Bernard de MONTFAUCON (1655-1741). L.A.S., Paris September 1 - Lot 122

Bernard de MONTFAUCON (1655-1741). L.A.S., Paris September 13, 1733, to Président de Mazangues in Aix-en-Provence; 2pages small in-4, address. Interesting letter about his work. He sends the President "the fifth and last volume of the Monumens et de l'histoire de France" [Monumens de la monarchie françoise], in recognition of the "help you unceasingly give to me and to our colleagues who work for the republic of letters. As for the Recueil des Bibliotheques, this work has been in progress for over twenty years. I had more than a hundred catalogs of Italian and French libraries". The copy with "an ample index" was completed in 1720, bound "in two good volumes in folio"; and since then "several French, English, Germans and others have come to consult this catalog, where at a glance one could see in the index how many Manuscripts there were on each author". He will have it printed, but "there will be more than twice as much to add as I had already collected". He mentions the "pandectes", many of which are in Colbert's library, which has been merged with the King's, and asks to be sent "the catalog of M. de Peiresc's Mss" for inclusion in his collection, to be entitled Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum nova. He concludes with his collection of seals: "I have collected more than one hundred of all ages of Greek and Latin [...] They are usually very difficult to read, and there are some from which I have been unable to extract anything"...