M. Le Roux de Lincy has
compiled a long and interesting list of the French bibliophiles who
preceded the age of Grolier. We can only mention a few out of the number.
Of the poets we have Charles, Duke of Orleans, the owner of eighty
magnificent volumes preserved in the Castle of Blois, and Pierre Ronsard;
and we may add the Abbe Philippe Desportes, renowned not less for a
rivalry with Ronsard than for his sumptuous mode of living and the
fortune expended on his library. To the statesmen may be added Florimond
Robertet, the first of a long line of bibliophiles. Among the learned
ladies of the sixteenth century we may choose Louise Labe, surnamed 'La
Belle Cordiere,' who made a collection of a new kind, composed entirely
of works in French, Spanish, and Italian, and Charlotte Guillard, a
printer as well as a book-collector, who published at her own expense a
volume of the Commentaries of St. Jerome.
The most important of the private collectors in this period was Arthur
Gouffier, Seigneur de Boissy, another of the faithful followers of
Charles VII. who were so fortunate as to gain the confidence of his
jealous successor.
He was a lover of fine bindings in the style rendered famous by Grolier.
One of his books belonged to the late Baron Jerome Pichon, the head of
the French _Societe des Bibliophiles_, and it is admitted that nothing
even in Grolier's library could excel it in delicacy of execution. His
son, Claude Gouffier, created Duc de Rouannais, was a collector of an
essentially modern type.
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