MAMUSORIPTS
(ill)
MANUSCRIPTS
accurate texta. the King of P^raiicc, Charles V (13()4-
1380), who collected in tlie Louvre a library of twelve
hundred volumes, the French princes Jean, Duke of
Berry, a forerunner of modern bibliophiles (1340-
1416), Louis Duke of Orl(^ans (1371-1407) and his son
Charles of Orleans (d. 1467), the dukes of Burgundy,
the kings of Naples, and Matthias Corv^inus. Also
worthy of mention are Richard of Bury, Chancellor of
England, Louis of Bruges (d. 1492), and Cardinal
Georges d'Amboise (1460-1510).
The cop>'ing rooms were made more perfect, and Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim (1462-1513), author of " De laude scriptorum manualium", shows the well- established division of labour in a studio (preparation and polishing of parchment, ordinary writmg, red ink titles, illumination, corrections, re vision,, each task
pletod their tasks in lK'(}ueathing to the niodcrn world
the sacre<l and profane works of antiquity.
IV. PREap:NT Location ok MSJS.— Save for some ex- ceptions, which ai-e Ixjcoming more and more rare, the MbS. copied during the Middle Ages are ai present stored in the great public libraries. The private col- lections which have been formed since the sixteenth century (Cotton, BcKlley, Christina of Sweden, Pei- resc, Gaignidres, Collxjrt, etc.) have eventually l)een fused with' the great repositories. The suppression of a great number of monasteries (England and Germany in the sixteenth centurj', France in 1790) has also augmented the importance of storehouses of MSS., the chief of which are, Italy: Rome, Vatican Library-, founded by Nicholas V (1447-55), which has acquired successively the MSS. of the Elector Palatine (given
filunfi^nt«lHrlf1v^l'^bet|i^^ •
. . ■ ■ ■ ■ r .
Skction page of Petrarch's Sonnets
From tho MSS. written in part by the poet himself, begun between 1366 and 1368, Vatican Library, Rome
was given to a specialist). Among these copies reli-
gious MSS., Bibles, Psalters, Hours, lives of the saints,
were always represented, but an increasingly impor-
tant place was accorded the ancient authors and the
works of national literature. In the fifteenth century
a great many Greek refugees fleeing Ix^fore the Turks
came to Italy and copied the MSS. they brought with
them to enrich the libraries of the collectors. A num-
ber of them were in the service of Cardinal Bessarion
(d. 1472), who after collecting five hundred Greek
MSS., l)equeathed them to the Republic of Venice.
Even after the invention of printing, Greek copyists
continued to work, and their names are found on the
most beautiful Greek manuscripts of our libraries^ for
instance Const ant ineLascaris (1434-1501), who live<l
a long time at Mea^na; John Lascaris (1445-1535),
who came to France under Charles VIII ; Constant ine
Palflpocappa, a former monk of Athos, who entered the
service of Canlinal de Lorraine; John of Otrartto, the
mast skilful coj^yist of the sixteenth century.
' But the copying of manuscripts had ceased long be- fore in coaseqiience of the invention of printing. The copyists who had toiled for long centuries hod com-
by Tilly to Gregory XV), of the Duke of Urbino
(1655), of Christina of Sweden, of the Houses of Cap-
poni and Ottoboni, in 185t5 the collections of Cardinal
Mai, and in 1891 of the Borghese library: 45,000 MSS.
(ccxlices Vatican! , and according to tneir particular
foundation, Palatini, Urbinates, etc.); Florence: Lau-
nmtian Library, ancient collection of the Medici; 9693
MSS. largely of the Greek and I^tin classical authors
(Codices Laurentiani) ; National Library (formerly the
Uffizi), founded in 1860, 20,028 MSS.; Venice, Marcian
Library (collection of Petrarch, 1362, of Bessarion,
1468, etc.)j 12,096 MSS. (Codices Marciani); Verona:
Chapter Library, 1114 MSS.; Milan, Ambrosian Li-
brary, founded 1609 by C'ardinal Federigo Borromeo,
8400 MSS. (Codices Ambrosiani) ; Turin, National Li-
brary, foimded in 1720, collection of the Dukes of
Savoy. I n Jan . , 1 904 a fire destroyed most of its 3979
MSS., nearlv all of them of the first rank (Codices Tau-
rinenses); Naples, National Library' (ancient collec-
tion of the Bourbon family), 7990 MSS.
•SDaiw; Library of the Escorial, founded in 1575 (one of the principal constituents is the collection of Hui?- tado de Mendoza, formed at V«.vi'5» Vs^ 'O0& ^ss^w^^ar
