Balzac. See note to p

1. 24. Gabriel Naudé {i6oo--,i), a famous French bibliographer, who endeavoured to form in Paris one of the largest public libraries in the world, at a time vvhen three such libraries only were in existence — the Bodleian in Oxford, the Ambrosian in Milan, and the Angclica in Rome, He succeeded in collecting more than 40,000 volumes, and the library was opened in 1648. But the distur'oances of the ' P" ronde ' brought about the sale of many of thèse books, and the closing of the library.

Besides this effort, for which he is best known, Naudé is the author of many political and historical pamphlets, to the style of which Sainte-Beuve is hère referring ; amongst them the foUowing niay be cited : — Marfore, ou Discours contre les libelles (1620) ; Considérations politiques sur les coups d'état (1639), in which he describes a political system of government not unlike that of ALichiavel in The Prince ; Mascurat, ou Jugement de tout ce qui a été imprimé contre le Cardinal Mazarin, depuis le

NOTKs. PAcrs 66-68 149

six j'ani'ier Jusqu'à la déclaration du i"' avril 1650, an answer to the innumerable libels directed against Mazarin during the war of the Fronde.

1. 29. Polyeucte (1640), Poynp'ee (1643), Le Menteur (same year), Rodogune (1644), HéracHus (1646-47), Doit Sanche (1650), Nicomede ( 1 6 5 1 ) .