Lot n° 22
Estimation :
1500 - 1800
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 3 328EUR
DU CANGE (Charles du Fresne).
Essays on the... - Lot 22 - Ader
DU CANGE (Charles du Fresne).
Essays on the history of France at the beginning of the second race.
In French, manuscript on paper.
France, 17th century.
Small folio, 225 pp. preceded by [9] ff. and followed by [35] ff. followed by several blank ff. cursive writing, one distinguishes two hands, one copies the body of the text, the other comments and annotates in the margins. Bound in full brown calf, spine with 6 nerves partitioned and decorated with flowers, label with old quotation at the end of the spine : " IX. E. a. 1 ", coat of arms in the center of the boards (Habert de Montmor : Azure, with a golden chevron, accompanied by 3 rings or mill-irons of silver, 2 in chief, 1 in point), gilt roulette on the edges, spotted edges (lacks of leather, some epidermis, rubbed spine, coat of arms on the lower board rubbed ; restoration to the last written leaf (p. 225)). Dimensions : 340 x 225 mmManuscript
having belonged to a member of the Habert de Montmort family, most certainly Henri-Louis Habert de Montmort, man of letters and sciences, academician of the first hour, elected in 1634 and contemporary of Du Cange
.
The historical work of Du Cange is partly still unpublished or at least published only in fragments (see certain "Dissertations" published (by Petitot (1819)). This text is part of the series of "Dissertations sur les parties principales de l'Histoire de France". The summary of this work, which has remained in manuscript, appeared in the Journal des savants (1752).
Charles du Fresne du Cange (1610-1688) was a scholar, lexicographer and historian, originally from Picardy. He devoted himself to the study of the origin of the languages and institutions of the Middle Ages, and is also famous for his Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis, a dictionary published in 1678, which shows the evolution of medieval Latin in Europe.
In his work Du Cange divides the History of France into seven eras which can be reduced to 5 because the 6th and 7th are only appendices of the 5th. Only the fourth period concerns the present manuscript with the State of France under the second race. It consists of 37 dissertations on the nobles, the knights, the serfs, the fiefs, the investitures and the feudal organization. Du Cange conducted several researches on the history of France and Picardy. The papers of Du Cange were alienated at the death of his eldest son, some were sold to the bookseller Mariette, but the great-nephew of Du Cange, Charles Du Fresne d'Aubigny, endeavored to gather them and deposited them in the King's Library, in the Library of the Arsenal or in the Library of Amiens between 1735 and 1756. In 1752, the Journal des Savants published the Mémoire sur les Manuscrits de M. du Cange, which provides a list of the manuscripts on the History of France and the History of the Province of Picardy.
Provenance : Bound with the arms of the Habert de Montmort family. It may be Henri-Louis Habert de Montmort (or de Montmor) (1600-1679), man of letters and academician elected in 1634. A great friend of Mersenne and Gassendi, Habert de Montmor was the founder of the "Académie Montmor", a learned society that brought together scholars, philosophers and scientists in his private mansion in the rue du Temple in Paris (Hôtel de Montmort), the forerunner of the Académie des sciences founded in 1666. It was at the Hôtel de Montmort that Molière read his Tartuffe in 1664, which was then forbidden, and that Jean-Baptiste Denis (1635-1704), a doctor at the Faculty of Medicine in Reims, conducted the first experiments in blood transfusion from an animal to a human being in 1667. A faithful Cartesian, Montmort was one of those who, on June 25, 1667, brought the body of Descartes, back from Sweden, to the church of Sainte-Geneviève. Montmort had a cabinet of curiosities and an important library.
See : " Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Charles Dufresne Du Cange " in Glossaire françois, faisant suite au Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, avec additions de mots anciens extraits des glossaires de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye. Roquefort, Raynouard, Burguy, Diez, etc., and a notice on Du Cange. Niort, L. Favre 1879.
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