De casibus vivorum illustrium in French : [manuscript]
Creator
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375
Contributor
Laurent, de Premierfait, -1418, translator Haquinet le Pesquier, scribe Croy, Jean de, 1390?-1473, former owner Argenson, Marc Antoine René de Voyer, marquis de Paulmy d', 1722-1782, former owner Butler, Charles, 1821-1910, former owner Jones, Herschel V. (Herschel Vespasian), 1861-1928, former owner Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Manuscript. HM 937
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Description
Title from printed catalog. Support: Parchment. Script: Bâtarde. Layout: 1-23⁸ 24¹⁰ 25-33⁸ 34¹² 35-38⁸ 39⁴ 40-44⁸ 45⁸(-8). Catchwords placed horizontally in inner right margins and written in a smaller version of the script of the text; one signature, f. 52, indicates a quire-leaf system formed of letters of the alphabet and roman numerals. 2 columns of 42 lines, ruled in ink, single bounding lines; pricking visible in the outer margins. Decoration: On f. 1 a miniature (117 x 117 mm.) in a gold frame: lower left, the wheel of Fortune; center left, the creation of Eve; upper left, Adam and Eve driven from the Garden of Eden, depicted as a castle; right, Laurent de Premierfait offering his translation to Jean, Duc de Berry. Other Decoration: Initials of books, 7- to 4-line, blue on gold and pink ground or pink on gold and blue ground with owner's arms and band borders of black ink sprays of gold trefoil leaves, colored flowers, and strawberries; chapter initials, 7- to 2-line, same colors as above, usually with owner's marks (e.g. ff. 65, 181v) and marginal sprays in the same style as above; initials in the text washed with yellow; chapter lists and headings in red. Ascenders of top line and descenders of bottom line frequently fluorished with strapwork swirls or cadel designs and grotesque faces. The scribe has often included dates or notes: f. 33, a jester with the legend "1460 a__?___"; f. 120v, "Rois" (3 times, Epiphany?); f. 139, "1460 __decorative mark?___ Janvier" (i.e. 1461, new style); f. 255v, "Le roy charles mort"; f. 263v, "1460 Le Rou K. Mort" (Charles VII, King of France, died 22 July 1461); f. 279, "m cccc lxi" and a monogram (?); f. 288, "quaresme cccclxi" (i.e., Lent of 1462, new style). The composition of the miniature on f. 1 is similar to, and the artist the same as that in Glasgow, University Library, Hunterian T.2.18 (60), f. 1, reproduced by A. and J. L. Wilson, A Medieval Mirror: Speculum humanae salvationis 1324-1500 (Berkeley 1984) p. III-7. Acknowledgments: We thank Prof. James Marrow for the reference to the manuscript in Glasgow, both in terms of its iconography and its artist. Assigned Date: s. XV3/4. Incipit: Quant Je considere et pense en diverses manieres Les plourables malheurtez de nos predicesseurs. Explicit: Et s'il advient que vous tresbuchiez en bas, faictes tant que l'en voie que ce n'est pas vostre deffaulte, Mais par la rudesse et crualte de fortune qui tourne toutes choses mondaines. Cy fine Le Livre de Jehan boccace des cas des nobles hommes et femmes. Translatte de latin en francois par Laurent du premierfait clerc du diocese de troyes. Et fut accomplie ceste translacion le xve Jour d'avril M CCCC et IX c'est assavoir le lundy apres pasquez. [Space] Ce present Livre de Jehan boccace est escript de la main de moy haquinet le pesquier clerc et fut acheve et acomplie le quinseyme Jour du mois de may l'an mil CCCC soissante et deux. Pesquier. Rubric: De Adam et Eve Premier chappitre comencant ou latin Maiorum nostrorum et cetera,. Laurent de Premierfait, translator. Laurent de Premierfait's second translation of Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium; modern edition of the first Book only: Laurent de Premierfait's Des cas des nobles Hommes et Femmes, Book I, translated from Boccaccio, a critical Edition based on Six Manuscripts, by P. M. Gathercole (Chapel Hill 1968). See also C. Bozzolo, Manuscrits des traductions françaises d'oeuvres de Boccace, XVe siècle (Padua 1973) 179-80 regarding this manuscript. The first six leaves of the manuscript contain the two prologues by the translator, the author's prologue and the chapter list for Book 1; the text itself begins on f. 7. Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 7/30/2012. Cataloged from existing description: C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Bound, towards the middle of the s. XVIII, in dark blue French morocco for the Comte d'Argenson with his arms stamped on both covers; on the spine the same arms done with a very small tool, and a morocco lable: Bocace Des Nobles Malheureux; gilt edges and marbled endpapers. HM 937. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Kings and rulers--Poetry--Early works to 1800 Illuminations (Painting) France 15th century. (aat) Decorated initials France 15th century. (aat) Translations (rbgenr) Manuscripts (documents) (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
Written in 1461-1462, according to the marginal notes and the colophon, f. 359v, by Haquinet le Pesquier. His monogram appears below his name on f. 359v and in the pen flourishes on ff. 247v and 248. The first owner of the manuscript was Jean de Croy, sieur de Chimay (d. 1473), whose coat of arms is in the initials at the beginning of each book; his motto, Souveingne vous, and device, an armoured merman, usually alternate in the chapter initials. On ff. 110v, and 196v, in the pen flourishes at the bottom of the text, the same coat of arms with the quarters reversed, encircled by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece."Messire Iean de Croy, seigneur de Tour-sur-Marne" was nominated to the Order by Philip the Good; see H. Kervyn de Lettenhove, La Toison d'or (Brussels 1907) 91. Erased inscription f. 359v,"C'est le livre de Jehan boccace en__?___1 est a mo__?___oy comte __?___," which may be that of Charles de Croy, comte de Chimay until 1486, thereafter prince de Chimay, known to have signed his books in this fashion; see A. Bayot, Martin Le Franc: L'Estrif De Fortune et De Vertu (Paris 1928) 52-56, for a partial list of the manuscripts which belonged to the Croy de Chimay family; for the manuscripts in the 1614 sale of Charles de Croy (1560-1612), see E. van Even,"Notice sur la bibliothèque de Charles de Croy, duc d'Aerschot," Bulletin du Bibliophile Belge 9 (1852) 380-93 and 436-51; HM 937 does not appear in either list. Belonged to Marc-Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy Comte d'Argenson (1696-1764) whose arms are on the covers; see H. Martin, Catalogue des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, (Paris 1899) t. VIII"Histoire de la Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal" p. 116, where this manuscript appears on the inventory of the Comte d'Argenson. It was inherited by his son, Marc-René, Marquis de Voyer (1722-82), and sold by him to his cousin, Antoine-René de Voyer d'Argenson, marquis de Paulmy (1722-87) who listed it in his hand-written inventory, Paris, Arsenal, MS 6291, p. 99, before selling it to the book dealer Molini, evidently because he already had other finely illuminated copies of this text ("double moins beau que les autres," possibly in reference to Paris, Arsenal, MS 5193, with 150 miniatures). Belonged to Frederick William Brooke Thellusson, Baron of Rendlesham (1840-1911); his sale, Sotheby's, 27 February 1899, lot 1829 to Leighton. Owned by Charles Butler (1821-1910); his sale, Sotheby's, 5 April 1911, lot 183 to Edwards. Acquired by Herschel V. Jones of Minneapolis (1861-1928); his sale, Anderson, New York, 29 January 1919 pt. II, lot 1070C to G. D. Smith. Precise source and date of acquisition by Henry E. Huntington unknown.
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