Valois, Nicolas

Le grand Olimpe ou philosophie poétique attribuée au très renommé Ouide. Traduit des vers latins en vers françois avec l'explication. Stanièvre. Abrégé du Grand Olimpe. Fol. 1. Olimpe qui jadis fut tant / Vénéré dans Rome pourtant / ... 42. je finiray sans nulles gloses / le livre des metamorphoses. 42v. Exposition des Vers suivant le sens de l'autheur. 105v. ... cette traduction et annotations sont achevées d'escrire ce 16e Mars l'an mil quatre cens trente. Fin. Fol. 1. STANIèVRE. Abrégé du grand Olimpe. 20v. Extraict sur l'original par Mr. Stanièvre. Below the title, on the first leaf, a contemporary hand has written 'le Ciel Des philosophes; livre unique rempli de choses les plus savantes et les plus curieuses. L'abbé De Moncourt'.

Late 17th century

1 volume 1 l. + 105 ff. + 6 bl. ll. + 20 ff. + 20 bl. ll. 8vo. 18 × 11 cm. Original calf-gilt binding.

Purchased 1910.

The authorship and date of this work have not been definitely settled. According to Paul Kuntze 'Le Grand Olympe, eine alchimistische Deutung von Ovids Metamorphosen', Halle, 1912, the author was Nicolas Valois [1475-1541], a suggestion which he tried to prove from internal evidence. It seems more probable that Fulcanelli in his 'Les demeures philosophales', Paris. 1930, pp. 68-72, is nearer the truth in claiming that a Nicolas Valois was born in 1375, and seems to have been still alive in 1445. This would agree with dates given in surviving MSS. of the late 16th, and of the 17th century including the present MS. By this theory Kuntze's dates would refer to Valois' great grandson, known as 'Nicolas Le Vallois', who may perhaps have revised his ancestor's work.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).