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Auction archive: Lot number 32

EMBLEM BOOK OF ANTOINE DU BOURG, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUS...

Estimate
US$40,000 - US$60,000
Price realised:
US$75,000
Auction archive: Lot number 32

EMBLEM BOOK OF ANTOINE DU BOURG, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUS...

Estimate
US$40,000 - US$60,000
Price realised:
US$75,000
Beschreibung:

EMBLEM BOOK OF ANTOINE DU BOURG, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER
EMBLEM BOOK OF ANTOINE DU BOURG, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER [Paris, 1535-1538] 202 x 146mm. i + 53 + i leaves, the final 5 blank, textually complete but possibly lacking a full-page miniature before f.48, original foliation in ink 1-20 omitting leaf after f.12, later foliation in pencil 21-51 correcting earlier omitted leaf, occasional remains of earlier foliation in lower left margin of rectos, text written in 16th-century notarial cursive script, pages frame-ruled in red ink, watermark (one-handle drinking vessel topped by a crown and a flower, similar to Picard 31438), NINETEEN FULL-PAGE DEVICES IN GOLD AND COLORS each headed by a motto in liquid gold on a red scroll (cropping affecting extensions and occasional contemporary marginal annotations, the device on f.44v verso pasted on, light staining to edges, first few gatherings slightly loose). 18th-century mottled calf gilt, red morocco label, folding red cloth box. (Upper board split at joint). PROVENANCE: The prefatory dedication is 'Ant. a Burgo Franciae cancellario N. a Prato', that is: to Antoine du Bourg, Lord Chancellor of France (from 1535 until his death in 1538), from N. Du Pré/Dupré/Duprat. The latter may be a relative of du Bourg's predecessor, Cardinal Antoine Duprat (he had an illegitimate son called Nicolas), or perhaps the Nicolas Dupré who was a printer and libraire in Paris in the early 16th century. The paper bears a watermark similar to Picard 31438, dating from the first half of the 16th century -- François Didier Petit de Meurville (1793-1873), of Lyon, Consul and collector of religious art, his sale at the Palais Royale, Paris, March 1843, lot 361 -- Jean-Baptiste Joseph Barrois (1785-1855), French Deputy and book collector, purchased with the rest of the Barrois manuscripts by Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), his Barrois MS. CCCC -- sold by Bertram, 5th earl of Ashburnham (1840-1913) at Sotheby's, London, June 10-14, 1901, lot 493 (this number in blue in the lower left corner of f.i verso) -- Joseph Baer & Company, Frankfurt, catalogue 500 (1908) item 29, priced 1600 Marks -- Acquired from Hamill & Barker, Chicago, 1978, with their typescript description enclosed. TEXT: A UNIQUE CONTEMPORARY TESTAMENT TO THE GROWING POPULARITY OF THE RENAISSANCE EMBLEM BOOK. The present text is not recorded in A. Henkel & A. Schöne, Emblemata: Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts , Stuttgart, 1996, and we have found no record of this text ever having been printed, likely indicating that the author failed in his bid for patronage: the present manuscript is consequently the unique presentation copy of his work, datable to between 1535 and 1538. Just a few years before, in 1531, the first, unauthorized, edition of Andrea Alciati's Emblemata was published in Augsburg, its consequent popularity triggering a whirlwind of imitations that would last throughout the century. However ad hoc the matching of image and text (it is argued that Alciati's original intention was simply to publish a book of epigrams, but it was Conrad Peutinger (1465-1547) who, upon receiving the manuscript of the Emblemata , organized the publication of the first unauthorized edition with illustrations by the artist Jorg Breu), it was a formula that was quickly embraced by Alciati in his second, authorized edition of 1534, and it is this combination of riddling, moral poem, heavily influenced by the epigrammatic tradition and Aesop's Fables , and cryptic picture-puzzle that ensured the success of the new genre. As in Alciati's book, the miniatures and main texts of the present manuscript purportedly expound the meanings of the mottos at the top of each miniature, but the meaning of the latter is often opaque, and the artist's interpretation of them can be equally puzzling; as in Alciati's book, this relationship between motto, image and explanatory text is often tenuous. The author encourages the reader to work through a series of moral and verbal d

Auction archive: Lot number 32
Auction:
Datum:
9 Apr 2013 - 10 Apr 2013
Auction house:
Christie's
9-10 April 2013, New York, Rockefeller Center
Beschreibung:

EMBLEM BOOK OF ANTOINE DU BOURG, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER
EMBLEM BOOK OF ANTOINE DU BOURG, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER [Paris, 1535-1538] 202 x 146mm. i + 53 + i leaves, the final 5 blank, textually complete but possibly lacking a full-page miniature before f.48, original foliation in ink 1-20 omitting leaf after f.12, later foliation in pencil 21-51 correcting earlier omitted leaf, occasional remains of earlier foliation in lower left margin of rectos, text written in 16th-century notarial cursive script, pages frame-ruled in red ink, watermark (one-handle drinking vessel topped by a crown and a flower, similar to Picard 31438), NINETEEN FULL-PAGE DEVICES IN GOLD AND COLORS each headed by a motto in liquid gold on a red scroll (cropping affecting extensions and occasional contemporary marginal annotations, the device on f.44v verso pasted on, light staining to edges, first few gatherings slightly loose). 18th-century mottled calf gilt, red morocco label, folding red cloth box. (Upper board split at joint). PROVENANCE: The prefatory dedication is 'Ant. a Burgo Franciae cancellario N. a Prato', that is: to Antoine du Bourg, Lord Chancellor of France (from 1535 until his death in 1538), from N. Du Pré/Dupré/Duprat. The latter may be a relative of du Bourg's predecessor, Cardinal Antoine Duprat (he had an illegitimate son called Nicolas), or perhaps the Nicolas Dupré who was a printer and libraire in Paris in the early 16th century. The paper bears a watermark similar to Picard 31438, dating from the first half of the 16th century -- François Didier Petit de Meurville (1793-1873), of Lyon, Consul and collector of religious art, his sale at the Palais Royale, Paris, March 1843, lot 361 -- Jean-Baptiste Joseph Barrois (1785-1855), French Deputy and book collector, purchased with the rest of the Barrois manuscripts by Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), his Barrois MS. CCCC -- sold by Bertram, 5th earl of Ashburnham (1840-1913) at Sotheby's, London, June 10-14, 1901, lot 493 (this number in blue in the lower left corner of f.i verso) -- Joseph Baer & Company, Frankfurt, catalogue 500 (1908) item 29, priced 1600 Marks -- Acquired from Hamill & Barker, Chicago, 1978, with their typescript description enclosed. TEXT: A UNIQUE CONTEMPORARY TESTAMENT TO THE GROWING POPULARITY OF THE RENAISSANCE EMBLEM BOOK. The present text is not recorded in A. Henkel & A. Schöne, Emblemata: Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts , Stuttgart, 1996, and we have found no record of this text ever having been printed, likely indicating that the author failed in his bid for patronage: the present manuscript is consequently the unique presentation copy of his work, datable to between 1535 and 1538. Just a few years before, in 1531, the first, unauthorized, edition of Andrea Alciati's Emblemata was published in Augsburg, its consequent popularity triggering a whirlwind of imitations that would last throughout the century. However ad hoc the matching of image and text (it is argued that Alciati's original intention was simply to publish a book of epigrams, but it was Conrad Peutinger (1465-1547) who, upon receiving the manuscript of the Emblemata , organized the publication of the first unauthorized edition with illustrations by the artist Jorg Breu), it was a formula that was quickly embraced by Alciati in his second, authorized edition of 1534, and it is this combination of riddling, moral poem, heavily influenced by the epigrammatic tradition and Aesop's Fables , and cryptic picture-puzzle that ensured the success of the new genre. As in Alciati's book, the miniatures and main texts of the present manuscript purportedly expound the meanings of the mottos at the top of each miniature, but the meaning of the latter is often opaque, and the artist's interpretation of them can be equally puzzling; as in Alciati's book, this relationship between motto, image and explanatory text is often tenuous. The author encourages the reader to work through a series of moral and verbal d

Auction archive: Lot number 32
Auction:
Datum:
9 Apr 2013 - 10 Apr 2013
Auction house:
Christie's
9-10 April 2013, New York, Rockefeller Center
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