Grolier's old age was
disturbed by imputations against his official conduct, and it seemed at
one time as if his fortune were in considerable danger. 'He was so
confident in his innocence,' said the historian,'that he would not seek
help from his friends; but he might have fallen at last, if he had not
been protected by my father the President, who always used his influence
to help the weak against the strong and the scholar against the ignorance
of the vulgar.' The old Treasurer kept his serene course of life until he
reached his eighty-sixth year: he died at his Hotel de Lyon, surrounded
by his books, and was buried near the high altar in the Church of St.
Germain-des-Pres.
Upon Grolier's death his property was divided among his daughters'
families. Some of the books were certainly sold; but the greater part of
the library became the property of Meric de Vic, the old Treasurer's
son-in-law. Meric was keeper of the seals to Louis XIII. His son
Dominique became Archbishop of Auch. They were both fond of books, and
took great care of Grolier's three thousand exquisite volumes, of which
they were successively the owners. They lived in a large house in the Rue
St. Martin, which had been built by Budaeus, and here the books were kept
until the great dispersion in the year 1676. 'They looked,' said
Bonaventure d'Argonne, 'as if the Muses had taken the outsides into their
charge, as well as the contents, they were adorned with such art and
_esprit_, and looked so gay, with a delicate gilding quite unknown to
the book-binders of our time.
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