Bernard Stewart, Traité sur L'arte de Guerre, in French, illuminated manuscript on vellum

56 leaves (4 ruled and blank, a further 10 originally the same, but now filled with later additions), 206mm. by 148mm., complete, collation: i^{4 (i pasted to front board), ii-vii8, viii4 (back flyleaves, originally ruled and blank, now filled with numerous additions; iv pasted to back board), single column, ruled for 22 lines, written space 145mm. by  92mm., written in brown ink in an accomplished lettre bâtarde, capitals touched in yellow, each of nine sections of text beginning with a 3-line initial in burnished gold on alternate blue and pink grounds with white penwork tracery,} seven full-page miniatures depicting scenes from the accompanying text, slightly cockled but in excellent condition, light brown calf over pasteboards

provenance

(1) Produced in northern France (probably Paris), most probably for Robert Stewart (c.1470-1543), the son-in-law of the author, who succeeded him as seigneur d'Aubigny in 1508, for presentation to a local nobleman or military commander whose arms appear on fol.6v, perhaps that of Maurice Guenichon or his son Jean Guenichon.

(2) Certainly in the hands of the Guenichon family by the end of the third quarter of the sixteenth century, when they began to use it as a family record book; their additions and signatures on 10 blank leaves at the end of the text in secretarial hands of the late sixteenth to eighteenth century. As the first addition is dated 1570 it is most likely that the manuscript was acquired either by Maurice Guenichon, who was the Prévôt de Bar-sur-Aube in 1508, 1520 and 1533, or his son, Jean Guenichon (1541-1616), who held the same office in 1580 and was appointed Seigneur d'Arrentières from 1595-99. This family had a close connection to the region of Aubigny, where Robert Stewart had his seigneurship: Maurice's father, Alexander Guenichon, was a lieutenant and man-at-arms of the Maréchal de Gýe (or Gyi), a town approximately 80 miles from Aubigny, and perhaps this manuscript may have been presented directly to a member of this family by Robert Stewart.

(3) By descent through the family of Guenichon, in an unbroken line of provenance, to the current owners.

text

The Traité sur L'arte de Guerre is a practical treatise on warfare and statecraft. It stands quite apart from the majority of the other examples of this genre, as it is explicitly not based on readings from ancient authorities, but on the applied knowledge of a successful and experienced military general. In the late middle ages the text commended itself to active commanders through both its brevity and its comprehensive approach to the subject. It was edited in 1976 by Elie de Comminges.

Bernard Stewart (c. 1452/3-1508) was a member of the notable Scots family, the Stuarts of Darnley, who was an extremely successful military commander and diplomat. He began his career as member of the Scottish soldiers who went to France in the reign of Charles VII to act as royal bodyguards. This brought him into contact with the French court, and he subsequently held office there both as chamberlain and royal counsellor on numerous occasions; lead the French embassy to Scotland to engineer the peace treaty of 1484; commanded the French contingent of troops which fought for Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485; held the bailli of Berry from 1487; acted as royal ambassador to Ludovico Sforza in 1491; was the captain of the Scottish Archers from 1493; and was lieutenant-general of the French army during the campaigns of both Charles VIII and Louis XII into Italy. In 1508, at the end of this glittering career, he went on pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Ninian in Edinburgh, and dictated the present text during the journey to his scribe and chaplain Etienne le Jeune of Aubigny (fol.2r, the preface). However, whilst there he became ill and died in the house of Sir John Forrester in Corstorphine. His body was buried at Blackfriars, Edinburgh, and his heart under the shrine of St. Ninian. Immediately after his death, William Dunbar wrote a poetic elegy for Bernard Stewart, hailing him "ane right noble, victorious and myghty Lord Barnard Stewart" and comparing him to Julius Caesar, Achilles, Hector, King Arthur, Agamemnon and Hannibal.

The original manuscript of Bernard's text presumably returned with Etienne to France, and came into the possession of Bernard Stewart's son-in-law, Robert. That manuscript does not survive, and was probably worn out by use in the battlefield. However, it appears that Robert had at least one illuminated copy produced for presentation to a French nobleman (the Bute manuscript, sold in our rooms 13 June 1983, lot 35, now Yale, Beinecke MS.659), and a number of the other early sixteenth-century manuscripts (the present one included) were most probably produced by the Stewarts for presentation to other noblemen and military commanders within their sphere of influence.

Manuscripts of this text are extremely rare, and the present manuscript is, at present, unknown to scholarship. The other copies are: the Bute manuscript noted above; Paris, Bib. nat. de France, MSS. Fr 20.003, Fr 1245 & Fr 2070; Madrid, Bib. Naz. MS.10105; Berlin, Deut. Stadtsbib., Hamilton MS.470 (an early modern copy of the Madrid manuscript); and London, Brit. Lib. Addit. MS.20813. Of these only the Bute manuscript contains a complete text, and only that one and BnF., MS. Fr 20.003 contain any illumination (and that in the BnF. Manuscript is of notably poor quality). The present manuscript contains a complete set of miniatures and a complete text, and moreover, is the only known copy still in private hands.

In addition, the provenance of this manuscript is remarkable. It was perhaps commissioned by the son-in-law of the author, and presented to the Guenichon family in the mid to late sixteenth century, in whose hands it has survived, through numerous divisions of property and the upheavals of the French Revolution, to the present day.

illumination

The illumination is in the style of the Master of François de Rohan, and is perhaps from the same workshop which produced the copy of La Fleur de Vertu (Paris, c.1530), now Paris, Bib. Nat. de France, MS. fr.1877 (reproduced in M. Orth "The Master of François de Rohan: a familiar French Renaissance Miniaturist with a new name", Illuminating the Book, 1998, figs. 42 & 37, pp.74 & 70).

It should be noted that the six miniatures of the Bute manuscript have previously been taken to represent the most complete pictorial cycle composed by Bernard Stewart, or ordered by his successors during their commissioning of the manuscripts, but the present manuscript has seven full-page miniatures, and would appear to bear witness to another variant of the pictorial cycle.

The posthumous fantasy of Bernard Stewart presenting his work to the French king found in the Bute manuscript, was previously thought to be the only known manuscript portrait of the author (M. R. Toynbee "A portrait of Bernard Stewart, Third Seigneur d'Aubigny", The Stewarts, 1951, pp.25-8). The present manuscript has another version of this miniature (item 1 below), and appears to place Bernard Stewart in a further three miniatures (numbers 2, 3  & 4 below).

The Bute manuscript shares a further three miniatures with the present manuscript (numbers 4, 5 & 7 below), but number 6 here, that of the survey of the provisions for a besieged town, is unique to this copy. The manuscript has considerable art-historical value and its pictorial cycle is deserving of further study in comparison to the Bute manuscript.

The subjects of the miniatures are:

(1) Folio 1v, Rectangular full-page miniature, enclosing a scene within a gothic room, in which the enthroned French king, surrounded by his court, receives the text from Bernard Stewart, kneeling and respectfully holding his hat in his left hand.

(2) Folio 15v, Rectangular full-page miniature, enclosing an outdoor scene with wooded hills and a castle in the background. A commander (perhaps Bernard Stewart himself) stands in the foreground dividing and directing his forces; French troops in full armour stand to his left, Scottish troops in characteristic wide-brimmed hats to his right, and in the distant centre a standing French army which has been stationed in order to protect the town.

(3) Folio 19v, Rectangular full-page miniature, enclosing a scene within a gothic room, in which a royal servant (perhaps Bernard Stewart himself), with an attendant , stands deferentially before the enthroned French king, and receives a document from a scribe giving him diplomatic powers.

(4) Folio 26r, Rectangular full-page miniature, enclosing a scene outside a castle in which two noblemen (one of whom is perhaps Bernard Stewart) survey the construction of fortifications. Two teams of men labour to quarry stone, while a single man dresses the raw boulders into a large rectangular block.

(5) Folio 29v, Rectangular full-page miniature, enclosing a scene before a castle, in which the French king leads his army, attended by a single member of his Scottish bodyguard, who walking beside the king's horse.

(6) Folio 38v, Rectangular full-page miniature, enclosing an outdoor scene within the walls of a fortified town, in which a group of noblemen survey the provisions laid in for a siege. Wine barrels lie to the right, and beneath these an ox and two pigs; fish and meats lie in salting vats to the left, with sacks of grain and cows.

(7) Folio 40v, Rectangular full-page miniature, enclosing a castle ready for a siege, drawbridge raised and armed men standing on top of each wall and turret. A member of the Scots guard in a blue hat standing on top of the gatehouse.