WHAT BECOMES OF BOOKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4097, 8 June 1881, Page 4

WHAT BECOMES OF BOOKS.

The world has never had so many books aa to-day, and but for the destroying agents j that keep pace with the progress of bookI making, the present rapid multiplication of books would soon usurp for printed volumes an undue share of space suitable for their preservation. The rain and the sunshine, the frost and the tuaw, gaslight and heat, mould and decay, children and servant?, prepare the booka in modern households for the kindling of firea Booner or later, or for I the junkman — the modern undertaker of literature. It ia estimated that not less than 25,000 new books are published every year, running through editions numbering from 1000 to 25,000 volumes. There are now 1,100,000 printed books in the British Museum Library, and there aro 3,000,000 booka in tho Bibliotheque Natiorale of Paris. Our American libraries aro wonderfully large for a new country, and it ia believed thot there are larger collections of booka in libraries now than ever before. Bibliophilea of to-day do not trust the old stories of the enormous number and valuo of the books deatroyed at Carthage and at Alexandria. Even with the steam press, which has been working a half century, it is extremely difficult to collect a half million different books in a modern library, and tha accounts of old writers of the wonderful extent of ancient libraries are doubted, because of the scarcity of books before tho invention of printing. While some bibliophiles estimate that probably not one-thousandth part of the books that have been are still extant, they are not disposed to mourn their destruction, for doubtless mountaina of rubbish were removed, which, if the cleansing fires had not come, would have rendered destructive measures necessay for sheer want of space in which to store bo many volumes. The libraries of MSS. collected by tbe Egyptian Ptolemies wero doubtless famous throughout the world, and when they were burned in Caesar's Alexandrian war B.C. 48, at Alexandria, and again by the "^arocenf., A.D. 640, an immense losb was inflicted upon mankind; but although Gibbon, tho historian, accepts the story that 700,000 volumes were thua destroyed, many book men gravely doubt it. These volumes, like all the manuscripts of the early ages, wero written on sheets of parchment, with a wooden roller at each end, so that the reader needed only to unroll a portion at a time. Tho next great deatruction of booka was at Carthage, when 560,000 baoke are eaid to havo been burned. In Actß xix., 19, St. Luke narrates that, after tho preaching of Paul, many of the Ephesians "which used curious arts brought their books together and burned therr before all men, and they counted the prico of themi, and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver." This bonfire, it is estimated, cost the Ephesians £18,000 in our money. It ie believed that tho booka deatroyed wero little parchment scrolls, upon which magio sentences were written, forming books of idolatroua divinationa, alchemy, enchantments aud witchcraft. None of the manuscripts of that ago ia now extant, and possibly if St. Paul had not incited the Ephesians to burn these writings, which, it ia believed, he denounced as spirituoualy injurious, they would have been destroyed by the teeth of time. Tho collection to-day would be worth Jay Gould's fortune, for the scrolls doubtless contained illustrations of early heathoni&m, of devil worahip, serpent worship, and sue worship, early astrological and chemical loro, and aymbols of the archaic forms of religion derived from the Egyptians, the Persians, and the Greeks. These scrolla were usod as charms against all eviln, and protection eapecially against the " evil eye." Their manufacture as late as the fourth century formed an extensive trade, and it has not wholly died out yet, although now in another form. The Epheaians carried the scrolls about their persons, and when Paul's eloquence convinced tbem of their superstition they doubtless drew them forth from beneath their garments, and cast them into the flames. With heathens burning Christian writings and Christians retaliating upon Pagan literature, books disappeared rapidly in the twilight of civilisation. Mohammed destroyed books because if they contained what waa in the Koran they were superfluous, and if they contained anything oppoaed to it they wore immoral. Twelve thousand books printed in Hebrew were burned at Cremona in 1569, and at the capture of Granada Cardinal Ximenes made a bonfire of 5000 copies of the Koran. Tho great monastic libraries fell under the teeth of time in the Reformation. The booka were destroyed to " scour candlesticka, clean boots, and light fires. Some were sold to grocers and soap sellers for wrapping purposes, and a merchant, for forty shillings, bought two noblo libraries containing paper Btock enough to laßt him ten years. Many bookß from the first presseß, including Caxton's translation of tho " MetamOrphosee" of Olid, and probably his "Lyf of th* Erie of Oxenf orde," wero torn up to cover the bottom of pans in the baking of piea. The great fire of London in 1666 reduced many priceless collections to cinders, including an immense stock romoved for safety to the vaults of St Paul's Cathedral. A curious heap of scorched leaves, looking like a monster wasp's next, may be seen in a glass case in tho British Museum, as a relic of the firo of 1731 at ABhburnam Houbo, Westminster, which partly destroyed the Cotton MSS. These books, by the exercise of much skill, wero partly restored, although charred almost boyond recognition. They wero carefully separated leaf by leaf, soaked in a chemical solution, and then pressed between sheets of transparent paper. Biblioclasts navo now a centonnial to celebrate if they choose, for it is a hundred yeara since Dr Prieatly's valuable library was burned by the mob in the Birmingham riots. In tho Gordon riotß, the literary and other collections of Lord Manßfield, the celebrated Judgo — he who first decided that tho slave who reached England was thenceforward a free man — were burned by the mob. The sheila of the German army in 1870 fired the great Straabourg Library, containing the records of the famous law suits between Gutenberg, the first printer, and hia partners, upon whioh depended the olaim of Gutenberg to the invention of " the art preservative of all arts." In that fire alao the first printed Bible, and many other priceless volumes were consumed. A littlo Alcove in Guildhall Library, London, which ia labelled " Bibliotheca Ecclesia Londino," Belgrcvo, contains a collection of books that has been lent for ever to tho corporation of London. The books, all rare and curious, belonged to the old Dutch Church of Austin Friars, and they remained there foryears in a gallory untouched, so that tho damp and dust bad settled upon them half an inch thick. They wero in this state whon tho firo of 1862 occurred in tho church. They came out scorched, sodden, and muddy, and tho salvago was not worth £5. As no portion of the library could be givon away legally, tho perpotual loan waß mado to tho corporation of London, whoso librarian, appreciating tbo valuo of tho books, dry nursed them for months, washing, sizing, drying, pressing, and binding them, until they wero put into the good condition in which they" may ba

seen to-day. With all tho devastation of fire, aome fate seems at times to have guided the flames about preciouß books, for there ore mauy rare old pages which have come through fierce heat with only a loss of their bindings and their margins, while the}' retained an untouched oval centre of plain print. About 1000 volumes were thua sa/ved from the Offor collection, when it was burned in Wellington street, London. The author of "Endymion" relates that about the year 1700 Herr Huddo, a rich burgomaster of Middlebur^h, travellod for thirty years disguised aa a mandarin throughout the length and breadth of tho Celestial Empire, and collected great literary treasures, hut the ship whioh contained them foundered in a atorm, and they were irreparably loat. Pirates threw overboard a vessel load of booka collected by the family of Maffei Pinelli, who died in 1785, having then the most celebrated library in tho world. The library had been collected for many generations, ond comprised numerous manuscripta dating from the 11th to tho 16th century and an extraordinary number of Greek, Latin and Italian works, many of them the first editions and beautifully illuminated. The books were purchased by a London bookseller, who put them in three vessels for transportation, and the freight of the two vessels, which escaped tho pirates waa sold for about £9000. Mohammed 11., when he captured Constantinople in the 15th century, ordered the books of all the churches aa woll aa the 120,000 manuscripts in the library of Emperor Constantino to be thrown into tho sea. The deßtruction of booka haa been greatest, doubtlesa, from natural causes. A broken pane of glaas in a cathedral library in England admitted the tendril of an ivy branch, which grew and grew until it attached itself to a row of books worth hundreds of pounds. Then in rainy weather it conducted water aa though it waa a pipe along to the top of the booka, and soaked them through and through. The rain coming n over a skylight in one library of raro books rotted some Caxtons and otber early English books, one of which, in spite of its rotten condition, was Bold for £200. Paper rots under the influence of moisture until it ia reduced to a whito decay, which crumbles into powder when handled. Damp attacks both the ineide and outside of booko. The mould spots which are so often seen upon the edges of leaves and upon the aides of the binding, under a microscope are seen to be miuature forests of lovely trees, covered with a beautiful white foliage. " They are upas trees," Bays a bibliophile, " whose roots are imbedded in the leather, and destroy ita texture." Dr Dibdin's bibliographical workß are greatly injured by brown spots brought out by dampness. An experienced book-man says that books should nover be allowed to get really old, for when a thaw comes and the weather sets in warm, the air, when laden with damp, penetrates tho inmost recesses, and working ita way between the volumes, and even between the leaves, deposits upon their cold surface ita moisture. A steam-heated library is said to bo the safest for books. Librarians who do not favour a glass-doored bookcase as a preservative of books, aa tho dampness will penetrato in spito of the glass, and the absence of ventilation will assist in the formation of mould. Ornamental brass wire work ia recommended instead of glass. Gas ia condemned as a great enemy of booka, unleas it cornea from a aun-light, sueb as is ÜBed in some public librarieß, where the fumeß are carried at once into the open air, Gas disintegratea the leather of the bindings, The sulphur in the fumes attacka russia quickest, while calf and morocco do not suffei so much. The bindings of books on the top of shelves of libraries whero gas is much used have been known to crumble like Scotch snuff. Librarians expect the electric light tc prove fi great boon to public libraries. Ae used now in the reading room of the British Museum, it. obliges the reader to choose particular positions, being unequally diffused, and complaint ie made of tho humming fizz which aecompanieo the action of electricity. Somo bald-headed men also complain of small pieces of hot chalk, which continually fall from the lights used there. Too much hea< in a library desiccates the binding of booka placed upon the top shelves, where the heat is greatest, as tho leather loses all of its natural oils by long exposure to much heat. " The surest way to preserve your books," says a bibliophile, "is to treat them as you Bhould your children, who are sure to sicken if confined in an atmosphere which is impure, too hot, too cold, too damp, or too dry. It is just the same with the progeny of literature." Ignoranco has cost the world pricelese treasures in books. The antagonism at the time of the Reformation to anything appertaining to the old Romißh Ohurch led to the destruction of thousands of booka, secular »s woll as eacred. They needed only to contain illuminuted lotters to be doomed to deatructio?->. Tho paper books went to heat the ovens of bakers, and the parchment went to bootmakers. A noble copy of the first edition of the " Golden Legend," 1843, was used leaf by leaf to .light a librarian's lireß, before the revolution in France. A copy of Caxfcon'f edition of tho Canterbury Tales, with wood cuts, worth at least £400, waa used to light the vestry firo of the French Protestant Church, St Martin'e le Grand, in London, 2C years ago. A pedlar bought, in June, 1844, from a widow in a cottage at Blyton, England, the "Boko of St Albana" for 9d, aoid it for 3a to a chemist, who offered it for a guinea to a stationer, who sold it for £5 to Stark, a bibliopole, and the Right Hon Thomas Grenville gladly paid him £70 for ifc, The great Shakesperian discoveries, found in a garret at Lamport Hall in 1867, were saved from destruction by mere chance. 150C volumes, which in 1775 the Recollefc monke of Antwerp gavo to their gardener to clean out what thoy believed to be rubbish, were subsequently sold for £583. Carlyle'a firat manuscript of the " History of the French Revolution waa used by a charwoman to light a fire. Bibliophiles heap execration upon he memory of John Bagford, an antiquarian shoemaker who has beon named the " Biblioclast." He went about the old country at the beginning of tho last century, from library to library, tearing away title pages from rare books of all sizes, which he sorted out into nationalities and towns, and so with a lot of handbills, manuscript notes, and miscollaneouß collections of all kinds, formed over a hundred folio volumes now preserved in the British Museum— tho remains of many rare works. Bibliopegists hare ruined the sacred vestments of many rare old works, reduced noble margins, and put into dandified dress tomes that ahould be in their primitive boards ; but print collectors — the rich men who have tho mania for privately illustrating books — havo proved the greatest modern bihilioclaats, on fche theory that ovory thing which diminishes the interest of a book is inimical to its preservation. Tho late Sir Thomas Phillips, of Middle Hill, England, was a noteworthy bibliotaph. Ho bought bibliographical treasures only to bury them, and his mansion was crammed with books. Ho bought wholo libraries, and never even saw what ho had bought. Tho first book printed in the English language, "The Recueil of tho History of Troy," translated and printed by William Caxton for the Duchess of Burgoyne, sister to Edward IV., is believed to be in his collection, olthough ho could novor find ifc. The curious library of old Samuel Pepya, tho well-known diarist, is imprisoned in its original book cases afc Magdalene Collogo, Cambridgo. No ono can gain admission to. it except in tho company of two Fellows of tho collogo, and if a single book is lost the whole colleotion goes to a neighbouring college. A life-long imprisonment is also inflicted upon many treasurers in the Teylerian Museum, Haarlem. In the Guildford Endowed Grammar School, in England, whoro tho schoolmaster is held responsible for every volume, which, if lost, ho is bound to replace, ono master, to decrease his risk, carefully packed all the books under the floor, where they provod a banquet for the rats and mico.