------- INSTITUTE Printed Volumes 50,000
This last calculation I should think very incorrect. M. Petit Radel concludes his statement by making the WHOLE NUMBER OF ACCESSIBLE VOLUMES IN Paris amount to One Million, one hundred and twenty-five thousand, four hundred and thirty-seven. In the several DEPARTMENTS OF FRANCE, collectively, there is more than that number. But see the note ensuing.
[106] [Mons. Crapelet says, 60,000 volumes: but
I have more faith in the
first, than in the second,
computation: not because it comes from
myself, but because a pretty
long experience, in the numbering of
books, has taught me to be
very moderate in my numerical estimates. I
am about to tell the reader
rather a curious anecdote connected with
this subject. He may,
or he may not, be acquainted with the Public
Library at Cambridge; where,
twenty-five years ago, they boasted of
having 90,000 volumes; and
now, 120,000 volumes. In the year 1823, I
ventured to make, what I considered
to be, rather a minute and
carefull calculation of the
whole number: and in a sub note in the
Library Companion,
p. 657, edit. 1824, stated my conviction of that
number’s not exceeding
65,000 volumes, including MSS. In the following
year, a very careful estimate
was made, by the Librarians, of the
whole number:—and
the result was, that there were only.... 64,800
volumes!]
[107] Now, numbered with THE DEAD. Vide post.
[108] [The translation of the whole of the concluding
part of this letter,
beginning from above, together
with the few notes supplied, as seen in
M. Crapelet’s publication,
is the work of M. Barbier’s nephew.]
[109] [For M. Barbier Junior’s note, which,
in M. Crapelet’s publication,
is here subjoined, consult
the end of the Letter.]
[110] See pages 65-7 ante.
[111] [This conclusion is questioned with acuteness
and success by M.
Barbier’s nephew.
It seems rather that the MS. was finished in 781, to
commemorate the victories
of Charlemagne over his Lombardic enemies in
774.]
[112] [This restoration, in the name of the City of
Toulouse, was made in
the above year—on
the occasion of the baptism of Bonaparte’s son.
But
it was not placed in the King’s
private library till 1814. BARBIER
Jun.]
[113] [Now complete in 8 volumes—at the cost of 80,000 francs!]
[114] [The latter was the true guess: for M.
Barbier died in 1825, in his
60th year.]


