Egidius Romanus, Liber de Regimine Principium, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on paper

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

315 leaves (2 blank), 320mm. by 213mm., complete, collation: i-xvii^{12, xviii^{8, xix-xxvi^{12, xxvii^{7 [2 blank, of 10, 3 further blanks cancelled at end], with horizontal catchwords and quire signatures on last versos, double column, about 45-50 lines, bounding lines (only) ruled in ink, written-space c.244mm. by c.148mm., written in dark brown ink in a gothic cursive bookhand, headings in red, sources underlined in red, capitals touched in red, red paragraph-marks throughout, 3- to 5-line chapter initials throughout in red or blue with some flourishing and occasional contrasting decoration,}}}} five very large painted initials (fols. 242v, 251r, 257r, 299v and 303v), mostly 8 to 9 lines high, in multicoloured leafy designs on coloured faceted panels, ten very large illuminated initials (fols. 51r, 63r, 73r, 97v, 117v, 135v, 152r, 189r, 213v and 232v), mostly 8 to 10 lines high, in very fine multicoloured leafy designs with delicate white and liquid gold tracery infilled with highly burnished gold on coloured faceted panels and with fine leafy extensions sometimes seeming to weave through the pages to emerge in the margins, two very large historiated initials (fols.2r and 213r), 9 and 11 lines high, in similar designs enclosing standing figures of an Augustinian canon with a book and with full-length illuminated borders extending into three margins, some pages slightly thumbed, a few edges frayed, occasional minor stains and creases, generally in excellent unsophisticated original condition, contemporary blind-stamped binding of square-edged wooden boards sewn on 4 thongs, covered with tanned calf double ruled in a frame and saltire pattern stamped with repeated impressions of tools of a splayed eagle in a circle and a foliate branch in a lozenge, 2 pairs of clasps and catches on leather straps, each stamped with a running deer, suspended from metal attachments on edge of lower cover stamped with a splayed eagle within a shield, 9 (of 10) metal bosses on covers, paper pastedowns, part of a contemporary table of contents loosely enclosed, lower clasp strap partly torn, binding scuffed and worn at edges and in joints but sound and intact, old paper labels on spine

Provenance

provenance

(1) The manuscript is signed and dated 1477 by the scribe Jan Drnowsky, of Prague, who records that he completed one part to the honour of God and of lord Wenceslas of Prague, then master of the mountains and vineyards, and that he finished the whole volume in that same year, when Ladislaus, king of Bohemia 1471-1516, received the regalia from Frederick III, holy Roman emperor 1452-93, on the feast of Corpus Christi (5 June that year). There are colophons at the end of book III on fol.212r, “Scriptus per me Johannem dictum drnowsky de praga, Et hoc sub anno domini M^o CCCC^o lxxvii^o ad honorem dei omnipotentis et domini venceslai de Praga illo tempore Magistri montium vel vinearum, Sit laus deo &c”, and on fol.309v, “Scriptus per manus Johannis Drnowsky de Praga, Anno domini M^o CCCC^o lxxvii^o, Et illo anno Rex Wladyslaus Boemie rex suscepit Regalia a Imperatore Friderico tercia festum Corporis xpisti, Sit laus deo”.

(2) The manuscript is the property of a European princely family, and it has probably never been sold since the Middle Ages.

Catalogue Note

text

There are two major thirteenth-century secular texts here, both on the education and learning of medieval princes. The first is the De Regimine Principium of Egidius Romanus, or Giles of Rome (c.1243-1316), a member of the Colonna family who had studied in Paris under Thomas Aquinas. The text is dedicated to the young Philip the Fair, whose tutor Egidius appears to have been c.1277-81. He later taught in Paris and was appointed archbishop of Bourges in 1295. He died in Avignon. He is described as “the most prolific and original thinker of the Augustinian order of friars (with the possible exception of Martin Luther ….)” (C.F. Briggs, Giles of Rome’s De Regimine Principium, Reading and Writing Politics at Court and University, c.1275-c.1525, 1999, p.4). The text is enormously wide-ranging in its scope. Book I is on human happiness, on the virtues and passions, and on the habits and lives of different levels of society. Book II is more practical. It concerns marital relations and the proper conduct of women (24 chapters), the raising of children (21 chapters), and the management of households, with 20 chapters here on property, finance, servants, etc. Book III of the De Regimine Principium concerns affairs of state. Much of this is based on classical sources and discusses the conduct of a state both in peace and in war. The text cites Aristotle’s Politics no fewer than 230 times, and uses many other classical authors, including Vegetius, who is quoted 23 times. The text was extremely widely read in medieval Europe. It was translated by Thomas Hoccleve in 1412 as the ‘Regiment of Princes’. See also P. Glorieux, Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIII^e siècle, 1933, II, pp.297-8, no.400q, and C.F. Briggs, ‘Manuscripts of Giles of Rome’s De regimine in England, 1300-1500, A Handlist’, Scriptorium, XLVII, 1993, pp.60-73. Probably the last manuscript of the text on the market was Christie’s, 27 November 1991, lot 3.

It opens here with a table of chapters (fol.1v), the prologue, “Incipit Prologus super librum Egidii de Regimine Principium, Ex regia ac sanctissima prosa pia …” (fol.2r), and book I (fol.2v), in four parts, book II (fol.73r), in three parts, and book III (fol.135v), ending on fol.212r, “… promisit fidelibus…Explicit liber de Regimine Regum et Principium editus a fratre Egidio Romano ordinis fratrum heremitarum sancti Augustini”, with the colophon cited above, and a short prophecy (“Hoc regnum nullo humane providencie regitur …”), ascribed to Magister Gallus, Astronomus peritissimus et Medicine artis phisicus eximius.

The second text is on the learning of princes. Although it is ascribed here to Egidius Romanus too (as indeed it is in Prague, National Library, cod.1878, which could have been the exemplar), the text is commonly attributed to Guilluame Pérault and others, including Thomas Aquinas under whose name it commonly circulated (cf. P. Mandonnet, Des écrits authentiques de saint Thomas d’Aquin, 1910, p.131; Glorieux, op. cit., pp.102-3, no.14 fb, T. Kaeppeli and E. Panella, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi, no.1626). The text is in seven books, on the nature of power, and its merits and abuse, on the morality and religion of princes, on princely behaviour, on counsellors, bribes and other vices of office, education, discipline, marriage, and despotism. It opens on fol.213r here, “Incipit Egidius de Erudicione Principium, Cum pars illustris ecclesie …”, with books II (fol.232v), III (fol.242v), IV (fol.251r), V (fol.257r), VI (fol.299v) and VII (fol.303v), ending on fol.308v, “… fuerit associata, Amen, Explicit liber fratris Egidii de Erudicione principium”, with the colophon cited above, followed by a table of chapters, fols.308v-312r.