threw it open, the first public library given
to Paris. _Publice patere voluit, censu perpetuo dotavit, posteritati
commendavit_, said the inscription which he placed over the door of
entrance. I need not attempt to recover from the somewhat conflicting
accounts of admiring contemporaries the exact dimensions and arrangements
of this gallery, for the bookcases still exist almost unaltered in the
Bibliotheque Mazarine. One detail deserves notice because it may have been
borrowed from the Ambrosian Library. There is said to have been a
staircase in each of the four corners of the room by which access to a
gallery was obtained[502].

[Illustration: Fig. 122. Bookcases in the Bibliotheque Mazarine, Paris.

From a photograph by Dujardin, 1898.]

Mazarin died in 1661, and, in accordance with his will, a college, to be
called _Le College des Quatre Nations_, was founded and endowed, and the
library was removed into it. The college was suppressed at the Revolution,
and the buildings are now occupied by the _Institut de France_, but the
library remains practically intact. It occupies two rooms at right angles
to each other with a united length of about 158 ft., and a width of 27 ft.
They are admirably lighted by 17 large windows.

The bookcases (fig. 122), from the original library in the Palais Mazarin,
were placed round the new room. At first they terminated with the cornice,
surmounted by the balustrade which protected the gallery mentioned above,
and the roof was arched. In 1739, when additional shelf-room was required,
and the roof was in need of repair, it was agreed to construct the present
flat ceiling, and to gain thereby wall-space of sufficient height to
accommodate 20,000 additional books. The gallery thus formed is approached
by two staircases constructed at the same time[503].

If the elevation of these cases (fig. 123) be compared with that of the
cases in the Escorial (fig. 119), I feel sure that my readers will agree
with me in admitting that the French example was copied from the Spanish.
The general arrangement is the same, and especially the really distinctive
features, namely, the division by columns, and the presence of a desk. It
will be observed that the French example is the larger of the two, being
18 ft. high from the floor to the top of the cornice. The desk, moreover,
is 4 ft. from the floor, so that it was evidently intended to be used
standing.

I am aware that Naude, the librarian employed b