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

list of bindings

(1) Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marci Tulli Ciceronis Epistolae familiares … collatae cum optimis quibusque exemplaribus, multisque in locis emendatae (Paris: Simon de Colines, 1540)

provenance
● unidentified owner using the motto “Tu tibi ipse fortuna”
● unidentified owner, inscription “De Breüilly, 1659” on upper endleaf [cf. Guigard, Nouvel armorial du Bibliophile (Paris 1890), II, p.93, for the family arms; perhaps Robert de Breuilly, seigneur de Sortosville, d. 1693]
● Laure Eugénie (née Pillet) Belin
● René Boisgirard & Louis Giraud-Badin with Charles Bosse, Bibliothèque de Mme Th. Belin. Précieux manuscrits à miniatures, livres à figures des XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, riches reliures anciennes armoriées, Paris, 19-20 February 1936, lot 44 (“mar. noir, comp. de fil. droits et en losange agrémentés de rinceaux et d’étoiles, dos orné, tr. dor. … Joli spécimen de reliure ‘à la Grolier’., qui, d’après Chassant, serait celle de Le Clerc de Franconville” [link])
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 700)
● Renaud-Giquello & Dominique Courvoisier with Emmanuel de Broglie, Livres & manuscrits, Paris, 8 February 2006, lot 56 (“une reliure attribuable à Claude de Picques”)
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (€4100)
● Hugues de Latude, Paris
● T. Kimball Brooker (purchased from the above, 2011) [Bibliotheca Brookeriana ID #2113; offered by Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library, New York, 11 October 2023, lot 24]


(2-4) Publius Ovidius Naso, [Opera, set of three volumes] (Paris: Simon de Colines, 1541)
provenance
● unidentified owner using the motto “Tu tibi ipse fortuna”
● Baron Roger Portalis (1841-1912)
● Maurice Delestre & Adolphe Labitte, Catalogue de livres rares et précieux, provenant du cabinet de M. P***, Paris, 4 February 1878, lot 54 (“Anc. rel.) Jolie reliure du seizième siècle, bien conservée. Sur les plats la devise d’un amateur inconnu: Tu tibl ipse sis fortuna” [link])

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”)

(5) Martialis, Epigrammatom libri 14 summa diligentia castigati (Paris: Simon de Colines, 1540)

provenance
● unidentified owner using the motto “Tu tibi ipse fortuna”
● unidentified owner, inscription “G. Mazuriel”, possibly Grégoire Mazuriel (b. 1665, Epinay sur Orge)
● Goguet (barré sur le titre) [read as “Goguel” in BnF opac]
● Joseph-Louis Léopold, baron Double (1812-1881)
● Boulouze & J. Techener, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. Léopold Double, Paris, 24-27 March 1863, lot 367 (“Sur l’un des plats on lit le titre, et sur l’autre l’inscription: Tu tibi ipse sis fortuna”) [link]
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 340)
● Horatio William Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1813-1894)
● exhibited Association des Editeurs Italiens, 1874 (“étiquette d’exposition au contreplat imprimée A. I. E. 1874”)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of a selected portion of the valuable library of the late Rt. Hon.ble the Earl of Orford, London, 14 March 1902, lot 136 & Pl. (“contemporary French blue morocco, back tooled in lines and fleurons, the sides covered with elegant leafy scrolls and line and diamond interlaced frames, similar to the ornamental bindings executed for Francis I by Geoffrey Tory, g.e. with ties, well preserved”) [link]
● Sotheran, London - bought in sale (£101)
● Mrs J. Clark Moore, Jr & Mrs A. Ludlow Kramer [identified in sale catalogue 1923 as owners-consignors of the Bement library]
● American Art Association, Catalogue of rare and valuable books, original drawings, mezzotints and engravings from the private library of the late Clarence S. Bement of Philadelphia, Pa., New York, 28 February-2 March 1923, lot 162 (“full contemporary seal [sic] brown morocco, sides with Grolieresque design of geometrical compartments and foliate corners in gilt, lettered on front, Martialis, on back Tv Tibi Ipse Sis Fortvna, small floral designs in back panels, gilt edges” [link])
● unidentified owner - bought in sale ($420)
● Laurin Guilloux Buffetaud & Dominique Courvoisier with Thierry Bodin, Livres et manuscrits, Paris, 5 June 2002, lot 117 (“très charmant exemplaire dans une reliure française attribuable à Claude de Picques … Elle fut réalisée pour Jean II, marquis d’O et de Maillebois”)
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (€6600)
● Librairie Lardanchet, Paris; their Beaux livres anciens et modernes (Paris 2002), item 2 (“du second plat, la devise: Tu tibi ipse sis fortuna”); Livres et documents anciens (Paris 2009), item 2 (“reliure française attribuable à Claude de Piques d’un format élégant. … Elle fut réalisée pour Jean II, marquis d’O et de Maillebois” [link])