llecting better than did he! He was not only
constantly making transcripts himself, but the noblemen,
courtiers, and officers that surrounded him voluntarily
tendered their services in the like cause; while, on the
other hand, a number of learned men, seduced by his liberal
rewards, spared nothing to add to his literary treasures.
Charles now determined to give his subjects every possible
advantage from this accumulation of books; and, with this
view, he lodged them in one of the _Towers of the Louvre_;
which tower was hence called _La Tour de la Librarie_. The
books occupied three stories: in the first, were desposited
269 volumes; in the second 260; and in the third, 381
volumes. In order to preserve them with the utmost care (say
Sauval and Felibien), the king caused all the windows of the
library to be fortified with iron bars; between which was
painted glass, secured by brass-wires. And that the books
might be accessible at all hours, there were suspended, from
the ceiling, thirty chandeliers and a silver lamp, which
burnt all night long. The walls were wainscotted with Irish
wood; and the ceiling was covered with cypress wood: the
whole being curiously sculptured in bas-relief." Whoever has
not this catalogue at hand (vide p. 93, ante) to make
himself master of still further curious particulars relating
to this library, may examine the first and second volume of
_L'Academie des Inscriptions_, &c.--from which the preceding
account is taken. The reader may also look into Warton
(Diss. 11, vol. i., sign. f. 2); who adds, on the authority
of Boivin's _Mem. Lit._, tom. ii., p. 747, that the Duke of
Bedford, regent of France, "in the year 1425 (when the
English became masters of Paris) sent his whole library,
then consisting of only 853 volumes, and valued at 2223
livres, into England," &c. I have little doubt but that
Richard De Bury had a glimpse of this infantine royal
collection, from the following passage--which occurs
immediately after an account of his ambassadorial
excursion--"O beate Deus Deorum in Syon, quantus impetus
fluminis voluptatis laetificavit cor nostrum, quoties
Paradisum mundi _Parisios_ visitare vacavimus ibi moraturi?
Ubi nobis semper dies pauci, prae amoris magnitudine,
videbantur. Ibi Bibliothecae jucu