Advice on forming a library

Gabriel Naudé (1600–1653)
Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque
Paris: François Targa, 1677

Naudé’s influential guide to the formation of a library introduced concepts which in their time were innovative, but which now seem obvious to library users, such as the arrangement of books on shelves by overarching subject. Naudé was commissioned with the formation of a private collection which became the famous Bibliothèque Mazarine, and his advice was followed by many other major collectors. His suggestions here name some of the most important authors any serious library should include; the marginal marks might perhaps be Moore’s.

To view a digitised copy of this item, click “Open digital library”, and for a link to a digitised version of John Evelyn’s English translation, click “Extended captions”

Syn.8.62.171, pp. 46-47 (Royal Library)

A translation of this work is available on the Cambridge Digital Library: Moore did not own a copy, so the translation is digitised from a copy belonging to another great collector, Sir Geoffrey Keynes. Keynes’s library was acquired in 1982 and has a similarly wide range of outstanding material to Moore’s collection.

Open Digital Library

Extended captions