The impress of the intellect of Philip II. is no less manifest in the great storehouse of books in the Escorial than in the Church and in the Monastery. It accords with the character of the founder that he should desire to possess a vast collection of the world’s choicest volumes of theology and philosophy, for, like Solomon, Philip esteemed wisdom as highly as the supremacy of rulership and the possession of great riches. His ambition as a student and an art collector was as keen as his craving for sovereignty and might. We have seen how he had applied himself in his youth to the study of literature and of languages, and the respect which he yielded to the sciences, arts, and letters.
The civilised world was searched; the libraries of all nations were overhauled to stock the Library of the Escorial with great books and precious manuscripts. Greece, Arabia, and Palestine con{56}tributed to the Bibliotheca of the kingly scholar, and the collection of volumes was at one time the finest in Europe. Philip himself took the greatest interest in the Library. He worked at the catalogue and annotated the list of volumes. The original collection was greatly augmented from time to time by the purchases made on the king’s behalf by agents, who travelled in various countries, by the seizure of volumes belonging to heretics, and by works presented by loyal and wealthy subjects. Castillo was one of Philip’s book-hunters; the catalogue of Arabic books and documents was prepared by the learned Father Sigüenza.
A suitable repository for the books was erected at the Escorial under the supervision of Philip. The vaulted ceiling was painted by Vicente Carducci, an Italian artist of great distinction, who may be ranked as the chief of the Italian designers employed to embellish the Escorial. Carducci’s mural paintings in the Library are perhaps the finest of all the fresco works in the building. He was assisted by Tibaldi of Bologna, an artist of meagre talent, who represented Philosophy, Grammar, Arithmetic, Astronomy, and other sciences and certain of the arts, upon his portion of the ceiling.{57}
The Library is well lighted by windows. Even the shelves display the taste of the founder, for they are beautifully carved by Flecha. The tables are of marble and jasper, and the floor is paved with marble. Between the rows of shelves are some portraits of Spanish sovereigns, and among them is Carreño’s picture of Charles II. at the age of fourteen. Pantoja painted the Emperor Charles V. and the portraits of Philip II. and Philip III. The pictures represent the subjects in life-size.
Juan de Herrera, the famous architect of the Escorial, is presented on one of the canvases by an anonymous artist. Isabella of Portugal, wife of Charles V., is portrayed here, together with another portrait of Charles V. in boyhood, which hangs in the same room. The bust of Cicero in the Library was said to have been unearthed at Herculaneum.
Upon the entrance to the Library are the words of anathema uttered by the Pope upon any one who should dare to purloin books from the collection. There have been, however, many losses. The French plundered the Library, which, long before the invasion, was devastated by the fire of 1671, and from time to time the hand of the pilferer has been laid upon many of the volumes.{58}
From a nucleus of four thousand volumes, collected by Philip II. and placed in the Escorial, the Library grew in the number of its books, and in the costly manuscripts in Arabic and other Eastern tongues. At one period this was the most notable and valuable collection of Arab works in the whole of Europe. The gift of Don Diego de Mendoza’s private library further enriched the collection. Mendoza was Philip’s ambassador to Italy, and a man of wide culture and with a love of books. When the king inherited this splendid library, he satisfied all his ambassador’s creditors.
Mendoza’s volumes were presented in 1576. They were bound in an unusual manner, one cover being red and the other black, and sometimes the leaf edges are decorated in two colours. Among other donors to the Library were Augustin, Archbishop of Tarragona, an eminent writer, Ponce de Léon, and Geronimo de Zurita, a historian. The Balearic Islands contributed about three hundred volumes, some of them being the writings of the remarkable Raymond Lully. From the Inquisition the Library received about one hundred and forty books. Authors of repute frequently presented their manuscripts to the great collection at the Escorial.{59}
In 1583 a Moorish interpreter, in the employment of Philip, was commissioned to buy all the Arab books that he could discover in Granada and Cordova. This bibliographer, Alonso de Castillo, appears to have devoted great labour to the extension of the Library and catalogue-making. About seventy manuscripts in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, were presented by Father Montano, who seems to have acted as librarian, though the first to hold that office was Father Juan de San Geronimo.
Philip III. increased the Library by the addition of confiscated books seized from Don Ramuz del Prado; and in the reign of the same monarch, the collection of three thousand volumes belonging to the Emperor of Morocco was acquired.
Anticipating the rule of our biggest public library, the British Museum, it was decreed that a copy of every book issued in Spain should be presented to the Escorial. Besides volumes of philosophy, history, theology, science, and poetry, there was a collection of church music in the Library, some of which was composed by the monks, del Valle, Torrijos, and Cordova. Many of the compositions of the renowned choir-master, Antonio Soler, are in the Library.
Among the many valuable manuscripts in the{60} Escorial collection are the Gospels, illuminated in gold on vellum. The Missal is bound in red leather and wood, with silver clasps. Bound up with these manuscripts are the ‘Epistles of San Geronimo,’ which are still in splendid preservation. Philip II. and many other collectors presented several breviaries and illuminated manuscripts to the Library. The relics are mostly well preserved, and in some cases the bindings are remarkably new in appearance. Some of the manuscripts are in Persian, others are in the Chinese and Arabic languages.
Several of the Latin manuscripts are exceedingly interesting, and date from A.D. 976 and the eleventh century. The Bibles, which number nineteen, are of the fourteenth century, and beautifully bound in parchment. One of the choicest treasures of the Library is the Apocalypse of St. John, richly illustrated. The Greek manuscripts contain several works of the early Fathers, which have never been printed. Another valuable object is the ancient copy of the Koran, most exquisitely written and ornamented.
The great ‘Chronicle’ of Alfonso is to be seen here, as well as the king’s treatises on ‘Hunting,’ ‘Chess,’ and ‘Draughts,’ which contain illustrations and diagrams. A number of old Castilian Bibles,{61} dating from the early part of the fifteenth century, are of especial interest. ‘The Census of Spain,’ contributed by Philip II., is also preserved in sundry volumes.
Among the sketches are works by El Mudo, Tibaldi, and Urbini. A large number of fine engravings and drawings by Michael Angelo, Titian, Raphael, and Albert Dürer form part of the collection of prints in the Library.
The Reading-Room contains over fifty pictures, mostly portraits of little value in the artistic sense. An inkstand which belonged to Father Sigüenza is shown here. The most notable treasure is a portrait by the vigorous Zurbarán, perhaps the most distinctively Spanish painter of the realistic school. According to Lord Leighton, Francisco de Zurbarán represented ‘all Spain’ in his art.
Among the portraits of illustrious persons are those of Quevedo, Father Sigüenza, Torquemada, Francisco Ximenes, Luis de Gongora, and Cardinal Mendoza.