I waited upon the abbot Droine to vifit Monfieur Guanieres, at his lodgings in the Hotel de Guife. This gentleman is courtefy itself, and one of the most curious and induftrious perfons in Paris, his memoirs, manuscripts, paintings, and stamps are infi nite, but the method in which he disposes them, is very particular and ufeful. He fhewed his portefeuilles in folio, of red Spanish leather finely adorned. In one, for example, he had the general maps of England: then the particular maps of the counties: then the maps of London, and views about it: then the ftamps of all the particular places and buildings of note about it: and fo of all the cities in England, and places and houses of note of the counties.

In other book-cafes, he has the ftamps of the flatefmen of England, nobility of both fexes, foldiers, lawyers, divines, phyficians, and men of diftinction. And in this method he has all Europe by themselves.

His rooms are filled with the heads of a vast number of men of note in oil paintings and miniatures or water colours. Among the reft, an original of King John, who was prifoner in England, which he greatly values.

He fhewed us the habits in limning from the originals, done by the best masters, of all the kings and queens and princes of France, for many ages backwards. Also the tur naments and juftings at large; and a thousand fuch things of monuments.

He was fo curious, that he told me, he feldom went into the country without an Amanuenfis, and a couple of men well fkilled in defigning and painting.

He fhewed us amongst other curious manuscripts, a capitularie of Charles V. also the gofpel of St. Matthew wrote in golden letters upon purple vellum. This feemed to me to be later than that manufcript I faw at the abby of St. Germains; that is, the letters less and more crooked, though indeed, the letters of the title page are exactly square.

One toy I took notice of, which was a collection of playing cards for 300 years. The oldeft were three times bigger than what are now used, extremely well limned and illuminated with gilt borders, and the pafteboard thick and firm; but there was not à complete fet of them.

Among the perfons of diftin&tion and fame, I was defirous to fee Mademoiselle de Scuderie, now 91 years of age. Her mind is yet vigorous, though her body is in ruins. I confefs, this vifit was a perfect mortification, to see the fad decays of nature in a wo man once fo famous. To hear her talk, with her lips hanging about a toothless mouth, and not to be able to command her words from flying abroad at random, puts me in mind of the Sybil's uttering oracles. Old women were employed on this errand, and the infant-world thought nothing fo wife as decayed nature, or nature quite out of order, and preferred dreams before reafonable and waking thoughts.

She fhewed me the fkeletons of two cameleons, which fhe had kept near four years alive. In winter fhe lodged them in cotton; and in the fierceft weather the put them under a ball of copper full of hot water.

In her closet the fhewed me an original of Madame Maintennon, her old friend and acquaintance, which the affirmed was very like her: and, indeed the was then very beautiful.

The marquis d'Hopital, one of the Academie de Sciences, whom I found not at home, returned my vifit very obligingly. I had a long converfation with him about philofophy and learning; and I perceived the wars had made them altogether strangers to what had been doing in England. Nothing was more pleafing to him than to hear of Mr. Ifaac Newton's preferment, and that there were hopes, that they might expe& fomething more from him: he expreffed a great defire to have the whole fet of the Philo. fophic Tranfactions brought over, and many other books, which he named, but had not yet

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yet feen. He told me, it was not poffible for them to continue the Monthly Memoirs, as they had done for two years only, because they were but very few in mumber of that fociety, and had very little correfpondence. Indeed I did inquire once of fome of that body, why they did not take in more, fince there were very many deferving men in the city, as I inftanced in F. Plumier. They owned he would be an honour to the body but they avoided to make a precedent for the admiflion of any regulars whatfoever.

I repaid the Marquis his vifit: he lives in a fine houfe, well furnished: the garden pretty, with neat trelliage, wrought with arches and other ornaments.

He expreffed a great defire to fee England, and converfe with our mathematicans, whose works he coveted above all things, and had ordered all to be brought him over.

His lady alfo is very well ftudied in the mathematics, and makes one of the learned ladies in Paris; of which number are Mad. Dacier, the Duchefs of Main, Mad. Scuderie, Mad. de Vicubourg, Mad d'Efpernon the daughter, Mad. Pref. de Ferrand, and others, whose names I have forgot.

I bought the works of Pere Pezaron, a Bernardin, now Abbot de Charmoyfe near Rheims. This is a very learned and difinterested author, and by his free way of writing has got him enemies amongst the regular clergy. The books I bought were his "Antiquities or Account of Time;" "The Defence of it against Two Monks;" "An Eflay or Commentary upon the Prophets;" "The Hiftory of the Gospel.

He is now upon giving us the "Origin of Nations," where he will fhew, that Greek and Latin too came from the Celtique or Bas-breton; of which country he is. He told me he had eight hundred Greek words perfect Celtique. I fettled a correspondence betwixt him and Mr. Ed. Floid; which he most readily granted, and which he faid he had long coveted.

Monfieur Spanheim, now Envoy Extraordinary from the Duke of Brandenburgh at Paris, told me, that the King of France's collection of medals is far the best in Europe, or that ever was made. Having the opportunity of difcourfing him often, his fick lady being my patient, I inquired more particularly of him, what he had feen of Palmyra, of Zenobia, Oedenatus, Vabalathus. He defired a memoir of me, which I gave him, of what I would have him fearch for in the king's cabinet, and proinifed me all the fatisfac tion he could give me in that affair.

I told him I had met with nothing yet, but a fair bufto in white marble of Zenobia, in the cabinet of M. Baudelot; which was part of Monf. Thevenot's collection of mar. bles from the Eaft.

I was to wait on Monf. Vaillant at his apartment in the Arfenal. I found only his fon at home, who very civilly entertained me; and fhewed me a book in quarto of his fathers of Greek Medals, near printed off; but without cuts. The title was "Nummi Græci Imperatorum;" he goes down no lower than to Claudius Gothicus. He has added a large appendix, with references to all the most remarkable heads about the cities and the people.

I left a memoir with his fon; and in a fecond vifit, I found the old gentleman at home, very busy in his flower garden; of which I fhall speak hereafter.

He told me, as to the memoir I had left, he had never feen any coins of Oedenatus ; yet he had very lately parted with one of Zenobia to the Duke of Maine. As for Vabalathus, he had feen fome of him in brafs; and one he had in filver, which he very obligingly made me a prefent of; and that this was the only filver coin he had ever met with of him.

This

This is his reading of it.

VABALATHUS. V. G. R. IMP. R.

Vices gerens Imperii Romani.

Les autres y lifent mal. YCRIMOR.

Ie gave me also the stamps of the heads of Zenobia and Vabalathus, done from the king's medals. Thefe were defigned for a short hiftory of all the emperors and emprefles, which he has by him written in French, but not publifhed. Nothing could be more civil and frank than this gentleman, whom I believe to be the best medalist in Europe; he told me he had made twelve voyages all over Europe and Asia minor on purpofe. That he had feen and defcribed the contents of more cabinets, than any man ever did before him; and it is evident by his works, that he has made good ufe of them. I had a vifit from Mr. Cunningham, tutor to my Lord Lorne, a very learned and curious man in books. I asked him (knowing him to have been lately at Rome) very particularly about the papers of Monfieur d'Azout. He told me that he faw him not above half a year before he died, and was very intimately acquainted with him, and saw him for a twelvemonth very often. That he told him that he had about eighty difficult paffages in Vitruvius, which he had commented and explained; and the correction of a great number of errata in the text. Also that Alfo that upon Julius Frontinus (though that was a much lefs book) he had much more to fay, than he had upon Vitru vius. What is become of his papers I could not learn from him, nor any in Paris.

Monfieur d'Azout was very curious and understanding in architecture; for which purpose he was feventeen years in Italy by times; I do remember, when he was in England about fourteen years ago, he fhewed me the defign of feveral of our buildings drawn by himself; but of that of the banquetting-houfe at Whitehall, he expreffed himfelf in very extraordinary terms, telling me, it was the most regular and moft finished piece of modern workmanship he had feen on this fide the Alps, that he could not enough praise it that Inigo Jones, the architect, had a true relish of what was noble in that art. It is now time to leave the private houses, and to vifit the public libraries; and with them fuch perfons, as are more particularly concerned in the history of learning,

Monfieur l'Abbe Drouine came to vifit me at my lodgings, I returned the visit the next day at his apartment in the College de Boncourt. He had four or five little rooms well furnished with books; in the biggeft he had a collection of catalogues of books, and of all fuch, who had wrote the accounts of authors; above 3000 in all languages. He told me, he had studied the History of Books with the utmost application eighteen years, and had brought his memoirs into a good method; that he had thoughts of printing the first tome this year, which would be of the most ancient authors, Greek and Latin; that he intended to continue them throughout all the fuccecding ages down to our times; which he faid he had performed in good part.

He fhewed me the Catalogue of authors in four very thick folio's; alphabetically dif pofed by family names, under fome fuch title as this: "Index alphabeticus omnium Scriptorum, cujufcunque facultatis, temporis & linguæ, Thofe came to about 150,000.

He alfo fhewed me his alphabetic memoirs in fheets of the authors and books they had wrote, and in great forwardness. And lastly, the Chronological Catalogue, in which form he intends to print the whole.

He is a very civil and well tempered perfon, very learned and curious, and of a middle age, fit to continue and finish fuch a laborious work, I was infinitely obliged to him for his frequent vifits.

I was to wait on Monfieur Gurnier, one of the heirs of Monfieur Thevenot, to fee the remains of that famous man's library. There are a great number of Oriental MSS. yet unfold.

He fhewed me the MS. of Abulfeda, with its Latin verfion, done by Monfieur Thevenot; and the matrices and forms of Arabic letters, which he had, at his own charge, caufed to be cut for the printing of certain proper names in it.

He went or defigned to go into England and Holland to get it printed, but was called back by Monfieur Louvois's order to print it in France at the king's charge; but the late wars coming on, it was fet afide, and is like to be fo; for he was turned out of his place of library-keeper to the king, and died in difgrace.

Those great number of Oriental books he had moft from his nephew, whom he fent abroad for that purpose, and who died in his travels.

This man was, as it were, the founder of the Academie des Sciences, and was in his own nature very liberal, and gave penfions to many scholars.

Amongst other things I faw there a large dictionary or grammar of the Algonquin tongue, one of the nations of the Weft-Indies. The fugitive jefuit, who wrote it, dwelled among them twenty years. Here I alfo faw a hiftory, with large and accurate defcriptions of the quadrupeds of that part of the Weft-Indies by the fame author.

As for the papers of Swammerdam, which indeed were the things I moft coveted to fee, they were much beneath my expectation, not anfwering the printed catalogue of Thevenot, p. 239. There were indeed fome corrections of the figures of his general Hiftory of Infects, and fome additions, as though he intended another edition of that

book.

Alfo towards a particular hiftory, there were fome fmall treatifes, or rather fome figures only of the tadpole. Again, figures relating to the natural hiftory of a certain day butterfly; of the afilus; of the fcuttle fish; of the Scarabæus Naficornis; and fome confiderable number of fnails, as well naked, as fluviatil, and fea diffected; at least figured with their bodies exerted, and fome of their bowels extracted; and which feemed to me to be well understood and delineated. There were two or three ftiched books in Dutch of four or five fheets apiece, belonging to thofe plates or figures. But the gentleman would not part with any of them, becaufe, he faid, they had been fecured by the abbot Bignon, for the King's ufe. However, all thefe I judge were worth printing, when it fhall please that fociety to do it.

Laftly, I faw in his cuftody a fair MS. of Michael Servetus, with a treatise at the end of it, which, as he faid, was never published; being a comparison of the Jewish and Christian law, its justice and charity.

Monf. l'Abbe de Brillac, almoner to the Prince of Conti, very obligingly offered to carry me to the king's library; but I civilly declined it, for I had been told, it was better fo make vifits by one's felf: for no stranger but was very welcome at all times; not only on the days it was publicly open, as it is upon Tuesdays and Fridays.

had

Monf. Clement, the deputy library keeper, made us welcome, and invited us to come again, and spend a whole day with him. He made me in particular a very great com pliment, as a confiderable benefactor to that place, fhewing me moft of the books, and the names of the rest, I had published in Latin; and fhewed a great fatisfaction, that he got the Synopfis Conchyliorum, which he had caused to be bound very elegantly. I told him that I was very forry to fee it there, and wondered how he came by it; for it was, I affured him, but a very imperfect trial of the plates, which I had difpofed of to fome few friends only, till I fhould be able to clofe and finish the defign; which I now had done to my power, and would redeem that book with a better copy at my re

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turn into England: the fame promife I renewed to the abbe Louvois, the library keeper, at his own inftance, when I had the honour to dine with him. The reader will pardon me the vanity, if I tell him, that this book was no inconfiderable present, even for fo great a prince, as the King of France; for that befides the time that it took me up (ten years at leaf) at leifure hours, to difpofe, methodife and figure this part of natural hiftory, it could not have been performed by any perfon else for less than 200cl. sterling; of which fum yet a great thare it ftood me in, out of my private purfe. This young gentleman is brother to Monfieur Barbefieux, intendant of the affairs of war; he takes great care to apply himself to his ftudies, and for that purpose has two of the Sorbone conftantly with him to inftruct him. He lives great, and has a house, which joins upon the king's library, of which he is keeper. We were entertained by him with all the civility imaginable, and freedom of converfation.

This library is now placed in a private house, and taken out of the Louvre, but it is intended to be removed to the Place de Vendosme, where one fide of that magnificent fquare is defigned for it. In the mean time it is here most commodiously disposed into twenty-two rooms; fourteen above flairs, and eight below and above. Those below are philofophy and phyfic, and the fhelves are wired, to fecure them. Above are the books of philofophy and human learning; and it is in thofe rooms only the promifcuous crowd are admitted twice a week. In the middle rooms, which makes the great body of the library, are, for example, catalogues of books; hiftories in one of England and Holland; in another the hiftories of France and Germany; in another the histories of Italy, Spain, &c. in another bibles of all forts, and the interpretations; in another Greek MSS. in another Latin MSS. in another the civil and municipal laws of all nations; in another the original papers of the state; in another stamps, where, by the by, the king had the collection of Monf. Marolles to divert him, in one of his fickneffes, bought in at a vaft fum. The catalogue alone of these stamps, no bigger than two fmall almanacks, cost me fourteen livres; fo much strangers are impofed upon by the crafty bookfellers of Rue St. Jacques; but it is not in France alone where people are made to pay for their humour.

They have two indexes of this library; one relating to the matter and contents of books; and another index of authors, wherein are all the works they have of them, and the titles of all likewife that they know of, that are wanting, with an asterism to fuch in the margin; which is well done, that they may know what they have to buy in. It is indeed a vast collection, and worthy fo great a prince. This library confifts at least of fifty thousand volumes of printed books; and fifteen thousand MSS. in all lan

guages.

They work daily and hard at the catalogue, which they intend to print; I faw ten thick folio's of it, fairly transcribed for the prefs. It is difpofed according to the subject matter of the books, as the bibles and expofitors, hiftorians, philofophers, &c. They purpose to put it into the press this year, and to finish it within a twelvemonth.

In the king's library I was fhewn an ancient Greek MS. of Diofcorides, wrote in a fort of thin or narrow capitals, with the plants painted in water-colours; but the first book was wholly wanting, and therefore the animals not there, which yet was what I most defired to fee; for there are fome things relating to them, which we are at this day in great doubt of; and it would have been fome fatisfaction to have seen by the pictures, what the middle ages, at leaft, had thought of them.

In the fame room alfo we were fhewn the epiftles; which was one part of the fame MS. which we have at Cambridge, which is the gofpels only. Beza was poffeffed of ours, from whom we had it. It is written in fquare capitals, and very short lines, and

much