Haimo of Auxerre, Expositio in epistolas Pauli, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

provenance

(1) Jean Budé (d.1502), royal courtier and secretary, and father of the French humanist Guillaume Budé (whose De Asse Grolier arranged for Aldus to print); commissioned for him and bearing his arms in the bas de pas on fol.1r (argent, a chevron gules, three bunches of grapes pourpore), and a partially erased inscription in his hand at the end of the text on fol.190r, which dates its acquisition to 1481 (see H. Omont, "Notices sur les collections de manuscrits de Jean et Guillaume Budé"  Bulletin de la société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'ile de France 12, 1885, pp.45-50 & 100-13, where this manuscript is no.11, p.104 ; and C. Garand, "Les copistes de Jean Budé", Bulletin de l'Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes, 15, 1967-8, pp.294-328). A portrait of Jean Budé, kneeling beside his father Dreux, can be found on a dismembered triptych from the 1450s, now Bremen, collection of Dr H. Bischoff (C. Sterling, La peinture médiévale à Paris, 1300-1500, 1990, ii, figs.36-7, pp.52-74). Presumably on his death the library passed to his son, Guillaume Budé (1467-1540) and remained within the family. After the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August, 1572, the family fled into Switzerland and Pomerania, and it is most likely that the library was lost and dispersed at this point.

(2) Nicolas Thoynarde of Orléans, most probably the seigneur de Villamblain (1629-1706), antiquary, numismatist and scientist; his inscription on parchment endleaf at front of text. He studied and eventually settled in Paris, where he maintained close relationships with the book collector Emeric Bigot and the royal librarian Jacques Dupuy. On his death his books were bequeathed either to the Bibliothèque du Roi or M. Loget, procureur-général of Aguesseau (C. Cuissard, "Nicolas Thoynarde et son testament 1629-1706", Mémoires de la Société archéologique et d'histoirque de l'Orléanais, 1902, pp.31-57),

(3) Joseph Barrois (c.1785-1855), and acquired from him as part of a parcel of 702 manuscripts by Lord Ashburnham in 1849 (Eighth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Appendix, Part III, 1881, no.28, p.73),

(4) Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878); his sale in our rooms 10-14 June 1901, lot 259; sold to Belin,

(5) Sold in our rooms 9 December 1909, lot 404, for £98,

(6) William Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey (1885-1963), bought from Kundig, Geneva, June 23, 1948, Catalogue no.95, lot 25; his bookplate; his sale Christie's, 11 July 2000, lot 24, to Kraus.

text

A recent edition of an unedited text by Haimo of Auxerre opens with the statement: "When the history of the ninth century Carolingian renaissance ... is written, Haimo of Auxerre will occupy a large place in that account" (J. J. Contreni, "Haimo of Auxerre, Abbot of Sasceium (Cessy-les-Bois), and a new sermon on I John V,4-10",  Revue bénédictine 85, 1975, p.303). However, until very recently many of Haimo's writings (the present text included) were ascribed to another ninth-century author, Bishop Haimo of Halberstadt, or thought to have been the work of Haimo's pupils in Auxerre. Only following the seminal article by R. Quadri ("Aimo di Auxerre alla luce dei Collectanea di Heiric di Auxerre", Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 6, 1963, pp.1-48), have Haimo's works begun to be identified and studied in their totality. What has emerged is a picture of a master-theologian with a flair for scriptural exegesis, a wide knowledge of the Latin and Greek classics (and even some command of Hebrew), who used his formidable talents to teach and sculpt a generation of Carolingian scholars and thinkers. He was born in the early ninth century, and entered the monastery of St. Germanus of Auxerre. He held office there as a teacher from c.840-60, and around 865 became the abbot of the neighbouring house of Sasceium (modern Cessy-les-Bois), holding that office for a decade, and dying in 875. His writings concentrate on biblical commentary, and he brought this genre to its most successful and influential point in the Carolingian period, slowly and systematically working his way through a number of the books of the Bible and the writings of the early church fathers, expounding on their details in an attempt to understand not only the text, but also the complicated world around him.

This is, in essence, the content of the present manuscript: a working through of the letters of St. Paul to the Galatians (fol.1r), Ephesians (fol.21r), Philippians (fol.45v), Colossians (fol.60v), I Thessalonians (fol.68v), II Thessalonians (fol.77v), I Timothy (fol.81), II Timothy (fol.92r), Titus (fol.100r), Philemon (fol.102v), and Hebrews (fol.107v), with extensive discussion by Haimo. The text has been published by Migne, Pat. Lat., 117, pp. 362-938 (although erroneously under the name of Haimo of Halberstadt).

To his contemporaries Haimo of Auxerre was perhaps best known for his pedagogical skills. In both the monasteries of Auxerre and Cessy-les-Bois he was an innovative teacher, focussing his students attention on the study of grammar in order to discipline and sharpen their minds, and some modern scholars have perceived in his methodology a precursor to the twelfth-century scholastic method developed by Peter Abelard (E. Bertola, "Il commentario paolino di Haimo di Halberstadt o di Auxerre e gli inizi del metodo scolastico", Pier Lombardo 5, 1961, pp.29-54). The importance of this work for the early Carolingian renaissance cannot be under-estimated, and his influence can be traced through numerous generations of Carolingian scholars. The theologian Heiric of Auxerre (841-876) formally acknowledged Haimo (along with Servatus Lupus of Ferrières) as his tutor and mentor; and in turn Heiric himself taught the theologian, Remigius of Auxerre (c.850-908), and the Benedictine composer, Hucbald (c.840 - 930); for comment on this important Carolingian school see E. Jeauneau, "Les écoles de Laon et d'Auxerre au IXe siècle", La scuola nell'Occidente latino dell'alto medio evo, 1972, ii, pp.495-522. Moreover, Haimo's writings remained in use until the sixteenth century, and had a profound effect on the entire middle ages. Stegmüller (Rep. Bib. Medii Aevi, iii, pp.16-18) records the existence of approximately 50 manuscripts of this work, although interestingly very few of the fifteenth century, and almost none of the same quality as the present manuscript.

The present manuscript was commissioned by Jean Budé, secrétaire et conseiller du roy and audiencier de France to Louis XI (1461-83) and Charles VIII (1483-98), for his own private contemplation. It is entirely in keeping with his known literary tastes, and the little that has been published on this under-studied fifteenth-century bibliophile and his library allows us a glimpse of a book-collector with an eye for beautiful and lavish illumination, but a personal preference for studious and intellectual theological texts (for a list of the items identified as from Budé's library which had come to light by 1885, see Omont, "Notices sur les collections de manuscrits de Jean et Guillaume Budé"; although this subject badly needs to be revisited and updated).  

It is tempting to speculate that Jean Budé's bibliophila might have inspired his son to seek a career in books and scholarship. Clearly, Guillaume Budé was not blind to his father's passion, and in a private letter, in overtones of respect and admiration, he describes his father as a librorum emacissimus ('a great purchaser of books'). After rapidly completing his studies in Greek, philosophy, theology, law, and medicine, Guillaume came to the attention of Louis XII (1498-1515), and became the king's secretary. Subsequently, he entered the court of Francis I, and persuaded that monarch to found a college for the study of the three languages (Latin, Greek and Hebrew) now the 'College de France', as well as a library at Fontainebleau, which became the nucleus of the modern Bibliothèque nationale de France. In his personal tastes he remained distinctly bookish, and was an early proponent of the Humanist movement in France, committing his energies to such works as the translation of a number of Plutarch's 'Lives' into French in the years 1502-5.

illumination

The illumination on fol.1r is clearly influenced by Maître François, who appears to have had a prolific workshop in the third quarter of the fifteenth century in Paris; where Jean Budé must have spent most of his time, and where Guillaume was born. The artist is perhaps from the first generation influenced by Maître François, and is thus contemporary with the Master of Jacques de Besançon and the Master of the Cardinal of Bourbon (see F. Avril & N. Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520, 1993, pp.255-62). The portrayal of St. Paul as a king seated on a throne over which is draped a cloth of France ancien, may have been a personal specification of Jean Budé's to the artist. Both Jean Budé and his son had begun their careers in the French court as royal secretaries, and the subject matter of the illumination: that of the production of a sealed diploma and its conveyance to a foreign court, must have been a subject close to both of their hearts.