Naude, Gabriel
NAUDE, GABRIEL (1600-1653), French librarian and scholar, was born in Paris on the 2nd of February 1600. He studied medicine at Paris and Padua, and became physician to Louis XIII. In 1629 he became librarian to Cardinal Bagni at Rome, and on Bagni's death in 1641 librarian to Cardinal Barberini. At the desire of Richelieu he began a wearisome controversy with the Benedictines, denying Gerson's authorship of De ImUatione Christi. Richelieu intended to make Naude his librarian, and on his death Naude accepted a similar offer on the part of Mazarin, and for the next ten years devoted himself to bringing together from all parts of Europe the noble assemblage of books known as the Bibliotheque Mazarine. Mazarin's library was sold by the parlement of Paris during the troubles of the Fronde, and Queen Christina invited Naude to Stockholm. He was not happy in Sweden, and on Mazarin's appeal that he should re-form his scattered library Naude returned at once. But his health was broken, and he died on the journey at Abbeville on the 30th of July 1653. The friend of Gui Patin, of Pierre Gassendi and all the liberal thinkers of his time, Naude was no mere bookworm; his books show traces of the critical spirit which made him a worthy colleague of the humorists and scholars who prepared the way for the better known writers of the " siecle de Louis XIV."
Including works edited by him, a list of ninety-two pieces is given in the Naudaeana. The chief are Le Marfore, on discours centre les libettes (Paris, 1620), very rare, reprinted 1868; Instruction a la France sur la verite de I'histoire des Freres]de la Roze-Croix (1623, 1624), displaying their impostures; Apologie pour tous les grands personnages faussement soupconnez de magie (1625, 1652, 1669, 1712), Pythagoras, Socrates, Thomas Aquinas and Solomon are among those defended; Advis pour dresser une bibliotheque (1627, 1644, 1676; translated by J. Evelyn, 1661), full of sound and liberal views on librarianship ; Addition a I'histoire de Louys XI. (1630), this includes an account of the origin of printing; Bibliographia politica (Venice, 1633, etc. ; in French, 1642), a mere essay of no bibliographical value; De studio liberali syntagma (1632, 1654), a practical treatise found in most collections of directions for studies; De studio militari syntagma (1637), esteemed in its day; Considerations politiques sur les coups d'etat (Rome [Paris], 1639; first edition rare, augmented by Dumay, 1752), this contains an apology for the massacre of St Bartholomew; Biblioth. Cordesianae Catalogus (1643), classified; Jugement de tout ce qui a. etc imprime centre le Card. Mazarin (1649), Naude's best work, and one of the ablest defences of Mazarin; it is written in the form of a dialogue between SaintAnge and Mascurat, and is usually known under the name of the latter.
AUTHORITIES. L. Jacob, G. Naudaei tumulus (1659); P. HallS, Elogium Naudaei (1661); Niceron, Memoires, vol. ix. ; L. Jacob, Traicte des plus belles bibliotheques (1644) ; Gui Patin, Lettres (1846) ; Naudaeana et Patiniana (1703); Sainte-Beuve, Portraits Lilt. vol. ii. ; A. Franklin, Histoire de la Bibl. Mazarine (1860).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
