Provenance Confirmed for the Dismembered Breviary of the Cathedral of Agen (1297-1313): Add. MS. 42132

Abstract

The Breviary of the cathedral of Agen, one of the most monumental witnesses of illumination in the South-West of France around 1300, has been dismembered and is currently preserved in four different places. The Southern French origin of these fragments is beyond doubt, but the recent history of the manuscript was still unknown. This article confirms the Agen provenance of this book which was certainly made for the cathedral. Indeed, in an article of 1889 barely mentioned in the literature, there is a description of this Breviary which was then still preserved in the vicinity of Agen, in the hands of the Baron Paul de Bastard, last owner of the almost complete manuscript.