Page - 202 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

canon was being expanded into a broader schol- arly pantheon, as well as (as we shall see) a vis- ual register of an institution’s history. Far from being a British phenomenon, this was of course a pattern of sculptural display being developed elsewhere in Europe, seen for instance in the Aula magna in Bologna from 1756 onwards. Of course, the association of a library with portraits might be seen as a logical extension of the con- nection between collections of books with col- lections of prints or of medals, all of which might be housed together.13 The shift to what we re- cognise as a familiar eighteenth-century config- uration of a library with author busts is to be seen in late seventeenth-century France. If Lipsius had already suggested that the moderns should imitate the ancients in their uses of busts in libraries, more practical advice as to how to do this was offered in two late seven- teenth-century texts about the formation and organisation of libraries: Gabriel Naudé’s Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque of 1627 and Claude Clément’s Musei sive bibliothecae of 1635. Accord- ing to Naudé, who cited antique precedents in Pliny and Suetonius of libraries decorated with lively statues of all the gallant men, it was desir- able to include good Copies drawn from such are as are most famous in the profession of Letters; that thereby a man may at once make judgement of the wit of authors by their Books, and by their bod- ies; figure, and physiognomy by these Pictures and Images, which joyn’d to the description which may have made of their lives, may serve, in my opin- ion, as a puissant spurre to excite a generous and well-born Soul to follow their track and to continue firm and stable in the wayes and beaten paths of some noble enterprise and resolution. Naudé does not give any detailed advice about the placing of busts, but Clément was rather more specif- ic about their disposition, recommending that the bookcases ... are surmounted by statues of men distinguished in the discipline for which the book- case is intended.14 This well-established tradition of using portraits of earlier authors could there- fore be employed to articulate the relationship between ancient and modern authors, to repre- sent a literary canon through images, and even to function as a visual key to the library’s contents. By the end of the seventeenth century, the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève contained no less than 26 busts, several of which are shown in en- gravings of 1692 as placed on tapering plinths against the pilasters dividing the bookcases (Fig. 4). Although other French libraries were also decorated with busts, the Bibliothèque Sainte- Geneviève remained by far the most celebrat- ed and widely known example, its collection of sculptural portraits growing steadily throughout the eighteenth century. Some of these were of ancients, others of the French royal house; but a considerable proportion were of relatively mod- ern sitters. In some cases they were given by the sculptors – most notably those by Girardon and Caffieri – but many of this last category were do- nated by relatives or descendants of those com- memorated. The library thus became, according to Piganiol de la Force in 1765, ‘a sort of temple of memory where the parents and friends of il- lustrious men of all kinds hasten to place their portraits’.15 It is in the college libraries in Britain, how- ever, where we see this tradition of commemor- ating worthies – writers and thinkers – by busts being more fully developed. The richness and complexity of the use of busts with an academic institution is best illustrated by the case of Trin- malcolm baker202 13 The association of a library with an interior decorated with busts was even implicit in Duke Albrecht V’s setting up in 1566 of the Antiquarium in Munich, with its busts on the lower floor and the library above. 14 G. Naude, Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque, Paris 1627; the English quotations used here are from John Evelyn’s translation: J. Evelyn, Instructions concerning erecting of a library, London 1661; C. Clement, Musei sive biblioth- ecae, 1635. 15 Piganiol De La Force, Description of Paris, vol. 6, Paris 1765, p. 92. Open Access © 2018 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR