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Add MS 12228
- Record Id:
- 032-002041947
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002041947
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000046.0x0001ec
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 12228
- Title:
-
Meliadus or Guiron le Courtois
- Scope & Content:
-
Meliadus or Guiron le Courtois (part of the romance also known as Palamedes) was composed between 1235 and c. 1240. The present manuscript contains the prologue, with attribution to Hélie de Boron, in which he claims to have been given two castles by King Henry in return for his work (f. 2v), and the first part of the romance of Guiron le Courtois, beginning ' De grant valor de grant puissance...' (f. 3r). It ends with Meliadus' reluctance to support Arthur in his battle against Claudas (Lathuliere, p. 236), breaking off mid-sentence during a speech by the Chevalier sans peur to Meliadus, '....et par celui que vos feistes de cele ioste' (f. 352v).
Decoration: 363 bas-de-page miniatures in colours with gold, some on diaper grounds. The miniatures, by several Neapolitan artists with French influence, were produced for Louis of Tarantino, King of Naples (r. 1352, d.1362): his portrait, enthroned, is on f. 4r, with above him a knot, representing the Nodo, an Italian order of knighthood founded by him in 1352 (see Pietro Giannone, translated by James Ogilvie, The civil history of the Kingdom of Naples, 2 vols, (London, 1731), II, p. 89).. Meliadus, the hero, bears the arms of Naples (e.g. f. 68r). Further armorial devices represented are those of Jerusalem (e.g., f. 68r) and France (e.g., f. 157r). Some miniatures were added later (e.g., f. 313v), some remain unfinished outline drawings (e.g., ff. 151v-152r). 13 inhabited initials (e.g., f. 112v) and 6 decorated initials (e.g., f. 6v) with partial borders or pen-flourishing in colours with gold. Initials in blue with pen-flourishing in red at minor textural divisions. Spaces left for bas-de-page miniatures (e.g., ff. 169-170r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002041947", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 12228: Meliadus or Guiron le Courtois" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002041947
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002041947
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_12228 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Old
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1352
- End Date:
- 1362
- Date Range:
- 1352-1362
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 340 x 235mm (text space: 245 x 165mm).
Foliation: ff. 352 (f. 1 is a paper flyleaf + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Layout; written in two columns of 38-41 lines (reduced for miniatures).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Black leather with gold tooling.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Italy, S. (Naples?).
Provenance:
Louis de Tarente, King of Naples (r. 1352, d. 1362): his arms in background of several miniatures.
Inscribed: 'T. de Metz', in a hand of the 17th century (f. 2).
Chrétien-François de Lamoignon (b. 1644, d. 1709), magistrate and book-collector: in his family library (see note on f. 1).
John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe, book collector (b. 1740, d. 1804), his sale, 18th May 1812, lot 6096 (note on f. 1).
Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, 1st Baronet (b. 1762, d. 1837) bibliographer and genealogist, purchased by him in the Roxburghe sale for £37.16.
Robert Lang Esq. of Moor Park, Surrey, friend of Sir Walter Scott, purchased by him and bequeathed to his son-in-law, Sir George Henry Freeling (note on f. 1).
Sir George Henry Freeling, Baronet (b. 1789, d. 1841), commissioner of customs, son of the book collector, Sir Francis Freeling, married to Sir Robert Lang's daughter, Jane (b. 1798/9, d. 1868): his inscription and notes (f. 1); purchased by the British Museum from the family of Sir George Henry Freeling in December 1841 for £200.
- Source of Acquisition:
- Purchased by the British Museum from the family of Sir George Henry Freeling in December 1841.
- Information About Copies:
-
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, pp. 364-69.
E. von Furstenau, 'I pittura e miniatura a Napoli nel secolo XIV', L'arte, 8 (1905), 1-17.
Roger Sherman Loomis, Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), pp. 114-15, pls. 305-311.
Roger Lathuillère, Guiron le Courtois: Etude de la tradition manuscrite et analyse critique, Publications Romans et Francaises, 86 (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1966), pp. 47-48, 96-99, 236, n. 3 [contains an edition of the text with variants from this manuscript].
Allessandra Perriccioli Saggese, I romanzi cavallereschi miniati a Napoli (Napoli: Societa editrice napoletana, 1979), pp. 28, 59, 76, pls. L-LVI.
A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library (London, 1979), I, no. 94.
Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450, part 2 in two volumes (Berlin: Gerb. Mann, 1980), II, pl. 492a.
Lucy Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles (London and Oxford: Harvey Miller and Oxford University Press, 1986), I, p. 54 n. 41.
Venceslas Bubenicek, 'A propos des textes français copiés en Italie: le cas du roman de Guiron le Courtois', Atti del XXI Congresso Internazionale di Linguistica e Filologia Romanza, 6 vols (1998), VI, 59-67.
Guiron le Courtois, Une anthologie, ed. by Richard Traschler (Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 2004), p. 21
Roger Middleton, 'The Manuscripts' in The Arthur of the French, ed. by Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt , Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, 4 vols (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2006), IV, pp. 8-92 (p. 81).
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), pl. 61.
Francesca Manzari, 'Un nuova foglio miniato della bottega Orimina, un Graduale smembrato e la figura di un anonimo miniatore napoletano del Trecento', in Storie I Artisti; Storie di Libri (Donzelli, 2008), pp. 293-312, pl. 265.
La légende du roi Arthur, ed. by Thierry Delcourt (Paris: Bibiothèque nationale de France, 2009), pl. on pp. 34-35 [exhibition catalogue].
Nicola Morato, Il ciclo di 'Guiron le Courtois': strutture e testi nella tradizione manoscritta (Florence: Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2010).
Claudio Lagomarsini, 'La tradizione compilativa della Suite Guiron tra Francia e Italia: analisi dei duelli singolari', Medioevo romanzo, 36 (2012), 257-91.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)