Statuts de L'Ordre de Saint-Michel. Manuscrit qui a été la propriété de Louis XI, Fondateur de L'Ordre.

This is a fine copy of the document that defined the practices and rules of the royal Order of St. Michel (the French counterpart to the Burgundian order of the Golden Fleece). Written on vellum, in an elegant script and adorned with illuminated initials, this example was probably copied at the Renaissance court of King Francis I. Bound in nineteenth-century elaborately gilt-tooled black leather over pasteboards incorporating earlier purple velvet binding as center panels on the front and back covers, gilt-tooled spine with five raised bands, purple silk doublures, in very good condition apart from small splits to spine and scuffs to velvet. Dimensions 265 x 185 mm.