The New International Encyclopædia/Grolier de Servières, Jean

GROLIER DE SERVIÈRES, grṓ'lyắ' de sắr'vyắr', Jean, Viscount d'Aguisy (1479-1565). A French bibliophile, born in Lyons in 1479. He was the royal French representative in Italy for some time, mostly at Rome and Milan, where he cultivated his taste as a book-lover. He was made treasurer of Francis I. in 1537, and was a noted collector of books, valuable or curious for subject, material, workmanship, or binding. He was a master of the art of elegant bookbinding, and his volumes are highly prized by bibliophiles. They were usually in brown leather and in Renaissance patterns, with stripes and plant arabesques. His library, which numbered finally about 3000 volumes, was kept in his family until toward the last of the eighteenth century, when it was sold and scattered. At present only some 400 volumes are said to be known, the largest number being in the possession of the National Library in Paris. He died in Paris in 1565. Consult: Le Roux de Lincy, Recherches sur Jean Grolier (Paris, 1866); and Clément de Ris, Les amateurs d'autrefois (ib., 1876).