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

Résumé 0

The manuscripts of Pierre de Luxembourg (c. 1440-1482) and the libraries of the nobility in the Burgundian Low Countries in the second half of the 15th Century 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.