BOOK V. Chapter II. braries of Paris. of a beginning, sent for five or six hundred volumes from his own Library; which by the exertions of two The Minor LiCanons, Fronteau and Lallemant, grew in a few years to about 7000, including a very curious series of pieces on the Jansenist controversy. Within the next twenty years, two small collections were bequeathed by strangers to the community, who had received its hospitality, and died within its walls. In 1675, a new and extensive gallery was constructed for the reception of the books, which were soon afterwards placed under the care of Du Molinet. The new Librarian was zealous in augmenting the collection. At his death in 1687, it contained about 20,000 volumes. For a time it had, in addition, the fine MS. collections of Baluze, but these were only a deposit which passed (as I have elsewhere noticed,) to the Royal Library on the owner's decease. Tellier Library. The brilliant period of the history of this Library begins with the bequest of the fine collection which had Gift of the Le been formed by Charles Maurice Le Tellier, Archbishop of Rheims, who died in 1710. The Archbishop had himself inherited the books of Antoine Faure, his tutor, and had travelled in search of books through Italy, Germany, England and Holland. There seems reason to believe that it is to this Prelate that a passage in the narrative of Martene and Durand applies, with reference to the complaints of the Monks of St. Amand against "a person of authority who carried off some of their best Manuscripts." If this be so, the loss of one Benedictine Abbey proved to be the gain of another. The Archbishop's legacy put the community of Sainte Ge BOOK V. Chapter II. braries of Paris. neviève into possession of the second Library of Paris. The Minor Li- The good Benedictines soon made a public notification (in the Almanach Royal of 1710,) that during certain hours of every day it would be freely open to students. Of lending out their books they were with reason chary. In 1714 Heliot states (clearly with exaggeration) the number of volumes at sixty thousand. Gillet was then Librarian. His successor was a man who made not a little noise in the world, during his brief day, but his celebrity had nothing to do with his Librarianship. When the fierce controversy about the validity of English Orders drove Le Courayer into an English exile, his predecessor returned to his post. of Louis, Duke of Orleans. The lives of father and son have not infrequently presented glaring contrasts. But few of these, I suppose, are quite so salient as is the transition from the stirring intrigues and the crapulous orgies of the Regent Duke of Orleans, amidst the splendours of the Palais Royal, to the laborious studies, and the hermit-like The "retreat" seclusion of his son and successor, within the sombre walls of Ste. Geneviève. For Duke Louis that Library of old theology had greater charms than Court or Camp; nor is it at all improbable that during the century which has elapsed since he took up his abode in their midst, those weighty folios of the Commentators and the Schoolmen have never been so strenuously wrestled with. That the outcome was not in proportion to the toil can excite no surprise. So much strong meat would need an unusually stout stomach. But the "thousand dissertations" which the Duke wrote at Ste. Geneviève, and bequeathed to the Dominicans, must assuredly be a theological curiosity in their way. In 1754, Mercier (de St. Léger) became Assistant Librarian, and with his long official career began a period of eminent prosperity for the Library; which he catalogued, annotated (making good use of a dangerous privilege), and increased. When the suppression of the Monastic Communities throughout France entailed a change of proprietorship on the Library of Ste. Geneviève, it counted 80,000 printed volumes and upwards of 2000 MSS. Its name was then altered to "Library of the Panthéon." Pingré,-who had been nominally at the head of the establishment for forty years, though his attention had been chiefly given to those astronomical pursuits in which he attained so much distinction,quitted the Benedictine robe, and continued to be Librarian until his death in 1796, at a patriarchal age. Mercier survived until 1799. Lemonnier succeeded the former, but was quickly succeeded in his turn by the eminent bibliographer, politician and historian Daunou. BOOK V. Chapter II. The Minor Li braries of Paris. The Library of becomes Library Ste. Geneviève of the Panthéon. ship of M. Daunou. In the very year which followed his appointment, Daunou was commissioned by the Directory to visit Rome for the purpose of converting the States of the Church into a Republic. The task had little accordancy with his official duties, but it led to an important "ac- The Librarianquisition" of bibliographical treasures for the Ste. Geneviève collection, which, to the great triumph of its officers, were overlooked when the general day of reckoning came, in 1815. For some time after his return, the excitements of public affairs distracted Daunou's attention from those of the Library, but the charm was BOOK V. Chapter II. dispelled when the ascendancy of Napoleon became The Minor Li- certain. braries of Paris. During the Empire, and after its fall, there were occasionally ominous mutterings, amongst ambitious architects and others, about the "instability" and "danger" of the edifice. But the imaginary perils were not turned to the wished for account, until a very recent date. The new building,—as I shall shew, graphically, hereafter,—is an 'ornament to Paris, but so was the old one, in its day. Nor is there, I believe, any real doubt that timely and discreet Repairs would have saved it for many years to come, just as the like process would save many of the time-honoured churches which in England are continually falling victims, sometimes to the good-natured wish to give a lift to a rising architect, and sometimes to mere ignorant and purse-proud ostentation. The number of volumes contained in the Library of Sainte Geneviève was officially returned, in 1849, as about 180,000 printed, and 3500 MSS. It was then also stated that the annual increase averaged about 500 volumes; which would give a present aggregate of 188,000 volumes in all. The Reading Room is open in the evenings and is very extensively frequented. The .... 1 Dibdin's description of the old Library, as he saw it in 1818, may be worth abridging: Its length, he says, "cannot be less than 230 feet .... In the centre is a cupola.. painted by Restout The charm of the whole arises, first, from the mellow tone of light which is admitted from the glazed top of this cupola, and secondly, from the numerous busts arranged along the sides, which recall to remembrance some of the most illustrious characters of France..... Busts of foreigners continue the suite", etc. Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany, ii, 171. annual expenditure is about £3000, exclusive of extraordinary grants.1 Almongst the founders of the Libraries which were originally gathered for private use, but eventually became public, the Marquis of Paulmy (Antoine René de Voyer d'Argenson) stands, perhaps, in one respect, without a parallel. After an active military and diplomatic career, and amidst the distractions which, to some extent, must always be inseparable from high rank, he contrived to combine with the amassing of a Library of some 100,000 volumes, the production, as writer or as editor, of some fifty volumes of his own. His ambassadorial functions had doubtless facilitated his career as a collector. But it may be inferred that his Library was too vast to be very choice. The Marquis died in the eve of the Revolution. His books were acquired by the Count d'Artois, who conjoined with them a portion of the still more famous Library of the Duke of La Vallière, and thus founded the Library of the Arsenal; which now consists of more than 202,000 printed volumes, and about 6000 manuscripts. It possesses the most complete collection extant of romances, since their origin in modern literature; of theatrical pieces, or dramas, from the epoch of the moralities and mysteries; and of French poetry since the commencement of the sixteenth century. It is less rich 1 De Bougy, Histoire de la Bibliothèque de St. Geneviève, passim; Maichelii Introductio etc., 84-90; Foreign Office Returns of 1850, ut supra; Dibdin, Bibliographical Tour, ut supra. Biographie Universelle, XXIV. 338-9. Voisin, Documents pour l'histoire des bibliothèques de la Belgique. 324. BOOK V. Chapter II. The Minor Libraries of Paris. The Arsenal Library |