St John's College T.3 (James 472)

Records of the Huguenot Religion. French, bef. 1700

 

No title page. Spine title: 'Memoires & Actes touchant ceux de la Religion Pret. Ref. Vol. 3'. The first half of the vol. broadly continues the chronological sequence in T.2. Thereafter, the contents constitute 'Memoires et Actes concernans ceux de la Religion pretendue reformée depuis L'année 1598 iusques en l'Ann ée 1620'. Again, the overall arrangement is chronological. The first item copied is a 'Declaration et Protestation du Roy de Navarre de Monsieur le Prince de Condé et de Monsieur le Duc de Montmorency, 1585'. The final item is a record of 'Actes du Synode nationnal tenu a Thoniens', 1614.

Manuscript extra information

433x300 mm. Unfoliated (c. 300 fos). College bookplate (1937) inside front cover. There is no earlier internal evidence of provenance. T.1-18 were presented to the College by William Grove, a former Fellow, in 1762.

Single secretary hand, a clean copy. Paper, slightly damaged by damp. Binding 17th cent.: leather on boards, with gold decoration and lettering: at centre on both front and rear the arms of Bénigne le Ragois de Bretonvilliers (d. 1700), President of the Chambre des Comptes at Paris, 1657: a shield, in chief two sickles, in base an eagle with olive branch, surmounted by a helmet. Bretonvilliers formed a library at his hotel on the Ile St Louis. At his death the Bibliothèque du Roi bought 35 MSS. 'Most of his books were stamped with his arms' (see Joannis Guigard, Armorial du Bibliophile, Paris, 1870-3, ii, 175).