Votume VI. No. 4.
A REMARKABLE COLLECTION.
Riant
Some of the Features of the
Library—A Suggestion.
To the Editor of the
Weekly :—
Sir: In the pages of the Yale Alumni
Weekly early this year the needs of
the University Library were clearly
stated and discussed. Action to meet
some of these needs has been taken
both by the Corporation and by in-
dividuals not having official relations
with the University, who have made
gifts. I desire to present a_ fuller
statement than has yet been made
concerning one of the more consider-
able and important of these individual
gifts, that of a collection of books re-
lating to Scandinavia, forming a por-
tion of the library of the late Count
Paul Riant.
Count Riant was born at Paris in
1836 and died at St. Moritz in Switzer-
land in December, 1888. Ill-health com-
pelled him to reside for the greater
part of his life, not in Paris but in
ltaly or Switzerland. He was a man
of wide and exact learning in the
large and curiously diversified field to
which with strenuous persistence he
gave the labor of his entire life. This
field was the history—in the large
sense, but based upon infinite details—
of the Crusades and of Christian in-
stitutions in the Latin Orient, the
countries east and nourth of the east-
ern part of the Mediterranean. For
the degree of docteur es-lettres, taken
in 1865, he prepared two theses, which
were in reality extensive, learned
works, that characterize his intellec-
tual interests and explain how he
came to make so large and rich, that
portion of his library which is now
here. The thesis in French treated of
the expeditions and pilgrimages of
the Scandinavians to the Holy Land
in the times of the Crusades. The
thesis in Latin dealt with Haymarus,
Archbishop of Caesarea and later Pa-
triarch of Jerusalem, and his poem on.
the taking of Acre in the year 1191.
From about 1873 on, Count Riant
published in quick succession the
fruits of his researches,—editions of
original sources, with valuable intro-
ductory essays and comment. In 1875
he founded the Society of the Latin
Orient and as its Secretary until his
death, may be said himself to have
been the Society. Of its publications
about ten volumes have been issued,
containing ‘careful editions of the
earliest itineraries of travelers and
pilgrims to Palestine, descriptions of
the Holy Land, and other large texts
from early writers.” —
Count Riant also created the Ar-
chives of the Latin Orient, a publica-
tion of which two thick volumes ap-
peared in 1881 and 1885. He published
many papers in the Memoirs of the
(French) Society of Antiquaries, in the
Memoirs of the Academy of Inscrip-
tions and in learned periodicals both
in and out of France. He left sev-
eral large works incomplete, of the
chief of which on the Bishopric of
Bethlehem, a large first volume ap-
peared in 1888. In 1879 Count Riant
was made a member of the Institute,
being then elected to the Academy of
Inscriptions and he also was a mem-
ber of many foreign academies.
Yale Alumni
SECURING THE LIBRARY.
Of Count Riant’s library, the por-
tion relating more particularly to
Scandinavia, was offered for sale in
Paris early in the summer. The
NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1896.
THE OLD LIBRARY.
INTERIOR OF
°
books were arranged in lots for sale
at auction if necessary, and a cata-
logue was printed. As soon as this
catalogue, a large octavo of over 400
pages, reacned Mr. Van Name, togeth-
er with a letter stating that the col-
lection could be had entire, he saw
what an extraordir ary offer was here
made. Fortunately a wise and gen-
erous patron of the Library was quick-
ly reached, on whose account the pur-
chase was at once concluded by Ca-
ble. Delay would have been disas-
trous, fory-immediately thereafter two
acceptances from Sweden were re-
ceived in Paris, one being from the
leading antiquarian hook store in
Stockholm. This is conclusive’ evi-
dence of the money value of this col-
lection. ;
.Whis gift contains very nearly
thousand one hundred, bound
five hundred unbound volumes, and
sixteen thousand dissertations and
theses. These dissertations are in date
earlier than 1852 and come from the
universities and learned schools. of
Sweden and Finland and from Swedes
living abroad; accompanying them is
a printed bibliography in four volumes,
Of the book proper, one must say that
rarely is so large a collection clothed
so well; almost everything is finely
bound and there are very many beau-
tiful and costly bindings, among them
not a few signed.
Contents are, however, more im-
portant than covers, and this collec-
tion relates to fields in which the Uni-
versity Library was not rich before,—
in general to the history and geogra-
phy of Scandinavia, travels in the
northern lands, colonization there-
from, the Old Norse (Icelandic) lan-
[Continued on fifth page. |
five
and
TREASURY BUILDING.
CGD CHAR EL:
[From photograph by Pach.]
YALE MAY BE TAXED:
Attitude of the Assessors—The Matter
Discussed,
It has recently been announced that
the Assessors of the Town of New
Hlaven have listed those portions of
the property of Yale University, which
they assert are not directly used for
educational purposes. This question
has never been before agitated with
any great degree of seriousness, but it
now bids fair to become one of great
importance to Yale, and to bring in
its train s long series of law suits and
appeals to the highest courts.’ Yale
College has never before been taxed
for any of its buildings on the Cam-
pus, nor for the Dining Hall, Gymna-
sium, Laboratories, or White and
Berkeley Dormitories on the new Cam-
pus, these extensions being exempted
without question. The erection of
Pierson Hall, however, on York Street,
probably brought the question more
forcibly before the notice of the As-
sessors and they referred the matter
to Mr. Goodhart, the Town Counsel,
for decision. Mr. Goodaart’s opinion
is in substance as follows:
The liability of the Corporation to pay
taxes depends upon the character of the
yorporait” and the statute laws of this
sitaite.
The General Statutes, Section 3,620, pro-
vides among other things that “buildings
or portions of buildings exclusively occu-
pied ‘as colleges, shall be exempt from
taxation.”’
A “‘college’’ is a literary institution. or
an institution for the purpose of study
and learning. It is a society of schools
incorporated for the purpose of study and
instruction. It is not, and does not in.
[Continued on fifth page.]
Price Tren CENTS.
NORTH COLLEGE.
CAMPUS SINCE DESTRUCTION OF
Yale Men in the
Parade.
Last week Prof. H. P. Wright re-
ceived a letter from the Princeton Ses-
quicentennial committee inviting 24
Yale undergraduates to take part in
the torch light parade, held last night,
(Oct. 21), at Princeton in honor of the
150th anniversary of that College. The
invitation was promptly accepted and
at meetings held to choose the men
who should represent Yale, delega-
tions were chosen of twelve from the
Academic Senior class and twelve
others from the Scientific Senior class,
as follows:
Academic—G. C. Brooke, H. G. Camp-
bel, tT, Li Clarke, H. S. Coffin, .G. P.
Day, C. E. Hefflefinger, A. B. Kerr, T.
W. Miller, Dean Sage, J. P. Sawyer, N.
A. Smyth, D. V. Suiphin.
Scientific—E. H. Brewer, E. W. Carl-
hOM, Ws" O, DD. Cox, Sri FY: Francis,
R. S. Kilborne, T. M. Laughlin, H. W.
Letton, J J. Miller, J. H. Porter, H. L.
Rogers, 8S. S. Spencer, Jr., C. Colgate.
Princeton
—————_4eQ——____.
Sophomore Deacons Elected.
The Sophomore class met last week
to elect permanent deacons, Eight men
were nominated on the informal bal-
lot. The men nominated with the
number of ballots they received, were
aS follows: D. H, Day 96, C. H. Welles
Jr, 4%, W. F. B. Berger 81. W. M.
Wheeler 80, N. C. Holland 3f, G. W.
Brown 30, L. Cogswell, Jr., 24, H. J.
Nichols 23. The men elected were:
Dwight Huntington Day of Indian-
apolis, 198; Charles Hopkins Welles, Jr.,
of Scranton, Pa., 163; William Mer-
Sereau Wheeler of Portville, N Y., 99:
and Walter Frederick Bart Berger of
Denver, Col., 93,