Item Summary

Descriptive Information

Title
La somme le roi / Laurent, the Dominican.
Call Number
Princeton MS. 105
Identifier
ark:/88435/dc2v23w8143
Publisher
[Arras, France] : [Jehannin de Costimont], [between 1437 and 1438]
Language
Middle French
Date Created
1437-1438
Format
Manuscript
Extent
1 volume (i, 175, ii leaves) : parchment, illustrations ; 29 cm
Provenance
Princeton MS. 105 was written by the scribe Jehannin de Costimont for Louis de Chantemerle, seigneur de La Clayette, now in Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy. The arms of Chantemerle are painted in the initial on fol. 7r; his device (a cage) appears in three initials (fols. 49r, 86v, 89v), the latter two with the letters “S.E.” Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), of Middle Hill, Worcestershire, acquired the manuscript in the 1820s, either from the Parisian bookseller Royez or from the library of the French historian Amans-Alexis Monteil (1769-1850). The manuscript remained in the Phillipps library until the London antiquarian bookseller William H. Robinson, Ltd. purchased the remainder of the library from the Phillipps heirs in 1946. The Robinson Trust consigned the present manuscript to a Sotheby's, London, auction in 1967. The Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, acting as the agent for the Princeton University Library, purchased the manuscript on 28 November 1967 at the Sotheby's sale.
References
Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, pages 330-332.
Rights Statement
Copyright Not Evaluated
Notes
Script: Bastard Secretary. The entire manuscript is in the hand of the scribe Jehannin de Costimont, a clerk associated with the Burgundian court under Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy (r. 1419-1467).
Decoration: Ink-and-wash miniature executed at or near Arras (fol. 1r).* It depicts Laurent, the Dominican, at the royal court with his book, which is open to the in scription “Somnia regis facit iste predicator.” The scene shows the author reading to four royal children seated on a bench, since King Louis IX (r. 1226-1270) had commissioned the book for the moral instruction of the future King Philip III, who is perhaps the child depicted holding a book with a red binding. The miniature illustrates words on fol. 1r: “Et le faisoit souuent lire deuant ses enfans.” A monkey and a dog play in the foreground. The king sits on the throne surrounded by seven courtiers, one of whom holds a falcon.
Binding Note
France, 19th century. Bound in Paris by the firm of René Simier, founded around 1800 by René Simier père (d. 1826) and continued by René Simier fils (1772-1843). Signed on the lower spine (gilt) “REL. P. SIMIER.” He signed bindings in this way from 1800 to 1818. Gold-tooled green morocco over pasteboard, with reddish marbled endpapers; edges gilt; endbands with secondary sewing in green and tan; green silk ribbon attached to headband as bookmark.

Discovery Information

Subject
Virtues—Early works to 1800
Vices—Early works to 1800
Christian ethics—Catholic authors—Early works to 1800
Manuscripts, French—France—Arras
Manuscripts, French—New Jersey—Princeton
Illumination of books and manuscripts

Physical Characteristics

File Count
363

Institutional Information

Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean Manuscripts
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/edfa6666-44ce-4363-89d4-51ba5f60b1dc/manifest