Gabriel Naudé

Gabriel Naudé
Born	2 February 1600 Paris, France
Died	10 July 1653 (aged 53) Abbeville, now Hauts-de-France, France
Occupation	librarian, scholar, prolific writer

Gabriel Naudé (2 February 1600 – 10 July 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.

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. 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. 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. 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 large library for the period (about 8,000 volumes) and it was open to scholars who had the appropriate references. 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 Guidi di Bagno at Rome, and on Bagni's death in 1641 librarian to Cardinal Francesco Barberini.

At the desire of Cardinal Richelieu he began a controversy with the Benedictines, denying Jean Gerson's authorship of De Imitatione Christi. Richelieu intended to make Naudé his librarian, and on his death Naudé accepted a similar offer from Cardinal Mazarin. For the next ten years he 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 collection numbering over 5,000 volumes. 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.

...
Wikipedia