Dukedom no longer large enough
Dmitri Obolensky
TREASURES OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY compiled by Nicolas Barker and the Curatorial Staff of the British Library
The British Library, £25, pp.272
The two-page coloured photograph which plays the overture to this handsome- ly produced and beautifully illustrated book will warm the heart of many a reader of the British Museum/British Library. It shows, viewed from the upper gallery, the Round Reading Room, bathed in early morning light, completely empty. Memor- ies crowd the mind: austere superinten- dents in formal attire; wartime readers there and later in the North Library comfortably settled in their favourite seats or consulting the prestigious catalogue, elegantly arranged in two concentric cir- cles. Some of the more famous, or eccen- tric, of these readers were once portrayed by David Lowe in a memorable cartoon in the Evening Standard. Since the last war the reconstructed Reading Room, adapted to present-day needs and modern technol- ogy, retains the affection of innumerable users and scholars, here and abroad. This picture provides an introduction to the book's principal theme: how, when, and why were the immense treasures of the British Library — printed books, manu- scripts, maps, newspapers — acquired and, in a few cases, lost?
The story begins with the great royal and private collectors of the 17th and 18th centuries, whose books and manuscripts, bequeathed to the nation, formed the nucleus of the British Museum's holdings: Sir Robert Cotton, owner of the Lindis- farne Gospels, the unique manuscript of Beowulf, and two of the four surviving original texts of Magna Carta; Sir Hans Sloane, Newton's successor as President of the Royal Society, whose many manu- scripts included William Harvey's lecture notes, revealing his discovery of the cir- culation of the blood; Robert and Edward Harley; and George III.
The British Museum was formally opened on 15 January 1759, and was first housed in the (no longer extant) Montagu House, close to Great Russell Street. Its early days seem to have been plagued by staff problems, some apparently due to a chronic shortage of funds. Thomas Gray, one of the early readers, described in a letter to a friend the atmosphere of the reading room: 'When I call it peaceful, you are to understand it only of us Visiters, for the Society itself, Trustees & all, are up in arms, like the Fellows of a College, the keepers have broke off all intercourse with one another, & only lower a silent defiance as they pass by'. The first Keeper of the Reading Room, a notorious hypochon- driac, was in the habit of leaving his post for the garden to get a breath of fresh air. On one occasion he encountered a Trustee who commanded him: 'Go back, Sir!'
Less colourful perhaps, but more crucial in the British Museum's history, was the 19th century. It was marked by the acquisi- tion of the King's Library, the Thomas Grenville bequest which placed the Museum among the world's foremost lib- raries, and the appointment of two great administrators, Antonio Panizzi, Keeper of Printed Books, and Frederic Madden, Keeper of Manuscripts. Their monumental feuds shook the Museum; but their achievements were immense. Panizzi, who usually won in the end, supervised the removal of the books from Montagu House to their new quarters, and the building (1852-57) of the Round Reading Room.
Many treasures were acquired in the present century: among them the extraor- dinary collections of documents brought back from Central Asia by Sir Aurel Stein; many Slavonic and East European manu- scripts and books (the Library's holdings of Russian Futurist material are specially remarkable); the Codex Sinaiticus, purch- ased from the Soviet Government in 1934; and the original manuscript of Alice in Wonderland, with illustrations by Lewis Carroll, presented by a group of American benefactors in recognition of Great Bri- tain's efforts during the second world war.
Formally separated from the British Museum in 1973, the British Library has experienced growing problems of space. An imaginative scheme involving the re- development of the site south of the Museum was defeated by Parliament in 1967, despite the oratory of Lord Radclif- fe, Chairman of the Trustees. The new British Library, scheduled to open in 1993, is being built instead on a site near St Pancras Station. The future of the Round Reading Room remains uncertain. One must hope that this noble, perfectly prop- ortioned and uniquely beautiful space may yet be saved for future generations of British Library readers.
Left: Jenson's Pliny, Historia Naturum (1472). Above: astronomers on Mount Athos, from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, 15th century.
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