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From the attention which he paid to such minutiae, we might form

a contracted idea of his mind, as being incapable of elevating

itself to more extensive designs, were it not for the Ambrosian

library, which remains a monument of his liberality and

magnificence. To furnish it with books and manuscripts, besides

those which he had already collected, he sent eight of the most

skilful and learned men to make purchases of them in France,

Spain, Germany, Italy, Flanders, Greece, Lebanon, and Jerusalem.

He succeeded in collecting 30,000 printed volumes, and 14,000

manuscripts. He joined to the library a college of doctors: these

doctors were nine in number, and supported by him as long as he

lived; after his death, the ordinary revenues not being

sufficient for the expense, they were reduced to two. Their duty

consisted in the cultivation of the various branches of human

knowledge, theology, history, belles lettres, ecclesiastical

antiquities, and Oriental languages.