Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Historians are paying greater attention to the libraries of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century architects. As Christy Anderson, Hilary Ballon, and Claude Mignot have shown, libraries provide rich, often untapped sources of both bibliographical and biographical information. A book list or a personal inventory can reveal not only what an architect read, but also how he defined himself intellectually. Like a self-portrait, a library is both an intensely personal statement and an outward show of how its owner wishes to be perceived.
This article describes the library of François Blondel, based on a newly discovered catalogue held in the Minutier Central of the Archives Nationales. The catalogue was prepared by the bookseller, Arnoult Seneuze, and forms a separate part of the general inventaire après décès, drawn up by the Parisian notary, Charles Dupuis, at the request of Blondel's heirs: his widow, Louise Boucher, and his son, Nicolas Blondel, abbe de Thenailles.