Travels in Turkey and back to EnglandChishull, Edmund
History
Travels in Turkey and back to England
Chishull, Edmund
Turkey -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
The case of this library is very mean, being unfurnished with seats and
benches, and divided into four or five distinct apartments, besides
another more separate from the rest, in which are kept all prohibited,
that is, controversial books in divinity, together with the small
remainder of _Matthias Corvinus’s_ library brought from _Buda_. But it
is still a greater disadvantage to this library, that since the death of
_Nesselius_ it has for two years been without a librarian, and therefore
is difficult of access, and not without a considerable fee. This defect
is attributed to the great scarcity of learned men in these parts,
especially those of the Roman faith; for which reason the two preceding
librarians, _Lambecius_ and _Nesselius_, being before Lutherans, were
obliged to renounce their faith, when they accepted that employ.
Over against the library is a long gallery, adjoining likewise to the
palace, wherein is contained the Emperor’s treasury. A noble and truly
royal collection is here of innumerable curiosities, both of art and
nature, with vast riches in silver, gold, pretious stones, and jewels.
But this likewise has the disgrace of being meanly exposed to sale, nor
is it ever shewn under the exorbitant fee of twenty five florins; however
I obtained two opportunities of viewing it, in the latter of which I took
a large and distinct catalogue of the chief rarities deposited there,
which would be too large to be here inserted.
The university of this place is a numerous society, appropriated to
several distinct nations, particularly those of the empire, and the
Emperor’s hereditary dominions; but it is remarkable for nothing but a
low contracted institution, and administered wholly by the Jesuites,
except that they refuse the office of _rector magnificus_, as being an
expensive honour. The schools are tolerable and convenient apartments,
adjoining to the Jesuits college; but the particular students are lodged
privately, as every one’s circumstances and conveniency best serve him.
But what they call the _academy_ is in its kind more flourishing than
the university; being a society instituted at the charge of the whole
province of Austria, to instruct the young gentry and nobility in riding,
fencing, dancing, the modern tongues, heraldry, history, and other polite
arts. Their riding school is a noble room; and adjoining thereto is a
stable of about forty managed horses, for the maintaining of which their
instructor in horsemanship receives ten thousand florins annually from
the public.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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