D’Avril la semaine seconde,
Acheva à un vendredi,
Guiot de Sens c’est livre si,
Et le comansa de sa main,
Et ne fina ne soir ne matin,
Tant qu’il eut l’euvre accomplie,
Louée soit la vierge Marie.[373]
Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was one of the more important book collectors of his time. In 1386, the Duke paid to Martin L’Huillier, dealer in manuscripts and bookbinder, sixteen francs for binding eight books, six of which were bound in grain leather.[374] The Duke of Orleans also appears as a buyer of books, and in 1394, he paid to Jehan de Marsan, master of arts and dealer in manuscripts, twenty francs in gold for the Letters of S. Pol, bound in figured silk, and illuminated with the arms of the Duke.
Four years later, the Duke makes another purchase, paying to Jehan one hundred livres tournois for a Concordance to the Bible in Latin, an illuminated manuscript bound in red leather, stamped.
The same Duke, in 1394, paid forty gold crowns to Olivier, one of the four principal librarii, for a Latin text of the Bible, bound in red leather, and in 1396, this persistent ducal collector pays sixty livres to a certain Jacques Jehan, who is recorded as a grocer, but who apparently included books in his stock, for the Book of the Treasury, a book of Julius Cæsar, a book of the King, The Secret of Secrets, and a book of Estrille Fauveau, bound in one volume, illuminated, and bearing the arms of the Duke of Lancaster. Another volume included in this purchase was the Romance of the Rose, and the Livres des Eschez, “moralised,” and bound together in one volume, illuminated in gold and azure.[375]