The materials which Saint-Simon had accumulated for his great design were derived from many sources, written and oral. His written sources included, besides the Journal of Dangeau, numerous memoirs and histories which were his favourite reading, the great genealogical work of Père Anselme, published in 1674, the _Grand Dictionnaire Historique_ of Moreri, which appeared in the same year, and the work of the German genealogist Imhof, _Excellentium in Gallia Familiarum Genealogiae_ (1687), all of which no doubt had a place in his own library of 6000 volumes. His oral sources are fairly well known to us, for he generally indicates the quarter from which he derives his information. First in importance were the three ministers, Pontchartrain, Chamillart, and Beauvillier, with all of whom he was very intimate. But both Beauvillier and Chevreuse knew how to be reticent with their young friend when occasion required, and he says that they gave him much less information than either Pontchartrain or the Maréchal de Boufflers. Another useful _liaison_--to use his favourite term--was that with the Duc and Duchesse de Villeroy, both of whom were great friends of Mme de Caylus, Mme de Maintenon’s cousin. The Duc was a son of the Maréchal de Villeroy and the Duchesse was a daughter of Louvois. Mme de Levis, a daughter of the Duc de Chevreuse, was also of some service, for she was intimate with Mme de Maintenon. The young Duchesse de Lorges, Mme de Saint-Simon’s sister-in-law, was a daughter of Chamillart, and her sister was married to that ardent courtier, the Duc de La Feuillade. Saint-Simon tells us that he generally ended his day with a visit to these ladies, from whom he often learnt something. More suspicious sources of information were the Maréchale de Rochefort, bedchamber-woman to the Dauphine, and friend in succession to all the royal favourites-in-chief; her daughter, Mme de Blansac; and the celebrated Lauzun who married another sister-in-law of Saint-Simon. A Gascon by birth and a _farceur_ by temperament, he evidently enjoyed pulling his brother-in-law’s leg, and the long chapter which Saint-Simon devotes to him just before the close of the _Memoirs_, though full of amusing and interesting matter, must not be accepted as gospel truth.