with old Sanzi:-- "No fitting outlay on the work he spared The eye to please; but more intent to feed The mind, he ardently began to build A library, so vast, and so select, As to supply each intellect and taste. With noble aim such books he there amassed, That every genius might its flight direct To kindred objects. Foremost in the band The works of holy churchmen, all adorned And bound with wond'rous beauty; Next what survives of ancient wisdom's thoughts In classic tongue contained; historians all; The sacred choir of charming poesy; In law and medicine many famous names, Symmetrically ranged; there, too, I note A wealth of books in divers languages,-- Arab and Greek, with Hebrew reverend; And sundry others whose rich ornaments Deserve detailed description, for I've seen Men of the finest taste in wonder lost Before them." No poet's licence need be suspected in this description, for it is thus fully borne out by Vespasiano, who was originally an agent in amassing these treasures, and subsequently their custodier.[125] "We have now to mention the high estimation in which he held all Greek and Latin authors, sacred or profane; and to him alone was given the enterprise to carry out what no one, for above a thousand years past, had done, by establishing a library superior to any formed during all that period. In no respect did he look to expense; and whenever he learned the existence of any desirable book in Italy, or abroad, he sent for it without heeding the cost. It is now above fourteen years since he began to make this collection, and he has ever since maintained at Urbino, Florence, and elsewhere, thirty-four transcribers, and has resorted to every means requisite for amassing a famous and excellent library,--which it now is. He has, in the first place, all the Latin poets, with their best commentaries; also the entire works of Cicero, with all the orators and grammarians in that language. In history, he commissioned every known work of that or the Greek tongue, as well as the orators of the latter. In moral and natural philosophy, no author of these languages is wanting. In the faculty of theology he has been most profuse, having, besides the four doctors of the Church, St. Bernard, Tertullian, Hilary, Remigius, Hugh of St. Victor, Isidore, Anselm, Rabanus, Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Basil, Cyril, Gregory Nazarene, John of Damascus, Eusebius, Origen, St. Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Alexander de Alexandro, Duns Scotus, Bonaventura, Richard Mediavilla, Archbishop Antonio, with all the modern doctors. There are further all the best civilians, with the lectures of Bartolomeo Capretti. He had the Bible, that best of books, written in two volumes, with the richest and most beautiful illustrations, bound in brocade of gold, and lavishly ornamented with silver; and he made it be thus gorgeously adorned as the chief of all