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Egerton MS 615
- Record Id:
- 032-001983665
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001983665
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000053.0x0002f3
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161520285.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Egerton MS 615
- Title:
-
Pilgrimage of the Soul
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
The Pilgrimage of the Soul, or Grace Dieu, translated from the French work, Pélérinage de la Vie Humaine by Guillaume de Deguileville.
ff, 1r-3v: List of chapters;
ff. 4r-106r: Pilgrimage of the Soul;
Decoration:
23 small miniatures with full foliate borders in colours and gold (ff. 4v, 15v, 25v, 28v, 31r, 33r, 34r, 37r, 38r, 40r, 42v, 43v, 46v, 49r, 50v, 53v, 56r, 63r, 68r, 69v, 75r, 86r, 87v). 1 large decorated initial with a full foliate border in colours and gold (f. 1r). Initials in gold on red and blue grounds with foliate extensions into the margins. Alternating small initials in gold with black foliate pen-flourishing or in blue with red foliate pen-flourishing in the list of chapters (ff. 1r-3v). Rubrics and numbering in red.
The subjects of the images are:
f. 4v: The soul of the pilgrim is led to judgement by Satan and his guardian angel;
f. 15v: The Virgin and nimbed saints with three souls in the form of the pilgrim, a lamb and a beast holding a scroll before them;
f. 25v: Justice, Truth and Reason weighing a soul, with the pilgrim and a devil watching;
f. 28v: The guardian angel gives a burden in the form of a rectangular parcel to the pilgrim (left) and leads the pilgrim to Purgatory with the burden on his shoulders (right);
f. 31r: The pilgrim is greeted in Heaven by five singing angels, two with musical instruments;
f. 33r Six souls deformed by sin;
f. 34r: Eight damned souls are led to Hell by a red devil, while a blue devil plays a drum;
f. 37r: Two angels fly down, one with a bucket of water, to relieve six souls burning in Purgatory
f. 38r; Five guardian angels comfort souls burning in Purgatory, one pouring water on the head of a soul beneath;
f. 40r: A naked soul in the fire of Purgatory with a golden crescent above;
f. 42v: A soul fixed in ice;
f. 43v: A soul chained to a money chest;
f. 46v: The pilgrim and his guardian angel (upper register), unbaptized souls in a band of darkness (middle register), devils torturing a soul and a mock court scene with Satan chained to a seat and a devil kneeling before him (lower register);
f. 49r: Seven souls hanging from hooks above a fire;
f. 50v: A spiked wheel hung with purses and two traitors with purses; a king at the top of a tower, pointing down;
f. 53v: Souls in a large pot over a fire, surrounded by devils with instruments of torture;
f. 56r: A green tree and a barren tree, with five pilgrims with staffs between them;
f. 63r: An angel kneels in front of a green tree indicating Christ nailed to a dry tree;
f. 68r: The pilgrim and his guardian angel stand in a meadow with asses' tombs, a cross, a ladder and a church with steeple;
f. 69v: The angel shows the pilgrim Lady Doctrine as a woman on a throne with a long tongue, holding a child;
f. 75r: The 'Knight Liberality' in armour and a gold statue representing precious metals;
f. 86r: A guardian angel descends from the clouds, arms outstretched towards the pilgrim, with birds and flames in the background;
f. 87v: The heavenly spheres.
The style and cycle of images in this manuscript are closely related to New York, Public Library, Spencer MS 19, and both are thought to be from the same workshop as Lansdowne MS 204, which contains Hardyng's Chronicle (see Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts, 1996).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Egerton Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001983665", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 615: Pilgrimage of the Soul" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001983665
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001983665
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Egerton_MS_615 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1425
- End Date:
- 1474
- Date Range:
- 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 255 x 180 mm (text space: 170 x 115 mm).
Foliation: ff. 106 (+ 3 paper flyleaves at the beginning, and 2 unfoliated parchment leaves and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1980.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Eastern England (? Norfolk area) or Lincolnshire.
Provenance:
The colophon states, '... translated owt of frensch in to englysch. The yeer of oure lord M[il] CCCC XIII mo ...' [1413] (f. 106r).
Thomas Rodd the younger (b. 1796, d. 1849), London bookseller: bought from him by the British Museum in January 1836 (a note on f. [iii] recto) using the Bridgewater fund (£12,000 bequeathed in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
List of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1836-1840 (London: British Museum, 1843), Eg. no. 615.
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), II (1893), pp. 580-84.
A. Jeanroy, Bibliographie sommaire des chansonniers français du moyen age, Les Classiques français du moyen age, 18 (Paris: Champion, 1918), p. 23.
A Guide to the Exhibition of Some Part of the Egerton Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1929), no. 105.
C. H. Talbot, ‘A List of Cistercian Manuscripts in Great Britain’, Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought and Religion, 8 (1952), 402-18 (p. 417).
Kathleen L. Scott, ‘Design, Decoration and Illustration’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 31-64 (p. 59 n. 51).
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II, pp. 218-21, fig. 17.
Maidie Hilmo, Medieval Images, Icons, and iIlustrated English Literary Texts: from the Ruthwell Cross to the Ellesmere Chaucer (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), p. 162, n. 10.
The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at the New York Public Library, ed. by Jonathan J. G. Alexander, James H. Marrow, and Lucy Freeman Sandler (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), p. 403 [exhibition catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)