Jean Courtier is an obscure figure, in early life a tutor to the four children of Charles de La Rochefoucauld, Comte de Rendan (d. 1562), and Fulvia Pico della Mirandola, later an accomplished Hellenist, publishing the first editions of two Greek authors: the commentary on Isaiah by Procopius of Gaza (1580),¹ and Hierocles’ commentary on The Golden Verses of Pythagoras (1583).² He dedicated those works respectively to Jean de La Rochefoucauld, abbé du monastère de Marmoutier (1525-1583), and to his former pupil, François de La Rochefoucauld, then Abbé de Tournus, and afterwards bishop of Clermont, made cardinal, and bishop of Senlis (1558-1645).

It is now assumed that Courtier was a Frenchman, born no later than 1540,³ who was appointed tutor to François, Jean-Louis, Charles, and Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld about 1565.⁴ His first published work, a new edition of John Christopherson’s translation of Eusebius and other Church historians (Louvain 1569, reprinted Cologne 1570), appeared at Paris in 1571, with its dedication to Abbé Jean de la Rochefoucauld subscribed from the Collège de Marmoutier (Lutetiae, ex tuis Maioris Monasterij scholis. 1571).⁵ His next was a translation of the letter-treatise Ad virginem lapsam of Saint Basil the Great (1574).⁶ Courtier travelled through Italy, acting as cicerone during a tour made by his young pupils. He was in Rome sometime between the late summer of 1577 and the end of September 1579, meeting there the humanist Joannes Livineius (Lievens, 1546-1599).⁷ He subscribed the preface to his Procopius in Bologna in October 1579 and was either still there, or had returned there, when in April 1581 he wrote to Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto for help with his new Hierocles edition.⁸ Courtier was again in Paris by 1 August 1583.⁹

Courtier’s inscriptions in 1505 Aldine Quintus Smyrnaeus (no. 9)
Ιωάννης ὁ Κουρτήριος – Ιωαννου του κουρτηριου – Empt[um]. 20. Ass[ibis]. 1564 Jo. Curterio (transferred from previous binding)

Courtier’s inscription (transferred from previous binding) in 1547 Estienne Dionysius Periegetes (no. 4) (courtesy of Maggs Bros, link)

Courtier’s inscriptions on endleaf of a codex containing the work of Hermogenes (no. 11)
νύκτας τε καὶ ἤματα (Cataldi Palau: “proverbial, Homeric, e.g. Ilias 18, 340”)

Ten volumes (containing seventeen printed books) from Courtier’s library can be recognised from inscriptions, either his name (in Greek or Latin), or a purchase notation (price and date). Three are Aldines: the 1495 Greek grammar of Theodore Gaza, the 1505 edition of Quintus Smyrnaeus’ continuation of Homer’s Iliad, and the 1516 edition of the Historia Augusta by G.B. Cipelli. According to purchase inscriptions in these books, the grammar was acquired in 1564, and the two others in 1565. Nine other books were printed in Paris, between 1547 and 1568: four by Guillaume Morel, the royal printer in Greek, two by Martin Le Jeune, and one each by Michel de Vascosan, Thomas Richard, and Robert Estienne. The latest book in the group is Janus Dousa’s collection of epigrams, printed at Antwerp in 1569, and purchased the same year.

In addition to these printed books, two manuscripts can be identified as once belonging to Courtier. One is a commentary on Hermogenes, written by the scribe Manuele Moro in the 1560s, inscribed “Ioannis Curterij” (Clermont-Meerman collections, now Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. I. 1. 15).¹⁰ The other manuscript, one of several consulted by Courtier for his Procopius edition, is a copy of an eleventh-century codex in the Biblioteca Marciana, made by a professional scribe in Venice about 1565 at the behest of the Parisian bookseller Bernard Turrisan (Clermont-Meerman-Phillipps collections, now Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1415).¹¹ That manuscript had been commissioned by Jean Picot, the editor of Theodoret of Cyrus, and when he died (1565) before taking delivery, Courtier bought it from Turrisan.¹² It retains no ownership inscription of Courtier.

books belonging to courtier

(1) Aratus, Aratou Soleōs Phainomena kai Diosēmeia. Theōnos scholia. Leontiou Mēchanikou Peri arateias sphairas (Paris: Guillaume Morel, 1559)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, annotations
● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, RES-V-980 (opac avec notes mss. de Johannes Curterius)


(2) Joachim Camerarius, Arithmologia ēthikē. In hoc libello continentur numeris comprehensae indicationes variae, de quibus animus instrui poterit multiplici cognitione, in primis prudentiae et honestatis praeceptis (Basel: Johann Oporinus, 1551)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscription
● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, R-18072 (opac Reliure en parchemin souple, à rabat, XVIe s.- Provenance: Johannes Curterius.- Mention manuscrite d’achat sur la page de titre: “Empt. 10. Jo. Curterio 1565”)


(3) Demetrius Phalereus, Peri hermeneias. De elocutione (Paris: Guillaume Morel, 1555), bound with Aristoteles, Peri poiētikēs. De arte poetica liber (Paris: Guillaume Morel, 1555), bound with Marcus Tullius Cicero, Cato, vel de senectute (Paris: Martin Le Jeune, 1568), bound with Marcus Tullius Cicero, Oneiros tou Skipiōnos. Somnium Scipionis (Paris: Martin Le Jeune, 1568), bound with Marcus Tullius Cicero, Paradoxa, recognita simul, & Graecè versa, ab Joanne morisoto medico: nuncque primum in lucem edita (Basel: Johann Oporinus, 1547), bound with Bernardino Donato, De Platonicae atque Aristotelicae philosophiae differentia, libellus. Nuper in lucem editus (Venice: Girolamo Scoto, 1540)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscription, annotations
● Jacques Bongars (1554-1612)
● Burgerbibliothek, Bern
● Bern, Universitätsbibliothek, Bong IV 185: 1-6 (Demetrius, opac Flexibler Pergamenteinband der Zeit. Aus dem Besitz von Joannes Curterius [link]; Aristoteles, opac Annotiert von Joannes Curterius (Hagen S. 518) [link])

literature
Hermann Hagen, Catalogus codicum Bernensium (Bern 1875), p.518 (“G 299. Aristoteles de arte poetica. Paris. 1555. Fuit Joannis Curterii; 1568. Curterii; notae, argumenta, coniecturae.” [link]; p.523: “G 299. M. Tullii Ciceronis Cato maior ex vers. Græcæ Theodori. Paris. 1568. Anonymi (Curterii?, cf. s. v. Aristoteles de poetica) coniecturae, quibus sigla ye. praeposita est.” [link])

(4) Dionysius Periegetes, Dionysii Alexandrlni de situ orbis libellus, Eustathii Thessalonicensis archiepiscopi commentariis illustratus (Paris: Robert Estienne, 1547)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscription dated 1559 (transferred from previous binding), annotations, including one dated 12 March 1572
● Johann Henrich Böcker, inscription dated Paris, 1706
● Nicolas Yemeniz (1783-1871)
● Nicolas Yemeniz, Catalogue de mes livres, Tome troisième (Lyon 1866), p.6 no. 2663 (“Bel exemplaire pur, avec des notes manuscrites”) [link]
● Delbergue-Cormont & Librairie Bachelin-Deflorenne, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. N. Yemeniz, Paris, 9-31 May 1867, lot 2663 (“Très-bel exemplaire avec des notes manuscrites de J.-H. Bœcker”) [link]
● Spiros Loverdos (1874-1936)
● Spiros Loverdos Foundation Library, inkstamp
● Sotheby's, Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern, London, 18 July 2023, lot 60 [link; RBH L23403-60]
● Maggs Bros, London; their catalogue Ownership, Annotation & Association (London 2023), item 8 (£12,000) [link]; Childhood: a short list of works by, for and about children 1500-1800 (London 2023), item 4


(5) Johan Van de Does, Epigrammatum libri II. Satyrae libri II. Elegorum liber I. Silvarum libri II (Antwerp: Willem Silvius, 1569)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscription “Empt. 19 ass. Jo. Curterio. 1569” (opac)
● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, YC-9297 (opac Sur la page de garde, mention manuscrite: Empt. 19 ass. Jo. Curterio. 1569)


(6) Giovanni Battista Egnazio, In hoc volumine haec continentur. Ioannis Baptistae Egnatij Veneti De Caesaribus libri III a dictatore Caesare ad Constantinum Paleologum … Neruae & Traiani atque Adriani principum vitae ex Dione, Georgio Merula interprete. Aelius Spartianus Iulius Capitolinus Lampridius Flauius Vopiscus Trebellius Pollio Vulcatius Gallicanus ab eodem Egnatio castigati (Venice: Heirs of Aldus Manutius & Andreas Torresanus, July 1516)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscription “Curterii Mallardii και τω v φίλωv” on title-page and “ … Assibus. Empt. …ass. Joa. Curterio 1564” on front paste-down
● unidentified owner, contemporary running head-titles in ink
● unidentified owner, inscription “fr. Amadeus Lugdunensis (?) amicorum (?)” on title-page
● possibly Collège de Clermont, Paris (?) [manuscripts owned, or possibly owned by Courtier, migrated there; however, no copy of this book is entered in the auction sale catalogue: Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque des ci-devant soi-disans Jésuites du Collège de Clermont, Paris, 19 March 1764 et seq.]
● possibly Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (1792-1872) (?)
● possibly Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Phillippica, New series, Twentieth part: Catalogue of Continental printed books from the celebrated collection formed by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt. (1792-1872) and from other sources, The property of the Trustees of the Robinson Trust, London, 28-29 November 1977, lot 5202 [RBH 1977(MANUTIUS)-5202]
● possibly Alan G. Thomas, London - bought in sale (£60)
● Sokol Books Ltd, London
● T. Kimball Brooker, purchased from the above, 1998 [Bibliotheca Brookeriana #0208; offered by Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library: The Aldine Collection, D-M, New York, 18 October 2024, lot 697]


(7) Michael Neander, En lector, librum damus verè aureum, planéque scholasticum, quo continentur haec: ta chrysa kalumena pythagorum epe. Id est, pythagorae carmina aurea. Phocylidae poema admonitorium. Theognidis megarensis poete, siculi gnomologia. Coluthi lycopolitae thebaei helenae raptus. Tryphiodori poetae Aegyptii de troiae excidio (Basel: Johann Oporinus, 1559)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscription “Joann. curterii, 1584,” annotations (opac)
● Jacques Bongars (1554-1612)
● Burgerbibliothek, Bern
● Bern, Universitätsbibliothek, MUE Bong VI 33 (opac Flexibler Pergamenteinband der Zeit. Provenienz: auf Haupt-Titelblatt Besitzvermerk “Joann. curterii, 1584” Anmerkungen von Curterius im Teil Coluthus (Hagen 524) & im Teil Tryphiodorus (Hagen 549) [link])

literature
Hermann Hagen, Catalogus codicum Bernensium (Bern 1875), p.549 (“G.42 Tryphiodori; carmen de Troiae excidio. Bas. Oporin. 1559. Joannis Curterii notae aliquot et coniecturae 1584.” [link]; “G 42. Coluthi raptus Helenæ. Bas. Oporin. 1559. Joannis Curterii; coniecturæ et lectiones variæ. 1584” [link])
P.O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum: accedunt alia itinera: a finding list of uncatalogued or incompletely catalogued humanistic manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other libraries, Vol. 5: (Alia itinera III and Italy III) (London 1990), pp.96, 98 [link]


(8) Oppianus Anazarbensis, De piscatu libri V. De venatione libri IIII. Ita conversi, ut singula verba singulis respondeant (Paris: Guillaume Morel for Adrien de Turnèbe, 1555), bound with Callimachus, Ymnoi, meta tōn scholiōn. Hymni cum scholiis (Paris: Michel de Vascosan, 1549), bound with Homerus, Batrachomyomachia. Ranarum et murium pugna (Paris: Thomas Richard, 1562)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscription dated 1585, annotations (opac)
● Jacques Bongars (1554-1612)
● Burgerbibliothek, Bern
● Bern, Universitätsbibliothek, MUE Bong IV 673 : 1-3 (opac Schafledereinband der Zeit. Annotationen von Joannes Curterius (Hagen 520) [link]; Oppianus, opac Provenienz: Besitzervermerke von Joannes Curterius, 1585, & von Bongars” [link])

literature
Hermann Hagen, Catalogus codicum Bernensium (Bern 1875), p.520 (“F 78 4°. Callimachi hymni. Par. 1549. Joannis Curterii (Courtier) lectiones variae (praemissa sigla v.) et coniecturae. Post Suidae βιον hoc habes argumentum versibus politicis scriptum: In cod. manuscr. haec habentur...” [link])


(9) Quintus Smyrnaeus, Quinti Calabri Derelictorum Ab Homero Libri Quatuordecim [includes texts of Quintus Smyrnaeus, Tryphiodorus, Colluthus] (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, [1505])

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscriptions “Ιωαννου του κουρτηριου (Iōannu tu kurtēriu),” “Empt[us]. 20. Ass. 1564 Jo. Curterio,” annotations
● perhaps Johannes Sambucus (1531-1584) [according to the usual account, his library passed en bloc into the Imperial Library, and an entry for the 1505 Quintus Smyrnaeus in the manuscript catalogue “Bibliothecae clarissimi viri Ioannis Sambuci catalogus librorum 1587” was correlated by Pál Gulyás with Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, shelfmark 22.P.3; see his Die Bibliothek Sambucus Katalog (second edition, Szeged 1992), p.199 no. 671. Recently, Noémi Viskolcz, “The Fate of Johannes Sambucus’ Library” in Hungarian Studies 30 (2016), pp.155-166, has shown that Sambucus' library was widely dispersed]
● unidentified owner, inscription dated 1612 (opac)
● Émery Bigot (1626-1689)
● Gabriel Martin, Bibliotheca Bigotiana, seu, Catalogus librorum, Pars III, Paris, 1 July 1706 etc, p.196 lot 4915 (as “Venet ap. Ald. 1567. [sic] cum notis MSS”) [link; no edition dated 1567 is recorded]
● Georg Wilhelm von Hohendorf (ca. 1680-1719)
● Abraham de Hondt, Bibliotheca Hohendorfiana: ou Catalogue de la bibliothèque de feu Monsieur George Guillaume baron de Hohendorf, The Hague, 1720, lot 2899 (“Venet: apud Aldum, en maroquin rouge, doré sur tranche; cet exemplaire est chargé d’une quantité de notes Mss”) [link]
● Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 22.P.3 Alt-Prunk ALT (opac Auf dem zweiten Vorsatzblatt recto und auf dem Titelbl. von Johannes Curterius … handschriftlicher Besitzvermerk (Autogramm): “Ιωαννου του κουρτηριου (Iōannu tu kurtēriu)”. - Auf dem zweiten Vorsatzblatt recto mehrere … aufgeklebte Ausschnitte mit Eintragungen von Hand Curterius u.a. zu An- und Verkauf des Exemplars: “Empt[us]. 20. Ass. 1564 Jo. Curterio” [Datum 1564] … Zahlreiche Marginalien in lat. und griech. Schrift von Curterius mit schwarzer Tinte zu allen drei Werken … (lat. Lemmatisierungen zur Historie der Iliade, griech. Worterklärungen und philologische Kommentare, Verweise); Folierung des ganzen Exemplars und Verszählung des ersten Werkes sowie einige Textergänzungen und Hervorhebungen mit roter Tinte; Auf dem letzten Bl. Datum der Lektüre: “1567. oct. no. dec.”) [link, link]


(10) Theodorus Gaza, Grammatica introductiva [Greek] (with Gaza, De mensibus [Greek]; Apollonius Dyscolus, De constructione [Greek]; Herodianus, De numeris [Greek]) (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 25 December 1495)

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscription “Empt. Jo. Curterio 1565” on front pastedown
● Canterbury, Cathedral Library, W/S-12-2 (mei The fourth book of the Grammatica is interleaved with 31 leaves with annotations in Greek, foliated with numbers matching the manuscript foliation 59-99 of this section of the book (only); The book was in the Cathedral Library by 1743)

literature
David J. Shaw, “Italian incunables in Canterbury Cathedral Library” in La Bibliofilía 115 (2013), pp.205-216 (p.210 no. 8: “Inscription on front paste down: ‘Empt. Jo. Curterio 1565’ … The sixteenth-century owner Joannes Curterius is unidentified”; “Binding: Continental blind-stamped calf, re-backed”)

 manuscripts belonging to courtier

(11) Ms, Commentary on Hermogenes, De statibus [written by Manuele Moro, at Venice (?), ca 1562-1564 (?), perhaps in Bartolomeo Zanetti’s scriptorium]

provenance
● Jean Courtier, inscribed “Ioannis Curterij” in brown ink, in the centre of the folio (Cataldi Palau 1989, illustrated Pl. 8b; on the same page, an inscription in Greek)
● unidentified owner, inscription “Non quae super terram” on pastedown, shelfmark (letters “Rr”) [shelfmark reproduced by Cataldi Palau 1989 Pl. 8a; this is the motto of Cardinal François de Tournon (1489-1562), however Cataldi Palau dismisses him as a possible owner; identified by Rincel as François Olivier de Fontenay, abbé of St. Quentin de Beauvais]
● Collège de Clermont, Paris, inscriptions “Colleg[ii] Clarom[ontani] Paris[iensis] Soc[ietatis] Jesu”, “Paraphé au désir de l’arrest du 5 juillet 1763. Mesnil” (Cataldi Palau 2011, inscriptions reproduced p.152)
● Catalogus manuscriptorum codicum Collegii Claromontani quem excipit catalogus Mssrum. domûs professae Parisiensis (Paris 1764), p.113 no. 346 [link]
● Gerard Meerman (1722-1771) (Cataldi Palau 2011: “Small parchment rectangle glued at the top of the spine, ‘303’. (f. <Iv>, centre of the upper margin), ‘113’, in brown ink”)
● Bibliotheca Meermanniana sive catalogus librorum impressorum et codicum manuscriptorum quos maximam partem collegerunt viri nobilissimi Gerardus et Joannes Meerman (The Hague 1824), p.48 no. 303
● Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. T.1.15 (opac [link])

literature
Annaclara Cataldi Palau, “Une collection de manuscrits grecs du XVIe siècle (Ex-libris: ‘Non quae super terram’)” in Scriptorium 43 (1989), pp.35-75 (pp.62-66 & Pl. 8a-b) [link]
Annaclara Cataldi Palau, A Catalogue of Greek manuscripts from the Meerman Collection in the Bodleian Library (Oxford 2011), pp.153-155 [link]
Xavier Rincel, “Les manuscrits grecs de François Olivier de Fontenay” in Scripta: an international journal of codicology and palaeography 16 (2023), pp.165-234


(12) Ms, Procopius de Gaza, Catena in Isaiam (1579?)

provenance
● Jean Courtier (?) (Cataldi Palau)
● Collège de Clermont, Paris, (Collegii Parisiensis Societatis Jesu)
● Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (1792-1872)
● Phillipps Ms 1415
● Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Phill. 1415

literature
Cataldi Palau, op. cit. 1989, p.66