Note 110 — Chapter XVIII · THE SUPREMACY OF MAZARIN (continued 2)

[We may add that he pensioned several writers—among them Descartes and the historian Mézeray—and that he provided for the splendid Mazarin library, opened later to the public. “Mazarin,” says Duruy,h “had the liveliest if not the best taste for art. He brought from Italy a number of paintings, statues, and curiosities—even actors and machinists who introduced the opera into France. In 1655 he founded the Academy of Painting and Sculpture.”]