Chronicon de regibus Francorum, a Pharamundo vsque ad Henricum II - Tillet, Jean du Sieur De La Bussière ca 1500 - 1570 (Paris Vascosan, 1548)
Chronical of the French Kings, from Faramundus (420) until Henry II (1547)
Layout in table form divided into 4 columns (3 for dates and one for text)
Jean du Tillet, Sieur de La Bussière (circa 1500-1570), was a jurist and historian and clerk of the Parliament of Paris. Secretary to the king under Henry II, he was gifted with an immense erudition, both legal and historical. He was one of the first historians to write about French history based on archival documents.
Title page contains several remarks in ms, in different hands, possibly referring to provenances of the book:- in red ink: "Tecum habita", a drawing of littel snail and "Joannes Moflinus"- "Sr Petrus de Manchicourtii bethunij"- "Ama et Time"- "Eura et Arte JCarlier"
The composer Pierre de Manchicourt (c. 1510 – 5 October 1564) was born in Béthune, 6 hours on foot or 2 on horseback from Arras (France), where he was a choirboy at the cathedral. De Manchicourt worked in Tours from 1539 to 1545. At the time of the publication of "Chronicon", however, in 1548, Henry II had just been king for one year and De Manchicourt had been back on Habsburg territory, in Tournai, for three years.
The "tecum habita" (literally translated "live with yourself") written above the name of Joannes Moflinius and the snail was, among others, the motto of the book dealer-printer Ludovicus Cyaneus (or Louis Blaublom) from Ghent, who worked in Paris between 1528 and 1546. Cyaneus, however, had a turtle as its printer's mark, not a snail. The inscription is probably made earlier by Joannes Moflinius, abbot of the abbey of Sint-Winoksbergen, in the period of Charles V and Philip II. Sint-Winoksbergen is located 60 km coastal from Béthune, near Dunkirk. This abbot corresponded with humanists such as the cathographer Ortellius and the printer Christophel Plantijn.
Keywords: 16th Century (1501-1600); History; France