Chapter 6
Section 6 of Curiosities of Literature, Volume 1. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Curiosities of Literature, Volume 1. By Isaac Disraeli.
The Bibliomania. The preceding article is honorable to literature. Yet even a passion for collecting books is not always a passion for literature. The bibliomania, or the collecting an enormous heap of books without intelligent curiosity, has, since libraries have existed, infected weak minds,
who imagine that they themselves acquire knowledge when they keep it on their shelves. The motley libraries have been called the madhouses of the human mind, and again the tomb of books, when the possessor will not communicate them and coffins them up in the cases of his library. it was facetiously observed these collections are not without a lock on the human understanding footnote an allusion and pun which occasioned the french translator of the present work and unlucky plunder
puzzled no doubt by my facetiously he translates mettons comme on l'intrait judicieusement fait observer l'entendement humain sous la clef the great work and the great author alluded to having quite escaped him and a footnote the bibliomania never raged more violently than in our own times it is fortunate that literature is in no ways injured by the follies of collectors since though they preserve the worthless they necessarily protect the good footnote the earliest satire on the mere book collector is to be found in barclay's translation of brand's ship of fools first printed by wynkin the word in fifteen o eight he thus announces his true position i am the first fool of the whole navy to keep the poop the helm and eke the sail for this is my mind this one pleasure have i of books to have great plenty and apparel still i am busy books assembling for to have plenty is a pleasant thing in my conceit and to have them i in hand but what they mean do i not understand but yet i have them in great reverence and honour saving them from filth and odour by often brushing and much diligence
full goodly bound in pleasant coverture of the mass satin or else of velvet pure i keep them sure fearing least they should be lost for in them is the cunning wherein i me boast and a footnote some collectors place all their fame on the view of a splendid library where volumes arrayed in all the pomp flattering silk linings triple gold bands and tinted leather are locked up in wire-cases and secured from the vulgar hands of the mere reader dazzling our eyes like eastern beauties peering through their shallow seas la bruyere has touched on this mania with humour of such a collector as soon as i enter his house i am ready to faint on the staircase from a strong smell of morocco leather in vain he shows me fine editions gold leaves etruscan bindings and naming them one after another as if he were showing a gallery of pictures a gallery by the by which he seldom traverses when alone for he rarely reads but me he offers to conduct through it i thank him for his politeness and as little as himself care to visit the tan-house which he calls his library
Lucian has composed a biting invective against an ignorant possessor of a vast library like him, who in the present day, after turning over the pages of an old book, chiefly admires the date. Lucian compares him to a pilot, who was never taught the science of navigation, to a rider who cannot keep his seat on a spirited horse, to a man who, not having the use of his feet, would conceal the defect by wearing embroidered shoes. but alas he cannot stand in them he ludicrously compares him to theocytes wearing the armour of achilles torturing at every step leering with his little eyes under his enormous helmet and his hunchback raising the cuirass above his shoulders why do you buy so many books you have no hair and you purchase a comb you are blind and you will have a grand mirror you are deaf and you will have fine musical instruments your costly bindings are only a source of vexation and you are continually discharging your librarians for not preserving them from the silent invasion of the worms and the nibbling triumphs of the rats
such collectors will contemptuously smile at the collection of the amiable melancthon he possessed in his library only four authors plato pliny platarque and ptolemy the geographer and sillan was a great collector of curious books and dexterously defended himself when accused of the bibliomania he gave a good reason for buying the most elegant editions which he did not consider merely as a literary luxury footnote david ancillon was born at metz in sixteen seventeen from his earliest years his devotion to study was so great as to call for the interposition of his father to prevent himself being seriously affected by it he was described as intemperously studious the jesuits of metz gave him the free range of their college library but his studies led him to protestantism and in sixteen thirty three he removed to geneva and devoted himself to the duties of the reformed church throughout an honourable life he retained unabated his love of books and having a fortune by marriage he gratified himself in constantly collecting them so that he ultimately possessed one of the finest private libraries in france
for very many years his life passed peaceably and happily amid his books and his duties when a revocation of the edict of nantes drove him from his country his noble library was scattered at waste paper prices thus in a single day was destroyed the labor care and expense of forty-four years he died seven years afterwards at brandenburg and a footnote the less the eyes are fatigued in reading a work the more liberty the mind feels to judge of it and as we perceive more clearly the excellences and defects of a printed book than when in manuscript so we see them more plainly in good paper and clear type than when the impression and paper are both bad he always purchased first editions and never waited for second ones though it is the opinion of some that the first edition is only to be considered as an imperfect essay which the author proposes to finish after he has tried the sentiments of the literary world bail approves of ancillan's plan those who wait for a book till it is reprinted show plainly that they prefer the saving of a pistol to the acquisition of knowledge with one of these persons who waited for a second edition which never appeared
a literary man argued that it was better to have two editions of a book rather than to deprive himself of the advantage which the reading of the first might procure him it has frequently happened besides that in second editions the author omits as well as adds or makes alterations from prudential reasons the displeasing truths which he corrects as he might call them are so many losses incurred by truth itself there is an advantage in comparing the first and subsequent editions among other things we feel great satisfaction in tracing the variations of a work after its revision there are also other secrets well known to the intelligent couriers who are versed in affairs relating to books many first editions are not to be purchased for the treble value of later ones the collector we have noticed frequently said as is related of virgil i collect gold from aeneas dung i find in some neglected authors particular things not elsewhere to be found he read many of these but not with equal attention sicud canis ad nilum bibens et fugiens like a dog at the nile drinking and running
fortunate are those who only consider a book for the utility and pleasure they may derive from its possession students who know much and still thirst to know more may require this vast sea of books yet in that sea they may suffer many shipwrecks great collections of books are subject to certain accidents besides the damp the worms and the rats one not less common is that of the borrowers not to say a word of the perloners and of section six recording by
