HAYMO [of AUXERRE].

Expositio in epistolas Pauli…, in Latin, MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM,

      [Paris?] 1481. Folio. ff. [ii] 193. [19, 2-248], complete. Lettre Bâtarde, double column ruled in red, 34 lines in brown ink in a fine and clear hand, running titles, ruled in red, rubrics and small initials in red and yellow, occasional side notes, vertical signature catchwords. Full-page illuminated t.p. comprising multicoloured floral and gilt foliage border enclosing double column ILLUMINATED NARRATIVE MINIATURES BY AN ARTIST FROM THE CIRCLE OF THE MAITRE FRANCOIS depicting St Paul enthroned in Gothic palace presenting his epistle to a messenger boy seen running across the fields through an open window; in the second miniature he delivers it to the erring Galatians, shown listening to a debate between a rabbinical figure and a Galatian, in a domed temple very richly gilt; 10-line gilt capital 'P', decorated with blue in the Lombard style; arms of Jean Budé (silver shield a bit oxydised) at foot. Eleven 10-12 line foliated initials of delicate red and blue heightened with white on a background of burnished gold inset with complex foliage commencing each commentary and ten large illuminated initials 5-9 lines high, of blue and red with delicate liquid gold foliated patterning at the beginning of the first chapter of each. The opening illumination is very lightly rubbed in one or two small areas with very minor paint loss, but extremely attractive, a few tiny wormholes neatly repaired to first and last pages. A very good, clean, fresh and large ms. in handsome late 18th-C straight-grained red morocco gilt, covers delicately framed with gilt rolltools and the spine richly gilt in 6 compartments, lettered in the second and third, attributed to Bozerian. Jean Budé's partially erased ms ex-libris dated 1481 on fol. 190, his arms at foot of first page, Nicolas Thoynard of Orleans' 17th-C ms ex-libris on second preliminary leaf, 'hic liber est Nicolai Thoynardi Aurelianensis', from the libraries of ?M. Loget (procureur-generale of Aguesseau, by inheritance), Joseph Barrois, sold by him to Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (his sale, Sotheby's 1901, to Belin), sold at Sotheby's 9 Dec 1909, Kundig of Geneva, thence to William Foyle in 1948, his sale, Christie's, 11 July 2000, to H.P. Kraus. An artistically lovely manuscript, commissioned by or for Jean Budé with an outstanding provenance. In the beautiful opening miniatures, St Paul is shown with his sword (in the first), enthroned against a backdrop of fleurs-de-lys, the symbol of French kingship, entrusting a messenger boy - in fact a depiction of Jean Budé's even more celebrated son Guillaume who was then 14 - with a recognisably mediaeval document with seal; through the open window, the messenger is then shown carrying his charge over fields to the the far-away land of the Galatians. The Galatians are gathered in the temple, listening to a richly-dressed orator, labelled 'Le Juif', presumably one of the Jewish converts to Christianity preaching against St Paul's teaching. The sense of distance and 'otherness' are represented subtly in the gold frame surrounding the miniatures, but also directly - St Paul is presented seated beneath a gothic frame of small-vaulted arches, while the Galatians are shown beneath an oriental dome. Each miniature is also, unusually, very thoroughly labelled. The rustic character of the carefully-rendered faces and the attentive details of dress reflect the Northern French, probably Parisian, origins of the miniature. The rich merchant by the messenger's side in the second miniature almost certainly represents Jean Budé, for or by whom, the ms was commissioned. The framing, style, and inscriptions of the miniature would suggest that it was produced by an artist near to the Maître François in Paris, where Budé obtained many of his important collection of mss. The present artist is perhaps connected with one of the two individual hands to emerge from this milieu around the 1480s; the Master of the Cardinal of Bourbon and the Master of Jacques de Besançon. The initials in this mss are of particularly high quality, and are distinguished by their precision and care, as well as by the generally superb state of conservation. The very large foliate initials opening each commentary, with their intertwined swirling leaves filling in the space between the letters and the burnished gold frame, are of an earlier style, and very typical of Books of Hours from Northern France. It is unusual to find them combined with the much more contemporary initials at the beginning of each first chapter which - in their use of liquid (rather than burnished) gold and silver - reflect the styles of Budé's own day and show remarkable delicacy and refinement. St Paul had founded the Christian community in Galatia, which after his departure tended to the teaching that in order to become a Christian, one must first undertake to live according to Talmudic Law, a belief St Paul decisively rejected. In his Epistle, he rebukes the Galatians, and calls them back to his guiding principles (which was based on the idea of justification by faith and works, and not by adherence to the Law). The author of the text, here identified only as 'Haymon' is now thought to be the scholar Haymo of Auxerre, who died in 865/6, and who was St Remy's tutor. This exegetical work was very popular throughout the middle ages, and was printed in 1519 (Strasbourg), 1528 and 1529 (Cologne). (Over a quarter of the manuscripts in Jean Budé's extensive library were theological). The text opens with a list of contents; the volume comprises St Paul's Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews (textually by far the longest part). The ms was commissioned by or for Jean Budé (c.1430-1502), notaire et secretaire du roy and audiencier de la chancellerie de France under successive monarchs, and father of the pre-eminent French Renaissance scholar Guillaume Budé, "le plus savant homme de France au commencement du seizieme siecle…il fut le restaurateur des lettres grecques, le conseiller fondatuer de collége de France et de la bibiliothèque du Roi" (NBG), as well as being a friend of Erasmus'. "Jean Budé, son père, 'grand acheteur de livres' liborum emacissimus, ainsi qu'il le dit lui-même, lui avait légué par testament tous ses manuscrits. La Bibliothèque Nationale tient de cette provenance vingt-sept manuscrits, donts la plupart portent ses armes peintes au commencement du volume. A la fin de chacun se trouve pour l'ordinaire sa signature, précédée de cette légende écrite tantôt en Latin tantôt en français: Ce livre apartient à Jean Budé, conseiller du roi et audiencier de France, fait…ou acquis suit la date de la transcription ou de l'acquisition." Guigard vol II p.102. Budé's arms appear on the illuminated title page, however as usual his manuscript colophon has been scraped, though it is still possible to make out the date and the remains of his signature. Jean Clouet's portrait of Guillaume Budé shows him to be in possession of a very large Gallic nose worthy of Cyrano and shared in the title illumination by the young messenger and probably his earliest portrait. The wealthy merchant by his side is most probably his father, Jean, whose portrait we have been unable to trace. The Budé family had an extensive and distinguished library, over sixty volumes of which have been identified (see: H. Omont, "Notices sur les collections de manusrits de Jean et Guillaume Budé" in Bulletin de la societe de l'histoire de Paris et de l'ile de France 12, 1885). Nicolas Thoynarde of Olreans was most probably the seigneur de Villamblain (1629-1706), who was a distinguished scholar, scientist and numismatist, and friend to the book collector Emeric Bigot and the Royal Librarian, Jacques Dupuy. Many of his books were left to the Bibliotheque Royale. Its next documented owner was the French ms collector Joseph Barrois, whose extensive collection was purchased in 1849 by the fourth Earl of Ashburnham for £6,000. Ashburnham was "one of the greatest and most ardent of English book collectors" (Fletcher, English Book Collectors), and his library "ranked among the first in the kingdom" (ibid.). At the time of his death, his collection included 4,000 mss; much of the Barrois collection went to the Bibliotheque Nationale. Jean-Claude Bozerian was the most fashionable Paris binder of the turn of the 19thC, and the present binding would certainly have been one of his de-luxe productions. An altogether luxurious book. L647