father the President, who always used his influence
to help the weak against the strong and the scholar against the ignorance
of the vulgar.' The old Treasurer kept his serene course of life until he
reached his eighty-sixth year: he died at his Hotel de Lyon, surrounded
by his books, and was buried near the high altar in the Church of St.
Germain-des-Pres.

Upon Grolier's death his property was divided among his daughters'
families. Some of the books were certainly sold; but the greater part of
the library became the property of Meric de Vic, the old Treasurer's
son-in-law. Meric was keeper of the seals to Louis XIII. His son
Dominique became Archbishop of Auch. They were both fond of books, and
took great care of Grolier's three thousand exquisite volumes, of which
they were successively the owners. They lived in a large house in the Rue
St. Martin, which had been built by Budaeus, and here the books were kept
until the great dispersion in the year 1676. 'They looked,' said
Bonaventure d'Argonne, 'as if the Muses had taken the outsides into their
charge, as well as the contents, they were adorned with such art and
_esprit_, and looked so gay, with a delicate gilding quite unknown to
the book-binders of our time.' The same visitor described the sale of
1676. All Paris was to be seen at the Hotel de Vic. 'Such a glorious
collection ought all to have been kept together; but, as it was,
everybody got some share of the spoil.' He bought some of the best
specimens himself; and as he was only a poor monk of the Chartreuse the
prices can hardly have run high. M. Le Roux de Lincy has traced the fate
of the volumes dispersed at the sale. We hear, he says, of examples
belonging to De Mesmes and Bigot, to Colbert and Lamoignon, Captain du
Fay, the Count d'Hoym, and the Prince de Soubise. Some of the finest were
purchased by Baron Hohendorf and were transferred about the year 1720 to
the Imperial Library at Vienna. Yet they never rose to any high price
until the Soubise sale towards the end of the last century, when the
weight of the English competition for books began to be felt upon the
Continent.

M. de Lincy has traced the adventures of more than three hundred volumes,
once in Grolier's ownership, but now for the most part in public
libraries. The earlier possessors are classified according to the dates
of their purchases. Of those who obtained specimens soon after the old
Treasurer's death we may notice especially Paul Peta