Pierre de Paschal | Henrici II... Elogium, Paris, 1560, in a binding by Claude de Picques for Mary, Queen of Scots

Pierre de Paschal

Henrici II, Galliarum Regis, Elogium [translated into Italian by Antonio Caracciolo, Spanish by Garci Sylves, French by Lancelot Carles]. (Paris: Michel Vascosan, March 1560)

4 parts in one volume, in Latin, Italian, Spanish and French, 8vo (205 x 123mm.), woodcut initials, ruled in red throughout (faded), covers of contemporary brown morocco PROBABLY BY CLAUDE DE PICQUES with gilt arabesque centre- and cornerpieces and crowned M monogram gilt, flat spine gilt with M monogram, panels and spine laid down on a later binding with board edges gilt tooled in period style, slits on covers for two pairs of ties, in acetate chemise and late nineteenth-century morocco solander case, lacking title-page (A1) and A8 in Latin section, staining, original spine slightly defective, tooling on panels flattened

A BINDING PLAUSIBLY MADE FOR MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AS QUEEN OF FRANCE. FROM THE ROYAL BINDERY, most likely Claude de Picques or Gommar Estienne. The same centre- and cornerpieces feature on other Claude de Picques bindings from around this time; they appear together on BL c.48.c.2, an octavo with a 1560 Paris imprint.

Copies of the folio version of this work (containing an engraving of Henri's tomb, not included in the octavo edition) are recorded in fine bindings for presentation to other French nobles; copies were bound by Claude Picques with the French royal arms and the arms of François, duc de Guise and Anne de Montmorency (French and Italian Collectors and their Bindings, no.20). The magnificent copy presented to Cathérine de Médicis is in the Bibliothèque Nationale. In contrast to these other copies with notable provenance, it does seem slightly odd that the daughter-in-law of Henri II should have received a copy in the smaller format rather than the larger format.

The attempted reconstruction of Mary's library was carried out by Peter Young, the tutor to James I, in order to provide him with a library fit for a king. This resulted in the inventories of books in Holyrood House, published in the Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues. Many of them were retrieved from the possession of the Lord Regent (James Douglas, earl of Morton, regent 1572-1578), having been recovered by him from James Sandilands.

LITERATURE

USTC 72124 (listing 2 copies, in Aix-en-Provence and the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal); Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, volume 12: Scottish Libraries, S17.51, "Elogium Henrici 4º" (=S17.103, "Elogium Henrici secundi en 4 langues 4º" and S17.113)

PROVENANCE

Mary Queen of Scots, arms on binding, and listed in the inventory of her books at Holyrood House, 1578; George Campbell [--], signature on first leaf; [R.T. Hamilton Bruce, of Glasgow and Dornoch, sale, Edinburgh, 3 December 1900]; William Beattie, of Glasgow, sale, Sotheby's, November 1924, lot 509, £150