Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
8 documents on parchment, variable dimensions, all documents in bâtarde or cursive scripts, all folded (some waterstains, never hindering legibility).
There are certain iconic names in the history of French book-collecting and humanism: the Budé family is one of them. Assembled here are nine charters documenting the administrative and legal affairs of the Budé family. The Budé family was an important family of secretaries, notaries, and conseillers to the kings of France. Documented here is their establishment in the small Ile-de-France town called Villiers-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne), east of Paris. Dreux Budé (1396/1399-1476) – grand-father of Guillaume Budé (1467-1540), founder of the Collège de France – became Lord of Villiers-sur-Marne in 1425. The Budé clan confirmed their importance and social status through marriages such as that of Catherine Budé (daughter of Dreux Budé) with Etienne Chevalier, patron of the famous “Hours of Etienne Chevalier.” Jean Budé (1430-1501) was secrétaire and conseiller to kings Louis XI and Charles VIII. He had no fewer than 18 children; the family patrimony would eventually be reduced to next to nothing.
The first charter, dated July 1448, with an attached vidimus (21 Oct. 1452), grants and confirms Dreux Budé’s right to reinforce his castle in Villiers-sur-Marne. The seal has disappeared, but the silk threads are still present. Another charter documents the Budé family as builders, with a charter granted by Dreux, allowing his son to build “un hostel, court, jardins, pressoer, estables, granches” in the rue du Motet in Villiers-sur-Marne (9 Oct. 1460). The local political power of the Budé family can be deduced from a charter, granted by King Louis XI, by which permission is granted to Jean Budé to distribute “sceaux a contracts” locally in Villiers-sur-Marne (Feb. 1482).
Canivet, L. “Guillaume Budé, sa famille et l’Ile de France,” Courrier des Marches, 1958, no. 46
Le Clech, S. Chancellerie et culture au XVIe siècle: les notaires et secrétaires du roi, Toulouse, 1993
Omont, H. “Notes sur la famille de Guillaume Budé,” Bulletin de la société de l’histoire de Paris 12 (1885), pp. 45-50
