' In number 8318, we read in the fame handwriting with the manufcript, that It was given to John duke of Berry, the 8th November 1407, by William Boifratier, matter of requefts, and counfellor to this prince. If it be the fame which has fince been given by M. de Chandenier to M. le Laboureur, as this laft believed, it would be rendered the more precious from this circumftance, that there would be found in it very confiderable variations, which he fays he has obferved in this manufcript, from the printed copies, and more especially from that of Sauvage; or it would convince us of the falfity of this imputation, which appears to me very fufpicious. • But as the copy of M. le Laboureur, as he himfelf informs us, contained miniatures reprefenting the principal events of the hiftory, and as the one which Boifratier prefented to the duke of Berry does not contain any, it Is certain that it cannot be the fame. Although the miniatures, head-pieces, capital letters illuminated and emboffed with gold, in the manufcript 8319, be of great beauty,—it muft, neverthelefs, yield in this refpe& to number 8320, from which much may be learnt regarding warlike cuftoms, ceremonies, dreffes and other points of antiquity. The reverend father Montfaucon has taken from them the prints of the entry of queen Ifabella of France, and the arreft of the king, of Navarre, which he has inferted in his * Monuments François/ Notwithftanding this, I believe that in thefe miniatures, which are not, at die moft, earlier than the middle of the fifteenth century, the painter has confounded the dreffes of his own age with thofe of the times of which he was painting the hiftory. We fee at the beginning of feveral manufcripts the author reprefented differently dreffed,—fometimes as a canon, with his ferplice and aumuffe*\ fomethnes in a purple robe, prefenting his work to the king of France, or to fome other prince, feated on his throne and crowned. The king of England is known by his robe embroidered with leopards in the number 1331-2, and the queen of England in number 15 of Colbert's coileâions. The moft ancient of all the manufcripts of the firft volume are the •numbers 8318 and'8331-2, which appear to me to be of the.end of the • Auiuflê is a fort of arrailla of for, which canons wear oa their arms when (Jrcfled. I .canmt :hd any, eogliih wotd for if. J 57