No part
of the very scanty evidence we possess upon Danton’s personal life and habits
is of more value than this little list. It is the small and carefully chosen
bookcase of a man thoroughly conversant with English and Italian as well as
with his own tongue. He buys a work in the original almost invariably, and
collects, in a set of less than two hundred works, classic after classic. He
has read his Johnson and his Pope; he knows Adam Smith; he has been at the
pains to study Blackstone. It must be carefully noted that every book he bought
was his own choice. There were only a few legal summaries at the old home at
Arcis, and Danton was a man who never had a reputation for learning or for
letters, still less had he cause to buy a single volume for effect. I know of few
documents more touching than this catalogue, coining to the light after seventy
years of silence, and showing us the mind of a man who was cut off suddenly and
passed into calumny. He had read familiarly in their own tongues Rabelais and
Boccaccio and Shakespeare.
The following volumes are in English:— |
|
A translation of Plutarch’s Lives |
8 vols. |
Dryden’s translation of Virgil |
4 vols. |
Shakespeare |
8 vols. |
Pope |
6 vols. |
Sussini’s Letters |
1 vol. |
The Spectator |
12 vols. |
Clarissa Harlowe |
8 vols. |
A translation of Don Quixote (probably Smollett’s) |
4 vols. |
A translation of Gil Blas |
4 vols. |
Essay on Punctuation |
1 vol. |
Johnson’s Dictionary (in folio) |
2 vols. |
Blackstone |
1 vol. |
Life of Johnson |
2 vols. |
Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” (number of vols, given as 23, probably an error) |
|
Robertson’s History of Scotland |
2 vols. |
Robertson’s History of America |
2 vols. |
Works of Dr. Johnson |
7 vols. |
The following are
in Italian: —
|
|
(The names are not given in Italian by the lawyer, and
I can only follow his version.) |
|
Venuti: History of Modern Rome |
2 vols. |
Guischardini: History of Italy |
4 vols. |
Fontanini: Italian Eloquence |
3 vols. |
Denina’s Italian Revolutions |
2 vols. |
Caro’s translation of Virgil |
2 vols. |
Boccaccio’s Decameron |
2 vols. |
Ariosto |
5 vols. |
Boiardi’s edition of the “Orlando Furioso” |
4 vols. |
Mitastase (?) |
8 vols. |
Dalina (?) |
7 vols. |
Reichardet (?) |
3 vols. |
Davila: History of the French Civil Wars |
2 vols. |
“Letters on Painting and Sculpture” |
5 vols. |
Il Morgante de Pulci, 12mo |
3 vols. |
The remainder (except one or two legal book and
classics) are in French. |
|
Métamorphoses d’Ovide, traduit par Banier, in 4to |
4 vols. |
Œuvres de Rousseau, 4to |
16 vols. |
Maison Rustique, 4to |
2 vols. |
Lucréce, traduit par La Grange, 8vo |
2 vols. |
Amours de Daphnis et Chloé, 4to, Paris, 1745 |
|
Œuvres de Lucien, traduit du grec, 8vo |
6 vols. |
Œuvres de Montesquieu, 8vo |
5 vols. |
Œuvres de Montaigne, 8vo |
3 vols. |
Œuvres de Malby, 8vo |
13 vols. |
Œuvres Complètes d’Helvétius, 8vo |
4 vols. |
Philosophie de la nature, 8vo, |
7 vols. |
Histoire Philosophique, de l’Abbi Raynal, 8vo |
10 vols. |
Œuvres de Boulanger, 8vo |
5 vols. |
Caractères de la Bruyère, 8vo |
3 vols. |
Œuvres de Brantôme, 8vo |
8 vols. |
Œuvres de Rabelais, 8vo |
2 vols. |
Fables de La Fontaine, avec les figures de Fessard, 8vo |
6 vols. |
Contes de La Fontaine, avec belles figures, 8vo |
2 vols. |
Œuvres de Scarron, 8vo |
7 vols. |
Œuvres de Piron, 8vo |
7 vols. |
Œuvres de Voltaire, i2mo |
91 vols. |
Lettres de Sévigné, 12mo |
8 vols. |
Œuvres de Corneille, 12mo |
6 vols. |
Œuvres de Racine, 12mo |
3 vols. |
Œuvres de Gresset, 12mo |
2 vols. |
Œuvres de Molière,12mo |
8 vols. |
Œuvres de Crébillon, 12mo |
3 vols. |
Œuvres de Fiévé (sic), 12mo |
5 vols. |
Œuvres de Regnard, 12mo |
4 vols. |
Traité des Délits, 12mo |
1 vol. |
Le Sceau Enlevé, 12mo |
3 vols. |
Tableau de la Révolution Française, |
13 cahiers |
Dictionnaire de Bayle, folio |
5 vols. |
Cé de Turpin, 4to |
3 vols. |
Œuvres de Pasquier, folio |
2 vols. |
Histoire de France de Velly, Villaret et Garnier, I2mo |
30 vols. |
Histoire du P. Hénault, 8vo |
25 vols. |
Histoire Ecclésiastique de Fleury, 4to |
25 vols. |
Histoire d’Angleterre de Rapin, 4to |
16 vols. |
Dictionnaire de l’Académie, 4to |
2 vols. |
Corpus Doctorum, 4to |
1 vol. |
Dictionnaire Historique, 8vo |
8 vols. |
Abrégé de l’Histoire des Voyages, 8vo |
23 vols. |
Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle de Bomard, 8vo |
15 vols. |
Virgile de Desfontaines, 8vo |
4 vols. |
Œuvres de Buffon, 12mo, figures |
58 vols. |
Hérodote de Larcher, 8vo |
7 vols. |
Œuvres de Demosthenes et d’Eschyle, par Auger, 4to |
4 vols. |
Histoire Ancienne de Rollin, 12mo |
14 vols. |
Cours d’Etudes de Condillac, 12mo |
16 vols. |
Histoire Moderne, 12mo |
30 vols. |
Histoire du Bas-Empire, 12mo |
22 vols. |
Corpus Juris Civilis, folio |
2 vols. |
Encyclopédie par Ordre de Matières, toutes les livraisons excepté la derniére (1). |
|
The whole is valued at just over a hundred pounds (2800 livres).