Gohory, Hystoria Jasonis, Paris, 1563, Parisian architectural binding for Nicolas Dangu

Jacques Gohory. Hystoria Jasonis, Thessaliae principis, de Colchica velleris aurei expeditione, cum figuris aere excusis earumque expositione, versibus priscorum poetarum. Paris: [Jean de Mauregard], 1563

A suite of twenty-six engravings illustrating the Greek myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece. The promoter or publisher of the volume was Jehan de Mauregard, a clerk of the court (“Greffier des Prévosté et soubaillie de Poissy”) in the Ile-de-France. In a dedicatory epistle to the young King Charles IX, Mauregard states that the prints were engraved after a set of drawings he had commissioned from the Flemish painter and designer Léonard Thiry, an artist in the Fontainebleau studios of Rosso Fiorentino and Primaticcio. The printmaker was René Boyvin, a specialist in engraving designs of the Fontainebleau artists. Captions for the prints were composed at Mauregard’s request by Jacques Gohory (1520–1576), and the suite was published simultaneously with the preliminary text and captions in French translation.

Copies of the Latin and French issues were specially prepared, presumably for distribution by Mauregard himself. The present copy was bound for Nicolas Dangu (1526–1567), Conseiller du roi and Maître des requêtes to the rulers of Navarre, Henri II d’Albret (brother-in-law of François I), Jeanne d’Albret and Antoine de Bourbon. Another copy of the Latin issue (Morgan Library & Museum, 15450), also in an architectural binding, was presented to Vincenzo Lauro (1523–1592), personal physician to the late Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre (d. 17 November 1562), and one of two doctors attending the fatally wounded François Duc de Guise (d. 24 February 1563). Although differing in design, both bindings are likely to have been produced in the same shop.

Nicolas Dangu was the natural son of Antoine Du Prat (1463–1535), chancellor of France and cardinal, and “demoiselle Dangu” (perhaps Louise de Ferrières, seigneuresse Dangu); his birth was legitimized by lettres patentes, September 1540. Appointed at birth a priest in the diocese of Chartres and abbot of Notre-Dame de Juilly (Seine-et-Marne), Nicolas was named by François I in 1538 abbot of Saint-Savin-en-Lavedan, and in 1539 bishop of Sées (Orne), and in 1545, aged 19, he became bishop of Mende (1545–1567) and comte de Gévaudan (a title devolved on the bishops of Mende). Nicolas became an intimate of Marguérite d’Angoulême, the King’s sister, and is one of the male narrators of her Heptameron (Dagoucin). From 1555 onwards, Dangu was Conseiller du roi and Maître des requêtes to the sovereigns of Navarre. On 6 February 1563, he received lettres de requête from Jeanne d’Albret, conferring wide-ranging powers of financial administration, and this could explain why Jehan de Mauregard presented Dangu with a copy of the Hystoria Jasonis (Mauregard’s dedication to Charles IX is dated 3 July and the privilege, 14 July 1563). Dangu thereafter occupied himself with restoration of the abbey of Juilly, and he was buried there in 1567.

At an uncertain date, before 1547, Dangu had been granted arms: D’azur à la fasce d’or, chargée d’une fleur de lys de gueule, accompagnée de 3 molettes d’or 2 & 1. The motto on upper cover “Ditat servata fides” (Loyalty preserved enriches) has no known association with Nicolas Dangu. It is possible that this motto as well as the binding decoration of cornucopia were borrowed from Gabriele Simeoni’s woodcut emblem “Un fidele amico o servitore” first published in 1559 in Imprese heroiche et morali (Lyon Guillaume Rouillé, 1559), p. 32. (A copy of this work is in Bibliotheca Brookeriana and will be offered in a subsequent sale.)

When this copy was offered for sale in 1891, it was lacking seven plates (nos. 4, 19, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25). The copy was subsequently “completed” by introducing seven plates from the 1563 French edition of the book, each trimmed to the platemark and window-mounted to match the size of the others. On the verso of these seven plates is the inscription of Naudet, marchand d’estampes au Louvre, dated 1810 (see Frits Lugt, Les Marques de collections de dessins & d’estampes, online edition, no. 1937).

Sixteenth-century bindings with architectural decoration are of great rarity (see Hobson, Maioli, pp. 18–36). The existence of another copy of the same book in an architectural binding strongly suggests that both are presentation copies, produced at the same time and probably in the same place. The copy of the Hystoria Jasonis in the Morgan Library & Museum is bound in gold-tooled brown calf, with dark brown marbled goatskin onlays, and blue-gray paint, in the manner of Dangu’s copy. The design is a triumphal arch of three bays, formed by Ionic columns on pedestals, with a triangular pediment flanked by cornucopias. In the central bay is a wreath enclosing a shield bearing the arms of Vincenzo Lauro (Lauri, Laureus; 1523–1592). Born in Tropea, Calabria, Lauro studied medicine and theology at Naples and Padua, then served successively in Rome as private secretary and doctor to Cardinals Pietro Paolo Parisi and Nicola Gaddi, before in 1552 entering the service of the powerful Cardinal François de Tournon. Lauro developed close personal relationships at the French court, and after the Cardinal’s death (21 April 1562), he became physician in ordinary to Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, and reputedly was present during the King’s last illness, persuading him to confess and receive the holy viaticum (9 November 1562). Lauro was one of two doctors who rushed to attend the wounded François Duc de Guise (18 February 1563; died 24 February). He was also in service to Catherine de’ Medici, then acting as Regent for her young son, Charles IX. Lauro afterwards returned to Italy, became the physician of Duke Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, was elected bishop of Mondovì (1566), and created Cardinal (1583). In his testament, he left his library to the Collegio Romano.

Oblong folio (274 x 360 mm). Roman and italic types, 29 lines plus headline. Title and 4 leaves letterpress with two large woodcut initials, 26 engraved plates in second state (small numbers added at the top of each plate), each printed from two matrices (the captions from separate copper strips), neat early manuscript commentary below captions of most plates. (7 plates supplied from the 1563 French edition [see main description], plate 12 misbound, occasional soiling, lightly washed.) 

binding: Parisian architectural citron morocco over pasteboard (282 x 373 mm), 1563, tooled in gold with marbled onlays forming columns, base, and entablature, black staining, red and blue-gray paint, arms of Nicolas Dangu as abbé de Juilly on covers, flanked by large cornucopia, motto “Ditat Servata Fides” tooled on entablature, flat spine with bands of cablework tool, hatched quatrefoil in compartments, gilt edges. (Tooling on spine reworked, but does not appear to be rebacked, board edges and joints rubbed and restored, several cuts or scratches to front cover.) Green cloth folding-case. 

provenance: Nicolas Dangu (presentation binding, with his arms on cover) — captions on the Latin plates translated into French in an early hand (unidentified) — “De Noser” (inscription on title-page [washed]) — Hippolyte Destailleur (1822–1893; Maurice Delestre & Librairie Damascène Morgand, Catalogue de livres rares et précieux composant la bibliothèque de M. Hippolyte Destailleur, Paris, 13–25 April 1891, lot 1637: “L’exemplaire est incomplet de 7 planches dont 3 sont remplacées par des épreuves d’un tirage postérieur en plus petit format"), purchased by — Francis Greppe, Paris (FF485) — Louis Cartier (1875–1942), by succession to — his daughter, Anne-Marie Cartier Revillon (1900–1968; Étienne Ader, Lucien Lefèvre & Claude Guérin, Livres précieux provenant de la bibliothèque Louis Cartier, Paris, 1–2 March 1962, lot 31) purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 3500) — Michel Wittock (1936–2020; Christie’s, London, 7 July 2004, lot 62). acquisition: Purchased at the Wittock sale through Robin Halwas.

references: FB 72279; USTC 199425; for the binding, see G. D. Hobson, Maioli, Canevari and Others (London, 1926), p. 34, no. VI; Société Royale des Bibliophiles et Iconophiles de Belgique, Reflets de la bibliophilie en Belgique III: Exposition à la Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier du 20 novembre au 18 décembre 1976 (Brussels, 1976), no. 23 & Pl. 6; Cinq siècles d’ornements dans le décor extérieur du livre, 1515-1983, catalogue succinct des reliures exposées à l’occasion de l’inauguration de la Bibliotheca Wittockiana (Brussels 1983), no. 37; Culot, “Présence d’un bibliophile,” in L'Œil: Revue d’art mensuelle 348–349 (July–August 1984), pp. 34–37 & Fig. 8; A. Hobson & Culot, Italian and French 16th-century Bookbindings [in the Bibliotheca Wittockiana] (Brussels, 1991), no. 55; for the binding of the Morgan copy, see Nixon, Sixteenth-century Gold-tooled Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York, 1971), no. 43; Needham, Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings 400–1600 (New York, 1979), pp. 244–247; Macchi, “Una legatura rinascimentale italiana del genere ‘architettonico’ alla Biblioteca Queriniana di Brescia,” in Misinta 31 (2008), pp. 27–36 (p.33, Fig. 7).