Some thirty bindings are now associated with the bibliophile scholar Jacques-Marie d’Amboise (ca 1538-1611). The great majority are covered in red or olive goatskin, decorated in the centres (occasionally also in the corners, and on the spine) by four gilt stars of either five or eight points, arranged one above two above one, and enclosed by a laurel wreath. In the past, these “reliures à quatre étoiles” were credited by booksellers to anonymous binders working for Jacques-Auguste de Thou (“in Thuanus’s manner”) and to the French court binders Nicolas and Clovis Ève (“Clovis Eve style”), with their provenance unrecognised. While the identities of the binders remain ambiguous, the individual commissioning them is now identifiable from variants of the ownership inscription “Ex Libris Iacobi Marii Ambosii” present in at least nine of the recorded volumes.
Ownership inscription in 5. Ex Libris Iacobi Marii Ambosii
Ownership inscriptions in 19. Ex libris J.Marii Ambosii - socii sorbonici quos legavit bibliothecae
Ownership inscriptions in 20. ex-libris M.N. Jacobii Marii Ambosii doctoris theologi et socii hujus domus
Ownership inscription in 32. Ex libris Jacobi Marii Ambosii
Jacques-Marie d’Amboise was born at Arles in Provence and died in Paris in November 1611, aged 73.1 Little is known of his parentage and education. In his inaugural oration as rector of the University of Paris, d’Amboise declares that he had studied in Paris in the Faculty of Arts, and during a lengthy period abroad (per multos annos) completed in Italy two courses in philosophy (in Italia duos philosophiae cursus confecissem);2 further study in Spain and Sicily, following instruction from “the best tutors of Paris”, is attested by the Scottish professor at the Collège royal George Crichton.3 Where, and when, d’Amboise earned the degree philosophiae doctor that is ascribed to him on the title-page of his Oratio is still a mystery.4 He might be the “Marius Ambosius Gallus Arelatensis [this word filled in later], scolaris Perusiae universalis” entered in the matriculation register at Perugia, 29 November 1570;5 if so, d’Amboise made his peregrinatio academica unusually late in life (aged 32, if he indeed was born in 1538). It is doubtful that he is the “giovane francese chiamato Mario”, in possession of “buone lettere greche e latine, et assai intelligenza delle cose di logica et filosofia, et è d’ingegno svegliato”, who in 1569 became involved in the prosecution of the Torinese bookseller Cesare Farina for selling heretical books.6
After his return to Paris, Jacques-Marie taught at the Collège de Lisieux, Collège d’Harcourt,7 and Collège Sainte-Barbe,8 before receiving in 1576 an appointment as rector of the Faculté des arts, and in 1577 as Lecteur royal de philosophie grecque et latine au Collège royal.9 His significant publications were Institutionum dialecticarum libri tres (1577), to which the poeta regius Jean Dorat contributed ten distichs;10 and De Rebus creatis et earum creatore (1586), including a poem in Greek offered by the royal professor of Greek, Nicolas Goulu.11
The first part of De Rebus creatis is entitled “De sphaera mundi” and devoted to the visible heavens, with the sun as king of the stars, whose light symbolises the life-giving power of the spirit, a notion deeply rooted in the Platonic philosophy.12 D’Amboise was non-armigerous, and the device he chose to ornament his bindings - a constellation of four stars - might well be a depiction of the four cardinal virtues as formulated by Plato, which often are represented by celestial bodies in both artistic and literary contexts.
The philosopher Guillaume Du Val (ca 1572-1646), successor to d’Amboise as Lecteur ordinaire du roi en philosophie grecque et latine, and first historian of the Collège royal, comments on d’Amboise’s appreciation of books (“curieux de beaux & bons liures, desquels il auoit grande quantité, mais lés plus gentiment & richement reliez, qu’on ayt gueres veu”) and the posthumous disposition of his library (“Il donna sa Bibliotheque à sa bien-aymée Mere la Sorbonne”).13
No inventory of books gifted by d’Amboise to the Sorbonne is known, but we expect that the short List given below is no more than a small fraction of his library. When the Sorbonne was closed along with other colleges of the University of Paris during the French Revolution, its library (said to number some 25,000 volumes) was dispersed, some books distributed to other libraries, and others sold. About half the books in our List contain inscriptions or the later ink stamp of the Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne. Among them is a revision by Pierre de Besse of La Saincte Bible (Paris 1608), dedicated to Henri IV (no. 7 in our List below). D’Amboise was one of five theologians who reviewed and approved the new text (folio **1 verso: “Approbation des Docteurs en Theologie”; D’Amboise’s declaration is dated 23 June 1608, and identifies him as “Iacq. Marivs D’Amboise, Doyen des Lecteurs & Professeurs ordinaires du Roy, en son Vniversité de Paris”).14 Another volume (no. 5), sumptuously bound à la fanfare, contains no evidence that it passed to the Sorbonne. It is copy of Plantin’s 1583 Latin Bible, evidently specially printed for d’Amboise, as passages relating to Jacob (Jacques) are printed in gold.
1. Guillaume Du Val, Le College royal de France, ou Institution, establissement et catalogue dés lecteurs & professeurs ordinaires du roy (Paris 1644), pp.54-55 [link]; Claude-Pierre Goujet, Mémoire historique et littéraire sur le College royal de France (Paris 1758), III, pp.210-221 [link].
2. Iacobi Marii Ambosii philosophiae doctoris, eiusdemque in Graecis regii Professoris, De publico docendi munere sibi à Rege delato Oratio (Paris: Fédéric Morel, 1577), pp.5-8 [link].The publication date is uncertain. According to Goujet, op. cit., pp.214-215, d’Amboise was nominated Recteur de la Faculté des arts on 16 December 1576, and delivered this oration 5 September 1577; however, in a digitised copy (BnF) the date “M DLXXIX Idibus Novembris” (13 November 1579) is printed at the end of the text (p.36). On the delay between nomination and confirmation of d’Amboise’s appointment, see Jean-Eudes Girot, “La notion de lecteur royal: le cas de René Guillon (1500-1570)” in Les origines du Collège de France (Paris 1998), p.62.
3. Georgii Crittonii professoris regii, De Sortibus Homericis Oratio. Ad virum verè Patritium D. Thumerium (Paris: Etienne Prévosteau, 1597), p.34 (“discendi cupiditate incensus, in Hispaniam, Italiam & Siciliam nauigasti: inde non tantùm Siculi, Italici & Hispanici sermonis peritiam, sed multarum rerum abditam intelligentiam deportasti: si quid addi poterat cognitioni philosophie Graecique sermonis, quam sub optimis pręceptoribus Lutetię puer hauseras” [link]).
4. Nicole Bingen, Aux escholles d’outre-monts: étudiants de langue française dans les universités italiennes (1480-1599): Français, Francs-Comtois, Savoyards (Geneva 2018), I, pp.286-288.
5. Perugia, Biblioteca comunale Augusta, Ms 959, f.63r, transcribed by Laura Marconi, Studenti a Perugia: la matricola degli scolari forestieri, 1511-1757 (Perugia 2009), p.215 [link]. Marconi notes that “un vistoso segno di riempimento del rigo” is beside the word “Arelatensis” in the matriculation register.
6. This claim is asserted by Rosanna Gorris Camos, “Il torchio e la seta: la nébuleuse des imprimeurs et libraires piémontais à Lyon et leur networking franco-italien” in Le savoir italien sous les presses lyonnaises à la Renaissance (Geneva 2017), pp.37-88 (p.79); “Les éditions turinoises des Histoires tragiques. La famille Farina et son secret” in Les Histoires tragiques du XVIe siècle. Pierre Boaistuau et ses émules (Paris 2018), pp.39-68 (pp.57-58).
According to correspondence of Cardinal Vincenzo Lauro, Apostolic Nuncio to Savoy, the “giovane francese” a.k.a. “Mario d’Ambois” was raised and educated as a Protestant, was married (although abandoning his wife), and converted to Catholicism in his 30s; see Nunziature d’Italia. Secoli XVI-XVIII. Nunziature di Savoia, I: 15 ottobre 1560-29 giugno 1573, edited by Fausto Fonzi (Rome 1960), pp.xx, 161, 169, 180. In April 1569, Cardinal Lauro took young Mario with him to Mondovì, and he thus might be the erstwhile owner of two volumes of the 1495-1498 Aldine Aristoteles, each inscribed “Marius Ambosius” and “Collegij Montis Regalis Soc. Iesu ins. cat” (vol. 2: ● Washington, DC, Smithsonian, Burndy Library, PA3890 .A2 1495; vol. 5: ● Milan Biblioteca Braidense, O. 13. 0009 [link]). The same ownership inscriptions appear in a vellum-bound copy of Pindar (Paris: Fédéric Morel, 1558) ● Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, G. 1580 (Jean-Eudes Girot, Pindare avant Ronsard: de l’émergence du grec à la publication des quatre premiers livres des Odes de Ronsard, Geneva 2002, p.421 no. 21). Arturo Pascal, “La lotta contro la Riforma in Piemonte al tempo di Emanuele Filiberto” in Bulletin de la Societé d’Histoire Vaudoise 53 (1929), p.10, publishing Cardinal Lauro’s correspondence, identifies “Mario, detto il Francese” as “dotto e letterato che pretese, e per poco non ebbe, la cattedra di umanità all’Ateneo Torinese” [link].
7. Henri Louis Alfred Bouquet, L’ancien Collège d’Harcourt et le Lycée Saint-Louis (Paris 1891), pp.242-243 [link].
8. Jules Quicherat, Histoire de Sainte-Barbe, collège, communauté, institution (Paris 1862), II, pp.95-97 [link].
9. Goujet, op. cit., p.215; Jacques-Marie’s reappointment in 1587 is noted by Duval, op. cit., pp.54-55 [link].
10. Iacobi Marii Ambosii Philosophiae doctoris, ejusdem in Graecis Regii Professoris, Institutionum dialecticarum libri tres. Ad nobilem et illustrem Adolescentem Jacobum Gueslaeum summi Cognitoris regii filium (Paris: Fédéric Morel, 1577). Catherine Magnien-Simonin, “Contributions imprimées éparses de Jean Dorat: Supplément à l’inventaire de 2007” in Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 81 (2019), pp. 497-506 (p.502 no. 117bis).
11. Iacobi Marii Ambosii Philosophiae professoris regii De Rebus creatis et earum creatore Liber tripertitus. Ad illustrem virum Ioannem Guesleum in augusto Parisiensi Senatu Praesidem (Paris: Fédéric Morel, 1586) [link].
12. Françoise Joukovsky, Le feu et le fleuve: Héraclite et la Renaissance française (Geneva 1991), p.70.
13. Du Val, op. cit., p.55 [link].
14. Bettye Thomas Chambers, Bibliography of French Bibles, 2: Seventeenth century French-language editions of the scriptures (Geneva 1994), no. 1038.
(1) Aristoteles, Opera [Greek; bound in six volumes] (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 1495-1498)
provenance
● Jacques-Marie d’Amboise (1538-1611)
● Paris, Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne (until 1794)
● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, RES-R-313/318 (opac Prov.: Jacques-Marius d’Amboise, 16e-17e siècles; legs à la Bibliothèque de l’ancienne Sorbonne à Paris, 1611 [link])
literature
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Catalogue des incunables, T.1, fasc. 1. Xylographes et A (Paris 1985), pp.117-120 A-504
(2) Aristoteles, Ethikon nikomacheion biblia deka. Ethicorum ad Nicomachum libri decem (Frankfurt am Main: Heirs of Andreas Wechel, Claude de Marne & Johann Aubry, 1596)
provenance
● Jacques-Marie d’Amboise (1538-1611), supralibros
● Joannes Gennadius (1844-1932)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the extensive and valuable library of manuscripts & printed books of His Excellency Monsieur John Gennadius, D.C.L., F.R.S.I., late Greek Minister at the court of St. James’s, London, 28 March-7 April 1895, lot 279 (“old brown morocco, in the De Thou style, ruled in lines, with cartouches in centre and corners, containing device of four stars, gilt edges” [link])
● J. & J. Leighton, London - bought in sale (£1 13s)
● Henry White, FSA (1822?-1900)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the valuable and extensive library of printed books and illuminated & other important manuscripts of the late Henry White, London, 21 April 1902, lot 73 (“old French brown morocco, line tooled, with 4 stars on back and centre laurel wreath, and corners with 4 stars, g. e. (style of De Thou)” [link])
● William Ridler, London - bought in sale (£1 8s)
● Puttick & Simpson, Catalogue of valuable books, London, 25-26 January 1906, lot 48 (“contemporary French morocco, sides decorated with centre laurel wreath, gilt panel, and corner fleurons of wreaths and stars, gilt lines and stars on back, g.e. (style of Dethon)”)
● J. & J. Leighton, London - bought in sale (£2 5s) (Book Prices Current, 20, no. 2497 [link])
● Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the magnificent library formed by the late H.B. Wheatley, Esq. F.S.A., London, 8-12 April 1918, lot 32 (“Brown morocco, gilt lines and stars on back, line sides with corner and centre oval laurel wreaths, each enclosing four stars, g.e. (style of Clovis Eve)” [link]) [RBH Apr081918-32]
● James Rimell, London - bought in sale (£4 7s 6d) (Book Auction Records, 15, p.277)
(3-4) Bible, Latin - Biblia sacra ad optima quaeque veteris, ut vocant, tralationis exemplaria summa diligentia, parique fide castigata. His adjecimus Hebraicarum, Graecarum, caetarumque; peregrinarum vocum, cum illarum varia à nostra prolatione, interpretationem. Indices insuper tres, quibus res, ac sententiae, annotationes ex sacris doctoribus selectae, locorumque insignium descriptio complectumtur (Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1550)
provenance
● Jacques-Marie d’Amboise (1538-1611), supralibros, inscription
● Paris, Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne (until 1794)
● Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Rés. 2° 623 B-C (opac Reliure à la fanfare en maroquin rouge. Ex-libris ms “Ex libris JMarii Ambrosii” sur la p. de titre. Cachet “College de Sorbonne” sur la p. de titre. Exemplaire réglé. [link])
literature
Martine Delaveau & Denise Hillard, Bibles imprimées du XVe au XVIIIe siècle conservées à Paris (Paris 2002), no. 871 (“Rel. en 2 vol. … Rel. à décor doré aux armes de Jacques Marius d’Amboise. Cachet: collège de Sorbonne, à Paris”)
(5) Bible, Latin - Biblia sacra. Quid in hac editione a theologis Lovaniensibus praestitum sit eorum præfatio indicat (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1583)