The printed
books, comprising a number of finely illustrated works on archaeology,
were sold at the Hague in 1722; the sale included the old library
inherited by Francis Mansard, and the MSS. relating to Roman antiquities
that had been the property of Lipsius. A thousand splendid volumes on
parchment, the pride of the elder Petau, described by all who saw them in
terms of glowing admiration, were sold in his son's lifetime to Queen
Christina of Sweden. She had always intended to buy some great
collection, and had thought among others of buying up those of Henri de
Mesmes, of De Bethune, and the Cardinal Mazarin. She was delighted with
her new acquisition, and carried it off to Rome, where she made a
triumphal entry with her books amidst the popular rejoicings.
Something may be learned about the Italian collectors in the age that
followed Grolier's death, from the story of the strange wanderings of the
manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci. Very little was known upon this subject
until M. Arsene Houssaye found an account of what had happened among the
papers of the Barnabite Mazenta, who died in the year 1635. 'It was
about fifty years ago,' says the memorandum, written shortly before the
old monk's death, 'that thirteen volumes of Leonardo's papers, all
written backwards in his own way, fell into my hands. I was then studying
law at Pisa, and one of my companions in the class-room was Aldus
Manutius, renowned as a book-collector. We received a visit from one of
his relations called Lelio Gavardi; he had been tutor in the household of
Francesco Melzi, who was the pupil and also the heir of Leonardo.
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