Begun in 1620 by Jean Henri Vest when he was living in Freiburg-im-Breisgau (p. 1), this collection was originally conceived as a Stammbuch (family book) recording the genealogy and the marriages of the Vest family, with corresponding coats of arms. The enlarged coat of arms granted honorifically by Emperor Rudolph II in 1582 to the Count Palatine Jean Vest, father of Jean Henri, is repeated many times. Humbert Henri Vest brought the collection to Porrentruy in 1667; after the marriage of his daughter, Marie Hélène Vest (1693-1761), the last member of the local branch of the family, to Fréderic François Ignace Xavier Grandvillers (1690-1727) in 1716, the collection passed into the hands of the Grandvillers family. The Grandvillers added their coat of arms and those of related families (pp. 51-85 and 138-139, etc.). Born and died in Delémont, the lawyer Conrad de Grandvillers (1813-1880), great-great-grandson of Marie Hélène Vest, and the last to carry the name, was the last of his family to possess this volume, as the signature “de Grandvillers avocat” indicates (p. 1). Perhaps he is the one who, in the nineteenth century, added some other coats of arms without a family connection (pp. 277-281), possibly with the idea of transforming the volume into a liber amicorum or, more broadly, into an Armorial jurassien, as stated in the title added on the binding, probably in the nineteenth century. The fact that some coats-of-arms connected to the Vest family have been cut out and glued on other pages (pp. 89-95) suggests a major working of the volume at an unknown date. (ver)

Online Since: 09/06/2023

This thin paper notebook contains the Journal du Père Voisard. François-Humbert Voisard (Porrentruy, 1749–1818) was a Jesuit from 1765. From 1773, he taught at the collège de Porrentruy, where he resided, until the creation of the department of Mont-Terrible in 1793, which resulted in his departure for Solothurn. His Journal recounts the years that preceded his departure, between 1762 and 1793. Inserted into the chronological sequence can be found an extract containing questions and responses destined for the Abrégé de l'histoire des évêques de Bâle (pp. 8-11), and a report on the year 1791 (pp. 28-30). In the Bibliographie du Jura bernois, Gustave Amweg states: « Copie appartenant à M. le Doyen E[ugène] Folletête, à Porrentruy, faite par son père M. Casimir Folletête » (A copy belonging to Dean Eugène Folletête, in Porrentruy, made by his father Casimir Folletête). The manuscript was edited in: Porrentruy épiscopale et révolutionnaire : journal du R.P.J. Voisard 1762-1793, edited and annotated by Philippe Froidevaux and André Bandelier, Porrentruy: Ed. des Malvoisins, 2007. (rou)

Online Since: 04/03/2025