Note 429 — The Alcove.

The reader may be better pleased with the ensuing soberly-written account of this great man than with Philemon's rapturous eulogy. John Grollier was born at Lyons, in 1479; and very early displayed a propensity towards those elegant and solid pursuits which afterwards secured to him the admiration and esteem of his contemporaries. His address was easy, his manners were frank, yet polished; his demeanour was engaging, and his liberality knew no bounds. As he advanced in years, he advanced in reputation; enjoying a princely fortune, the result, in some measure, of a faithful and honourable discharge of the important diplomatic situations which he filled. He was Grand Treasurer to Francis I., and was sent by that monarch as ambassador to Pope Clement VII. During his abode at Rome, he did not fail to gratify his favourite passion of book-collecting; and employed the Alduses to print for him an edition of Terence in 8vo., 1521: of which a copy upon vellum, was in the Imperial library at Vienna; See L'Imp. des Alde; vol. i., 159. He also caused to be published, by the same printers, an edition of his friend Budæus's work, De Asse et partibus ejus, 1522, 4to.; which, as well as the Terence, is dedicated to himself, and of which the presentation copy, upon vellum, is now in the Library of Count M'Carthy, at Toulouse: it having been formerly in the Soubise collection: vide p. 96, ante—and no. 8010 of the Bibl. Soubise. It was during Grollier's stay at Rome, that the anecdote, related by Egnatio, took place. 'I dined (says the latter) along with Aldus, his son, Manutius, and other learned men, at Grollier's table. After dinner, and just as the dessert had been placed on the table, our host presented each of his guests with a pair of gloves filled with ducats.' But no man had a higher opinion of Grollier, or had reason to express himself in more grateful terms of him, than De Thou. This illustrious author speaks of him as "a man of equal elegance of manners, and spotlessness of character. His books seemed to be the counterpart of himself, for neatness and splendour; not being inferior to the glory attributed to the library of Asinius Pollio, the first who made a collection of books at Rome. It is surprising, notwithstanding the number of presents which he made to his friends, and the accidents which followed on the dispersion of his library, how many of his volumes yet adorn the most distinguished libraries of Paris, whose chief boast consists in having an Exemplar Grollerianum!" The fact was Grollier returned to Paris with an immense fortune. During his travels he had secured, from Basil, Venice, and Rome, the most precious copies of books which could be purchased: and which he took care to have bound in a singular manner, indicative at once of his generosity and taste. The title of the book was marked in gilt letters upon one side, and the words—of which the annexed wood-cut is a fac-simile—upon the other; surrounded with similar ornaments to the extremities of the sides, whether in folio or duodecimo.