It gave me the sincerest pleasure, my dear friend, to receive your letter ... only a very few hours after the transmission of my last. At such a distance from those we love and esteem, you can readily imagine the sort of comfort which such communications impart. I was indeed rejoiced to hear of the health and welfare of your family, and of that of our friend * *, who is indeed not only a thorough-bred Rorburgher, but a truly excellent and amiable man. The account of the last anniversary-meeting of the Club has, however, been a little painful to me; inasmuch as it proves that a sort of heresy has crept into the Society--which your Vice- President, on his return, will labour as effectually as he can to eradicate.[109]
I had anticipated your wishes. You tell me, "send all you can collect about the IMPERIAL LIBRARY of Vienna; its MSS. and printed books: its treasures in the shape of Fifteeners and Sixteeners: in short, be copious (say you) in your description." The present letter will at least convince you that I have not been sparing in the account solicited; and, in truth, I am well pleased to postpone a description of the buildings, and usual sights and diversions of this metropolis, until I shall have passed a few more days here, and had fuller opportunities of making myself acquainted with details. Compared with every other architectural interior which I have yet seen, this LIBRARY is beyond doubt the most magnificent in its structure. But if my admiration be thus great of the building, and of the books, it is at least equally so of those who have the management of them. You must know that I arrived here at a very unfortunate moment for bibliographical research. The holidays of the librarians commence at the latter end of August, and continue 'till the end of September. I had no sooner delivered my letter of introduction to the well known Mons. ADAM DE BARTSCH--an Aulic Counsellor, and chief Director of the Library--than he stepped backward with a thoughtful and even anxious brow. "What is the matter, Sir, am I likely to be intrusive?" "My good friend"--replied he--taking my arm with as pleasant an air of familiarity as if I had been an old acquaintance--"you have visited us at a most unlucky moment: but let me turn the matter over in my mind, and you shall have my determination on the morrow."
That "determination" was as agreeable as it was unexpected; and really on my part--without the least affectation--unmerited. "I have been talking the matter over with my brethren and coadjutors in the library-department, (said M. Bartsch) and we have agreed--considering the great distance and expense of your journey--to give you an extra week's research among our books. We will postpone our regular trip to Baden,--whither the court, the noblesse, and our principal citizens at present resort--in order that you may have an opportunity of perfecting your enquiries. You will of course make the most of your time." I thanked M. Bartsch heartily and unfeignedly for his extreme civility and kindness, and told him that he should not find me either slothful or ungrateful. In person M. Bartsch is shorter than myself; but very much stouter. He is known in the graphic world chiefly by his Le Peintre Graveur; a very skilful, and indeed an invaluable production, in sixteen or eighteen octavo volumes-- illustrated with some curious fac-similes. He is himself an artist of no ordinary ability; and his engravings, especially after some of Rubens's pictures, are quite admirable. Few men have done so much at his time of life, and borne the effect of so much strenuous toil, so well as himself. He is yet gay in spirit, vigorous in intellect, and sound in judgment; and the simplicity of his character and manners (for in truth we are become quite intimate) is most winning.[110] Messrs. PAYNE and KOPITAR are the Librarians who more immediately attend to the examination of the books. The former is an Abbé--somewhat stricken in years, and of the most pleasing and simple manners. I saw little of him, as he was anxious for the breezes of Baden; but I saw enough to regret that he would not meet his brother librarians at the hotel of the Crown of Hungary, where I had prepared the best fare in my power to entertain them.[111]
M. Kopitar is an invaluable labourer in this bibliographical vineyard. I had formerly seen him while he was in England; when he came with Mr. Henry Foss to St. James's Place, to examine the Aldine volumes, and especially those printed upon vellum. He himself reminded me of the chary manner in which I seemed to allow him to handle those precious tomes. "You would scarcely permit me (said he smilingly) to hold them half a minute in my hands: but I will not treat you after the same fashion. You shall handle our vellum books, whether in ms. or in print, as long and as attentively as you please." I felt the rebuke as it became a preu chevalier in bibliography to feel it. "I am indebted to you, M. Kopitar, (said I, in reply) in more senses than one--- on this my visit to your Imperial Library." "But (observed he quickly) you only did what you ought to have done." All power of rejoinder was here taken away. M. Kopitar is a thoroughly good scholar, and is conversant in the Polish, German, Hungarian, and Italian languages. He is now expressly employed upon the Manuscripts; but he told me (almost with a sigh!) that he had become so fond of the Fifteeners, that he reluctantly complied with the commands of his superiors in entering on the ms. department.
Before I lay my Catalogue Raisonné of such books as I have examined, before you, it is right and fitting that I make some mention of the REPOSITORY in which these books are placed. In regard to the dimensions of the library, and the general leading facts connected with the erection of the building, as well as the number of the books, my authority is perhaps the best that can be adduced: namely, that of Mons. de Bartsch himself. Know then, my good friend, that the Imperial Library of Vienna is built over a succession of arched vaults, which are made to contain the carriages of the Emperor.
You ascend a broad staircase, to the left, which is lined with fragments of Greek and Roman antiquities. Almost the first room which you enter, is the Reading Room. This may hold about thirty students comfortably, but I think I saw more than forty on my first entrance: of whom several, with the invincible phlegm of their country, were content to stand--leaning against the wall, with their books in their hands. This room is questionless too small for the object to which it is applied; and as it is the fashion, in this part of the world, seldom or never to open the windows, the effect of such an atmosphere of hydrogen is most revolting to sensitive nerves. When the door was opened ... which at once gave me the complete length view of the GRAND LIBRARY ... I was struck with astonishment! Such another sight is surely no where to be seen.[112] The airiness, the height, the splendour, the decorative minutiæ of the whole--to say nothing of the interminable rows of volumes of all sizes, and in all colours of morocco binding--put every thing else out of my recollection. The floor is of red and white marble, diamond-wise. I walked along it, with M. Bartsch on my right hand and M. Kopitar on my left, as if fearful to scratch its polished surface:-- first gazing upon the paintings of the vaulted roof, and then upon the statues and globes, alternately, below--while it seemed as if the power of expressing the extent of my admiration, had been taken from me. At length I reached the central compartment of this wonderful room, which is crowned with a sort of oval and very lofty cupola, covered with a profusion of fresco paintings. In the centre, below, stands a whole-length statue, in white marble, of CHARLES VI., under whose truly imperial patronage this library was built. Around him are sixteen whole length statues of certain Austrian Marshals, also in white marble; while the books, or rather folios, (almost wholly bound in red morocco) which line the sides of the whole of this transept division of the room, were pointed out to me as having belonged to the celebrated hero, PRINCE EUGENE. Illustrious man!--thought I to myself--it is a taste like THIS which will perpetuate thy name, and extol thy virtues, even when the memory of thy prowess in arms shall have faded away! "See yonder"--observed M. Bartsch--"there are, I know not how many, atlas folios of that Prince's collection of PRINTS. It is thought to be unrivalled."
"But where (replied I) is the statue of this heroic collector, to whom your library is probably indebted for its choicest treasures? Tell me, who are these marshals that seem to have no business in such a sanctuary of the Muses--while I look in vain for the illustrious Eugene?" There was more force in this remark than I could have possibly imagined--for my guide was silent as to the names of these Austrian marshals, and seemed to admit, that PRINCE EUGENE... ought to have been there. "But is it too late to erect his statue? Cannot he displace one of these nameless marshals, who are in attitude as if practising the third step of the Minuet de la Cour?" "Doucement, doucement, mon ami ... (replied M.B.) il faut considérer un peu...." "Well, well--be it so: let me now continue my general observation of the locale of this magical collection." M.B. readily allowed me; and seemed silently to enjoy the gratification which I felt and expressed.
I then walked leisurely to the very extremity of the room; continuing to throw a rapid, but not uninterested glance upon all the accessories of gilding, carved work, paintings, and statuary, with which the whole seemed to be in a perfect blaze. I paced the library in various directions; and found, at every turn or fresh point of view, a new subject of surprise and admiration. There is a noble gallery, made of walnut tree, ornamented with gilding and constructed in a manner at once light and substantial, which runs from one extremity of the interior to the other. It is a master-piece of art in its way. Upon the whole, there is no furnishing you with any very correct notion of this really matchless public library. At the further end of the room, to the left, is a small door; which, upon opening, brings you into the interior of a moderately sized, plain room, where the Fifteeners are lodged. The very first view of these ancient tomes caused a certain palpitation of the heart. But neither this sort of book- jewel room, nor the large library just described--leading to it--are visited without the special license of the Curators: a plan, which as it respects the latter room, is, I submit, exceedingly absurd; for, what makes a noble book-room look more characteristic and inviting, than its being well filled with students? Besides, on the score of health and comfort--at least in the summer months--such a plan is almost absolutely requisite.
The MANUSCRIPTS are contained in a room, to the right, as you enter: connected with the small room where M. Bartsch, as commander-in-chief, regularly takes his station--from thence issuing such orders to his officers as best contribute to the well-being of the establishment. The MS. room is sufficiently large and commodious, but without any architectural pretensions. It may be about forty feet long. Here I was first shewn, among the principal curiosities, a Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus coercendis: a sort of police ordonnance, on a metal plate--supposed to have been hung up in some of the public offices at Rome nearly 200 years before the birth of Christ. It is doubtless a great curiosity, and invaluable as an historical document--as far as it goes. Here is a map, upon vellum, of the Itinerary of Theodosius the Great, of the fourth century; very curious, as exhibiting a representation of the then known world, in which the most extraordinary ignorance of the relative position of countries prevails. I understood that both Pompeii and Herculaneum were marked on this map. One of the most singular curiosities, of the antiquarian kind, is a long leather roll of Mexican hieroglyphics, which was presented to the Emperor Charles V., by Ferdinand Cortez. There are copies of these hieroglyphics, taken from a copper plate; but the solution of them, like most of those from Egypt, will always be perhaps a point of dispute with the learned.
But the objects more particularly congenial with my pursuits, were, as you will naturally guess, connected rather with vellum MSS. of the Scriptures and Classics: and especially did I make an instant and earnest enquiry about the famous fragment of the BOOK OF GENESIS, of the fourth century, of which I had before read so much in Lambecius, and concerning which my imagination was, strangely enough, wrought up to a most extraordinary pitch. "Place before me that fragment, good M. Kopitar," said I eagerly--"and you shall for ever have my best thanks." "That, and every thing else (replied he) is much at your service: fix only your hours of attendance, and our treasures are ready for your free examination." This was as it should be. I enter therefore at once, my good friend, upon the task of giving you a Catalogue Raisonné of those MSS. which it was my good fortune to examine in the nine or ten days conceded to me for that purpose; and during which I seemed to receive more than ordinary attention and kindness from the principal librarians.