[Heraldic pedigree of François and Nicolas Damant].

Bookseller description:nn"[MANUSCRIPT - HERALDRY - GENEALOGY - DAMMANT (DAMANT) FAMILY]. [Heraldic pedigree of François and Nicolas Damant].n[Southern Low Countries (Brussels or possibly Courtrai/Kortrijk?)], [ca. 1600/20?]. Folio (ca. 38 x 24.5 cm). Manuscript in French on paper, written in brown ink in a neat French secretary hand (a neatly upright gothic cursive), on both sides of the first 6 leaves, with the explanations of the coats of arms written in a finely executed italic. With 43 ink-drawn coats of arms, that of Louise de Sicleers (the wife of François Damant) and the same arms where it appears quartered in the arms of others, coloured in red and white by a contemporary hand. One coat is helmed and crested, with mantling added in pencil; another helmed, with crest, supporters and mantling added in pencil. Formerly sewn, apparently together with other items, but perhaps never bound.nnManuscript containing the narrative pedigree of the two brothers François (ca. 1535-1611) and Nicolas Damant (ca. 1531-1616), both members of the important Damant (written as "Dammant" in the manuscript) family, which held important positions in the Habsburg Netherlands. Their father, for example, Pierre Damant, was councillor and courtier to Charles IV. At least Nicolas was born in Brussels and also died there, but François died at Courtrai/Kortrijk, His son François Damant was councillor and garde joyaux (keeper of the library) to the dukes of Burgundy. He married Louise de Sicleers. François's brother, Nicolas, was magistrate and statesman in the Habsburg Netherlands. He became councillor to the Council of Brabant, appointed by the Duke of Alva in 1568, and master of requests of the Brussels Privy Council before he became Chancellor of Brabant in 1585. He also became garde des sceaux (keeper of the seals) and garde joyaux of Philips II. He married Barbara Brant. Like most members of the family, François, Nicolas and their father Pierre were all members of the Order of the Golden Fleece (Ordre de la Toison d'Or), then the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world. The present manuscript is in fact a genealogical family tree written in a narrative style, describing the several ancestors of Francois and Nicolas, as well as their children. It is illuminated with ink-drawn coat of arms of the Damant family members, together with the coat of arms of the families that are related to the Damant family by marriage. The arms that has been coloured is: gules, a lion rampant argent (the Sicleers arms and the 1st and 4th quarters of the Bidolte arms). The latest date mentioned in the text is 1598 and we find no reference to the deaths of François (1611) or Nicolas (1616) Damant, so the manuscript may have been written shortly before their deaths (the watermarks, noted below, would allow a date shortly before or shortly after).nnThe manuscript is written and drawn on a single quire of paper from a single stock, with a somewhat squarish sheet on the borderline between Crown and Demy (about 37.7 x 47.8 cm), collating: [A] 12 (- A12) = 11 ll, with A7-11 blank. The six written leaves are numbered [1], 2-6 in a contemporary hand, but the leaves were apparently later sewn together with other items, very likely a heraldic or genealogical collection, including a leaf inserted between leaves 5 and 6 (or an error in the numbering), so that the modern page numbers in pencil are irregular ([153-154?], 155-162,165-176). The paper is watermarked (from the mould side): horn on an uncrowned shield, the single-wire cord of the horn topped with a Saint Andrew's cross = -, with the wide end of the horn toward the centre of the sheet. The sheet shows 18 full-sized chain-spaces (average distance between chainlines 24.3 mm), a tranchefile about 11 mm beyond the last regular chainline at both ends and about 10 mm further to the deckle. The two twin wateermarks measure 44.5 x 41 mm (in the left half-sheet, centred on the 5th chain-space) and 48 x 50 mm (in the right half-sheet, centred on the 14th chain-space). We find no exact match to the watermarks in the literature, but the closest are Heawood 2640-2647 (Antwerp 1598-1612), particularly 2640 and 2646, and Piccard VII.X.121 (Mainz 1621).nnThe first (singleton) leaf and five bifolia are untrimmed, with all deckles intact, formerly sewn at 4(?) stations but never glued or pasted. With a few very small holes in the paper, mostly in the folds, a few leaves slightly darkened and frayed at the fore-edge, otherwise in very good condition. A very interesting early 17th-century heraldic pedigree of one of the most important noble families of the Habsburg Netherlands.nn6, [5 blank], ll. For Francois and Nicolas Damant: Louis Galesloot, "Damant (Nicolas)" in: Biographic nationale (1873), pp. 647-649; Luc Jean Joseph Van der Vynckt, Nederlandsche beroerten onder Filips II, vol. 4, p. 522.",Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439372/datastream/PDF/view