PREFACE.

Therefore, when I realized that the same location which had hitherto been its seat was neither sufficiently safe nor sufficiently convenient and suitable for the Academy, as it involved an annual rent—which, though modest, was nevertheless somewhat burdensome to our meager academic revenues—I began to think of another place that would be more appropriate for our utility. I noticed a place of this kind and convenience in Erfurt, which was quite ample and splendid, where I was staying at that time. I earnestly requested for our academic use the lower vaulted atrium of that building, which was not yet destined for any particular use, and therefore not entirely finished or perfected, from the leaders of the most ample Senate of this city, who were adherents of the Augsburg Confession, to whom this building belonged.

Nor did they, due to that singular love with which they embrace letters and all learned men, deny the one making the request, but ordered the free use of the said atrium to be ceded to us, without any money having been paid or needing to be paid in the future. Having done this, I immediately caused this future seat of our Library to be repaired, polished, and fitted with windows, and meanwhile, since the Academy’s treasury was not sufficient for these expenses, I provided the money myself. Therefore, once this atrium was built and accommodated, by the consent of the Director of our Ephemerides journal and the most excellent Adjuncts, and by my order, the small apparatus of books and rare natural objects, which BAIERVS of blessed memory had left for us, was transported from Nuremberg to Erfurt in the month of August, 1736, and brought into the said domicile. So that each of the celebrated and famous associates of our Academy may acquire some knowledge of this larger and more splendid atrium, and understand that this seat of our Library is not unworthy, I have added a peculiar icon, delineated on both sides, which is prefixed to this Index. The matters that remain to be said concerning the order and ornamentation of this Library, and other things pertaining to it, will be treated explicitly in a separate Section, which I am preparing, namely the History of our Academy, the greater part of which has already left the press and will certainly appear at the next Leipzig spring fairs.

Furthermore, it is of great importance to me that the readers, especially those whom our common academic fellowship has joined with me, should not be ignorant of what reason I had for causing the index of our Library to be printed and published in its present form. But I by no means deny that I was moved to this institution above all by that very fifth statutory law, which stands proposed in the BAIERIAN letters already communicated to the reader. For when I saw our library property increased by more than a thousand volumes through the generosity of most of our colleagues, I considered it my part to perform what the Illustrious BAIERVS had then promised, and at the same time to demonstrate publicly that both the money and the books with which our Academy has been endowed over the space of twenty-three years have been honestly applied to the uses for which they were intended.

To these things I also have the firmest hope that these eternal monuments of present and former academic associates, by which their munificence and generosity have been clearly declared, will be a grave incentive to future associates, so that they may not lay aside the care of this laudable institution, and thus cease to further cultivate the glory already acquired and defended by our Academy. For this reason, I would not wish the edition of this Index to be considered as having been instituted with the intention that any arrogance should be granted; rather, I would most willingly profess that neither the abundance of our books, nor their dignity and gravity, is any closer to the necessary and laudable splendor and amplitude of some public library. Nor, indeed, would I wish it to be counted against us that in our collection—partly collected from elsewhere and partly purchased and acquired with the Academy’s own money—smaller and easily obtainable booklets far exceed the number of larger and more expensive works on the market: since it was our intention to collect books edited by our associates, even if they were not always large and precious, and at the same time, we had to have regard for our own treasury, which permits only small expenses each year to be spent on increasing the library. This thinness of our treasury is due especially to those many and various difficulties, and the losses not rarely incurred in the GENSELIAN legacy, which notably hindered us, preventing richer fruits from redounding to us from that source. But if, however, more than hitherto should return to us from this legacy in the future, and our affairs, God willing, should turn out better, we will devote our efforts not only to purchasing books of greater importance and rarity, but we will also contribute a part of the money, which can perhaps be set aside, to those expenses which are necessary for printing an Index of the things we possess in small numbers so far, namely rare natural objects and so-called anatomical preparations, both in dry form and preserved in suitable liquid. This Index, as soon as it is published, we will also share with our colleagues.

It remains—and this was not the last reason for publishing this catalog—for me to express my singular and public thanks to all and each of the associates of our Academy, even those now living, for those signal benefits by which they promoted this institution, and at the same time to declare how earnestly and studiously I have labored so that the memory of this munificence may not fail to be transmitted to posterity, and that some monument of the glory of each might exist eternally among them. Before all others, however, a singularly grateful spirit must be shown to the Illustrious Man, Christophorus Iacobus TREW, the most skillful Director of our academic Ephemerides: for he not only aided me most faithfully hitherto and lightened the burden of protecting and promoting the health and growth of our Academy, but also brought no small honor and ornament to our very Acts, not without great labor and expense, by inserting his most learned commentaries. Finally, in these last two years, he benevolently transferred to our Academy all those books of which he had duplicate copies in his own most instructed and ample Library, and so much increased the same with very many rare works, commendable for their antiquity, that by his benefit alone we now have a Library richer by four hundred and forty-three volumes.

Nor does the most deserving Man concerning our Library, the most Excellent Ioannes Hieronymus KNIPHOF, deserve less thanks. For since he took its care upon himself (and he took it up ten years ago, when I myself was departing Erfurt), his labor has been so great, and his zeal in organizing the Library and arranging the other things pertaining to it so considerable, that you would easily believe some ample salary was attached to this duty; although, because of the thinness of our treasury, of which I have already complained above, there was none at all. Besides all these things, he also added a signal increase to our Library by offering several excellent and most rare works as a gift, which are surely to be eternal testimonies of his supreme benevolence and love toward our Academy.

Finally, having prayed from my heart for the uninterrupted safety and a life long, joyfully and happily protracted for each of my most celebrated associates, I greatly commend to them the care of further protecting and increasing the glory of our Academy, and myself to their love and benevolence. Written at Halle, Magdeburg, on the 22nd of September, 1754.

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