Marie-Luce Demonet (University of Tours, France)
The « Virtual Humanist Libraries » program (Center for Advanced Renaissance Studies, University of Tours, French National Centre for Scientific Research), aims at solving an enigma that concerns the specialists and readers of Montaigne’s Essais, as well as book historians : how can we know if some slips or small interleaved sheets were pasted in old books of the prie-modern era ? The idea is to subject traces to forensic protocols (proteins and sugars), and cultural heritage preservation methods, in order to determine their organic composition. The research is being carried out on that remarkable copy of Montaigne’s Essais (1588-1592), preserved in the Bordeaux City Library, a National Treasure nominated as a « Memory of the World » (UNESCO, 2023). It contains hundreds of authentic additions and thousands of handwritten amendments, intended for a future edition the author did not see before he died (1592). The posthumous edition (1595) displays many differences whose authenticity is controversial, because its editor, Marie de Gournay, took up the huge task, perhaps with too much zeal, of improving its readability. On eleven leaves where the main missing additions should appear, some show stains that could be traces of starch glue. The missing notes, due to repeated handling over the centuries, might be important. The forensic analysis should provide new hypotheses to resolve authorship issues. The Proteome team (University of Bordeaux), specializing in the study of organic components of heritage artefacts, accepted this challenge, with funding from the Loire Valley Social Sciences and Humanities Institute.