lighted by a single window, six on the right, and two on the left[1], but the position of the room is unknown.
During the sixteen years that intervened between the death of Nicholas V. and the election of Sixtus IV. little or nothing seems to have been done for the increase of the Library; but with the accession of Francesco della Rovere a new era begins. The new Pope had studied, as a young man, at the Universities of Paris and Bologna; and subsequently, had been a successful Professor not only at those Universities, but at Padua, Siena, Florence, and Perugia. He was distinguished, moreover, as a writer on theology and philosophy. No man, therefore, could have been better able to judge of the value of a library, or of the importance of establishing one in a prominent position, to which all who wanted knowledge might resort, as to a fountainhead. The need of such a library in Rome had probably been long in his mind, for in December, 1471, only four months after his election, his chamberlain commissioned five architects to quarry and convey to the palace a supply of building-stone "for use in a certain building there to be constructed for library-purposes[2]"; but the scheme for an independent building, as indicated by the terms here employed, was soon abandoned, and nothing was done for rather more than three years. In the beginning of 1475, however, a new impulse was given to the work by the appointment of Bartolommeo Platina as Librarian (28 February)[3]; and from that date until Platina's death in 1481 it went forward without let or hindrance. This distinguished
- ↑ Ibid. p. 44. The catalogue begins with: "libri repositi in primo armario a dextera versus fenestram," and so on.
- ↑ This document, dated 17 December, 1471, has been printed by Müntz, p. 120. It begins as follows: Cum pro oportunitatibus certi edificii bibliotecarum in palatio apostolico Sancti Petri construendarum necessarium sit ex diversis locis habere magnam quantitatem petrarum ad id necessariarum: Iccirco… universis et siugulis … mandamus quatenus… dummodo ad privatas personas non pertineant, effodere ac exportare ad præfatum palatium permittant. I am afraid that this order can have but one meaning: viz. the excavation and destruction of ancient buildings.
- ↑ This is the date assigned by Platina himself. See below, p. 47. Messrs Müntz and Fabre (p. 137) adopt 18 June 1475, the day on which he signed the catalogue of the books he was to take charge of (Ib. p. 249).
