Beinecke MS 659
France, s. XVI 1/4
Berault Stuart, Traite sur l'art de la guerre

ff. 1r-26r	S'ensuit ung livret et traicte comment ung prince ou chef de guerre quel ordre ou 
train il doit tenir pour conquester ung pays ou passer ou traverser le pays
des ennemys, compose 
par messire Berault Stuard, chevallier de l'ordre du roy noustre sire, son conseiller et chambellain 
ordinaire et seigneur d'Aubigny, en allant par luy en ambassade pour le roy au royaulme 
d'Escoce, ou il mourut, pour confirmer les anciennes alliances du dit
seigneur. Appelle avec luy a 
reddiger et escripre le dict livret et tracte maistre Etienne le Jeune, natif du dict Aubigny, son 
segretaire et chappellain ordinaire. [f. 2r, prologue:] Nous lisons aux histoires romaines que les 
Romains par la conduicte et observance de discipline militaire, laquelle ilz ont eue plus chere que 
la vie et charite des propres enffans, ont acquis la gloire de dominer et obtenir la monarchie du 
monde sur toutes aultres nations et peuples ...  si supplie et requiers a tous ceulx qui liront ce petit 
livret, que, devant carper, mordre ou reprandre, ilz veullent le tout bien digerer. Car ilz 
trouverront a le bien comprandre aucunne bonne chouse [this word added by another hand]. 
Soubzmetant  touteffoys le tout au jugement de chacun myeulx sentent et entendant, prest 
d'estre corrige et instruict par le moindre des plus petis. [f. 3r, text:] Premierement et avant toute 
euvre doit adviser s'il a bonne et juste querelle pour mectre Dieu et la raison pour luy. Puis doit 
adviser a son cas et veoir s'il a argent et gens assez pour ce faire ... et aussi que la guerre se faict 
a l'eveil et selon que gens saiges et experimentez congnoissant tant de leurs gens et force comme 
de leurs ennemys.

Berault Stuart (Bernard Stewart, c. 1452/53-1508), Traite sur l'art de la guerre, ed. after our 
manuscript with the variants of the other manuscripts by E. de Comminges,
Traite sur l'art de la 
guerre de Berault Stuart, Seigneur d'Aubigny. Archives Internationales
d'Histoire des Idees. 
International Archives of the History of Ideas, v. 85 (The Hague, 1976), pp. 3-23. On the author, 
soldier and diplomat in French service, see Comminges' introduction and Oxford Dictionary of 
National Biography, v. 53 (2004), pp. 134-135.


Parchment, ff. II + 26 + II, 205 x 135 mm.

I-II 6 (ff. 1-12), III 6 (+ a singleton after f. 16; ff. 13-19), IV 6 (+ a singleton before f. 21; ff. 20-
26). Traces of signatures of the type "a I"-"a III".

Page per page ruling with pink ink for one column of 22-25 lines below top line, ruling type 13, 
132/138 x  85/88 mm. There are pricks at the four corners of the written area.

Copied by one hand in a small Gothica Hybrida Formata (loopless Bastarda).

Line-fillers in liquid gold on red, blue or brown ground. 2-line (rarely 3- or 4-line) initials on 
square background, in liquid gold on coloured background or in colour, heightened with white, 
on liquid gold background decorated with leaves and flowers. Miniatures: (1) f. 1r, in a 
Renaissance architectural frame, on the basement of which the first three lines of the text are 
written: the author dictating and his assistant Etienne le Jeune writing, both seated at a table in 
an interior; (2) f. 1v, half-page miniature below 11 lines of text: Scottish soldiers and the French 
army, with cannons, trumpets, drums, muskets, pikes; (3) f. 2r,  full-page miniature comprising 
the first three lines of the prologue: King Francis I and his counsellors in Parliament, surrounded 
by courtiers, ambassadors, heralds and guards. The counsellors have all tentatively been 
identified by Comminges (pp. XXXVII-XXXIX); (4) f. 12r, full-page miniature above the 2-line 
heading "S'ensuit le train que l'on doit tenir pour asseiger une place": siege of a walled city; (5) f. 
18v, full-page miniature  above two lines of the heading "S'ensuit la maniere de garder une place 
et ce que doivent faire ceulx qui seront [f. 19r:] desca assiegez": a fortified castle with soldiers 
and cannons in the foreground; (6) f. 21r: full-page miniature above the 3-line heading "S'ensuit 
le train qu'on doit tenir pour faire la guerre guerreante selon qu'il me semble": a city invaded and 
set on fire; cattle and prisoners being taken away.

Binding s. XIX in: cross-grained red leather over pasteboard, the covers gold-tooled with a 
decorative border, the turn-ins gold-tooled with dentelle border; brownish marbled endpapers; 
the spine gold-tooled with flowerets and the title "L'ORDRE D'UN CHEF DE GUERRE PAR 
D'AUBIGNY".

In how far Comminges was right in the identification of the personages depicted on f. 2r remains 
to be certified. Francis I was crowned 1515 and Louis of Orleans, Duke of Longueville, one of 
the counsellors identified by Comminges, died 1516, which would date our manuscript from the 
years 1515-16. If Robert Stuart, Lord of Aubigny and cousin of the author Berault Stuart, is 
indeed depicted in the same miniature, then the manuscript would have been from the beginning 
in the possession of the Stuart-Bute family: Lady Marion Stuart, sister of Robert, is one of the 
ancestors of the Bute family, which owned the manuscript up to 19..?? See its description while 
in the collection of  the Marquis of Bute in Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Third 
Report, Appendix (1872), p. 208. 
On f. Iv, we find, however, the s. XIX inscription "Mss. de Mr. Beauveau" and, in another hand 
"MS 181"; on the same page "600" (s. XVIII) and "F. 21" (s. XX). Purchased in 1986?? from 
H.P. Kraus, New York, and presented as a gift of the Beinecke Foundation in memory of Edwin 
J. Beinecke on his 100th birthday.

Bibliography:
E. de Comminges, Traite sur l'art de la guerre, pp. XXXVI-XXXIX.
M.R. Toynbee, "A Portrait of Bernard Stuart", The Stewarts, 9 (1951), pp. 25-28.

Albert Derolez

R 02.06.08