note (deco)
Fifteen large miniatures, usually above 3 lines of text in arched compartments, surrounded by full borders of blue and gold acanthus, flowers, green pears, strawberries, and a particularly large number of grotesques, frequently obscene. The miniatures have been discussed by Claude Schaefer, "Recherches sur l'iconologie et la stylistique de l'art de Jean Fouquet," Thèse présentée devant l'Université de Paris, IV, 24 February 1971, 2,268-70 and 3,pl. 119-122 (all the miniatures reproduced). The miniature on f. 13v closest to the work of Fouquet; the others, in varying degree, represent styles of Fouquet and Jean Colombe and appear to be products of Fouquet's workshop.
provenance
Written in France ca. 1480 for a member of the family of Malet de Graville, whose coat of arms appears in the margin of f. 62 (Rietstap, vol. 4, pl. 127); added to the initial on f. 22v are the arms of the Balzac family, seigneurs d'Entragues (Rietstap, vol. 1, pl. 116); the original owners may have been Louis Malet and his wife, Jeanne de Balzac; their daughter, Anne, married Pierre de Balzac in 1505. The book may have passed to Pierre's son-in-law, Claude d'Urfé; see A. Vernet, "Les Manuscrits de Claude d'Urfé (1501-1558) au Château de la Bastie," Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Comptes-Rendus (1976) 81-97. His library was bought in 1777 by the Duc de La Vallière; this manuscript, however, does not appear in the Duc's 1784 sale. E. M. Bancel sale, Paris, 8 May 1882, n. 13 to Baron de Beurnonville; his sale, Paris, 16 February 1885, pp. 14-18 to the bookseller D. Morgand (Inv. 23092); Dodd and Mead and Co., Catalogue 11 (October 1885), pp. 27-28. Acquired by E. Dwight Church (1835-1908); in his Catalogue . . . of English Literature (1909) vol. 1, n. 402 with a plate of f. 101. The Church collection was acquired by Henry E. Huntington in 1911.
