Suppose I am a French nobleman of the 17th Century with an extensive personal library. What books make up that library?

by Ioun
azdac7

Almost certainly classical texts. You would have learnt Latin as a child at least and probably some Greek. So, Cicero, Herodutus, Homer, Virgil, Xenophon, Tacitus, Caesar and other things of that sort.

You might also have some sort of popular fiction, such as The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia by Philip Sydney. The book was hugely popular in the 16th and seventeenth centuries and fell out of fashion later on. Also things like Dante's inferno were and remain popular.

You might have a large collection of music, depending on which part of C17 that you are talking about. If you are looking for the late seventeenth century, then the Baroque is in full flow and you might have the scores of composers like Corelli.

yodatsracist

I can't answer your question directly, but in Carlo Ginzberg's The Cheese and The Worms, we get a list of books that an (eccentric) 16th century Italian miller had access to and read (though not necessarily owned). They were (mostly copied and pasted from Wiki so I wouldn't have to type them all out):

  1. The Bible in the vernacular

  2. Il Fioretto della Bibbia (a translation of a medieval Catalan chronicle compiled from various sources)

  3. Il Lucidario della Madonna, by the Dominicam Albert da Castello

  4. Il Lucendario de santi, by Jacopo da Voragine (see Golden Legend a famous collection of Saint's lives)

  5. Historia del giudicio (anonymous fifteenth-century poem)

  6. Il cavallier Zuanne de Mandavilla (an Italian translation of the book of travels attributed to Sir John Mandeville)

  7. A book called Zampollo (Il sogno dil Caravia)

  8. Il supplimento della cronache

  9. Lunario al modo di Italia calculato composto nella citta di Pescaro dal. ecc. mo dottore Marino Camilo de Leonardis

  10. the Decameron of Boccaccio (sometimes called the first novel)

  11. an unidentified book believed to be an Italian translation of the Koran

I would imagine that most nobles might have a higher proportion of philosophy and natural philosophy (science) books but that gives you a flavor of the type of books circulating in the 16th century. Of course, books of all kinds were more readily available in the 17th century than 16th.

lewormhole

You would most certainly have scripts of and be going to see the great plays of the day. In 17th century France, theatre was the dominant literary form and considered the most worthy. You would be well acquainted with playwrights like Molière, Routrou, Corneille and Racine at the very least, and would probably have knowledge of even more.

On the philosophical side, you'd be reading Descartes and La Rochefoucould's Maximes (though you might disapprove of the circles he moved in, salons in which men and women of different classes mixed to discuss literature, art and philosophy).

With regards to what we now call novels? You'd probably have baroque adventure novels, and most certainly ones by Marin le Roy de Gomberville, Honoré d'Urfe and Madame de Scudery. You'd probably also have the published letters of many of these authors who were known as great letter writers. You'd most certainly have Madame De La Fayette's La Princesse de Cleves.

You'd also have translations of great Spanish novels like Lazarillo de Tormes, Don Quixote and La Celestina (a novel in dialogue). You'd also have French imitations and influenced novels like those of Cyrano de Beregac.

Noblemen of the time read poetry voraciously and wrote it too, as it was considered a fitting pursuit for nobles. You'd read a lot of François de Malherbe, for example. Poetry then was largely occasional, and thus used to celebrate a certain event (a wedding, christening, funeral, dinner party) and poetry would be composed and recited socially.

Hope this helps!

roastbeeftacohat

side question: what would constitute a large library for people of different lettered classes?