The idea is in accordance with our
modern taste, and perhaps with the common sense of mankind; but some of
the old-fashioned collectors were angry with the poor epicure of
learning. The President Bouhier writes to Marais in 1725 on seeing a
catalogue of the library: 'This savours more of bibliomania than
scholarship.' Marais at once replied: 'Your judgment on Du Fay's
catalogue is most excellent: it is not a library, but a shop full of
curious book-specimens, made to sell and not to keep for one's self.'
Many of Du Fay's books were bought by Count d'Hoym, who lived for many
years at Paris as ambassador from Augustus of Poland and Saxony. The
Count has been accused of showing bad manners at Court, and of bad faith
in giving the trade secrets of Dresden to the factory at Sevres; in
bibliography at any rate, he was supreme among the amateurs, and his
White Eagle of Poland appears upon no volume that is not among the best
of its kind. He sat at one time at the feet of the Abbe de Rothelin; but
he soon became his master's equal in matters of taste, and was accepted
until his exile at Nancy as the arbiter of elegance among the Parisians.
M. Guigard quotes from the dedication of a 'treasury' of French poetry a
passage that indicates his high position: 'To the poets in this
assemblage, whoever they be, it is a glory, Monseigneur, to enter your
Excellency's library, so full, so magnificent, so well chosen, that it is
justly accounted the prodigy of learning.
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