the report filed. Appeals from the Burgomasters of several 

 cities in the Eastern provinces asking compensation for pro- 

 perty destroyed by riotous soldiers, requests for privileges from 

 noblemen holding high offices, complaints by Catholic digni- 

 taries of encroachments by Protestants, protests from Lu- 

 theran bodies against oppression by the Jesuits, decrees pro- 

 posed by the Imperial Chamber and requiring the Emperor's 

 consent, were successively brought to the attention of Ru- 

 dolph, who showed impatience, nonchalance and irritation 

 according to the subject involved. He would neither sanction 

 nor reject any document; some were too weighty for present 

 consideration, others were too trifling, others still were not 

 appropriate to the occasion, and the secretary began to feel 

 discouraged when he mentioned the receipt of a memorial 

 from Hugo Blotius, librarian of the Imperial Library at 

 Vienna; Rudolph's features immediately brightened and he 

 ordered it read. 



Dr. Blotius, a native of Delft, an eminent lecturer on 

 jurisprudence at Strassburg, had been appointed Imperial 

 Librarian by Maximilian one year before Rudolph had suc- 

 ceeded to the throne, and was the first to have that title; 

 the Fleming found the library housed in the Cloisters of the 

 Minorites and in a condition showing ignorance and neglect. 

 Under his care the collection of manuscripts and books in- 

 creased rapidly in number and value, partly through gifts 

 from authors and scholars, and partly by purchase; twenty- 

 six hundred volumes were acquired from the heirs of Johannes 

 Sambucus, the Hungarian physician, historian, archaeologist 

 and poet, and the orderly arrangement of this considerable 

 addition cost Blotius and his assistants much thought and 

 labor. 



The address to his Majesty written by Blotius contained 

 suggestions for increasing, beautifying and improving the 



183 



