ecord the benefits conferred
on Rome by Sixtus V., in a series of historical views, one above each
window; and over these again are stately figures, each embodying some
sacred abstraction--"Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues,
powers"--with angels swinging censers, and graceful nymphs, and laughing
satyrs--a strange combination of paganism and Christianity--amid wreaths
of flowers, and arabesques twining round the groups and over every
vacant space, partly framing, partly hiding, the heraldic devices which
commemorate Sixtus and his family:--a web of lovely forms and brilliant
colours, combined in an intricate and yet orderly confusion.

It may be questioned whether such a room as this was ever intended for
study. The marble floor, the gorgeous decoration, the absence of all
appliances for work in the shape of desks, tables, chairs, suggest a place
for show rather than for use. The great libraries of the Augustan age, on
the other hand, seem, so far as we can judge, to have been used as
meeting-places and reading-rooms for learned and unlearned alike. In
general arrangement and appearance, however, the Vatican Library must
closely resemble its imperial predecessors.

[Illustration: Fig. 17. A single press in the Vatican Library, open.

From a photograph.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_, 2 vols., 8vo. Lond.
1853. Vol. II., p. 343.

[2] Ezra, vi. I.

[3] Mr Layard gives a view of the interior of one of these rooms (p. 345)
after it had been cleared of rubbish.

[4] _La Bibliotheque du Palais de Ninive_, par M. Joachim Menant. 8vo.
Paris, 1880, p. 32.

[5] The two languages are the ancient Sumerian and the more modern
Assyrian.

[6] Athenaeus, Book 1., Chap. 4.

[7] _Noct. Att._ Book VII., Chap. 17. Libros Athenis disciplinarum
liberalium publice ad legendum praebendos primus posuisse dicitur
Pisistratus tyrannus.

[8] Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, Book IV., Chap. 2.

[9] Aristoph. _Ranae_, 1407-1410, translated by J. H. Frere. The passage
has been quoted by Castellani, _Biblioteche nell' Antichita_, 8vo.,
Bologna, 1884, pp. 7, 8, and many others.

[10] Strabo, ed. Kramer, Berlin, 8vo., 1852, Book XIII., Chap. I, Sec. 54.
[Greek: protos hon hismen synagagon biblia, kai didaxas tous en Aigypto
basileas bibliothekes syntaxin.]

[11] Book XIII., Chap. 4, Sec. 2.

[12] Book XVII., Chap. 1, Sec. 8. [Greek: ton de basileion meros esti kai to
Mouseion, echon peripaton k