Jean-Baptiste Boisot
Jean-Baptiste Boisot was a French abbot, bibliophile, and scholar notable for leaving his collection of manuscripts to the Benedictine monks of Saint-Vincent. He is also known for leaving his library to his birthplace of Besançon and for his correspondence with Madeleine de Scudéry.
Biography
Jean-Baptiste Boisot is the third son of Claude Boisot, governor of the imperial city of Besançon from 1652 to 1658 and merchant-banker, father of twelve children. Very quickly, at the end of the century, the family was Boisot Anomie, then protected by the minister of Louis XIV of France, François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois. The Boisot family became very present in the body of the senior church dignitaries.Travels
Boisot was sent on a mission to Milan, to the Marquis of Mortar, governor of Milan, to negotiate with him sending reinforcements. Meanwhile, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle is signed, and the king restores the Franche-Comté hoping resume, what happens four years later. It is for this reason that Boisot decided to exile himself and leave Savoy in 1673 and Italy in 1674. Until 1678, he remains in Spain, a country he does not crosses much, preferring to stay in Madrid.The commendatory of the Abbey of Saint-Vincent
A difficult appointment
Louis XIV entrusted him on his return the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Vincent Besançon. which is the time the third benefit of the province. However, he meets some difficulties because the pope agrees after many negotiations as Jean-Baptiste Boisot does not belong to the order of St. Benedict, which put the abbey in order. During his appointment as abbot of Saint-Vincent, it's not a trip to Paris to meet with the king presented to him by Pellisson.Exemplary church life
The life of Father Boisot is exemplary as it is linked to the piety and generosity. In times of plague, he will give up all his property and rescues the poor. Boisot filled his letters epistles, of odes, compliments and translations he sends his friend Pellisson example for his Treatise on the Eucharist, among other passages containing books Saint Jerome, of Lactantius and of Tertullian Corona. Sometimes he joined the Spanish and Italian letters are in the collection of Granvelle.A historian of service to others
Throughout his life, Jean-Baptiste Boisot has applied to put his knowledge to help others, his many notes and papers rank of Cardinal Granvelle make him a historian applied. The work on the papers of Cardinal Granvelle represents nearly 80 folio volumes that can currently still find library Besançon. He even had the idea of writing the life of Cardinal, as reported in a letter to his friend Pellisson:Jean Mabillon admired in addition to the library, antique cabinet and tables of Boisot. All these elements can be concluded that Jean-Baptiste Boisot was an important figure in the community Bisontine, figure sponsorship and provincial scholarship of the seventeenth century, his name is known beyond the French borders.
He died 4 December 1694, at the age of fifty-six, in his abbey and bequeath to his hometown of Besançon its most valuable asset: its library. The magistrates of Besançon made him magnificent funeral orations, which they attended en masse. On 9 December, the city of Besançon decided to celebrate an office for the repose of his soul to the Cordeliers. Several exchanges are then carried out between the mayor and the Benedictines to establish an inventory of his collection, he begins a few days after his death, 5 January 1695.
The will of the Father Boisot
Extract the solemn testament made by Reverend Lord Sir Jean-Baptiste Boisot, Kirton, Abbot of Saint-Vincent de Besançon, Prior of Grandecour and Loye, passed by notary Jean Colin, royal notary audit Besançon 27 November 1694, published in Parliament Ladit city and to Sir Charles Bouvot, advisor to Commissioner MP 7 December of that year, in which he will set for his heir, Sir Claude Boisot, his brother, said Parliament Speaker.So after this act was born the municipal library of Besançon, under the control of the Benedictines of St. Vincent. The question of the influence that the Mazarine library had in the legacy of Jean Baptiste Boisot is legitimate, since it has visited.
Jean Baptiste Boisot is a passionate knowledge of the study, a bibliophile, as evidenced by his correspondence miss Scuderi and Paul Pellisson.Il would be possible to have more information about the legacy of Father Boisot, however the letters that could provide more information are those sent to the abbot of St. Vincent which remain lost.
Three letters to Paul Pellison learn about his legacy, like that of 17 December 1690 where he states:
Letter of 12 January Pellison shows the evolution of his thinking:
The turning point comes with the transfer of the University of Dole to Besançon, and in the opinion of the Abbe de Saint-Vincent, who suggested he leave his library. As a letter from Paul Pelisson which dated 16 June 1691 in response to a letter from the Abbe Boisot, now lost watch:
Personal library
The first inventory of the library of the Abbot Boisot was established in 1607. It contains, in addition to books Granvelle, some of those who belonged to his father, the Chancellor of Nicolas Perrenot, and the Earl of Cantecroix. It consists of nearly 1,500 volumes in nearly 1500 volumes. This library is considered one of the largest library of the sixteenth century.Maurice Piquard wrote an article "The library of a statesman in the sixteenth century", which encountered some difficulty with the poverty of the inventory of 1607 contained no dates or place of printing or author's name. It is for these reasons that the uncertainty still hangs on certain subjects. Maurice Piquard has several Greek works including 9 works of Plutarch, 6 Aristotle, Homer 5, 4 Polybius, Herodotus, Dion Cassius, 3 Thucydides, Xenophon, one of Aeschylus, Aristophanes. Absent the works of Sophocles and Euripides.
With regard to Latin literature, the collection includes nine books Cicero, Virgil, Livy, Terence, 'of Ovid, and Lucretius, Plautus, Pliny the Elder, Caesar, Seneca, Horace, and Tacitus. Piquard also highlights the presence of many of the Italian renaissance writers such as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio in rare and copies of authors Vitruvius. Machiavelli and Baldassare Castiglione are widely represented, with 5 copies of the Prince and 5 of the Courtier. Educated man, he has sixty law books, 172 history, 70 of Medicine as well as works of astrology, astronomy and many aspects of science and issues of the time, such as " De revolutionibus orbium Celestium "of Nicolas Copernicus, however it also lacks the works of Ptolemy, reputedly at the time.
The absence of some authors of the church such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas and some novels such as Romance of the Rose is not trivial so we will not pay attention, and lack certain works of piety of the time is strange for a clergyman. The assumption of theft or loss is however not excluded.
Its library includes manuscripts and enriched quality as the Chronicles of Froissart, from the collection of Granvelle and many bindings from quality relationships that the cardinal had linked with printers from all over Europe.
The inventory that was used was that of 1607, a more comprehensive was made until 1695 under the auspices of witnesses advisors Tinseau, Monnier, Noironte Lord and Pierre-Ignace Gillebert to attend the notary Jean Colin; It lasted nearly ten months. The inventory dénombrera 1847 numbers for books, equivalent to 2,247 volumes and 239 manuscripts. They will later be joined to form 80 large folio of State Cardinal Granvelle papers. It is then in 1732 the first catalog will be established by subject matter, so sometimes messy and imprecise.