PREFACE.
If we were asked what made us attempt this notice of Quérard’s life, we should be at a loss to say; all we recollect is suddenly being immersed in manuscripts and proofs—of its beginning we know nothing. We recollect our indignation at the treatment Quérard received; we recollect devoutly studying all his works in search of bibliographic information, for method, for plans, for hints, and we recollect being rewarded by successfully ascertaining every point we desired. To read Quérard is to think, and thought produces ideas. Much of his arrangement he probably adopted from the Germans, with improvements. His own innovations—if we may so call them, for they are entirely new—are chiefly shown in that extraordinary book the Supercheries, a work that no one could possibly have written but he who had drudged, for twenty years, through the mass of French literature, expressed by the names of 32,000 authors, which La France Littéraire comprises; and by one who had the advantage of the numerous coadjutors who had confidence in him, and supplied him with information.
We have said indignation. Yes, but that word only expresses part of our feelings. Grief and sorrow for the manner in which poor unsuspicious Quérard was treated, and for the neglect which he suffered, simply because he was poor and of incorruptible honesty. He innocently applied for the Cross of the Legion of Honor: he, a poor man! how could a poor man support the dignity. He innocently applied for a librarianship, because he was qualified and talented—and he practised no intrigue! Here was desperate simplicity. Still, in the face of refusal and disappointment, he worked on. Still he persevered. Was one project nipped almost in the bud, another appeared, stronger, better planned, and more extensive. Beyond plans they sometimes never got, and it remains on record, that the man who was qualified and ready to carry out the undertaking in every way, was unable to obtain 1000 subscribers, for a work which was one of the grandest literary conceptions of modern times; which was to have been in a language understood throughout the world, and spoken by all civilized nations.
When bibliography occupies the position it assuredly will, when superior education shall make men generally appreciate its importance, future generations will wonder at this. A greater reproach to the present we know not, and if there is one thing we now regret more than another, it is that the opportunity was never afforded us, of subscribing our names to the list printed on the prospectus of Quérard’s Encyclopédie du Bibliothécaire.
It must have been little satisfaction to him when at last, still in poverty and almost at death’s door, he was honored with a “decoration.”
We shall not dilate upon the errors we have made, or the disadvantages we have been under in writing, translating, and compiling this short life of Quérard. It has been a labour of love; though we had little idea of the application it has entailed to gather the materials, and to pass them through the press with even such completeness as we have been able to attain. Those who have had to correct copy in a foreign language, will appreciate this, and excuse those printer’s errors which have defied our vigilance. We have tried to our utmost to do our best, with the materials within reach, that is, at the British Museum, and we are glad of an opportunity of acknowledging that without that institution, it would have been impossible to have composed this life at all in England. The liberality of the management, the almost eager desire on the part of every person, to aid where in their power, deserves thanks and excites astonishment.
Some information, not given in the text, will be found in the index, many things having come to our knowledge before that was printed.
With regard to the abbreviations used throughout, they are so simple as scarcely to require explanation. J.-M. Q., for Joseph-Marie Quérard; he almost invariably signed his name J.-M. Quérard. All his works are in double columns, on a page the size of this, unless otherwise mentioned. L. F. L., i.e., La France Littéraire; L. L. F. C., La Litt. Franç. Contemp.; L. S. L. D., Les Supercheries, &c.
The title-page of every work is given in full when we were able to see the work itself, and for the correctness of these we vouch.