The first who erected a library at Athens was the tyrant Pisistratus. This was transported by Xerxes into Persia, and afterwards brought back by Seleucus Nicanor to Athens. Plutarch says, that under Eumenes there was a library at Pergamus which contained two hundred thousand books, That of Ptolemy Philadel-phus, according to A. Gellius, contained forty thousand, which were all burnt by Caesar's soldiers, The celebrated library of Alexandria, begun by Ptolemy Soter, and enlarged by his successors, consisting of seven hundred thousand volumes, contained nearly all the literary treasures of the world. This was burnt by order of the Caliph Omar, in the seventh century, and the loss must for ever remain irreparable. On this calamity, literature can never reflect without a sigh. Constantine and his successor erected a magnificent one at Constantinople, which in the eighth century contained three hundred thousand volumes, and among the rest, one in which the Iliad and Odyssey were written in letters of gold, on the entrails of a serpent; but this library was burnt, by order of Leo lsaurus. The most celebrated libraries of ancient Rome, were the Ulpian and the Palatine; and in modern Rome, that of the Vatican, the foundation of which was laid by Pope Nicholas in the year 1450. It was afterwards diminished in the sacking of Rome by the constable of Bourbon, and restored by Pope Sixtus V. and has been considerably enriched with the ruins of that of Heidelberg, plundered by count Tilly in 1682. One of the most complete libraries in Europe, was that erected by Cosmo de Medicis; though it was afterwards exceeded by that of the French king, which was begun by Francis I. augmented by cardinal Richelieu, and completed by M. Colbert. The emperor's library at Vienna, according to Lambecius, consists of eighty thousand volumes, and fifteen thousand nine hundred and forty curious medals. The Bodleian library at Oxford exceeds that of any university in Europe, and even those of any of the sovereigns, except those of the emperors of France and Germany, which are each of them older by a hundred years. It was first opened in 1602, and has since been increased by a great number of benefactors: indeed the Medicean library, that of Bessarion at Venice, and those just mentioned, exceed it in Greek manuscripts, but it outdoes them all in Oriental manuscripts; and as to printed books, the Ambrosian at Milan, and that of Wolfenbuttle, are two of the most famous libraries on the continent, and yet both are considerably inferior to the Bodleian. The Cottonian library consists wholly of manuscripts, particularly of such as relate to the history and antiquities of England; which, as they are now bound, make about one thousand volumes.