ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the considerable growth from the late 1520s of demand for the royal and other court collections. However, when in 1547 the new monarch issued instructions for French cardinals to reside in Rome, an opportunity arose for the abbé-commendataire of Saint-Maur to make some new acquisitions. One of Guillaume Du Bellay successors in Rome was François II de Dinteville, ambassador from 1531 to 1533, who, thanks to a lack of instructions sent to him from France, was able to write to the treasurer Philibert Babou, Je loue Dieu que j'aye bon loisir pardeça de visiter les antiquailles. During the next ten years, Jean Du Bellay devoted himself to the construction of his country retreat at Saint-Maur, which he embellished with the statues, inscriptions and architectural fragments shipped back from Rome. Du Bellay's major antiquarian project during the period 1547-49 was an archæological campaign in the Roman Forum.
