Gabriel Naudé

Gabriel Naudé (February 2 1600–July 10 1653) was a French librarian and scholar. He was a prolific writer who produced works on many subjects including politics, religion, history and the supernatural. An influential work on library science was the 1627 book "Advice on Establishing a Library". Naudé was later able to put into practice all the ideas he put forth in "Advice", when he was given the opportunity to build and maintain the library of Cardinal Jules Mazarin.

Naudé is a precursor of Pierre Bayle and Fontenelle.

Biography

Naudé was born in Paris in early 1600 to a family of modest means. His father was a lowly official and his mother was a young illiterate woman. [Jack Clarke, Gabriel Naudé (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1970), 3.] He was described by his teachers as tenacious and passionate about his education. Naudé entered college at a young age where he studied philosophy and grammar. [Clarke, 3.] Later he studied medicine at Paris and Padua (where he attended Cesare Cremonini's lessons), and became physician to Louis XIII.

At the age of twenty, Naudé published his first book "Le Marfore ou Discours Contre les Lisbelles". [Clarke, 4.] The work would bring him to the attention of Henri de Mesme, President of the Paris Parlement. Mesme offered Naudé the job of librarian to his personal collection. Mesmes had a considerably large library for the time period numbering about 8,000 volumes and was open to scholars who had the appropriate references. [Clarke, 8.] Naudé's service in Mesme's library would give him experience which he would use later to write the book "Advice on Establishing a Library". Naudé wrote "Advice" for Mesme as a guide for building and maintaining his library. In 1629 he became librarian to Cardinal Bagni at Rome, and on Bagni's death in 1641 librarian to Cardinal Barberini.

At the desire of Richelieu he began a wearisome controversy with the Benedictines, denying Gerson's authorship of "De Imitatione Christi". Richelieu intended to make Naudé his librarian, and on his death Naudé accepted a similar offer on the part of Mazarin and for the next ten years devoted himself to bringing together from all parts of Europe the noble assemblage of books known as the "Bibliothèque Mazarine". Mazarin had brought with him to Paris a Library collection numbering over 5,000 volumes. [World Enclopedia of Library and Information Services, 3rd Ed., s.v. "Gabriel Naude".] Like Naudé, he believed in an open library to be used by the public for the public good. In 1642 he purchased a building to house his library and he instructed Naudé to build up the finest collection possible. The fastest way to purchase books was to absorb entire libraries into the collection, which was advice that Naudé included in his book. Naudé ravaged second hand book stores and left some stores with few books. Mazarin, also taking advice from Naudé's book, instructed his ambassadors, government officials and generals to collect books for him. Naudé was able to travel around Europe collecting books. During a particular trip that lasted several months Naudé collected over 14,000 volumes. [Clarke, 76.] By 1648 the library had built up a sizable number of materials estimated at 40,000 volumes. [World Enclopedia of Library and Information Services, 3rd Ed., s.v. "Gabriel Naude".] The library was open on a regular basis and had built up a sizable number of regular patrons numbering almost 100. Naudé was forced to hire several staff members in order to keep the library functioning properly. The library was also the first in France to be open for anyone without references.

Mazarin's library was sold by the "parlement" of Paris during the trouble of the Fronde, and Queen Christina invited Naudé to Stockholm. He was not happy in Sweden, and on Mazarin's appeal that he should re-form his scattered library Naudé returned at once. But his health was broken, and he died on the journey at Abbeville on 10 July 1653.

The friend of Gui Patin, of Pierre Gassendi and all the liberal thinkers of his time, Naudé was no mere bookworm; his books show traces of the critical spirit which made him a worthy colleague of the humorists and scholars who prepared the way for the better known writers of the "siècle de Louis XIV".

Works

Including works edited by him, a list of ninety-two pieces is given in the "Naudaeana". The chief are:

*"Le Marfore, ou discours contre les libelles" (Paris, 1620), very rare, reprinted 1868;
*"Instruction à la France sur la vérité de l'histoire des Frères de la Roze-Croix" (1623, 1624), displaying their impostures;
*"Apologie pour tous les grands personages faussement soupçonnez de magie" (1625, 1652, 1669, 1712), Pythagoras, Socrates, Thomas Aquinas and Solomon are among those defended;
*"Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque" (1627, 1644, 1676; translated by John Evelyn, 1661), full of sound and liberal views on librarianship and considered as a founding stone of library science;
*"Addition à l'histoire de Louys XI" (1630), this includes an account of the origin of printing;
*"Bibliographia politica" (Venice, 1633, etc.; in French, 1642);
*"De studio liberali syntagma" (1632, 1654), a practical treatise found in most collections of directions for studies;
*"De studio militari syntagma" (1637), esteemed in its day;
*"Considérations politiques sur les coups d'êtat". A disciple of Machiavelli, he considered that politics must be rendered "autonomous from morality, sovereign in relation to religion" [ French : « "abolir toute idée de droits autres que ceux du chef » et rendre « la politique autonome par rapport à la morale, souveraine par rapport à la religion »." ]

A "Bibliotheca Pontificia" was completed and seen into print by Louis Jacob. [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Ludovicus_a_S._Carolo]

Advice on establishing a library

Advice was written as a set of instructions for a private collector and was based on Naudé's own experience and research. He wanted to inform Mesme of the accepted practices and principles of librarians of the time. Naudé divided the book into chapters with titles such as number of books, selecting the books, procuring the books, etc. Naudé's first chapter poses the question, "Why establish a library?" He answers the question with a simple message; there is no greater honor than building a great library and sharing it with the public. Naudé believes libraries should model themselves after the best libraries of the world. The first task is to create a plan. Before a person can erect a library, he must educate himself on the subject of collecting and organizing books. A person must also seek the guidance of those who have already built their own libraries or are in the process of building their own libraries. Another idea Naudé suggests is to study the catalogues of other libraries to see what books exist in their collection. Those catalogues should be copied to aid in procuring the books at later dates. The catalogues of other collections can also be a useful tool later for helping researchers find a book held in another collection. While there is advice on book selection throughout the book, Naudé nevertheless devotes an entire chapter to book selection. The most important advice on book selection is Naudé's instruction on principal authors. The first authors who need to be purchased, in Naudé's opinion, are the authors of any subject who are considered experts in their respective fields. No matter whether they are ancient or modern works, if a book is held in high regard by practitioners of a particular field then it should be present in any collection. In addition any well known interpretations or commentaries that exist are a necessity. Naudé suggested purchasing books in the original languages because meaning can often be lost in translation.

Naudé also took on the issue of controversial books in the chapter on book selection. He is strongly against censorship of any kind. Naudé believes that every book has a reader regardless of the subject. Naudé believed that information should be free and available. He believed readers could always find use of a book even if it is to refute the ideas presented on its pages. Naudé also promoted an idea on popular works that is still around today. He knew that certain books were popular at times but later forgotten. He argued that it would be beneficial to a library if there were multiple copies of these books to accommodate the popular tastes of the times. In his chapter on book acquisition, Naudé gave tips on how to quickly and inexpensively acquire books. The easiest way, Naudé revealed, is to purchase another library in its entirety. Naudé went on to praise second-hand book sellers who often provided good books at cheap prices. Naudé also gave a tip that he used himself on browsing book-binding and printing shops for used paper. Naudé had once discovered a rare manuscript that a book binder was using as scrap paper. Naudé included a chapter in Advice for arranging the books. In discussing arrangement he quoted Cicero, "It is order that gives light to memory." Naudé gave instructions for book arrangement that he considered the most logical for his time. His subject headings included: theology, philosophy, jurisprudence, medicine, history, mathematics and humanities. Naudé would add other subject heading in later years but these categories best represented the known body of knowledge in the world. Each section should be divided into subheadings and begin with the principal authors followed by the commentaries. In the introduction of his book, Naudé wrote that he is not an expert in the field of librarianship but he presented what he believed to be the most important of all knowledge concerning libraries at the time. He based some of the opinions in "Advice" on his own experience in Mesme's library.

Notes

Original source

*1911

See also

*Marie de Gournay

External links

* [http://classes.bnf.fr/dossitsm/b-naude.htm Biography] of the "Bibliothèque Nationale de France" (BNF) fr icon