5... 36s 3 12. 35s O 19. 35s 6 38 9 33s 9d to 44 6 35s 9d 45 3 LEATHER. London Premiums of Insurance. Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, &c. 15s. 9d. Africa, 2gs. Amelia Island, Ogs. to Ogs. Hamburgh, &c. 15s. 9d. to 20s. Cape of Good Hope, 2gs. East-India (Co. ships) 3gs. to 3gs. -out and home, 7gs. France, 15. 9d. to 20s. Greenland, out and home, gs. Holland, 158. 9d. to 20s. Honduras, &c. 2 gs. Rio Janeiro 67 Jamaica, 358. Leeward Islands, 258. Madeira, 25s. to 30s. Malta, Italian States, &c. 35s. Agio Bank of Holland, 2 per cent. HAY and STRAW-AT SMITHFIELD. THE LITERARY PANORAMA, AND National Register : For SEPTEMBER, 1818. NATIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES, (British and Foreign,) PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE. DR. BURNEY'S LIBRARY. FROM THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO EXAMINE THE PROPRIETY OF PURCHASING DR. BURNEY'S LIBRARY. [Ordered to be printed by the House of Commons.] If it were not inconsistent with the maxims and management of the PANORAMA, the present would be a favourable opportunity for displaying that spirit of research, that power of recondite learning, which among some is prized as the very acme of science, and among others is branded with the odious name of pedantry. A history of public Institutions founded in favour of the studious and inquisitive, would comprize matter of the earliest record: it would-it must, to be complete-include the first ages of the civilized world; and scarcely would the animosities, and divisions, and wars, of mankind-those incessant and fruitful themes of history-be able to maintain the priority which they have always claimed; and which has too readily been granted them, by the writers of narrative, and the incautious among their readers. The Mosaic writings do not indeed explicitly and openly state the existence of Public Libraries, distinguished, or distinguishable, as such: yet, if we regard the names of places as any indi VOL, VIII, No. 48. Lit. Pan, N. S. Sept. 1, cation of their purpose and destination, the inference cannot be denied, though the evidence has usually been overlooked. That there was a national Repository for national documents under the direc tion of Moses, in the Wilderness, and under the custody of his brother Aaron, appears highly probable-from the special charge given concerning the safe custody of the original copy of the law; from the various documents employed in the compilation of the sacred text, from the appeal made by Joshua to an authority, an ancient authority, more than ordinarily authentic, under the title of the "book of Jasher,"-from the allusions to the pieces written by those who spake in proverbs,"-from quotations of such pieces; not omitting the words and works of Balaam the soothsayer,-from the civil records of the Israelites, of which we have transcripts; and from the saceraotal accounts of their public affairs, which appear to have formed a separate department. That this library was continued afterwards, under the kings of Israel and Judah, is very credible; and Whiston had strong probabilities on his side, when he conjectured that Nehemiah restored the custom, when he restored Jerusalem and the temple; though it may be thought uncertain whether Josephus (as Mr. W. supposed) were allowed by the favour of Titus to avail himself of 21 documents taken by the Roman conqueror from that sacred repository. * It must be added, that the preservation of public records was an important duty of the priesthood among the Egyptians; and the same may be said of the ancient inhabitants of Canaan, if the opinion of a learned writer be well founded, that the name of a town in Judea;-Debir, "or the Oracle," for- | merly—i. e. before the days of Joshua, called Kiriath-sepher, or "the city of the book," was a seat of learning, a college, or university; in short a repository for books, or a library.† Sacred Geography, Index, sub voce. Joshua, xv. 15. ↑ Osymanduas, king of Egypt, is said to have been the first who established a public library for that country. According to Diodorus it was built in his palace, and had over the door this inscription YYXHE IATPEION. The Repository for Medicines of the Soul. Scripture speaks of a library of the kings of Persia, Ezra v. 17. vi. 1, under the term the house of rolls, i. e. of records: but, what it contained beside, is only matter of conjecture. The second of Esdras mentions a library built by Nehemiah, in which were deposited the books of the prophets, of David, and the letters of the kings of the nation. The library of Pisistratus was transported by Xerxes into Persia; but was brought back to Athens, long afterwards, by Seleucus Nicanor. Constantine and his successors, collected a magnificent library at Constantinople; which in the eighth century amounted to 300,000 volumes; among them was a copy of the Iliad and Odyssey written in letters of gold, on the skin of a serpent. The foundation of the Vatican library was laid in 1450 by Pope Nicholas. It was destroyed in the sacking of Rome by the Constable Bourbon: but was restored, by Pope Sixtus V. One of the most complete libraries in Europe was that erected by Cosmo de Medicis at Florence: over its gate was written LABOR ABSQUE LABORE. The Bodleian library at Oxford, certainly, as a private institution, exceeds that of any country: it was built on the foundation of that of Duke Humphrey it was opened in 1602; and has since been greatly increased by private and public donations. To what extent such collections might be enlarged, in those early days, we have no means of knowing; but, we know, that in later ages the spirit of emulation was not wanting between crowned heads on the subject of national libraries; and that the Ptolemys of Egypt forbad the exportation of papyrus (whence our word paper); which obliged the kings of Pergamus, their rivals in book-collecting, to have recourse to dressed skins, called pergamena, (whence our word parchment). The Egyptian collection at Alexandria, it is understood, comprised upwards of four hundred thousand volumes: an immense treasure, had it reached our days! Athens and Rome, also had their libraries; royal and individual. The early Christian Churches preserved the records of their transactions, for the information of their successors, and diligently collected those of others; and it is, in part, to the library of Pamphilus, accumulated at Cesarea, that we owe our acquaintance with so much of Christian history as is preserved in the works of Eusebius. That Library, Jerom compared to the collections of Demetrius Phalareus, and Pisistratus: how justly, we cannot tell; but, certainly, it was honourable to the Christian student, and to Christianity. Notwithstanding these instances of literary munificence, the acquisition of books, as the means of information, was attended with great expense and inconvenience, till the noble Art of Printing rendered them accessible, perhaps, in a greater degree, to private persons, than they had formerly been to the most powerful monarchs. It will be recollected, also, that the number of copies into circulation at once, was much greaproduced by the press, and brought ter than could be issued together, when every copy was the work of a scribe. So large an edition as five hundred written copies could not be distributed at the same time; but, by the present mode of publication, they are dispersed far and wide, in much less time than one tenth part of the number could be, antiently. In proportion as the impediments to sand. the formation of literary collections were | MSS. soon after the art of printing had removed, the disposition of the intel- multiplied books beyond calculation; has ligent to that gratification was strength- contributed greatly to augment the value ened; and, under these circumstances, of those which remain. They are not only would display itself in all countries, greatly prized for their merits, as works, and with accelerated avidity. Science but a still higher value is attributed to quickly found the advantage; discove-them, as rarities. They have acquired ries or improvements were instantly communicated; every nation found itself speedily on a par with its neighbours; and the term "literary world," no longer a merely ideal conception, or a dead letter, assumed a reality, an animation, an energy, which was felt in all parts; from the genial climes of Italy to the frozen latitudes of the Arctic Circle. of an importance not originally their due; they are the disjecta membra of former times; and their possessors esteem them accordingly, We may, on this part of our subject, recal to the minds of our readers, the importance attached to an antient MS. famous all the world over; we mean the copy called the Alexandrian, now in the British Museum. To perpetuate this MS. by multiplying it, the British Nation, through its legislature, has warranted the incurring of considerable expences; and the copies to be printed are fac simile, line for line, letter for letter, erasure for erasure, with all possible exactness. The object of collectors now became divided into distinct departments: one of them continued to be that of Manuscripts; the other that of Printed Books. Unhappily for the succeeding ages literary enquiry, those editors who had When original editions of valuable caused certain works to be printed, too works, printed, were but small; and generally, afterwards treated the manuscripts, copies which had formed the when, of course, the copies were subbasis of their editions, with indifference, ject to all the accidents of time and place, those which escaped, became ranot to say, with disregard. They suprities of no inconsiderable value. Not posed that all advantages which could be obtained from those copies had been that they were always justly appreciobtained: they, therefore, were neglect-ated by the curious; the spirit of emued, were forgotten, were consumed by damps, became the prey of worms, suffered a thousand different mischances, were lost and heard of no more. Instead, then, of being able to ascertain with what skill, and what fidelity, those learned editors had availed themselves of the authorities they possessed; we are now restricted to the determinations of their judgment; we are limited to the choice they made of texts and readings, without being able to examine the motives of that choice. They may have exercised the soundest discretion: and it may be, that our reliance on their judgment is well warranted; but modern critics would be infinitely better pleased, could they determine this for themselves: and, instead of undervaluing Manuscripts of antient authors already printed, there is reason to think that such manuscripts would bear a still higher character, and esteem among those who are able to profit by them. The destruction of a great number of lation and rivalry attached an ideal importance to them; and the satisfaction of possessing a unique, was greatly enhanced by that consciousness which glows not in the bosom only, but to the fingers' ends of a genuine and wealthy Bibliomaniac. We do not say that a nation should be infected with the delightful phrenzy, which dazzles the understanding of virtuoso collectors. A nation does not collect for the sake of collecting. Books of mere curiosity, are not its object; though in pursuing its object, it often collects books of mere curiosity. But a nation cannot be ac * In the Memoirs of the French Institut, Vol. i. p. 664, are reflections to this purpose: "The knowledge of books is of two kinds; one kind contemplates scarcely auy thing but the outside of a book, its form and size; in order to value it according to its date, according to the appearance of the impression, or of certain notes, and sometimes merely according to a typographical error, or to such quali ties as give it a place among rare and curious works, and fix its pecuniary value at a high rate. The other kind of knowledge consists |