He bought autographs and historical portraits,
as well as rare MSS. and good specimens of printing, and was careful to
have his books well clothed in the fashionable painted binding. Claude
Gouffier was tutor to the young Duc d'Angouleme, who came to the throne
as Francis I.; and to him may be due his royal pupil's affection for the
books bedecked with the salamander in flames and the silver
_fleurs-de-lys_.
Francis I. cared little for printed books in comparison with manuscript
rarities; he added very few to the collection at Fontainebleau beyond
what he received as presents from his mother, Queen Louise, and his
sister Marguerite d'Angouleme. The royal library owed many of its finest
manuscripts to the delicate taste of the princess who was compared to the
'blossom of poetry' and praised as the 'Marguerite des Marguerites.' Its
wealth was much increased by the confiscation of the property of the
Constable de Bourbon; and it should be remembered that among the
additions from this source were most of the magnificently illuminated
manuscripts that had belonged to Jean Duc de Berri.
The King was much attracted by the hope of making literary discoveries
in the East; he obtained much information on the subject from John
Lascaris, and despatched Pierre Gilles to make purchases in the Levantine
monasteries. A similar commission was entrusted to Guillaume Postel, one
of the greatest linguists that ever lived, but so crazy that he believed
himself to be Adam born to live again, and so unfortunate that he could
seldom keep out of a prison.
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