Le Temple de La gloire Dedié A Monseigneur.
[Paris], ?Charles Gibert 1680.
4to (267 x 202 mm.). MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM WRITTEN IN GOLD INK in a single large calligraphic cursive hand. [xvi], [140]p. Text in gold rule frames, occasional shoulder notes.
Gilt crushed red morocco (Lortic), outer border of fillets and dots around a fine pointillé dentelle of wheels, blooms, volutes and lilies, larger lilies in the corners, CENTRAL ARMS OF LOUIS-ANTOINE D’ARTOIS, DUC D’ANGOULÊME (1775-1844; O-H-R 2532, fer 2), gilt spine with lilies in the compartments, gilt-lettered title, gilt board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, particolored silk marker. In a blue morocco slipcase.
This dazzling panegyric was realized for Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria (1660-90) on her 1680 marriage to Louis the Grand Dauphin (1661-1711). The text praises the princess for her virtues and moral qualities — insight, good judgement, ability to withstand the blows of fortune.... She is hailed as a strong woman with “more force in her soul than Samson in his body” and “a miracle of our times” (p. [91] & [134], tr.). Maria Anna died young after a decade of chronic illness and social isolation at the French court.
THE ACCLAIMED ORATOR J.-B. BOSSUET (1627-1704) may be our “Pierre Verité”, the author of at least seven other contemporary manuscripts for members of the French court. One is a rhetorical Portrait of the Dauphin (Bibliothèque nationale ms. français 10463-4) and another is a second copy of this text (Bibliothèque nationale ms. français 10465): both are in gold ink. Bossuet was the Dauphin’s tutor and first almoner to Princess Maria Anna. Stylistic similarities to his funerary orations support the attribution, proposed by Ménard.
The elegant calligraphy is likely the work of Nicolas Jarry’s most important student, Charles Gilbert (1642-1728), who copied several books for the education of the Dauphin. In excellent condition (one negligible stain affecting the upper blank margins of four pages, three shoulder notes shaved with the loss of a letter per line).
¶See Ménard’s Œuvres Inédites de J.-B. Bossuet LI and Portalis’ “Nicolas Jarry et la calligraphie au XVIIe siècle” in Bulletin du bibliophile et du bibliothécaire (1897) 205-7 & 247-51 (census of Gilbert manuscripts; the two manuscripts with this title executed by Jarry (nos. 105-6) are not this text).
Price: $25,000.00