362 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 289. 



'^'Wilhelmus ab Hazenburg, Papal lejjate, who 

 flourished a.d. 1366, formed a fine collection of 

 ancient MSS. After his death, his library was 

 published for an immense sum by the Emperor 

 Charles IV., who gave it to the Caroline (?) 

 University. 



The library of Charles V. of France was de- 

 posited in the Louvre.' The catalogue included 

 900 volumes, which at that time (1380) was a 

 considerable number. 



The library of his successor (Charles VL, who 

 died 1422) was catalogued after his decease; and 

 found to contain 853 volumes, which were valued 

 at 2323 liv. As. 



John Lascar brought at one time nearly 200 

 volumes from a monastery on Mount Athos. 



Mathia Corvino, King of Hungary, and Frederic 

 Duke of Urbino, about the same period, with 

 many others, actively engaged in the collection 

 and preservation of ancient books. 



Cosmo di Medici founded the library of St. 

 George at Venice, which he enriched with many 

 valuable MSS. 



The same Cosmo laid the foundation of the 

 celebrated Laurentian library, at Florence. (Ros- 

 coe's Di Medici.) 



Niccolo Niccoli made a valuable collection of 

 800 volumes of Greek, Iloman, and Oriental au- 

 thors. These were purchased by Cosmo, who de- 

 jDosited them in St. Mark's at Florencg. Hence 

 arose the Bibliotheca Marciana. 



The person employed as librarian for the last- 

 named collection, afterwards became Pope as 

 I\ icholas V. He so augmented the scanty Pon- 

 tifical library, that he may be styled the founder 

 of the magnificent library of the Vatican. 



The library of St. Gall, in 1414, is referred to 

 by Berington, p. 322. 



The Vita et EpistolcB of Robert Huntington 

 (1704) contains a letter by Stephen the Patriarch 

 of Antioch, which gives some notices of ancient 

 MSS. at that time existing within the limits of his 

 j urisdiction. 



Mr. Curzon mentions an Armenian library which 

 contains 2000 ancient MSS., in a very neglected 

 condition, at Etchmiazin. {Armenia, p. 236.) 



He also alludes to the libraries of the monas- 

 tery of Lake Van, those of Urumia, &c. 



It is known that in the East there are yet re- 

 maining many ancient MSS., the recovery of 

 which is exceedingly to be desired. 



" I remember that, in speaking of the monasteries near 

 the Black Sea, and in other distant provinces, he (the 

 Archbishop of Twer) informed me tliat many of them 

 contained vaUiable ancient manuscripts in Greek, Chal- 

 daic, &c., which ai-e most jealously guarded by the monks 

 under whose care they are; although the holy men are 

 ordinarily so ignorant, that they cannot read them. On 

 my inquiry in what way the monks had obtained posses- 

 sion of them, he told us, that at the siege of Byzantium, 

 and at the destruction of the Ubrary of Alexandria, many 



persons fled into the remoter districts for safety, and car- 

 ried -with them the manuscripts of valuable ancient 

 writings." — Englishwoman in Russia, p. 124. 



A few additions to the previous list may be 

 made from the lists of "Books Burnt;" and it 

 might be farther enlarged perhaps by reference to 

 Justus Lipsius Syntagm. de Bibliothecis, which I 

 have not seen. 



The fortunes and misfortunes of books would 

 be a good subject; and a list of the principal 

 European libraries would be useful. But both 

 these for the present I must leave to others. 



B. H. COWPBB. 



tATINlUS liATINUS — MK. THOMAS MOORE. 



Is the following very amusing blunder worthy 

 of a corner in " N. & Q. ?" 



Mr. Moore, in his Journal (vol. vi. p. 340. of 

 Lord John Russell's edit.), mentions having seen 

 a letter from Archbishop Howley, in which his 

 grace spoke of the aspect of the times, " which he 

 declared to be very lowering (meaning in respect 

 to the Church), and adds : ' For myself; I can say 

 with Latinus — 



' Mihi parta est quies, omnisque in littore portus ! ' " 



Mr. Moore continues : 



" Bowles (the gentleman to whom the archbishop's 

 letter was addressed) had read the name of this author 

 Latinensis ; but I saw it was Latinus, and found on re- 

 ference to Morhofius, when I came home, that the arch- 

 bishop's classic is Latinius Latinus, a Catliolic divine of 

 the sixteenth century, who wrote, among other things, 

 Latin poems, and is lauded as a very honest man by 

 Lipsius." 



I need not inform your readers who the La- 

 tinus, alluded to by the archbishop, was ; or that 

 the verse quoted is well known to every schoolboy 

 who has read Virgil. It is inexpressibly ludi- 

 crous to think of Moore hunting the index of 

 Morhof's Pohjhistor, and there hitting upon La- 

 tinus Latinius (for so the name ought really to 

 have been written). But his blunders do not end 

 there. He was, says Morhof, " vir magni apud 

 Pontificios nominis." " A Catholic divine of the 

 sixteenth century," says Mr. Moore, " who wrote, 

 among other things, Latin poems." This will 

 somewhat astonish those who are acquainted with 

 the Sihliotheca Sacra et Prof ana of Latinius, which 

 is a collection of notes on all manner of authors, 

 made during a life of scholar-like drudgery, and 

 written in the margin of the books which com- 

 posed his library. These notes are in a style as far 

 remote from poetry as can well be conceived, 

 although some of the authors noted were poets, 

 e. g. Horace and Ovid. And all Mr. Moore had 

 as his authority for this transformation of Latinius 

 into a poet, was the following statement of Morhof : 



" Post mortem ejus . . . prodiit ejusdem autoris sylloge 



