Those who are curious in typographical specimens must ask to see the most ancient printed book with a date, being 1457, also the Bible, called Mazarin, printed in 1456, with cut metal types. The oldest manuscript is one of Josephus, and others are of the fifth and sixth centuries; the amateurs of autography will be gratified in seeing letters from Henri IV to Gabrielle d'Estrée, and the writing of Francis I, Turenne, Madame de Maintenon, Voltaire, Rousseau, Racine, Corneille; Boileau, Bossuet, etc. Amongst other interesting objects is the chair of Dagobert, which is supposed to be much older even than his time, and of ancient Roman fabric, the vase of the Ptolemies, the famous cameo representing the apotheosis of Augustus, the seal of Michael Angelo, and the armour of Francis I, and the admirers of vertu must be delighted with the collection of exquisitely beautiful intaglios and cameos. Two globes, twelve feet in diameter, being the largest extant, cannot be overlooked. Mount Parnassus in bronze, which the French poets and musicians are ascending with Louis XIV on the summit, is a fine piece of workmanship; there is also a model of the Pyramids of Egypt, with figures and trees to denote their height. There are a few very good paintings, and many objects calculated to excite the highest interest, which it would take years properly to examine and appreciate. The prayer-books of St. Louis and Anne of Brittany, and one which belonged in succession to Charles V Charles IX, and Henri III, bearing their signatures are exceedingly curious. Amongst the books and manuscripts may be found some of every known language which has characters. This noble institution is open daily for students; authors; etc., from ten till three, except Sundays and festivals; and those who merely wish to view the establishment may be admitted from ten till three on Tuesdays and Fridays; except during the vacation, which is from the 1st September to the 15th October.
In the same street, a little farther southward, at the corner of the Rue Traversière, the preparations will be observed for a statue to Molière, on the spot where stood the house in which he died, and nearly opposite is a small passage which passes under a house; and takes one opposite another of a similar description, which leads into the Palais Royal: suddenly emerging from the little dark alleys into a beautiful area, has a most extraordinary and pleasing effect; you see before you a parallelogram of 700 feet by 300, completely surrounded by a beautiful building with arcades, and having flower-gardens; statues, and a splendid fountain in the centre. To see this extraordinary scene to the greatest advantage, the first visit should be by night, and the impulsive coup-d'œil tempts the beholder to imagine that he has around him the realization of some gay dream of a fairy palace, the immense glare of light glittering on the falling waters, the brilliance of the illuminated shops; the magnificence and richness of the articles therein displayed, with reflecting lamps so contrived as to throw a powerful light on their sparkling jewels and glittering ware, the vistas of trees, the borders of flowers, the well dressed company and animated groups, with the gilded coffee-houses beaming all round, form such a picture as it is more easy to imagine than describe. Four galleries with shops encircle the garden of the Palais Royal, three of them are under piazzas opening to the grand area, the fourth, called the Galerie d'Orléans, is enclosed on both sides, and the roof is formed by one immense skylight, whilst the effect of the whole is superb. Over the shops are mostly either coffee-houses or restaurateurs, some of them splendidly decorated and most brilliantly lighted; as may be imagined, this amusing locality forms the lounge of thousands, and no stranger ever comes to Paris without making an early visit to the Palais Royal. It was originally intended by Cardinal Richelieu for his own residence, but the magnificence which he had already developed, with intentions of augmenting his design to so extravagant and luxurious a degree, began to excite the jealousy of Louis XIII, and finally the Cardinal made him a present of it shortly before his death. Since then it has been inhabited by several royal visiters, and such changes have been made that the original plan is scarcely to be traced, it having formerly been so much more extensive as to occupy several of the surrounding streets. So numerous are the shops, and so various are the articles within them, that it has been observed that a person might live in the Palais Royal without ever stirring out of it, finding all within it required to supply the wants of a reasonable being.
Although under the comprehensive title of Palais Royal, the whole extent is included, not only garden but all the surrounding shops and the stories above, yet that part which specifically is the Palais Royal, or Royal Palace, is situated at the southern extremity, looking into two court-yards, and where the present King with his family resided until 1831, when he removed to the Tuileries. It is entered by the Rue St. Honoré, and may be considered rather a fine building; the doric, ionic, and corinthian orders are visible in different parts of the edifice, in the interior there are some extremely handsome apartments, beautifully furnished but not very large for a palace; there are many very interesting pictures, particularly those relative to the King's life, from the period, of his teaching geography in a school in Switzerland, to his return to Paris; also the subjects connected with the events of the Palace are well worth attention, and many of them painted by the first rate artists. The apartments may usually be seen on Sundays from 1 till 4, on presentation of the passport.
Opposite the Palais-Royal is an open space called the Place du Palais Royal, on the southern side is the Château-d'Eau, a reservoir of water for supplying the neighbouring fountains; it is decorated with statues, and two pavilions. Just near it is the Rue St. Thomas-du-Louvre, where formerly stood the famous Hôtel de Longueville, the residence of the Duke de Longueville, and Elbœuf, where the intrigues of the Fronde were carried on, during the minority of Louis XIV, against Mazarin; it is now in part occupied by the king's stables, containing 160 horses, and may be visited any day by applying at the porter's lodge. We will now retrace a few steps eastward to the Rue St. Honoré, and passing by the large establishment of Laffitte, Caillard, et Compagnie, for diligences to all parts of France, we shall come to the Oratoire, built for the Prêtres de l'Oratoire in 1621, but now devoted to the protestant worship; it is adorned with doric columns, with a range of corinthian pillars above, and in the interior, the roof of which is highly ornamented. Service is performed in French every Sunday at half past 12. Within a hundred yards eastward is the Fontaine de la Croix-du-Tiroir, at the corner of the Rue de l'Arbre-Sec, rebuilt by Soufflot (on the site of one erected under Francis I). Adorned by pilasters and a nymph, which would have been graceful but is spoiled by their painting over it.
The first turning in the Rue de l'Arbre-Sec, is the Rue des Fossés St. Germain-l'Auxerrois, and at No. 14 is the house formerly called the Hôtel Ponthieu, in which Admiral Coligni was assassinated on St. Bartholomew's day, in 1572; in the very room where the event took place the witty actress, Sophie Arnould, was born, in 1740, then called the Hôtel Lisieux, and in 1747, it was occupied by Vanloo the celebrated painter. We return to the Rue de l'Arbre-Sec, and a few steps southward bring us in front of the venerable and mouldering church of St. Germain-l'Auxerrois (vide page 61); the oldest part still standing and supposed to be of the 14th century, is the western front; the porch was built by Jean Gausel in 1431, several other parts have been built at later periods; altogether it is a most interesting building and is connected with many sad historical associations, it was the bell of this church that tolled the signal for the massacre of the protestants on the night of St. Bartholomew; in a little street adjoining the south side of the church, is a house with a picturesque turret, supposed to have belonged to some building attached to the church; there is a very remarkable piece of carve-work in wood and some interesting pictures within the church; we will now leave its tranquil vaulted aisles, and quitting by the western porch, the most beautiful façade of the Louvre rises before us, which was erected in the reign of Louis XIV, after a design by Claude Perrault.
Champin del. Lith. Rigo Frères Cie St. Germain l'Auxerrois.
The Louvre has been so often described in works of so many different natures, descending the different grades from histories to pamphlets, that I shall not fatigue my readers with a too detailed review of its wonders, but endeavour to give them some impression of its grandeur, with as little prolixity as possible. I have already, in the historical sketch of Paris, touched upon its foundation, and the various epochs at which the different parts of the building were erected, and certainly let any one place himself in the middle of the grand court, and behold the four sides, and see if he can call to mind any thing equal to it, take it, for its all in all; I am well aware that there is rather a redundancy of ornament to satisfy the purest taste, and in that respect there is undoubtedly a deviation from perfection, but the approach is sufficiently near to excite the warmest admiration. Each side is 408 feet, and although there is a degree of uniformity, taken en masse, preserved, with two of the façades particularly, yet on examination the ornaments are found to be different, each side requires much close study after a coup-d'œil has been taken of the whole, and the more it is inspected, the more beautiful will it be found; the statues and different devices are by five different sculptors, the most celebrated of their day, the order of the pillars is generally corinthian, but there are some, which are composite. The external façades are by no means burthened with ornament, the north and western sides being perfectly plain, the south side has a noble effect, and faces the quay, having plenty of room to admit of its being properly viewed and justice rendered to its noble range of forty corinthian pilasters; this is by Perrault, as well as the eastern side, which is certainly one of the finest specimens of modern architecture that can be imagined.
A grand colonnade composed of 28 coupled corinthian columns has the most splendid effect, the basement story being perfectly simple, whilst the central mass of the building which forms the gateway is crowned by a pediment of stones, each 52 feet in length and three in thickness; all is vast, all is grand about this noble front, which is justly the admiration of every architectural connoisseur, no matter from what part of the world he may come.
Of the interior volumes might be said, I must first, after conducting my reader to the great door on the southern side of the building, direct his attention to the grand staircase, which is of a most splendid character, as to design, and consistently beautiful as to execution. The visiter after passing by a small room filled with very old paintings enters a larger when the grand gallery extends before him, which is unrivalled in the world, being above a quarter of a mile in length, and 42 feet in width, filled with paintings, principally from the old masters, but of them I will treat in a future chapter; it contains 1406 pictures some of them being of immense size. We will now pass on for the moment to the other apartments. The bed-room of Henry IV must arrest our attention, and the eye naturally falls on the alcove where his bed was placed, the oak carving, and gilded mouldings have been preserved exactly in the same state that they were when he died. We next proceed to a suite of rooms containing paintings of the Spanish, French, Flemish, and Italian schools; others devoted to drawings; of the latter there are 1293. Another range of apartments is on the ground floor and called the Museum of Antiquities, containing statues and various specimens of sculpture, in all 1,116 objects. Other suites of rooms are appropriated to Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities, and in some of the apartments are objects of great value; that the amount of real worth of the contents of the Louvre must be incalculable, one casket alone of Mary de Medicis is estimated at several thousand pounds, and there are many articles equally costly. One portion of the building is devoted to every thing that concerns naval architecture and an immense variety of marine objects, with a number of curious models. The Louvre may be entered on presenting the passport, every day, and new wonders and beauties may be discovered at each visit, although they be repeated for months together.