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Saturday, 3 November 2018

More Manuscripts from the Chateau d'Anet, at Glasgow


Almost 20 years ago I started a website to illustrate marks of ownership, including those characteristic of the Chateau d'Anet.

Jean-Luc Deuffic later created an immeasurably more professional site, with a list of all the Chateau d'Anet books known to him, with links to other sites, images, etc. I rarely encounter an Anet book that he does not already know about, but one was the Duprat Bible at Boston Public Library, discussed here.

I have just encountered a few more to add to Jean-Luc's list, although they were recognised a long time ago by François Avril. The first page of MS Hunter 32 in the Hunterian Collection at Glasgow University Library is reproduced in the The Glory of the Page exhibition catalogue (1987), p.75:

In the upper margin are the characteristic marks, here with the number "xxxix" between "No." and the paraph (there is a larger detail at the top of this post):

I cannot identify this volume of medical texts with any item in the Anet sale catalogue, although it could be one of the "Sept volumes in-folio, Mss sur vélin, de diverses matières" or the "Quatre autres volumes, dont un in-octavo, dans  l'un desquels il y a huit miniatures en or".

Much more interesting, however, is something I had overlooked before. In the description of this manuscript, is this:
"The boards of the binding are covered with decorated leatherwork cut from larger panels ... which may originally have been wall-coverings ..."
Unfortunately none of the bindings of these BnF manuscripts are yet digitized on the Gallica site, but this is sure to change in due course. I am very curious to see what these bindings look like, and I would wager that once an image is published online, it will not be long before more examples are recognised.

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