Un patrimoine de manuscrits et d’incunables de luxe conservés en Pologne et au Québec : la Catena aurea (1475), l’Historia naturalis (XVe siècle) et le Liber chronicarum (1493)

<jats:p>A Wealth of Deluxe Manuscripts and Incunabula Held in Poland and Quebec : the Catena aurea (1475), Historia naturalis (15th c.) and Liber chronicarum (1493) Summary: This article examines the ornamentation and circulation of a selection of copies from the wealth of incunabula shared by Poland and Quebec, in order to link their hand-finishing to 15th-century aesthetic trends, illuminators, decoration and binding workshops. This comparative study focuses on 3 titles. Thomas of Aquinas’s Catena aurea (Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1475), with copies in Warsaw and Krakow featuring serial decoration, and a counter-example in Montreal. The second title is Pliny the Elder’s Historia naturalis, with two 15th-century Italian manuscripts and an incunabulum, preserved in Krakow and Montreal, decorated with bianchi girari (white vine-stem scrolls) and Italian-style champie initials. The third is Hartmann Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (Anton Koberger, 1493), with its thousands of woodcuts. Our attention will be drawn to the copy with illuminated initials from Krakow and the one with coloured woodcuts from Montreal. Keywords: incunabula, serial decoration, bianchi girari, Anton Koberger, Antonio Maria da Villafora</jats:p>