Details

Subjects:

France -- History -- House of Valois, 1328-1589.
France.
History.
France -- History -- Bourbons, 1589-1789.
France -- Politics and government -- 1562-1598.
Politics and government.

Form/Genre:

Manuscripts, French.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.
Codices.
Histories.

Language:

Middle French.

Biography/History:

Born in 1542, Nicolas de Neufville was introduced into the circles of Catherine de Médicis in 1560. After the death of his father-in-law in November 1567, de Neufville succeeded him as sécretaire de l'état. He served under Charles IX, for whom he arranged a marriage with Elisabeth of Austria. He also served under Henry III and Henry IV, for whom he was in charge of foreign affairs. He died in 1617.

Summary:

Narrative describing historical and political events in France in the reigns of Charles IX, Henry III, and Henry IV.

Contents:

1. f.1r-53v: Mémoires / Nicolas de Neufville.
2. f.55r-174v: Apologie et discours / Nicolas de Neufville.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title for work as a whole and title and date for second section supplied from the version published by J.A.C. Buchon, 1836.
1. f.1r-53v: "[text] Le plus grand contentement que puisse avoir un homme ... faiet a Villeroy le huietiesme iour d'Apuril mil-cinq cents quatre vingts-neuf signe De Neufville."
2. f.55r-174v: "[text] Monsieur, Je vous envoye le memoire que vous m'avez demandé ... croire qu'il est veritable, et que ie demeureray eternellement vostre serviteur, De Neufville."
Foliation: Paper, ii (17th-century paper) + 182 + ii (17th-century paper); [vi, 1-2], 3-174, [ii]. 3-78 are numbered in the upper right recto in contemporary ink; 79-174 continue in pencil.
Layout: Frame-ruled in ink; 23-26 lines per page.
Binding: 17th-century calf (Zacour-Hirsch) with gold tooling on covers and spine. Upper and lower covers and first few leaves are detached.
Origin: Written in France in one hand, not before 1589 for first section and not before 1594 for second section.
Zacour-Hirsch describes only the first section, which ends in 1589; the second section describes events through 1594.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by J. Sotheby (inscription, J. Sotheby, 1685, f. 1r).
Appears in Rodd catalog (1836), p. 100, item 2.
Appears in Quaritch catalog 99 (1889), no. 368.
Appears in Sotheby's catalog Sotheby Heirlooms, Part VII (1955), item 337.
Sold by E.P. Goldschmidt & Co. (London), 1956.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 58 (Ms. French 26).
See Poirson, Auguste, ed. Mémoires de Villeroy et de Saucey (Paris, 1868) and J.A.C. Buchon, ed. Choix de chroniques et mémoires sur l'histoires de France, Vol. 15 (Paris, 1836).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 932.

Contributor:

Sotheby, John, -1807, former owner.

OCLC:

155925486

Access Restriction:

Access to this item is subject to staff review.