Le livre de bonnes meurs [The Book of Good Manners]; in French, manuscript on paper by JACQUES LEGRAND (JACOBUS MAGNI)

DECORATED MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT IN FRENCH ON PAPER, France (Burgundy), or Switzerland (Basel?), c. 1450. Dimensions 214 x 138 mm., i + 139 + i folios, apparently complete, written in a formal cursive gothic bookhand (close to lettre bâtarde) in twenty-three long lines, one large parted red and blue initial, alternating red and blue initials, red and blue paragraph marks. BINDING: nineteenth-century cartonnage binding with gilded spine and raised split cord, labelled on spine, "Traité des vices et des virtus." TEXT: the humanist Jacques Legrand's, Le livre de bonnes meurs, was a bestseller in its day, circulating among the ruling elite at the French and Burgundian courts. This appears to contain the first version of the text, written six years before the final edition dedicated to Duke Jean de Berry. It lacks illumination but is copied in a very elegant calligraphic book hand that echoes the script of many of the luxury copies. PROVENANCE: evidence of the script and watermark suggests that this manuscript was copied in Burgundy or Switzerland around the middle of the fifteenth century, c. 1450; the concluding rubric on f. 139 is followed by a name, "Gilibertus qu<….?>," likely the name of the scribe. Early ex libris (sixteenth century?) on f. 139v, "Iste liber est <…?>," unfortunately illegible. In 1850, the manuscript was acquired by a French library where it was rebound in its present cartonnage binding. The manuscript was later acquired by a private European Collection. CONDITION: damaged throughout from damp with the text space darkened although text remains legible, worming, last folio is torn, first folio damaged in the upper half. Full description and images available. (TM 722)