In the decoration, with which every portion of the walls and vaults is covered, Roman methods are reproduced, but with a difference. The great writers of antiquity are conspicuous by their absence; but the development of the human race is commemorated by the presence of those to whom the invention of letters is traditionally ascribed; the walls are covered with frescoes representing the foundation of the great libraries which instructed the world, and the assemblies of the Councils which established the Church; the vaults record the benefits conferred on Rome by Sixtus V., in a series of historical views, one above each window; and over these again are stately figures, each embodying some sacred abstraction--"Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers"--with angels swinging censers, and graceful nymphs, and laughing satyrs--a strange combination of paganism and Christianity--amid wreaths of flowers, and arabesques twining round the groups and over every vacant space, partly framing, partly hiding, the heraldic devices which commemorate Sixtus and his family:--a web of lovely forms and brilliant colours, combined in an intricate and yet orderly confusion. It may be questioned whether such a room as this was ever intended for study. The marble floor, the gorgeous decoration, the absence of all appliances for work in the shape of desks, tables, chairs, suggest a place for show rather than for use. The great libraries of the Augustan age, on the other hand, seem, so far as we can judge, to have been used as meeting-places and reading-rooms for learned and unlearned alike. In general arrangement and appearance, however, the Vatican Library must closely resemble its imperial predecessors. [Illustration: Fig. 17. A single press in the Vatican Library, open. From a photograph.] FOOTNOTES: [1] _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_, 2 vols., 8vo. Lond. 1853. Vol. II., p. 343. [2] Ezra, vi. I. [3] Mr Layard gives a view of the interior of one of these rooms (p. 345) after it had been cleared of rubbish. [4] _La Bibliotheque du Palais de Ninive_, par M. Joachim Menant. 8vo. Paris, 1880, p. 32. [5] The two languages are the ancient Sumerian and the more modern Assyrian. [6] Athenaeus, Book 1., Chap. 4. [7] _Noct. Att._ Book VII., Chap. 17. Libros Athenis disciplinarum liberalium publice ad legendum praebendos primus posuisse dicitur Pisistratus tyrannus. [8] Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, Book IV., Chap. 2. [9] Aristoph. _Ranae_, 1407-1410, translated by J. H. Frere. The passage has been quoted by Castellani, _Biblioteche nell' Antichita_, 8vo., Bologna, 1884, pp. 7, 8, and many others. [10] Strabo, ed. Kramer, Berlin, 8vo., 1852, Book XIII., Chap. I, Sec. 54. [Greek: protos hon hismen synagagon biblia, kai didaxas tous en Aigypto basileas bibliothekes syntaxin.] [11] Book XIII., Chap. 4, Sec. 2.