OBSERVATIONS ON THE THE Library of the Royal Academy of Arts, considered in relation to the didactic functions of the Institution, is necessarily of a special kind. Its scope should obviously be confined to the more important works illustrative of the history, the theory, and the practice of the Arts of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, exemplified in the standard volumes devoted to these several subjects which treat either on the remains of Greek and Roman Sculpture, or on the aggre- gation of Italian and German Picture, in which the higher and the nobler conceptions of religious thought and tradition are embodied, or on the later and more material directions of the mind and the technical excellences of the palette as they are exhibited in the As an Institution already exists which possesses a valuable library in reference to Architecture, it is not desired to compete with Sculpture in its highest forms is recorded in the published To those who question the use of a literature in Art, it may be the elevating and refining influence of the Fine Arts, it would be unreasonable to assert that the practice of these arts has been empirical-inexact and undefinable. Taste may be, and is, divergent and fluctuating, and fashion too frequently protrudes into undue estimation ephemeral conceits; but we may on the other hand point to the Lectures of a Reynolds, whose essays, wherever in recent times the Fine Arts are in estimation, are accepted as the canons of criticism no less than as models of style. The labours of the medieval painter have found able exponents at the hands of ecclesiastics, who, whether contemporaneous or subsequent, had a close sympathy with the themes on which the artist expatiated. They gratefully recorded the achievements of men whose work was a powerful though indirect agent in promoting the influence of their Church, and we have thus been furnished with a copious literature upon Art in the Middle Ages, in essays, treatises, biographies, &c., that inform us as well of the constitution of the artist's mind as of his productions. Nor is the artist himself always silent: his epistolary correspondence often furnishes us with particulars of his own inner and domestic life; a favourable instance of which may be found in those letters of Michel Angelo Buonarroti, recently published by Milanesi. Bottari, Della Valle, Gualandi, Gaye, and others have added to the stores of our knowledge by the publication of documents which have amplified, corrected, and enriched the page of Vasari and other biographers. The Dutch, the Flemings, and the French have also not been wanting in similar contributions with regard to their native artists, thus forming so many tributaries to the present state of our Art knowledge. There is, then, no difficulty in accumulating volumes, but there is in finding accommodation for them. The history of the growth of the Library shows it to have been of slow progression. Consisting of but few volumes, it was at first deposited in a small apartment over the archway at Somerset House in the Strand, in a room looking from the north side of the courtyard into the Quadrangle. This was about the year 1769. Removed to Trafalgar Square in 1838, it was more spaciously lodged in the ground-floor of the east end of the building now occupied by the National Gallery, and better lighted and ventilated. From this resting place the books were removed in 1875 to the apartment, originally built as a ball-room, which they now occupy in Burlington House, Piccadilly, and where it has been found possible to provide more liberal accommodation for the increasing requirements of the Library. The space available is, however, daily diminishing, and here it is necessary to state the fact that within a few past years, at the suggestion of the present official, the attention of successive Councils has been called to the necessity of making the Library a factor in the teaching power worthy of a College of Art; the office of Librarian to cease to be a perfunctory one, and become one in which opportunities should be utilised to acquire the best authorities for study. In these views the Librarian has been aided by the cooperation of the successive Councils. Selection has been a difficulty, for the facility with which large spaces can be filled with great numbers of volumes, if they have only reference to Fine Art, will not be considered a proper exercise of the Librarian's function. Nor will it, it is apprehended, be necessary to contend against the accumulation of ephemeral periodicals, &c., which can never be justly comprehended within the range of the literature of Fine Art, The Etchings and Engravings at the present time in the possession of the Royal Academy represent the accumulations of more than a century; these do not, however, include the contents of such volumes as relate to works of art comprised in the public galleries of Europe, or other distinct collections, but consist of separate and independent prints engraved after subject pictures and portraits. Many are by British Engravers after British Painters; others after the most renowned masters of Continental Schools. Without resources and accommodation like those possessed by the Print Department at the British Museum, in which there are collections like those of Marc Antonio, Rembrandt, Hollar, and other celebrities, chronicled and annotated by Bartsch, Passavant, and Dumesnil, none but a National Museum could hope to comprehend a like assemblage of the results of the burin and the eau forte; nor could the pecuniary resources of the Royal Academy have acquired a similar collection of studies for Pictures and Drawings by Old Masters. In place, however, of these originals, it has been and is possible from time to time to substitute, by means of the agency of the autotype process, a very efficient method of affording information to the student in regard to the conscientious preparations made by his distinguished predecessors for the future accomplishment of his production. The Library now (Christmas, 1877) comprehends nearly 4500 volumes, having grown since the year 1865, when the present official undertook the duties, from about 3000 volumes. The number of separate Engravings has not greatly increased since the year 1865, the principal additions having been made by Mr. Cousins, R.A., who has presented impressions of most of his works. As a Catalogue of all these Engravings is in the course of compilation, a labour which will necessarily occupy time in its production, it is now only necessary to advert to it, and to add that conjointly an analytic index of the contents of the present Catalogue is also in preparation. The recent Conference of Librarians in London was productive of the expression of many opinions on the method of arranging and cataloguing the contents of a library, the majority of which bore testimony of individual experience derived from and adapted to the varied purposes of a reference or of a lending library. It has been here thought advisable for present purposes to commence with an alphabetical arrangement, aided by an elaborate system of cross references, upon, it is believed, an unprecedented scale of completeness. By this means, every proper name on the title of each book, whether of author, subject, editor, engraver or illustrator, is indexed in the alphabet. Under each country, town, or place is given a systematized reference to every work connected with the same; and care has been taken to group under the name of every artist the literature specially relating to him. It is hoped that the novelty in the classification under Catalogues, Galleries, and Museums will be found useful. It will be reserved for no distant date, as has been said, to publish an analytic classification of those contents under respective heads. The importance of classified tables of contents it were a work of supererogation to insist on; the method of such arrangement or classification will necessarily vary, in compliance with the nature of the collection. For example, when compiling a list of works illustrating the manners, customs, and costumes of past times, the order of their chronology will be deemed the most fitting and most tangible arrangement for the purpose of reference. A catalogue can at best never hope to be complete, for, as it has been justly observed, from the morrow after its publication the very first written entry of the latest addition renders imperfect the copy just printed. Although the contents of the Library have been selected for the use of the Students and the Members, reference is not necessarily restricted to them. The Academy has always permitted reference to its shelves upon a proper introduction, when, from the accessibility of its position and the arrangement of its contents, it can be consulted without any unnecessary expenditure of time or any other delay. And now the Librarian has a final and agreeable duty to perform in making acknowledgment of the valuable aid afforded by the Librarian of the Athenæum Club, H. R. TEDDER, Esq., who has compiled the present Catalogue and superintended its publication. SOLOMON ALEXANDER HART, R.A., ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, BURLINGTON HOUSE, December, 1877. |