Lot 46

Guillaume Crétin, Cronique Françoyse, in French verse, illuminated manuscript on vellum, in five monumental volumes [northern France (Paris), c.1530]

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

5 volumes, collectively 635 leaves, each approximately 360mm. by 250mm., volumes I-III complete: (a) volume I (23 chapters), 111 leaves, collation: i-iii8, iv6, v-vii8 (31-38), viii6, ix8, x6, xi-xiv8, xv5 (vi wanting, blank cancelled)^; (b) volume II (34 chapters), 121 leaves, collation: i-ii8, iii6, iv-vi8, vii6, viii8, ix6, x-xi8, xii6, xiii-xv8, xvi6, xvii3 (iv wanting, blank cancelled); (c) volume III (33 chapters), 123 leaves, collation: i-ii8 iii6, iv-v8, vi6, vii-viii8, ix6, x-xii8, xiii6, xiv-xv8, xvi6, xvii5 (v wanting, blank cancelled); (d) volume IV (24 chapters), 136 leaves, with last 5 leaves as eighteenth-century replacements and one leaf wanting after fol.109, else apparently complete, collation: i3 (i wanting, blank cancelled), ii-iii8, iv7 (quire of six plus vii), v-vi8, vii6, viii-xii8, xiii-xiv6, xv9 (x wanting), xvi-xvii8, xviii6, xix5 (replacement); (e) volume V (25 chapters), 144 leaves, with one leaf wanting after fol.87, else complete, collation: i4, ii-v8, vi6, vii-xi8, xii5 (vi wanting), xiii-xvi8, xvii6, xviii8, xix6, xx5 (vi wanting, blank cancelled); plus two paper flyleaves at front and back of all volumes (second flyleaf in vol.II glued to blank fol.1r); all volumes with 24 lines written in a fine lettre bâtarde of outstanding quality, written space 260mm. by 167mm., first capital at beginning of each chapter with cadels and coloured washes, capitals in yellow, rubrics in red, one-line paragraph marks in gold on alternately red or blue grounds, large initials mainly at beginning of chapters in pink or blue heightened with white on gold or red grounds, filled with gold and decorated with flowers, strawberries, grapes and occasionally birds and dragons, illuminated banderoles with the author’s motto "MYEULX QVE PIS" (Better than bad) mostly at the end of prologues and at end of each volume, few corrections in a sixteenth-century hand, volume I inscribed in modern pencil "2157" on verso of first flyleaf and "N.^o 82" on fol.1r, volume III inscribed in black ink on fols.1r and 2r "Trente Sept", in lighter ink "BBB" on fol.1r and upside-down on last blank leaf "Hic Liber Appartinet", volumes I-III and V with occasional small stains, volume I with slight water damage along gutter affecting original blank leaf at beginning and a clutch of leaves in chapters XVIII-XIX, volumes II and III with cockling forming a large vertical crease on first leaf of the prologues, volume IV with an independent history from the other volumes for some of its history (see below) with losses probably occurring in the seventeenth century of fifteen large initials which were skilfully restored with vellum (fols.1r, 5r, 14v, 18v, 21v, 26r, 34r, 44v, 54v, 61r, 66v, 73v, 80v, 86v and 117r), the last five leaves replacing missing text, overall all volumes in remarkably fresh and clean condition; volumes I-III and V in early eighteenth century calf with blind-tooled fillets and gilt spine with title "Croniq. / Francoi / Tom I" to "Tom V"; volume IV probably bound in the later eighteenth century imitating the bindings of the other volumes but with slight differences, yellow circular paper labels pasted on spines of all volumes, inscribed with faded numbers, bindings rubbed and scratched, splitting at spine and boards becoming loose, upper cover of volume IV detached

Provenance

These five enormous volumes contain Guillaume Crétin’s Cronique Françoyse, a rare Chronicle in French verse whose text was commissioned in 1515 by François I^er, the father of the French Renaissance. These volumes have an illustrious and apparently unbroken line of provenance since the early eighteenth century which includes the Abbé Rothelin, the Duc de La Vallière, King Louis Philippe of France, the Earls of Ashburnham and Henry Yates Thompson

provenance

(1) These manuscripts were made in Paris around 1530, soon after the death of the author brought the project to a halt in 1525. Each volume carries the author’s motto "MYEULX QVE PIS" which appears at the end of the prologues and on the final pages. Colette Beaune lists only six other sets (in Histoires de France, historiens de la France, 1994, pp.119-35) none of which appears to be complete (Paris, BnF, fr.4964-4967; fr.17274-17276; fr.23145-23146; Aix-en-Provence, BM, MS.422; Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek; Vatican City, Vat. Reg. 864, 922, 964, 966).

(2) Within decades the set appears to have been split up, with volume IV passing to Leonore, Comtesse de Rochefort (1539-1583), cousin of Catherine de’ Medici, wife of Louis VI de Rohan, Prince de Guéméné (1540-1611; married in 1561; see Père Anselme, Le palais de l'honneur, 1663, p.603) and one of the great female bibliophiles of the Renaissance (large scale illuminated volumes from her library now survive in the British Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the BnF and Arsenal in Paris): her inscription "Ce libure est a Leonor de Rohan princesse de guemene" and a monogram of her name on fol.1r of that volume.

The other volumes had passed by the early eighteenth century to the Abbé Charles d’Orléans de Rothelin (1691-1746) of Paris (see M. Marion, 'Une bibliothèque ecclésiastique: les livres de l'abbé de Rothelin', Revue française d'histoire du livre, 56, 1987, pp.201-11): his printed ex-libris inside upper cover of volumes I and II and collection labels with his printed numbers from "1636." to "1639." in upper corner of all relevant volumes. They appear as no.3667 of his Catalogue des Livres, 1746, recording the absence of volume IV. His library was sold by auction in 1749.

(3) Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc (1708-80), duc de La Vallière, one of the most powerful lords of the inner court of Louis XV of France, and the greatest French bibliophile of the eighteenth century. He evidently reunited the five volumes, which appear as no.2938 in his Catalogue des Livres, vol.II, 1783, mentioning the last five pages in volume IV as missing but professionally replaced.

(4) King Louis Philippe I of France (1773-1850; reigned 1830-48, the July Monarchy), and from the library of the Chateau de Neuilly, near Paris: his ink stamp on recto of second flyleaf of all volumes. He abdicated in 1848, and was exiled to England, perhaps carrying these volumes with him.

(5) Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), one of the great aristocratic collectors of the nineteenth century (De Ricci, English Collectors, 1930, pp.131-8), who bought en bloc the prestigious collections of Guglielmo Libri (1803-69), Joseph Barrois (c.1785-1855) and the Stowe manuscripts belonging to the Duke of Buckingham (1797-1861); his single purchases and acquisitions were included in his ‘Appendix’ where the present manuscript is listed as MS.CLII, see Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Ashburnham Place: Appendix, London [1861]. By descent to Bertram, 5th earl of Ashburnham (1840-1913); his sale of 250 manuscripts from the ‘Appendix’, May 1897, acquired en bloc by Yates Thompson.

(6) Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), newspaper proprietor and the greatest collector of illuminated and de luxe manuscripts of his generation. His annotated book plate inside lower cover of volume V; his sale in our rooms, 1 May 1899, lot 97.

(7) Sold again in our rooms, 8 March 1905, lot 291, for £30,10sh. to Maggs, evidently for the grandfather of the present owner.

Catalogue Note

text

Guillaume Crétin (c.1460-1525) was a cantor of the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris and served François I^er as an ordinary almoner and court poet and chronicler. In 1515, the present text was begun by order of the king, producing a chronicle in French verse. The author died in 1525, at which point only five of the planned twelve volumes were completed. René Macé, another chronicler of the French court, continued the work and produced two more volumes which he signed with his related motto "AVTANT OV PLVS" (the same or more).

Guillaume Crétin was recognised as a master by the royal court as well as his literary contemporaries, notably by Jean Lemaire de Belges and Clément Marot, but his fame did not endure long after his death. Étienne Pasquier, an author and historian who wrote the Recherches de la France, an important work of historical scholarship published between 1560 and 1621, said of Crétin, "jamais homme ne satisfit moins après sa mort à l’opinion que l’on avoit conceue de luy de son vivant" (Book VII, col.740).

Crétin’s work has been perceived as naïve and full of inaccuracies, but in fact he is an author so focussed on his literary art that it leaves little space for factual detail. There is real whimsy in his tongue-in-cheek indecision over the date of death of Louis IV in either 950 or 955 (in fact he died in 954), as he states "Quant à cela, n’ayez soin quelle ou quante Date ce fust: ce ne vault un bouton; Car de chercher cinq pieds en un mouton Est temps perdu: on ne s’en faict que rire".