4G2 
PARIS 
a column in the Egyptian ftyle, about 56 feet high, 
crowned with a gilt ftatue of Victory, by Brizot; and at 
the foot are four figures of Vigilance, Law, Fortitude, 
and Prudence, by the fame artift. Every week^ goods 
taken in execution are fold in this fquare. 
The Pont St. Michel —alfo ftands near the Palace of Juf- 
tice. It was built of ftone under Charles VI. and rebuilt 
in 1618 ; when it was made fixty feet longer, and twenty 
wider. Its architecture is bold and folid. 
Palais des Beaux Arts, Palace of the Fine Arts; 
Quai Conti.—This edifice, ereCted by the cardinal Maza¬ 
rine, was long known by the name of “ The College of 
the Four Nations,” becaufe it was deligned by its noble 
founder to receive fixty pupils of the four nations con¬ 
quered by Louis XIV. The allies of the cardinal repol'e 
in the church near the fanfluary. 
It is now appropriated to the ufe of the Inftitute, 
which has refumed its former name, the Royal Academy. 
It is of a femicircular form, compofed of two pavilions, 
two ranges of buildings flanking them, and a portico of 
the Corinthian order in the centre furmounted by a dome 
much admired. Some exquifite groups, by Desjardins, 
ornament the portico. In the firft court on the left is 
the Mazarine Library, containing 60,000 volumes, and 
that of the Academy. In the next court is the School of 
the Fine Arts, and the Architeffural Gallery of that 
fchool. The ancient chapel is now appropriated to the 
fittings of the Academy. It is decorated with the bulls 
of the moll celebrated French literati. 
“ It is impoflible,” fays an American traveller, “ for a 
foreigner and a Undent to be a week in the French capital 
without having his imagination abfolutely overpowered, 
and his enthufiafm wound up to the highell pitch, by the 
eclat which he fees attendant on fcience and literature, 
and the facilities which he finds open to him for the cul¬ 
ture of all the branches of human knowledge. For, be- 
fides the libraries, and other eftablifhments already men¬ 
tioned, all of which are accefiible upon the eafieft terms, 
there are innumerable gratuitous leflures read, at the ex- 
penfe of the government, at all hours of the day : a garden 
of plants, and a mufeum of natural hiltory, the moll per¬ 
fect in the arrangement, and the molt ample in the mate¬ 
rials, to be found in the world ; and the branches of 
knowledge to which they relate are daily explained to all 
vifitors by men illuftrious for their lkill and their dif- 
coveries; public exhibitions to excite literary emulation, 
and national rewards to give fpirit to literary indullry.” 
The hiltory of the Royal Academy, up, to the time of 
the revolution, has been given briefly under the article 
Academy, vol. i. p. 45. and its change to National Inlti- 
tute, and afterwards to Imperial Inltitute, has been noticed 
there, but more fully under the article Institute, vol. xi. 
p. 145, 6. The account there given may ferve nearly for 
the “ Royal Academy” in its prefent Itate. The altera¬ 
tions have been more in names than in fubftance. How¬ 
ever, we may jult mention, that, on the 23th of March, 
1816, an ordonnance of Louis XVIII. was publilhed, for 
converting the Inltitute into its old form of four Acade¬ 
mies ; namely, the French Academy, the Royal Academy 
of Tnfcriptions and Belles Lettres, the Royal Academy of 
Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The firft 
meeting of the French Academy (thus reftored) took 
place accordingly on the 29th of March : the duke of 
Richelieu was cliofen prelident; and M. de Fontanes, 
vice-prefident. 
The Pont des Arts —is a fine bridge which joins the 
Palace of Arts to the Louvre. It was built by Demoutier 
in 1804. It has nine arches, of call iron, each fupported 
by three girders 5 and it is perfectly horizontal. It is 
open only to foot-paffengers, who pay one fous each. It 
was formerly ornamented with flowers, and was the 
falhionable promenade of the Parifians; but it is now 
almoft deferted. 
Th e Royal Library, Rue Richelieu.—The exterior of 
this edifice is exceedingly plain, and gives no indication 
of the treafures that it contains. Neither the windows 
nor the principal entrance have the leaft ornament. An 
archway admits to a court, which is no lefs than 544 
Englilh feet in length, and its breadth 128. In this court 
is a fine ftatue in bronze, reprefenting a woman refting on 
one foot, in a very eafy and natural attitude. The prin¬ 
cipal floor of the building which furrounds this large 
courtds entirely filled up with books, from the bottom to 
the ceiling. 
The Royal Library dates its origin from a very early 
period. King John collected ten volumes ; fix on Icience 
and hiftory, and four on religion. To them, his fon 
Charles V. furnamed the Wife, added more than nine 
hundred volumes. Thefe conftituted a library which, at 
that age, might juftly be deemed worthy of the royal col¬ 
lector. It was depofited in a tower of the Louvre, called 
la Tour de la Librairie, the Library Tower. The apart¬ 
ment was illuminated at night by thirty fmall chandeliers 
and a filver lamp, that the ftudent might purfue his re- 
fearches at every hour. It appears to have been after¬ 
wards negleCted, and almoft deftroyed ; for, when it was 
purchafed by the duke of Bedford, for 1200 livres, in 
1429, it was found to contain but 150 volumes. Louis XI. 
collected the fcattered remains of this library, and pro¬ 
fited by the refources which the invention of printing 
prelented to him. Charles VIII. added to it what the 
conqueft of Naples enabled him to colled!. Louis XII. 
enriched it with the library of Petrarch ; Francis I. with 
fome Greek MSS. and Henry II. greatly augmented it in 
confequence of a decree, in 1556, enjoining all bookfellers 
to furnifti it with a copy, on vellum, of every work which 
they publifhed. Colbert augmented it with more than 
60,000 volumes. Cardinal Fleury fent many literati, at 
an enormous expenfe, to the Greek iflands and Afiatic 
continent, who brought home numerous curious and 
invaluable morfels of antiquity. It was, however, under 
the reigns of Louis XIV. XV. and XVI. that it attained 
that degree of fplendour and magnificence which renders 
it the firft library in Europe. 
The ground-floor is appropriated to the printed books, 
of which there are 360,000. Tables are placed in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the room for the accommodation of vifiters, 
who may call for whatever books they pleafe, and before 
whom the fcarceft prints, the rareft medals, the raoft va¬ 
luable manufcripts, are unhefitatingly placed at the firft 
requifition. Bulls of the mod celebrated French literati 
occupy feveral niches. In one of the rooms is a curious 
model of the Pyramids and the Sphinx, accurately pre- 
ferving their proportions, and ornamented by a well- 
executed grove of palms, with a caravan of travellers. 
On the fecond floor, to the right, is the French Par- 
naftus, by Titon du Tiilet. It reprefents a little moun¬ 
tain, covered with bronze figures of the molt celebrated 
poets and muficians of France. Louis XIV. appears 
under the figure of Apollo. This floor contains the MSS. 
of which there are 80,000. Thirty thoufand of thefe re¬ 
late to the hiftory of France, principally fubfequent to 
the reign of Louis XI. Twenty-five thoufand are in 
learned and foreign languages. Several letters of Henry 
VIII. are here preferved, and letters from Henry IV. of 
France to one of his favourites, Gabrielle d’Eftrees. Tire 
manufcripts found by Denon in the mummies of the cata¬ 
combs at Thebes will not be forgotten by the traveller; 
nor the celebrated tablet of Ills, incrufted with filver, and 
filled with undeciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics; tlie 
MS. of Telemachus, in the hand-writing of Fenelon ; 
and Memoirs of Louis XIV. by the fame excellent author. 
The libraries of Vatican at Rome, and St. Marc at 
Venice, lately enriched this collection with many in¬ 
valuable MSS. but thefe, with all the revolutionary fpoil-s, 
have been reftored. The ineftimable MS., of the Hiftory of 
Jofiephus, on papyrus; Petrarch’s MS. of Virgil, with nu¬ 
merous notes in his own writing; the MS. of Galileo on 
the tides ; the mathematical tables of Haller, with cor¬ 
rections by himfelf; all the ancient and rare editions of 
