BOOK V. Chapter I. books in his large and choice Library which the royal Collection did not already possess on condition that he The Imperial might retain the use of them until his death. That event now led to their transfer. Library at Paris. Three years afterwards the Library of Huet, Bishop of Avranches, further augmented this great treasure house of learning. It added 8071 printed volumes and 200 MSS., but in this acquisition, as in so many that had preceded it, the number of the books is far less Acquisition of deserving of notice than their intrinsic worth, enhanced as that was in the present instance by the MS. annotations with which the worthy Bishop had enriched them. The collection also includes many compositions of his own. One of the circumstances that in combination with others had led to the last-mentioned accession-the suppression, namely, of the Society of Jesus,-led also to the acquirement by purchase of many printed books, historical as well as theological, which, but for that suppression, had probably remained wholly unattainable. A few of the MSS. of the Paris Jesuits came subsequently to the Bibliothèque du Roi, but by another channel. The whole of them, it is said, had been purchased by Meerman, who in token of his gratitude for the removal, at the instance of the Dutch Ambassador, of certain difficulties which had impeded their removal to Holland, presented some thirty of them to the royal collection. A rich assemblage of printed books, MSS. and prints accrued in 1766, by purchase from the heirs of the la the Library of Huet. BOOK V. Chapter I. Library at Paris. tanieu Collection of Charters. borious antiquary De Fontanieu. Of printed volumes The Imperial there were nearly 6000, and of MSS. about 1200, in addition to a series of charters and documents illusThe De Fon-trative of the history of France, sixty thousand in number. Some rare and valuable books were also obtained from the famous Library of the Duke of La Vallière; amongst them a copy, on vellum, of the Rationale of Durandus (1459); the Hortus Sanitatis (without date); Henry the Third's copy of the Statutes etc. of the Order of the Holy Ghost, with the arms of the first Knights of the Order, splendidly emblazoned; the Treatise of René, King of Sicily, on Joustings and Tournaments; &c. Our countryman Bruce gained for his name an honoured place in the annals of the Library by presenting to it a fine MS., The Book of Enoch' which he had brought from Abyssinia. In March, 1772, Armand Jérôme Bignon was succeeded by Jean Frédéric Bignon, whose administration of the Library continued almost to the eve of the Revolution. The acquisitions of this period are more remarkable in the department of Medals-that of the Pelerin cabinet in 1775 is especially memorable-and in that of Genealogy, than in those of printed Books and MSS. In 1782, Le Prince published his Essai historique sur la Bibliothèque du Roi, et sur chacun des dépôts qui la composent, (a work on which I have, thus far, largely A new Edition of this work was published in 1856, by M. Louis Paris, 'Directeur du Cabinet historique.' It is a useful book as it contains drawn for the materials of this outline of the history BOOK V. Chapter I. Le Prince's History of the Library,(founded on the Essay of the Royal Library.) The author concludes his essay The Imperial by an elaborate description, both of the buildings of Library at Paris. the Library and of their more prominent contents. The number of the MSS. he states to be upwards of 25,000, including a matchless collection on the History of great Catalogue.) France. Of the Foreign MSS., he represents those in Hebrew as the most considerable. He proceeds to describe in detail, and in the chronological order of their acquisition, the various separate collections, the aggregation of which constituted the MS. Library of the Kings of France. Already it had become the noblest collection in this kind which consummate learning and far-extended research, in union with royal magnificence, had been able to amass. How it was to withstand the perils and to profit by the opportunities of the stern Revolutionary period now fast approaching, we shall see hereafter. During the latter years of the librarianship of Jean Frédéric Bignon, the growth of the Library, in all its departments was to some extent, and of necessity, checked by those gathering financial emberassments which had so important a share in hastening the Revolution. Yet at his death, in 1784, the number of the crude materials for a continuation of the narrative to the present time. That no such continuation is attempted is perhaps less to be regretted than that some obvious oversights and errors of the original are permitted to remain. Thus, for example, at p. 60 the Abbé de Louvois is confounded with his father the Minister, and at page 72 we read of "John II." King of England. At p. 105, after the words "Bibliothèque du Roi", the original continues "ainsi qu'on le voit par l'inscription placée sur la porte royale." These words are left out in the reprint, and yet the next sentence begins "Cette porte" etc. BOOK V. Chapter I. Library at Paris. printed books had approached to nearly 200,000 vo The Imperial lumes. Probably in extent, and unquestionably in intrinsic value, it was already the foremost Library then existing. Effects of the §. 3. HISTORY OF THE ROYAL LIBRARY FROM THE APPOINTMENT OF LEFEVRE D'ORMESSON DE NOYSEAU TO The death of JOSEPH VAN PRAET, (1784-1836.) Jean Frédéric Bignon was succeeded in his office as head of the Royal Library by Lefèvre d'Ormesson de Noyseau, a 'Premier President' who, like so many others who had previously thrown lustre on that dignity, was an ardent lover of books. But the various changes, which were so rapidly induced by the events of the Revolution, long precluded that dominant influence of one ruling mind which had hither to been so observable in the history of the Royal Library. It is curious, however, to note that the year which was marked by the death of the last of the Librarians under the old system, was also that of the entrance into the Royal Library of Joseph Van Praet, who in later years became, virtually though not nominally, the governing power of the institution. The first direct effect of the Revolution of 1789 was a diminution of the funds appropriated to the maintenance and augmentation of the Library. In the two preceding years, 1788 and 1789, the revenue assigned to it had been respectively 130,000 and 140,000 livres, or, on the average, £5625 sterling. At first, the Constituent Assembly reduced this sum to 110,000 livres (£4583), but that snm was proved to be inadequate, BOOK V. Chapter I. and in 1791 a special grant was made of 100,000 livres. The Imperial Another step was taken as early as November 1789 which was destined to have extensive and enduring results. By Royal letters patent it was decreed that Catalogues of the Libraries and Archives of Chapters and Monasteries should be officially registered. In 1792, Lefèvre d'Ormesson de Noyseau was deprived of his office, and was succeeded by Carra and Champfort, both of whom, in the sequel, together with the venerable Barthélémy (Keeper of the Medals) and the amiable Van Praet, were in turn denounced and imprisoned. The last named, after his liberation, had to conceal himself for three months. Carra-of whom Lamartine has said that he was one of those men, "who have a thirst for glory without understanding what it is,—who fling themselves into the torrent of the dominant ideas of the day, float upon its surface, and then are horrified at the sudden perception that it is sweeping them into crime",-perished on the scaffold as a Girondist (one of the famous 'Twenty two'); and the same fate subsequently befel Girey-Dupré, Keeper of the MSS., who at an earlier period of 'the Terror' had already, by the interposition of Vergniaud, narrowly escaped it. Champfort, more unhappy still, in the horror which seized him on a second arrest, attempted to kill himself in one of the galleries of the Library, and though he recovered from his wounds, soon died, as the phrase is, of "a broken heart." D'Ormesson, his Library at Paris. |