SECTION II., 1902 [8] Trans. R. S. C. 
I.—Modern Public Libraries and their Methods. 
By Mr. Lawrence J. BURPEE. 
Communicated by Sir John Bourinot, K.C.M.G. 
(Read May 27, 1902.) 
The history of libraries may be traced far back into classical times, 
but none of these were public libraries, in the modern sense of the term, 
any more than were the Monastic libraries of the Middle Ages. The 
first use of the term bibliotheca publica is found in the fifteenth century, 
and the collection of manuscripts bequeathed by Niccolo Niccoli to the 
city of Florence, with the distinct provision that they were to be devoted 
to the use of the citizens, may perhaps be regarded as the first public 
library. This early progenitor of the modern free library was after- 
wards merged into the Lauranziana, and the original manuscripts, or 
most of them, may still be seen in that library. It was, however, but 
an isolated example, far in advance of its times, and had no legitimate 
successor until long after the invention of printing. 
After Gutenburg, Fust and Peter Schoeffer in Germany, Coster in 
Holland, and Caxton in England, had firmly established that greatest 
of all modern inventions, the Printing Press, libraries of all kinds 
became more common. They had previously been for the most part 
confined to the universities, the monasteries, and (in England) a few 
powerful guilds, such as the Corporation of London and the .Kalendars 
of Bristol. They now spread among the less wealthy and the less 
learned classes. Legal and medical libraries were formed for the use 
of professional men; the old monastic libraries were offset, in Protestant 
centres, by libraries containing the works of Luther, Melanchthon, 
Erasmus, etc.; and in the castles of princes and great nobles were to be 
found collections of popular romances, chronicles, etc., such as came 
from the presses of Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and other early printers. 
Pugzic LIBRARIES OF GREAT BRITAIN.! 
The earliest traces of free town libraries in England belong to the 
beginning of the seventeenth century. The town library at Norwich, 
founded in 1608, is a characteristic example of a class of library peculiar 
to this period. It is the oldest city free library with a continuous history 
to the present day. The Norwich library, and others of the same kind, 
were not provided by the community, as our modern free libraries are, 
1 For the following particulars regarding public libraries in the United 
Kingdom I am chiefly indebted to Mr. J. J. Ogle’s admirable little work on 
The Free Library, London, 1897. 
