Here he
gathered together about 30,000 volumes, almost all consisting of the
works of the Fathers. His personal labour was given to the works of
Origen, in whose mystical doctrine he had become a proficient at
Alexandria. The martyrdom of Pamphilus prevented the completion of his
own elaborate commentaries. He left the library to the Church of Caesarea,
under the superintendence of his friend Eusebius. St. Jerome paid a visit
to the collection while he was still enrolled on the list of
bibliophiles. He had bought the best books to be found at Treves and
Aquileia; he had seen the wealth of Rome, and was on his way to the
oriental splendour of Constantinople: it is from him that we first hear
of the gold and silver inks and the Tyrian purple of the vellum. He
declared that he had never seen anything to compare with the library of
Pamphilus; and when he was given twenty-five volumes of Origen in the
martyr's delicate writing, he vowed that he felt richer than if he had
found the wealth of Croesus.
The Emperor Julian was a pupil of Eusebius, and became reader for a time
in the Church at Caesarea. He was passionately fond of books, and
possessed libraries at Antioch and Constantinople, as well as in his
beloved 'Lutetia' on the island in the Seine. A sentence from one of his
letters was carved over the door of his library at Antioch: 'Some love
horses, or hawks and hounds, but I from my boyhood have pined with a
desire for books.'
It is said that another of his libraries was burned by his successor
Jovian in a parody of Alexander's Feast.
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