Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1773. Ordre de Saint-Michel, Le livre des statuts, [Paris, c. 1550], armorial calf gilt by Gommar Estienne for presentation by Henri II to a member of the Ordre de Saint-Michel.

Ordre de Saint-Michel, Le livre des statuts, [Paris, c. 1550], armorial calf gilt by Gommar Estienne for presentation by Henri II to a member of the Ordre de Saint-Michel

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

ORDRE DE SAINT-MICHEL. Le livre de statuts & ordonnances de l'ordre Sainct Michel, estably par le treschrestien Roy de France Loys Unzieme de ce nom. [Paris, c. 1550]

A CONTEMPORARY PARISIAN ARMORIAL BINDING BY GOMMAR ESTIENNE FOR PRESENTATION BY HENRI II TO A MEMBER OF THE ORDRE DE SAINT-MICHEL.

Van Praet lists some 20 copies of this work. Foot ascribes the Wittock copy, bound in a near-identical binding to the present volume (with the same royal stamp but differing placement of the gilt stamps representing the bow and quiver full of arrows), to the "Atelier de Fontainebleau while Gommar Estienne was royal binder". She asserts that it is "more than likely that the copies of the Livre des statuts were bound for the members of the Order of St Michel and not for the library of Henri II" (Henry Davis Gift III, pp. 97-8). The Ordre de Saint-Michel, founded in 1469, was the highest chivalric Order in France when this volume was produced. This volume contains intriguing evidence of early modern ownership, namely an inscription from the Prefect of the Jesuit College at Caen, dated 1688, presenting the book to Gilles Dannery as a prize. Dannery, in turn, has proudly inscribed the book on the front free endpaper and the rear pastedown.

printed on vellum, 4to (222 x 161 mm). Roman type, 29 lines. collation: A-K⁴(K4 blank): 40 leaves. Decorative woodcut headpieces and initial, pagination added in manuscript in an early modern hand.

binding: Contemporary Parisian armorial binding (227 x 156 mm), by Gommar Estienne for presentation by Henri II to a member of the Ordre de Saint-Michel, combining Henri II's arms and initials with the emblems of Diane de Poitiers, light brown polished calf gilt, outer single, and inner triple fillet frames, at outer corners fleur-de-lys, at inner corners a tool of a bow, between the 2 frames, in the middle of the vertical and horizontal portions of the border, a tool of a quiver full of arrows, in centre Henri's arms ensigned with the Collar of the Ordre de Saint-Michel above his initials and a crescent, within a cartouche formed by 4 bows, traces of 2 pairs of ties, 5 raised and 2 half bands on spine, in the compartments fleurs-de-lys, vellum pastedowns and endleaves with section of medieval manuscript visible beneath lower pastedown, gilt edges. (Corners and hinges repaired and head and tail of spine restored.)

provenance: Bound for presentation by King Henri II of France (1547-1549) to member of the Ordre de Saint-Michel—Latin inscription on title recording the presentation of the volume as a school prize by the Jesuit College at Caen by Michel Marchant (1644-1713), préfet des études at Caen, to Gilles Dannery in 1688, and 2 further ownership inscriptions in Dannery's hand (dated 1688 and 1690, respectively)—Thomas Foley, 3rd Baron Foley (1780-1833), armorial bookplate and his A Catalogue of the library of the Rt. Hon. Lord Foley, Witley Court, Worcestershire (London: Edward Kirby, 1813), n.p. ("Statuts et Ordonances de L'Ordre Sainct Michel, estably par le Treschrestien Roye de France Loys unzieme de ce nom, Imprimeur sur Velin")—Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982), booklabel— Martin Breslauer Inc., Catalogue 106, no. 48. acquisition: Purchased in 1987 from Martin Breslauer Inc. references: USTC 49547; Van Praet, Bibliotheque du Roi, Vol. 5, pp. 121-3 and Vol. 6, p. 171; Jean Fürstenberg, "Einige Bücher aus der Bibliothek von Hans Jean Fürstenberg" in Philobiblon 3 (1930), pp. 11-14 (binding illustrated); Lafitte & Le Bars, Reliures royales de la Renaissance: la librairie de Fontainebleau 1544-1570 (Paris 1999)], royal arms block (nos. 41, 42c, 43a, 50-71, 74-76), bow tool (nos. 62, 65, 66, 75), quiver tools (nos. 59, 62, 66, 75). exhibited: Exposition de reliures de la Renaissance: collection Jean Furstenberg: 30 September 1961 (Paris 1961), no. 6

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