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A48701
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A journey to Paris in the year 1698 by Dr. Martin Lister.
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Lister, Martin, 1638?-1712.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing L2525; ESTC R14927
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102,964
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264
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were impatient of the Company of Women in their Religious Rites lest they should contaminate and spoil all their Devotion The Romans on the contrary thought Religion became Women better than Men for besides the general parts they had in common with the Men in Adoration of their Gods they had also peculiar ones where the Men were not concerned Tully bids his Wife supplicate the Gods for him for he tells her he thought they would be kinder to her than him Upon some such Principle probably their Prophetesses were in esteem M. Viviers I saw the Apartment of Monsieur Viviers in the Arsenal it consists in 7 or 8 Ground Rooms looking into the great Garden These Rooms are small but most curiously furnisht and have in them the greatest variety and best sorted China Ware I ever saw besides Pagods and China Pictures Also elegant and rich Bureaus Book-Cases and some Paintings of the best Masters That which pleased me most amongst the Paintings were the Pieces of Rambramts that incomparable Dutch Painter A Girl with a Cage in one Hand and looking up after the Bird that had got out and was flying away over her Head She had Fright Amazement and Sorrow in her Looks The other is an unlucky Lad leaning upon a Table and looking with Mischief in his Eyes or that he watcht to do some unhappy turn The 3d is a young Gentleman in a Fur Cap en dishabille after his wonted manner The two first are the most natural Thoughts and Dress that can be but nothing certainly ever came near his colouring for Flesh and Garments This part he studied passionately all his Life and was ever trying Experiments about it and with what success these and many other Pieces shew These Three Pictures of Rambrant are all of young People and are finisht with all the art and perfection of Colouring as smooth as any Limning which makes the Judgment of Philbien of him appear not just for he fitted his Paint according to the Age and Nature of the Subjects he wrought I had the pleasure of seeing them again and again M. le Nostre Monsieur le Nostre's Cabinet or Rooms wherein he keeps his fine things the Controller of the Kings Gardens at the side of the Tuilleries was worth seeing He is a very ingenious old Gentleman and the Ordinance and Design of most of the Royal and great Gardens in and about Paris are of his Invention and he has lived to see them in perfection This Gentleman is 89 years old and quick and lively He Entertained me very Civilly There were in the 3 Appartments into which it is divided the uppermost of which is an Octogon Room with a Dome a great Collection of choice Pictures Porcellans some of which were Jars of a most exraordinary size some old Roman Heads and Busto's and intire Statues a great Collection of Stamps very richly bound up in Books but he had lately made a Draught of his best Pictures to the value of 50000 Crowns and had presented them to the King at Versailles There was not any thing of Natural History in all his Cabinet I was several times with him and once he carried me into an upper Closet where he had a great Collection of Medals in 4 Cabinets most modern amongst them there were 4 large Drawers 3 of which were the Medals of King William near 300 The 4th Drawer was of King William's Ancestors and Family he had been 40 years in making this Collection and had purchased many of them at vast Rates He has certainly the best Furniture for an Historia metallica that I ever saw The French K. has a particular Kindness for him and has greatly inricht him and no Man Talks with more freedom to him he is much delighted with his Humour and will sit and see his Medals and when he comes at any Medal that makes against him he will say Sire voyla une qu' est bien contre nous as though the Matter pleased him and he was glad to find it to shew it the King Monsieur le Nostre spoke much of the good Humour of his Master he affirmed to me he was never seen in Passion and gave me many Instances of Occasions that would have caused most Men to have raged which yet he put by with all the Temper imaginable In this Cabinet I saw many very rare old China Vessels and amongst them a small Roman Glass Vrn very thick made and ponderous of a blue Sea colour the two Ears were Feet divided into 4 Claws but the very bottom of this Vessel was smooth and very little umbilicate and for this reason I cannot tell whether it might not be cast and not blown Luxemburgh P. The Palace of Luxemburgh is the most finisht of all the Royal Buildings it is very magnificent well designed were it not for the triflng Intersections or round and deep Jointings of the Columns which looks like a Cheesemongers Shop and which is below the grandeur of the Orders so hard a matter it is to have a true Relish of the ancient Simplicity and not to add impertinent Ornaments And to say the truth there are not many things in Paris where this Chastity is strictly preserved amongst those where little is to be blamed are the South East Front of the Louvre the Facade of St. Gervais and the whole Building of Val de Grace And this Wantonness in additional Ornaments may perhaps be one reason why the Doric is more practised here at this day the Modillions naturally admitting greater variety and according to the intended use of the Building In this Palace is that famous Gallery where the History of Maria of Medicis is Painted by Rubens Though this was done 70 years ago it is as fresh as at the first so great a Master he was in Colouring His Flesh is admirable and his Scarlet for which if he had not a secret not now understood he had less Avarice and more Honour than most of our Modern Painters 'T is certain the goodness of Colours was one of the great Cares and Studies of the late famous Painters and that which seems most to have obliged them to it was the necessity they put themselves upon to Paint all their own Designs and more particularly the present Dresses And though Rubens in his History is too much a Libertine in this respect yet there is in this very place which we now describe much truth in the habit of his principal Figures as of King Henry the Fourth the Queen her Son the 3 Daughters and the Cardinal though indeed the Allegoric assistants in all the Tableaux are very airy and fancifully set out His Scholar St. Aut. Vandyke did introduce this Novelty too much in England where the Persons would bear it as the Female Sex were very willing to do who seem in his time to have been mighty fond of being Painted in dishabille 'T was this that cut out of business the best English Painter of his time Cornelius
King John who was Prisoner in England which he greatly values He shewed us the Habits in Limning from the Originals done by the best Masters of all the Kings and Queens and Princes of France for many Ages backwards Also the Turnaments and Justings at large and a thousand such things of Monuments He was so Curious that he told me he seldom went into the Country without an Amanuensis and a couple of Men well Skilled in Designing and Painting He shewed us amongst other curious Manuscripts a Capitularie of Charles V. also the Gospel of St. Matthew writ in Golden Letter upon Purple Vellum This seemed to me to be later than that Manuscript I saw at the Abby of St. Germains that is the Letters less and more crooked tho' indeed the Letters of the Title Page are exactly Square One Toy I took notice of which was a Collection of Playing Cards for 300 years The oldest were three times bigger than what are now used extreamly well lined and illuminated with guilt Borders and the Pastboard thick and firm but there was not a compleat Sett of them Madame de Scudery Amongst the Persons of Distinction and Fame I was desirous to see Madameoiselle de Scuderie now 91 years of Age. Her Mind is yet vigorous tho' her Body is in Ruins I confess this Visit was a perfect Mortification to see the sad Decays of Nature in a Woman once so famous To hear her Talk with her Lips hanging about a Toothless Mouth and not to be able to Command her Words from flying abroad at Random puts me in mind of the Sybil's uttering Oracles Old Women were employed on this Errand and the Infant-World thought nothing so Wise as Decayed Nature or Nature quite out of Order and preferred Dreams before reasonable and waking Thoughts She shewed me the Skeletons of two Chameleons which she had kept near four years alive In Winter she lodged them in Cotton and in the fiercest Weather she put them under a Ball of Copper full of hot Water In her Closet she shewed me an Original of Madame Maintenon her old Friend and Acquaintance which she affirmed was very like her and indeed she was then very beautiful Marquis d'Hopital The Marquis d'Hopital one of the Academie des Sciences whom I found not at home returned my Visit very obligingly I had a long Conversation with him about Philosophy and Learning and I perceived the Wars had made them altogether Strangers to what had been doing in England Nothing was more pleasing to him than to hear of Mr. Isaac Newton 's Preferment and that there were hopes that they might expect something more from him he expressed a great desire to have the whole Sett of the Philosophic Transactions brought over and many other Books which he named but had not yet seen He told me it was not possible for them to continue the Monthly Memoirs as they had done for two years only because they were but very few in number of that Society and had very little Correspondence Indeed I did inquire once of some of that Body why they did not take in more since there were very many deserving Men in the City as I instanc'd in F. Plumier They owned he would be an Honour to the Body but they avoided to make a President for the Admission of any Regulars whatsoever I repaid the Marquis his Visit He lives in a fine House well furnisht the Garden pretty with neat Trelliage wrought with Arches and other Ornaments He expressed a great Desire to see England and Converse with our Mathematicians whose Works he coveted above all things and had ordered all to be brought him over His Lady also is very well Studied in the Mathematicks and makes one of the Learned Ladies in Paris of which number are Mad. Dacier the Dutchess of Main Mad. Scuderie Mad. de Vicubourg Mad. d'Espernon the Daughter Mad. Pres de Ferrand and others whose Names I have forgot Pezron I bought the Works of Pere Pezron a Benardin now Abbot de Charmoyse near Rheims This is a very Learned and very disinterested Author and by his free way of Writing has got him Enemies amongst the Regular Clergy The Books I bought were his Antiquities or Account of Time The Defence of it against Two Monks An Essay or Commentary upon the Prophets The History of the Gospel He is now upon giving us the Origin of Nations where he will shew that Greek and Latin too came from the Celtique or Bas-breton of which Country he is He told me he had 800 Greek Words perfect Celtique I settled a Correspondence betwixt him and Mr. Ed. Floid which he most readily granted and which he said he had long coveted Monsieur Spanheim now Envoy Extraordinary from the Duke of Branden-bough at Paris told me that the King of France's Collection of Medals is far the best in Europe or that ever was made Having the opportunity of Discoursing him often his sick Lady being my Patient I inquired more particularly of him what he had seen of Palmyra of Zenobia Odenatus Vabalathus He desired a Memoir of me which I gave him of what I would have him search for in the King's Cabinet and promised me all the Satisfaction he could give me in that Affair I told him I had met with nothing yet but a fair Busto in White Marble of Zenobia in the Cabinet of M. Boudelot which was part of Mons Thevenot's Collection of Marbles from the East Monsieur Vaillant I was to wait on Mons Vaillant at his Appartment in the Arsenal I found only his Son at home who very Civilly Entertained me and shewed me a Book in Quarto of his Father 's of Greek Medals near Printed off but without Cutts The Title was Nummi Graeci Imperatorum he goes down no lower than to Claudius Gothicus He hath added a large Appendix with References to all the most Remarkable Heads about the Cities and the People I left a Memoir with his Son and in a second Visit I found the old Gentleman at home very busie in his Flower Garden of which I shall speak hereafter He told me as to the Memoir I had left he had never seen any Coins of Oedenatus yet he had very lately parted with one of Zenobia to the Duke of Maine As for Vabalathus he had seen some of him in Brass and one he had in Silver which he very obliginly made me a Present of and that this was the only Silver Coin he had ever met with of him This is his Reading of it VABALATHUS V. G. R. IMP. R. Vices gerens Imperii Romani Les autres y lisent mal YCRIMOR He gave me also the Stamps of the Heads of Zenobia and Vabalathus done from the King's Medals See Tab. 2. These were designed for a short History of all the Emperors and Empresses which he has by him written in French but not publisht Nothing could be more Civil and Franc than this Gentleman whom I believe to be