THE LIBRARY ITS PAST AND FUTURE 



BY GUIDO BIAGI 



[Guido Biagi, Director of the Laurentian and the Riccardi Libraries of Florence . 

 b. Florence, Italy, 1855. Ph.D. 1878, Istituto di Studi Superior! Pratici e di 

 Perfezionamento, Florence; granted fellowship by the Board of Education for 

 Italian literature. Assistant Librarian in the Victor Emanuel, Rome, 1880; 

 First Vice-Librarian, by competition, in the National Library of Florence, 

 1882; Librarian in the Victor Emanuel, 1883; Chief of the Cabinet of the 

 Secretary of Education, 1884; Librarian of the Marucelliana Library in 

 Florence, 1886; Prefect of the Laurentian Library of Florence, 1889; Chief of 

 the Cabinet of the Minister of Education, 1892; General Inspector of Public 

 Instruction, 1893; Director of the Laurentian Library, 1895; Vice-President 

 of the International Library Conference, London, 1897; Director of the 

 Riccardiana, annexed to the Laurentian Library, 1898; Hon. Professor of 

 the Fine Arts Academy of Florence, 1897; Correspondent of the Royal His- 

 torical Society of Tuscany 1887; Hon. Secretary of the Dante Society, 1887- 

 1894; Hon. Treasurer of the Dante Society, 1899 until now; member of the 

 Superior Jury, St. Louis Exposition, 1904. Author of The Novelle Antiche 

 (Florence, 1878); The Mare Magnum of F. Marucelli (Florence, 1888); The 

 Private Life of the Renaissance Florentines; The Last Days of P. B. Shelley; 

 The Illustrations of Stradanus to the Divine Comedy; Aneddoti Litterari; several 

 publications of bibliography and library economy. Editor of The Library 

 Review (Rivista delle Bibliotiche e degli Archive).] 



THE first founders of public libraries having been Italian, it will 

 perhaps be neither strange nor unfitting that an Italian, the custo- 

 dian of one of the most ancient and valued book-collections in the 

 world, should speak to you of their past. He may, however, appear 

 presumptuous in that he will speak to you also of their future, thus 

 posing as an exponent of those anticipations which are now fashion- 

 able. It is in truth a curious desire that urges us and tempts us to 

 guess at the future, to discover the signs of what it will bring us, 

 in certain characteristics of the present moment. It answers to 

 a want in human nature which knows not how to resign itself to the 

 limitations of the present, but would look beyond it into time and 

 space. 



This looking forward toward the future is no selfish sentiment; 

 it springs from the desire not to dissipate our powers in vain attempts, 

 but to prepare new and useful material for the work of the future, so 

 that those who come after us may move forward without hindrance 

 or perturbation, without being obliged to overturn and destroy, 

 before they can build up anew. Thus does it happen in nature : huge 

 secular trunks flourish and grow green by luxuriant offshoots which 

 add new vigor of life to the old and glorious stock. 



We may perhaps discover the secret of the future of the library by 

 looking back over its past, by attentively studying the varying 

 phases through which it has passed in its upward path towards a 

 splendid goal of wisdom and civilization. By thus doing we may 



