Library

(li'bra-re.) [L. librarium.] A term applied indifferently to buildings, ., destined to contain books, and to the books themselves deposited in th eso buildings. The first public L. of which we have any certain account in history was founded at Athens by Hipparch us, 526 B. c.; the second of any note, at Alexandria,by Ptolemy Philadelphus, 284. The latter was burnt by the Roman army, 47 B. c., 400,000 valuable books being destroyed in the conflagration. A second L., formed from the remains of the first at Alexandria, by Ptolemy's succe ors, and said to have consisted of 700,000 volumes, was totally destroyed by the Saracens, at the command of the caliph Omar, A. D. 642. How many treasures of ancient lore were thus irremediably lost must ever remain unknown; but it is more than probable, when we consider the labor of transcribing that a very trifling portion of the literature of remote ages has been preserved to us. The two largest L. at present existing in Europe are: the National Library, Paris, abt. 2,000,000 vols. and 84,000 MSS.; and that of the British Museum, abt. 1,300,000 vols. and 32,000 MSS. The United States do not yet po e L. of such magnitude; but those of Harvard College; of the Smithsonian Institution and the Congre ional L. at Washington; the Astor L. at New York; the Library Company and Logan i an L., and the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences, at Philadelphia; the Athenæum and Public L. at Boston, and several others, are already of considerable value, and are daily increasing with a rapidity un- [s. 542]