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Auction catalogue of the library of Guillaume Dubois (1656-1723), French cardinal and statesman

[AUCTION CATALOGUE].
Bibliotheca Duboisiana. Ou catalogue de la bibliotheque de feu son Eminence Monseigneur le Cadinal du Bois; recueillie ci devant par Monsieur l'abbe Bignon. La vente publique se sera le 27. aoust 1725.





The Hague, Jean Swart and Pierre de Hondt, 1725. 3 parts in 4 vols. 8vo. Contemporary marbled calf, gilt spine divided in 6 compartments.

Auction catalogue of the library of Guillaume Dubois (1656-1723), French cardinal and statesman. The Dubois collection was one of the various large and encyclopedic collections sold in Holland during the first half of the 18th century. The library had originally been in the posession of Abbé Bignon (1662-1743). He was a Royal Librarian at the Bibliotheque Nationale from 1718-1741, then the leading library in Europe. Bignon re-organized the library into five departments, and took the unprecedented step of opening the library to the public for 3 hours one day of the week. Bignon was one of the most zealous protectors of Tournefort, who showed him recognition by naming a new American plant genre Bignonia after him.
Cardinal Guillaume Dubois (1656-1723) bought Bignon's library. He had worked for 9 years as a private teacher, until he found a position teaching the Duke of Chartres, nephew of Louis XIV. When the Duke of Chartres became Duke d'Orléans, Dubois became his secretary. During the reign of Philippe d'Orléans, Dubois made a fast carreer from state councillor (1716), secretary of foreign affairs (1717), archbishop of Cambrai (1720), cardinal and surintendant des postes (1721), to member of the Conseil de régence, and soon after, ministre principal (1722). The French Academy admitted him the same year and the Assembly of the French Clergy elected him president in 1723.
John Law (1671-1729) bought the library from Dubois after his death, but because of the collapse of the 'South Sea Bubble' he couldn't hold on to it for a very long time. Law had had great success in business, and had started to exploit the apparently limitless resources of the Mississippi region. The value of the shares in his Compagnie des Indes rose sky-high until speculators all wanted to cash in in 1720. The company went bankrupt and many European investors were ruined. The effects were felt all over Europe, because the lost confidence in this kind of business also ruined other European companies.
Good copy.- (Quire 3O lacking, partly supplied in ms. on one of two blank lvs. bound between 2D1 en 2D2 giving the catalogue numbers 4767-4780; few margins rep.).
Blogie IV, col. 10; Taylor, p. 239.

Related Subjects: Book History  Bookseller's & Auction Catalogues  Libraries & Collections  Provenance 

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