Beschreibung:

Plutarch, Vies de Romulus et de Caton d'Utique (lives of Romulus and Cato the Younger), in the French translation of Simon Bourgoyn, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1508] 218 leaves (one blank), 350mm. by 220mm., complete, collation most probably: i-xxvi8, xxvii10 (ix and x singletons), ruled in pink for 28 lines of black and dark brown ink in a fine and accomplished humanistic hand (identified as that of Simon Bourgoyn, see below), rubrics and chapter-titles in red and blue, numerous small initials in liquid gold on red and blue grounds (one- to 3-lines in height), other larger initials in blue with white penwork on red grounds, some enclosing sprays of foliage on burnished gold, fifty-four very large full-page miniatures by Jean Pichore the Master of Philippe de Gueldre and another artist, each approximately 280mm. by 180mm., in detailed architectural gilt-frames (fols.1v, 5r, 8v, 13r, 16v, 24v, 29r, 36r, 41v, 44v, 48r, 52v, 55v, 59r, 64r, 68r, 71v, 75r, 79v, 84v, 86v, 91v, 94v, 98v, 102v, 105v, 111r, 114v, 118v, 122v, 126v, 130r, 134v, 138r, 142r, 146v, 148v, 152r, 156v, 161v, 164r, 168r, 172v, 176r, 180v, 183v, 188v, 192v, 196v, 201v, 204v, 207v, 211v, 215v), occasional small flakes from miniatures and very small smudges, thirteen with notes for the illuminator in faint ink in margin (most erased; see below), the miniature on fol.86v with 4 lines of text on a banner in the lower part of the margin, some leaves at beginning and end of volume slightly cockled, else in outstanding condition with wide and clear margins, gilt-edges, eighteenth-century French olive morocco over pasteboards, gilt tooled in triple fillet with elaborate organic pattern on spine, marbled endleaves, very slight cracking down edge of front board along spine, in fitted green leather-backed case