THE 



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THE 



ber, 1684, the office was conferred upon Thevenot, on the 

 understanding that such of his books as were not already 

 in the royal library were to be purchased for it. The zeal 

 which Colbert had manifested at the outset of his ministerial 

 career for the augmentation of the royal collection had 

 abated for some years before his death : from 1673 till his 

 death no important acquisitions had been made. TheVenot 

 found the library extremely deficient in English, German, 

 and Dutch works, and he obtained permission to make 

 arrangements for procuring from those countries their his- 

 tories, laws, and accounts of their customs; in short, 

 everything calculated to convey information regarding 

 their governments and transactions. The inquiry after 

 Greek and Oriental MSS. in the Levant, begun by Colbert, 

 was continued by Louvois ; and Thtvenot, by that mini- 

 - directions, prepared and transmitted instructions to 

 Messrs. Girardin and Galland and the Pdre Besnier for the 

 prosecution of the search. It was also at his suggestion that 

 a native of China, who had brought some Chinese books to 

 Home, was induced to visit Paris, and his books acquired 

 for the king's library. Qn the death of Louvois a new 

 arrangement was made for the management of the king's 

 library, and about the same time The'venot resigned or 

 was dismissed from his appointment. There is reason to 

 doubt whether he had given satisfaction as librarian : the 

 historical memoir in the first volume of the printed cata- 

 logue of the king's library, which does ample justice to 

 other officials, merely notices his appointment and resigna- 

 tion; and the notice of his life found in his own writing 

 among his papers alter his death, has very much the ap- 

 pearance of a defensive statement of his own merits. 



Thevenot did not long survive the termination of his 

 connection with the king's library : he died on the 29th of 

 October, 1692. 



Thevenot, in addition to most European languages, was 

 able to read Hebrew, Syriae, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, 

 lie commenced a series of observations on the variation 

 of the magnetic needle in 1663, and prosecuted them with 

 great perseverance till 1681. He suggested, in 1669, the 

 measurement of several degrees of the meridian along the 

 Gulf of Bothnia: he invented his air-level about 1600, 

 nml recommended its adoption to facilitate observations of 

 the latitude at sea, and he endeavoured to discover a natural 

 unit of linear measurement for all nations. He possessed 

 however rather the taste than the talent for strict scientific 

 observation and reasoning, and this peculiarity was the cause 

 in the first place of his anxiety to nave men of science for 

 his habitual visitors, and of his eatrerness to collect books 

 of travels, printed or in MS., such works being calculated to 

 gratify a mind which, without, a capacity for severe labour, 

 I'ond of acquiring knowledge. In books of travels he 

 found information regarding statistics, history, commerce, 

 natural history, and science ; and he could relish all these 

 branches of knowledge and appreciate their importance, 

 though he could not task himselt to master any one of them. 

 He undertook to publish a systematic collection of voyages 

 and travels, as the task best suited to his turn of mind ; but 

 even this required more continuous effort than he was capa- 

 ble of: in the fourth volume the systematic arrangement was 

 abandoned, and only some fragments of the fifth part were 

 published at long intervals. Thevenot was one of those 

 who promote science by imparting a contagious spirit of 

 activity to others more than by anything they accomplish 

 themselves. His taste for collecting books has been the 

 means of supplying the king's library at Paris with some 

 of its not least valuable MSS., some of which have yet 

 to be turned to account. His collection of voyages too 

 has been the means of preserving some curious and valu- 

 able narratives. If he did not, make a good practical 

 librarian, he at least pointed out the way in which the 

 library might be rendered more complete ; and besides 

 preserving materials for geographers to work upon, he 

 directed attention to the means of rendering the science 

 more perfect. Some of his MggeBtion* mentioned above 

 were not without their influence in promoting the appli- 

 cation of mathematics and astronomy to geographical 

 research; and he was the first, by directing attention to 

 the line of communication between the Caspian and China, 

 and to the literature of China, to commence that series of 

 investigations which has been so brilliantly carried on by 

 the Jesuits of the seventeenth. And by the Kemusats and 

 Klaproths of the past and present century. 



Sources from which this sketch has been compiled : 



1, ' Memoire sur la Collection des grands et petits 

 Voyages, et sur la Collection des Voyages de Melchisedec 

 Thevenot,' par A. G. Camus, Paris, 1802, 4to. Owing to 

 the incomplete condition of most copies of Thevenot's col- 

 lection, this work is necessary to enable the reader to know 

 what he has published. 2, ' Bibliotheca Thevenotiana, 

 siye Catalogus Impressorum et Manuscriptorum Librorum 

 Bibliothecae viri clarissimi D. Melchisedecis Thevenot,' 

 Lutetiae Parisiorum, 1694, 12mo. This volume contains 

 the autobiographical sketch above referred to : the cata- 

 logue of TheVenot's library throws light upon his studies. 

 3, ' Recueil de Voyages de M. Thevenot,' Paris, 1681. 

 This volume contains the discourse on navigation, in 

 which there are some incidental notices of Thevenot's pur- 

 suits. 4, ' Relations de divers Voyages curieux qui n'ont 

 point 6te pub)i6es ou qui ont etc 1 traduites de Hakluyt,' &c., 

 Paris, 1663-1672. The 'Avis' prefixed to the different 

 volumes of this edition contain matter for the biography 

 of TheVenot. 5, ' Histoire de 1'Academie des Sciences.' 

 Tome i. contains a corroboration of Thevenot's assertions 

 regarding his share in the institution of the Academic 

 des Sciences. 6, ' Catalogue des Livres Imprimez de la 

 Jibliothe'que du Roi: Theologie, premiere partie,' a Paris, 

 173!): supplies the dates of Thdvenot's appointment as 

 librarian, and of his demission of the office. 7, Le Long et 

 Fontette ; ' Bibliothfcque Historique de la France,' iv, 66 



THE'VENOT, JEAN, was born at Paris the 7th of 

 June, 1633. In the dedication of the first volume of his 

 travels to his mother, he attributes to her exclusively the 

 great care bestowed upon his education ; and from this 

 circumstance it maybe inferred that his father died while 

 he was a child. TheVenot distinguished himself as a stu- 

 dent at the college of Navarre. The author of the sketch 

 of his life, prefixed to the second volume of his travels, 

 states that his attainments in the languages, physics, geo- 

 metry, astronomy, and all the mathematical sciences, were 

 respectable, and that he had studied with particular atten- 

 tion the philosophy of Descartes. But it is doubtful 

 whether all these are to be understood as having been his 

 college studies. 



He left the college of Navarre before he had completed 

 his eighteenth year. Possessing an independent fortune, 

 his attention was for some time afterwards engrossed by 

 the manly exercises which were then deemed indispensable 

 accomplishments in a gentleman ; but having contracted 

 a taste for reading books of travels, he caught the conta- 

 gious spirit of adventure, and commenced traveller him- 

 self in 1652. He visited in succession England, Holland, 

 Germany, and Italy ; and, making a prolonged stay at 

 Rome (1654-55), witnessed the solemnities of the installa- 

 tion of Alexander VII. He had taken the pains to pre- 

 pare an account of his observations during this tour, but 

 judiciously resisted all persuasions to publish it, partly on 

 account of his youth and partly on account of the want of 

 novelty in the subject. 



At Rome he became acquainted with the celebrated 

 Orientalist d'Herbelot, who, being a good many years his 

 senior, and already distinguished for his learning, acquired 

 considerable influence over him. D'Herbelot freely com- 

 municated to his young friend the information he had col- 

 lected regarding the East and its inhabitants, and the result 

 of their conversations was that Th6venot determined to 

 devote himself to exploring Asia. D'Herbelot proposed 

 at one time to accompany him, but being prevented by 

 some family matters, Thevenot set out alone. 



Thevenot began his first journey from Malta on the 1st 

 of November, 1655 : he arrived at Leghorn, on his return, 

 on the 8t,h of April, 1659. Having reached Constantinople 

 in the beginning of December, 1655, he remained there 

 till the end of August, 1666. Travelling through Brusa 

 and Smyrna, and visiting Chio, Samos, and Rhodes, he 

 arrived at Alexandria on the 29th of December. He pro- 

 ceeded without loss of time to Cairo, which he made his 

 head -quarters for two years, making in the course of that 

 time two excursions, the first to Suez and Mount Sinai, the 

 other to Jerusalem and some of the adjoining districts of 

 Syria. During his stay at Constantinople and Cairo he 

 made himself master of the Turkish and Arabic languages. 

 On his way from Egypt to Italy he touched at Tunis. 



From Leghorn TheVenot visited several parts of Italy 

 which he had not previously seen, and in particular resided 

 for a short time at the court, of Savoy, before he returned 

 to France. The first volume of his travels, he says, was 



3A2 



