library, grouped tinder three headings. First, means of im- 

 proving the library without expense. Under this caption 

 Blotius recommended that the law requiring copies of books 

 to be deposited in the library by their authors (an old regu- 

 lation in Rudolph's day) should be more strictly enforced; 

 also that the custom of presenting to private libraries books 

 belonging to the royal collection should be discontinued ; and 

 thirdly, that the return of books loaned to scholars should 

 be insisted upon. The library had lost, he wrote, a great 

 many volumes through the carelessness of borrowers, some- 

 times the books were retained by the borrowers until death 

 and returned by their heirs, if returned at all. II. Proposals 

 for increasing and improving the library with small expen- 

 diture. Of books printed in foreign countries only the most 

 useful and necessary ones by eminent authors should be pur- 

 chased ; many new books ought to he bound and some quite 

 worn out should be repaired. The library building ought to 

 be made attractive by the purchase of canvasses for decorat- 

 ing its walls, and of easel pictures by celebrated artists. 

 These improvements Blotius hoped to accomplish by an an- 

 nual outlay of three hundred gulden. III. The third heading 

 in the memorial dealt with the qualifications of a librarian. 

 He should hold no other office, he should be skilled in lan- 

 guages, upright, faithful, industrious, enterprising, not poor, 

 not superstitious, and a friend of science and of nature ; it 

 would be well also if the librarian was a nobleman and 

 clothed with imperial dignity and authority, so that when 

 travelling on business he could have unrestricted admission 

 to libraries and institutions in every city, for not only the 

 common people, but even the gentry esteem a man in propor- 

 tion to the splendor of his attire and the dignity of his honor- 

 able titles. The court librarian ought to be a Privy Councillor, 

 and if not of a noble family he should be raised to a high rank. 



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