' The same visitor described the sale of
1676. All Paris was to be seen at the Hotel de Vic. 'Such a glorious
collection ought all to have been kept together; but, as it was,
everybody got some share of the spoil.' He bought some of the best
specimens himself; and as he was only a poor monk of the Chartreuse the
prices can hardly have run high. M. Le Roux de Lincy has traced the fate
of the volumes dispersed at the sale. We hear, he says, of examples
belonging to De Mesmes and Bigot, to Colbert and Lamoignon, Captain du
Fay, the Count d'Hoym, and the Prince de Soubise. Some of the finest were
purchased by Baron Hohendorf and were transferred about the year 1720 to
the Imperial Library at Vienna. Yet they never rose to any high price
until the Soubise sale towards the end of the last century, when the
weight of the English competition for books began to be felt upon the
Continent.
M. de Lincy has traced the adventures of more than three hundred volumes,
once in Grolier's ownership, but now for the most part in public
libraries. The earlier possessors are classified according to the dates
of their purchases. Of those who obtained specimens soon after the old
Treasurer's death we may notice especially Paul Petau the antiquarian, De
Thou the historian, and Pithou the statesman and jurist. Perhaps we
should add Jean Ballesdens, a collector of fine books and MSS., whose
library at his death in 1677 contained nine of Grolier's books, and
Pierre Seguier, to whom Ballesdens acted as secretary; and as Seguier was
the personal friend of Grolier, he may have been the original recipient
of some of the volumes in question.
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