So universal and ardent has the love of magnificent books been in
France, that it would be possible to write a kind of bibliomaniac
history of that country. All her rulers, kings, cardinals, and
ladies have had time to spare for collecting. Without going too far
back, to the time when Bertha span and Charlemagne was an amateur,
we may give a few specimens of an anecdotical history of French
bibliolatry, beginning, as is courteous, with a lady. "Can a woman
be a bibliophile?" is a question which was once discussed at the
weekly breakfast party of Guilbert de Pixerecourt, the famous book-
lover and playwright, the "Corneille of the Boulevards." The
controversy glided into a discussion as to "how many books a man can
love at a time;" but historical examples prove that French women
(and Italian, witness the Princess d'Este) may be bibliophiles of
the true strain. Diane de Poictiers was their illustrious
patroness. The mistress of Henri II. possessed, in the Chateau
d'Anet, a library of the first triumphs of typography. Her taste
was wide in range, including songs, plays, romances, divinity; her
copies of the Fathers were bound in citron morocco, stamped with her
arms and devices, and closed with clasps of silver. In the love of
books, as in everything else, Diane and Henri II. were inseparable.
The interlaced H and D are scattered over the covers of their
volumes; the lily of France is twined round the crescents of Diane,
or round the quiver, the arrows, and the bow which she adopted as
her cognisance, in honour of the maiden goddess. The books of Henri
and of Diane remained in the Chateau d'Anet till the death of the
Princesse de Conde in 1723, when they were dispersed. The son of
the famous Madame de Guyon bought the greater part of the library,
which has since been scattered again and again. M. Leopold Double,
a well-known bibliophile, possessed several examples. {15}