François Roger de Gaignières

After the young duke's death in 1671, François Roger served as écuyer to Louis Joseph's aunt, Marie de Lorraine, who in 1679 appointed him governor of her principality of Joinville and obtained for him a royal pension of 500 écus.

Over the decades, Gaignières brought together a large collection of original letters and other documents, together with portraits and prints, and had copies made of a great number of the most curious antiquarian objects, such as seals, tombstones, stained glass,[1] miniatures and tapestry.

Many of the documents were copied by his valet, Barthélemy Remy, an excellent paleographer, while the illustrations were made by Louis Boudan, a painter-engraver whom he sent into the provinces to draw tombs.

No sooner had he signed the contract negotiated by Pierre de Clairambault, the royal genealogist, than Gaignières found himself relegated to the top floor of his house, and the rooms containing his treasures padlocked.

[1] Two hundred years later, the drawings of François Roger de Gaignières were especially instrumental in Viollet-le-Duc's restoration effort for the Saint-Denis Abbey in the 19th century, following the destruction of the French Revolution.