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San Marino, Huntington Library, HM 01077 Description: ff. i + 248 + ii - Bound, s. XVIII, in French green morocco with gold dentelle, in the style of Derome le Jeune. - Written in the second half of the fifteenth century in France for use in the diocese of Autun. HM 1077 may have been part of a larger volume, or one of a set, since it contains references to parts of a breviary not in the present book. Arms of the first owner in lower margins of ff. 1, 1v, 25, 41v, 150v, 167v and 243: quarterly, 1 and 4 azure, three keys (2 and 1) or in pale; 2 and 3 argent on a bend azure a tiny bird argent; apparently those of the Rolin family of Autun (Rietstap, vol. 5, pl. 181) and Landes, representing Nicolas Rolin (1376-1462) and his first wife, Marie des Landes (marriage ca. 1406); these arms used by their son, Jean Rolin (1408-83) whose personal device "Deum time" is inscribed in the initial on f. 150v; although Jean Rolin was made cardinal in 1449, the expected cardinal's hat does not appear surmounting the arms (as it does, for example, in his missal, Lyons, Bibl. Mun. MS 517 or on the Nativity of Autun, commissioned by him from the Maitre de Moulins). On the front pastedown, bookplate with the monogram "H.C.M." (?) and the motto "Audentes fortuna juvat"; a note with the manuscript suggests the owner's name was "Mackinnon." Belonged to William Keeny Bixby (1857-1931) of St. Louis, Missouri; his sale, Anderson, New York, 29 March 1916, n. 280 with a plate of f. 150v to G. D. Smith. Sold privately by Herschel V. Jones (1861-1928) of Minneapolis to Henry E. Huntington in February 1918. - C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). De Ricci, 89. Acknowledgments: - We are indebted to Mme Nicole Reynaud for the information regarding Jean Rolin. Number of Parts: 1 - Number of Images Available: 0 Direct Link: http://ds.lib.berkeley.edu/HM01077_43 Language: Latin Country: France Century: 15th About Versions of the Catalogue: http://www.digital-scriptorium.org/huntington/ Gallery of Images for this Manuscript: http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/dsheh/heh_brf?CallNumber=HM+1077 Full Huntington Catalogue Description: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/digitalscriptorium/huntington/HM1077.html |
| The images shown above are from the Huntington Libray and can be found in the pages of Digital Scriptorium a growing consortium of American libraries and museums committed to free online access to their collections of pre-modern manuscripts. (click here to visit this site) http://www.digital-scriptorium.org. In their description of this binding they wisely and simply state "Bound, s. XVIII, in French green morocco with gold dentelle, in the style of Derome le Jeune" Certainly this looks like a Derome, however on closer examintion we find some disturbing discrepancies. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2 we see that the imitator has copied quite closely the Derome roulette dj-R-18, however looking carefully the enlarged image you will notice that there is a major difference, imagine that these oval shapes are fish with fins on their backs, the fins sloping away from their direction of travel, Deromes fish are all swimming one way while the imitators fish are going in different directions. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we can see that there is, firstly a difference in size between the Derome imprints dj-R-16 and those of the imitator which are larger. More importantly we notice the fact that Derome le jeune has incorporated some irregularities in the number of dots separating the diamonds or rhombuses and the ringed ovals, most separations contain five dots however in one case there is only 4 and in another there are 6, the HM 1077 imprints do not show such varitions, and thus are exposed as imitations. Below I show another Imitation Derome binding, made by Pierre-Joseph Bisiaux. |
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Reference R. R. Holmes, Specimens of Royal fine and historical Bookbindings , p. 13, n. 128. See Librairie Sourget, Chartres, Manuscrits enlumines et livres precieux. Catalogue XI, p. 360-361n. 147. Paul Culot, Relieurs et reliures decorees en France au epoques Directoire et Empire, Brussells, 2000 nos 6, 40, 41. Julien Flety, Dictionnaire des relieurs francais ayant exerce de 1800 a nos jours, 1988. Paul Culot Le decor neo-classique des reliures francaises au temps du Directoire, du Consulat et de l'Empire. Dictionnaire des relieurs ayant exerce en France, c. 1790 - c. 1820, Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Bruxelles, 2015. Notes c1875-1900. The name Renouard is also tooled on the front cover of item 59, de Thou binding in Nixon, Sixteenth Century Gold Tooled Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library. bound for A. A. Renouard by Pierre-Joseph Bisiaux, active 1777-1781 in Paris Place Maubert (1777), Foin St. Jacques 32 (1785), Carmes I (1798-1801) one of the leading binders of the transition from the Monarchy to the Directory (C. Ramsden, French bookbinders, p. 33). Some rolls are closely copied from those originally belonging to Derome le Jeune and inherited by Bisiaux's rival, Bradel: consequently, unsigned Bisiaux bindings are often erroneously attributed to Bradel as Renouard's main supplier of bindings in this style (M. Breslauer, Catalogue 110, p. 274, n. 161). For similar bindings, see S. de Ricci, French signed bindings, I, p. 251, n.124, p. 254). Binding reproduced by M. Foot, Les reliures francaises, fig. 8. Renouard is the owner, not the binder. |
| The binding Davis570 shown above is found in the British Library Database of Bookbindings (click here to see it). I want to thank the British Library for allowing me to show this enlargement of the all important Bisiaux etequette found in this binding (see also the notes of Mirjam Foot shown below). |
| According to the British Library notes, Bisiaux copied Derome's tools, he was an imitator, however he did not make the the HM 1077 binding, at least not with the roulette found on this Davis570 binding, (see Comparative Diagram 4). |
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