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Egerton MS 881

Record Id:

032-001983948

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-001983948

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000053.0x0003e5

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Egerton MS 881

Title:

Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Roman de la Rose

Scope & Content:

Content:

ff. 1r-172r: Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Loris continued by Jean de Meun.

Incomplete due to missing folios. Numerous folios are missing: one between ff. 7-8; 8-9; 10-11; two between ff. 12-13; one between ff. 19-20; 22-23; 25-26; three between ff. 42-43; one between ff. 69-70; 83-84; 88-89; 92-93; 96-97; 97-98; 123-124; 124-125; two between ff. 125-126; one between ff. 138-139; ?154-155.

Rubric: 'Ci commence le Romans de la Rose'. Beginning: 'Maintes gens dient/ que en songes./ Na se fables non/ et mensonges'. Ending: 'Ainssi hoi la rose vermeille/ Atant fu iourez et ge mesveille/ Ci faut li Romanz de la Rose/ Ou lart damours est toute enclose'.

Decoration:

Two different hands, artist A (ff. 1-83v, 123-124, 128v-132, 151-167), and artist B (ff. 93v-121, 126, 141v).

2 large miniatures, the first accompanied by 2 large decorated initials and a full foliate border, in colours and gold (ff. 1, 121). 3 smaller miniatures, followed by large decorated initials with foliate extensions into the margins, in colours and gold (ff. 123, 151v, 160v). Small column-wide miniatures, in colours and gold (ff. 2v (x2), 3r (x2), 3v, 4r, 4v, 5v (x2), 6r, 6v, 9r, 10r, 10v, 11r, 11v, 17v, 19v, 20r, 21v, 22v, 23v, 24v, 25r, 29r, 37v, 40r, 45r, 48v, 52r, 62r, 63r, 64v, 66v, 67v, 71v, 75v, 78r, 83v, 93v, 95v, 96v, 101r, 113v, 114v, 115v, 116r, 119r, 124r, 126r, 128v, 132r (x2), 141v, 151r, 163r, 165v, 167)r. 1 large historiated initial with a three-sided foliate border, in colours and gold (f. 129r). 1 large and 1 smaller decorated initial with foliate extensions into the margins, in colours and gold (ff. 163v, 170r). Small initials in gold on red and blue grounds. Small initials in red with blue or purple pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing, with decorated extensions in red and blue; some ending with birds and foliate decoration, partly coloured (e.g. ff. 118v, 167v). Small initials in brown ink with brown foliate pen-flourishing, some including human heads (e.g. ff. 59v, 93r). Capital letters at the beginning of the line highlighted in yellow or green.

Rubrics noted in the margins in brown ink, probably by the scribe (e.g. f. 168r); many instructions for the painters in the same hand (e.g. ff. 19v, 126r, etc.).

Annotations in a fifteenth century hand (e. g. ff. 31r, 32v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Egerton Manuscripts

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-001983948", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 881: Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Roman de la Rose" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-001983948

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-001983948

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

A parchment codex, 172 folios

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Egerton_MS_881 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

French, Old

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1300

End Date:

1349

Date Range:

1st half of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 205 x 140 (140 x 105) mm.

Layout: In two columns of 31 lines.

Foliation: ff. 172 + (a flyleaf of parchment foliated as f. 1* at the beginning).

Collation: i^8-1 (ff. 1-7), ii^8-3(ff. 8-12), iii ^8-3(ff. 13-17), iv^8-2 (ff. 18-23), v^8-1(ff. 24-30), vi⁸(ff 31-38), vii^8-5 (ff. 39-43), viii-x⁸ (ff. 44-67), xi^8-3(ff. 68-74), xii⁸ (ff. 75-82), xiii^8-2 (ff. 83-88), xiv^8-1 (ff. 89-95), xv^8-2 (ff. 96-101), xvi-xvii⁸ (ff. 102-117), xviii^8-1(ff. 118-124), xix^8-1(ff. 125-129), xx^8-1(ff. 130-136), xxi ^8-1(137-143), xxii-xxiv⁸ (ff. 144-166), xxv⁶ (ff. 167-172). Catchwords.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. Gold tooled brown leather; rebacked, gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin: France.

Provenance:

Annotation of a cursive hand of the last quarter of the 15th century, likely from the owner of the manuscript (f. 172v): 'Cest a moy a qui mapartient je le vous feré congnoistre en quelque endroit. Je m'en tiens assuré, c'est chose bien certaine et est commune et notoire'. Followed by two pen trials.

Two pen drawings of a man and a woman. Below, inscribed by a hand of the fifteenth century: 'Jehan Lemorgne', and 'Perrine Morgnesse' (f. 172v).

Bought in 1840 by the British Museum, using the Farnborough Fund: £3,000 bequeathed in 1838 by Charles Long, Baron Farnborough (b. 1761, d. 1838), a cousin of Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829), founder of the collection.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at 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:

List of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1836-1840 (London: British Museum, 1843), 1840, p. 22.

Ernest Langlois, Les manuscrits du Roman de la Rose: description et classement, Travaux et mémoires de l'Université de Lille, nouv. sér. I, 7 (Lille: Tallandier, 1910), p. 143.

A Guide to the Exhibition of Some Part of the Egerton Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Library, 1929), no. 12.

Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters, ed. by Harry Bober, 4 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1916-66), III: Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken (1953), pp. 135-36.

John V. Fleming, Roman de la Rose: A study in Allegory and Iconography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 144.

Michael Camille, The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire (London: Laurence King, 1998), p. 148, pl. 134.

Herman Braet, ‘L’instruction, le titulus, la rubrique: Observations sur la nature des éléments péritextuels’, in ’Als Ich Can’: Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), pp. 203-12 (p. 203).

Sophie Page, Astrology in Medieval Manuscript (London: British Library, 2002), p. 32.

Pamela Porter, Courty Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 32.

De la Rose: Text, Image, Fortune, ed. by Catherine Bel and Herman Braet (Louvain: Peeters, 2006), p. 99 (additional bibliography).

Herman Braet, Nouvelle Bibliographie du Roman de la Rose (Louvain: Peeters, 2017), p. 203.

Georgina C. E. Appleton, 'Description and Essay: London British Library MS Egerton 881(University College London: unpublished MA research, 2017).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Lorris, Guillaume, scholar and poet, c 1200-c 1240
Meun, Jean, poet, c 1240-c 1305