Arthur, Author

Just in case you feel like buying me a book for my birthday or Christmas, only seven shopping months away… here’s a nice little number coming up for auction. It’s a version of the King Arthur stories, in medieval French, with over 100 beautiful little illuminations. This book is in excellent condition and has been in private hands for the last 700 years. News Artnet.com says,

Images courtesy of Christie’s.

“One pristine example from [the] Lancelot-Grail Cycle, however, will make its auction debut on July 8, after 700 years in private hands, when Christie’s offers the artifact at its live Valuable Books and Manuscripts sale in London. There, experts expect the Clermont-Tonnerre Grail to fetch £1.5 million–£2 million ($2 million–$2.6 million).

The full Lancelot-Grail Cycle—also known as the Vulgate Cycle—spans the ubiquitous romantic epic of King Arthur and his court, including the quest for the Holy Grail and stories of legendary characters like Lancelot the knight and Merlin the magician. Numerous versions of the story exist, attributed to numerous authors, rendering scholarship all the more important.”

The “private hands” who owned it sound like an epic story in themselves … maybe something dreamed up by Jorge Luis Borges, as a companion story to his classic tale “The Book of Sand.” “

“The Clermont-Tonnerre Grail also boasts a long, swanky provenance. Metz master-alderman Michel de Gronnais likely bought this book from a fellow Metz resident in the 15th century. Jouster Michel de Chaverson owned it after, then the comte de Clermont-Tonnerre, who remains the book’s namesake. British baron Thomas Phillipps owned it next, followed by Jean Lebaudy, a French industrialist and decorated veteran of both World Wars” Christie’s, the auction house offering the book, however, is remaining tight-lipped about who consigned the text,” says ArtNet.

Of course, scholars and historians around the world would love to see this book go to a museum or university where it could be studied in depth. This is not only because of its fine state of preservation and the rarity of a complete copy dating back to before the invention of movable-type printing, but also for the quality of its illuminations. Christie’s believes these 126 drawings are by the Master of the Liége Apocalypse, a nameless illustrator active around the 14th century and named after the apocalyptic religious manuscript that made his work famous.

.So, I suggest that some billionaire — one of the rare ones that actually appreciate literature and history and have retained some generosity of spirt — buy the book and donate it to the institution of their choice. Not only would this gladden the hearts of students of literature and myth, but it would produce a nice tax break as a donation to a nonprofit organization.

Anybody? Anybody? How about you, Jeff Bezos? Didn’t you make a few bucks retailing books?