Untitled - Monoskop

DELETION IN CERTAIN COPIES
guished by the hand-coloured initial capital letter. In the other, Velins 2245,
the reference to the privilege has been very carefully erased, though traces of
the printed characters are visible.
If divergencies like this can occur between two vellum copies, they are
naturally also to be found between a specially prepared vellum copy of a book
and the ordinary copies printed on paper. An early instance is La louenge des
roys de France, by Andre de La Vigne. The privilege obtained for it by Eustace
de Brie, from the Parlement of Paris and the procureur du roi in the Parlement
(PA 1507, i), is summarised in the colophon, beginning with the words 'Cy
fine la louenge des roys de France imprimee a Paris de par Eustace de Brie
demourant au Sabot derriere la Magdaleine. Et luy a donne la court de
Parlement . . .' in the copies put on sale in the ordinary way, of which several
examples survive. But a hand-decorated vellum copy in the Bibliotheque
Nationale, Velins 2243, retains of this colophon only the words 'Cy fine la
louenge des roys de France imprimee a Paris', everything that follows being
erased.
Certain vellum copies intended for presentation to the king or to some other
royal or princely personage show still greater modifications, resulting in the
suppression of a privilege displayed in the ordinary paper copies.
Charles de Saint-Gelais, canon and bishop elect of Angouleme, completed
in 1514 Les excellentes chronicques du prince Judas Machabeus. It was printed by
Antoinc Bonnemere, who obtained for it a privilege from Louis XII, dated 19
September 1514 (CH 1514, 4). The copies sold to the general public show on
the title-page the words 'cum priuilegio regis amplissimo' and the complete
text of the Letters Patent on the verso of it. But Saint-Gelais intended (as the
privilege makes it clear) to dedicate the work to Frangois, Due de Valois, the
heir presumptive to the throne of France, and he had a special vellum copy
prepared, to present to him (BN Velins 1128). Such individually prepared
copies of a printed book were still presented to grand patrons or ordered by
them fairly frequently at this period: Antoine Verard had specialised in
supplying them to royalty and to other 1
wealthy customers. This one was duly
supplied with miniatures and with initial letters gilded and painted. But
furthermore, the first two leaves of the printed edition were removed and
replaced by two leaves entirely in manuscript: instead of the printed title-page
there is a calligraphic title embellished with the Arms of France, while the
verso shows a miniature of the king enthroned in state, thus eliminating all
mention of the privilege. Louis XII may have been despaired of by the time
the presentation copy was being completed, for the style of the person
addressed in the prologue was left blank by the printer and the description of
1 See
Manuscripts in the
fifty years after the invention ofprinting, ed. J. B. Trapp (London, Warburg
Institute, 1983), esp. E. P. Spencer, 'Antoine Verard's illuminated vellum incunables'
(pp. 62-5) and M. B. Winn, 'Antoine Verard's presentation manuscripts and printed books'
(pp. 66-74).
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