NAUDÉ (Gabriel)

Lot 44
Go to lot
Estimation :
2000 - 3000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 3 791EUR
NAUDÉ (Gabriel)
Advice for setting up a library. Presented to Monseigneur le Président de Mesme. Paris, Rolet le Duc, 1644. In-12 of (4) ff., 164 pp. (4 ff., 164 pp.) : speckled fawn calf, triple gilt fillet, smooth spine decorated, dark green title, speckled edges (contemporary binding). Second edition, partly original. Written for President de Mesmes, of whom he was the librarian, Gabriel Naudé's famous essay is one of the first and most important manuals of librarianship. It was first published in 1627. A polymath and libertine scholar close to Gassendi and La Mothe Le Vayer, Gabriel Naudé (1600-1653) was also the librarian of Cardinal Bagni in 1631 in Rome, and then, from 1642 onwards, that of Cardinal Mazarin, for whom he created a library of 40,000 volumes. In a few short, clear chapters, the author replies to the main questions posed by the establishment of a large-scale library: Why build a library. How many books should be included? Of what quality and condition they should be. By what means they can be collected. The disposition of the place where they should be kept. The order that should be given to them. The ornament and decoration that should be put on them. What should be the main purpose of this library. By participating in the foundation of a library as important as that of Cardinal Mazarin, which he wished to be universal, Naudé was able to put into practice all his precepts: to bring together all the books in their best edition, without censorship of any kind (especially that of heretical writings), by not sacrificing books to the luxury of their binding or to the ornaments of the buildings and above all by opening it to the public: "Is it not a quite extraordinary thing that anyone can enter it at any hour almost as he pleases, remain there as long as he pleases, even read, extract such Authors as he will have liked, with all the means & conveniences of doing so, either in public or in private, & this without any other penalty than to be transported there on the ordinary days and hours.” A very fine copy. From the library of the bookseller Claude Guérin (1990, n° 139).
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue