The third son of Federico II Gonzaga and Margaret Paleologina, Louis (Lodovico) was born at Mantua on 22 October 1539. At the age of 10, he was sent by his mother and uncle to Paris, to be integrated into the court of the five-year-old Dauphin François at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and to secure possession of family (d’Alençon-Montferrat) assets.3 Little is known about his education (supervised by Leonardo Arrivabene and Stefano Guazzo), and unfortunately nothing at all about some books which he evidently acquired from his mother in the mid-1550s.4 In 1557, Louis took up arms for Henri II, was taken prisoner at the battle of Saint-Quentin, and released to Mantua by the Spanish. He returned to the service of France under François II. When in 1564 the last duke of Clèves died, the house of Clèves-Nevers faced a succession crisis. It was averted by Catherine de’ Medici, who shrewdly promoted Louis into a marriage with the heiress, Henriette de Clèves (4 March 1565). Her family patrimony and the ducal title were afterwards transferred to Louis jure uxoris.
The architect Philibert De L’Orme had served Henri II as Surintendant des bâtiments royaux, the highest administrative office an architect could aspire to at court. Within a decade, he built some of France’s most celebrated architectural works: the tomb of François I at Saint-Denis, the Château d’Anet for Diane de Poitiers, and the Château Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was architect also of a number of “hôtels” in the capital, for aristocratic and haut-bourgeois patrons, many of which are now lost and unrecorded.5 In 1559, following the death of Henri II, De L’Orme was abruptly dismissed from his responsibilities in the royal building projects. He retreated briefly to Italy, considered a consecrated life, then conceived a vast treatise on all the elements of architecture, tailored for a French not a European public. In 1561, a few months after the accession of Charles IX, he published the first part of the projected work, and dedicated it to the king in a bid for renewed royal patronage. In 1564, De L’Orme was rehabilitated by Henri II’s widow, Catherine de’ Medici, who appointed him architect at the Tuileries. That ambitious project was still unfinished when De L’Orme died on 8 January 1570.
De L’Orme’s Nouvelles inventions pour bien bastir (1561) and Le premier tome de l’architecture (1567) were written for the benefit of master carpenters and masons, but intended above all to advise (and impress) patrons. Both works were published by the scholar-printer Frédéric Morel, the son of an aristocrat, who in 1571 replaced his cousin Robert II Estienne as royal printer. Some copies on large paper of the latter work were printed for distribution to the dedicatee and prospective patrons. Louis de Gonzague, who in 1567 was wanting a residence appropriate to his new status, was an obvious target.6 There can be little doubt that De L’Orme gave him this large paper, luxuriously bound volume with the hope of obtaining a great commission.
Unfortunately for De L’Orme, a landmark site was not found until two years after the architect’s death, in 1572, when Louis bought from the Crown the Hôtel de Nesle, a dilapidated property situated on the left bank of the Seine, directly opposite from the “Pavillon du Roi” of the Louvre; it had once been the principal residence of Jean de Berry (1340-1416). Here an anonymous architect (Pierre Lescot? Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau?) slowly built the largest private house within the city walls.7 According to Louis’s diplomatic secretary, Blaise de Vigenère, writing in 1577, Louis intended to endow the new Hôtel de Nevers with “une magnifique Bibliothèque, garnie de toutes sortes de bons liures; avec deux hommes de lettres stipendiez d’une bonne pension, l’un pour la langue Grecque, l’autre pour la Latine, qui auront charge d’y assister trois iours de la sepmaine, pour recueillir ceux qui i viendront, & conferer auec eux des points dont ils se voudront resouldre”.8 It is uncertain whether this plan was a fantasy of the secretary, or Louis actually proposed to implement it, and if the library ever came into being.
Although he mingled with scholars, authors, and artists, and there is ample documentation of Louis’s love of learning and of literature,9 no evidence has yet been found that Louis collected a library. The couple’s eta-lamba cypher appears on the bindings of some copies of the first two printings of the statutes of a charitable foundation they established for the benefit of poor girls (Paris 1579, 1588; see below Appendix C-D), and on some copies of a treatise on the coinage of the duchy of Rethel (Paris 1585; see below Appendix E).10 But such volumes most assuredly were intended for distribution, not for their private library.11
Woodcut tailpiece in La Fondation (1588) [link]; binding details from nos. C-2, D-1, C-4
The only other volume known to this writer which has any claim of belonging to Louis de Gonzague contains commentaries on Aristotle’s Posterior analytics and De Anima printed in 1497 and 1505. Bound in calf after 1565, its upper cover is lettered illi. d. lud. gonzag. d. niver. moecen.12 Like the De L’Orme, it has the appearance of a gift.
1. Christie’s Paris, Bibliothèque de Martine de Béhague et des comtes de Ganay. Première partie, Paris, 26 November 2019, lot 84 [images, link]. A second volume, mentioned by De L’Orme at the end of the dedication, and again at the end of the text, was never published.
2. The “most typical tool” of this shop, described by Howard Nixon as “a kind of small loving cup on an inverted trefoil base,” is placed here above and below the cypher centred on each cover; see H. Nixon, Sixteenth-century gold-tooled bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York 1971), no. 44, and G.D. Hobson, Les Reliures à la fanfare… Deuxième édition (Amsterdam 1970), pp.3, 7 Fig. 3, 59. For two Italian architectural treatises from this bindery, see Isabelle de Conihout, Poetry & patronage: the Laubespine-Villeroy Library rediscovered (New York 2020), nos. 8-9.
3. Sylvène Édouard, “‘Vivre et mourir à l’ombre de Sa Majesté.’ Louis de Gonzague, futur duc de Nevers, à la petite cour des Enfants de France” in Jeunesse(s) et élites: Des rapports paradoxaux en Europe de l’Ancien Régime à nos jours (Rennes 2009), pp.281-293 [online, link].
4. Édouard, op. cit. (“La possession de livres était sans doute individuelle.”).
5. Maurice Roy, Artistes et monuments de la Renaissance en France (Paris 1929), I, pp. 348-374 (“Les Travaux de Philibert de l’Orme à Paris, 1546-1559”).
6. After their marriage in 1565 Louis and Henriette apparently resided at the Hôtel de Nevers on the rue des Poulies, a modest property within the dense “quartier des Halles,” which had been purchased by Henriette’s father in 1561 from Catherine de’ Medici. In 1575, Louis sold it to René de Villequier. Ariane Boltanski, Les ducs de Nevers et l’État royal: genèse d’un compromis (ca 1550-ca 1600) (Geneva 2006), pp.134-135.
7. David Thomson, Renaissance Paris: Architecture and Growth 1475–1600 (Berkeley 1984), pp.137-143 [online, link]. The Hôtel des Monnaies now occupies the site.
8. Quotation from the dedicatory letter to Blaise de Vigenère, L’Histoire de la décadence de l’empire grec (Paris 1577), folio c2 recto [link].
9. Ariane Boltanski, “Les Gonzagues-Nevers protecteurs des lettres à la cour de Henri III” in Henri III mécène: des arts, des sciences et des lettres (Paris 2006), pp.293-304.
10. Joannis Guigard, Nouvel armorial du bibliophile: guide de l’amateur des livres armoriés (Paris 1890), II, p.239 [link]. Henri Jadart, “Le bibliophiles rémois. Leurs ex-libris et fers de reliure suivis de ceux de la bibliothèque de Reims” in Travaux de l’Académie nationale de Reims 92 (1891), II, p.8 [link].
11. In a letter to Louis de Gonzague, dated 20 February 1577, Blaise de Vigenère reports on the production of the first edition of La Fondation faicte par mes seigneur et dame (not completed until 1579), confirming the number of copies to be printed, the materials to be used, and the binding of copies intended for presentation (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Français 4538, f.175 [link]); see Henri Bouchot, “La préparation et la purification d’un livre illustré au XVIe siècle, 1573-1588” in Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartres (1892), pp.612-623 (p.621).
12. Apollinaris Offredus, Expositio in primum Posteriorum Aristotelis (Venice: Otino Luna, 14 January 1497), bound with Gaetano Thiene, Caietanus super libros De anima. Eiusdem questiones de sensu agente … Item De substantia orbis Ioannis de Gandauo cum quaestionibus eiusdem (Venice: Gregorio De Gregori, 1505) ● Lathrop C. Harper, Catalogue of a selection of incunabula from over 150 presses (New York 1927), item 14 (“French binding of the last half of the 16th century in brown calf, gilt fleurons in the corners, and gilt ornaments of oval arabesques in the centre of both covers; lettered in gold on front cover: illi. d. lud. gonzag. d. niver. moecen. … From the library of the famous general Louis Gonzaga, Duc de Nevers, who was the third son of Frederick II, Duc de Mantua. He became Duc de Nevers in 1565 and died in 1595.”) ● New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library, Zi +5600.5 (opac, [link])
Philibert de l’Orme, Le Premier tome de l’architecture de Philibert de l’Orme conseiller et aumosnier ordinaire du Roy & Abbé de S. Serge les Angiers (Paris: Fédéric Morel, 1567)
Shelfmarks or inventory numbers on the front endleaves Le premier tome de l’architecture
provenance
● apparently bound and presented by the author to Louis de Gonzague, duc de Nevers (1539-1595), his cypher ΛΗ (denoting Louis and Henriette, his wife) repeated across covers and the back
● Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl Sunderland (1675-1722)
● Charles Spencer, 5th Earl Sunderland (1706-1758)
● Sunderland, Blenheim Palace library (Oxfordshire), pencilled shelfmark on endpaper “108. H 3” (printed as “108. h” in 1872 library catalogue, see below)
● Puttick & Simpson, Bibliotheca Sunderlandiana: sale catalogue of the truly important and very extensive library of printed books known as the Sunderland or Blenheim Library, third portion, London, 17-27 July 1882, lot 7583 (“large paper (?) ruled with red lines, bound in black morocco, inlaid with red and brown, the sides and back covered with elaborate and intricate gold tooling, and monogram of Henri Duc d’Orleans on sides, gilt edges, a fine specimen of contemporary ornamental binding” [link])
● Techener, Paris - bought in sale (£125) [link]
● Hippolyte-Alexandre-Gabriel-Walter Destailleur (1822-1893)
● Maurice Delestre & Damascène Morgand, Catalogue de livres et estampes relatifs aux beaux-arts (Architecture, Peinture, Gravure, Ornementation, etc) provenant de la bibliothèque de feu M. Hippolyte Destailleur, Paris, 20-31 May 1895, lot 305 (“réglé, fig., mar. noir, milieux de mar. rouge, bordures de mar. citron, riches dorures avec fil. droits et courbés couvrant entièrement le dos et les plats, tr. dor. (Rel. anc.). … Magnifique exemplaire en grand papier recouvert d’une splendide reliure en mosaïque avec dorures exécutées par un des plus brillants artistes du XVIe siècle. Il a appartenu au roi Henri III dont le chiffre (forme d’un H et d’un Λ (lambda) en l’honneur de Louise de Lorraine) orne les plats et le dos du volume” [link])
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 7500)
● Martine-Marie-Pol de Béhague, comtesse de Béarn (1870-1939), exlibris, lettered “Naître Pleurer Mourir Apprendre” [daughter of the bibliophile Octave de Béhague; wife of René de Galard de Brassac, comte de Béarn 1862-ca 1920]
● Hubert de Ganay, marquis de Ganay (1888-1974), exlibris (initials “H H” flanking a crowned eagle), numerals “440” in red ink in bottom corner of lower free endpaper [godson of Martine de Béhague, also her nephew; perhaps by descent to Jean-Louis, marquis de Ganay (1922-2013), the eldest of Hubert’s five sons]
● Christie’s Paris, Bibliothèque de Martine de Béhague et des comtes de Ganay. Première partie, Paris, 26 November 2019, lot 84 (“Provenance: Chiffre H? (Êta - Lambda) non identifié”; “Si nous n’avons pas pu identifier le chiffre H? (Êta - Lambda) répété, l’encadrement mosaïqué de maroquin brun sur les plats nous laisse penser que cet exemplaire fut relié pour un membre de la cour du roi Charles IX”) [estimate €150,000-200,000; realised €237,500]
● T. Kimball Brooker, purchased in the above sale [Bibliotheca Brookeriana #3298]
● Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Brookeriana III: Art, architecture and illustrated books, London, 9 July 2024, lot 502 (£279,400; RBH
L24402-502]
● New York, Morgan Library & Museum, 199222 (opac [link])
literature
Catalogue of the books in the library at Blenheim Palace, collected by Charles, third Earl of Sunderland (Oxford 1872), p.337 [link]
[Blaise de Vigenère?], La Fondation faicte par mes seigneur et dame, les duc et duchesse de Nivernois et de Rethelois… pour marier doresnavant par chacun an à perpétuité, en leurs terres et seigneuries, jusques au nombre de soixante pauvres filles, destituées de toutes facultez et moyens (S.l., s.n., 1579)
(C-1) ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Vélins 999 (opac Ex. réglé. Rel. v. br. à rabat, double fil. dor. et fleurons d’angles, au chiffre de Louis de Gonzague, duc de Nivernais et de sa femme, Henriette de Clèves [link]). Henri Bouchot, “La préparation et la purification d’un livre illustré au XVIe siècle, 1573-1588” in Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartres (1892), pp.612-623 (p.621: “Le plus soigné de ceux que conserve la Bibliothèque a gardé sa reliure d’origine. C’est une couverture en veau mou, avec languette repliée comme dans les portefeuilles. Sur les plats, au milieu d’une couronne de feuillage dorée, se voient les initiales liées du duc et de la duchesse, formées, à la mode du XVIe siècle, d’un λ grec pour Louis de Gonzague et d’un H pour Henriette de Clèves (ce monogramme a quelquefois causé des erreurs et a été pris pour celui de Henri III et de Louise de Lorraine, laquelle se servait également du sigle λ). C’est là une de ces reliures que l’intendant recommande à son maître pour les exemplaires de don.” [link])
(C-2) ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 4° Kk2 1171. Joannis Guigard, Nouvel armorial du bibliophile: guide de l’amateur des livres armoriés (Paris 1890), II, p.239 (illustration said to be made from this volume [link])
(C-3) ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Rés M-F-1 (opac Ex. réglé. - Rel. v. br. à rabat, double fil. dor. et fleurons d’angles, au chiffre de Louis de Gonzague, duc de Nivernais et de sa femme, Henriette de Clèves [link])
No. C-4 Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, 4° 18877 [Rés]
(C-4) ● Couvent des Cordeliers, Paris ● Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, 4° 18877 [Rés] (opac exemplaire imprimé sur vélin et réglé; p. LV, à la fin du texte imprimé des lettres patentes, ont été portées à l’encre les signatures de 2 témoins dont l’un, Poreau, a également paraphé chaque p. du texte … reliure soignée en veau brun, France, vers 1576; rabat (forme d’enveloppe) orné d’un petit fer en forme d’aigle à deux têtes; encadrement de deux filets dorés, écoinçons azurés, médaillon central formé d’une couronne végétale ceignant le monogramme lambda et H de Louis de Gonzague duc de Nevers et de son épouse Henriette de Clèves; tranches dorées [link]) [image courtesy of Isabelle de Conihout]
(C-5) ● Jérôme Pichon (1812-1896) ● Maurice Delestre & Leclerc et Cornuau, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de feu M. le baron Jérôme Pichon, Paris, 3-14 May 1897, lot 1401 (“veau noir, dent. et fil à fr., tr. dor. (Anc. rel.) Exemplaire portant sur les plats les chiffres des fondateurs (L et H enlacés) et revêtu des signatures des notaires.” [link])
(C-6) possibly identical with no. C-5 ● J. Pearson & Co., 500 important books manuscripts, and autograph letters (London [1910?]), item 272 (£35; “bound for Louis de Gonzague, Duc de Nivernois, with the Greek monogram, ‘L & H’ (Louis and Henrietta, his wife) impressed on the sides. An exactly similar binding is to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale” [link]); J. Pearson & Co., Two hundred books from the libraries of the world’s greatest book collectors (London [1910]), item 18 (£40; “bound for Louis de Gonzague, Duc de Nivernois, with the Greek monogram, ‘L & H’ (Louis and Henrietta, his wife) impressed on the sides. An exactly similar binding is to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale [link]) ● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of valuable illuminated & other manuscripts, rare early printed books (English and foreign), London, 5-7 March 1913, lot 162 (“bound for Louis de Gonzague, Duc de Nivernois, with the Greek monogram, ‘L & H’ (Louis and Henrietta, his wife) impressed on the sides. An exactly similar binding is to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale” [link]) ● Morrow, bought in sale (£6) [link] ● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of valuable books and illuminated and other manuscripts, London, 11-12 December 1913, lot 428 (“bound for Louis de Gonzague, Duc de Nivernois, with the Greek monogram, ‘L & H’ (Louis and Henrietta, his wife) impressed on the sides. An exactly similar binding is to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale” [link]) ● J. & J. Leighton, bought in sale (£6) [Book Prices Current, 28, p.244 “bound for Louis de Gonzague, Duc de Nivernois, with the Greek monogram, ‘L & H’ (Louis and Henrietta, his wife)” [link])
undetermined ● Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, 4 L 688 INV 827 RES (opac, [link])
La fondation faicte par mes seigneur et dame, les duc, et duchesse de Nivernois & de Rethelois; Princes de Manthoue; etc. Pairs de France. Pour marier doresnauant par chacun an à perpetuité, en leurs terres & seigneuries, iusques au nombre de soixante pauures filles, destituces de toutes facultez, & et moyens (S.l., s.n. [Paris: Robert Colombel?], 1588)
No. D-1 Houghton Library, Typ 515.88.342
(D-1) ● Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Houghton Library, Typ 515.88.342 (opac Original official binding of dark calf, gilt plain fillet border, gilt monogram of Louis & Henriette, edges gilt [link]). Ruth Mortimer, Catalogue of Books and manuscripts, Part l : French 16th century books (Cambridge, MA 1964), no. 193
(D-2) ● Le Mans, Médiathèque Aragon, H 4° 2953 (ccfr Rel. avec monogramme AH aux plats. Plats détachés, dos cassé [link])
(D-3) ● Nevers, Médiathèque municipale Jean Jaurès, MS 119 (opac, as “1558” [link]; ccfr as “1588” [link]. “Nevers Au fil du patrimonie” in Nevers ça me botte (no. 172, February 2011), p.52 (“reliure plein veau armorié” as 1579 [link])
undetermined ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Vélins 997 (opac, [link]) ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 4-LK2-1171 (A) (opac, [link]) ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, RES-R-481 (opac, [link]) ● Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, 4° A 10492 (opac, [link]) ● Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, 4o H 1457 (opac, [link]) ● Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, OEXV 293(2) RES (opac exmpl. sur vélin reglé r. [link]) ● Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, 240448 (opac veau [link] ● Grenoble, Bibliothèques municipales, D 2004 ● Orléans, Médiathèque municipale, Fonds anciens [68735], E 4033 (opac, [link]) ● Versailles, Bibliothèque municipale, Du Prat in-4 ILj 35 (opac, [link]) ● London, British Library, C.97.bb.21 ● London, Victoria & Albert Museum, National Art Library, SB.92.0030
François Garrault, Reduction et avaluation des mesures et poids anciens du duche de Rethelois à mesures & poids royaux: mise et redigee par escrit, en présence des deputez dudit duché, par François Garrault, sieur des Gorges, conseiller du Roy & general en sa cour des monnoyes, commissaire par luy ordonné (Paris: Sébastien Nivelle, 1585)
(E-1) ● Alphonse de Ruble (1834-1898) ● Ém. Paul et Fils et Guillemin & Maurice Delestre, Catalogue de livres anciens et modernes provenant de la bibliothèque de feu M. le baron de Ruble, Paris, 6-8 June 1900, lot 415. Henri Jadart, in Revue historique ardennaise 7 (1900), p.270 (“C’est un volume in-4° de 91 pages, réglé, reliure en veau brun, dos orné, filets et tranche dorés (reliure en forme de portefeuille). L’exemplaire est sur peau de vélin, avec le chiffre entrelacé de Louis de Gonzague et d’Henriette de Clèves sur les plats de la reliure.” [link])
(E-2) ● Jean-Baptiste Brincourt (1825-1908) ● André Desvouges & Ém. Paul et fils et Guillemin, Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de feu M. J.-B. Brincourt, de Sedan, première partie, Paris, 30 June-3 July 1909, lot 459 ● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 310) (“exemplaire sur peau de vélin relié aux chiffres entrelacés de L. de Gonzague et Henriette de Clèves, a été adjugé à 310 francs (n° 459)” [link])
(E-3) possibly identical with no. E-1 or E-2 ● New York, Morgan Library & Museum, 015242 (opac Printed on vellum. Old leather - with arms of Louis de Gonzague, duc de Nivernaise, & his wife Henriette de Cleves - blue morocco case [link])
(E-4) ● Alde, Livres anciens du XVe au XIXe siècle, Paris, 10 March 2020, lot 16 (“Exemplaire imprimé sur peau de vélin, réglé, dans une reliure aux chiffres entrelacés de Louis IV de Gonzague-Nevers (1539-1595), duc de Rethel, et de son épouse Henriette de Clèves (1542-1601). Signature autographe de l’auteur à la fin du texte. De la bibliothèque Hecht-Dollfus, avec ex-libris”) [RBH 25928-16]
undetermined ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Vélins-1994 (opac, [link]) ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, V-14825