Five bindings lettered with the motto “Tu tibi ipse sis fortuna” are known. They cover books printed at Paris by Simon de Colines in 1540 or 1541: a volume of Cicero’s letters to friends, a three-volume set of Ovid’s Opera, and Martial’s epigrams. All five volumes are in sextodecimo format, and as they were harmoniously bound in the same shop, they might be remnants of a travelling library.
A similar motto (Tu tibi sis ipse fortuna) is associated with the family Le Clerc de Franconville (Île-de-France).1 At this time, the seigneury was held by Nicolas Le Clerc (d. 1563), Conseiller du Roi au parlement de Paris, and a scholar. Nicolas gave lodgings in his house to the young Denis Lambin (1519-1572), and his heirs made a posthumous gift to Lambin of a manuscript of Cicero from Nicolas’s library.2 Suggestions that the motto relates to the seigneury of Franconville-au-Bois (Saint-Martin-du-Tertre), held successively by the Le Baveux and d’O families (until 1769), cannot be substantiated.
Past descriptions of these “Tu tibi ipse sis fortuna” bindings have drawn attention to a similar design with solid tools executed by Claude Picques for Jean Grolier (1522 Asconius), and to a binding by Claude Picques for Grolier perhaps employing the same tools to form the central cartouche (1520 Velleius Paterculus).3
1. Jean Cohen de Vinkenhoff, Cris de guerre et devises des états de l’Europe (Paris 1852), p.102; Louis de Magny, La science du blason accompagnée d’un armorial (Paris 1860), p.xci; Alphonse Chassant, Dictionnaire des devises historiques et héraldiques (Paris 1878), I, p.341; Louis de La Roque, Devises héraldiques (Paris 1890), p.167,etc.
2. The gift is acknowledged by Lambin in his edition of Cicero (Paris 1566), I, f.*4r (Ad Lectorem); p.380 (Omissa ex notis in II tomum).
3. Howard Nixon, Bookbindings from the library of Jean Grolier (London 1965), nos. 38, 71.
Afterwards separated
(a) Publius Ovidius Naso, Fastorum Lib. VI. Tristium Lib. V. De Ponto Lib. IIII (Paris: Simon de Colines, 1541)
provenance
● Nicolas Rauch, Catalogue 4: Très beaux livres: almanachs (Geneva 1952), item 164 [ownership attributed to Jean II, Marquis d’O et de Maillebois]
● Raphaël Esmerian (1903-1976)
● Antoine & Étienne Ader, Jean-Louis Picard, Jacques Tajan & Claude Guérin with Georges Blaizot, Bibliothèque Raphaël Esmerian. Première partie, Paris, 6 June 1972, lot 96 (“Belle reliure portant la devise de Le Clerc de Franconville)
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 6000)
● Gérard Emmanuel Marie Copin de Miribel (b. 1921)
● Ader Tajan & Claude Guérin with Dominique Courvoisier, Très beaux livres anciens; bibliothèque d’un amateur, Paris, 4 June 1993, lot 95
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 30,000)
(b) Publius Ovidius Naso, P. Ovidii Nasonis metamorphoseon liber primus (Paris: Simon de Colines 1541)
provenance
● Alfred J. (1883-1954) & Paulette Adler (1898-1992)
● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Rés. 8-Z Adler 199 (1) (opac “Rel. mar. noir, à décor d’entrelacs, losange inscrit dans un rectangle, fers aux angles et cartouche central avec titre au plat sup.: “metamorphoseis” et devise au plat inf.: “tu tibi ipse sis fortuna”, filet sur les coupes et coins hachurés, traces de rubans, tr. dorées, 16e s.)
literature
Antoine Coron, “Principaux enrichissements de la Réserve des livres rares 1994-2000” in Revue de la Bibliothèque nationale de France 7 (2001), pp.82-94 (p.82: “Maroquin vert à entrelacs géométriques dorés, complétés au centre et dans les angles de petits fers pleins dorés et portant, sur le plat inférieur, la devise ‘Tu tipi ipse sis fortuna’ … Legs de Paulette Adler, 1996”
(c) Publius Ovidius Naso, P. Ovidii Nasonis amatoria. Heroidum epistolae. Auli Sabini, ut creditur, Epistolae tres. Elegiarum libri tres. De arte amandi, libri tres. De remedio amoris, libri tres. In Ibin. Ad Liviam, de morte Drusi. De Nuce. De medicamine faciei (Paris: Simon de Colines, 1541)
provenance
● “Goguel”, inscription on title-page (opac) [but possibly Goguet (see Martialis below)]
● Alfred J. (1883-1954) & Paulette Adler (1898-1992), exlibris
● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Rés 8-Z ADLER-199 (2) (opac “Rel. mar. noir, à décor d’entrelacs, losange inscrit dans un rectangle, fers aux angles et cartouche central avec titre au plat sup.: “amatoria” et devise au plat inf.: “tu tibi ipse sis fortuna”, filet sur les coupes et coins hachurés, traces de rubans, tr. dorées”)