Jean de Rovroy: Le Livre des Stratagèmes

This material is held atNational Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru

  • Reference
    • GB 210 NLW MS 23205D [RESTRICTED ACCESS].
  • Alternative Id.
      (alternative) vtls004629286
  • Dates of Creation
    • [late 15 cent.]
  • Language of Material
    • Middle French.
  • Physical Description
    • iv, 74 ff. (ff. i-iv, 71-4 modern fly leaves; leaf missing after f. 3 and after f. 14) ; 325 x 230 mm. (written space 240 x 150 mm. and less).
      Parchment. Gathered in eights. Re-bound in dark green morocco with red morocco doublures and red watered silk end-papers in XIX cent.; 'Les Livre des Stratagèmes' and 'M.S. Dédié à Charles VII' in gold on spine.
  • Location
    • ARCH/MSS (GB0210)
      DE/SOUTH SA/OPEN SHELVES

Scope and Content

A late fifteenth-century illuminated manuscript of Les Stratagèmes, the French version of the Latin Stratagemata of Julius Sextus Frontinus, translated, [1439x1460], for Charles VII, king of France, by Jean de Rovroy (fl. 1388-1460), dean of the faculty of theology at the University of Paris, who has added extracts, in French, from the Epitoma Rei Militaris of Vegetius (see R. Bossuat, 'Jean de Rovroy, traducteur des Stratagèmes de Frontin', Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 22 (1960), 273-86, 469-89). Written by one scribe, 'H. G.', in France (f. 70 verso). Decorated initials with burnished gold for all books and chapters; other initials and paragraph marks in alternate red and blue. Four polychrome miniatures, one representing the translator presenting his book to Charles VII, probably the work of Robinet Testard (fl. 1484-1523), miniaturist to count Charles d'Angoulême (1459 or 1460-1496), later to his wife, Louise de Savoie (1476-1531); retouched in XIX cent.

Access Information

Access to the original manuscript by authorised permission only. Readers are directed to use surrogate copies.

Acquisition Information

Sotheby's; London; Purchased at auction, lot 62; 1993

Note

Title based on contents.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 23205D [RESTRICTED ACCESS].

Alternative Form Available

Available on microfilm at the Library.

Archivist's Note

February 2009 & August 2011.

Description compiled by Bethan Ifans for the retrospective conversion project of NLW MSS, and revised by Bethan Ifan. The following source was used in the compilation of this description: Handlist of Manscripts in the National Library of Wales, Volume IX (Aberystwyth, 2003);

Conditions Governing Use

Usual copyright laws apply.

Custodial History

Signature, July 1610, of Frère René Girard of the Cistercian abbey of La Boissière, diocese of Angers, on f. 70 verso. Library label of Ambroise Firmin-Didot, 1850, laid down on f. [ii]. Sold at Firmin-Didot sale, Paris, 1878; later owned by John William Pease (d. 1901).

Additional Information

Published

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales