smes in their ardour
for book-collecting. Jean Bigot in 1649 had a magnificent library of 6000
volumes, partly inherited from his ancestors, and partly collected out of
the monastic libraries at Fecamp and Mont St. Michel and other places in
that neighbourhood. His son Louis-Emeric took the library as his share of
the inheritance: its improvement became the occupation of his life; he
made many expeditions after books in foreign countries, but when he was
at home his library was the general _rendez-vous_ of all who were
interested in literature. The books were left to Robert Bigot upon trusts
that were intended to prevent their dispersion. A sale, however, took
place in 1706, at which the monastic archives and most of the MSS. were
purchased by the government.

By some arrangement, of which the history is unknown, the head of the
family of De Mesmes was persuaded to allow his books to be included in
the Bigot sale. There seems to have been an attempt to disguise the
transaction by tearing off the bindings and defacing the coats of arms.
The strangest thing about the sale was the fact that no notice was taken
of its containing the finest portion of Grolier's library. The splendid
_Aldines_, on vellum, fell into the hands of an ignorant notary with a
new room to furnish: and he thought fit to strip off all the bindings,
that had been a marvel of Italian art, and to replace them with the gaudy
coverings that were more suited to his _bourgeois_ desires.

M. de Lincy remarks that Grolier's books were strangely neglected through
a great part of the eighteenth century. At the very end of the period,
Count Macarthy had the good taste to include a few of them in his
collection of books upon vellum. Mr. Cracherode began, in 1793, to buy
all the specimens that came into the market: and the library which he
bequeathed to the British Museum contains no less than eighteen fine
examples. Eight more were comprised in the magnificent bequest of Mr.
Thomas Grenville's library in 1846. There has been a demand for these
books in England for more than a century and a half. But when we look at
the catalogues of Gaignat or La Valliere they seem to have been
altogether disregarded. When Gaignat died in 1768 his collection was
regarded as perfect; it was said that 'no one in the commonwealth of
letters had ever brought together such a rich and admirable assembly.'
Yet he only had one 'Grolier book,' a magnificent copy of Paolo Giovio's
book on