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Show LiBRAFt Of ii iS VATICAN'. The Xait Vaiuuu.o r.j:.ll.ia in the WoilJ Jionicil in HugniBto.it Koouu. The grc-at movement of the renaissance renais-sance began late st Rome and closed early it is p-eneraliy snid to have lasted from the time of Pope .Nicholas V , 1-i-ii to l.V.'T, when the town was sacked by the army of Charles V. TUisrepve-Bonts TUisrepve-Bonts lese than a cer.tnry, but in this ' short time marvels were prodi-ioco, ps v's I a writer in Harper's Yt'eeiay.' The course pursued by men of getting io the revival of letters and of uio arts has ever been the same. Antique masterpieces master-pieces have, in the first place, been exhumed, ex-humed, then an attempt has been made to imitate them and this attempt has succeeded. Ancient hooks were ths first to be brought to light ayain. Drawn from the obscurity of con-suis, collected together and explaining eaali other, placed at the service of aii students, stu-dents, these books disseminated throughout through-out the world a .passion' for Iir.osvIedE which transformed soeiety. In this reiai of literatdtc tiud of .lie ancient sciences Rome "piaved a errand part. If we want to get an idea or the renaissance, when .the treasures of Greece and Home were so eageriv sought after, we must 0 to the library of the Vatican. It may be said to have been founded by Nicholas V., who was the first to give it any importance. He sent Enoch of Ascoli nnd many others to search the convents of Germany and take from them all they count find; at the same time Greek savants, flying before be-fore the Turks, brought to him Homer and Plato. Before hU death Nicholas V. had added live thousand valuable manuscripts to those owned by his predecessors. Since then the number has been greatly increased and there are new more than twenty-five thousand. thou-sand. No library in the world is as rich in this respect as the Vatican. As we enter it we cannot but feel a sense of veneration when vre rem. mi:,e.r all that has been done by its means to aid the progress of thought and to promote the good of humanity. As a matter of fact, these precious works, winch embody all the genius of antiquity, are treated with the greatest deference. They are housed in magnificent rooms, which are paved with marble and frescoes, and some of the more precious of ihe manuscripts manu-scripts are exhibited to tbe leveient gaze of visitors in glass eases. But there is no doubt tha.t all these honors are fully merited. |