The Law of Saint King Louis

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

For countless time French schoolchildren learn that St. Louis made his judgments under the oak of Vincennes forest (near a mansion where he liked to reside).

The reign of Louis IX of France is a rich mix of diplomatic skills, intellectual activity (creation of the Sorbonne), proselytism (the Crusades), and fight against the major feudals.

In these now assumed dark times that we name the Middle Ages, the principles of Roman law were not forgotten. The specialist was Pierre de Fontaines, who held the position of grand chamberlain (chambellan) of Louis IX. The king asked him in 1253 to write a book of legal advice, which was intended to adapt the broad principles of law and justice in this new social threat: great feudalism.

A manuscript copy of this book will be on sale in Paris (Hôtel Drouot) on October 16, by the auction house Lafon.

This copy is written in a variant of the Old French, the Picard dialect. Analysing the book in 1846, Marnier noted that the most correct copy of the text, and probably closer to the original, was in dialect of Ile de France (1). While it is easy to indicate the date of original text, it is more difficult to know the date of the submitted copy. If it is in good condition, the estimate of 60 K € seems far too low.

I can not resist the temptation to mention also a document of the Archives of France, dating back to 1259, by which King Louis IX provides an annual pension of fifty Paris pounds (livres parisis) to the jurisconsult Pierre de Fontaines (2).

CREDIT

(1)
Augustin Deloye. Le Conseil de Pierre de Fontaines, ou Traité de l'ancienne jurisprudence française..., par A. J. Marnier., Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes, 1846, vol. 7, n° 1, pp. 271-274.
URL

(2)
Ministère de la Culture - Archim, AE/II/260
URL

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This manuscript book from 750 years ago was too rare for a reliable estimate to be made before the sale. The estimate that was announced in July was much too low, as I said. Before the sale, la Gazette Drouot had indicated an estimated range of 150 to 200 K €.

It was still too low. This exceptional lot reached 310 K € including premium.

Here is the video published and shared by Interencheres.tv for introducing this lot.