Extensively published but unseen publicly since 1962, the magnificent Missal of Jean I d’Amboise, peer of France and bishop-duke of Langres, is the last manuscript associated with this influential Renaissance patron to remain in private hands.

ii (paper) + 154 folios (5 originally blank) + i (parchment) + ii (paper), on parchment, complete, mostly in gatherings of eight (collation: i–xvii⁸, xviii⁶, xix², xx⁸, xxi²), horizontal catchwords, modern foliation in pencil, modern quire signatures in pencil at the beginning of each gathering, written in dark brown ink in a refined Gothic bookhand, capitals touched with yellow, in two columns of up to twenty lines (justification: 190 × 140 mm; each column c. 65 mm), music on several pages on a four-line red stave, rubrics in red, ruled in red ink, one- to two-line initials throughout in burnished gold on burgundy and blue grounds with white tracery, fifty-six larger three- to four-line initials in blue and orange on burnished gold grounds with white tracery, infilled with orange and blue oak leaves, each accompanied by a floral border, TWENTY-FIVE LARGE HISTORIATED INITIALS of four- to seven-line initials in full colors on blue and red grounds with liquid gold tracery, each accompanied by a full-page border of acanthus, roses, forget-me-nots, grapes, poppies, thistles, and strawberries, incorporating monkeys, hybrids, and savages, mostly in golden camaïeu. Bound in a superb eighteenth-century dentelle à l’oiseau green morocco binding by Nicolas-Denis Derôme le Jeune, his ticket on the upper flyleaf, the covers tooled with scalloped, lace-like borders composed from a combination of small finishing tools, the corner designs with lace-like extensions pointing toward the center, spine with six raised bands, doublures and endleaves lined with light red watered silk, some minor stains from normal use, otherwise in excellent condition. Dimensions 310 × 230 mm.

Provenance
(1) The patronage of Jean I d’Amboise is evident, with his arms appearing in four floral borders (ff. 34, 49, 100v, and 114v). Heraldic shields hanging from trees bear the coat of arms of the house of Amboise, paly of six or and gules, sometimes quartered with the diocese of Langres, azure semé-de-lis or, a saltire gules overall. This manuscript would have been made around 1485–90 for Jean I d’Amboise, rather than for his nephew Jean II d’Amboise, who succeeded him to the bishopric from 1497 to 1512. The two hands responsible for its decoration also illuminated the two-volume Breviary of Jean I d’Amboise, now Chaumont, BM, MS 32–33. Additional evidence of its use for this diocese is provided by an illuminated Mass for St. Mammes, patron saint of Langres (f. 77), the only city to observe his translation on October 10. After a soldier plunged a trident into his belly, Mammes held back his entrails until he entered a cave and died. Following an iconographic tradition popular in Langres, Mammes is here depicted holding his entrails before a laywoman.

A member of one of the most influential houses of early sixteenth-century France, Jean I d’Amboise was the second son of Pierre d’Amboise (†1473), seigneur de Chaumont, chamberlain to Charles VII and Louis XI, and Anne de Bueil (Souchal 1976; Perrier-Rousset 2018). Born around 1434, he studied law in Paris and became a counselor to King Louis XI as early as 1461. He was appointed dean of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers in 1462, abbot of Bonnecombe from 1470 to 1475, and abbot of Saint-Jean-d’Angély in 1474; he was named apostolic protonotary by the pope and elevated to bishop of Maillezais in 1475. On March 9, 1481, Louis XI, King of France, entrusted him with the governorship of Burgundy, which he had conquered in 1477. At the death of Guy Bernard, Louis XI proposed Jean I d’Amboise for the bishopric of Langres. As bishop-duke of Langres, Jean d’Amboise was one of the most important men in the kingdom and one of the six ecclesiastical peers of France, a rare privilege that allowed him to hold the scepter during the coronation ceremony at Reims. Afflicted with gout, Jean d’Amboise announced in a letter dated December 28, 1496, that he would retire in favor of his nephew Jean II d’Amboise. After his death in Dijon on May 28, 1498, his heart and entrails were buried in the church of the Cordeliers, while his body rested before the main altar of the Cathedral of Saint-Mammès in Langres.

The house of Amboise is well known for its enlightened contribution to the arts of the French and Italian Renaissance. Numerous publications have celebrated the magnificent patronage of Georges, Louis, and Jacques d’Amboise (see below). Most recently, the exhibition Langres à la Renaissance sparked renewed interest in their elder brother. The four illuminated manuscripts ascribed to his patronage reveal a twofold interest. On the one hand, as a peer of France and close ally of King Louis XI, Jean d’Amboise was likely expected to commission his lavish Book of Hours from the royal painter Jean Bourdichon, who portrayed him twice (Innsbruck, University and State Library of Tyrol, Cod. 281, ff. 21 and 147; Herman 2014). His frequent travels to court might also explain the commission of a now-lost Missal from an artist active in Tours, known as the Master of Antoine Charpentier, of which only the frontispiece survives in Madrid (Museo Lázaro Galdiano; Hermant 2017). On the other hand, as bishop-duke of Langres, Jean d’Amboise sought to stimulate and support the emergence of local illuminators in his own city. He commissioned the same workshop to paint two splendid liturgical manuscripts for the use of Langres: a two-volume Breviary now in Chaumont (BM, MS 32–33), and the present Missal, the last manuscript of Jean d’Amboise still in private hands.

(2) In his will, Jean d’Amboise requested that his manuscripts be bequeathed to the Cathedral Chapter of Langres. However, most remained in the library of his castle of Mussy-sur-Seine and were inherited by his nephew Jean II d’Amboise, bishop-duke of Langres from 1497 to 1512. An unpublished inventory of this library dated July 25, 1499, does not mention the Missal, nor does it mention any of the bishop’s known manuscripts. Although his most prized manuscripts may have remained in the bishop’s palace in Langres, the prelate may have taken the present Missal with him to Dijon, where he retired before his death (Hermant 2018). This would explain the presence of the manuscript in Dijon as early as the mid-seventeenth century.
(3) Congregation of the Oratory of Jesus and Mary Immaculate, Dijon, 1648, according to an ex-libris written in the margin of f. 1. The Congregation of the Oratory was founded in Paris by Pierre de Bérulle in 1611 and established a house in Dijon as early as 1623.

(4) Rebound in Paris between 1760 and 1790 by Nicolas-Denis Derôme, called “Le Jeune,” with his binder’s ticket pasted on the first flyleaf.

(5) Bernard Quaritch, Catalogue Comprising the Best Works in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Literature, London, 1884, no. 2007.

(6) Arnold Mettler, St. Gallen, Switzerland; his sale, MM. Mensing et fils (Frederik Muller & Cie), Catalogue d’une collection de manuscrits à miniatures des IXe–XVe siècles. Collection d’un amateur suisse, Amsterdam, 22 November 1929, lot 43.

(7) Sotheby’s, Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, London, 18 June 1962, lot 126.

Text
ff. 1–45v, Common of Saints and Votive Masses, including the Mass for the Dead; ff. 46–48v, blank; ff. 49–126v, Temporal, beginning at Easter; ff. 127–128v, blank; ff. 129–144v, Canon of the Mass, including chants for the Te igitur; ff. 145–154, Benedictions; ff. 154v–155, Feast of Corpus Christi (later addition).

The scribe of the present manuscript can be identified as Jehan Jobard, priest and canon of the collegiate church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Chaumont, twenty miles north of Langres. Most characteristic of his hand is the manner in which he traces very thin liaisons between each letter with the sharp end of a reed pen. The name and hand of Jehan Jobard are known from an Antiphonal in Chaumont (BM, MS 273), completed on August 4, 1488, for Nicolas Drouot, churchwarden of the collegiate church of Chaumont. In the dated explicit of this manuscript (f. 98v), Jehan Jobard describes himself as a “priest, apostolic and imperial notary, treasurer, and one of the first canons of the collegiate church of Chaumont.” Interestingly, the artists of the present manuscript were also commissioned to illuminate the historiated initials of the Antiphonal of Nicolas Drouot. The same scribe and artists again collaborated in the copying and illumination of the two-volume Breviary of Jean d’Amboise.

Illumination
Richly illuminated throughout, the Missal of Jean d’Amboise contains twenty-five historiated initials, each accompanied by a full floral border inhabited with marginal figures. These figures, illuminated in camaïeu d’or, include a savage soldier mounting a horse (f. 20v), hybrids ridden by boys (ff. 53v, 87v), a soldier (f. 94v), or a monkey (f. 117), a hybrid holding a bow (f. 58), a hybrid with the head of a skeleton (f. 62v), a winged fox (f. 79v), a woman with the body of a winged lizard wearing a red hat and fighting a winged frog (f. 89), winged savages holding the coat of arms of Jean d’Amboise (f. 114v), and many others. Secondary divisions of the text are introduced with fifty-six splendid large initials on gold grounds, flanked by floral borders in the outer margins, while several hundred smaller initials complete the decoration.

A rare witness to the last flowering of illumination in late fifteenth-century Langres, the manuscript was decorated by two distinct hands. The first artist painted twenty-four initials and all the marginal figures, with a style recognizable through stocky figures with oval-shaped faces, often shown in three-quarter profile and in varied attitudes. This hand favors close-up compositions that heighten the expressivity and emotion of the figures (ff. 77, 94v). The faces are carefully detailed with arched eyebrows, pupils touched with white, straight, triangular noses, and rounded chins. Particular attention is given to the subtle modeling of cheeks and foreheads with minute strokes of red and white, a technique closely related to that mastered by the Master of the Missal of Travaillot. A second hand completed the decoration and can be recognized by the harsher shading that models the faces of the Apostles (f. 1), Christ before Pilate (f. 69v), and Mary in the Annunciation before a layman (f. 114v).

The margins are painted at the beginning of each textual division with lively scrolls of blue and gold acanthus, roses, forget-me-nots, grapes, poppies, thistles, and strawberries. These features likely derive from the borders illuminated by the Master of the Michault of Guyot Le Peley, active in Troyes from the early 1460s to the late 1480s (Avril 2007). François Avril and Maxence Hermant have suggested that the illuminators of the present manuscript may have trained in Troyes. The presence of rugged tree trunks and marble columns in many borders (ff. 34, 37v, 49) further supports this hypothesis, since both motifs originate from Jean Colombe, who appears to have been the most sought-after artist in Troyes around 1480 (Avril 2007). These decorative elements were quickly adopted by artists from the circle of the Master of Le Peley, including the Master of Simon Liboron.

Closely related to the two-volume Breviary of Jean d’Amboise (Chaumont, BM, MS 32–33), the present Missal shares the same scribe, artists, patron, and a virtually identical size and layout. Repeated models, such as the Pentecost and Virgin and Child (ff. 58, 94v), demonstrate the softer and more refined execution of the present manuscript. The principal difference is the absence in the Missal of the first hand of the Breviary identified by François Avril in 2007. This artist may have been active in Troyes rather than Langres, as his chalky figures and raised eyebrows share more in common with the circle of the Master of Guyot Le Peley than with his Langres associates. Although it is difficult to determine whether the Missal was made before or after the Breviary, its overall refinement may suggest a slightly later date. Both manuscripts were likely illuminated before the Antiphonal of Nicolas Drouot, copied in 1488.

Although the two hands responsible for this Missal remain unnamed, they clearly belonged to an active workshop operating in Langres during the final decades of the fifteenth century. Together, they illuminated the twenty-one historiated initials of the Antiphonal of Nicolas Drouot (Chaumont, BM, MS 273), copied and signed by Jehan Jobard in 1488. Their shared activity is further demonstrated by their contribution of several initials, marginal figures, and floral borders to the celebrated Missal of Gérard or Jean Travaillot (Langres, BM, MS 2; Hermant 2018). Named after the dramatic full-page Canon miniatures of this manuscript, the Master of the Missal of Travaillot is regarded as one of the most original artists active in eastern France during the time of Jean d’Amboise, and the artists of the present Missal were likely members of his workshop. Shared models and stylistic features, including three-quarter profile faces, subtle modeling with touches of pure white, and a taste for dazzling night skies, as seen in the Resurrection (f. 49), reveal their close artistic relationship with the Master of the Missal of Travaillot.

In conclusion, unseen publicly since 1962, thought extensively published, the magnificent Missal of Jean I d’Amboise, peer of France and bishop-duke of Langres, is the last manuscript associated with this influential Renaissance patron to remain in private hands and one of the finest witnesses to the final flowering of manuscript illumination in late fifteenth-century Champagne. Created by the same scribe and artists responsible for his celebrated two-volume Breviary (Chaumont, BM, MS 32–33), this sister manuscript reveals the brilliance of a Langres workshop closely connected with the Master of the Missal of Travaillot, one of the most original illuminators active in eastern France at the dawn of the Renaissance.

The twenty-five historiated initials are: f. 1, Apostles, initial “M,” 6 lines; f. 17, Virgin Mary, initial “L,” 4 lines; f. 20v, Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven, initial “S,” 4 lines; f. 34, Christ Carrying the Cross, initial “M,” 4 lines; f. 35, Priest and Two Acolytes Celebrating Mass, initial “P,” the priest standing before an altar and reading from a manuscript, 4 lines; f. 37v, Priest Celebrating the Funeral Service, initial “R,” the priest standing and holding an aspergillum, flanked by a hooded figure in dark robes, 4 lines; f. 49, Resurrection, initial “R,” 6 lines; f. 53v, Ascension, initial “V,” 6 lines; f. 58, Pentecost, initial “S,” without the Virgin Mary, 6 lines; f. 62v, Trinity, or Throne of Mercy, initial “B,” 6 lines; f. 67v, Procession for the Feast of Corpus Christi, initial “C,” 6 lines; f. 69v, Christ before Pilate, initial “P,” 4 lines; f. 72, Assumption, initial “G,” 6 lines; f. 77, Saint Mammes, initial “G,” shown holding his entrails before a laywoman, 5 lines; f. 79v, Birth of the Virgin, initial “G,” 7 lines; f. 84v, All Saints, initial “G,” 6 lines; f. 87v, Death Spearing a Soldier, initial “R,” 4 lines; f. 89, Meeting at the Golden Gate, initial “G,” 5 lines; f. 94v, Virgin and Child, initial “D,” 4 lines; f. 100v, Nativity, initial “P,” 6 lines; f. 105v, Adoration of the Magi, initial “F,” 7 lines; f. 110, Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, initial “S,” 6 lines; f. 114v, Annunciation before a Layman, initial “R,” 4 lines; f. 117, Christ as Eucharist, initial “P,” shown pouring blood into a chalice, 4 lines; f. 129, Mass of Saint Gregory, initial “T,” 5 lines.

LITERATURE
Published: François Avril, “Bréviaire de Jean VII d’Amboise, évêque de Langres (partie d’été),” in Très riches heures de Champagne, ed. François Avril, Maxence Hermant, and Françoise Bibolet, Paris and Châlons-en-Champagne, 2007, cat. 37, pp. 168–69; Nicholas Herman, Jean Bourdichon (1457–1521): Tradition, Transition, Renewal, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2014, p. 183; Maxence Hermant, “Jean Ier d’Amboise, évêque de Langres,” in Une Renaissance en Normandie. Le cardinal Georges d’Amboise, bibliophile et mécène, ed. Frédéric Calame-Levert, Maxence Hermant, and Gennaro Toscano, Paris, 2017, pp. 44–45; Maxence Hermant, “Breviarium ad usum Lingonensem, dit Bréviaire de Jean d’Amboise,” in Langres à la Renaissance, ed. Olivier Caumont, Langres, 2018, no. 86, pp. 352–53; Jacques Lauga, “Les manuscrits liturgiques dans le diocèse de Langres à la fin du Moyen Âge: les commanditaires et leurs artistes,” Unpublished Doctoral Dssertation, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, 2007, vol. 2, pp. 331–41; Marie Perrier-Rousset, “Jean Ier d’Amboise (vers 1434–1498), évêque-duc de Langres, pair de France,” in Langres à la Renaissance, ed. Olivier Caumont, Langres, 2018, pp. 118–19; Nicole Reynaud, “Un peintre français du XVe siècle: le Maître des Prélats bourguignons,” in Études d’art français offertes à Charles Sterling, ed. Albert Châtelet and Nicole Reynaud, Paris, 1975, pp. 151–63, esp. p. 159. Related literature: Geneviève Souchal, “Le mécénat de la famille d’Amboise,” Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de l’Ouest et des musées de Poitiers 13 (1976), pp. 485–526, 567–612; François Avril, “Les artistes et les œuvres. L’enluminure à Troyes de la période du style gothique international aux débuts de la Renaissance (1400–1520),” in Très riches heures de Champagne, ed. François Avril, Maxence Hermant, and Françoise Bibolet, Paris and Châlons-en-Champagne, 2007, pp. 35–57; François Avril, “Missel à l’usage de Langres du chanoine Travaillot,” in Très riches heures de Champagne, ed. François Avril, Maxence Hermant, and Françoise Bibolet, Paris and Châlons-en-Champagne, 2007, cat. 36, pp. 166–167; Thierry Crépin-Leblond, Agnès Bos, and Xavier Dectot, L’Art des frères d’Amboise. Les chapelles de l’hôtel de Cluny et du château de Gaillon, Paris, 2007; Frédéric Calame-Levert, Maxence Hermant, and Gennaro Toscano, Une Renaissance en Normandie. Le cardinal Georges d’Amboise, bibliophile et mécène, Paris, 2017; Maxence Hermant, “Enluminure et commande de manuscrits enluminés,” in Langres à la Renaissance, ed. Olivier Caumont, Langres, 2018, pp. 336–341; Maxence Hermant, “Missale ad usum Lingonensem, dit Missel Travaillot,” in Langres à la Renaissance, ed. Olivier Caumont, Langres, 2018, cat. 85, pp. 350–351.

We thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.