Gabriel Naudé

“ Can you permit, gentlemen, the publick 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 publick 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. ”

“ 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 ”