Being an extravagant idler himself, he passed laws
against extravagance in his subjects; but though furs and heavy chains
might be forbidden, he allowed gilt edges and arabesques on books, and
only drew the line at massive gold stamps. His own taste combined the
gloomy and the grotesque, his clothes and his bindings alike being
covered with skulls and cross-bones, and spangles to represent tears,
with other conventional emblems of sorrow.
Louise of Lorraine, after the King's death, retired to the castle of
Chenonceau: and the widowed queen employed her time, in that 'palace of
fairy-land,' at forming a small cabinet of books. The catalogue describes
about eighty volumes, mostly bound by Nicolas Eve; and the gay morocco
covers in red, blue, and green, were decorated with brilliant arabesques,
or sprinkled with golden lilies. Hardly any perfect specimens remain,
even in the National Library. They were all bequeathed by the Queen to
her niece the Duchesse de Vendome; but in the hands of a later possessor
they were put up for sale and dispersed, and have now for the most part
disappeared.
Henri Quatre is said to have fled to his books for consolation when
abandoned by Gabrielle d'Estrees. Though no bibliophile himself, he was
anxious that everything should be done that could promote the interests
of literature. He intended to establish a magnificent library in the
College de Cambray, but died before the plans were completed. The books
at Blois, however, were brought to Paris and thrown open to deserving
students; the library already transported from Fontainebleau and the MSS.
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