La vérité à la place des ombres

Accession number:

MS M.21

Title:

Created:

1679.

Binding:

French 17th-century red morocco, richly tooled, with fleur-de-lys in many of the motifs, 2 cross-shaped brass clasps upon which are engraved the Paschal Lamb and the Monstrance of the Sacrament, style of Anthoine Ruette, court binder to Louis XIV; enclosed in a Palissander wood box lavishly inlaid with a silver and lead mixture, and ebony; in the large central panel, which is entirely composed of silver lead and ebony inlay, is the initial A, intertwined elaborately with an M, L, and O; executed by André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) for Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de Montpensier.

Credit:

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1905.

Description:

112 leaves (1 column, 21-36 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 400 x 280 mm

Provenance:

Made for Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de Montpensier (1627-1693); before 1835, owned by J.J. and M.J. de Bure and described in their sale catalogue, Paris, Jan. 22, 1835, p. 191-192; later in Russia; owned 1902 by H. Leclerc (Paris dealer); owned ca. 1904 by Pearson (London dealers); purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Pearson in 1905; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).

Notes:

Ms. written and illuminated in Paris, France, in 1679.
Texts: La vérité à la place des ombres; L'agneau paschal, figure du sacrifice et Sacrement de nos autels; La manne, figure de la sacreé Eucharistie; L'arch d'alliance, figure de l'auguste Sacrement de l'autel.
Decoration: elaborately decorated title pages; 12 pages painted to resemble marbled paper introducing the 4 divisions, 13 large miniatures illustrating Biblical texts, 32 large symbolic or decorative paintings, elaborate floriated headpieces, floriated borders.
Artist: various artists, among them Pierre Patel, who signed the miniature of fol. 89: Patel, pinxit 1679.
Folios 4r and 4v and 222r and 222v have gold frames left blank incicating that texts were planned but not completed for these folios.
The pagination takes into account the inserted paper guard sheets before each illustration to total 226 folios.
Revised: 2016

Variant Title:

Montpensier manuscript

Script:

French-Roman script

Language:

French and Latin

Resources:

Description/Bibliography

Genres:

Emblem books

Dated manuscripts

Illuminated manuscripts