LAIRE, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER. - Minim friar and bibliographer, b. at Vadans in Franche-Comté on 10 Nov. 1738, d. at Auxerre on 27 March 1801. Passionate about books, he undertook travels, studying the principal libraries of Italy and of his own country.
In Rome he became the librarian of the prince of Salm-Salm; Pius VI too would have wanted him as librarian at the Vatican, but he preferred to go to his homeland, as librarian of Card. Loménie de Brienne, renouncing also the same office offered him by Grand Duke Leopold in Vienna. In 1791 he was charged with gathering at Sens the books of the dispersed libraries of the suppressed convents; on that occasion he presented to the government a memorial on the measures to be taken in order to prevent the decay of precious monuments. Finally he was librarian of the department of Yonne and founded the Library of Auxerre, where an oil portrait of him is preserved today. There he opened a course in bibliography, and was named curator of the central school. He was a member of the Arcadia in Rome, of the Colombaria of Florence, of the Academy of Besançon, etc.
His principal works are: Specimen historicum typographiae Romanae XV saec. (Rome 1778); Dissertation sur l'origine et le progrès de l'imprimerie en Franche-
Comté, pendant le XVᵉ siècle (Dôle 1785); Serie delle edizioni aldine (Pisa 1790); Index librorum ab inventa typographia usque ad annum 1500, chronologice dispositus (2 vols., Sens 1791). He also left many manuscripts.
Bibliography3 worksM. Grappin, Notice sur le p. L., in Recueil de l'Académie de Besançon, Besançon 1816, see index; H. Weiss, s. v. in M. Michaud, Biographie u
BIBL.: M. Grappin, Notice sur le p. L., in Recueil de l'Académie de Besançon, Besançon 1816, see index; H. Weiss, s. v. in M. Michaud, Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, XXII, Paris n.d., pp. 581-83; L., in Biografia eclesiastica completa, XI, Madrid-Barcelona 1857, pp. 845-49.
Moretti, Gennaro. “Laire, françois-xavier.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, coll. 821–822. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/laire-francois-xavier.
MLA
Moretti, Gennaro. “Laire, françois-xavier.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, coll. 821–822. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/laire-francois-xavier.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec7_laire_francois_xavier,
author = {Moretti, Gennaro},
title = {Laire, françois-xavier},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VII},
pages = {821--822},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/laire-francois-xavier}
}
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