Nicolas Dangu was the natural son of Antoine Duprat (1463-1535), chancellor of France and cardinal, and “demoiselle Dangu” (perhaps Louise de Ferrières, seigneuresse Dangu).3 Appointed in 1526 abbot of Notre-Dame de Juilly (Seine-et-Marne), Nicolas was named by François I in 1538 abbot of Saint-Savin-en-Lavedan, and in 1539 bishop of Sées (Orne), and in 1545, he became bishop of Mende (1545-1567) and comte de Gévaudan (a title devolved on the bishops of Mende). He also received from François I the title of Maître des requêtes de l’Hôtel du roi de France. In 1540, Nicolas was appointed Chancelier of Henri II d’Albret, sovereign of Navarre, and the King’s brother-in-law. He meanwhile became an intimate of Marguérite d’Angoulême, Queen of Navarre, and is often identified as one of the male narrators (Dagoucin) of her Heptameron. At an uncertain date, before 1547, Nicolas was granted the arms displayed on this binding: D’azur à la fasce d’or, chargée d’une fleur de lys de gueule, accompagnée de 3 molettes d’or 2 & 1.4
The motto “Ditat servata fides” (Loyalty preserved enriches) lettered on the upper cover is found also on the façade of a petit château built by Nicolas Dangu at Saint-Martin-d’Armagnac (close to Pau and Nérac, the two centres of the House of Navarre), carved in the lintel above the main entrance (l’an. ditat. servata. fides 1563),5 and written in a manuscript Book of Hours illustrated with miniatures of St. Martin which likely belonged to Nicolas Dangu.6 It is possible that the cornucopiae which flank the Dangu arms were inspired by Gabriele Simeoni’s woodcut emblem “Un fidele amico o servitore,” first published in 1559, which embodies the motto “Ditat servata fides”:
Gabriele Simeoni, Le Imprese heroiche et morali (Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1559), p.32 [link]
After the death of Henri II d’Albret (25 July 1555), Nicolas was maintained in his position by Jeanne d’Albret and Antoine de Bourbon, Queen and King of Navarre. He was marginalised after the latter’s death (17 November 1562), as the now publicly declared Protestant Queen could not keep a bishop at her court hostile to her religious projects. On 6 February 1563, Jeanne d’Albret despatched Nicolas to become administrator of the northern territories (Picardy, Flanders, Artois, Brabant, Hainaut) inherited by her children from their father. He is still listed among members of her household in 1564, but the increasing commitment of the Queen to the Protestant cause, and his own failing health, soon demanded retirement. In his final years, Nicolas occupied himself with the restoration of the abbey of Juilly, where he was buried in 1567.7
The promoter or publisher of the Hystoria Jasonis was Jehan de Mauregard, a clerk of the court (“Greffier des Prévosté et soubaillie de Poissy”) in the Île-de-France. In a dedicatory epistle to the young King Charles IX, Mauregard states that the prints were engraved after a set of drawings he had commissioned from the Flemish painter and designer Léonard Thiry, an artist in the Fontainebleau studios of Rosso Fiorentino and Primaticcio. The printmaker was René Boyvin, a specialist in engraving designs of the Fontainebleau artists. Captions for the prints were composed at Mauregard’s request by Jacques Gohory (1520-1576), and the suite was published simultaneously with the preliminary text and captions in French translation (the dedication is subscribed by Mauregard 3 July 1563, and the privilege dated 14 July 1563).
Mauregard’s motive in publishing this costly book is obscure. Multiple copies of the Latin and French issues were prepared for presentation, bound in different styles, most likely at the order or even under the supervision of Mauregard himself. No copies presented to the young sovereign, or to members of the Valois court, are identifiable today. However, two copies of the Hystoria Jasonis given to personages at the rival court of Navarre have survived: this one, presented to Nicolas Dangu, and another, also in an architectural binding, presented to Vincenzo Lauro (Lauri, Laureus; 1523-1592).
New York, Morgan Library & Museum, 15450
Born in Tropea, Calabria, Lauro studied medicine and theology at Naples and Padua, then served successively in Rome as private secretary and doctor to Cardinals Pietro Paolo Parisi and Nicola Gaddi, before in 1552 entering the service of the powerful Cardinal François de Tournon. Lauro developed close personal relationships at the French court and after the Cardinal’s death (21 April 1562), he became physician in ordinary to Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre.8 He is reputed to have been present during the King’s last illness, persuading him to confess and receive the holy viaticum (9 November 1562). Lauro was one of two doctors who rushed to attend the wounded François Duc de Guise (18 February 1563; died 24 February).9 He was also in service to Catherine de’ Medici, then acting as Regent for her young son, Charles IX. Lauro afterwards returned to Italy, became the physician of Duke Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, was elected bishop of Mondovì (1566), and created Cardinal (1583). In his testament, he left his library to the Collegio Romano.10
Detail from Morgan Library & Museum, 15450; insignia of Vincenzo Lauro (an uprooted laurel tree) after his promotion to Cardinal in 1583 (image sources [link], [link])
Lauro’s copy of the Hystoria Jasonis is bound in gold-tooled brown calf, with dark brown marbled goatskin onlays, and blue-grey paint, in the manner of Dangu’s copy. The design resembles a triumphal arch of three bays, formed by Ionic columns on pedestals, with a triangular pediment flanked by cornucopias. In the central bay on a red onlay is a shield bearing the Lauro arms, enclosed by a wreath with indistinct lettering.11 Although the bindings for Dangu and Lauro are not twins, the existence of two copies of the same book in architectural bindings strongly suggests that both are presentation copies, produced in the same shop and at the same time. The identity of that shop remains unknown.
Some ten years later, a pair of architectural bindings were made for wedding of Henri III de Navarre and Marguérite de Valois (18 August 1572). The covers of one are decorated with a gold-tooled cornice, frieze, and architrave, supported by pairs of Ionic columns; in a cartouche between the columns is the initial “H”, and the same letter is incorporated in the frieze and stylobate.12 The other is almost identical, but displays instead the cypher of Marguérite de Valois.13 Anthony Hobson suggested that these bindings were created in 1572 as albums covering blank paper, and subsequently were filled (respectively) with an “Explication cabalistique des psaumes de David” (in the 17th century?) and with the texts of discourses delivered in January-February 1576 at the Académie de Poésie et de Musique.14 Apart from the architectural elements, these two bindings have nothing in common with the bindings presented to Dangu and Lauro. They might reflect, however, a persisting taste for such architectural ornament at the Navarre court.
1. Anthony Hobson, Humanists and bookbinders: the origins and diffusion of the humanistic bookbinding 1459-1559 (Cambridge 1989), pp.68-72, 154-160 (p.160: “For Grolier and others ownership of a binding with architectural ornament was a declaration of fidelity to the humanistic ideal of revived antiquity.”).
2. Geoffrey D. Hobson, Maioli, Canevari and others (London 1926), pp.18-36 (chapter III, “Sixteenth-century bindings with architectural decoration”). More architectural bindings have since come to light. For Italian examples, see Tammaro De Marinis, La Legatura Artistica in Italia nei Secoli XV e XVI (Florence 1960), III, pp.51-54 (“Legatura con motivi architettonici”); and Hobson, op. cit., pp.68-72 (List D). Isabelle de Conihout, “À propos de l’exemplaire du Premier tome de l’architecture offert par De L’Orme à Catherine de Médicis: reliures de la Renaissance française à décor architectural” in Philibert De l’Orme: un architecte dans l’histoire: arts, sciences, techniques: actes du LVIIe colloque international d’études humanistes, CESR, 30 juin-4 juillet 2014 ([Turnhout] 2015), pp.167-180.
3. The birthdate of Nicolas Dangu is usually stated as 1526, but could be earlier. It appears that Nicolas already had reached his maturity when, in 1530, he assumed an administrative role in the pontifical legation of Antoine Duprat; see Les Conseillers de François Ier (Rennes 2011), pp.226-227. Nicolas is mentioned as an advisor to Henri II de Navarre in an act signed by the king on 20 April 1538; see Adot Alvaro, “Où est le cœur du roi de Navarre? Brève histoire de la conservation du cœur d’Henri II d’Albret jusqu’à nos jours” on website: ACtes ROyaux de Navarre [online, link]. He is identified as “docteur es droits” on 28 May 1544; see Catalogue des actes de François Ier, Tome quatrième 7 Mai 1539-30 décembre 1545 (Paris 1890), p.616 no. 13878 [link]. Nicolas’s birth was legitimised by lettres patentes, September 1540; see Paris, BnF, Archives et manuscrits, Français 4595: Recueil de copies de pièces, contenant les actes de légitimation rendus par les rois de France, de Henri II à Louis XIV: 8-111 Actes de légitimation et de naturalité accordés par Charles IX: fol. 173 (“Pièces relatives aux lettres de légitimation obtenues par ‘messire Nicolas Dangu, evesque de Mande, et damoiselle Anthoinette Dangu, sa soeur’, en 1540 et en 1564. 4 juillet 1567.” [link]).
4. Joseph Roman, Inventaire des sceaux de la collection des pièces originales du Cabinet des Titres à la Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris 1909), p.451, no. 3880 (on a receipt dated 26 April 1548): “Écu portant une fasce chargée d’une fleur de lys et accompagnée de trois étoiles; posé sur une crosse, accosté de feuillages. - Sans légende” [link]). François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye-Desbois, Dictionnaire généalogique, héraldique, chronologique et historique (Paris 1757), III, “Recherches sur les fleurs de lys”, p.li (“d’azur à la fasce d’or, chargée d’une fleur de lys de gueule, accompagnée de 3 molettes d’or 2 & 1” [link]).
5. This doorway was formerly flanked by two columns (only their bases survive); above is a triangular tympanum, and armorial keystone (?). Jean-Henri Ducos, “Le chateau de Saint-Martin-d’Armagnac" in Bulletin de la Société archéologique, historique littéraire & scientifique du Gers, XCVIme année, 4me Trimestre 1995 (January 1996), pp.483-496 (pp.486, 489 [link]).
6. Manuscript Book of Hours (Use of Paris), ca 1526-1551, 174 ff., on vellum, 21 miniatures, “old velvet, g.e. (the binding worn away; the whole manuscript shows signs of wear)” (Sotheby’s) ● unidentified owner, armorial insignia and motto: “On fol. lb is a coat-of-arms, unfortunately unidentified. The same arms occur on the miniature on g. 61b of a lady at her devotions; in the margin of the facing page is the motto, Ditat Servata Fides, below a miniature of St. Martin … The calendar and litany point to Paris … [From] the same atelier as a manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (M. 452)” (Sotheby’s; for the comparative manuscript: Morgan Library & Museum, [link]) ● unidentified owner, “On the fly-leaf is a note of ownership dated Le Mans, 1563” (Sotheby’s) ● Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of important Western and Oriental illuminated manuscripts and miniatures, London, 15 June 1959, lot 163 ● Alan G. Thomas, London - bought in sale (£520) [RBH Caltha-163]; his Catalogue 6 (1960), item 1 [Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts, SDBM_27206; link]; Catalogue 8 (1961), item 2 [SDBM_27134] ● unlocated.
7. Dénes Harai, “Les dernières années de la vie de Nicolas Dangu, évêque de Mende, chancelier de Navarre”, on website: ACtes ROyaux de Navarre [link].
8. Jacques-Auguste de Thou, Histoire universelle … Tome troisieme 1560-1567 [translated from the Latin by Pierre-François Guyot Desfontaines] (The Hague 1740), pp.97-98 [link]; Antoine Teissier, Les Éloges des Hommes Savans tirez de l'Histoire de M. de Thou … Seconde édition revûë, corrigée, & augmentée (Utrecht 1697), pp.253-257 [link].
9. Letter of Florimond II Robertet to the duc de Nemours, written at Blois, 20 February 1563; see Catherine de Médicis, Tome premier 1533-1563, edited by Hector de La Ferrière (Paris 1880), p.512 (note) [link].
10. Laura Ronchi De Micheli, “Lauro, Vincenzo (Laureo, Lauri)” in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 64 (2005), pp.124-128 (online, [link]).
11. Howard Nixon, Sixteenth-century gold-tooled bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York 1971), pp.169-172 no. 43. Nixon interpreted the lettering as “sic aflet flammas” and suspected that the onlay was applied later. The Library’s opac prefers “Flammas sica fiet” [link]; we read “Sic Piet[atis] Flammas”.
12. Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms 3687 (opac, [link]). G.D. Hobson, op. cit., p.34 & Pls. 3, 26.
13. Geoffrey Hobson, Les reliures à la fanfare … Additions et corrections; Supplément à l’ouvrage “Les reliures à la fanfare” (Amsterdam 1970), pp.81, 146 & Pl. 32; Robert Harding, in The Wormsley Library: a personal selection by Sir Paul Getty, K.B.E. (London 1999), pp.96-97 no. 36; François Rouget, “Les orateurs de ‘La Pléiade’ à l’Académie du Palais (1576): étude d’un album manuscrit ayant appartenu à Marguerite de Valois” in Renaissance and Reformation 31 (2008), pp.19-42 (6 illustrations). Conihout, op. cit., pp.178-179 & Fig. 7.
14. Anthony Hobson, op. cit. 1989, p.160.
Jacques Gohory, Hystoria Jasonis, Thessaliae principis, de Colchica velleris aurei expeditione, cum figuris aere excusis earumque expositione, versibus priscorum poetarum (Paris: [Jean de Mauregard], 1563)
Jacques Gohory, Hystoria Jasonis, Thessaliae principis, de Colchica velleris aurei expeditione, cum figuris aere excusis earumque expositione, versibus priscorum poetarum (Paris: [Jean de Mauregard], 1563)