A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany[103] When Lord Spencer was at Paris in 1819, he told MM. Pet.i.t Radel and Thiebaut, who attended him, that it was "the finest copy he had ever seen." Whereupon, one of these gentlemen wrote with a pencil, in the fly-leaf, "Lord Spencer dit que c'est le plus bel exemplaire qu'il ait vu." And well might his Lordship say so.
[104] _Bibliomania_, p. 50. _Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. ii.
p. 493.
[105] Mons. Pet.i.t-Radel has lately (1819) published an interesting octavo volume, ent.i.tled "_Recherches sur les Bibliotheques anciennes et modernes,&c._ with a "_Notice Historique sur la Bibliotheque Mazarine_: to which latter is prefixed a plate, containing portraits in outline, of Mazarin, Colbert, Naude and Le Blond." At the end, is a list of the number of volumes in the several public libraries at Paris: from which the following is selected.
ROYAL LIBRARY _Printed Volumes_ about 350,000 _Ditto, as brochures_, &c. 350,000 Ma.n.u.scripts 50,000
LIBRARY OF THE a.r.s.eNAL Printed Volumes 150,000 Ma.n.u.scripts 5,000
LIBRARY OF ST. GENEVIEVE Printed Volumes 110,000 Ma.n.u.scripts 2,000
MAZARINE LIBRARY Printed Volumes 90,000 Ma.n.u.scripts 3,500
LIBRARY OF THE PREFECTURE (Hotel de la Ville) Printed Volumes 15,000
------- INSt.i.tUTE Printed Volumes 50,000
This last calculation I should think very incorrect. M. Pet.i.t Radel concludes his statement by making the WHOLE NUMBER OF ACCESSIBLE VOLUMES IN Paris amount to _One Million, one hundred and twenty-five thousand, four hundred and thirty-seven_. In the several DEPARTMENTS OF FRANCE, collectively, there is _more_ than that number. But see the note ensuing.
[106] [Mons. c.r.a.pelet says, 60,000 volumes: but I have more faith in the first, than in the second, computation: not because it comes from myself, but because a pretty long experience, in the numbering of books, has taught me to be very moderate in my numerical estimates. I am about to tell the reader rather a curious anecdote connected with this subject. He may, or he may not, be acquainted with the Public Library at Cambridge; where, twenty-five years ago, they boasted of having 90,000 volumes; and now, 120,000 volumes. In the year 1823, I ventured to make, what I considered to be, rather a minute and carefull calculation of the whole number: and in a sub note in the _Library Companion_, p. 657, edit. 1824, stated my conviction of that number's not exceeding 65,000 volumes, including MSS. In the following year, a very careful estimate was made, by the Librarians, of the whole number:--and the result was, that there were only.... 64,800 volumes!]
[107] Now, numbered with THE DEAD. Vide post.
[108] [The translation of the whole of the concluding part of this letter, beginning from above, together with the few notes supplied, as seen in M. c.r.a.pelet's publication, is the work of M. Barbier's nephew.]
[109] [For M. Barbier Junior's note, which, in M. c.r.a.pelet's publication, is here subjoined, consult the end of the Letter.]
[110] See pages 65-7 ante.
[111] [This conclusion is questioned with acuteness and success by M.
Barbier's nephew. It seems rather that the MS. was finished in 781, to commemorate the victories of Charlemagne over his Lombardic enemies in 774.]
[112] [This restoration, in the name of the City of Toulouse, was made in the above year--on the occasion of the baptism of Bonaparte's son. But it was not placed in the King's private library till 1814. BARBIER Jun.]
[113] [Now complete in 8 volumes--at the cost of 80,000 francs!]
[114] [The latter was the true guess: for M. Barbier died in 1825, in his 60th year.]
[115] It was published in 1821. In one of his recent letters to me, the author thus observes--thereby giving a true portraiture of himself-- "Je sais, Monsieur, quelle est votre ardeur pour le travail: je sais aussi que c'est le moyen d'etre heureux: ainsi je vous felicite d'etre constamment occupe." M. Barbier is also one of the contributors to the _Biographie Universelle_,[116] and has written largely in the _Annales Encyclopediques_. Among his contributions to the latter, is a very interesting "_Notice des princ.i.p.aux ecrits relatifs a la personne et aux ouvrages de J.J. Rousseau_." His "_Catalogue des livres dans la Bibliotheque du Conseil d'Etat_, transported to Fontainbleau in 1807, and which was executed in a handsome folio volume, in 1802, is a correct and useful publication. I boast with justice of a copy of it, on fine paper, of which the author several years ago was so obliging as to beg my acceptance. [From an inscription in the fly-leaf of this Catalogue, I present the reader with a fac-simile of the hand-writing of its distinguished author.]
[Autograph]
[116] [I "ALONE am responsible for this Sin. _Suum Cuique_."
BARBIER, Jun.]
[117] [These volumes form the numbers 1316 and 1317 of the Catalogue of M.
Barbier's library, sold by auction in 1828.]
[118] [Consult _Bibl. Barbier_: Nos. 1490, 1491, 1861.]
[119] [The agreeable and well instructed Bibliographer, to the praises of whom, in the preceding edition of this work, I was too happy to devote the above few pages, is now NO MORE. Mons. Barbier died in 1825, and his library--the richest in literary bibliography in Paris,--was sold in 1828. On referring to page 197 ante, it will be seen that I have alluded to a note of M. Barbier's nephew, of which some mention was to be made in this place. I will give that note in its _original language_, because the most felicitous version of it would only impair its force. It is subjoined to these words of my text: "Be pleased to go strait forward as far as you can see."
"L'homme de service lui-meme ne ferait plus cette reponse aujourd'hui.
Peu de temps apres l'impression du Voyage de M. Dibdin, ce qu'on appelle une _organisation_ eut lieu. Apres vingt-sept ans de travaux consacres a la bibliographique et aux devoirs de sa place, M. Barbier, que ses fonctions paisibles avoient proteges contre les terribles denonciations de 1815, n'a pu register, en 1822, aux delations mensongeres de quelque commis sous M. Lauriston.
_Insere nunc, Meliboee, pyros; pone ordine vites_!
J'ai partage pendant vingt ans les travaux de mon oncle pour former la bibliotheque de la couronne, et j'ai du, ainsi que lui, etre mis a la retraite au moment de la promotion du nouveau Conservateur." c.r.a.pELET, vol. iv. p. 45.
I will not pretend to say _what_ were the causes which led to such a disgraceful, because wholly unmerited, result. But I have reason to BELIEVE that a dirty faction was at work, to defame the character of the Librarian, and in consequence, to warp the judgment of the Monarch. Nothing short of infidelity to his trust should have moved SUCH a Man from the Chair which he had so honourably filled in the private Library of Louis XVIII. But M. Barbier was beyond suspicion on this head; and in ability he had perhaps, scarcely an equal--in the particular range of his pursuits. His _retreating_ PENSION was a very insufficient balm to heal the wounds which had been inflicted upon him; and it was evident to those, who had known him long and well, that he was secretly pining at heart, and that his days of happiness were gone. He survived the dismissal from his beloved Library only five years: dying in the plenitude of mental vigour. I shall always think of him with no common feelings of regret: for never did a kinder heart animate a well-stored head. I had hoped, if ever good fortune should carry me again to Paris, to have renewed, in person, an acquaintance, than which none had been more agreeable to me, since my first visit there in 1818: But ... "Diis aliter visum est." There is however a mournful pleasure in making public these attestations to the honour of his memory; and, in turn, I must be permitted to quote from the same author as the nephew of M. Barbier has done....
His saltem acc.u.mulem donis, et fungar inani Munere....
Perhaps the following anecdote relating to the deceased, may be as acceptable as it is curious. Those of my readers who have visited Paris, will have constantly observed, on the outsides of houses, the following letters, painted in large capitals:
MACL:
implying--as the different emblems of our Fire Offices imply--
"M[aison] A[ssuree] C[ontre] L'[incendie]:"
in plain English, that such houses are insured against fire. Walking one afternoon with M. Barbier, I pointed to these letters, and said, "You, who have written upon _Anonymes_ and _Pseudonymes_, do you know what those letters signify?" He replied, "a.s.suredly--and they can have but _one_ meaning." "What is that?" He then explained them as I have just explained them. "But (rejoined I) since I have been at Paris, I have learnt that they also imply _another_ meaning." "What might that be?" Stopping him, and gently touching his arm, and looking round to see that we were not overheard, I answered in a suppressed tone:--
"M[es] A[mis] C[ha.s.sez] L[ouis]."
He was thunderstruck. He had never heard it before: and to be told it by a stranger! "Mais (says he, smiling, and resuming his steps) "voila une chose infiniment drole!"
Let it be remembered, that this HERETICAL construction upon these Initial Capitals was put at a time when the _Bonaparte Fever_ was yet making some of the pulses of the Parisians beat 85 strokes to the minute. _Now_, his Majesty Charles X. will smile as readily at this anecdote as did the incomparable Librarian of his Regal Predecessor.
[INTRODUCTION TO LETTER VIII.]
Before entering upon the perusal of this memorable Letter--which, in the previous edition, was numbered LETTER x.x.x,--(owing to the Letters having been numbered consecutively from the beginning to the end) I request the Reader's attention to a few preliminary remarks, which may possibly guide him to form a more correct estimate of its real character. MONS. LICQUET having published a French version of my Ninth Letter, descriptive of the Public Library at Rouen, (and to which an allusion has been made in vol. i.
p. 99.) MONS. c.r.a.pELET (see p. 1, ante) undertook a version of the _ensuing_ Letter: of which he printed _one hundred copies_. Both translations were printed in M. c.r.a.pelet's office, to arrange, in type and form of publication, as much as possible with my own; so that, if the _intrinsic_ merit of these versions could not secure purchasers, the beauty of the paper and of the press work (for both are very beautiful) might contribute to their circulation. To the version of M. c.r.a.pelet[120] was prefixed a _Preface_, combining such a mixture of malignity and misconception, that I did not hesitate answering it, in a privately printed tract, ent.i.tled "A ROLAND FOR AN OLIVER." Of this Tract, "only _thirty-six copies were printed_." "So much the better for the Author"--says M.
c.r.a.pelet. The sequel will shew.
In the publication of the _entire_ version of my Tour, by M.M. Licquet and c.r.a.pelet, the translation of this VIIIth Letter appears as it did in the previous publication--with the exception of the omission of the _Preface_: but in lieu of which, there is another and a short preface, by M. c.r.a.pelet, to the third volume, where, after telling his readers that his previous attempt had excited my "holy wrath," he seems to rejoice in the severity of those criticisms, which, in certain of our _own_ public Journals, have been pa.s.sed upon my subsequent bibliographical labours. With these criticisms I have here nothing to do. If the authors of them can reconcile them to their own good sense and subsequent reflections, and the Public to their own INDEPENDENCE of JUDGMENT, the voice of remonstrance will be ineffectual.
Time will strike the balance between the Critic and the Author: and without pretending to explore the mysteries of an occasional _getting-up_ of Reviews of particular articles, I think I can speak in the language of justice, as well as of confidence, of the Author of ONE of these reviews, by a quotation from the _Ajax Flagellifer_ of SOPHOCLES.
[Greek: Blepo gar echthron phota, kai tach' an kakois Gelon, ha de kakourgos exikoit' aner.--]
To return to M. c.r.a.pelet; and to have done with him. The _motive_ for his undertaking the version of this memorable Letter, about "BOOKSELLERS, PRINTERS, and BOOKBINDERS at Paris," seems to be wholly inconceivable; since the logic of the undertaking would be as follows. BECAUSE I have spoken favourably of the whole typographical fraternity--and because, in particular, of M. c.r.a.pelet, his _Menage_, and Madame who is at the head of it--_because_ I have lauded his Press equally with his Cellar--THEREFORE the "_un_holy wrath" of M. c.r.a.pelet is excited; and he cannot endure the freedom taken by the English traveller. It would be abusing the confidence reposed in me by written communications, from characters of the first respectability, were I to make public a few of the sentiments contained in them--expressive of surprise and contempt at the performance of the French typographer. But in mercy to my adversary, he shall be spared the pain of their perusal.