THE VATICAN LIBRARY.

We clip the following interesting article on the Vatican Library from the Cornell Sun :

"The recent opening of this vast Library by Pope Leo XIII. to scholars is an event indicative of the general advance in almost every direction, even in the greatest strongholds of conservatism.

The history of the Vatican Library, which now contains perhaps the rarest collection of books and manuscripts in Europe, reaches back to the time of Nicholas V., who, in 1447, transferred the manuscripts in the Lateran, the church of highest dignity in the Roman Communion, to his own palace. In all he collected about 9,000 manuscripts, part of which were destroyed by his successor. Pope Sixtus V., however, showed great zeal in builking up the papal library. In 1588, he erected the beginning of the present structure. The celebrity of the Library dates from the sixteenth century, when important additions were made. In 1600, the institution contained 10,660 manuscripts-a large collection for that day. The next accession consisted of the library of the Elector of Palatine, captured at Heidelberg and presented to Gregory XV., in 1625. It contained 4,838 manuscripts. In 1658, there were added 1,711 Greek and Latin Manuscripts, from the Library of Urbina. In 1700, the collection of Christina, Queen of Sweden, was added to the Library. It contained most of the literary treasures captured by her father, Gastavus Adolphus, at Prague, Wortzburg and Bremen. In 1745, the library of the Ottobuoni family was added, comprising 3,862 manuscripts. In 1815, after peace with Prussia had been made, Pope Pius VII. restored many of the manuscripts taken from Heidelberg. The whole number of Greek, Latin and Oriental manuseripts now in the Library is 23,580, being the finest collection in the world. It also contains 30,000 beoks. among the large number of manuscript treasures which the Library contains the "Codex Vaticanus," or the "Bible of the End of the Fourth or Beginning of the Fifth Century," in Greek, and containing the oldest authentic version of the Septuagint and the first Greek version of the new Testament, is perhaps the most valuable. The "Cicero de Republica," the celebrated Palimpset discov red by Cardinal Mai, under a version of St. Augustine's "Commentary on the Psalms," is considered the oldest Latin manuscript extant. The large "Hebrew Bible," in folio, from the library of the duke of Urbino, is interesting from its historical associations, the Jews of Venice having offered for it its weight in gold.