up till 1480 or 1481, was
called _Bibliotheca pontificia_. In addition to MSS. it contained the
papal archives and registers (_Regesta_). In the catalogue dated 1512 it
is called _Intima et ultima secretior bibliotheca_, and seems to have
contained the most valued treasures. This quadripartite division is
commemorated by Aurelio Brandolini (Epigram XII.)[372]. After alluding to
the founders of some of the famous libraries of antiquity, he says in
conclusion:

Bibliotheca fuit, fateor, sua cuique, sed vna.
Sixte pater vincis: quatuor vnus habes.

Thanks to the care with which Platina set down his expenditure, we are
able to follow step by step the gradual transformation of the rooms. His
account-books[373], begun 30 June 1475, record, with a minuteness as rare
as it is valuable, his transactions with the different artists and workmen
whom he thought proper to employ. It was evidently intended that the
library should be beautiful as well as useful, and some of the most
celebrated artists of the day were set to work upon it.

The librarian prudently began in August, 1475, by increasing the light,
and a new window was made "on the side next the court." It seems to have
been impossible to get either workmen or materials in Rome; both were
supplied from a distance. For the windows, glass, lead and solder were
brought from Venice, and a German, called simply Hormannus, i.e. Hermann,
was hired to glaze them. For the internal decoration two well-known
Florentine artists--the brothers Ghirlandajo--were engaged, with Melozzo
da Forli, who was painting there in 1477[374]. In 1476 the principal
entrance was decorated with special care. Marble was bought for the
doorcase, and the door itself was studded with 95 bronze nails, which were
gilt, as were also the ring and knocker, and the frame of trellised
ironwork (_cancellus_), which hung within the outer door.

The building is entered from the _Cortile del Papagallo_[375] through a
marble doorway (fig. 98, A) in the classical style surmounted by the arms
of Sixtus IV. On the frieze are the words SIXTUS PAPA IIII. The doorcase
is doubtless that made in 1476; but the door, with its gilt nails and
other adornments, has disappeared. Within the doorway there has been a
descent of three steps at least to the floor of the Library[376]. The four
rooms of which it was once composed are now used as the _Floreria_ or
_Garde-meuble_ of the Vatican Palace; a use to which they have probabl