olai de lyra super psalmos
reponatur uersus orientem in banco vj^o.

In the next place I will tell at length the story of the establishment of
the Vatican Library by Pope Sixtus IV., as it is both interesting in
itself and useful for my present purpose[365].

The real founder of the Vatican Library, as we understand the term, was
Nicholas V. (1447-1455), but he was unable to do more than collect books,
for which no adequate room was provided till the accession of Sixtus IV.
in 1471. In December of that year, 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[366]"; 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)[367]; and
from that date until Platina's death in 1481 it went forward without let
or hindrance. This distinguished man of letters seems to have enjoyed the
full confidence of the Pope, to have been liberally supplied with funds,
and to have had a free hand in the employment of craftsmen and artists to
furnish and decorate his Library. It is pleasant to be able to record that
he lived to see his work completed, and all the books under his charge
catalogued. The enumeration of the volumes contained in the different
stalls, closets, and coffers, with which the catalogue of 1481 concludes,
is headed by a rubric, which records, with pathetic simplicity, the fact
that it was drawn up "by Platina, librarian, and Demetrius of Lucca his
pupil, keeper, on the 14th day of September, 1481, only eight days before
his death[368]."

[Illustration: Fig. 98. Ground-plan of the rooms in the Vatican Palace
fitted up for library-purposes by Sixtus IV.

E. Wilson, Cambridge]

It is evident that the Library had suffered considerably from the
negligence of those in whose charge it had been. Many volumes were
missing, and those that remained were in bad condition. Platina and his
master set to work energetically to remedy these defects. The former
engaged a binder, and bought materials for his use[369]; the latter issued
a Bull (30 June) of exceptional severity[370]. After stating that "certain
ecclesiastical a