Bibliotheca Colbertina

Euclid’s Elements, finely bound for Jean-Baptiste Colbert and stamped with the coat of arms of Count Charles Henry Hoym.

Euclides (fl. 3rd century BC). Elementorum Libri XV. Accessit XVI. De solidorum Regularium comparatione. Omnes perspicuis demonstrationibus, accuratisque scholjis illustrati. Auctore Christophoro Clavio Bambergensi. Societatis Iesu. Rome, Vincenzo Accolti, 1574.

See the complete description here.

Last week’s post was dedicated to a precious copy of Bacon’s De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum, Libri ix gifted by the outstanding French book collector and amateur astronomer Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc to his friend and partner in astronomical observations Pierre Gassendi (read the post here). Now we present another chapter in the great story of French bibliophily with a fine copy of Euclid's Elementa edited by the Bamberg Jesuit and professor of mathematics at the Collegium Romanum Christoph Clavius (1537-1612) and supplemented with his monumental commentary (see the complete description here).

This two-volume Roman publication, issued in 1574, represents one of the greatest achievements in the history of Renaissance mathematics. “His contemporaries called Clavius 'the Euclid of the 16th century'. The 'Elements', which is not a translation, contains a vast quantity of notes collected from previous commentators and editors, as well as some good criticisms and elucidations of his own” (DSB III, p. 311). The copy we present here also bears a highly distinguished provenance, thus considerably increasing its value. In fact, the earliest recorded owner of these fine volumes was one of the most important political figures during the reign of Louis XIV and one of the greatest French book collectors of all time: Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), known as the grand Colbert.

Protégée of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, who significantly sponsored his exceptionally successful political career at the court of Louis XIV, Colbert was named contrôleur général des finances in 1665 and thus became responsible for France’s financial and commercial affairs. Later he was also named Secretary of State. In addition to founding a number of important institutions, Colbert also played a crucial role in the history of the Bibliothèque du Roi. In 1666, as superintendent to the Royal edifices, he promoted the relocation of the library from rue de l’Harpe to rue Vivienne, in a palace which was, until 1996, the historical seat of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and which now houses the present day Site Richelieu.

A great patron of the arts, Colbert was a passionate collector of coins, medals, paintings, and above all books. During his lifetime, he amassed one of the largest and finest private libraries of his age, which he housed in his hôtel in rue Vivienne, nearby the Royal Library. The Bibliotheca Colbertina was highly esteemed among his contemporaries, and, as his librarians, he appointed two first-rank scholars: Pierre de Carcavi (1600-1684) and Étienne Baluze (1630-1718), both of whom greatly contributed to the collection.

Philippe de Champaigne, Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 1655. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain.

 At Colbert’s death in 1683, his library, which contained around 23,000 printed books and over 5,000 manuscripts, passed by descent to his older son Jean-Baptiste, Marquis de Seignelay. However, this latter died prematurely in 1690, and the books therefore passed into the hands of Colbert’s younger son, the archbishop of Rouen Jacques-Nicolas (1654-1707), who significantly augmented the collection. In turn, he bequeathed it to his nephew, the abbot Charles-Eléonor Colbert (d. 1747), Count of Seignelay.

Less interested in the fate of his outstanding family library, Charles-Eléonor decided to sell the printed books of the Bibliotheca Colbertina at auction in 1728; the precious manuscripts were offered later, in 1732, to the Royal Library for the sum of 300,000 livres.

The sale was organized by Parisian booksellers Gabriel Martin (1679-1761) and François Montalant (1677-1754). The general title-page of the three-volume catalogue indicates the various passages of ownership: Bibliotheca Colbertina, seu Catalogus librorum bibliothecae quae fuit primum Ill. V.D. J. B. Colbert, Regni ministri, deinde Ill. D. J. B. Colbert. March. de Seignelay; postea Rev. et ill. D. J. Nic. Colbert, Rothomagensis Archiepiscopi, ac demum D. Caroli- Leonorii Colbert, Comitis de Seignelay.

The sale catalogue lists over 18,000 lots of printed books, with each lot generally consisting of several titles grouped together. The 1574 Euclid edited by Clavius is included in Pars Tertia, in the section of ‘Mathematici generales’, where it is described as “Euclidis  Elemento [sic], cum scholiis Christoph. Clavii. Romae, 1574. 2. Vol. in 8.mar.” (lot 16811)

The two volumes are uniformly bound in seventeenth-century red morocco over pasteboards, according to Colbert’s preference.

Although the red morocco bindings are not stamped with Colbert’s coat of arms (which consists of a snake surrounded by the collars of the Orders of St. Michael and of the Holy Ghost, the ownership is clearly evident: the upper margin of both title-pages bear the inscription ‘Bibliothecae Colbertinae’, possibly in the hand of Colbert’s librarian Baluze.

Title page of volume I of this extraordinary copy of Euclid’s Elements, with the inscription stating ownership by the Bibliotheca Colbertina.

See the complete description here.

The Colbertina sale began on 24 May 1728, sparking interest from collectors all across Europe. Amongst the numerous purchasers, the name of another legendary collector stands out: the German Karl Heinrich Count von Hoym, better known by the French form of his name, Charles-Henri de Hoym.

Born in Dresden in 1694, Charles-Henri de Hoym moved to Paris in 1720 as the ambassador to France of August II of Saxony-Poland. In 1729, he returned to Saxony but soon fell out of August II’s favour. Involved in court scandals and having made numerous enemies, he was charged on various accounts, and was even accused of having revealed the secrets of the Meissen porcelain manufactory (of which he had become director) to the advantage of French rivals at Sevrès. He was ultimately imprisoned on a charge of treason and committed suicide in his cell in 1736.

As Bernard Quaritch rightly states, “although not a Frenchman, Count Hoym resided so long in France, his library being entirely formed there, that it is best to treat him amongst French Collectors” (B. Quaritch, Catalogue of Works on Fine Arts… and a splendid series of Books in Historical and Remarkable Bindings, London 1883, p. 1287). In fact, Hoym had already begun purchasing books in the 1710s, but it was in Paris that his collecting improved so much in quality as to make him one of the ‘Princes’ of eighteenth-century bibliophily. He had a special taste for volumes that were finely bound, and his employ included the leading French binders of the day: Augustin Du Seuil, Antoine-Michel Padeloup, and Boyet.

Portrait of Hoym. Engraving by A. Morse after painting by Rigaud (1617). Public domain.

In 1725, he participated in the sale of the impressive library amassed by Charles-Jerôme de Cisternay du Fay (1662-1723), the famous Bibliotheca Fayana. Another great opportunity to further enrich his collection came in 1728, with the auction of the library of the grand Colbert. Here he spent the high sum  – as reported by Hoym’s biographer Jérôme Pichon – of ‘30,948 livres’, including the 4 livres payed for the Euclid.

Title page of volume II of this extraordinary copy of Euclid’s Elements, with the inscription stating ownership by the Bibliotheca Colbertina.

See the complete description here.

In 1725, Hoym was granted Poland’s highest order, that of the White Eagle, and from this date onwards the collar as a Knight of the White Eagle surrounded his arms. 

Hoym also commissioned three different armorial stamps for proudly gilding onto the bindings of his books.

Each cover of the two-volume Euclid, originally bound for Colbert in fine red morocco, bears Hoym’s gilt coat of arms surrounded with a garland of oak leaves.

The arms and monograms upon the sides and backs varied at different epochs. In 1725, after receiving Poland’s highest order, that of the White Eagle, the design is composed of the monogram C.H. surmounted with a crowned eagle in the centre and surrounded by an ornamental oval border. Later, the border of intertwined foliage enclosed his escutcheon surmounted by the crown, a small star with the eagle upon it being appended below. The crowned monogram was used on the backs. A third stamp followed, similar to the first two but with more elaborate ornamentation. Each stamp was made in different dimensions, to correspond with the size of the book. (R. Hoe, “Baron Jérôme Pichon and His Life of Count Hoym”, The Bookman. A Literary Journal, 5, 1897, p. 39). 

The two-volume Euclid, originally bound for Colbert in fine red morocco, was therefore further enriched after 1728 with Hoym’s gilt coat of arms surrounded with a garland of oak leaves, and placed in his library in Paris.

Altogether, his library had cost him, at the end of his life, 115, 273 livres […] In the house in the Rue Cassette this library was arranged in two apartments, called the large and the small library. The books were placed on shelves, separated by carved and polished columns. The shelves were bordered with seventy small bands of green moiré silk, fringed with green silk lace. A large band of the same material surrounded the library at the top of the shelves. There was one large bookcase (and probably several), with folding doors closing with a lock, the doors mounted with brass wire. It is possible that Hoym also placed books in his marqueterie cases. The inventory of 1732 mentions a green cloth for the library; it was doubtless used to cover the books during the absence of the owner. (J. Pichon, Vie de Charles-Henry, Comte d’Hoym, Paris 1880; Engl. transl., The life of Charles Henry Count Hoym, New York 1899, p. 179).

The elegant binding on these volumes attests to their remarkable provenance, with the spines original to Colbert and Hoym’s gilt stamp on the covers.

Following Hoym’s tragic death in 1736, his exquisite library was sold in Paris in 1738 by Gabriel Martin, the same bookseller who had been responsible for the sale of the Colbertina a decade earlier. The Hoym auction was legendary, lasting from 12 May to 2 August: fifty-nine days of sale were necessary to disperse the exceptional collection. In his preface, Martin praises the library, and points up the presence, in the catalogue, of numerous volumes ex Thesauro Colbertino as well as ex Thesauro Fayano.

The sale catalogue compiled by Martin in 1738 – Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Caroli Henrici Comitis de Hoym, olim Regis Poloniae Augusti II. apud Regem Christianissimum Legati extraordinarii – also includes the entry of the finely bound Euclid from the Bibliotheca Colbertina.

The Euclid was sold for the sum of 5.3. livres. A marked-up copy of Hoym’s catalogue supplemented with names of the buyers has yet to be traced. However, we do know the name of the collector who came into possession of the precious volumes in the twentieth century: Jean Furstenberg (1890-1982).

Hans Fürstenberg – who, like Hoym, is more familiarly known by the French form of his name, Jean Furstenberg – was born into a German family of bankers and financiers. Being, however, Jewish, Fürstenberg left Germany in 1938, choosing first France and then Switzerland as his new homeland, and taking his library with him. His taste for books with great provenance, lavishly illustrated, and above all finely bound, is universally known. It is not by chance that the catalogue of Italian Renaissance volumes in his collection – Die Italienischen Renaissance Einbände der Bibliothek Fürstenberg (Hamburg 1966) – was compiled by Tammaro De Marinis (1878-1969), not only one of the foremost antiquarian booksellers and collectors of the twentieth century, but also a renowned scholar, as his still highly esteemed work La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI (1960) well attests.

However, collecting books from the Bibliotheca Colbertina was not just regarded as a ‘French matter’. Volumes with this provenance are also detectable in the catalogues of distinguished English libraries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We are pleased to present here another volume once owned by the grand Colbert, which attests not to a French, but rather to an English story: the first richly illustrated edition of the Emblemata by the Modenese Paolo Maccio (1576-1638), printed in Bologna in 1628 (see the complete description here). The volume’s original presence in the library amassed by the French politician is once again evinced from the inscription ‘Bibliothecae Colbertinae’ inked – as in the Euclid of 1574 – on the upper margin of the title-page.

Maccio, Paolo (1576-1638). Emblemata. Bologna, Clemente Ferroni, April 1628.

This copy of Maccio’s Emblemata was also once in the Bibliotheca Colbertina and likewise bears a remarkable provenance even after leaving that collection.

See the complete description here.

The title is entered in the Pars Secunda of the 1728 sale catalogue (lot 11479) and was sold for the sum of 1,11 livres to an as-yet unknown collector. This copy of Maccio’s Emblemata is bound in calf rather than the fine morocco that Colbert usually ordered from Levant.

Calf binding of the Colbert-Heber-Beckford copy of Maccio’s Emblemata.

Although in a ‘simpler’ binding, the book later drew the attention of another ‘Prince’ of bibliophily: Richard Heber (1773-1833), co-founder of the Roxburghe Club, whose stamp is visible on the front flyleaf.

English book collector Richard Heber’s stamp, Bibliotheca Heberiana, appears on the front flyleaf.

The Bibliotheca Heberiana, consisting of 105,000 volumes, was sold at auction between 1834 and 1837 by the London bookseller Evans, and the title of Maccio’s work is entered in the seventh part of that immense sale catalogue (Bibliotheca Heberiana. Catalogue of the Late Richard Heber, Esq. Part The Seventh, Removed from his House at Pimlico, lot 3839, “Maccii (Pauli) Emblemata. Bononiae, 1628”). On this occasion, the Emblemata was purchased by another outstanding English bibliophile, William Beckford (1760-1844), “an avid collector, feverishly dedicated to possessing the rarest and most handsomely attired volumes” (R. J. Gemmett, “The Beckford Sale of 1808”, The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 64, 1970, p. 127). 

The copy was subsequently purchased by William Beckford, whose collection was bequeathed to his daughter Susan Euphemia following his death. It remained with her at Hamilton Palace until 1882.

At Beckford’s death in 1844, the library, along with his stunning art collection, was bequeathed to the younger of his two daughters, Susan Euphemia (1786-1859), who had married Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton in in 1810. The Emblemata once owned by Colbert was then preserved at Hamilton Palace until 1882, at which time the collection was dispersed in a series of auctions held at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge (The Hamilton Palace Libraries. Catalogue of the First [-Fourth and Concluding] Portion of the Beckford Library, Removed from Hamilton Palace, London 1882-1884). The Beckford Library “took forty days to auction (9,837 lots) at the Hamilton sale and realized in the end the considerable sum of £ 73,555 18s” (ibidem). The title of the Emblemata is listed in the Section Portion, lot 2012 (“Maccii (P.) Emblemata, engraved title, plate of Madonna and Child and 81 Etchings by A. Parisino. Colbert’s copy in veau fauve, gilt edges / small 4to, Bononiae, 1628”), to be sold on the ninth day of the sale.

This remarkable series of names – Charles-Henry Hoym, Jean Fürstenberg, Richard Heber and William Beckford – clearly attests to the high esteem in which great collectors held the Colbertina and its books. This great esteem is not surprising, given Colbert’s exquisite choice in assembling his library and his taste for fine bindings. In this regard, it is enough to mention the extraordinary copy of the Paraphrasis of Aristotle’s Ethica edited by Daniel Heinsius and published in Leiden in 1607, which we presented and sold about ten years ago (see number XLIV in the 2009 catalogue The First 49 Stories about Books, and the forthcoming archive of sold masterpieces on this site).

A spectacular dogale binding made for Paolo Sarpi. [Aristoteles (384-322 A.C.)]. Ethicorum Nicomachiorum paraphrasis. Leiden, Jan Paedts Jacobszon, 1607.

This item is sold, but the description is available to read in the 2009 catalogue The First 49 Stories about Books (number XLIV).

Housed in a spectacular dogale or sunk-panel binding, this copy was once owned by no less than the Italian theologian and historian Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623), the celebrated author of the Historia del Concilio Tridentino, and its title-page likewise bears the inscription ‘Bibliothecae Colbertinae’: another example of the grand Colbert’s key role in cultivating a rich culture and tradition of bibliophily, and of his legacy as one of the most important “stewards” in the history of the book.

How to cite this information

Margherita Palumbo, “Bibliotheca Colbertina” PRPH Books, 24 June 2020, https://www.prphbooks.com/blog/euclid-colbertina. Accessed [date].

This post is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.