A ROMAN CONSUL CREATING NEW TRIBUNES, miniature on a leaf of Livy, Histoire Romaine, in the French translation of Pierre Bersuire, illuminated by PERRIN REMIET [Paris, c.1390].

A fine example of the courtly taste for historical literature in the period of Charles VI of France. The style of the present miniature has been identified with that of Perrin Remiet, an illuminator who was in the service of Charles V by 1368 and was still working for his son Louis d'Orléans in 1398. The documented artist can be matched to an illuminated copy of the Pèlerinage de Vie Humaine (Paris, BnF, Ms fr.823), on the basis of a marginal instruction addressed to 'Remiet' (see F. Avril, ‘Trois manuscripts napolitains des collections de Charles V’, Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des chartes, 127, 1969, pp.291-328 and Les Fastes du Gothique, 1981, pp.338-9. It is worth noting that it is the hand of the second artist in the Pèlerinage which has been matched with Remiet, but Michael Camille, who first named the Maître de la Mort – the first artist in the Pèlerinage – regarded him as synonymous with Remiet.

Three other leaves from the dismembered parent manuscript are known: Sotheby's 5 July 1965, lots 187-188 (the present leaf was lot 186), 187 reappearing at Bonham's 28 March 1974, lot 71, and a third In Les Enluminures I (1992), no 21. Recently three further manuscript copies of the Histoire romaine to have issued from Remiet's workshop at various points of his career have been identified: one (ex Phillipps Ms 265 and 863) sold at Christie’s, The Library of William Foyle, 11-13 July 2000, lot 84 for £212,750; a second, complete copy of the text that was owned by Jeanne de Navarre, daughter of Charles VI of France and wife of Henry IV of England (Paris, BnF, Ms 269-272) and a third, particularly close in style and layout to the volume sold here in 2000, a copy of Decades II and III that was owned by Jacques, grandson of Louis de Bourbon, comte de la Marche, King of Hungary, Sicily and Jerusalem, Paris, BnF, Ms fr.268 (see Camille, Master of Death, pp.112-114).

Provenance:
- The parent manuscript was undoubtedly produced in Paris at the end of the 14th century, and from the circumstances of the commission of the translation – at the command of Jean le Bon, King of France from 1350-64 – and the known owners of other copies (Charles VI, the Duc de Berry, Jean de la Cloche, treasurer of France, Jeanne de Navarre and Jacques, comte de la Marche, King of Hungary), it seems most likely that this too was made for a royal or noble patron.
- FRANK JAY GOULD (1877-1956): his sale, Juan-Les-Pins, 15 July 1957, lot 9.
- Sotheby’s, 5 July 1965, lot 186 and again 5 December 1994, lot 21.

Measurements:
432 x 300mm. 47 lines in 2 columns

Bibliography:
M. Camille, Master of Death: The Lifeless Art of Pierre Remiet Illuminator, 1996.

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