Gabriel Naudé

“ 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 publick 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ An Overture for founding and maintaining of Bibliothecks in every Paroch throughout this Kingdom. [Edinburgh] , 1699.
4. BODLEY, SIR THOMAS (1545-1613) .
Life, written by himself, 1609; with his First Draught of the Statutes of the Public Library at Oxford. (From Reliquiae Bodleianae, 1703.) ”

“ Vermahnung an die Parlements-Herrn in Paris über die Verkauffung der Bibliothek des Herrn Cardinalis Mazarini. It was reprinted, in 1819, by L. C. F. Petit-Radel, in his Recherches sur les Bibliothèques anciennes et modernes. The present rendering is from The Harleian Miscellany, London, 1808-13, vol. ”