NOTES
[1] In the bibliography of Nodier’s writings, published with the catalogue of his library, Paris, 1844, the first edition of “Le Bibliomane” is registered 1832-1833, as in tome I of “Livre des Cent et un.”
[2] Fermier général. An association existed in France, from the reign of Philip the Fair until the Revolution of 1789, possessing the right, by purchase, to levy taxes on various articles of consumption. These “farmers” were mostly uneducated parvenus, and their extortions were so great that though they paid no less than one hundred and eighty millions of francs for the monopoly the last year of its existence, immense fortunes were made by all concerned. The Revolution caused the abolition of the privilege, and all the “farmers” were executed.
[3] “The Enemies of Books,” by William Blades.
[4] During the riots of February, 1831, a mob of self-elected “public censors” attacked the palace of the Archbishop of Paris at Notre Dame, destroyed many valuable paintings, ruined the furniture, and threw a large part of the library into the Seine.
[5] Angulus. A secret nook or corner, meaning, in this instance, the Sabine farm presented to Horace by Mæcenas, which the poet declared in his “Odes” to be all-sufficient for his needs.
[6] Galliot du Pré flourished in Paris during the middle of the sixteenth century. His publications, for the most part, bear the device of a galley propelled by sails and oars, with the legend “Vogue la Gualee.”
[7] The library of Richard Heber was sold a few years after this supposed incident. The various sessions of the auction occupied portions of two hundred days, from 1834 to 1836.
[8] Nodier used the term “ménecheme,” or twin brother, a word taken from a comedy by Plautus.