594 



KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



of tho catalogue. 1 call attention, amono; other thing-s, to the list of 

 foreign periodicals, Liste des Periodiques etrangers (2d. ed., 178 pp., 

 octavo), published in 1896, containing 4,324 numbers. 



SAINT GENEVIEVE LIBRARY. 



The Bibliotheque Ste. Genevieve is an original and beautiful building 

 (close by the Pantheon, in the neighborhood of the Sorbonne), con- 

 structed in 1843-1850, by H. Labrouste, and also interesting to me 

 because the celebrated Public Library in Boston — which I hope to 

 discuss in detail in a future report — resembles it in its exterior. 

 The Boston building, however, is a square of 75 meters, with a large 

 court3'ard inclosed by four stories, while the Ste. Genevieve building 

 is a rectangle 106 meters long, 27 meters wide, with two stories, having 

 only four windows on the narrow side. It seems to me unjust to speak 

 of this as a plagiarism, as has sometimes been done. The Paris Library 



cost $325,000, the Boston Library, $2,500,000. I include here for com- 

 parison the fronts of the two buildings (fig. 114 and Plate 40). The 

 ground plan of the second floor, a cross section, and a side view of 

 the Ste. Genevieve Library is given in the AUgemeine Bauzeitung^ 



1851 (Plate 386); ground plan of the ground floor in the same journal, 



1852 (Plate 471). A photograph of the building was not obtainable 

 in Paris, and I had to have the one which is here published made. 

 On the ground floor, on the right and left of the somewhat dark' 

 entrance hall, is installed the collection of books founded in 1626 

 (250,000 volumes, as given by one of the librarians), according to 

 methods which are not modern, on wooden shelves, the valuable speci- 

 mens (incunabula, Aldines, etc.) in cabinets. A shallow stair hall, 

 built on the back in the central portion, measures 2.5 by 9 meters. 

 The large, very beautiful and noteworthy reading hall, with accommo- 

 dations for 476 readers, and a comprehensive reference library, is located 



