The Library
The Library
Book Excerpt
hunt for them, that the following pages are to
treat. It is a subject more closely connected with the taste for
curiosities than with art, strictly so called. We are to be
occupied, not so much with literature as with books, not so much
with criticism as with bibliography, the quaint duenna of
literature, a study apparently dry, but not without its humours.
And here an apology must be made for the frequent allusions and
anecdotes derived from French writers. These are as unavoidable,
almost, as the use of French terms of the sport in tennis and in
fencing. In bibliography, in the care for books AS books, the
French are still the teachers of Europe, as they were in tennis and
are in fencing. Thus, Richard de Bury, Chancellor of Edward III.,
writes in his "Philobiblon:" "Oh God of Gods in Zion! what a rushing
river of joy gladdens my heart as often as I have a chance of going
to Paris! There the days seem always short; there are the goodly
collections on the delicate fragrant book-shelves." Since Dante
w
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