Plutarch, Vies de Romulus et de Caton d'Utique (lives of Romulus and Cato the Younger), in the French translation of Simon Bourgoyn, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1508]

218 leaves (one blank), 350mm. by 220mm., complete, collation most probably: i-xxvi^{8, xxvii10 (ix and x singletons), ruled in pink for 28 lines of black and dark brown ink in a fine and accomplished humanistic hand (identified as that of Simon Bourgoyn, see below), rubrics and chapter-titles in red and blue, numerous small initials in liquid gold on red and blue grounds (one- to 3-lines in height), other larger initials in blue with white penwork on red grounds, some enclosing sprays of foliage on burnished gold,} fifty-four very large full-page miniatures by Jean Pichore, the Master of Philippe de Gueldre and another artist, each approximately 280mm. by 180mm., in detailed architectural gilt-frames (fols.1v, 5r, 8v, 13r, 16v, 24v, 29r, 36r, 41v, 44v, 48r, 52v, 55v, 59r, 64r, 68r, 71v, 75r, 79v, 84v, 86v, 91v, 94v, 98v, 102v, 105v, 111r, 114v, 118v, 122v, 126v, 130r, 134v, 138r, 142r, 146v, 148v, 152r, 156v, 161v, 164r, 168r, 172v, 176r, 180v, 183v, 188v, 192v, 196v, 201v, 204v, 207v, 211v, 215v), occasional small flakes from miniatures and very small smudges, thirteen with notes for the illuminator in faint ink in margin (most erased; see below), the miniature on fol.86v with 4 lines of text on a banner in the lower part of the margin, some leaves at beginning and end of volume slightly cockled, else in outstanding condition with wide and clear margins, gilt-edges, eighteenth-century French olive morocco over pasteboards, gilt tooled in triple fillet with elaborate organic pattern on spine, marbled endleaves, very slight cracking down edge of front board along spine, in fitted green leather-backed case

This lavishly illuminated secular manuscript is the hitherto unrecognised companion volume of ÖNB Cod.2565, both made for Antoine 'the Good', duc de Lorraine

provenance

1. Antoine 'the Good', duc de Lorraine (1489-1544), courtier, statesman, and childhood friend of King François I; his arms on fol.1r. This is the companion volume of Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Cod.2565, lives of Demosthenes, Cicero and Cato the Elder, identified by J. Carley and M. Orth as a product of the Parisian illuminator and book-designer, Jean Pichore (fl. 1500-20),  most probably commissioned by Antoine's mother, Philippe de Gueldre (1467-1547), to be used in the education of the young prince ('"Plus Que Assez": Simon Bourgouyn and his French Translations', Viator 34, 2003). The scribe is identified by O. Pächt as Simon Bourgoyn (c.1480-1530s), escripuain et varlet de chamber du roy (Pächt and Thoss, Französische Schule II, 1977, I, pp.40, 46). Bourgoyn was certainly the translator of this text into French (his personal mottos "A DOMINO FACTUM EST ISTVD" and "A Tousiourmais" at end of text: Carley and Orth pp.335-6). It is most probably item 18 in Antoine de Lorraine's book catalogue of 1544, "le premier volume de Plutarque ... couvert de velour violet" (A. Collignon, La Bibliothèque du Duc Antoine, 1907, pp.93-4). Five volumes of parts of Plutarch's Parallel Lives were written and illuminated by this group of associates for the Lorraine family: two larger volumes with full-page miniatures and the ducal arms (the present manuscript and ÖNB Cod.2565) and three smaller volumes with three-quarter page miniatures (ÖNB Cod.2587; Phillipps MS.3109, presented by him to the Royal Library, Windsor, in 1845, and now the property of H.M. The Queen: Royal Inv.1047552; and Phillipps MS.3110,perhaps later in the collection of D. Coleman: Durrieu, 1889, p.410, item lxxviii).

2. Françoise Louise de Bassompierre (d.1758), wife of the Marquis de Stainville and dame d'honneur of the duchess of Lorraine. In the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century the four volumes were evidently divided into two mismatched sets and given away: the present manuscript and Phillipps MS.3109 to this dame d'honneur of the duchess of Lorraine (and remaining together until Phillipps' donation of the latter to Windsor), and ÖNB Cod.2565 and 2587 to Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736) and then to Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740). Inscription at base of fol.1r recording the further presentation of the book to her niece, "madame de beaupré" in 1732.

3. Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc, duc de La Vallière (1708-80), one of the greatest bibliophiles of the eighteenth century; his sale, Paris, 1784, no. 5578 (cat.iii, first part, p. 361).

4. Jacques-Joseph van den Bloch, a public official of Bruxelles: his inscription on fol.218v recording its purchase at the Vallière sale.

5. Sir Gregory Page-Turner (1748-1805), 3rd Baron Wricklemarch, Blackheath and Ambrosden, Oxfordshire, and M.P. for Thirsk; his sale Christie's, 19 November, 1824.

6. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872); his MS. 3112; his sale in our rooms, 1 July 1946, lot 30, for £2800, to the Robinsons.

7. H. Harvey Frost (1873-1969), industrialist and noted bibliophile, whose large manuscript and book collection was dispersed from the 1950s onwards.

8. Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, 2nd Baron Hesketh (1916-55), and by descent to the present owner.

literature

P. Durrieu, 'Les manuscrits à peintures de la Bibliothèque de Sir Thomas Phillipps a Cheltenham', Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes 50 (1889), pp.381-432 at 409-10, with the arms misidentified as Guise

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

text

Plutarch's Parallel Lives of Greeks and Romans is perhaps the most widely read and influential classical text, popular in both the ancient world and the Renaissance. This text, above all others, could reach past its scholarly readership to a wider audience, stimulating mass interest in the classics. In 1579 the first English translator noted "there is no prophane studye better than Plutarke. All other learning is private, fitter for Universities than cities ... it is better to see learning in noble men's lives than to read it in Philosophers' writings".

The author was a Greek historian and biographer, who lived c.46-120 AD, in Chaeronea, twenty miles east of Delphi. He studied at the academy of Athens, the foremost centre of learning in the Ancient world, thereafter travelling widely throughout the Mediterranean, before settling at Delphi to serve in the priesthood there. He is best known for the Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to highlight their common moral virtues and vices. The focus of the text on the influence of good or bad character on the destinies of men which ensured its appeal, and soon after its rediscovery in the early Renaissance, numerous vernacular epitomes of selected lives circulated among the Italian elites and the bourgeoisie. From there its popularity spread to French society, and in 1559 the French translation printed by Jacques Amyot (1513-93) became the earliest classic in that language recognized by the French Academy. The present manuscript predates that translation by half a century. It follows the Italian model of selecting a number of individual lives for their edifying purposes, and the lives of Romulus (fols.1r-89r) and Cato the Younger (fols.91r-218v) had much to teach a young prince in the Parisian court of François I: Romulus through his inspired administrative, military and political leadership of early Rome, and Cato for his stubbornness and tenacity in his long wars with Julius Caesar, and his immunity to bribery and corruption.

illumination

This manuscript contains fifty-four monumental miniatures, each as large as a panel painting, in breathtaking condition.

The main artist is Jean Pichore, whose workshop in Paris operated in the first two decades of the sixteenth century, employing a succession of other artists to produce de luxe volumes in the style of the Rouen school (Avril and Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à Peintures en France, pp.282-5). The hand of the Master of Philippe de Gueldre, with its softer depiction of the features of the face, is also detectable in a large number of the miniatures (Avril and Reynaud, pp.278-81). A third hand is also present, adding faces recognisable by their oversized features and squinting eyes to a number of miniatures (see fol.134v for an example), and this artist may be François Bourchier, who was sent to Paris by Antoine's father to learn illumination, presumably in Pichore's workshop (Carley and Orth, p.335). It is exceedingly unlikely that there were models for this volume, and the tiny scribbled notes for the illuminators which survive either below or immediately before thirteen miniatures (fols.13v, 16r, 48r, 55v, 59r, 71v, 75r, 79v, 126v, 130r, 176r, 180v and 192r; perhaps in the hand of Pichore himself), confirm that what we see here is the rarest thing in medieval art – original composition by an artist reading and interpreting the text. Most have been lightly erased, but those facing the miniature on 13r and on the recto of the miniature on 16v remain, and their brief notes: "Ung temple, ung posterior arable avec ung dame ..." and "Cest ung pasteur ...", allow us a fleeting glimpse of the working methods of this Parisian illuminator and his workshop.

The subjects are entirely secular and present a wealth of images of late medieval daily life as well as rarer scenes such as warfare and military equipment for battles on land and at sea (see fols.55v, 105v and 118v), contemporary technology including machines used for building (see fols.1v and 29r, showing the construction of Rome by masons), architecture and garden design (fols.98v, 142r and 146v), political assassinations and state funerals (fols.71v and 75r, the murder and state burial of Tatius), the treachery of women (see fols. 48r and 52v, showing the treachery of Tarpeia and her gruesome death) and their role as bringers of peace (fol.59r), and even medieval interpretations of Ancient Roman religious festivals (see fol.68r, showing the feast of Lupercalia, with naked priests running through the streets of Rome, those in the foreground covered with girdles, leading sheep and cows to their sacrificial slaughter). A full listing of the subjects of the miniatures can be found in the appendix.