Beschreibung:

La Vie, Mort et Passion du Bienheureux Saint Didier de Genes, Evêque de Langres, in French, profusely illuminated manuscript on parchment [Langres, dated 1902] 21 leaves (plus 2 modern endleaves and a deep blue silk-backed doublure at each end), bound in on paper guards, complete, single column, 22 lines of modern script imitating that of the late Middle Ages, red or blue initials, larger initials in gold swirls on coloured grounds, every page of text with full border of delicately painted acanthus, flowers and numerous insects (all in trompe d’oeil style in imitation of Ghent/Bruges work of c. 1500), five full-page miniatures within similar borders, scrolls in bas-de-page of last leaf with inscriptions: “Joseph Royer” and “Langres MDCCCCII”, first leaf with small split at base separating it from paper guard, one small paint chip from a miniature, else outstanding condition, 136 by 115 mm., fine binding of gilt-tooled red morocco over pasteboards, two working metal clasps with tiny crosses formed of circular punctures in their bodies Written and illuminated in 1902 for Joseph Royer, the conservator of the Musée de Langres, and a prominent art-collector, antiquarian and patron of Langres in the last years of the nineteenth century and first few decades of the twentieth century. He was a prolific antiquarian writer, and published a catalogue of the Musée de Langres in 1931 a few years before his death.