Details

Subject(s)

• Virtues—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Vices—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Christian ethics—Catholic authors—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Manuscripts, French—France—Arras [Browse]
• Manuscripts, French—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]
• Illumination of books and manuscripts [Browse]

Former owner

• Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872 [Browse]

Bookseller

• Seven Gables Bookshop [Browse]

Related name

• Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Princeton MS. 105 [Browse]

Notes

• Script: Bastard Secretary. The entire manuscript is in the hand of the scribe Jehannin de Costimont, a clerk associated with the Burgundian court under Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy (r. 1419-1467).
• Decoration: Ink-and-wash miniature executed at or near Arras (fol. 1r).* It depicts Laurent, the Dominican, at the royal court with his book, which is open to the in scription “Somnia regis facit iste predicator.” The scene shows the author reading to four royal children seated on a bench, since King Louis IX (r. 1226-1270) had commissioned the book for the moral instruction of the future King Philip III, who is perhaps the child depicted holding a book with a red binding. The miniature illustrates words on fol. 1r: “Et le faisoit souuent lire deuant ses enfans.” A monkey and a dog play in the foreground. The king sits on the throne surrounded by seven courtiers, one of whom holds a falcon.

Binding note

France, 19th century. Bound in Paris by the firm of René Simier, founded around 1800 by René Simier père (d. 1826) and continued by René Simier fils (1772-1843). Signed on the lower spine (gilt) “REL. P. SIMIER.” He signed bindings in this way from 1800 to 1818. Gold-tooled green morocco over pasteboard, with reddish marbled endpapers; edges gilt; endbands with secondary sewing in green and tan; green silk ribbon attached to headband as bookmark.

Provenance

Princeton MS. 105 was written by the scribe Jehannin de Costimont for Louis de Chantemerle, seigneur de La Clayette, now in Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy. The arms of Chantemerle are painted in the initial on fol. 7r; his device (a cage) appears in three initials (fols. 49r, 86v, 89v), the latter two with the letters “S.E.” Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), of Middle Hill, Worcestershire, acquired the manuscript in the 1820s, either from the Parisian bookseller Royez or from the library of the French historian Amans-Alexis Monteil (1769-1850). The manuscript remained in the Phillipps library until the London antiquarian bookseller William H. Robinson, Ltd. purchased the remainder of the library from the Phillipps heirs in 1946. The Robinson Trust consigned the present manuscript to a Sotheby's, London, auction in 1967. The Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, acting as the agent for the Princeton University Library, purchased the manuscript on 28 November 1967 at the Sotheby's sale.

References

Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, pages 330-332.

Cite as

Princeton MS. 105, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

OCLC

1109954775

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