24 INTRODUCTION. 



paper. Without the aids of writing and printing, all history would 

 nave been merged in mere tradition ; and all knowledge would have 

 been limited in its diffusion, garbled by frequent transmission, and 

 confused by the imperfections of memory ; so that a great portion of 

 it would have been lost, or swallowed up in vague conjecture. Hence, 

 manuscripts were the chief vehicles of knowledge, till the invention 

 of printing; since which time, books have become the great store- 

 houses of information ; collected by the labours of men of all classes, 

 in all civilized nations, and in each succeeding age. 



The term Literature-, is used in France and Germany, to signify 

 learning, or rather written learning, of every kind : the Literature of 

 a nation being understood to include all the writings which it has 

 ever produced. As the name is derived from the Latin, litera, a let- 

 ter, this definition seems appropriate ; though the terms, literature, 

 and literary, are often restricted in our own country, to those branches 

 of knowledge which treat of man in his social, moral, and intellectual 

 relations. In this sense, all human knowledge is frequently com- 

 prehended under the three heads of Literature, Science, and the Arts. 



The term Bibliography, from the Greek, fitfhtov, a book, and ypa0&>, 

 I describe, was originally applied to a knowledge of ancient manu- 

 scripts ; but is now used to signify the describing of books in gene- 

 ral. When it refers to a knowledge of their contents, it has been 

 termed intellectual bibliography ; when it refers to their external 

 form, different editions, kind of paper, printing or binding, it is called 

 material bibliography; and it may be termed antiquarian bibliography, 

 when it refers to their comparative rarity or curiosity, and reputed or 

 real value. So numerous are the books now in existence, on almost 

 every subject, that treatises on Bibliography, furnishing lists of them, 

 and critical notices of their relative merits, are of real value to the 

 student, and even to the popular reader. A reference to some of the 

 best treatises of this kind, will be found in the appendix to the present 

 work. 



To give some idea of the multiplicity of books, is one object of 

 the following brief notice of celebrated Libraries. Pisistratus first 

 founded a Library among the Greeks, at Athens, about 550 B. C. ; 

 and the first large Library in Rome, was that of Paulus ^Emilius, 

 taken from Perses, king of Macedon, 167 B. C. But the most cele- 

 brated Library of ancient times, was that of Alexandria, in Egypt, 

 founded 283 B. C. by Ptolemy Philadelphus ; who obtained for it 

 the books which had belonged to Aristotle. It had increased so much 

 as to number 500,000 volumes, when it was mostly burnt, 47 B. C., 

 during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar. It was partly re- 

 placed by the Library of Pergamos, which was afterwards transported 

 thither ; but this, with additional collections, was burnt by the Sara- 

 cens under Caliph Omar, A. D. 640. The Saracens themselves 

 afterwards collected large Libraries, particularly at Tripolis, in Syria, 

 and at Cordova, in Spain ; which latter contained at one time 250,000 

 volumes. 



Of modern Libraries, that of the Vatican, or Papal palace, in Rome, 

 is said to contain 400,000 printed volumes, and 50,000 manuscripts. 

 There are also large Libraries in Naples, Florence, and Milan. The 



