THE PANDECTS OF JUSTINIAN. 27 



famine, carried away the Pandects as the terms of capitula- 

 tion, and took them to Florence,* when they were placed in 

 the Palazzo vecchio, and only shown, in the time of the re- 

 public, by special permission of the seigniory, and by torch- 

 light. They were afterwards removed to the Laurentian 

 library, and the key kept by one of the officers of the court. 

 They are still there ; one volume is locked up, the other is 

 placed open in a glass case.t But I have one more instance 

 which occurs to me, of the desire of acquiring books, in the 

 celebrated Al Mamoun, son of Haroun al Raschid, who, when 

 he defeated the Greek emperor, Michael the Stammerer, re- 

 quired that he should give him a certain number of Greek 

 books as a tribute. 



FREDERICK. 



Was it not Haroun al Raschid who sent a clock to Charle- 

 magne? 



MRS. F. 



Yes; the first that had ever been seen in Europe; but it was 

 not a clock such as we use now, but a water clock, or clepsy 

 dra, so called from the Greek, klepto to steal, and udor water 

 the time being measured by the escape or stealing of water 

 through a hole in the bottom of the vessel. Haroun a 

 Raschid himself was a great patron of literature, and he 

 never went a journey without being accompanied by at least 

 a hundred men of learning. But it is his son, Al Mamoun,^ 

 who may be regarded as the father of science among the 

 Arabians. He invited the learned of all countries to his 

 court, he exhausted his treasures in collecting manuscripts, 

 in patronising astronomy, and in promoting the interests of 

 science, and the reign of Al Mamoun may be looked upon as 

 giving the same impulse to the eastern nations, as the age 

 Augustus, or Leo, exerted over the western. In the midst 

 of ignorance and superstition Al Mamoun shines pre-eminent, 



* A. D. 1406. 



t Valery, Voyages en Italic, t. iii. p. 38. 



J Succeeded his brother, A. D 813. 



