Examples of the earliest known private libraries include one found in Ugarit (dated to around 1200 BC) and the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (near modern Mosul, Iraq), dating back to the 7th century BC.
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The Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft bought his extensive collection (including type material from other arachnologists such as L. Koch, Eugène Simon, Thorell, Philipp Bertkau and Friedrich Dahl) and his private library.
Allatius was "passed over" for the position of Vatican librarian and instead became librarian to Cardinal Lelio Biscia who had an extensive private library.
Sir John's leisure hours were largely spent in the acquisition of a large private library, and in 1898, influenced by the palaeographer John Gwenogvryn Evans, he acquired the Peniarth collection of manuscripts.