BASTARD D'ESTANG, JEAN-FRANÇOIS-AUGUSTE. — French palaeographer and archaeologist, born at Nogaro on 11 December 1792, died at the château of Bachac (near Bouglon, département of Lot-et-Garonne) on 16 April 1883. A cavalry officer attached to Napoleon’s retinue, he distinguished himself several times in combat, but his name is linked above all with his scholarly activity, documented by various studies in archaeology (especially his Etudes de symbolique chrétienne, Paris 1861), and by three collections of a palaeographical character, all unfortunately left incomplete: Librairie de Jean de France, premier duc de Berry (a large folio volume, suspended in 1835 after plate 32); Costumes de la cour de Bourgogne sous le règne de Philippe III dit le Bon (interrupted after the fifth fascicle, comprising 25 plates in all, in 1844); Peintures et ornements des manuscrits, classés dans un ordre chronologique, pour servir à l'histoire des arts du dessin, depuis le IVe siècle de l'ère chrétienne jusqu'à la fin du XVIe siècle.
This last work, conceived according to a truly grandiose plan, was begun in 1832 with the aim of collecting in facsimile a large number of miniatures from codices, important both for palaeography and for the art of manuscript decoration. It was divided into three sections: the first palaeographical, the second devoted to French miniature painting, and the third to foreign miniature painting. Two editions were begun, one intended for the French government (1835) and another for foreign states (1832): both had the first section in common (of the 120 plates planned, 75 were pub-
lished), while the second and third developed differently. Several copies of the edition for the French government exist, some with 104 and others with 112 plates in the second section; in the edition for foreign countries, 128 plates of the same section were published. Of the third section, barely begun, there is practically only one copy, in the Bibliothèque nationale of Paris, to which B.’s family transferred the abundant material collected by the scholar. The complicated editorial history profoundly affected the fate of this work, to which the French government contributed a sum of more than one million: copies with a considerable number of plates are extremely rare; the copies found in our libraries normally comprise 16 fascicles, each containing 8 plates, issued between 1832 and 1869 (v. Rome).