Laire, Francis Xavier

, librarian to the cardinal Lomenie, a member of various learned academies in France and Italy, professor of bibliography, and member of the Lyceum, was born in 1739, at Dole in Franche-comte“, of reputable but poor parents, who, however, procured him admission into the religious house of the Minims of his native place. Here his easy access to the fine library of the order, inspired and gratified an early predilection for bibliographical researches, and laid the foundation of that general knowledge of literary history and antiquities, for which he was afterwards so much distinguished, and which he improved in the course of his travels in France, Italy, and Greece. He died at Paris in 1801. His works are, 1.” Memoires pour servir a i‘Histoire Litteraire de quelques grands hommes du 15 siecle, avec un Supplement aux Annales Typographiques de ’Mattaire.“This, of which we | have only the French title, was published in Latin, at Naples in 1776, 4to. 2.” Specimen Historicum Typographic Romanic XV saeculi,“Rome, 1778, 3vo. This is the least valued of his works. 3.” Epistola ad abbatem Ugolini, c.“printed at Pavia, but in the title, Strasburgh. 4.” De l'origine et des progres de rimprimerie en FrancheComte,“with a catalogue of the works printed there Dole, 1784, 12mo. 5.” $erie dell' edizioni Aldine,“written in conjunction with the cardinal Lomenie, whose librarian he was, as noticed above: of this there have been three editions, at Pisa, 1790, at Padua, in the same year, and at Venice in 1792, 12mo. 6.” Index librorum ab inventa Typographia, ad annum 1500,“Sens, 1791, 2 vols. 8vo. This is a catalogue of the books of the fifteenth century, belonging to the library of the cardinal Lomenie, and is our author’s most useful work. Laire also published some pajiers on subjects of French antiquities, in the” Magazin Encyclopedique." ¹