a city of Egypt on the left side of the Canopic mouth of the Nile. It was celebrated for its commerce, and no ship was permitted to land at any other place, but was obliged to fail directly to the city, there to deposit its cargo. It gave birth to Athenaeus.
NAUCRATITES Nomos (anc. geog.), Pliny; Vol. XII. Part II. NAU
formed a most rich library, which he raised from the first volume in the space of seven years to the number of 40,000.
His design was nearly completed before the Cardinal gave him two small benefices, a canonry of Verdun and the priory of Artige in the Limousin; and we know how much this ungenerosity affected him, from a letter of Patin to Charles Spon, dated March 22, 1648, where he writes thus of our librarian:
"I have seen one thing in him which I am very sorry for; especially as I have known him all along hitherto at a great distance from such a disposition: it is, that he begins to complain of his fortune, and of his master's avarice, from whom he had never received any more than 1200 livres a year in benefices; not forgetting to declare, that his life was sacrificed for too small a matter. I think (continues Patin) what grieves him is, the apprehension of dying before he has raised something for his brothers and his nephews, of whom he has a great number." However that be, Naude had the grief to see this library, which he had collected with so much pains and care, totally dispersed. Upon the disgrace of Mazarine it was sold; and Patin, in a letter of March 5, 1651, observes, that Naude had bought all the books in physic for 3500 livres. Christina queen of Sweden, who set herself to draw into her dominions all the literati of Europe, procured a proposal to be made to Naude of being her library keeper; and as he was then out of all employ, he accepted the proposal, and went to Cop.—But he soon grew out of humour with his residence in Sweden: the manners of the people, so very different from his, gave him great disgust; and seeing France become more quiet than it had been, he resolved to return. Accordingly he quitted Sweden loaded with presents from the queen, and several persons of distinc-
tion: but the fatigue of the journey threw him into a fever, which obliged him to stop at Abbeville; and he died there July 29, 1652.
As to his character, he was very prudent and regular in his conduct, sober, never drinking anything but water. Study was his principal occupation, and he was indeed a true Helluo librorum; so that he undertook them perfectly well. He spoke his mind with great freedom, and that freedom sometimes showed itself upon religious subjects, in such a manner as might have occasioned some disadvantageous thoughts of him; but the Christian sentiments in which he died left room to believe that his heart was never corrupted, and had no share in the free expressions which sometimes escaped from him; especially in the philosophical railleries which passed sometimes between him, Guy Patin, and Gailendi. He wrote a great number of books, a catalogue of which may be seen in Niceron's Memoires, tom. ix. Voltaire says, that "of all his books, the Apologie des grands Hommes acusés de Magie is almost the only one which continues to be read."