at that time an enormous library, out of which
several scores were among the treasures in
his care. Mary of Medicis appears to have
amassed in the sixteenth century, probably
with far less effort, 5,800 volumes.[9] Oxford
had before that time received noble gifts for
her University Library. And we have to
recollect with shame and indignation that
that institution was plundered and destroyed
by the Commissioners of the boy King
Edward the Sixth, acting in the name of the
Reformation of Religion. Thus it happened
that opportunity was left to a private
individual, the munificent Sir Thomas Bodley, to
attach an individual name to one of the
famous libraries of the world. It is interesting
to learn that municipal bodies have a share
in the honor due to monasteries and
sovereigns in the collection of books; for the
Common Council of Aix purchased books for a
public library in 1419.[10]

Louis the Fourteenth, of evil memory, has
at least this one good deed to his credit, that
he raised the Royal Library at Paris, founded
two centuries before, to 70,000 volumes. In
1791 it had 150,000 volumes. It profited largely
by the Revolution. The British Museum had
only reached 115,000 when Panizzi became
keeper in 1837. Nineteen years afterward he