1 The manuscript is fully available online on the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica: <http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000039936&page=1>. A short descriptive entry is included in Inventario General 1958, no. 1467, p. 338-339. See also Gras 2021, cat. 140, p. 395-398. Claire Boudreau, in her unpublished 1996 doctoral thesis (Boudreau 1996, p. 223-228) provided a summary description and brief discussion of the treatise from a heraldic point of view, in the context of her survey of 14th- to 16th-century armorial treatises. The title of the present paper was inspired by her observations on this manuscript. I would like to thank Michel Pastoureau for directing me to this thesis and Claire Boudreau for generously sending me a copy.
2 For the collation, see Annex 1.
3 “Cy co[m]ence tout[es] manières darmoiries et d[e] t[er]mes do[n]t on peut faire et co[m]poser armes mises par ordre par Le très hault et excellent prince Le Roy Don federich daragon Roy de Secille etc” I am responsible for all translations from French or Spanish into English in the present paper. Transcripts of the original French texts follow the sources’ word division and capitalisation, but accents have been added.
4 There is no indication that this quire structure is not original, but the binding is not, and probably dates to the 17th century.
5 See Annex 1 for an attempt at listing the content and categories.
6 Only three blank shields are numbered in the whole book, but I would argue that this was a scribal error, as it only occurs at the end of the first section (f. 14v). On the subject of blank shields, see also note 13. Teresa D’Urso, on the other hand, considered that the decoration of the manuscript was unfinished: D’Urso 2016, p. 197-211 (p. 198).
7 ‘Pour co[m]poser et faire toutes manières darmes fault ix espèce de matière cest assavoir troys métaulx troys couleurs et troys pennes.’
8 I would like to thank Nigel Ramsay for advising me on the correct translation of the original French heraldic terms into English.
9 ff. 11v-12r: shield xi: shadow of point; shield xvii: shadow of a chevron pattern; shield xxiiii: also shadow; shield xxvii: earlier design bleeds through with chevron and stars. ff. 12v-13r: shield xxxii: seems to have a charge in the middle, covered by the purpure tincture; shield xxxiii: trace of two lozenges in the argent partition; shield xxxiiii: geometrical figures have bled through the gules section; shield xxxvii: similarly, the three eagles covered over by gules have reappeared as ghostly presences; shield xliii: seems to have formerly been parted, with merlettes in the dexter section; shield xlv: point comes through gules. In the rest of the manuscript, a few other shields seem to have been altered, and overpainted: see for instance f. 21v, shields xlvi and lii.
10 “Terme doyseaux et bestes venimeuses et plusieurs autres t[er]mes.”
11 The ostrich is recognisable thanks to the horseshoe in its beak, a motif found in the medieval Bestiary tradition and going back to Pliny’s Natural History where it is said that the ostrich can digest anything, even iron.
12 I am greatly indebted to Samuel Gras for his assistance in establishing the collation. See Annex 1 for details.
13 Singletons covered in blank shields: f. 18, at the end of the point; f. 51 at the end of the lion/leopard section; f. 78 at the very end of the volume. On the other hand, f. 22 lengthens the section dedicated to the pale and its variants and ends with six blank shields; f. 29 provides two further pages of shields at the end of the bend section.
14 For a 14th-century example, see London, British Museum, Inv. 1855,1201.217.
15 “[l’auteur] complète son inventaire de pièces par des figures extravagantes qu’il ne peut tirer que de son imagination. Au chapitre du ‘chef’ en armoirie, par exemple, plus d’un tiers des exemples qu’il donne sont de son cru. L’aspect irréel des écus est encore plus évident dans le chapitre du ‘pied’ où la plupart des écus prouvent son peu de familiarité avec la composition usuelle des armoiries.” Boudreau 1996, p. 223.
16 This name comes from the earliest copy of this work, which is found at the end of a manuscript containing Le Jouvencel, by Jean de Bueil (Paris, BnF, Français 24381; 2nd half of the 15th century).
17 Paris, BnF, Français 24381, Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms 4800 and Paris, BnF, Français 5937 (the two latter are early 16th century).
18 “une théorisation du blason à faire rêver”, in Boudreau 1996, p. 213, and see also p. 216.
19 For a recent discussion on the Master of Claude de France and his training, see Wieck 2014.
20 See D’Urso 2007, p. 217-236; Hermant and Toscano 2018, p. 4-61.
21 D’Urso 2016, p. 197-198. Hermant and Toscano 2018, p. 20.
22 Furthermore, no trace of the king’s chaplain can be found in documents after the fall of Naples. D’Urso 2007, p. 246, n. 57.
23 Avril 1984, p. 178.
24 D’Urso 2016, p. 197-198. For an earlier and more developed study of this manuscript by the same author, see D’Urso 2007, p. 245-247.
25 The collation of this manuscript is otherwise regular: I8 + 1 (ff. 2-10), II8 (ff. 11-18), III8 (ff. 19-26), IV8 (ff. 27-34), V8 (ff. 35-42), VI8 (ff. 43-50), VII8 (ff. 51-58).
26 D’Urso 2016, p. 198.
27 “De même si les Manieres d’armoiries réalisées pour Frédéric d’Aragon […] ont été attribuées à Bourdichon, il nous semble que leur décor doit revenir au Maître de Claude de France.” Hermant and Toscano 2018, p. 20.
28 Herman 2016, p. 129-146.
29 McGibbon 1933, p. 49 and 141.
30 For a well-documented account of Frederick of Aragon’s movements, see Benzoni 1995, vol. 45 [p. 19 of downloaded PDF], <http ://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/federico-d-aragona-re-di-napoli_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/>. See also Vecce 1988, p. 36-40.
31 Vecce 1988, p. 38.
32 A rich bibliography exists on the surviving inventories. See March 1935, p. 287-333; De Marinis 1952; Cherchi and De Robertis 1990, p. 109-347; López-Ríos 2002, p. 201-243.
33 A 1508 inventory has survived, which includes the books bought by Georges d’Amboise, see De Marinis 1952, Inventory C, p. 201-204, and published more recently as Inventory B in Toscano 2017, p. 138-159, with an edition of the inventory by Marie-Pierre Laffitte, p. 266-267.
34 The letters associated with each inventory are taken from the initial classification made by De Marinis 1952. For inventories M2 and V, discovered more recently, I have adopted the letters chosen by the authors who published them, which reflect the places where they are now kept, i.e. M for Madrid, and V for Valencia.
35 Inventory M2 in López-Ríos 2002, p. 240-241. The same document contains a longer list (Inventory M1) which records 132 books she sold on 4 July 1523 to the humanist and book collector Celio Calcagnini. These books, it would seem, had never been brought to Touraine, as the source states that they were sold because they had suffered water damage on the journey that led them from Ischia (where Frederick had initially fled with part of his belongings after Naples was taken in 1501) to Ferrara via Marseilles.
36 Hickson 2016, p. 71, n. 21.
37 Cherchi and De Robertis 1990, p. 269 for this entry.
38 For a transcript of this inventory, see March 1935, p. 296-333 and De Marinis 1952, Inventory D, these entries on p. 205-206.
39 The L was added by March to differentiate books from jewels etc. also enclosed in these cases.
40 It begins with four rubricated lines (like the Madrid treatise), and four written leaves (vs three in the Madrid manuscript). Its format is larger even taking into account the fact that Toutes manières d’armoiries has been cropped. A “4o de foglio reale” equals to about 30 × 22 cm (“foglio reale” is c. 61.5 × 44.5 cm).
41 De Marinis 1952, Inventory G, p. 207-224 (p. 221).
42 For the original text, see Annex 2.
43 D’Urso 2007, p. 247, n. 63. For the inventory, see Cherchi and De Robertis 1990, p. 144-145, no. 25.
44 Madrid, BNE, Mss/1467, f. 1r. For a full transcript of this inscription, see Annex 3.
45 On the Chifflet family, see Delobette and Delsalle 2007.
46 Jules Chifflet wrote an Histoire de l’ordre de la Toison d’or which remained unpublished (Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, Mss. Chifflet 88-89).
47 I would like here to thank Michel Pastoureau who directed me to the manuscript in Paris. This 17th-century book is mentioned in Saffroy 1968, no. 2097. See also Boudreau 1996, vol. I, p. 223, n. 280 and entry in vol. II. The manuscripts, original and copy, are briefly mentioned in De Tejada y Spinola 1975, p. 178. Most of Chifflet’s papers are now in the Bibliothèque municipale in Besançon, which makes this manuscript something of an oddity. A few clues indicate that it came to the library of the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève in the second half of the 18th century. Two full stocktakes took place in the library of the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève in the 18th century, the last in 1753. During these inventories, the abbey’s ex-libris was systematically stamped in each book. The fact that it is not present in this volume means that it was acquired after 1753. The green binding with the SG monogram and the abbey’s arms dates to the 18th century and indicates that it came to the abbey library before the suppression of the abbey at the French Revolution. The manuscript must therefore have entered the abbey library between 1753 and 1790 (information kindly communicated by Hélène de la Mure on 30 April 2018).
48 The dimensions of the volume are 30 cm by 20 cm, as opposed to 19 cm by 13 cm for the original, i.e. one third larger.
49 For a full list of the shields not blazoned by Chifflet in his copy, see Annex 4. They amount to 254, i.e. 23% of the total.
50 He made a mistake on f. 45r (corresponds to f. 35r), swapping shields xxiii and xxvi, but did not attempt to correct it, presumably to keep his copy clean.
51 Ms 524, ff. IIIr-IVr. For a full transcript of this preface, see Annex 5.
52 On Manuel de Moura y Corte Real, see Martínez Hernández 2013, p. 427-484; Hernández 2011, p. 97-120.
53 On the “reales de billón” currency, see Jouvin De Rochefort 1672, p. 320-323.
54 He had become marquis of Malpica in 1619, at the death of his father. In 1658 he testified in favour of Velázquez when the latter was put forward to become a Knight of the Order of Santiago : “al interrogatorio, con el numero 98, es D. Baltasar Barroso de Rivera, Marqués de Malpica, caballero de Santiago, Mayordomo del Rey y de su Consejo de Obras y Bosques, de cincuenta y dos anos de edad,” in Cruzada Villaamil 1885, p. 245 see also p. 36 and 238.
55 On this topic, see Pächt 1977, p. 7-106 (sources from the 15th century onwards quoted on p. 78-83) and, more recently, Ferré 2009, p. 117-121.
56 On the importance of such genealogical trees in 17th-century Spain, see Blas, De Carlos Varona and Matilla 2011, p. 56-57.
57 It has been trimmed to fit in the book, pasted onto two facing pages.
58 Blas, Varona and Matilla 2011, no. 188, 399 × 267 mm (print) and no. 189, 396 × 270 mm, Astor-032 and 033.
59 Madrid, BNE, Invent/15521, c. 452 × 342 mm; Blas, Varona and Matilla 2011, no. 190, Astor-034.
60 Juan Bautista Labaña or João Baptista Lavanha (1555-1624) was a Portuguese cartographer, mathematician and chronicler at the Spanish court. His most famous collaboration with De Astor was the map of Aragon drawn by Labaña and printed by De Astor c. 1617-1618 (Madrid, BNE, Invent. MV/ 10; Blas, Varona and Matilla 2011, no. 191, Astor-035).
61 “16 árboles […] dibujados y grabados por Diego de Astor”, Cuartero Huerta 1957, p. 264-267 listed as E.62. Currently, Real Academia de la Historia, Ms 9-400. These prints, however, are not listed in Blas, Varonas and Matilla 2011.
62 Strangely, this manuscript was not mentioned in the comprehensive catalogue by Blas, Varona and Matilla 2011 so no genealogy of the kings of Naples by De Astor was listed by the authors.
63 “suspiraba mil veces por el difunto Juan Bautista Lavaña, porque decia que con el se habia ido a la sepultura el airoso dibujo [de los árboles de linaje]”, quoted in De Faria e Sousa 1975, p. 194; see also Martínez Hernández 2011, p. 103 n. 28.
64 Manuscript fully accessible online on Gallica: <https ://gallica.bnf.fr/ark>. Lyna (Frédéric), Le mortifiement de vaine plaisance de René d’Anjou, étude du texte et des manuscrits à peintures, Brussels, Weckesser; Paris, Rousseau, 1926, p. lxx-lxxi.
65 This translation into Spanish by Jacinto de Herrera does not seem to have ever been published and I could not either find any trace of it surviving in manuscript form: as suggested by the phrasing employed by Chifflet, it may have existed in one manuscript copy, possibly autograph. On Arlima (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge), no early translation of this work is listed. See <https ://arlima.net/no/195>.
66 René of Anjou, Traité de la forme et devis comme on peut faire les tournois, c. 1460, Provence or Angers, Paris, BnF, Français 2695.
67 Isabella Clara Eugenia was the daughter of Philip II and Elisabeth of Valois, and the aunt of Philip IV and Ferdinand of Austria.
68 The manuscript contains the ex-libris of Mary of Luxemburg on folio 109r and the Fouquet provenance is based on a document now in the Archives nationales in Paris (Minutier central, Et. XIX/580, no. 328, 8 juin 1705). See Gautier 2009, p. 276. The volume then passed into the collections of Louis-François de Bourbon, prince of Conti (1717-1776), and Louis-César de La Baume Le Blanc, duke of La Vallière (1708-1780). Louis XV bought it from the latter in 1766 for his library, hence its presence now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
69 I would like to thank Samuel Gras for sharing his collation with me.
70 The sequence starts from the beginning again for no obvious reason, in the middle of f. 72v.
71 López-Ríos 2002, p. 240.
72 Cherchi and De Robertis 1990, p. 269 for this entry.
73 March 1935, p. 314 and De Marinis 1952, Inventory D, p. 205-206.
74 De Marinis 1952, Inventory G, p. 221.
75 Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms Chifflet 165, ff. 22v-26v (f. 23v).
76 The shield numbers are given as Arabic numbers in this table for ease of reading, but they are in Roman numerals in the Madrid manuscript, and a mixture of Roman and Arabic numbers in the Paris copy.
77 Blazoning for shield 63 begun, but not completed.
78 The phrasing implies that he is in Madrid at the time when he is writing these words.
79 He added in the margin the reference he took this anecdote from : “Pierre Mathieu en l’Hist. de Louys XI (Paris, 1628)”, i.e. Mathieu 1628.
80 Charlotte (1480-1506), daughter of Frederick and Anne of Savoy.
81 This phrase meant that the title and inheritance had passed on to a woman, in the absence of a male heir.
82 These lines refer to Henri-Charles de la Trémoïlle (1620-1672), thrown into prison in 1654 by order of Cardinal Mazarin.
83 Otto Truchsess von Waldburg (1514-1573).
84 Grudé de la Croix du Maine 1584, p. 431.
85 De Bourdigné 1529.