Yet by far the larger number of the drawings bear notes in a variety of different handwritings: at Chantilly, the Bibliothèque Nationale, in the Uffizi and in the British Museum (Salting Bequest). M. Moreau Nélaton is strongly of opinion that these notes were all made either by the Queen herself or by secretaries written at her dictation. He is certainly right in regard to one of these, for we can trace the same handwriting in a private letter "_a ma cousine Madame la Connetable_" signed by the Queen; and again on the margin of the three drawings representing "_François Dauphin_," "_Marie Royne d'Ecosse_,"[126] and "_Charles Maximilian d'Orleans_" respectively. It is a well-formed caligraphy with a peculiar trick of abbreviating "_et_" into "_&_," which appears both in the letter and in the notes. There is no proof, however, as to who were the other annotators, whether Court secretaries or not. They may just as well, as M. Dimier[127] suggests, be other collectors through whose hands in the course of time the drawings have passed. This much, however, is quite certain: that all are posterior to the drawings themselves. The different handwritings--of which there are at least four, if not five (including that of the Queen), have puzzled Bouchot as much as Dimier and Moreau Nélaton, and all these authorities have their own special theories upon the subject. It is evident that in most cases the notes do identify the persons represented in the drawings upon which they are found, and they are thus of greatest historical value: and more especially is this the case with the drawings at Chantilly (many of which are stained with blotches of colour), since they are the originals from which were derived the copies and portraits found now in other collections. [Illustration: Plate LXVIII. DIANE DE POITIERS. François Clouet. About 1543. Musée Condé. _To face page 240._] There is ample evidence to prove how much interest was taken by Catherine de Medicis in French portrait-painting. A list has been found, bearing the heading of "_Les peintures qu'il faut_," of the pictures which she desired should be reproduced. Numerous "_gens de maîtres_" like Philibert Delormes, Jean Bullant, Scipion Bruisbal, and others were busily employed in making these copies from Clouet originals, in order to satisfy the great demand which then existed for them. After Catherine's death an _Inventory_ of not less than 476 paintings (amongst which were 341 portraits) was made at the Palais de Tournelle, where she habitually resided; whilst another _Inventory_ notes 39 small pictures executed in enamel, and 32 portraits in colour, 1 foot square each, of ladies and gentlemen of the Court.