登陆注册
14720400000040

第40章 LADY BOOK-LOVERS(2)

Marguerite's manuscript copy of the First Book of the Iliad is a small quarto, adorned with daisies, fleurs de-lis, and the crowned M. It is in the Duc d'Aumale's collection at Chantilly. The books of Diane de Poitiers are more numerous and more famous. When first a widow she stamped her volumes with a laurel springing from a tomb, and the motto, "Sola vivit in illo." But when she consoled herself with Henri II. she suppressed the tomb, and made the motto meaningless. Her crescent shone not only on her books, but on the palace walls of France, in the Louvre, Fontainebleau, and Anet, and her initial D. is inextricably interlaced with the H. of her royal lover. Indeed, Henri added the D to his own cypher, and this must have been so embarrassing for his wife Catherine, that people have good-naturedly tried to read the curves of the D's as C's. The D's, and the crescents, and the bows of his Diana are impressed even on the covers of Henri's Book of Hours. Catherine's own cypher is a double C enlaced with an H, or double K's (Katherine) combined in the same manner. These, unlike the D.H., are surmounted with a crown--the one advantage which the wife possessed over the favourite. Among Diane's books are various treatises on medicines and on surgery, and plenty of poetry and Italian novels. Among the books exhibited at the British Museum in glass cases is Diane's copy of Bembo's 'History of Venice.' An American collector, Mr. Barlow, of New York, is happy enough to possess her 'Singularitez de la France Antarctique' (Antwerp, 1558).

Catherine de Medicis got splendid books on the same terms as foreign pirates procure English novels--she stole them. The Marshal Strozzi, dying in the French service, left a noble collection, on which Catherine laid her hands. Brantome says that Strozzi's son often expressed to him a candid opinion about this transaction.

What with her own collection and what with the Marshal's, Catherine possessed about four thousand volumes. On her death they were in peril of being seized by her creditors, but her almoner carried them to his own house, and De Thou had them placed in the royal library.

Unluckily it was thought wiser to strip the books of the coats with Catherine's compromising device, lest her creditors should single them out, and take them away in their pockets. Hence, books with her arms and cypher are exceedingly rare. At the sale of the collections of the Duchesse de Berry, a Book of Hours of Catherine's was sold for 2,400 pounds.

Mary Stuart of Scotland was one of the lady book-lovers whose taste was more than a mere following of the fashion. Some of her books, like one of Marie Antoinette's, were the companions of her captivity, and still bear the sad complaints which she entrusted to these last friends of fallen royalty. Her note-book, in which she wrote her Latin prose exercises when a girl, still survives, bound in red morocco, with the arms of France. In a Book of Hours, now the property of the Czar, may be partly deciphered the quatrains which she composed in her sorrowful years, but many of them are mutilated by the binder's shears. The Queen used the volume as a kind of album: it contains the signatures of the "Countess of Schrewsbury" (as M. Bauchart has it), of Walsingham, of the Earl of Sussex, and of Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham. There is also the signature, "Your most infortunat, ARBELLA SEYMOUR;" and "Fr.

Bacon."

This remarkable manuscript was purchased in Paris, during the Revolution, by Peter Dubrowsky, who carried it to Russia. Another Book of Hours of the Queen's bears this inscription, in a sixteenth-century hand: "Ce sont les Heures de Marie Setuart Renne.

Marguerite de Blacuod de Rosay." In De Blacuod it is not very easy to recognise "Blackwood." Marguerite was probably the daughter of Adam Blackwood, who wrote a volume on Mary Stuart's sufferings (Edinburgh, 1587).

The famous Marguerite de Valois, the wife of Henri IV., had certainly a noble library, and many beautifully bound books stamped with daisies are attributed to her collections. They bear the motto, "Expectata non eludet," which appears to refer, first to the daisy ("Margarita"), which is punctual in the spring, or rather is "the constellated flower that never sets," and next, to the lady, who will "keep tryst." But is the lady Marguerite de Valois?

Though the books have been sold at very high prices as relics of the leman of La Mole, it seems impossible to demonstrate that they were ever on her shelves, that they were bound by Clovis Eve from her own design. "No mention is made of them in any contemporary document, and the judicious are reduced to conjectures." Yet they form a most important collection, systematically bound, science and philosophy in citron morocco, the poets in green, and history and theology in red. In any case it is absurd to explain "Expectata non eludet" as a reference to the lily of the royal arms, which appears on the centre of the daisy-pied volumes. The motto, in that case, would run, "Expectata (lilia) non eludent." As it stands, the feminine adjective, "expectata," in the singular, must apply either to the lady who owned the volumes, or to the "Margarita," her emblem, or to both. Yet the ungrammatical rendering is that which M. Bauchart suggests. Many of the books, Marguerite's or not, were sold at prices over 100 pounds in London, in 1884 and 1883. The Macrobius, and Theocritus, and Homer are in the Cracherode collection at the British Museum. The daisy crowned Ronsard went for 430 pounds at the Beckford sale. These prices will probably never be reached again.

If Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV., was a bibliophile, she may be suspected of acting on the motive, "Love me, love my books."About her affection for Cardinal Mazarin there seems to be no doubt:

同类推荐
  • 佛说贤者五福德经

    佛说贤者五福德经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 太清真人络命诀

    太清真人络命诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 金有陀罗尼经

    金有陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 葬书

    葬书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 僧伽罗刹所集佛行经

    僧伽罗刹所集佛行经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 霸王之恋

    霸王之恋

    前世,今生,你执我红酥玉手看尽人生繁华。相聚,别离,我握你亲笔锦书尝遍世间遗憾。别了,我的春秋。别了,我的越国。别了,关于你的一切一切。作为当代考古学家,此一生她唯一所求便是还原真实历史,可是她却没有想过,无意间发掘出的一座衣冠冢竟然会将她整个生命带入另一段烽烟华裳里,到底是与君携手江山,还是与将共赴江南,这些迷惘历经千年之后,是否能过不再辜负......
  • The Last Stetson

    The Last Stetson

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 终极兑换系统

    终极兑换系统

    夜无殇来自地球离奇穿越到天地未开,鸿蒙初生,修炼无数纪元(一纪元一亿年)吞噬无尽鸿蒙紫气超越大道不知多少境界兴奋之时进入神秘隧道又离奇穿越成一个在绝境的4岁儿童,却得终极兑换系统,不需要抽奖,只要你有鸿蒙紫气便可指定兑换。像都市的一样,不过这个是在异界无敌、
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 秦时明月之问剑长歌

    秦时明月之问剑长歌

    一轮秦时明月,一段问剑长歌,一场抹不去的历史记忆。
  • 禅门宝藏录

    禅门宝藏录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 三生三世合欢花开

    三生三世合欢花开

    她,是瑶池王母座下的侍药仙子;他,是天庭玉帝身边的书童。在王母的蟠桃圣会上,她与他因在瑶池边上的一株合欢树下相遇并暗生情愫。盛怒的天帝将二人贬下凡尘,让他们相亲相爱而不能相守,饱受生离死别之苦,永生永世。经过两世的轮回,第三世,他们降生在离地球数亿光年的玄冥大陆。她是圣教的圣女,他是一个小门派的杂役弟子。身份地位的巨大悬殊并没有阻止他们一见钟情,他和她能否克服重重艰难险阻,改变命运的安排,最终有情人终成眷属?
  • 编号八

    编号八

    :[No.8]VS[INEE]斗智斗勇,期间千回百转,笑料百出。生动的语言,细致的刻画,给你一个奇妙架空又反应现实、属于INEE、属于C城的世界!
  • 沂蒙山传奇

    沂蒙山传奇

    这是一部你看了会上瘾的作品,在这里你既能看到国家情民族义,也能看到独属于沂蒙英雄的乱世爱情和兄弟情义。
  • 一个这样的故事

    一个这样的故事

    我一直想写一个故事。没错,这是我的第一本小说我也非常希望它能够带给亲爱的读者一些除了霸道总裁之类的对未来有用的东西。其实我也是网络小说的爱好者,我也懂得追小说更新时的无奈,而我会尽量从我自身克服这些问题。“她是一个14岁的满脸雀斑的女孩,但是她已经经历了父母再婚,家人抛弃,同学排斥。。。到最后,她发现其实她自己就是她内心深处最讨厌的一类人,她的人生从此充满了绝望。但是她遇到了他,度过了短暂的快乐的时光,可是,一个月后,他从此消失了。”