James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres, was a British astronomer, politician, and noted collector of books and manuscripts. Lindsay inherited a considerable library from his father, but during his lifetime he assembled the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, one of the largest private libraries of the nineteenth century. In the 1880s, Lindsay’s fortunes suffered and he was forced to sell much of his rare book library, although he continued to collect proclamations, broadsides, and manuscripts of the French Revolutionary era. After Lindsay’s death, his heirs auctioned off most of what remained of his collections, including his French manuscripts. Collection consists of selected letters, administrative papers, and other manuscripts, chiefly of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, that bear the bookplate and previously formed part of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, the private library of James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford. Lindsay's collection of French manuscripts was auctioned off by Sotheby's between 1924 and 1925 and a small portion was acquired by Duke in 1960. Duke's collection represents a very small fraction of Lindsay's original collection and consists chiefly of manuscripts, with typed transcripts in French, that document various aspects of civil administration including letters from the prefects of various departments, letters from government ministers, and several letters addressed to Comte Collin de Sussy, Minister of Commerce and Manufacturing, and the Comte d'Antraigues. Other materials in the collection include letters in English from French elites to British nobility, such as to the Duke of York, and letters from French aristocrats to government officials. Examples include a letter addressed to Napoleon Bonaparte from Arnoud Joubert, a lawyer at the imperial court of Paris, discussing the possibility of receiving a medal of honor, and a letter from Cardinal Albani to Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, requesting the Emperor's protection from French authorities. The collection also includes some manuscripts and engravings acquired separately that do not bear the Bibliotheca Lindesiana bookplate.
