'_Est-il possible?_' replies the
Cardinal, 'you don't say so. I can only say, my friend, I would rather
have a book hot from the press than all the old parchments that the Sibyl
had for sale.'
Jacques Bongars, the faithful councillor and ambassador of Henri Quatre,
was the owner of a remarkable library, consisting to a great extent of
State papers and historical documents, which Bongars had special
facilities for collecting during his official visits to Germany. He had
studied law at Bourges under the learned Cujacius, of whom it is recorded
that when his name was mentioned in the German lecture-rooms, every one
present took off his hat. Bongars has described his excitement at
purchasing the great lawyer's library. 'My chief care has been to seek
out the books belonging to Cujas. I expect that you will have a fine
laugh when you think of all that crowd that goes to Court as if it were a
fair, to do their business together, and to try to get money out of the
King, while a regular courtier like myself rushes off to this lonely spot
to spend his fortune on books and papers, all in disorder and half eaten
by the book-worms. You will be able to judge if I am an avaricious man.
No trouble or expense is anything to me where books are concerned. Would
to God that I were free, and had time to read them. I should not feel any
envy then of M. de Rosny's wealth or the Persian's mountain of gold.'
While residing at Strasburg he bought the manuscripts belonging to the
Cathedral from some of the soldiers by whom the city was more than once
pillaged during the wars of religion.
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