Du Molinet, Claude
Le Cabinet de la Bibliotheque de Sainte Genevieve
1692, Paris, Chez Antoine Dezallier
First Edition
A sumptuous and richly illustrated description of the Cabinet de curiosités and library of the Abbey of Sainte Geneviève in Paris; founded n the 6th century, it was one of the earliest Parisian cabinets that blended erudition, material culture, and library practice, placing Sainte-Geneviève among the great centers of learning before the Revolution. It is today across the square from the Panthéon, administered by La Sorbonne. During the Mediaeval ages the Library was already famous throughout Europe; after some difficult times during the Wars of Religions, the library was brought back to life beginning in 1619, during the reign of Louis XIII, by Cardinal Francois de Rochefoucauld, who donated six hundred volumes from his personal collection. In 1673, Claude Du Molinet became librarian and founded a small museum, the Cabinet of Curiosities, with Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, medals, rare minerals and stuffed animals, within the library. By 1687 the library possessed twenty thousand books, and four hundred manuscripts. This volume, curated by Du Molinet himself, represents one of the most important testimonies to early modern collecting and the origins of museography. The first part of the volume is devoted to antiquities, while the second focuses on natural history. It presents a comprehensive survey of the abbey’s holdings. The plates, engraved in fine taille-douce by Franz Ertinger, depict the grand library and its cabinets filled with rare birds, fossils, coral branches, medals, engraved stones, minerals, and other marvels.
The preface emphasizes the collection’s demonstrative, pedagogical, and scientific purpose, with several objects originating from the celebrated collection of the scholar Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. Through its rigorous organization and didactic presentation, this work stands as a milestone in the history of collecting and museum studies. The Cabinet de la Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève is one of the most visually sumptuous monuments of early modern scholarship. Its engravings by Franz Ertinger form a veritable museum on paper, chronicling the breadth of human curiosity at the end of the seventeenth century. Each image, both scientific and poetic, reveals the meticulous arrangement of Claude Du Molinet’s cabinet de curiosités, a harmonious dialogue between art, faith, and natural philosophy. Among the most impressive plates, the first seven (many in double-page format) offer panoramic views of the library and museum as they appeared: breathtaking galleries lined with bookshelves; cabinets of antiquities, specimens, and curiosities; every object placed with intention, every species rendered with accuracy and grace, reflecting both scientific observation and Baroque wonder. A total of forty-five copperplate engravings methodically explains the collections of Sainte-Geneviève, including medals and hundreds of ancient coins; antiquities and religious objects; exotic marvels such as a lizard from Brazil, the horns of rhinoceros, giraffe, and “unicorn,” a mandrake root shaped like a human figure, a so-called “mermaid’s hand,” and fossilized shells and corals, together with rare birds, fish, shells, and coral branches. Each plate is both an artwork and an intellectual map, a microcosm of the universal order Molinet sought to represent.
A paper museum of Baroque wonder? Yes please. Molinet’s cabinet turns curiosity into museography: unicorn horns, mandrakes, strange birds and fish, Egyptian relics, classical ruins, fossils, and minerals all staged with theatrical poise - and with the same earnest seriousness. A seventeenth-century world tour in engravings, plus a few enchanting panoramic views of a four-centuries-old library: we can't resist.
[1] frontispiece; [1] title-page; [1] Molinet's portrait. Pp. [6], 224, [8]; 45 table plates outside the pagination, including 4 double-page plates.
Contemporary vellum, minor staining; inner hinge of the front cover slightly damaged, but solid. Ownership signature and very small stamp at the title page. 2 frontispieces, portrait of Molinet, and 45 plates, all fresh and crisp, with very wide margins. An excellent, well-preserved copy with superb and richly detailed engravings. Reference: Nissen ZBI 2861; Tchmerzine Livres figurés du XVII Siècle p. 143.
Dimensions (inches): 16 1/2 x 11 x 1 3/4
Claude Du Molinet (1620-1687). French historian, antiquarian, and librarian, especially renowned for his historical and numismatic knowledge. He was the official librarian of the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève from 1675 to 1687; he published a few works, but left above all a large number of manuscripts, most of which are currently kept in the reserve collection of the Sainte-Geneviève library. His masterpiece, The Cabinet of the Library of Sainte Geneviève, is a landmark work documenting one of the earliest museums of art, nature, and science, uniting faith and curiosity in the Baroque age.
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