ANONYME Sonnets sur la passion de Jesus et autres poèmes

An exceptional devotional manuscript on vellum illustrated with 78 extraordinary illuminated miniatures illustrating figurative poems forming calligrams. This manuscript was likely made for presentation to an important patron in connection with the Celestines de Paris.

The present book of religious poetry is strongly linked to another manuscript, which hails from the Library of the Celestines of Paris: Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, ms. 5120. That manuscript is longer and contains elaborate Sonnets on the Life as well as the Passion of Christ. The main part of the present manuscript may represent an excerpted version of that text, focusing entirely on the Passion. In close comparison of the sonnets in both manuscripts, one finds that the same themes are addressed, but that the poet shows his force in turning the poems differently, with sometimes only a few lines shared in common. 

Illumination

Painted at the extreme end of the period in which books were written and illuminated by hand, this manuscript is a revelation for its high quality of artwork. An illuminated manuscript in the early 17th century was rare indeed and was likely to be seen as an extravagant curiosity. 

The sonnets of this manuscript are beautifully and luxuriously illuminated in gouache with gold and silver highlighting, seamlessly integrated into the text in many places, and augmented with cleverly employed text inscriptions. The iconography here is very strongly linked to that found in Arsenal ms. 5120. That manuscript contains more elaborate scenes painting in grisaille, whereas this book seems to pull figures from those scenes to draw a particularly emotional focus. The addition of illumination here may indicate the manuscript was a presentation book for a wealthy patron of the Celestines. 

The main artist’s style is soundly in the religious emotionality of the Baroque period, quite effectively evoking the pain and suffering of Christ along his final path to his Crucifixion and Resurrection. This artist uses softer, two-dimensional folds and shadows and also successfully reproduces more complex anatomical foreshortenings. The title page and at least 43 watercolours (including the 8 large ones) can be attributed to this artist. 

A smaller proportion of the book is attributable to an artist who depicts folds more sharply, works in greater detail overall, but tends to avoid complicated anatomical foreshortening. At least 12 illuminations can be attributed to this artist. 

Particularly noteworthy is the recurring combination of image and text in the form of figure poems in the paintings in the text. Here, individual letters within the painted motif form new words and sentences. These inscriptions frequently relate to the titles of the plates as found in the Arsenal manuscript.

Text :

f. 3 – Illustrated title to Sonnets sur la Passion de Jésus (apparently stitched here after binding).
ff. 3v-7 – blanks (3 with framing line)
ff. 7v-10 – Three sonnets to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
ff. 10v-11 – blanks
ff. 12-79 – Sonnets sur la Passion de Jésus. Concludes with “Les sonnetz de la Passion finissent icy” (fol. 79).
ff. 79v-81 – blanks (one with framing line)
ff. 81v-85 – 4 sonnets on the four last things of eschatology in an unusual order: Paradise, Purgatory, Hell, and Death. Three of the text passages on mounted laid paper on the verso.
f. 85v – blank
ff. 86-102 –   32 sonnets in four-line verses on various religious themes. 
f. 102v –blank
ff. 103-106v – Sur la mort du V. Père V. de Lessau Célestin. 14 stanzas and 1 additional stanza on the same subject.  Vincent de Lessau became a brother of the Celestines in Amiens in 1582 but withdrew from the order years later to devote himself to the study of mathematics. He died in 1626 and the present text is probably the ode written by his brother Guillaume de Lessau.
ff. 107-112 – Cantique sur la naissance de Jesus. 26 six-line stanzas.
ff. 112v-114 – Meditation sur le Crucifix. 10 six-line stanzas.
ff. 114v-118 – Sur le trespas de Monsieur de Sainct-Innocent gentilhomme Savoysien et de sa femme qui morut de regret six jours aprez sans avoir jamais peu parler tout ce temps. Ode to Antoine d’Orlié (eldest Savoyard nobleman, vicar of Cuneo 1467-1469, governor of Nice 1469-1476, advisor to Yolande of Savoy, killed in the Battle of Murten 1476) and his wife.

Provenance
1.    Thomas Thorpe (1791-1851); his sale, 1811, Leblanc, Pierre-Francois-Jean Baptiste, Livres précieux, manuscrits et imprimés sur peau-vélin, du cabinet de M. **, lot 30; 
2.    Paris, Auguste Chardin, (entry on the first flyleaf), his sale, De Bure, 9 Feb.1824, lot 1629; 
3.    Cheltenham, Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872; his stamp with sign. (MS) 2760 on the first blank sheet); his sale Sotheby’s, 30 Nov. 1971, lot 528; 
4.    Sale, Sotheby’s 10. Dec. 1980.
5.    Bassenge, auction 54 (3 May 1990), Bücher vor 1600, lot 1566; 
6.    Private collection, Switzerland.