There are whole galleries of European art,—­Versailles, Florence, Spain, the Vatican, Nash’s Portfolio of Colored Pictures of Windsor Castle and Palace, the Royal Pitti Gallery, Munich, Dresden, and others.  A work on the “Archaeology of the Bosphorus,” presented by the Emperor of Russia to the library, is in three folio volumes, printed on thick vellum paper, with two folding maps and ninety-four illuminated plates:  but two hundred copies of the book were printed, for presentation solely.  Other notable gifts are the publications of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, in seventeen volumes, catalogue of antiquities, chiefly British, at Alnwick Castle, and one of Egyptian antiquities at the same, from the Duke of Northumberland, a complete file of the “Liberator,” from Mr. Wendell Phillips, numerous works on Oriental art, from the imperial governments of Japan and China, and many thousand folio volumes of Parliamentary papers and British patents, from the British government.  Of its Orientalia and its department of Egyptology the library is especially proud.  The latter so good an authority as Professor Seyffarth pronounces second only to that of the British Museum.

In addition to the large collection of costly books of art with which this library is enriched, there are some of the rarest manuscripts and earliest printed books to be seen kept in glass cases in the Middle Hall.  Among these may be mentioned the superbly illuminated manuscript of the ninth century entitled “Evangelistarium,”—­one of the finest existing productions of the revival of learning under Charlemagne; the “Sarum Missal,” a richly-emblazoned manuscript of the tenth century; some choice Greek and Latin codices once belonging to the library of Pope Pius VI.; and the Persian manuscripts recently acquired, which formerly were in the library of the Mogul emperors at Delhi, bearing the stamp of Shah Akbar and Shah Jehan.  The writing is by the famous calligrapher Sultan Alee Meshedee (896 A.H., or 1518 A.D.).

There is as great a popular misconception of the character and purpose of the Lenox Library as of the Astor.  The two are like and yet unlike,—­alike in the rich treasures which they contain, but quite unlike in their scope and purposes.  In reality the Lenox is a museum of art rather than a library:  its books are, with few exceptions, rarities, “first editions,” illuminated manuscripts, specimens showing the advance of the typographic art from the beginning, books of artistic interest, and works not to be found in this country, and sometimes not in Europe.  Its collection of paintings and sculpture is important as well as its literary treasures.  It is not a library of general reference, though many of its works will be sought by scholars for the value of their contents:  it is, in short, a private art-gallery and library thrown open at stated times and under certain restrictions to the public.  The library owes its existence to the munificence of Mr. James