6(0 LIB 
and then only when there is a duplicate of fuch books. If 
any book thall be taken away and detained, a juftice’s 
warrant may be iflued to fearch for and reftore the fame; 
alio, action of trover may be brought in the name of the 
proper ordinary, See. And bifhops have power to make 
rules and orders concerning libraries, appoint perfons to 
view their condition, and enquire of the ftate of them in 
their-vifitations. 7 Anne, c. 14. 
Bray’s Inftitution for parochial libraries (1696) is un¬ 
der the management of a number of alfociates, a treafurer, 
and a fecretary. See Highmore on Public Charities, p. 935. 
Circulating Libraries, now fo general and ufeful, are of 
no greater Handing than about feventy years. The firft 
in London was commenced at No. 132 in the Strand, by 
a bookfeller of the name of Wright, about the year 1740 ; 
he was fucceeded in the fame concern by Batho, who was 
fucceded by Mr. John Bell. Among the earlieft and mod 
fuccefsful rivals of Wright were the Nobles, in Holborn 
and St. Martin’s court; and Lowndes in Fleet-ftreet. The 
number of circulating libraries in Great Britain was, in 
the year 1810, not lels than a thoufand. 
Mufical Library. Dr. Burney complains, in the fecond 
vol. of his General Hiltory of Mufic, p.444, that in his 
travels through France, Italy, Germany, Holland, and the 
Netherlands, in fearch of materials for his work, he was 
able to find no complete mufical library. “ Something like 
a chain or feries of mufical theorifts (he fays) may perhaps 
be found at Vienna, where the emperor Leopold I. began 
t’o form a mufical library; and the elector of Bavaria ano¬ 
ther at Munich in the feventeenth century. But both 
have been long neglefted, and are now in a very confufed 
and imperfect ftate. Nor is a complete feries of mufical 
compofitions by the belt mafters, from the earlieft period 
of counterpoint to the prefent time, to be found in any 
public or private library in Europe to which I have ever 
bad accefs. Indeed the colle&ors of books for royal, col¬ 
legiate, or public, libraries, feem never to have had an idea 
of forming any regular plan for making fuch a collection; 
and, though many individuals have been poffefled of a rage 
for accumulating mufical curiofities, it has feldom hap¬ 
pened that they have extended their ideas to mufical pro¬ 
ductions in general ; fo that no more than one clafs or fpe- 
cies of compofition has been completed by them, and even 
this, at the death of the proprietor, is ufually difperfed. 
“In a library, formed upon fo large a fcale as that of 
the king of France at Paris, the Bodleian and Mufeum 
in England, it feems as if mufic fliould be put on a level 
■with other arts and fciences, in which every book of cha¬ 
racter is procured. In a royal or ample collection of pic¬ 
tures, fpecimens at leaft of every great painter are pur- 
chafed ; and no private library is thought complete while 
the writings of a fingle poet of eminence are wanting.” 
As the author, in a note upon this pafiage, has given a 
sketch of fuch a mufical library as he thinks wanting, and 
which has been inferted in the Encyclopedic Methodique, 
we fhall give it a place here, in his own words. 
“ In forming fuch a mufical library as would afiift the ftu- 
dent, gratify the curious, inform the hiftorian, and afford 
a comparative view' of the ftate of the art at every period 
of its exiftence, it were to be wifhed that the books, when 
collected, were claffed in a way fomewhat like the fol¬ 
lowing : 
Malles and motets, to Latin words, ') From the infancy 
Madrigals, fongs in parts, and fin- of counterpoint to 
gle longs, in modern languages, J the year 1500. 
The fame continued to the year 1600; to which fliould 
be added : 
Services and full anthems, "} ToEngliffi words, as well as 
Verfe and folo anthems, >• thofe of other modern lan- 
Pfalmody in parts, J guages. 
The fame clafles completed to the year 1700, with the 
addition of mafques, intermezzi, ferenatas, 
L I 13 
Operas, ferioqs and comic. 
Oratorios, cantatas. 
Fantafias and recercari, for various inftruments. 
All the above continued to the prefent time, with an 
addition of full 
Concertos, fymphonies, and overtures. 
Concertos, with folo parts for particular inftruments. 
Quintets, quatuors. 
Sonatas, or trios, duets and 
Solos for every inftrument for which mufic has been 
compofed, including voluntaries for the organ, and 
leffons for every fpecies of keyed inftrument. 
The mufic publiflied in fingle parts fliould be fcored, 
and that publifhed in partition tranferibed in fingle parts; 
to be alike ready for the eye or the ear, for the theorift 
to examine, or the practical mufician to perform. 
And, in order that fcience and criticifm may keep pace 
with the mechanifin and practice of the art, all the treatifes, 
traits, and eflays, both in the dead and living languages, 
fhould be collected, arranged chronologically, and aftigaed 
a particular portion of the library. 
The Bodleian library, the Mufeum, and Royal Society, 
with fome other libraries, have copies of new books fent 
to them by the Stationers’ Company, and by individuals, 
either by law or by courtefy ; and, when once fuch a foun¬ 
dation of old mufic is laid as we have here fketched out, 
it would foon become a cuftom, or might be made one by 
the legiflature, for copies of all mufic that is publiflied in 
England, as well as books on the fubjeCt, to be prefented 
by the authors or editors to the public library. And the 
fame means fliould be ufed for procuring all foreign mu¬ 
fical publications as are employed in accumulating books 
from all parts of the globe where the prefs is at work. 
The librarian, or keeper of thefe books, fliould be a 
good practical mufician, as well as theorift and fcholar, 
in order to know the worth of the productions he has ire 
charge, and to be enabled to give inftruftions at leaft liovr 
to draw fingle parts from a fcore, and fcore fingle parts ; 
to explain difficulties to the ignorant, and difplay curio- 
fities to the learned; to know the rank each compofer 
fhould hold in every clafs, and perhaps record the degree 
of refpedt that has been paid to him by his contempora¬ 
ries, and which is due to him from pofterity.” 
LIBRA'TA, a river of Naples, which runs into the 
Adriatic in lat. 42. 53. N. Ion. 14. E. 
LIBRA'TA TER'RAi, a portion of ground, contain¬ 
ing four oxgangs, and every oxgang thirteen acres. It 
was anciently fo much land as was yearly worth 20s. and 
in Henry Ill’s time, he that had quindecim libralas terras 
was to receive the order of knighthood. Some fay, that, 
as money is divided into pounds, fliillings, pence, and 
farthings, the fame degrees are to be obferved in the divi- 
fion of lands; and, therefore, as quadrans fignifies a far¬ 
thing, fo quadrantata is the fourth part of an acre; obolata , 
a half; [denariata, a whole acre; Jolidata , 12 acres; and 
librata, 20 times 12 acres; i.e 240 acres. 
This is the fame with what in Scotland is called pound- 
land of old extent. 
To LI'BRATE, v. a. llibro, Lat.] Topoife; to balance; 
to hold in equipoife. 
LIBRA'TION,_/l [Fr. from libratio, Lat.] The ftate 
of being balanced.—This is what may be laid of the ba¬ 
lance, and the libration of the body. Dry den's Dufrefnoy, 
Their pinions ftill 
In loofe librations ftretch’d, to truft the void 
Trembling refufe. Thomfon's Spring, 
In aftronomy, the balancing motion or trepidation in the 
firmament, whereby the declination of the fun, and the la¬ 
titude of the ftars, change from time to time. Aftrono- 
mers likewife aferibe to the moon a libratory motion, or 
motion of trepidation, which they pretend is from eaft to 
weft, and from, north to fouth, becaufe that at full moon 
they 
