The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This short rhymed poetic work by Georges Chastellain, entitled L'outré d'amour pour amour morte, is an example of a Roman à clef, a narrative describing actual events presented as a fictional account using altered names. The manuscript was likely produced in Western France in the 1460s or 1470s, judging by the style of the bâtarde script and the four unframed miniatures (four more spaces for miniatures remain blank). The manuscript in question was once owned by Jacques Thiboust, a noted humanist book-collector in early-sixteenth-century France, and bears his stamped bookplate on the verso of the front flyleaf and the verso of folio 37, as well as various other ownership inscriptions hand-written by Thiboust. This manuscript appears to be a previously unnoticed addition to Thiboust's library.
Support: Parchment; Extent: i+37+ii; 253 x 174 mm bound to 264 x 185 mm; Foliation: Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto; modern pagination inclusive of pastedowns in lower right recto; Collation: 1 (8, -5), 2 (6), 3 (8), 4 (8, -6), 5 (8), 6 (2); Catchwords: Vertical catchwords visible in lower right hand corners of folios: 7v, 21v, 28v, 36v; partially-cropped horizontal catchwords visible in lower right hand corners of versos 1v, 2v, 3v, 8v, 9v, 14v, 23v
One column of twenty-six ruled lines, generally three stanzas per page; ruled in red ink; written area: 154 x 88 mm
Bâtarde
Four miniatures by a French painter of the Loire Valley school, perhaps from Angers; four additional spaces left empty for miniatures; fields of some gold initials have been left unpainted; marginal drawings of heads in an eighteenth-century style are visible on several folios
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
Flyleaf following folio 37 is actually an unnumbered blank folio
"Cy commance le livre de l'outré d'amour pour amour morte" written, perhaps by Thiboust, in upper margin of fol. 1r
For Jacques Thiboust, see Boyer, Hippolite, Un ménage littéraire en Berry au XVIe siècle, Jacques Thiboust et Jeanne de La Font (Bourges: Impr. et Lithographie de Ve. Jollet-Souchois, 1859; Omont, H., "Un Nouveau Manuscrit de Jacques Thiboust de Bourges," Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de La France 4, no. 1 (1897): pp. 92–97; and Le Clech-Charton, S., "Jacques Thiboust, notaire et secrétaire du roi et familier de Marguerite de Navarre: amitiés littéraires dans le Berry du 'Beau seizième siècle,'" Cahiers d 'Archéologie et d'Histoire du Berry 96 (March 1989), pp. 17-28; a manuscript of the anonymous La voie d'enfer et de paradis also owned by Jacques Thiboust and bearing similar ownership marks, is Les Enluminures, TM 775; other books owned by Thiboust are discussed in Le Clech-Charton 1989
For L'outré d'amour, see Lemaire, Jacques, "L'Oultré d'Amour de George Chastelain: un exemple ancien de construction en abyme," Revue romane 11 (1976): 306-316
For Thiboust's stamped armorial bookplate, perhaps the earliest of its kind to be used in France, see Rau, Arthur, "The Earliest Extant French Armorial Ex-libris," The Book Collector (Fall 1961), pp. 331-332; the author provides another example of the ex-libris found in Jacques Thiboust's copy of Le couronnement du roi Francois [Paris, 1520], today at Yale University Library
One or more gatherings appear to be missing between folios 7 and 8
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Angers?, France
Circa 1460-1480
Brown stamped and tooled leather with original boards; spine missing; linear cuts across front and back covers
Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)
Ownership note in a fine bâtarde script on upper pastedown reads: "C'est au Seigneur de Quantilly M. Jacques Thiboust, notaire et secrétaire du Roy et esleu en Berry. Et le luy a donné sire Jehan Jaupitre son frère. En mars 1535." ; stamped armorial bookplate of Jacques Thiboust ("écartelé au 1 et 4 d'argent à la face de sable, chargé de trois glands d'or accompagné de trois feuilles de chêne de sinople, deux en chef, une en pointe; au 2e d'argent à une anille de moulin de sable [Dumoulin] ; au 3e d'or à deux perroquets adossés de sinople [Rusticat]; et sur le tout d'azur à une étoile-comète d'or [Villemer]) with mottoes "Lex et Regio" and "Qui voit s'esbat" found on verso of first flyleaf and on fol. 37v; "Qui voit s'esbat - Thiboust" written below bookplate on fol. 37v; "des livres de M. Jacques Thiboust" written on lower pastedown; additional early notes "mars 1535" and "Gallon" on recto of first flyleaf; "Jos. Brochard" written in an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand on first lower flyleaf
Angers?, France
Circa 1460-1480
Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)
Ownership note in a fine bâtarde script on upper pastedown reads: "C'est au Seigneur de Quantilly M. Jacques Thiboust, notaire et secrétaire du Roy et esleu en Berry. Et le luy a donné sire Jehan Jaupitre son frère. En mars 1535." ; stamped armorial bookplate of Jacques Thiboust ("écartelé au 1 et 4 d'argent à la face de sable, chargé de trois glands d'or accompagné de trois feuilles de chêne de sinople, deux en chef, une en pointe; au 2e d'argent à une anille de moulin de sable [Dumoulin] ; au 3e d'or à deux perroquets adossés de sinople [Rusticat]; et sur le tout d'azur à une étoile-comète d'or [Villemer]) with mottoes "Lex et Regio" and "Qui voit s'esbat" found on verso of first flyleaf and on fol. 37v; "Qui voit s'esbat - Thiboust" written below bookplate on fol. 37v; "des livres de M. Jacques Thiboust" written on lower pastedown; additional early notes "mars 1535" and "Gallon" on recto of first flyleaf; "Jos. Brochard" written in an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand on first lower flyleaf
This short rhymed poetic work by Georges Chastellain, entitled L'outré d'amour pour amour morte, is an example of a Roman à clef, a narrative describing actual events presented as a fictional account using altered names. The manuscript was likely produced in Western France in the 1460s or 1470s, judging by the style of the bâtarde script and the four unframed miniatures (four more spaces for miniatures remain blank). The manuscript in question was once owned by Jacques Thiboust, a noted humanist book-collector in early-sixteenth-century France, and bears his stamped bookplate on the verso of the front flyleaf and the verso of folio 37, as well as various other ownership inscriptions hand-written by Thiboust. This manuscript appears to be a previously unnoticed addition to Thiboust's library.
Flyleaf following folio 37 is actually an unnumbered blank folio
"Cy commance le livre de l'outré d'amour pour amour morte" written, perhaps by Thiboust, in upper margin of fol. 1r
For Jacques Thiboust, see Boyer, Hippolite, Un ménage littéraire en Berry au XVIe siècle, Jacques Thiboust et Jeanne de La Font (Bourges: Impr. et Lithographie de Ve. Jollet-Souchois, 1859; Omont, H., "Un Nouveau Manuscrit de Jacques Thiboust de Bourges," Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de La France 4, no. 1 (1897): pp. 92–97; and Le Clech-Charton, S., "Jacques Thiboust, notaire et secrétaire du roi et familier de Marguerite de Navarre: amitiés littéraires dans le Berry du 'Beau seizième siècle,'" Cahiers d 'Archéologie et d'Histoire du Berry 96 (March 1989), pp. 17-28; a manuscript of the anonymous La voie d'enfer et de paradis also owned by Jacques Thiboust and bearing similar ownership marks, is Les Enluminures, TM 775; other books owned by Thiboust are discussed in Le Clech-Charton 1989
For L'outré d'amour, see Lemaire, Jacques, "L'Oultré d'Amour de George Chastelain: un exemple ancien de construction en abyme," Revue romane 11 (1976): 306-316
For Thiboust's stamped armorial bookplate, perhaps the earliest of its kind to be used in France, see Rau, Arthur, "The Earliest Extant French Armorial Ex-libris," The Book Collector (Fall 1961), pp. 331-332; the author provides another example of the ex-libris found in Jacques Thiboust's copy of Le couronnement du roi Francois [Paris, 1520], today at Yale University Library
One or more gatherings appear to be missing between folios 7 and 8
Bâtarde
Four miniatures by a French painter of the Loire Valley school, perhaps from Angers; four additional spaces left empty for miniatures; fields of some gold initials have been left unpainted; marginal drawings of heads in an eighteenth-century style are visible on several folios
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Clear All
