Les manuscrits de Pierre de Luxembourg (ca 1440-1482) et les bibliothèques nobiliaires dans les Pays-Bas bourguignons de la deuxième moitié du XVe siècle
Hanno Wijsman
This article proposes an initial reconstruction of the library of Pierre de Luxembourg
(c. 1440-1482), offspring of one of the most powerful noble families of the Burgundian
court and Knight of the Golden Fleece from 1478. This high ranking individual must
have owned at least thirty manuscripts. He acquired a third himself and inherited
the other two thirds. From the methodological point of view, this is an interesting
case. Indeed the cross-checking of leads – heraldic, emblematic, written ex-libris
(sometimes later scratched out), inheritances and provenance – enabled links to be
made between manuscripts. The reconstruction of the manuscript collection of one
individual, who has up to now been completely ignored by studies on the history
of libraries, constitutes one more argument in support of the thesis that forming a
library was a social duty at the Burgundian court between 1450 and 1490. A nobleman who had spent his youth in the bibliophilic atmosphere of the court of Philip
the Good between 1445 and 1467 was duty bound to collect beautiful manuscripts
containing texts that were in vogue at the court. If we have little information about
many of them, this is due more to a lack of sources rather than any lack of interest
in this fashion on their part.Keywords :
medieval libraries, bibliophily, Burgundian Court, illuminated manu- scripts, Pierre de Luxembourg (c. 1440-1482).
• Une génération de nobles à la cour de Bourgogne
• Pierre de Luxembourg
• Le manuscrit de départ
• La signature
• Le monogramme
• Les armoiries
• Les manuscrits familiaux des Luxembourg
• La bibliothèque de Pierre de Luxembourg
• Les bibliothèques dites bourguignonnes