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 of the neve Wozlde2 02 
 toctt Tndta, 
 
 Conteprpng the nawgarions and comqueties 
 
 WN of the Spaupacdes, worthy che pacticular des 
 ' fcription of the mote rpche and large landes 
 and Flandes lacelp founde ws che wel Ocean 
 
 , pertepnpirg to che mbecitaunce of rhe kinges 
 of Hpayne. Tr ehe tolpicl ele diltgene ceader 
 map notonly conlpder hac commoditie map 
 Hercebp chawuitce co the Hole chztRian world as 
 tpmeto come, but alfolcarne manp Ceceeates 
 tonchpnge the lande the f2a,and che Garces, 
 berp necefacie to be knolpé to al fuch as thal 
 
 artempte any nauigations,o2 othertoile 
 bauc Delite to beyolde the Arange 
 AnD woonderfull wao2kes of 
 od and nature. 
 Wiptten in cheLatine courge by eter 
 Carty, of Sngleria, and eran{: 
 
 fared into EnglpThe bp 
 Upcbarde Lodets, 
 CLONDINE, 
 Inadibus Guilhelm: Powell, 
 ANNO. 15§§, 
 
 “I oN - 
 1) 
 & sy a = = NO ‘ iY 
 >t iat Do~ RY R 
 \T a =i ’ 
 
 = SaaS We es 
 
 
 
 THE EARLIEST COLLECTION OF VOYAGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 
 
 In this book Richard Eden collected some of the important writings of 
 Peter Martyr, Oviedo, Gomara, Vespuccius and the Bull of Demarcation 
 by Pope Alexander VI. 
 
THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES 
 OF THE | 
 
 WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS LIBRARY 
 
 A Brief Essay on Book-Collecting 
 as a Fine Art 
 
 By RanpDoLtpH G. ADAMS 
 
 
 
 ANN ARBOR 
 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 
 MCMXXV 
 

 
 w 
 ¢ 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 HIS little essay is adapted with some 
 ¥ changes from an interview which ap- 
 peared in the Michigan Daily for May 
 pee 24, 1925. That interview was given 
 with great reluctance after repeated requests, and 
 it is now put in more permanent form in response 
 to a demand for some such brief interpretation of 
 the Library. There is no thought that it contains 
 any contribution to the subject of which it treats. 
 It is intended for those who daily visit the Library 
 with no great previous knowledge of its function, 
 and who ask many questions which it is perfectly 
 right and natural they should ask. If what is writ- 
 ten here helps even in a small way to answer those 
 questions, it will have fulfilled its purpose. The 
 illustrations and initials are from books in the 
 Library. 
 
 
 
THE WHY AND WHEREFORES OF 
 THE WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS 
 LIBRARY. 
 
 Raney MONG the greatest problems of mod- 
 LSyNGO ern civilization is the proper applica- 
 (S) ae y tion of the surplus energy of human 
 G3 o29¢ beings. ‘That surplus has-come largely 
 through the shortened hours of labor made pos- 
 sible by applied science. ‘The overcrowded condi- 
 tion of all our universities is only one evidence of 
 the fact that humanity, in America certainly, has 
 decided to devote a greater amount of its leisure 
 than ever before to the things of the mind. Ignor- 
 ant though they are of what they come to seek, 
 and unsatisfactory as are the methods by which 
 the modern university is handling these swarms 
 of students, the fact is nevertheless undeniable 
 that Americans have more time than ever before 
 which, if they choose, they might devote to mat- 
 ters of culture. Our problem is to help create a 
 civilization which does not degenerate under that 
 leisure. It is one of the most dangerous situations 
 which confronts any nation that has reached an 
 advanced stage of human development. 
 
 To explain the William L. Clements Library in 
 a few paragraphs is not simple. I hope I shall not 
 offend anyone if I suggest that in many cases it 
 is too much like trying to teach an unmusical per- 
 son to play the piano in the course of an afternoon. 
 But it is so increasingly evident that this Library, 
 
 2D 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
and all such libraries, have an important contribu- 
 tion to make to our social life, to the safeguarding 
 of our civilization, that I shall venture upon the ~ 
 task. Moreover, when the question has been fairly 
 put and in good spirit, as to just what the Library 
 is all about, anyone who really wants to know is 
 entitled to a fair answer. As Custodian of a 
 library which exists because a man knew how to 
 employ his spare time, I am deeply concerned with 
 making clear the debt which humanity owes to all 
 such men. I believe if more people were book- 
 collectors two things would result of great bene- 
 fit to humanity. In the first place these people 
 would become so fascinated they would have no 
 time for more harmful dissipations. But second 
 and more important, they would leave behind them 
 materials with which men may work in freeing the 
 human mentality from the shackles of ignorance, 
 superstition and prejudice. 
 
 To most people a library is a piece of public 
 property which should serve the whole of the com- 
 munity in which it stands. It should supply them 
 with such books as they need, as efficiently as pos- 
 sible and without any meticulous regard for what 
 happens to the books. Any book which has been 
 worn out in public service has fulfilled its purpose, 
 and since the process of printing has been so per- 
 fected in recent years, the replacement of the book 
 ought to be relatively easy. We are taught in 
 America that education is our birthright, and 
 therefore we seem to conclude that whatever a 
 
 2 
 
library can do to serve our educational needs, that 
 we may fairly demand it shall perform for us. I 
 am not at all sure that this is the correct concep- 
 tion of the ordinary public or university or free 
 library, but it does seem to be the conception held 
 by most of its patrons. 
 
 Therefore, when a library appears on a Uni- 
 versity campus which does not at all comply with 
 these notions of what a library ought to be and do, 
 there is bound to be a certain amount of wonder- 
 ment, and, in less well informed quarters, a certain 
 amount of critical comment. ‘To those lovers of 
 books whom this Library is especially intended to 
 serve, such an interpretation as I shall try to pre- 
 sent seems alike unnecessary and inappropriate. 
 Those who really understand and appreciate such 
 a library are apt to feel that it is quite useless to 
 defend it to people who cannot enjoy it without 
 defense. But I shall not take that attitude, be- 
 cause I am interested in increasing the number of 
 those who can share in the joys of the collection. 
 This does not mean that I believe we can make 
 book-lovers. But I firmly believe there are poten- 
 tial book-lovers, necessarily men of a sensitive na- 
 ture, who are overwhelmed by the physical and 
 intellectual brutality of the modern University. 
 To such men the library might become a refuge 
 from the appalling crudeness of mob education, 
 public hazing and initiations, and organized semi- 
 professional college athletics. But this is one of 
 
 3 
 
LAA PRIGILEBIO 
 
 
 
 TITLE-PAGE OF EARLIEST COLLECTION OF VOYAGES RELATING TO AMERICA 
 
 This book contains the accounts of the voyages of Casa da Mosto, Vasco 
 da Gama, Cabral, Columbus, Pinzon, Vespuccius, and others. It was 
 printed at Venice in 1507. 
 
the functions of the Library which it takes years 
 to develop. , 
 
 It is my firm belief that every University should: 
 strive to capitalize the enthusiasm of the book-col- 
 lector and tempt him by providing generously to 
 care for whatever he has spent his life collecting. 
 If more book-collectors could see some genuine 
 appreciation of their hobbies in university circles, 
 they would naturally be much more inclined to en- 
 trust their treasures to those universities. In our 
 University Library the collection of Dr. Lucius L. 
 Hubbard is further evidence of the reward which 
 comes to the librarian who appreciates the collec- 
 tor’s viewpoint. If all universities would establish 
 these cultural libraries with due regard to the feel- 
 ing that the original collector had for his books, 
 I have an idea that it would return excellent 
 dividends. 
 
 To book-lovers the idea of the William L. Cle- 
 ments Library is not new—indeed, it is very old. 
 But it is a new idea to the multitude, and it is the 
 multitude with which we are dealing. The indi- 
 vidual who dares to introduce a new idea to the 
 multitude necessarily has to endure years of per- 
 secution, even though his idea is ultimately of im- 
 mense benefit to civilization. Men are today at 
 work in our laboratories of chemistry and physics 
 who would have been burned at the stake in the 
 middle ages for experiments they perform every 
 day. ‘Today our economists play in public with 
 ideas for which but a short century ago they would 
 
 5 
 
have been deported to a penal colony. Every new 
 department of human knowledge has to fight for 
 its existence against the bitter prejudices of the 
 multitude. But the world makes its progress be- 
 cause thinking men go steadily on without heeding 
 the assaults of those who attack what they will not 
 tarry to understand. A Library which violates all 
 the preconceived ideas of the multitude of what a 
 library should do must expect a certain amount of 
 criticism. 
 
 But what is this new department which the 
 donor of the William L. Clements Library has 
 established? What does it propose to do that is 
 not already being done? I should say that it is to 
 stimulate the fine art of book-collecting and to 
 cultivate an interest in the science of bibliography. 
 Of course a primary purpose of the library is to 
 promote the study of American history, but we 
 have a department of history at the university 
 which has been doing that for decades, and so, al- 
 though that is one of the first functions of the 
 library, there is nothing new about it. The science 
 of bibliography is worthy of a much more extended 
 consideration than I can give it in an essay which 
 I would rather devote to book-collecting as a fine 
 art. | 
 
 I think no one will deny that among the most 
 precious possessions of the human race are its writ- 
 ings and records preserved in book-form. An in- 
 calculable amount has been lost. Let us take the 
 three principal writers of Greek tragedy as our 
 
 6 
 
examples. Sophocles wrote about a hundred plays 
 —only seven are known to us. About seventy-five 
 tragedies are attributed to Euripides—of which 
 barely twenty survive. Aeschylus wrote more 
 than a hundred dramas—of which only six have 
 come down to us. The loss of this literature may 
 be in a large measure due to the accidental destruc- 
 tion of the first Alexandrian Library by Julius 
 Caesar, and the intentional burning of the second 
 great Alexandrian |Library by certain fanatical 
 Christian. sects of the fourth century, A.D. The 
 historian Gibbon exonerated the Caliph Omar from 
 his fabled responsibility for this destruction more 
 than a hundred years ago, and modern research 
 supports Gibbon. It would be easy to go on and 
 mention the burning of the great library of the 
 Caliphs by the so-called Christian King Ferdinand 
 of Castile, or to dig again in the ashes of the first 
 indigenous American literature of which the sol- 
 dier of Cortez made a bonfire in the City of Mex- 
 ica in 1520. The Mexican bibliographer, Icazbal- 
 ceta has relieved Archbishop Zumarraga, whom 
 Prescott charged with this crime, from the odium 
 of this destruction of the Aztec manuscripts. But 
 of the destruction there is no doubt. No wonder 
 Richard de Bury accounted war among the chief 
 enemies of books. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to go so far back. In the 
 first year of our Library’s existence at Ann Arbor, 
 a distinguished Russian bibliophile spent several 
 hours with us. He told the tale of a great library 
 
 7 
 
in Moscow, which, in the estimation of some Soviet 
 Commissar, was occupying too much space. So 
 the bolshevik official held the office force of the 
 ministry of food-supplies over one Saturday after- 
 noon and turned them loose in the library to “con- 
 solidate’” the books on to fewer shelves. They did. 
 In one short afternoon’s work they undid the use- 
 fulness of a library built up during centuries of 
 work. ‘This is not a tale of destruction. Destruc- 
 tion was unnecessary. When he saw the havoc he 
 had wrought, the Commissar naively called in our 
 visitor to bring order out of the chaos produced 
 by a lot of stenographers and clerks re-arranging 
 a library in the interests of “economy.” Our visi- 
 tor’s only comment was, “Shortly thereafter I 
 escaped from Russia.” 
 
 When in 1919 Bela Kun and his fellow Com- 
 munists got possession of the Government of Hun- 
 gary, it is reported that they insisted on burning 
 as much of the old capitalist literature of history, 
 economics and politics as they could find. A few 
 months later the present administration of Regent 
 Horthy turned the Communists out and it is re- 
 corded that it celebrated the return of capitalism 
 by burning many books in the ‘Budapest Library 
 which represented the new heresies of socialism and 
 communism. A few more such enthusiastic po- 
 litical revivals and ‘Budapest will not be a very 
 good place for research. 
 
 During the past winter there came a visitor to 
 our library who had been in a position to know 
 
 8 
 
something of the affairs of Ireland during the 
 stormy times. He related the story of how the 
 Sinn-Feiners were driven into the public record 
 office of Dublin by the Free State troops, and 
 when they found themselves hopelessly defeated, 
 thought to avenge theselves by burning the prec- 
 ious records of Ireland from early times. Here is 
 one crime against Irish civilization which can hard- 
 ly be charged to the English. 
 
 But it is easy to see the faults of others. One of 
 the most important sources of raw materials for 
 investigators in history, economics and _ political 
 science are the collections of vital statistics which 
 any government may be expected to keep. There are 
 no general dependable vital statistics in the United 
 States before the first census of 1790. Therefore 
 the records of that first census are precious beyond 
 calculation. Where are they? Burned, and 
 burned within the past five years because the gov- 
 ernment of the United States, the richest in the 
 world, has not yet seen fit to appropriate money 
 for a public archives building. The most insig- 
 nificant of EKuropean countries have such reposi- 
 tories, but the great United States is not yet suf- 
 ficiently enlightened to care for its public records 
 in a separate and fire-proof building. 
 
 Any book-collector could multiply stories of 
 this sort endlessly, stories of Caxtons torn apart 
 to wrap up fish and butter, stories of the precious 
 DeBry engravings from the priceless Hariot’s Vir- 
 ginia, cut up to make patterns for a tailor, stories 
 
 9 
 
ag A briefe and true re- 
 
 portofthe new found and of Virginia: of 
 
 the commores there found andto be rayfed,as wellmar- 
 chantable, as others for viQuall building and other necefla- 
 rie vfes for thofethat are and fhalbe the planters there; and of the na~ 
 ture and manners of the naturall inhabicants : _Difcoucred by the 
 Englifs Colony there feated by Six Richard Greinutle Kuight in the 
 
 yeere 1585. which remained vnder the gouernment of Rafe Lane Efqui- 
 er, one of her Maiefties Equieres, during rhefpace of twelue monssbes ; at 
 the fpeciall charge and direétion of the Honourable SIR 
 WALTER RALEIGH Knight, Lord Warden of 
 the ftanneries ; who therein hath beenc fauou- 
 red and authorifed by her Maicftie and 
 her letters patents: 
 
 Directed to the Aduenturers, Fauourers, 
 andWelvwollers of the aktion, for theimbabi-~ 
 ting and planting theres 
 By Thomas Hariot, {eruantto the abouenamed 
 
 Sic Walter,a member of the Colony, and 
 there imployed in difconering. 
 
 ‘ 
 Coien 
 Aah. 7B 
 g 
 y 
 i 
 4 
 Ni 2 
 Vo 
 
 . 3 J 
 ALY FY Bs —_ 
 le Ve gs 
 Ss Uutpiney, 
 af: 7 yt) TONS 
 a3 c pen 
 
 . Sey) 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 Imprinted at London 1588. : 
 
 First ENGLISH BooK ON THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 
 
of beautiful seventeenth and eighteenth century 
 books torn apart that their armorial binding might | 
 be used to make cigarette boxes, scrap-baskets or 
 writing cases, and sold in the so-called “Art De- 
 partments” of the department stores. But why 
 goon? Surely enough has been said to make clear 
 that as long as human beings are what they are, 
 we need to foster a cult whose duty it is to preserve 
 books and manuscripts, and we need buildings in 
 which that can be done in a fitting manner. They 
 are to be preserved for the scholar and he is always 
 more than welcome in such libraries as ours. But 
 no one would, I believe, advocate that the irre- 
 placeable treasures of the past be entrusted to per- 
 sons who are not yet equipped to handle them. 
 
 This University, let me repeat, and all universi- 
 ties, are interested in increasing the number of peo- 
 ple who are competent to use a library of rare 
 books. That is one reason why the library has been 
 entrusted to the University of Michigan. But I 
 think no one will deny that there are thousands 
 here at the university (as at every university in 
 the land) who have not yet prepared themselves so 
 that they are fit to be entrusted with the rare vol- 
 umes to be found in the William L. Clements 
 Library. — 3 : 
 
 In the administration of such a library as this, 
 it is imperative that certain conditions be laid down 
 under which the books may be used. I have yet to 
 find any one who is really trained to use the library 
 who has the slightest objection to the formalities 
 
 11 
 
we impose. Such complaints as there are come al- 
 together from another quarter. I was very much 
 interested in the accounts given by the Librarian 
 of our University Library, Mr. Bishop, of the recep- 
 tion he met last summer when he visited the great 
 Italian Libraries at Rome, Florence and Venice. 
 Although Mr. Bishop was known personally and 
 by reputation to the custodians of these collections, 
 yet they imposed upon him the same restrictions 
 which they imposed upon anyone else. Before he 
 was permitted to use the volumes, in the Vatican 
 Library, he was required to present a letter of in- 
 troduction from the American Ambassador at 
 Rome. Similar restrictions are in force wherever 
 there are rare books. 
 
 As to readers, the Library follows as liberal a 
 policy as, I believe, can be found anywhere in the 
 world. We are open forenoon and afternoon to— 
 serious scholars on all week days. The general 
 public and the casual visitor present another kind 
 of a problem. ‘To them the Main Room is open 
 every afternoon from two until five. This is a 
 more liberal policy than that adopted at the John 
 Rylands Library at Manchester, one of the great- 
 est in England, which admits the general public 
 only two afternoons a week. I would not have this 
 interpreted as in any sense a reflection on the John 
 Rylands Library. It is simply an evidence of how 
 the appreciative librarian feels about his books. 
 Casual visitors are necessarily confined to our 
 Main Room from which they can see all that 
 
 12 
 
could be of interest to them. From it they can see 
 into the Rare Book Room and view the other parts 
 of the Main Room with its tasteful furniture, up- 
 holstery and hangings. The reason for equipping 
 the Library with very handsome but harmonious 
 furnishings is a very simple one—any works of art 
 can be ruined by an improper setting, and the‘sub- 
 title of this essay indicates how the true book lover 
 regards his books. Yet that very setting must be 
 cared for as the Library itself. One example will, 
 I believe, make this clear. At one time two of the 
 handsome chairs, upholstered in light blue silk vel- 
 vet, were placed inside the silken ropes which sep- 
 arate the rest of the Main Room from that part to 
 which visitors are admitted. A lady sought refuge 
 in the Library from a rainstorm and sat down in 
 one of these chairs in a drenching wet raincoat. As 
 long as there are ladies of that sort—the Library 
 must protect itself against them. 
 
 Of course upon occasions when the Main Room 
 of the Library is used for talks and other affairs 
 held there to stimulate interest in bibliography, 
 book-collecting and American history, the furni- 
 ture is for use. At those times people of apprecia- 
 tion are invited to the Library and all the Library’s 
 resources are available to satisfy whatever interest 
 they may have in helping to realize the ideals which 
 the founder of this Library had in mind when he 
 placed his books here. 
 
 But let us return to the books. It has already 
 been said that this is primarily a collection of the 
 
 13 
 
GQ Epiftola Chiiftofo:i Colom:ent etas noftramnleti deber: de 
 Fniulis Indic fupra Gangem'nuper inuetis-Ad qeas perqreine 
 das octauo antea mente aufpiciis 7 ere innicnflemon Fernadi 4 
 Deifabes Difpaniak Regi mifius fuerar.ad magnificum dim 
 Gabriclem Sanchia.corundeferenifinor Regum Tefaurariti 
 miffasqua nobilis.ac literate vir Leanderde Cof:o ab bifpa 
 woidiomasein latingim-cOuertit tertio kais D2 ait- 99. cece-reitt 
 Pontificatus Bterandri Sexti Anno primoe 
 
 ‘Cloniam fifcepte pronintie rem perfectam me afecurum 
 
 fuiffe gyatam tibi fore {cto:bag conftitni exarare: que te 
 
 pninftuinfgztetin boc noitro itinere gefte inuentecp ade 
 moneant:Zricelimoatértio die polt@ Gadibus difcelti inmare 
 §ndici perueni:ybi plurimas infulas innumeris babitatas bo- 
 tinibus repperi:quarum omnium pro felicifftmo Rege noftro 
 preconio.celebzato 2 verillis extenfis contradicente nemine poft 
 feffionemsaccept:primecp earum dini Saluatozs nomem impor 
 fpi:cnius fretns aurilio tam ad banc: p ad ceterasalias perues 
 ninntis-Cam Xo Indi Guanabanin vocant- Hhrarii etiam vnam 
 Guang nono nomine nuncupaut: quippe aka infalam Saneee 
 Marie Conceptionis-aliam Fernandinamy aham Dpfabellame 
 aliam Joanany-2 fic de reliquis appellariinffi-Cum primumas 
 eam infulain quam dudumFoanam vocart dixiuppoimnarius 
 gtdchia littns occidentemverfus aliquantnlum procefit:ramags 
 eam magnhm nulloveperto fine innenisvt non infola: fed comst 
 nentemn Chatat pouinciam efle crediderim: nulla ti videns op 
 pida minicipiene in maritimisfita.confinih? preter aliquos vie 
 006 1 piedia raftica:cim quor incolialoqni nequibam-quare if 
 mulacnoervidebane furtipiebantfugam: Progrediebar vltras 
 éxiftinians aliquaeme yrbem villafne inuentari-Denig videns 
 q@ longe adniodusrpogreMis nibil noni emergebdat:7 bmoi via 
 nos ad Septentrionem defprebatzq ipfe fugere exoptabarterris 
 etenim regnabae binmasad Anftr umg eratin yoto cotenderes 
 
 A “COLUMBUS LETTER” PRINTED AT ROME IN 1493 BY STEPHAN PLANNCK 
 
sources of American history, and as it is one of 
 our aims to work in the closest harmony and co- 
 operation with the University Library it is only nat- 
 ural that we should strive to secure those volumes 
 which the University Library frequently cannot af- 
 ford. In the case of American history these 
 would necessarily be the books published long ago, 
 and consequently our specialty has been in the 
 earlier periods of American history. We must 
 secure for Michigan those books which, on account 
 of their extreme rarity, are so rapidly going off the 
 market that unless a department of the University 
 is making a particular business of getting them, 
 twenty or thirty years from now it will be impos- 
 sible to secure them at any price. 
 
 Let two examples suffice of such important 
 books. When Columbus returned from his first 
 voyage in 1493 he wrote a short letter describing 
 what he had found. It is the first printed docu- 
 ment in American history as such. Although 
 printing was in its infancy, having been invented 
 less than fifty years before, the popularity of this 
 “Columbus Letter” was so great that it ran 
 through eleven editions in the year of its first pub- 
 lication. When we think of the difficulties of 
 printing in those days, that is a remarkable record. 
 But its record of popularity is even greater than 
 those figures would indicate, for those editions 
 came not all from one press. Printers in Bar- 
 celona, Rome, Paris, Basle, Florence and Antwerp 
 all produced editions of the Columbus Letter in 
 
 15 
 
COSMOGRAPHIAE 
 Capadociam/Pamphiliam/ Lidia/ Cilicia/ Armes 
 nias maiorem & minorem. Colchiden/Hircaniam 
 Hiberiam/ Albaniam:& preterea muleas quas fir 
 gillatin enumerare longa mora effet, Ita dicta ab ef 
 us nOominis regina. 
 
 Nunc vero & heg partes fune latius fuftratae/ 8 
 alia quarta pars per Americtt Vefputiumy ve in fes 
 quentibus audietur)inuenta eft:qua non video cur 
 
 Ames quis ire vetet ab Americo inuentore fagacis inge 
 
 fico nij viroAmerigen quafi Ameriti terram/fiue Ame 
 ricam dicendam:cum & Europa & Altaa mulieris 
 bus fua fortica fine nomina.Eius fieu 8 gentis mos 
 res ex bis binis Americi nauigationibus qu¢ fequis 
 tur liquide intelligi dacur. 
 
 Hunc in modum terra iam quadripartita copno 
 (citur: 8¢ funt tres primze partes cStinentes: quarta 
 eft infula: cum omni quaqs mari circudata cofpicia 
 eur. Et licet mare wnu fic quéadmodum & ipfa tele 
 fus:multis tamen finibus diftinétum/ & innumeris 
 
 _.__ repletum infulis varia fibi noia affumit:qua: in Cof 
 
 Prilca. mographig tabulis confpiciuntur: & Pnfcianus in 
 tralatione Dionify talibus enumerat verfibus, 
 Circuit Oceani gurges ramen vndigs vaftus 
 Qui Guis vnus fit/plurima nomina fumit. 
 Finibus Hefpertjs Achlanticus ille vocatur 
 AtBoreg qua gens furit Armiafpa fub armis 
 Dicii tLe piger necnon Satur. idé mortuus eft alijss 
 
 THE PAGE FROM WALDSEEMUELLER’S “COSMOGRAPHIAE INTRODUCTIO” FROM 
 WHICH AMERICA RECEIVED ITS NAME. 
 
that year. Yet of all of those editions only a very 
 few of each survice. Of the first edition but one is 
 known in the entire world. Our Library has a 
 beautiful copy of the third edition, from the library 
 of Henry Huth. Mr. Wilberforce Eames notes that 
 there are only twenty surviving copies of this edi- 
 tion. Upon the rare occasions when it comes on 
 the market, it brings thousands of dollars. Is that 
 a book to be handed out to every curiosity seeker? 
 Is it a plaything to be “put on special reference?” 
 
 Nearby on the same shelf is a copy of the 1507 
 edition of Waldseemiiller’s Cosmographiae Intro- 
 ductio, wherein that well-intentioned but misin- 
 formed school-master suggested that since Am- 
 erigo Vespucci had discovered the New World it 
 ought to be named after him, America. Is that an 
 important book? But for it, we might never have 
 been mis-named Americans. On account of one 
 short paragraph in this little book printed in a 
 tiny town in the Vosges Mountains four hundred 
 years ago, two mighty continents got the wrong 
 name—and the truth has never overtaken error. 
 It is difficult to assess the value of such a book. 
 No History of America has ever been written or 
 ever can be written without not only referring to 
 this book, but actually mentioning it by name. Can 
 we afford to leave that on an open shelf to be 
 handled by every chance visitor to the Library? 
 If we did so we would not long have it to show to 
 the real scholar who has a genuine claim to see it. 
 
 A similar story could be told of thousands of 
 
 17 
 
other books on the shelves of the William L. Clem- 
 ents Library. Should such volumes be placed 
 where the students can get at them? Let me make 
 a distinction. In the modern University there are 
 some of us who draw a very sharp line between 
 “students” and “scholars.” This Library is in- 
 tended for the use of scholars, but no one is likely 
 to say that all students are scholars. Indeed, I am 
 inclined to think, and this is only a personal opin- 
 ion, that the vast majority of students are not 
 scholars. No, the Library and its books are not 
 for the use of the students. The conclusion as to 
 their relation to this Library is inevitable. 
 Moreover, there are instructors and professors 
 in the University who do not scruple to demand 
 that the University Library “put on special refer- 
 ence” a periodical of which the Library has but one 
 copy, that several hundred underclassmen may 
 read a two-page article on the minimum wage, or 
 some such subject. After three or four hundred 
 students have pawed over the volume it is fre- 
 quently never again available for the man who has 
 a legitimate claim to use it. ‘Too often the leaves 
 are entirely cut out. It is not necessary to remark 
 that that professor might have provided a dozen 
 photostats of that article for a few cents each. As 
 long as there are such instructors and professors, 
 our Library proposes to protect itself against them. 
 In addition to this there are readers on the cam- 
 pus who seem unable to sit down with a book with- 
 out underlining passages in pencil, or cutting out 
 
 18 
 
maps or pictures which appeal to them. As long as 
 such readers are at large, this Library proposes to 
 maintain its defences. | 
 
 On being asked by Mr. Clements to accept this 
 position, I remarked that the task seemed to be 
 one of mediating between being hospitable and be- 
 ing careful. I believe that statement is not far 
 from the truth. As long as I remain here, I intend 
 to make my mistakes in the matter of hospitality 
 rather than in the matter of care. An error in 
 hospitality can be rectified by an apology or other 
 explanation. A mistake in care may be absolutely 
 impossible to rectify, if a unique volume is lost or 
 damaged. Therefore the Library does not propose 
 to take any chances whatever in entrusting its 
 treasures to those who are not properly introduced, 
 or who by their manners or actions do not commend . 
 themselves as trustworthy. 
 
 In an ordinary library a volume lost may be re- 
 placed.. In our Library, in all probability, a book 
 cannot be replaced for the simple reason that a 
 duplicate does not exist for sale. A public library 
 is an indispensable necessity in a democracy, but 
 this is another kind of library. When a higher 
 stage of civilization has been reached, when men of 
 wealth, culture and refinement have a little more 
 leisure than is possible in the lower stages of human 
 progress, we always find another type of library 
 springing up. Italy, France and England have 
 had such libraries for centuries and as culture and 
 civilization have made their way in America, such 
 
 19 
 
libraries have appeared in Philadelphia, New York, 
 Boston and elsewhere. In those libraries the orig- 
 inal collector treats his books with a meticulous 
 care which they merit. As time has gone on collec- 
 tors have become more and more fastidious about 
 the volumes they are willing to admit to their 
 shelves. Defective copies of books, books of which 
 the margins of the pages have been trimmed by the 
 binder’s knife—these are the abomination of the 
 collector. What difference does it make? What 
 difference does it make whether your linen is soiled 
 or your shoes unpolished ? 
 
 Many of these collections, built with great sac- 
 rifice and persistence by some enthusiastic collec- 
 tor, find their way ultimately to a public institu- 
 tion. There they get into the hands of employees 
 who are seldom better informed than the multitude 
 itself as to the value of books, or possessed of any 
 greater appreciation of the fine points of a book. 
 Then we have the tragedy of a great library al- 
 lowed to degenerate in the hands of the enemies of 
 books, careless human beings, against whom Rich- 
 ard de Bury wrote his Philobiblon five hundred 
 years ago. No wonder every new generation of 
 book-collectors republishes the Philobiblon. An 
 understanding of its contents and principles ought 
 to be a “prerequisite for admission” to such libraries 
 as ours. One of the purposes of our Library is to 
 help foster a generation of people who can go out 
 and take care of the increasing number of libraries 
 of this sort, a profession which can relieve the col- 
 
 20 
 
lector from the details of the arrangement of his 
 library and leave him free to gather in more books. 
 But such a person must have the feeling that the 
 collector himself has for his books. The qualifica- 
 tions for such a position are more than those of pro- 
 ficiency in Library School training. Ours is a 
 Library of twenty thousand volumes without any 
 little paper labels defacing the backs of the books 
 to indicate classifications, and without any call 
 numbers on the catalogue cards. 
 
 But let us consider the collector himself. I wish 
 some industrious person would write a book on the 
 immense debt that civilization owes to the man 
 who amasses books, if he never does anything else. 
 The books which the genuine collector will admit 
 _ to his shelves are only important books. Few peo- 
 ple are interested in collecting unimportant books. 
 People of that calibre are collecting cigar bands 
 and milk tops. But the point is that it is not for 
 the multitude to say what are important books. 
 What constitutes an important books is a matter 
 of considerable study, and the book-collector makes 
 it his business to master that subject. If he knows 
 that a book is important, his opinion is apt to be 
 worth more than that of the man in the street. In- 
 deed it is not long before others bear eloquent trib- 
 ute to the correctness of his knowledge by imitating 
 his collection. If he does nothing but make the 
 collection, he has accomplished a life work. The ex- 
 ploitation of the collection can safely be left to 
 those less courageous individuals who write books 
 
 21 
 

 
 O R, 
 A Poetical Defcription of the 
 Great and Laft 
 
 Sudagment. 
 
 With a fhore Difcourfe about 
 
 ETERNITY 
 
 
 
 
 
 By Michael Wigglefworth, A. M. Teacher of the 
 Church in Maldon, New-England. 
 
 
 
 The Seventl) Cation, Enlarged. 
 
 
 
 
 
 See 
 
 
 
 With a Recoemmendatory £p:f/e (in Verfe) by the Rev 
 Mr. John Mitchel Allo Mr. Wigglefworth’s Character 
 by Dr Cotton Martner. 
 
 
 
 
 
 A&s 17 431. Becaufe he hath appointed a Day in the which 
 he carll yudge thy World in Righteoufnels, by that Man 
 whom he hath erdcimed. 
 
 Mat 24. 30. And tin fall appear the Sign of the Son of 
 Man in Heaven, and then thall ali the Tribes of the Earth 
 meurn, and they foall fee the Son of Man coming in the 
 Clouds of Heavcn, wutth Power and great Glory. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ee eee 
 
 
 
 
 
 BOSTON Printed and fold by Thomas Fleet, at the 
 Heart and Crown in Cornhill. 1751, 
 
 THTLE-PAGE OF WIGGLESWORTH’S “Day OF Doom.” 
 
 “No narrative of our intellectual history during the colonial days can 
 justly fail to record the enormous influence of this terrible poem during 
 all those times.’’ Moses Coit TYLER. 
 
from the sources to be found in the collector’s 
 library. I call them “less courageous” because they 
 take no chances, they do not sacrifice all other 
 earthly treasures in the building up of the library 
 which they are privileged to enjoy. Moreover they 
 are in most cases people with good analytic minds 
 who can best use the collection—but then many 
 people have that kind of mind. The mind of the 
 collector is essentially synthetic and imaginative. 
 He sees without logical processes the importance 
 of a book before the patient investigator finds the 
 reason for its importance. In a very real sense the 
 collector frequently foresees the importance of a 
 book before the writer of a dissertation thereon. 
 Indeed the investigator probably would never see 
 the book if the collector had not rescued it. How- 
 ever, volumes could be written on this subject. 
 Let us consider this matter of importance 
 a little further. If a book has been read by thou- 
 sands of people, and published in dozens of differ- 
 ent editions, it would be hard to deny that it had 
 some influence. Its influence on the course of 
 human progress is one of the things that makes it 
 an important book. But it is just those books 
 which are often the rarest, which bring the highest 
 prices, and which are the most eagerly sought after 
 by the collector. One illustration will suffice here. 
 On our shelves there is a small volume in a broken 
 binding, and not in the fresh condition the col- 
 lector most desires, but carefully preserved in a 
 morocco slipcase. It is entitled “The Day of 
 
 23 
 
Doom” and was written by the Reverend Michael 
 Wigglesworth, and published at Boston in 1715. 
 It is a little bit of New England religious poetry, 
 but it has molded the thought of America as 
 positively and as effectively as almost any book 
 of its day. Of this “blazing and sulphurous” vol- 
 ume, Moses Coit Tyler has said, “This great poem, 
 which with entire unconsciousness, attributes to the 
 Divine Being a character the most execrable and 
 loathsome to be met with, perhaps in any literature, 
 Christian or Pagan, had for a hundred years a 
 popularity far exceeding any other work, in prose 
 or verse, produced in America before the Revolu- 
 tion.” But we have no copy of the first edition 
 —nor of the second, nor the third, nor the fourth, 
 nor the fifth. Where are they all? They were so 
 popular that they were read to pieces. One of our 
 copies is the sixth edition. Some years ago Mr. 
 Clements came across a copy of the seventh edi- 
 tion, its binding in tatters, but he paid a large sum 
 for it and entrusted it to the English binder 
 Riviere that it might be reverently covered with a 
 new morocco binding as sumptuous as the im- 
 portance of such a work demanded. If you would 
 understand the “Puritan Conscience” which has so 
 powerfully molded American thought these three 
 hundred years, you must go to this little book. 
 That is what a collector means by an important 
 book,—a book which has helped to change history, 
 a book which has had a real part in the creation of 
 our civilization and in the indicating of the path of 
 
 24 
 
our progress. One of the ideals of the William L. 
 Clements Library is to have no other books than 
 these upon its shelves—and of necessity they are 
 often rare books as well. Unless the few surviv- 
 ing copies of these books are placed beyond the 
 reach of all save those who are qualified to use 
 them, there will soon be none left. 
 
 But I would emphasize the work of the collector 
 as such. Recently the newspapers carried articles 
 about the purchase of a portrait of Giuliano di Me- 
 dici by Raphael for many thousands of dollars. 
 Whereupon editorial writers set to work to scoff 
 at another ignorant rich man who was trying to 
 “make a record” in squandering his money. But 
 who was this Medici? He was a member of a great 
 dynasty of Renaissance bankers whose collections 
 of books and pictures were and are among the 
 greatest the world has known. Giovanni de Medici 
 was a fifteenth century J. Pierpont Morgan. Co- 
 simo di Medici, his son, was a successful political 
 boss as well as an astute banker. As only rich 
 men can, they amassed great numbers of books. 
 Doubtless the small-minded among the Floren- 
 tines of their day scoffed at them as nouveaux 
 riches who could not understand what they had 
 bought. Lorenzo and the second Giuliano di Medi- 
 ci belong to later generations and they carried 
 on the artistic tradition of a great family. Today 
 the city of Florence is a mecca to which thousands 
 of book-lovers and art-lovers make their yearly 
 pilgrimage to see—what? The collections of the 
 
 25 
 
 
 
Medici and other great Florentine collectors. It is 
 not recorded that any of the Medici were required 
 to write a doctoral dissertation to prove that they 
 understood the books which they were collecting. 
 It is enough that they were collectors, and thou- 
 sands of dissertations have been written because 
 they spent huge sums on works of art. Among the 
 thousands who annually visit Florence to gaze 
 upon the books of the Medici, there are doubtless 
 those who go home to jeer at the modern Medicis 
 who are building in America the libraries and art- 
 galleries which will in the future become focal 
 points of American culture. 
 
 A. Edward Newton once put to me the ques- 
 tion: “Where would culture be without the collec- 
 tor?” The Italian Renaissance itself supplies the 
 answer to that question. ‘That great epoch, the 
 closing chapter of Medieval History, the opening 
 act of the drama of modern times, what was it? I 
 should not like to argue to any good medievalist 
 that the Renaissance was due solely to the book- 
 collectors—but I should cheerfully defy any medie- 
 valist to write the story of the Renaissance and 
 leave out the part played by Petrarch, Boccaccio 
 and their followers in hunting down the Latin man- 
 uscripts. I should like to see him try to outline the 
 Renaissance and omit the part played by Pope 
 Nicholas V and Frederick of Urbino in gathering 
 those precious treasures which Petrarch’s enthusi- 
 asm uncovered, and importing Greek books from 
 Constantinople in time to save them from destruc- 
 
 26 
 
tion by the Turk. From these collections came 
 the great Vatican Library. One might revert to 
 the Medici here again, but the story is too well 
 known. Perhaps there would be some culture in 
 the world without book-collectors, but I should not 
 like to have to maintain it. 
 
 The part played in the history of book-col- 
 lecting by the donor of our Library is in more than 
 one way comparable to that of the great actors of 
 the Renaissance. A number of great and devas- 
 tating wars in the Near East threw thousands of 
 the precious Greek manuscript codices on the mar- 
 ket in the fifteenth century. Had the great Ital- 
 ian collectors not bought them up and stored them 
 in the libraries of Florence, Rome and Venice, 
 they might not have survived. It was a golden op- 
 portunity for the collector, and a critical moment 
 for civilization. Fortunately the wealthy Italian 
 bankers and noblemen saved the day. 
 
 In 1914 another great war threw on the market 
 thousands of rare books, and among them were 
 thousands which were of first importance to Amer- 
 ican history. In quick succession in England alone 
 the Rowfant, the Bridgewater, the Devonshire and 
 the Britwell or Christie-Miller collections went un- 
 der the hammer of the auctioneer. The keen-eyed 
 American collector saw his chance. He would re- 
 peat for America what the Italians of the Quattro- 
 cento had done to make Italy a great center of 
 literary research. Hundreds and thousands of 
 these precious books found their way across the 
 
 27 
 
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Atlantic into such libraries of rare books as Mr. 
 Clements was building up at Bay City, Michigan. 
 It was not merely the chance of a lifetime, it was 
 the opportunity of centuries. The acquisition of 
 the political papers of Earl Shelburne was charac- 
 teristic of many of the incidents which are part of 
 the history of the collection. This great body of 
 manuscripts—more than two hundred folios—con- 
 tained priceless source material for American his- 
 tory such as was only to be found in the private ar- 
 chives of the man who had been Colonial Minister, 
 Foreign Minister and finally Prime Minister of 
 England, off and on for fifty years during the 
 eighteenth century. Shelburne had been an admin- 
 istrator of colonial affairs while the United States 
 was a part of the British Empire, and under his 
 administration as head of the British government 
 had been negotiated the Peace of 1783 between 
 Great Britain and the United States. What may 
 not those folios contain? But the point is that when 
 they finally yield their secrets to the American his- 
 torical investigator, it will be impossible to over- 
 look the debt which the investigator owes to the 
 book-collector. 
 
 With years of persistent search and loyalty to 
 his subject the collector at Bay City had been 
 building up his collection of rare books in Ameri- 
 can history of the Discovery, Colonial and Revolu- 
 tionary periods. When those opportunities came 
 as a result of the war, America was fortunate to 
 have such men to take advantage of them. But 
 
 29 
 
thrice fortunate is the University which suddenly 
 finds itself possessed of a great library made by 
 one of these collectors. Not yet perhaps compar- 
 able in many ways to the collections of rarities in 
 the Bodleian at Oxford, or the Laurentian at Flor- 
 ence, which have had years’ and even centuries’ start 
 on it, yet itis an American library and being Amer- 
 ican the future belongs to it. In its chosen field it 
 is second to none in Europe and ranks among the 
 four or five of its kind in America. Individual 
 comparisons among these will always be impossible 
 because they specialize in different aspects of 
 Americana. 
 
 But I cannot leave the book-collector without a 
 word of tribute to the book-dealer, the man who 
 unearths the treasures which the collector stores up 
 for mankind. What we know of the collectors of 
 the Italian Renaissance is due very largely to the 
 letters of one Vespasiano di ‘Bistricci, an Italian 
 fifteenth century book-seller. He found the books 
 for the Medici, for Pope Nicholas V and sold them 
 —at a profit, and who will deny that he earned the 
 profit? Duke Frederick of Urbino bought large- 
 ly from Vespasiano and then decided it was more 
 discreet to employ him as a custodian and put him 
 on a salary. It was a wise choice, as every book- 
 collector will agree. What Vespasiano did for the 
 Italians, that did the first Henry Stevens for the 
 American collectors, James Lenox and John Car- 
 ter Brown, whose collections have become the 
 foundations of two of the greatest of American 
 
 30 
 
libraries. Indeed the only book written on James 
 Lenox as a collector was written by Henry Stevens. 
 When Dr. Rosenbach goes abroad and buys a 
 single tract for thirty-five thousand dollars, he is 
 a great deal more than a book-dealer. He repre- 
 sents the cult of the book-collector, and he believes 
 in the book enough to sink a small fortune in it. 
 When he resells, the thing that interests the his- 
 torians of civilization is not what profit is made but 
 the fact that the book will help to build up a great 
 library somewhere. In writing his volume on this 
 Library, Mr. Clements has taken pains to express 
 the thanks that are due to his book-seller friends, 
 Lathrop C. Harper of New York and Henry N. 
 Stevens of London. It is impossible to avoid the 
 part played by the book-seller in the art of book- 
 collecting from the time of Vespasiano to that of 
 these men and their colleagues and competitors. 
 Moreover, the book-seller does us this great serv- 
 ice: he prints catalogues of his wares. When the 
 morning’s mail brings a sheaf of them to my desk, 
 I have that delightful sensation which comes only 
 to those who make their living doing what is also 
 their greatest pleasure. In the middle of the morn- 
 ing recently I found one of the members of the 
 staff of the Library busily devouring one of Tre- 
 gaskis’ catalogues. In ordinary office routine I 
 should have frowned upon such an expenditure of 
 “the company’s time.” But I feel this is just one 
 of the contrasts between our Library and an ordi- 
 nary library. That girl has her job because she 
 
 31 
 
can suspend work and get lost in a second-hand cat- 
 alogue of Americana. I would not print her name 
 lest some other library like this try to get her for 
 the very reason that she can read second-hand book 
 catalogues with discrimination. The bibliographer 
 owes a great debt to the book-seller. 
 
 Such is the contribution made to the progress of 
 humanity by the collector, and especially the col- 
 lector of books. These collectors’ libraries are not 
 mere sources of information—they are sources of 
 inspiration. _Such a library has now appeared at 
 Michigan, and its donor intends to profit by the 
 mistakes of others and see to it that his treasures 
 are available only to those whose reputation and 
 training entitles them to call for his books. He was 
 urged by some of his book-loving friends not to 
 think of giving his books to a public institution, on 
 the ground that public institutions were notorious 
 in their inability to care for such priceless human 
 records. He has shown an extraordinary degree of 
 loyalty to his Alma Mater and confidence in her 
 by giving his books to his University. The least 
 his (University can do in return for his superb gift 
 is to respect his ideals. — 
 
 32 
 
Printed at the Alumni 
 Press, University of Mich- 
 igan, September 1925. One 
 thousand copies, of which 
 two hundred were bound 
 in board and eight hun- 
 dred in paper covers. 
 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 
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