MANUSCRIT]. HISTORY] Great Chronicles of France [followed by - Lot 78

MANUSCRIT]. HISTORY] Great Chronicles of France [followed by] Chronicle of the Reigns of John the Good and Charles V In French, illuminated manuscript on parchment France, probably Paris, ca. 1380-1400 212 ff, (two very cut leaves folioed 18bis and 19bis), preceded by 2 paper endpapers and followed by 2 paper endpapers, many missing (old foliotation: ff. 58 to 387 in Roman numerals, in red ink), collation difficult to carry out in the present state but a comparison with the text will certainly enable the gaps to be identified more precisely [collation: i2, i9 (of 10, missing x), iii4 (of 10, missing i-ii and vi-x), iv5 (of 10?), v4 (of 10?), vi8, vii8, viii7 (from 8, missing vii), ix6 (from 8, missing ii and vii), x7 (from 8, missing ii), xi8, xii6 (from 8, missing iii and viii?), xiii4 (from 8 ?), xiv7 (from 8 ?), xv8, xvi7 (from 8 ?), xvii5 (from 8 ?), xviii5 (from 8, missing iii, iv and viii), xix8, xx7 (from 8 ?), xxi2 (from 8 ?), xxii6 (from 8, lacking i and viii), xxiii8, xxiv7 (lacking iii), xxv5 (from 8 ?), xxvi8, xxvii7 (from 8 ?), xxviii6 (from 8 ?), xxix8, xxx7 (from 8, lacking i), xxxi6 (from 8 ?), xxxii8, xxxiii8, xxxivi1], a few lacerated or cut out leaves, on 212 ff. [177 ff. without missing and 35 ff. incomplete, cut or damaged], round gothic script in brown ink, advertisements, text in two columns, ruled in brown ink (justification: 175 x 265 mm), some leaves with text missing or added in the margins by a contemporary hand (e.g. ff. 112v-113; ff. 120v-121), a few leaves with chapter tables (f. 121; ff. 129-129v; f. 150; ff. 179-180), running titles and folios in red ink, headings in red, wide-margined manuscripts, numerous small initials decorated in burnished gold on blue and pink backgrounds with white highlights, line ends with the same decoration, larger initials decorated with 3-line high blue or pink with white highlights on burnished gold backgrounds with coloured and burnished gold vine-leaf decoration extending into the margins, some with long baguettes in blue, pink and burnished gold and ending in one case with a figured dragon (fol. 96v). Bound in foxed leather, spine with six raised bands, traces of fillet framing the boards, remnants of fastenings (epidermal marks and stains on boards; corners dulled). Some leaves show stains, cuts or lacerations. It should be noted that of the 212 pages, a large number of 177 pages are in good condition without lacerations, with some of these pages stained, without affecting the text. A list of damaged leaves is available on request. Dimensions : 285 x 378 mm. This manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques de France - a founding and emblematic text - is a very fine example copied around 1380-1400, during the reign of Charles VI (1380-1422). The aesthetics of the numerous ornate initials and the layout are reminiscent of the manuscripts commissioned by the princes of the kingdom, such as the dukes of Berry, Orleans, Anjou and Burgundy, who were great lovers of luxury manuscripts. A large number of manuscripts of this text have been preserved, but all of them are different, as they contain more or less continuations, up to the last version in 1461. The one commissioned by King John the Good himself, for example, ends around 1350 (London, British Library, Royal 16 G 6). The chronicles contained in the volume are divided into two distinct parts: the chronicle of the kings of France from the origins to the death of Philip VI of Valois, composed at the Abbey of Saint-Denis (ff. The first is the chronicle of the kings of France from the origins to the death of Philip VI of Valois, composed at the abbey of Saint-Denis (ff. 1-178v), which begins in this incomplete manuscript with chapters relating to King Dagobert; this is followed by the chronicle of the reigns of John the Good and Charles V (ff. 179-210v), which in this manuscript only contains chapters relating to the reign of John the Good, since the text is interrupted. The continuation known as the "chronicle of the reigns of John the Good and Charles V" has sometimes been attributed to the chancellor Pierre d'Orgemont, who wrote it under the supervision of the king. The complete account of this chronicle stops in April 1379, after the king's meeting with the Breton barons rallied to Duke John V, a year and a half before the death of Charles V. The chronicle of the reign of John the Good has 141 chapters, that of the reign of Charles V has 110 chapters. In our manuscript, the last date mentioned is that of the passage of King John the Good (King of France 1350-1364) during his trip to Avignon in August 1363. This witness is certainly incomplete but offers all the same an important part of the text decorated with very beautiful initials and endpapers: it was perhaps originally bound in several volumes. Its foliation begins on fol. 58 (old foliation) and ends on fol. 387, with gaps. Text: ff. 1-2v [old foliation begins on fol. LVIII], Grandes chroniques de France [Chronicle of the kings of France from the origins to the death of Philip VI of Valois, composed at the Abbey