Another
of his marks was the use of some pious phrase, such as a wish that his
portion might be in 'the land of the living,' which was either printed on
the cover or written on a fly-leaf, if the volume were the gift of a
friend. In the use of these distinctions he seems to have been preceded
by Thomas Maioli, a book-collector of a family residing at Asti, of whom
very little is known apart from his ownership of books in magnificent
bindings. Grolier may have borrowed the phrase about his friends from a
celebrated Flemish collector called Marcus Laurinus, or Mark Lauwrin of
Watervliet, who was in constant correspondence with the Treasurer about
their cabinets of medals and coins. Rabelais had a few valuable books,
which he stamped with a similar design in Greek, and the Latin form
occurs in many other libraries. We are inclined to refer the origin of
the practice to a letter written by Philelpho in 1427, in which he tells
his correspondent of the Greek proverb that all things are common among
friends.
Grolier's love of learning is shown by his own letters, and by the
statements contained in the books that were so constantly dedicated to
his name. To Beatus Rhenanus he wrote, with reference to an approaching
visit: 'Oh, what a festal day, to be marked (as they say) with a pure
white stone, when I am able to pay my humble duty to my own Rhenanus; and
you see how great are my demands when you are entered as mine in my
accounts.' As controller of the Milanese district he became the object of
much adulation, for which his flatterers had to atone when the French
occupation came to an end.
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