GUÉRARD (Benjamin). - Lot 74

GUÉRARD (Benjamin). Collection des cartulaires de France. Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres. Paris : imprimerie de Crapelet, 1840. -2 volumes in-4, 310 x 226: (2 ff.), ccclxx pp., (1 f.), 254 pp. ; (2 ff.), pp. (257)-848. Red morocco, diamond-shaped frame of gilt roulettes and fillets, crowned LO monogram gilt in center, ornate ribbed spine, inner gilt roulette, blue tabis linings and endpapers, gilt edges (period binding). First edition of the Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres, published by royal order by medieval historian Benjamin Guérard (1797-1854), member of the Institut. "Paul, a monk of the Saint-Père-en-Vallée abbey in Chartres, lived in the 11th century. The earliest deed in which he is mentioned is dated 1060, the most recent 1088. From his titles in these deeds, we can see that he was treasurer of the abbey of Saint-Père. He set about putting in order and copying all the original charters of the monastery in which he lived, and added a kind of chronicle at the head of his cartulary. He named his work Aganon, in memory of the bishop of Chartres, Aganon, who lived from 926 to 941, and who re-established the abbey of Saint-Père, destroyed during the disasters of the preceding centuries. The Cartulaire du moine Paul, preserved in its original form in the Chartres municipal library, served as the basis for Guérard's great work: Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres" (Mémoires de la Société archéologique de l'Orléanais, 1883, vol. 19, p. 335). The edition begins with an important prolegomena by Guérard, including an appendix containing the Pouillé (ecclesiastical register) of the Chartres diocese, taken from a manuscript written in the second half of the 13th century. This is followed by the cartulary divided into three parts, the first containing the collection written by the monk Paul, the second including the Codex argentis or Silver Book, written around 1200, and the third bringing together the charters collected by the Benedictine monk D. Muley, who had been sent to Chartres in October 1772 to put the archives of the Saint-Père abbey in order. These two volumes form volumes I and II of the "Collection des cartulaires de France". A precious copy printed on large wove paper, bound for Louis d'Orléans, Duc de Nemours (1814-1896), with his crowned cypher on the boards (OHR 2585, fig. 11). He was the second son of Louis-Philippe I and Marie-Amélie de Bourbon-Sicile. He had an extensive library which, after his death, passed into the hands of his son, the Duc de Vendôme. It was sold at auction in 1931 and 1932. Slight scuffing on the second cover of the first volume, and minor wear. Some brown spots.