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A Bibliography for the Study of the History of UNIVERSAL LITERATURE
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NEWS FROM FRANCE
OR
A
DESCRIPTION OF THE LIBRARY OF CARDINAL MAZARIN PRECEDED BY THE SURRENDER OF THE
LIBRARY (NOW NEWLY TRANSLATED)
TWO TRACTS
WRITTEN
BY
GABRIEL
NAUDÉ
GABRIEL
NAUDÉ
1600-1653
“THE sixteenth
century had scarcely died” says Sainte-Beuve, “when Naudé came into the world.
It is difficult to imagine what this strong, prolific epoch must have appeared
to those who sprang from it, to those who inherited its wealth, and to whom it
must have seemed, in very truth, the greatest and the last. . . . Such a
wealth of discoveries coming in such rapid succession: cannon, printing,
clocks, a new continent, the starry heaven yielding up the secrets of its
wonderful system to the observation of a Tycho Brahe
and to the telescope of a Galileo,—that was the wealth which Naudé, young and
hungering after all knowledge, first beheld, and then, with Bacon, glorified.
One loves to hear him proclaiming ‘the delights of our last century’ ... The
result of all this effervescence on the calm, judicious, and critical minds of
the one which followed—imbibing it, as they did, through their reading—was,
naturally, a strong tendency to doubt,—at least, to moral and philosophical
doubt; and this it was that the sixteenth century at its close engendered. All
had been said, thought, dreamed; ideas and researches had been expressed in every
manner of style. What, therefore, remained to be done?” Hence we find at the
beginning of the seventeenth century in France a school in a transition stage,
“half believing and half sceptical, half literary and
half savant; which has been forgotten”, says Labitte,
in his Precursory Writers of the Age of
Louis XIV, “because it grazed all parties without belonging to any one of
them, and because, while it has written much, it has left nothing in relief,
nothing that can be called monumental.” The writers of this school, however,
though disdained and eclipsed by their great successors of the era of Louis
XIV, were the pioneers who at a difficult period “bridged over the transition
stage between two epochs of art' and their place in literature is not a mean
one.
There were two distinct
groups of writers belonging to the period. First, there were the writers of
the court, “heedless, concerning themselves but little with religion, and busying
themselves more with a good dinner, or with a well turned madrigal, than with
the problem of human destiny”. The second group was made up of the
philosophical spirits of deep learning, men who lived obscurely in the silence
of the libraries, a small circle of critical thinkers, “the last of the Gaulois” says Labitte, “who, while living in
the seventeenth century, belonged in many respects to the sixteenth”
Foremost in this
second group stands Gabriel Naudé, who, in spite of his intense love for books,
was no mere bookworm. “A moralizing sceptic wearing
the mask of an erudite” is what Sainte-Beuve calls him. Naudé was born in Paris
in February, 1600. We are told that his parents were honest people, probably
small shopkeepers, who, early recognizing his bookish tendencies, made all
efforts to give their son an education.
Too much influenced
by the writings of Charron and Montaigne to study
theology, as he was advised, he chose the profession of medicine, beginning
with his studies his lifelong friendship with Guy Patin,
a fellow student. Gaining some fame when only twenty years old by a treatise
on libels, he attracted the attention of President de Mesmes,
who appointed him his librarian—a post which he resigned in 1626 to continue
his medical studies at Padua.
Returning to Paris
two years later, he was chosen by the medical faculty to deliver a panegyric
on the medical school, a task which brought him much glory. He had already
written his amusing treatise against the Rosicrucians (1623), as a little distraction in the midst of his more important work, and
had produced his first really ambitious book, his Apology for Great Men
falsely accused of Magic (1625. The subject of the latter, strange as it seems
today, was a burning one at a time when the greatest minds among the ancients
were not free from the reproach of magic. It is in this work that we first
notice markedly the frequent use of quotation, the wealth of classical allusion,
the seeking in history for political comparisons, which became most characteristic
of Naudé’s writings.
With the Apology he
began to acquire a broader reputation, and to increase his circle of friends.
He had a little country house at Gentilly, and there
he gathered about him the most philosophical and critical spirits of the age,
in those réunions that have since become famous. Gassendi, whose Exercitationes against Aristotle had made him
distinguished, and the caustic Guy Patin were perhaps
the most remarkable among the frequenters of Naudé’s hearth at Gentilly.
It was when he was
only twenty-six years old, and still librarian to President de Mesmes, that he wrote, in gratitude to his patron, the book
which of all his creations must have been the dearest to Gabriel Naude’s heart,—the
Avis pour Dresser une Bibliotheque,
first published in 1627; a second edition appeared in 1644, and others in 1646
and 1668. In 1661 John Evelyn translated it into English under the title, Instructions concerning Erecting of a
Library, and in 1703 it was rendered into Latin. In this little book is embodied
Naudé’s great passion, the prime affection of his life. “What he succeeded
after many years in putting into execution under Cardinal Mazarin,” says
Sainte-Beuve,“he planned while young under President
de Mesmes. It was the prelude of his great institution,
his great masterpiece, his great creation.”
Late in 1630 Naudé,
wishing to travel, gained an introduction to the papal nuncio, Cardinal de Bagni, and accompanied him on his return to Rome as his
librarian and secretary. Three years later he took the degree of M.D. at
Padua, and was made Physician to Louis XIII, an honorary title only.
On the death of his
patron, Naudé remained in Rome as librarian to Cardinal Barberini.
His twelve years' sojourn in Rome, while placing him in the midst of a society
which knew how to value his abilities, and increasing his remarkable insight into
the workings of the human mind, had an injurious effect upon Naudé’s character.
“Forced to bend at every instant his doubting spirit and his philosophical
mind, in a country where there was no medium between faith and incredulity, . .
. Naudé was constrained to habituate himself to an hypocrisy of opinions unbefitting
his character,” writes Labitte.
Of the many works
produced at Rome, for the most part written for particular occasions or to
gratify a benefactor, only one is read today to any extent, and that has left a
sad blot on the author’s memory: it is his Political
Considerations upon Coups d’État (1639), with its justification of the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day. Despising the masses, believing that
monarchy should be absolute, and that the end justifies the means, Naudé
expressed in this book detestable theories which it is hard to forgive, even
if we accept his statement in the preface that the edition was limited to
twelve copies, the book being printed “out of obedience, for the satisfaction
of the Cardinal de Bagni, who reads with pleasure
only from the printed book”—a statement which has given rise to a famous
bibliographical quarrel. It was during his stay in Rome, that Naudé entered
upon the wearying controversy over the authorship of De Imitatione Christi, and it was while
there that he espoused the cause of Campanella.
But it is not for all
these things that we love to remember Gabriel Naude.
The real work of his life was to come. Recalled to Paris by Cardinal Richelieu
to become his librarian, he hastened to accept the post, and on the death of
the great Cardinal he received the same office from his successor. This was in
1642, and the next ten years must have been the happiest of Naude’s life. “Gormandizer of books” that he was, we can imagine the relish with which
he rummaged the little old bookstores of Paris. His intimate friend, Vittorio
de Rossi, from whom we have many a choice bit of seventeenth century gossip,
writes to the papal nuncio in Germany that if he should see “our Naudé” coming
out of a bookseller’s shop he would be convulsed with laughter at the figure
the book-hunter cut, covered with cobwebs and dust, from which it would seem
that nothing ever could free him.
Loving books keenly
himself, and determined that his library should surpass that of his great
predecessor, Mazarin shared the zeal of his librarian. His generals abroad
were charged to be on the lookout for choice volumes, and rulers and envoys
knew that the gift of a rare book or an ancient manuscript was a powerful ally
in gaining the favour of the great Cardinal.
Much has been said of
Naudé’s system of buying books. His plan was to take them in the gross by
weight, not stopping to examine volume by volume. He disposed of the duplicates
afterwards, often buying them for his own library, which was of considerable
size and value. Rossi, describing his descent upon a bookshop, says that often,
seeing a large accumulation of books, he would demand the price of the lot,
sometimes insisting on measuring the pile by the yard; that, after much
dickering, he would usually get his own way, and often find that he had bought
valuable books for less than he would have paid for pears or lemons. The poor
shopkeepers usually suffered by these bargains, but Naudé never seems to have
had any compunction on that score.
The famous three
hundred and fifty folio volumes of manuscripts of Loménie de Brienne, bound by
Le Gascon in flesh-coloured morocco, though obtained by questionable means, made a wonderful foundation for
the manuscript collection, while the purchase of the library of the
bibliophile, Canon Descordes, provided six thousand well-chosen
printed books, largely on history and theology, already catalogued by Naudé.
In September, 1643, the
books were ready for removal to the newly purchased Hotel Tubeuf,
about to be made famous by the treasures that Mazarin collected there. At the
end of October the moving was completed, and every detail of the furnishing had
been provided for. Naudé’s manuscript accounts, still preserved in the
library, show that event wine and a broom had been remembered. Twelve thousand printed
volumes and four hundred manuscripts were ready for use. The doors were thrown
open, and on every Thursday, from eight till eleven and from two until five,
the people were admitted freely to this the first public library in France. “It
shall be open to all the world without excluding a living human soul,” is Naude’s cry.
The only earlier
public libraries in Europe were the Bodleian at Oxford, opened in 1603, the
Angelique at Rome (1604), and the Ambrosian at Milan
(1609).
The collection grew
rapidly, and the resources of Paris being exhausted, Mazarin dispatched Naudé
on his famous journeys through France, to Italy,— where the shops, according to
Rossi, seemed devastated after he had passed as though by a whirlwind,—to
Germany, and to England. Naudé undertook with joy the fatigues and perils of
the way, for were they not to bring more renown to this “well-beloved daughter”
of his heart?
Before very long the
number of volumes was increased to forty thousand, many of them in elaborate
bindings and bearing the arms of the Cardinal. It had been found necessary to
give the library more room, and during the changes Naudé, mindful of the
natural timidity of many men of letters, and their unusedness to the surrounding splendour, had prevailed upon
Mazarin to build a modest door which should admit them directly to the library,
and was about to place over it an invitation in letters of gold, which should
be plain to the most humble and embarrassed scholar.
But the troubles of
the Fronde began. Mazarin was forced to leave Paris,
Parliament seized his possessions, and the sale of the books and manuscripts
was threatened. It was at this point that the friendly Tubeuf attempted to save the library by seizing it himself as surety for what
Cardinal Mazarin owed him, and Naudé was called upon to deliver to him the
keys. Nothing can exceed the simple pathos of Naudé’s description of that sad
task, a translation of which is given here. The small quarto of four pages,
without a title, as it originally appeared, is extremely rare today.
The reprieve was
short, for eleven months later Parliament put a price on Mazarin’s head, and
ordered the sale of the library. Picture poor Naudé’s distress! Only one
resource was left him, to bend his pride and pray to the Parliament, which he
despised and hated, in behalf of this, “the work of his hands, the miracle of
his life, his daughter.” The eloquent appeal appeared in both French and English
in 1652, and was translated into German two years later. But the sale
continued, and when Naudé realized that he must yield to the inevitable, he
went about saving what he could from the disaster, buying the books on medicine
himself, though he could ill afford to do so.
When the civil wars
were over and Mazarin returned in triumph to Paris, one of his first cares was
the reconstruction of the library.
Naudé, meantime,
unwilling to witness further the dispersion of his beloved collection, had fled
from Paris and accepted the post of librarian to Queen Christina of Sweden. But
nothing could keep him in Stockholm when he heard of Mazarin's determination,
and he set out joyfully for Paris. The climate of Sweden, however, had been
injurious to his health, already undermined by grief, it is said, and he could
not endure the journey. He died at Abbeville on July 29, 1653; and one writer
asserts that shortly before his death he received the Sacrament. His loss was
felt throughout the literary world, and he was deeply mourned by his friends.
“I weep for him day and night,” wrote Guy Patin in
his Letters. Pere Louis Jacob, another
friend, gathered together the eulogies pronounced upon him in a volume commonly
called Tumulus Naudaei, a witness to the warm affection and admiration which he inspired.
Naudé never married.
His passion for books seems to have filled his heart to the exclusion of all others.
“I cannot make up my mind to marry,” we find him saying in Naudaeana et Patiniana; “that manner of life is
too thorny and difficult for a man who loves study.” His tastes were simple and
modest, except in the matter of buying books, and his habits abstemious. “Naudé
lived a true philosopher”, writes Cottelet, “having
no ambitions other than to serve his master. His sobriety has become a
proverb, and he showed himself deeply attached to Mazarin, who, in recompense
for all his services, granted him only two small benefices, bringing a revenue
of twelve hundred livres”. Of his personal appearance
we can judge through the portraits which have fortunately come down to us. “His
expressive countenance affords the best index of his ardent mind”, says Dr. Dibdin.
The chief literary
production of the latter part of Naude’s life—his
greatest work, indeed—is his famous defence of his master against the attacks
made upon him in the Mazarinades—the Judgment of all that has been written
against Cardinal Mazarin, better known under the name of Mascurat. The
quaint humour, the strong criticisms, and the
frankness and ease of manner which characterize it show the author in a new
light, and go far to make us forget the views of the Coups d’État.
By his will the
medical books which Naudé had bought at the sale of the collection were returned
to Cardinal Mazarin, who purchased the rest of Naudé’s library, so that nearly
all his books are now in the Mazarin Library, many of them bearing the
signature of the first librarian.
When it was known
that the work of reconstruction had begun, Queen Christina returned all the
manuscripts which she had bought, and others followed her example. In 1660 a
large proportion of the losses had been recovered. The following year saw the
death of the Cardinal, whose will provided for the founding of the Collège de Quatre Nations (commonly known by Mazarin’s name), to which the library should be attached,
but nearly thirty years elapsed before the books were moved to their new home. The library was under the direction of the
Sorbonne from 1688 to 1791; but since the Revolution it has been controlled by
the state. Among its celebrated administrators may be mentioned MM. Petit-Radel, de Sacy and Sainte-Beuve.
For more than twenty years, until his resignation a few months since, the Mazarin’s
librarian has been the eminent bibliophile, M. Alfred Franklin, to whose
history of the library we are indebted for most of the facts mentioned here. It
is he who writes of Naudé as “above all the creator of our beautiful and
beloved Mazarin Library.” It is fitting that one of the halls of the
Mazarin Library today bears the name of Gabriel Naudé, name dear to librarians,
and his bust in marble has been placed in the midst of the collection to which
he devoted so much loving care.
The following tribute
is paid to Naudé by M. Albert de la Fizelière in his
edition of Rymaille sur les plus célèbres Bibliolières de Paris en
1649:
“As long as there are
in France men devoted to literature and to a discriminating love of books,
Gabriel Naudé will remain the type of the model librarian. It is true that
there were bibliophiles and bibliographers before his day, but the science of
books had not been coordinated. He was the first to set a proper standard for
it, and, thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge, he was able to make it take its
place beside the science and letters of the seventeenth century on their lofty
eminence.”
One wonders when, in
his short and busy life, Naudé found time to write so many books. Including
the works which he edited, nearly one hundred pieces have been attributed to
him, the subjects showing the scope and variety of his learning.
RUTH
SHEPARD GRANNTISS
New York,
September 1, 1906
SURRENDER
OF THE LIBRARY OF CARDINAL MAZARIN
The following
was translated by Miss Victoria Richmond, of the Newark Free Public Library,
and Mr. John Cotton Dana, from Histoire de la Bibliothèque Mazarine par Alfred Franklin. Deuxieme edition. Paris, 1901. This is the first publication of an English translation.
We
reproduce, in its entirety, this curious document, a copy of which it is now
almost impossible to find. The original is a quarto of four pages and bears no
title. The title which we give it is taken from the catalogue of all the works
of Gabriel Naudé, published by L. Jacob at the end of the Tumulus Naudaei.
TODAY, February 14th,
1651, a certain Mathieu, attendant in waiting at the palace of Monsignor the
Most Eminent Cardinal Mazarin, came to my lodgings in the court of the Abbey
of St. Genevieve to inform me that Monsieur Tubeuf,
president of the Chamber of Accounts, had asked for me on the evening of the
preceding day, and had given orders that I be told to go to him as early in the
morning as possible.
I went, accordingly,
at eight o'clock, to the house of the said Sieur Tubeuf, at the rear of the Palais-Royal, near the knoll of
St. Roch. Having learned from the porter that the
said Sieur had not yet risen, I proceeded to the
palace of Monsignor the Cardinal, my master, where a man named Annet, attendant of the wardrobe, told me that Monsieur Tubeuf had taken possession of the palace and of all that
was contained therein as security for the sum of six hundred and eighty
thousand livres which was owed him by His Eminence,
and that he had sent for me to get for him the keys of the library. This
obliged me to go to the Palais-Royal in order to learn from Monsieur Euzenat, steward of the house of the said Seigneur Mazarin, what I must do under the circumstances. The said Sieur Euzenat told me that
Monsieur Tubeuf had come on the previous day to
speak with him in his room in the Palais-Royal, and had begged him to approve
of the above-mentioned seizure, that the money due him might be assured to him.
Sieur Euzenat replied to this, so he told me, that he well knew
that His Eminence would never allow anyone to suffer any loss, and him (Tubeuf ), even less than any other; and that he could
proceed in the affair in whatever manner seemed to him most helpful or needful
for his security. Sieur Tubeuf then begged him to come and make formal acknowledgement of the seizure of the
property at the palace of His Eminence. But Sieur Euzenat excused himself on the plea that he had business
with Monsieur de Massac, who was present, which would make it impossible for
him to go; adding, however, that he would send Monsieur le Normand, to whom the
property could be delivered. He told me also that he was all the more willing
to consent to the seizure, as it might be the means of protecting the palace
and the little that still remained in it from the fury and violence of the
people, if, by chance, they were inclined to make any disturbance in case the
King left Paris, or for any other reasons which it would be difficult either to
foresee or to avoid. Moreover, he said, he could not see how I could object to
having the library treated like the rest of the palace, since, in any case, the
said Sieur Tubeuf was
legally entitled to attach it. Also, he added that, as he (Tubeuf)
was a good friend of our master, it was wiser to deal with him civilly than
with any rudeness or show of force.
After this I returned
to the Mazarin palace and found there Monsieur Tubeuf,
who was accompanied by an attorney named Blanc, a bailiff named Barbault, who was making an inventory of everything in the
palace that belonged to His Eminence, and by Monsieur Petit, an old servant of Sieur Tubeuf, who carefully
locked each room after it had been visited, and retained the keys. He told me,
as soon as we met, that he sent for me to get from me the keys of the library,
since he had taken possession of the palace and everything it contained. I
replied, that I would give them to him more willingly than to any other man in
the world, in view of the good friendship he had always shown toward
Monsignor the Cardinal; that the latter would favourably remember him, in case it pleased God to recall him to Paris; that if he did not
return, I believed, nevertheless, that friendly relations would always exist
between them; and that I was sure that he, Monsieur Tubeuf,
would do nothing in this affair that would in any way displease him.
I then led him to the
large hall where the small wing joins the main building, opened it for him,
and, after having shown him that it was full from top to bottom with books on
civil law and philosophy in folio, and of books of theology in quarto, I
closed the door and locked it fast with a double turn, and delivered the key,
by order of the said Sieur Tubeuf,
to the said Sieur Petit.
From there I led him
to the first mezzanine floor of the three large rooms which are on a level with
the wardrobe, and, after having called his attention to the fact that it was
entirely filled with books on medicine, chemistry, and natural history, in volumes
of all sizes, showing him also that many were piled on the floor for lack of
room on the shelves, I closed the door and locked it fast with a double turn,
and gave the key to the said Sieur Petit.
Then I took the said Sieur Tubeuf to the second
mezzanine floor, full of Bibles in all languages; to wit, Greek, Hebrew, and
other Oriental tongues, Latin,—in old and recent editions,—French, Italian,
Spanish, German, Flemish, English, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian, Swedish, Finnish,
Welsh, Hibernian, and Rutenian, together with other
manuscripts to the number of about two hundred, and commentaries on the Bible
in volumes of all sizes; and having closed and locked that room fast with a
double turn, I gave the key to the gentleman already named.
Then I showed him the
third mezzanine floor, full of books in manuscript, Hebrew, Syriac,
Samaritan, Ethiopian, Arabic, Greek, Spanish, Provençal, Italian, and Latin as
varied in their subjects as they were in their forms. And having locked it fast
and delivered the key as before, I led him up to the main library, and opened
for him the first room, which is very high and filled from floor to ceiling
with books on canon law, politics, and other miscellaneous subjects.
Passing from this
first room to the second, I showed him that it was full, like the first, of Lutheran,
Calvinistic, Socinian, and other heretical books in
all languages, with many Hebrew, Syriac, Arabian,
Ethiopian, and Oriental books of all sorts, and that here also many had been
piled on the floor for lack of room on the shelves.
Finally I led him to
the two rooms in the large gallery, each about fifty or sixty feet long, where was all the history, ecclesiastic and
profane, universal and special, of every nation; the three hundred and fifty
volumes of manuscripts in folio, bound in flesh-coloured morocco, collected by Monsieur de Loménie; books on mathematics to the number
of about thirty-five hundred volumes; the Fathers, Scholastics, controversies,
sermons, books of the Louvre press, and almost all of the humanities; together
with more books piled on the floors than could be contained in three rooms of
a like size, and many large volumes of charts, prints, travels, voyages,
tariffs, etc.
Then I showed him how
the door on the side toward the terrace was locked fast and firmly secured with
bolts extending across it above and below. And then, having brought him out of
the said gallery and the two rooms just mentioned, which are joined to the
gallery by the door on the level with the wardrobe by which he entered, I
closed and locked it fast with a double turn, and delivered the key to the said Sieur Petit, for the fifth and the last time.
And having implored
the said Sieur Tubeuf to
use the utmost care to prevent as far as possible the dissipation of this the
most beautiful, the best and the largest library which had ever been brought
together in the world, containing, to my own knowledge, more than forty thousand volumes, of which more than twelve
thousand were in folio, I withdrew, with tears in my eyes at the thought that
the public was on the eve of being deprived of so great a treasure, and that
the noble intentions of His Eminence were being so ill repaid that, instead of
raising monuments to him for the many victories gained and the many cities
taken through his efforts; and for having so successfully administered the
affairs of France in the many storms and tempests through which she had passed;
and for having so faithfully served and so vigorously defended the authority
of the King and his mother, in her quality of Regent, they talk now only of banishing him, of proscribing him, of
stoning him, as though he were the sworn enemy of France.
They condemn him
without any form of trial, they incite the lower classes to persecute him, they
pursue his friends and servants as though they were enemies of the country,
and they forget no insult they can offer to the best man in the world and the
most faithful and the most devoted Minister of State France has ever had. God
knows the cause of all these disorders, as well as of the factions which now
embroil this kingdom, and when the enemies of the Cardinal have reached the
height of their iniquities, He will
know how to justify the innocent and punish the guilty.
NEWS FROM
FRANCE OR
A
DESCRIPTION OF THE LIBRARY OF
CARDINAL
MAZARIN BEFORE IT WAS UTTERLY RUINED
NEWS FROM FRANCE OR
A
DESCRIPTION OF THE LIBRARY OF CARDINAL MAZARIN BEFORE IT WAS UTTERLY RUINED
SENT IN A LETTER FROM MONSIEUR G. NAUDAEUS, KEEPER OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
LONDON
PRINTED
FOR TIMOTHY GARTH WAIT AT THE LITTLE NORTH DOOR
of st. Paul’s 1652
Naudé’s
plea to Parliament for the preservation of the Mazarin Library appeared in
French and in English in 1652, the French title reading: Avis à Nos seigneurs de Parlement, sur la vente de la Bibliothèque de M. le Cardinal Mazarin. The present rendering
is from The Harleian Miscellany, London, 1808-13,
vol. 6, pp. 265-8.
GENTLEMEN: Since all the
ordinances of your famous company are like thunderbolts, which dash in pieces
each person whom they strike, and make dumb or astonish every one that sees
them fall: Give me leave to tell you, yet with all respects and submissions
possible, that what you thundered out on the twenty-ninth of the last, against
the library of the most eminent Cardinal Mazarin, my master, hath produced
those two effects, with so much force and violence, that forasmuch as concerns
the said library, it is not likely it should ever recover those losses which it
hath already suffered, nor yet avoid
those wherewith it is still threatened, unless by some very remarkable effect
of your singular goodness and protection.
And, as for me, who
cherish it as the work of my hands and the miracle of my life, I protest to you
ingenuously, that, since that stroke of thunder—which was cast from the heaven
of your justice upon a piece so rare, so beautiful, so excellent, and which I
have by my watches and labours brought to such perfection
as none can morally desire a greater—I have been so extremely astonished, that
if the same cause which once made the son of Croesus, though naturally dumb, to
speak, did not now untie my tongue to utter some sad accents,—my last complaints,
at the decease of this my daughter, as he there did, in the dangerous estate
wherein he found his father,— I should remain eternally dumb. And, in truth,
gentlemen, since that good son saved the life of his father, in making them
know wherefore he did it, why may not I promise myself, that your benevolence
and ordinary justice will save the life of this daughter, or, to speak
plainer, this famous library, when I shall in few words have represented to you
an abridgement of its perfections, being the most beautiful and the best furnished
of any library now in the world, or that is likely, if affection do not much
deceive me, ever for to be hereafter? For it is composed of more than forty
thousand volumes, collected by the care of several Kings and Princes in Europe,
by all the ambassadors that have set out of France these ten years, into places
farthest remote from this kingdom. To tell you that I have made voyages into
Flanders, Italy, England, and Germany, to bring hither whatever I could procure
that was rare and excellent, is little in comparison of the cares which so
many crowned heads have taken to further the laudable designs of His Eminence.
It is to these illustrious cares, gentlemen, that this good city of Paris is
beholden for two hundred Bibles, which
we have translated into all sorts of languages; for an history that is the
most universal and the best followed of any yet ever seen; for three thousand
five hundred volumes, purely and absolutely mathematical; for all the old and
new editions, as well of the holy fathers, as of all other classic authors; for
a company of schoolmen, such as never was the like; for lawyers of above an
hundred and fifty provinces, the most strangers; above three hundred bishops
concerning councils; for rituals and offices of the church, an infinite number;
for the laws and foundations of all religious houses, hospitals, communities,
and confraternities; for rules and practical secrets in all arts, both liberal
and mechanic; for manuscripts in all languages, and all sciences. And to put
an end to a discourse which may never have one if I should particularise all the treasures which are heaped together within the compass of seven
chambers, filled from top to bottom, whereof a gallery, twelve fathoms high, is
reckoned but for one; it is to these illustrious royal personages, that this
city of Paris, and not Paris only, but all France, and not France only, but all
Europe, are indebted for a library. Wherein, if the good designs of His
Eminence had succeeded as happily as they were forecast wisely, all the world
should before this have had the liberty to see and turn over, with as
much leisure as benefit, all that Egypt, Persia, Greece, Italy, and all the
kingdoms of Europe, have given us, that is most singular and admirable. A
strange thing, gentlemen, that the best furnished lawyers were constrained to
confess their want, when they saw the great collection that I had made of books,
in their profession, in this rich library. That the greatest heap of volumes
in physic were nothing, compared with the number of those which were here
gathered in that faculty. That philosophy was here more beautiful, more
flourishing, than ever it was in Greece. That Italians, Germans, Spaniards,
Englishmen, Polonians, Dutch, and other nations,
found here the histories of their own nations, far more rich and better
furnished than they could find in their several native countries. That Catholics
and Protestants might here try all sorts of passages in authors, and accord
all manner of difficulties. And to accumulate all these perfections, to
enhance them, and set them in their true lustre is it
not enough, gentlemen, to show you assured proofs of His Eminence's intentions,
that he resolved to present it to the public and to make it a common comfort
for all poor scholars, religious persons, strangers, and for whoever is learned
or curious, here to find what is necessary or fit for them? Is it not enough,
gentlemen, to show you the inscription, which should have been put upon the
gate of the library, to invite the world to enter with all manner of liberty,
and which should have been set up about three years ago, if wars, and domestic
dissensions, had not prejudiced the good intentions of His Eminence? It is
this:
LUDOVICO XIV, FELICITER IMPERANTE, ANNA AUSTRIACA, CASTRORUM MATRE
AUGUSTISSIMA REGNUM SAPIENTER MODERANTE, JULIUS, S. R. E. CARDINALIS MASARINUS,
UTRIQUE CONSILIORUM MINISTER ACCEPTISSIMUS, BIBLIOTHECAM HANC OMNIUM LINGUARUM,
ARTIUM, SCIENTIARUM, LIBRIS INSTRUCTISSIMAM, URBIS SPLENDORI, GALLIARUM ORNAMENTO, DISCIPLINARUM
INCREMENTO, LUBENS, VOLENS, D. D. D. PUBLICE PATERE VOLUIT, CENSU PERPETUO DOTAVIT,
POSTERITATI COMMENDAVIT
MDCXLVIII
In the prosperous
reign of Louis XIV, during the wise regency of Anne of Austria, most august
mater castrorum, Julius Mazarin, Cardinal of the Holy
Roman Church, a minister most pleasing to both councils, in his own good will
wishing this library, so rich in books of all languages, arts, and sciences, to
be an honour to the city, an ornament to France, and
a promoter of knowledge, determined that it should be open to the public and,
consecrating it as a gift, endowed it with permanent wealth and commended it to
posterity.
1648
Behold, Gentlemen, an
inscription that may now be called ancient; for it is long since it was first
spoken of; and though it contain many things, I can assure you, that His
Eminence intended somewhat more in his generous design of founding a public
library in the midst of France, under the direction and protection of the prime
presidents of three sovereign courts of this city, and of the lord attorney-general,
persuading himself, that, by this means, so potent and venerable, posterity
would perpetually enjoy a very advantageous pledge; and such as, without
disparagement to the famous libraries of Rome, Milan, and Oxford, might pass, not
only for the most goodly heap of books that this age can show, but likewise for
the eighth wonder of the world.
And this being true,
as I am ready to swear upon the Holy Gospels, that the intention of His
Eminence was always this, as I tell you; Can you permit, gentlemen, the public
to be deprived of a thing so useful and precious? Can you endure that this
fair flower, which yet spreads its odour through all
the world, should wither in your hands? And can you suffer, without regret, so
innocent a piece, which can never suffer but all the world will bear in a share
in its loss, to receive the arrest of its condemnation from those who were
appointed to honour it, and to favour it with their protection ?
Consider, gentlemen, that when this loss hath been suffered, there will
not be a man in the world, though he have never so much authority in public
employment, never so much zeal to learning, that will be able to repair it. Believe,
if you please, that the ruin of this library will be more carefully marked in
all histories and calendars, than the taking and sacking of Constantinople.
And, if my ten years’ toil in helping to gather such a work; if all the voyages
which I have made for materials to it; if all the heavy cares that I have taken
to set it in order; if the ardent zeal that I have had to preserve it to this
hour, are not means sufficient to make me hope for some favour at your
singular goodness; especially at this time, when you have the same excellent
occasion to show it towards this library, which you had three years since,
when, by a solemn arrest or ordinance, you resolved it should be preserved,
and that I should have the keeping of it; Yet give me leave, gentlemen, to have
recourse to the muses, seeing they are so far concerned in the preservation
of this new Parnassus, and joining the interest they have in you, with my most
humble prayers, speak to you in the same language which the Emperor Augustus
used, when the question was, Whether Virgil's Aeneids should be destroyed or saved? Which, doubtless, was not so inimitable a piece
to them, as this library will be to all posterity.
Must such a rich and learned work be dissolv’d,
Can eyes with patience see’t in flames involv’d ?
Methinks the flames should spare it, sure the fire
(More merciful than men) will sav’t intire.
Ah, sweet Apollo, hinder! Muses, stay
Their violence! And what though fond men say
“It is decreed ; the ordinance is made;
The will of supreme power must be obey’d”?
Rather let laws be broke, let
reverend power
Lie prostrate, ere’t be said, that in one hour,
A work so toil’d for many years, was late
Quite ruin’d by commandment from the state.
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