THE DECORATION OF THE STERLING MEMORIAL LIBRARY

EXTERIOR, HIGH STREET FACADE

(Main Entrance, with Reserve Book Room to the left and Linonia and Brothers Library to the right, and, at the Wall Street corner, Exhibition and Rare Book rooms.)

Inscription above the main entrance: STERLING MEMORIAL LIBRARY

The main entrance is symbolic of the ancient civilizations, based upon written records. The sketch model was made by Mr. Lee Lawrie, of New York City, while Mr. Rene P. Chambellan followed this sketch in his own way in doing the full size sculpture. The doorway is divided into two parts by a figure of a Mediaeval Scholar, the central panel over the left door representing the more ancient civi- lizations: the symbol of Egypt, the Phoenician ship, and the winged bull of Babylon. On each side of this central panel are two panels with Cro-Magnon, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hebrew inscriptions, with typical scribes below. Identi- fications and translations of these inscriptions are as follows:

Cro-Magnon.

i. Wall engraving of a bison and horse from Les Combarelles. Second phase. Aurignacian epoch.

2. Wounded bison and claviform signs in the Cavern of Pindal.
3. Engraving on a mass of stalagmite in the Cave of La Mairie at Teyjat, Dordogne, France. Third phase. Magdalenian epoch.

4. Wall engraving of a mammoth in the Cavern of Les Combarelles,

Dordogne, France. Second phase. Aurignacian epoch.5. Bone pendant which had served as a hunter's tally. From the Cave of Raymonden at Chancelade, Dordogne, France.

[From George Grant MacCurdy : Human Origins, Vol. I.]

Egyptian.

“Would that I might make thee love books more than thy mother.

Would that I might bring their beauty before thy face. Verily it is greater than [that of] any office.”

From Papyrus Sallier II.

Dr. Ludlow S. Bull writes: "The Papyrus -was actually written down in the XIX Dynasty, about 1300 B.C., but the work itself, which is in praise of schools and education, is shown by internal evidence to belong to the Middle Kingdom, the best literary period. In transcribing the text from the hieratic I made certain changes to bring the inscription into accord with monumental hieroglyphic writing."]

Assyrian.

The wisdom of the god Ea, the science of priesthood, the lore of the wise, that which is suitable for the contentment of the heart of the great gods, upon tablets in accordance with the documentary copies of Assyria and Akkad [Babylonia] I wrote, condensed, revised, and placed in the library of Ezida, the temple of the god Nabti, which is in the midst of Nineveh, my lord. Forever may the god Nabu, the king of heaven and earth, look with joy upon that library and upon Ashurbanipal, the chief, the venerator of thy divinity, grant daily favor! Decree his [continuance of] life! [So] shall I exalt thy great divinity! [Part of a cuneiform inscription from the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. Selected by Professor Dougherty.]

Hebrew.

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world: even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.

Thou turnest man to destruction: and sayest, Return ye children of men.

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past: and as a watch in the night.

Thou carriest them away as with a flood, they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up: in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

CONTINUED BELOW

Clay model of the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, based on Chambellan and Lawrie's design, labeled as an archive photo.
Two black and white photographs of the Sterling Memorial Library, showing the York Street facade on the left and the main entrance on High Street on the right.

Let thy work appear unto thy servants: and thy glory unto their children.

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us.

[Psalms X C ; 1-6, 16-17. This passage was selected by Professor Charles C. Torrey, and the lettering designed by Ralph Marcus.]

The central panel over the right doorway stands for early European and American civilizations: the Mayan serpent, the Athenian owl, and the Roman wolf. The four inscriptions, with their scribes below, are Arabic, Greek, Chinese, and Mayan.

Arabic.

Recite in the name of thy lord who hath created. He hath created man from blood-clots. Recite, for verily thy lord is most gracious, he who hath taught the use of the pen. He hath taught mankind what it did not know.

God I there is no God but he; the living, the self-subsisting: neither slumber nor sleep seizeth him; to him belongeth whatsoever is in heaven and on earth. Who is he that can intercede with him, but through his good pleasure? He knoweth that which is past, and that which is to come unto them, and they shall not comprehend anything of his knowledge, but so far as he pleaseth. His throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both is no burden unto him. He is the high, the mighty.

[Koran, sura 96, verses 1—5 , and sura 2, verse 256, Sale's translation. These two passages from the Koran were selected by Professor Charles C. Torrey. The characters are old Kufic, one of the earliest, found on a Nilometcr on an island opposite Cairo, dating from the year 199 A.II. (815 A.D.).]

Greek.

Ignorant they of all things till I came

And told thein of the rising of the stars

And their dark settings, taught them numbers too,

The queen of knowledge. I instructed them

How to join letters, making them their slaves

To serve the memory, mother of the muse.

[From iEschylus, Prometheus Bound, lines 457-461, from the famous speech in which Prometheus enumerates his services to mankind, selected by the late Professor Horatio M. Reynolds, and engraved in the style of /Tischylus's own time, the

fifth century B.C. The translation is from Dean Mendell's Prometheus, pages 26-27.84 T H E GAZETTE

The arrangement of the letters, and the forms of the epichoric alphabet (in local use before the adoption of the Ionic alphabet) are taken from an inscription from the Acropolis of the year 424 B.C. recording resolutions of the Athenian people

{Corpus inscriptionum Grwcarum I, 40; reproduced in O. Kern, 1 nseriptiones Grcecce, plate 15). The copy for the inscription was made by Professor Harmon.]

Chinese.

Thy brother [i.e., Yen Kau-k'ing], in his great fidelity as subject, by his single effort stemmed the wicked current of rebellion, capturing its chief counselors and killing its principal felons. When he should havebeen reinforced with troops, he was isolated, and fell into the hands of the rebels. Dauntlessly he enumerated their crimes, abandoning his limbs to the sword, and expressing his loyalty in his countenance. Ancient annals knew no like example. We praise the deed highly.

[This inscription, selected and translated by Professor Asakawa, is in a writing of the eighth century, taken from a rubbing of an epitaph, carved in stone, of the Yen family, illustrious in Chinese history for the high literary attainments and the patriotic acts of several of its members. The quoted passage concludes the Emperor Suh-Tsung's eulogy of Yen Kau-k'ing. The rebellion referred to is that of An Lushan in 755-757-]

Mayan.

Upper left-hand portion of the Mayan inscription from the Temple of the Cross.

Corner stone: STERLING MEMORIAL LIBRARY MCMXXVIH

The following inscriptions are on the sides of the Entrance Court:

Left of the entrance, on the Reserve Book Room;

A LIBRARY IS A SUMMONS TO SCHOLARSHIP

[Sir Michael Sadler.]

Right of the entrance, on Linonia and Brothers:

T H E LIBRARY IS T H E HEART OF T H E UNIVERSITY

[Sir William Osier.]