The Duties and Qualifications of a Librarian (1780)/Bibliographical Note

by Jean Baptiste Cotton des Houssayes

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

THE following address was originally spoken in Latin, and when first printed bore the title: "Oratio habita in comitiis generalibus societatis sorbonicæ die 23 decembris 1780 à D D. Joan. Bapt. Cotton des-Houssayes doct. th. pariensi, soc sorbonico, bibliothecæ, sorb. præfecto, sct. Parisiis, proelio Philippi Dionysii Pierres regis typographi ordinarii, 1781." Brunet is the authority for the statement that only twenty-five copies were issued.

The learned bibliophile, Pierre Alexander Gratet Duplessis, recognizing the value of the paper, and desiring a larger audience for it, translated it into French, and gave it to Jacques Joseph Techener for the "Bulletin du Bibliophile, Petite Revue d'ancien Livres," where it appeared in the number for January, 1839 (No. 11, 3^e série). It occupied the first place among the bibliographical, philological and literary notices which were under the editorship of Charles Nodier; and the title now appears as,"Discours sur les qualités et les devoirs du bibliothécaire, prononcé dans l'assemblée générale de Sorbonne, le 23 décembre 1780, par J.-B. Cotton des Houssayes; traduit du latin en françois par un bibliophile." The initials "G. D." are signed at the end.

In 1857, Aug. Aubry reissued this translation exactly as it stood, among the "Variétés Bibliographiques" of his "Bulletin du Bouquiniste" (17^e numero, 1^er Septembre), but with the addition of a preliminary note signed "G. Duplessis." We may assume that the paper aroused the interest it deserved, since it was reissued the same year as an octavo pamphlet of thirteen pages, limited to one hundred copies. The title-page reads as follows:

Des Devoirs / Et Des Qualités / Du Bibliothécaire / Discours prononcé dans l'Assemblée générale de Sorbonne, / le 23 décembre 1780, / Par J.-B. Cotton Des Houssayes; / Traduit Du Latin En Français, Avec Quelques Notes / Par Gratet-Duplessis. [Printer's mark.] Paris / A. Aubry, Libraire-Editeur, / 16, Rue Dauphine. / 1857

In this form the text is the same as before; but Gratet-Duplessis's connection with the work being explained on the title-page, his name is dropped from the "Préliminaire," and his initials from the translation; and the whole is prefaced by an "Avertissement de I'éditeur," whose name does not appear, but who, we may fairly suppose, was Aubry.

While our chief debt of gratitude must always be due to Duplessis for his perpetuation of so valuable a contribution to library literature, which otherwise might have been lost to us, we are under no small obligation to the editor of "The Philobiblion, a Monthly Bibliographical Journal," published by George P. Philes & Co., of New York (vol. ii, March, 1863 [number 15]), for a translation of the "Discours" as it appeared in the "Bulletin du Bouquiniste."

This translation was afterwards used, with a slight introduction, under the title "What a Librarian should be" in "The Bibliographer" (vol. iii, December, 1882), "a Journal of Book Lore," published in London by Elliot Stock, and in New York by J. W. Bouton. We find it again under the title "The Librarians Duties" in "Book-Lore, a Magazine devoted to Old-Time Literature" (vol. ii, June, 1885–November, 1885), London, Elliot Stock, but with the introduction somewhat altered.

The text here presented conforms to the reprint of 1857, and thus includes what "The Philobiblion" omitted, Aubry's note. The translation is partly that of "The Philobiblion" and partly new.