Saturday 2 February 2013

Didier Petit catalogue online

Didier Petit de Meurville (1793-1873) of Lyon was one of the major French collectors of religious art of the 19th century.

A partially annotated copy of his sale catalogue: Catalogue de la collection formée par M. Didier Petit a Lyon ... Paris, Dentu, au Palais Royal, (1843), is available through Gallica, and an unannotated one through Google Books.


The manuscripts (lots 351-373) start on page 38. Among the easily identifiable lots are:

Lot 352: Missal of St-Victor, Paris (now Morgan Library MS. M.201):

Lot 354: The Beauvais Missal (now broken up and widely scattered):

Lot 356: Missal illuminated by Sano di Pietro (now Fitzwilliam Museum, MS. 6-1954):

Lot 357: Vie et Gestes de César (now Library of Congress; de Ricci, p.189, no.34)

Lot 361: The Emblem Book of Antoine Dubourg, Chancellor of France (sold at Christie's, New York, Vershbow sale, 9 April 2013, lot 32:

Lot 364: Evangelistary (now Getty Museum, MS. 16):

Edit 30 July 2014.
Here is another:
Lot 3: Book of Hours,Use of Rome (Donaueschingen sale at Sotheby's, 21 June 1982, lot 19, to Kraus; re-offered (unsold) 18 June 2002 lot 53):
Edit 24 March 2015
Bill Stoneman has pointed out to me that the above reference is incorrect. Both the Sotheby's catalogues referred to above state that the manuscript was no.3 in the Didier Petit catalogue of 1843. But no.3 in the catalogue is an enamel: most of nos.1–303 are enamels or enamelled objects; nos.304–337 are stained glass; nos.338–350 are paintings; nos.374–423 are ivories; etc.. The manuscripts are grouped together as nos.351–373 and include only four Books of Hours:

  • 358. 14th cent. small 4o. 186 leaves. 12 miniatures, 32 roundels.
  • 360. 14th cent. 139 leaves. 16 miniatures, rich borders.
  • 372. 1695. small 8o. Colophon of Gregorius Himperger, Benedictine monk of Tegernsee.
  • 373. 16th cent. 8o. 122 leaves. 39 large ans small miniatures. Arms of the Chaillot family.

None of these matches the ex-Donaueschingen Hours, which is c.1480, with 193 leaves, with 39 full-page (and one half-page) miniatures.

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