius II., the least favourable to learning of them all. The Laurentian library, purchased by Leo X., before his accession to the papacy, from a monastery at Florence, which had acquired the collection after the fall of the Medici in 1494, was restored to that city by Clement VII., and placed in the newly-erected building which still contains it. The public libraries of Venice and Ferrara were conspicuous; and even a private citizen of the former, the Cardinal Grimani, is said to have left one of 8000 volumes; at that time, it appears, a remarkable number.[880] Those of Heidelberg and Vienna, commenced in the fifteenth century, were still the most distinguished in Germany; and Cardinal Ximenes founded one at Alcala.[881] It is unlikely that many private libraries of great extent existed in the empire; but the trade of bookselling, though not yet, in general, separated from that of printing, had become of considerable importance.
[880] Tiraboschi, viii. 197-219.
[881] Jugler, Hist. Litteraria, p. 206 et alibi.
CHAPTER X.
HISTORY OF ANCIENT LITERATURE IN EUROPE, FROM 1550 TO 1600.
Sect. I.
Progress of classical learning—Principal critical scholars—Editions of ancient authors—Lexicons and Grammars—Best writers of Latin—Muretus—Manutius—Decline of taste—Scaliger—Casaubon—Classical learning in England under Elizabeth.
Progress of Philology. 1. In the first part of the sixteenth century we have seen that the foundations of a solid structure of classical learning had been laid in many parts of Europe; the superiority of Italy had generally become far less conspicuous, or might perhaps be wholly denied; in all the German empire, in France, and partly in England, the study of ancient literature had been almost uniformly progressive. But it was the subsequent period of fifty years, which we now approach, that more eminently deserved the title of an age of scholars, and filled our public libraries with immense fruits of literary labour. In all matters of criticism and philology, what was written before the year 1550 is little in comparison with what the next age produced.