Christ Church MS. 646

Inventory of property ceded to Diane de Poitiers by Anne de Pisseleu; France, 1554

Language(s): Middle French

1. fol. 1–23^v

Incipit: Inventaire des lettres tiltres papiers enseignemens et autres pieces concernan[s] et faisans mentions des terres et seigneuries

Explicit: Lan mil cinq cens cinquant quarter le jeudi second jour daoust [followed by notarial signatures]

Unpublished. An inventory, drawn up for Henry II’s mistress, Diane de Poitiers, of what was ceded to her by her rival, Anne de Pisseleu, formerly mistress of Henry’s father, Francis I. The context is briefly discussed by Ivan Cloulas, Diane de Poitiers([Paris], 1997), 220 (without reference to our manuscript).

Fol. 74–77: blank

2. fol. 78–80

A supplement to the preceding list

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: lectres

Form: codex

Support: Paper (pot, with initials MB, a match for Briquet 12763)

Extent: Fols: vii + 91.

Dimensions (leaf): 262 × 185 mm.

Collation

1⁶ (fol. i-vi) 2² (fol. vii and 1, perhaps two singletons) 3¹⁴ 4–6¹⁶ 7¹² 8⁸ 9^8–1 (with last removed after fol. 91). No catchwords or quire signatures.

Layout

Written space unruled and so variable but c. 210 × 95 mm. , with 19 / 22 long lines to a page.

Hand(s)

Each of the two items has its own scribe, each writing a current secretary script.

Binding

Blind-stamped leather over boards on five thongs, s. xvi^med, the upper board rather worn. The design of each board has a centrepiece within which sits a monogram of interlocking ‘D’ and reversed ‘D’ with central bar, used by Diane; those initials have above and below a tool of a flaming torch enwrapped by a ?snake, and an upward-facing crescent appears twice above, twice below and once to each side. The centrepiece is placed within concentric rectangles, with floral corner-pieces and a repetition of the torch tool. On the spine, the stamping in the compartments alternates between the interlocked crescents and a smaller version of the initials monogram. There are signs that there were once two cloth ties. Presently held within a box, made of red card with spine of red leather, designed to imitate a binding on five thongs (s. xx). In gold in the second compartment: ‘Inventaire des biens cedes par la Duchesse d’Étampes à Diane de Poitiers’; in the third: ‘Relié aux chiffres et emblems de Diane de Poitiers’; in the last: ‘Manuscrit 1554’.

History

Origin: France; 1554

Provenance and Acquisition

This manuscript entered ChCh’s collection as a bequest from William Max Binney. The eldest of three sons of Maximilian Frederick Brefft Binney, sometime Vicar of St Mary Magdalene, Richmond, to attend the House, he took his BA in 1922, having been to school at Westminster. He purchased this manuscript from the Parisian bookseller, Pierre Berès, in 1967: Bulletin Pierre Berès, 104 (March 1967), [6–7], priced at 13,500F and stating ‘ce manuscrit apporte le témoinage du triomphe de Diane de Poitiers sur sa rivale [Anne de Pisseleu]’. Binney died in 1977, and it was only a few years later that his younger brother, Alec, wrote to the library; the letter, kept with the manuscript, is dated 7^th December 1982, and comments ‘the binding has suffered rather, but considering its age could be described, I should think, as “fair”’. The librarian’s pencil note on the letter records that it was accepted because of its binding; it arrived in 1983.

Record Sources

Ralph Hanna and David Rundle, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Western Manuscripts, to c. 1600, in Christ Church, Oxford (Oxford, 2017).

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Christ Church Library.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.

A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges