The Eloges of Gaspard de Monconys: A Forgotten Paper Museum of the Respublica Litteraria

On his way from Rome to Paris in February 1642, Gabriel Naudé visited the cabinet of curiosities of Gaspard de Monconys in Lyon, which the contemporary sources described as one of the richest in Europe. Impressed by its magnificence, he advised De Monconys to draft a catalogue of all his medals, to be sent to their mutual friend, the Roman collector Cassiano dal Pozzo, patron of the Museum Cartaceum. Eight months later, De Monconys launched an editorial project which intended to immortalize a part of his collection through a ‘paper gallery’ of forty copper-engraved portraits of cardinals. This recently rediscovered project typifies his position in a scholarly network and illuminates the importance he attached to visual imagery.