St John's College T.5 (James 474)

Records of the Huguenots. French, bef. 1700

 

No title page. Spine title: 'Memoires & Actes touchant ceux de la Religion Pret. Ref. Vol. 5'. Continuing the chronological sequence in T.4, drawn from a volume of 'Memoires touchant ceux de la Religion Pretendue reformée', containing copies of 'Edicts, Acts, Memoires et traictez touchant ceux de la Religion pretendue reformée depuis L'an mil six cents vingt-un iusques en l'année 1630'. The copies are of acts and other documents, for the most part dated 1621-8.

Manuscript extra information

435x300 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).