It will run through the beginning of the Capetian dynasty to nowadays and will focus on everything related to France and its history.
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Provins
The fortified medieval town of Provins is situated in the former territory of the powerful Counts of Champagne. It bears witness to early developments in the organization of international trading fairs and the wool industry. The urban structure of Provins, which was built specifically to host the fairs and related activities, has been well preserved.
Jean de LIÈGE (active from 1381 to 1403)
Charles IV, the Fair (d. 1328) and his wife Jeanne d’Evreux (d. 1371), each holding a bag containing their entrails
The burial of entrails
In his will of 1324, Charles IV the Fair bequeathed his body to be buried in the Abbey of Saint-Denis, his heart in the Dominican church of the Frères Prêcheurs de Paris, and his entrails in the Cistercian Abbey of Maubuisson (near Pontoise). It was customary in the 14th century for nobles to divide their remains among various religious sites, and therefore to erect a number of tombs. Such division of the body required pontifical permission.
View of the bibliothèque au château de Dampierre. Photo: Sotheby’s/ArtDigital Studio.
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Sotheby’s announced the sale of the Library of the Ducs de Luynes from the Château of Dampierre – one of the most important private libraries in France. The sale runs to nearly 1000 lots, charting the history of an illustrious family intimately linked to the history of France since the 17th century. Most of the books are bound in morocco or calf and embellished with the arms of the Luynes family. The majestic scope of the Library ranges from history, genealogy and literature to travel, philosophy, religion and music.
The Dampierre Library was initiated under Marie de Rohan Montbazon (1600-79), immortalized by Alexandre Dumas in his Mousquetaires trilogy as the wife of Charles d’Albert, Duc de Luynes – a favourite of Louis XIII, and one of the plotters thanked by the King for engineering the assassination of Concino Concini in 1617.
The Dukes of Luynes formed a great military family and assembled an important array of militaria books, replete with works about the Thirty Years War, the War of Spanish Succession (1701-14) and the War of Austrian Succession
Towards the end of the 18th century the 6th Duc de Luynes, who was close to the philosophes and physiocrats, brought the Library into the Age of Enlightenment by acquiring a first Paris edition of Montesquieu’s De L’Esprit des Lois, along with works by Necker and Adam Smith and the first edition of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discours sur l’origine et les Fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes. It was largely thanks to the 6th Duke that the Library survived the French Revolution unscathed. He was arrested in 1793 but released at the demand of the inhabitants of Dampierre, and spent the troubled years that followed unmolested in his château.
Le petit aveugle
Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, Vie et miracles de Saint Louis, France (Paris), fin du XVe siècleParis, BnF, département des Manuscrits, Français 2829, fol. C
Thomas, 7 years old and blind, did a pilgrimage to Saint Louis’ grave in Saint Denis. Dressed as a pilgrim, he is holding a cane and a begging bowl for charitry
Maison Royale de Saint Louis
The Maison Royale de Saint-Louis was a ‘pensionnat’ or boarding school for girls set up in 1684 at Saint-Cyr (what is now the commune of Saint-Cyr-l’École, Yvelines) in France by king Louis XIV at the request of his second wife, Madame de Maintenon, who wanted a school for girls from impoverished noble families. The establishment lost its leading role on the deaths of Louis and then Maintenon, but it nevertheless marked an evolution in female education under the Ancien régime. Its notable students included the Maintenon’s niece Marthe-Marguerite Le Valois de Villette de Mursay, marquise de Caylus, and Napoleon’s sister Élisa Bonaparte, grand duchess of Tuscany.
It remained in existence during the first years of the French Revolution, but closed for good in March 1793, with its empty buildings being taken over by the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1808. However, the Maison royale later provided Napoleon with the inspiration for his Maison des demoiselles de la Légion d’honneur, which still exists as the Maison d’éducation de la Légion d’honneur.
Algériens en France - Dans un bidonville de Nanterre. La commune comptait dix-sept bidonvilles où étaient regroupées quelque 10 000 personnes. © Pierre Boulat / Cosmos
Algerian people in France - In a slum of Nanterre: the commune used to count 17 slums gathering around 10 000 people.
Christ en majesté et anges, Graduel à l’usage de l’abbaye de Saint-Denis, vers 130, XIIe siècle, Bibliothèque Mazarine
The abbey of Saint Denis is buying Jean de Fontenay’s land and house in Aubervillers. As he had given them as a security to two Jewish brothers Deodat and Elie, the contract was signed between the abbey and the two brothers (their signature, in hebrew, is on the back of the document)
Enseigne de pèlerinage, Saint Côme et Saint Damien, Ile de France, 15e siècle.
Pilgrimage sign, with Saint Cosmas and Damian - both of them holding a salve box in their right hand (the two brothers were physicians).
Eglise troglodytique de Haute-Isle, Val d’Oise
Photo : Didier Rykner
Carved in 1670 into the chalk cliffs, at the expense of Nicolas Dongois the land owner, this building (which strictly speaking was not “built”, except for the bell tower) has a very simple layout, with only one vaulted nave in a barrel arch. Its wealth comes from its remarkable wood furnishings consisting in a pulpit, also carved into the wall and, above all, a sculpted choir enclosure and altarpiece of very high quality. This is not really surprising since, initially, the furnishings were intended for the chapel of the Palais de Justice in Rouen
