Beschreibung:

TERRIER OF THE LORDSHIPS OF BREUIL AND EPINAY-SUR-ORGE, part of the abbatial estates of St-Germain-des-Prés, made for CHARLES, CARDINAL DE BOURBON, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
TERRIER OF THE LORDSHIPS OF BREUIL AND EPINAY-SUR-ORGE, part of the abbatial estates of St-Germain-des-Prés, made for CHARLES, CARDINAL DE BOURBON, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM Paris, 1572340 x 285mm. 326 leaves: 1 8(i pastedown), 2-40 8, 41 6(vi pastedown), contemporary foliation in roman numerals on inner edge of lower margins on rectos, running iii - ii. c.iiii. x x from the third gathering with 1-2 in arabic numerals, 18th-century foliation 1-300 starting with second gathering (used here), written in a formal secretary hand in brown ink in 24-26 lines to the left of one vertical and between two horizontals ruled in blind, height of justification: 260-280mm, one page with empty gilded frame, ONE FULL-PAGE HERALDIC MINIATURE IN A GILDED FRAME with the arms of Charles, cardinal de Bourbon, supported by two angels above his badge of a laurel tree within a laurel wreath and the motto NON DEFLUET FOLIUM EIUS (edges of leaves stained and worn, upper corners of some leaves turned). Contemporary brown calf gilt stamped on upper and lower covers with the Cardinal's arms and the date 1572, metal attachments for two clasps (spine lacking, lower cover with final gathering detached, tears to upper and lower covers). PROVENANCE: 1. Cardinal Charles de Bourbon-Vendôme, Archbishop of Rouen and Abbot of St-Germain-des-Prés (1523-90): his coat of arms, France moderne, a baton rouge, against an archiepiscopal cross and beneath his cardinal's hat, together with his badge and motto, taken from Ezekiel 42, illuminated on the third folio, his arms on upper and lower covers of binding; copies of enactments of letters of authorisation of 1571 for the survey from Charles IX to 'Charles, cardinal de Bourbon, et abbé de l'abbaye de Sainct Germain des Prez lez Paris, seigneur a cause de ladicte abbaye de la terre et seigneuries du Breuil et Espinay sur Orge'. The Cardinal was the third son of Charles of Bourbon, duke of Vendôme. With the extinction of the senior Bourbon lines in 1527, the next in line to the throne on the assasination of Henry III in 1589 was Charles's nephew, the Protestant Henry of Navarre, by descent from the fourth son of St Louis IX. The Catholic League therefore proclaimed the Cardinal King as Charles X but did not release him from the imprisonment to which he had been condemend by Henry III the previous year. He died in captivity in 1590 and his 'reign' was expunged from the official records. Destined for the church from infancy, Charles had rapidly accumulated rich benefices, culminating in his cardinal's hat in 1548 and the Archbishopric of Rouen in 1550. He was not only abbot of the ancient royal foundation of St-Germain-des-Prés from 1562 but also of St-Denis, Jumièges and Corbie, among others. The need to return the once wealthy abbey of St-Germain to a secure financial footing may have prompted the detailed assessment of these lands to the south-west of Paris, which had been ravaged by the Huguenots in 1562. In 1577 they were sold to pay the tax on clerical goods granted to Henry III by the Pope. 2. It is likely that in 1577 the terrier passed with the lands to their purchaser, the jurist Barnabé Brisson (1531-1591); his wife lived until 1614. Appointed premier président of the Paris Parlement by the League in 1588, Brisson was hung by Catholic extremists in 1591. 3. Ferdinand de la Baume, comte de Montrevel (1603-1678): his name appears contemporaneously with the title and the number 2 on the first leaf, indicating that this was the second volume in his set of terriers . He was the son of Claude-François-de la Baume (1584-1621), to whom the lands had passed in 1616 with the lordship of Savigny by right of his wife Jeanne d'Agault de Montauban. This inheritance was contested by the descendants of Jeanne's paternal aunt, the de Vins d'Agault; in 1684 the Savigny lands were granted to Jean de Vins d'Agault de Montauban and his heirs. In 1676, the abbey had succeeded in buying back part of the estate, the Grange du Br