Resumen de La biblioteca di un 'parvenu' parigino alla fine del XIV secolo: Jean de Montaigu e i suoi manoscritti
The library of a Parisian 'parvenu' of the end of the fourtheenth century: Jean de Montaigu and his manuscripts.
Moved by an overwhelming desire for social advancement that led him to a tragic end, Jean de Mointagu had a brilliant career in the service of Charles V and Charles VI of Valois. In 1401, he was appointed Grand Maître of the Hôtel du Roi, one of the French crown's highest offices. Parallel to his extraordinary political career, Jean amassed an immense fortune, which he invested partly in land, partly in artworks and luxury goods. The purchase of a series of richly illuminated manuscripts was part of this ostentatious strategy of symbolic investments. Originally kept in the library of Montaigu's castle in Marcoussis, the collection is now almost entirely lost. The work presented here tries to retrace what is left of it, focusing especially on a copy of "Les Livres du Roy Modus et de la Royne Ratio". This manuscript, whose iconographic cycle still remains little known to art historians, was donated by Montaigu to the Duke Jean de Berry, his friend and protector, and at some point ended in the collections of the Dukes of Savoy (Torino, Archivio di Stato, ms. J.b.II.18). The illuminations of the manuscript can be ascribed to the Maître du second Roman de la Rose de Jean de Berry, a prolific artist who worked in Paris between the late fourtheenth and the early fifteenth century and whose profile will be retraced here for the first time.
