His taste for literature and science was not confined to collecting manuscripts.

He had a French translation made, for the sake of spreading a knowledge thereof, of the Bible in the first place, and then of several works of Aristotle, of Livy, of Valerius Maximus, of Vegetius, and of St.Augustine.

He was fond of industry and the arts as well as of literature.

Henry de Vic, a German clock-maker, constructed for him the first public clock ever seen in France, and it was placed in what was called the Clock Tower in the Palace of Justice; and the king even had a clock-maker by appointment, named Peter de St.Beathe.

Several of the Paris monuments, churches, or buildings for public use were undertaken or completed under his care.