MANUSCRIPT]. [THEATER]. [BERRY]. ALABAT (Guillaume) (?)]. L' - Lot 80

MANUSCRIPT]. [THEATER]. [BERRY]. ALABAT (Guillaume) (?)]. L'ordre de la triomphante et magnifique monstre du Mÿstère des saincts actes des apôtres faicte a Bourges le dimanche dernier jour d'avril mil cinq cent trente six In French, manuscript on paper France, 19th c. 18 ff, preceded by 2 ff. and followed by 3 ff. of paper, complete, cursive writing in brown ink. Bound in glazed red half calf, smooth spine with gilt lettering and gilt fillet decoration, boards covered with marbled paper with glue, marbled paper end-papers (binding signed "GANON" at the back of spine). Spine unstained, otherwise good condition. Dimensions : 212 x 327 mm. Relation of the performance of the Mystery of the Acts of the Apostles given in Bourges in 1536. The Mystery of the Acts of the Apostles was commissioned by King René d'Anjou, Count of Maine, from Simon Gréban, brother of Arnoul Gréban and canon of Le Mans. The work must have been written in 1460-1470, and with more than 60,000 verses, it is the most copious of all the French dramas of the Middle Ages. The author divided into nine books the story of the apostles of Jerusalem, their travels in the East, India, Armenia, Spain, Greece, Ethiopia, Babylonia, Scythia, Rome. The Mystery ends with the torture of St. Peter and St. Paul. Numerous complete or partial representations took place in the 16th century. The most important were those of Bourges (April 30-August 1536). On this occasion it was printed in Paris in 1538: Mystères des Actes des Apostres - Le Premier (et le Second) volume du Magnifique Mystere des Actes des Apostres. Continuant la narration de leurs faictz et gestes Selon l'escripture saincte accordee a la prophane histoire et legendes ecclésiastiques. Paris, Nicolas Couteau for Guillaume Alabat de Bourges, 1538. The Bourges Library copy of this edition contains an 18th century manuscript copy of this relation (Bourges, BM, MS 317). It was attributed to Jacques Thiboust by N. Catherinot in his Annales Typographiques (see Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, Tome IV, Paris, 1886, p.?76, n°?317). A note from a 19th century hand on an inserted paper indicates the following: "This curious relation, which has no connection with the Crÿ et proclamation to play the mÿstere of the Acts of the Apostles of November 16, 1540, was copied from a manuscript of the time inserted at the end of a copy of the Acts of the Apostles, Paris edition, N. Couteau 1537 [sic?], which in 1754 belonged to the Abbé de Cicé, Grand Vicar of Bourges. The costumes of all the actors of the Mystery are described in detail in this manuscript which appears to be unpublished and of which no copy is known. The author must be Guillaume Alabat, bourgeois and merchant of Bourges who had this mystery printed for the first time and who undoubtedly directed the performance. These elements are included at the end of the manuscript. See : Bibliothèque dramatique de M. de Soleinne, Paris (1843), vol. I, no. 552, pp. 100-101, which states following the title: L'ordre de la triomphante et magnifique monstre du Mÿstère des saincts actes des apôtres faicte a Bourges le dimanche dernier jour d'avril mil cinq cent trente six (sur le théâtre de la fosse des Arènes). This same notice indicates that the Abbé de Cicé was "grand-vicaire of Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, archbishop of Bourges". - Lebègue (R.), Le Mystère des Actes des Apôtres: Contribution à l'étude de l'humanisme et du protestantisme français au XVIe siècle, Paris, 1929. Provenance: Borluut family. Armorial bookplate with motto: "Groeninghe velt, Groeninghe velt".