Prosper Marchand

Prosper Marchand (11 March 1678 – 14 June 1756) was an 18th-century French bibliographer.

The son of a king's musician, a native of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, he was received as bookseller in August 1698, but established his shop only by the end of 1701, in association with Gabriel II Martin. He took refuge in The Hague in 1709 for matters of religion. He abandoned the profession of bookseller around 1713. From 1713 to 1723, he was proofreader at Fritsch and Böhm in Rotterdam, then editor at the Journal littéraire from 1713 to 1737; booksellers catalogs editor; review editor; author of the Dictionnaire historique ou Mémoires critiques et littéraires, edited by J. N. S. Allamand, La Haye, 1758-1759. At the end of his life, he was attached to Daniel Monnier, a librarian in The Hague

He studied in Paris with much success and was then placed by a bookseller to learn the trade. Fascinated from childhood by books, he acquired in a short time all the necessary knowledge, and was admitted in 1698 in the guild of booksellers. He opened rue Saint-Jacques, under the banner Phénix, a store that soon became the meeting place for bibliophiles of the capital.

Eager of literary anecdotes, he would forward them to Jacques Bernard, who then wrote in Holland the Nouvelles de la république des lettres, and he formed at the same time for his personal use, collections which were very useful to him. Marchand went to Holland in 1711 to more freely profess the reformed religion he had embraced. He settled in Amsterdam and continued for some time the bookselling business; but, disgusted with the lack of good faith of most of his colleagues, he gave up entirely to indulge only in studing.

The editions he successively published of various books became rare made him advantageously known, and he found himself looked after by all scholars of Europe who shared his tastes. The habit of a frugal life had fortified his naturally robust health, and he rarely left his office, but he was receiving all those who came to benefit his knowledge and communicated with them with pleasure. He succeeded, amid these peaceful occupations, at an advanced age, and died June 14, 1756. He bequeathed in his will, the fruit of his savings to the company of the poor of The Hague, and his rich library to the Leiden University.

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