Part 20 (1/2)

His reply showed that this was only another instance of the confusion that arises from the French custom of styling the _written inscription_ of an owner's name in a book, an ex-libris. Technically the term may be correct, but it would be advisable in the interest of collectors to describe the one as the ”owner's autograph” to distinguish it from the engraved or printed ex-libris fastened on the inside of a book.

M. d'Albenas wrote thus: ”L'Ex-libris de Rabelais dont il est question, en note, dans _Les portraits de Rabelais_, est ecrit de la main de l'ill.u.s.tre auteur de Gargantua, sur le t.i.tre d'un exemplaire de la premiere edition des 'uvres de Platon,' publiee par les soins reunis de Marc Manuce et d'Alde Manuce 1513.

M. le professeur Cavalier ayant legue sa riche bibliotheque et ses precieuses collections a Montpellier, sa ville natale, elles ont ete reunies selon ses dispositions testamentaires dans une salle speciale, portant son nom, par les soins de son ami et executeur testamentaire, votre serviteur.”

Here, then, is a facsimile of this famous inscription, partly in Latin, partly in Greek, which is said to signify ”Belonging to Francois Rabelais, a zealous doctor, and to his Christian friends.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: AUTOGRAPH INSCRIPTION BY FRANcOIS RABELAIS.]

Plainly an antic.i.p.ation of the ”Io: Grolierii et amicorum.”

Another signature of Rabelais exists in a book which was presented to the school of medicine of Montpellier in 1776 by a lawyer, one Mons. J.

Grosley. This resembles generally the one already described.

The name of Jean Grolier is one of the earliest and most famous in the history of French Bibliolatry and Bibliopegy. Jean Grolier, Vicomte d'Aguisy, was born in 1479 in Lyons, and died in Paris on October 22nd, 1565. He was treasurer of France, and collected a library of about 3,000 volumes (an enormous number in those early days of printing), all of which he had sumptuously bound, and generally with the Grolier arms richly emblazoned on the sides. His books had also various mottoes on them, sometimes written in his own hand on blank pages or on the t.i.tle, sometimes printed in letters of gold around the edges of the binding.

The most usual of these mottoes is one that is constantly referred to, and has been often borrowed by other book-lovers and collectors:

”Io Grollierii et amicorum.”

Others that occur are:

”Mei Grollierii Lugdunens, et amicorum.”

”Portio mea, Domine, sit in terra viventium.”

”Tanquam ventus est vita mea.”

”Custodit Dominus omnes diligentes se, et omnes impios disperdet.”

”aeque difficulter.”

_Io: Grollierii et amicorum_ reads as a very pretty and unselfish sentiment, but it requires some explanation. Mons. Grolier did not allow his treasured volumes to leave his possession. Those who were privileged to enjoy his friends.h.i.+p, were permitted to consult his books; they had no choice, however, but to do so in the s.p.a.cious salons of Mons.

Grolier, after partaking of his hospitality.

On the death of Grolier, in 1565, his valuable collection became the property of Emeric de Vic, Keeper of the Seals, from whom it pa.s.sed to his son. On his death, this library, which had been the pride of three generations of book-lovers, was sold and dispersed in 1676. Some of the princ.i.p.al books came into the possession of such well-known collectors as Paul Petau, de Thou, and the Chancellor P. Seguier; they have been well preserved till the present day, but they contain no book-plates belonging to Grolier.

Paul Petau was a councillor in the Parliament of Paris. He formed the nucleus of a library, rich in early French and Latin MSS., and was also an enthusiastic collector of coins and antiquities. On his death, in 1613, he left the whole of his collections to his son Alexander, who not only succeeded to his public offices, but also inherited his cultivated tastes for art and literature.

Paul Petau had his books handsomely bound, with his arms stamped on the sides. His arms are thus emblazoned by French heraldists: _Ecartele_: au 1 et 4, d'azur, a 3 roses d'argent, au chef-d'or charge d'une aigle issante eployee de sable; au 2 et 3, d'argent, a la croix pattee de gueules. _Devise_: Non est mortale quod opto.

It will thus be seen that the arms are precisely the same as those carried by his son Alexander on his book-plate, the motto alone being changed in the latter to ”_Moribus Antiquis_.”

M. Poulet-Mala.s.sis makes a curious misstatement in describing this ex-libris, for he a.s.serts that the s.h.i.+eld bears quarterly the arms of _Alexander_ Petau and of his wife. It may be that M. Poulet-Mala.s.sis intended to say the arms of _Paul_ Petau and of his wife, for Paul, the father, certainly carried these arms, as did Alexander afterwards, with the statement that he was the son of Paul. Now Paul Petau could not have carried the arms of his son's wife.

The s.h.i.+eld rests on a mosaic pavement, on which are reproduced in alternate squares the three princ.i.p.al charges, namely, the eagle issuant, the three roses, and the cross pattee (see plate, page 69).

On the death of Alexander Petau his MSS. were purchased by Queen Christina of Sweden, who bequeathed them to the Vatican Library. His printed books were sold at the Hague in 1722, with those of Francois Mansart. ”Catalogue des bibliotheques de feu _M.M. Alexandre Petau_, conseiller au Parlement de Paris, et _Francois Mansart_, intendant des batiments de France.” La Haye, A. de Hondt, 1722.

Had the king of France himself desired a new book-plate he could scarcely have been provided with one more gorgeous or imposing than that engraved by Daudin, in 1702, for Michel Begon. Although according to its date it must be cla.s.sed as an eighteenth century plate, its style belongs to an earlier period, as indeed, properly speaking, did its owner, for he was born at Blois on December 26, 1638, so that he did not have this sumptuous ex-libris engraved till comparatively late in his life, and did not long survive to enjoy it, for he died on the 14th of March, 1710.