The Jesuits' Library.
SINCE indulging in the foregoing reverie, my curiosity has been
aroused to know something of the princes, who left behind them this
monument of Oriental taste and magnificence; and whose names still
appear among the inscriptions on its walls. To gratify this curiosity,
I have descended from this region of fancy and fable, where every
thing is liable to take an imaginary tint, and have carried my
researches among the dusty tomes of the old Jesuits' Library, in the
University. This once boasted repository of erudition is now a mere
shadow of its former self, having been stripped of its manuscripts and
rarest works by the French, when masters of Granada; still it contains
among many ponderous tomes of the Jesuit fathers, which the French
were careful to leave behind, several curious tracts of Spanish
literature; and above all, a number of those antiquated
parchment-bound chronicles for which I have a particular veneration.
In this old library, I have passed many delightful hours of quiet,
undisturbed, literary foraging; for the keys of the doors and
bookcases were kindly intrusted to me, and I was left alone, to
rummage at my pleasure- a rare indulgence in these sanctuaries of
learning, which too often tantalize the thirsty student with the sight
of sealed fountains of knowledge.
In the course of these visits I gleaned a variety of facts
concerning historical characters connected with the Alhambra, some
of which I here subjoin, trusting they may prove acceptable to the
reader.
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