Europe has sustained a permanent loss through the destruc- tion
by fire of the Turin Library. The fire, caused, it is believed, by some defect in the electric apparatus, burnt the library out in four hours in the *early morning of the 26th inst., and the flames must have been unusually fierce, for books, like bales of paper, are by no means combustible articles. The ancient library of the house• of Savoy is destroyed, and the learned will regret the loss of hundreds of Latin manuscripts, among them a palimpsest of Pliny's "Natural History." The library included also a great collection of Oriental manuscripts, which appear always to have interested members of the dynasty. Charles Albert had an especial fancy for Oriental scholars, and once defrayed the whole expense of publishing an edition of the "Ramayana," in elephant folio, one of the most mag- nificent volumes in the way of paper and typography now existing in the world. There is reason to doubt whether the
priceless collections in the Vatican are safe from fire, while the library in the crypts of St. Sophia is in even greater danger from damp. If there is a millionaire in want of an object of expenditure, he should try to rescue the treasures there collected. The local people will deny their existence ; but it has, we believe, been ascertained beyond all question.
Previous page
