OF SIX MEDIÆVAL WOMEN
which had been the home of the French kings since the days of Philip Augustus, found no favour in his sight as a place of residence, and he quickly set about building the sumptuous Hôtel de St. Paul, in what is now known as the "Quartier de l'Arsenal." The Louvre he destined for official functions, for an arsenal, and for his library. To form a library was no new thing in Paris. Some thirty years earlier Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham (1333) and sometime Chancellor of England, speaks of his frequent ambassadorial visits to "Paris, the Paradise of the World, with its delightful libraries, where the days seemed ever few, for the greatness of our love." And he adds, "unfastening our purse-strings, we scattered money with joyous heart, and purchased inestimable books." But whilst it is true that Charles's predecessors had collected books, none before had thought of forming a library for public use, and Charles's work, as M. Delisle remarks, was really the first germ of the Bibliothèque Nationale.[1] To collect books was one of his greatest delights, and he spared no trouble or money to make his library as complete as possible. This taste for books he may have inherited from his father, King John, who, learning to read from a beautiful Book of Hours, early acquired a love of books from his mother, Jeanne of Burgundy. Charles also loved to lend or make presents of books,
- ↑ L. Delisle, Recherches sur la libraire de Charles V, Paris, 1907.
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