Boisot bought what he could from the heirs, and found a good
many more MSS. in the neighbourhood. They passed with the rest of
Boisot's books to the Abbey of St. Vincent at Besancon; and during the
Revolution the whole collection became the property of the citizens and
was transferred to the public library.
The hereditary treasures of the Bouhier family were dispersed in the same
way through several provincial libraries. The collection had begun in the
reign of Louis XII., and something had been done in each generation
afterwards by way of adding fine books and manuscripts. Etienne Bouhier
had collected in all parts of Italy. Jean Bouhier in 1642 bought the
accumulations of Pontus de Thyard, the learned Bishop of Chalons. His
father's own library had been dispersed among his children; but Jean
Bouhier succeeded in getting it together again, and added a large number
of MSS. which he had gathered for the illustration of the history of
Burgundy. The library became still more famous in the time of his
grandson the President Jean Bouhier, who has been admired as the type of
the true bibliophile. The bibliomaniac heaps up books from avarice or
some animal instinct; he is a collector, it is said, 'without intelligent
curiosity.' Bouhier used to read his books and make notes upon them; and
it is said that he carried the practice to such excess as to deface with
marginal scribblings the finest work of Henri Estienne and Antoine
Verard. A visitor to his library described the sober magnificence of the
rosewood shelves with silken hangings in which the rare editions and
long rows of manuscripts were ranged.
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