Add MS 29986

This manuscript contains a copy of Le Miroir des Dames, an anonymous French translation of the Speculum dominarum, a treatise on queenship written for Jeanne de Navarre (b. 1273, d. 1305), Queen of France and wife of Philip IV (r. 1285-1314), by her confessor, Durand de Champagne.

The manuscript was made between 1407 and 1410 (on the dating, see Meiss, The Limbourgs (1974), I, pp. 408-09). It was owned by Jean de Berry (b. 1340, d. 1416), Duke of Berry and of Auvergne, an important collector of illuminated manuscripts. The volume later came into the possession of his daughter, Marie de Berry (b. 1375, d. 1414), Duchess of Bourbon and Auvergne.

This version of Le Miroir des Dames was compiled with a number of additional devotional and instructional works in French (on the compilation, see Pinder, 'A Lady's Guide to Salvation' (2011), pp. 45-52). The expanded version of the Miroir survives in only two other known copies, both dating to the 15th century. These are now Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, MS 9555-9558 (illuminated by the same workshop as Add MS 29986 and also owned by Jean de Berry), and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouv. acq. fr. 5232 (a paper manuscript with no visible decoration).

Contents:

f. i recto: A modern paper cutting, featuring a printed description of the manuscript from the 1413 inventory of the library of Jean de Berry (b. 1340, d. 1416), Duke of Berry and of Auvergne, and Count of Poitiers (cf. Guiffrey, Inventaires (1894), I, p. 262).

ff. 1r-146v: Le Miroir des Dames, an anonymous French translation of Durand de Champagne's Speculum dominarum, arranged in three parts (ff. 1v-99v, 99v-118r, 118r-146v), with the translator's preface beginning, 'Selon ce que dit un grant maistre qui est nomme Vegecius' (f. 1r) the main text beginning, 'Salemon qui fu de sapience par le don de dieu clerement enlumines' (f. 1v).

ff. 147r-149v: Le Miroir du monde, also known as Le Miroeur de mortel vie, a set of French verses, paraphrasing the Latin hymn Vado mori, beginning, 'Je vois morir, venez avant / Tuit cil qui encore estez vivant'.

ff. 149v-152v: Cloître de l'âme, a French prose treatise, described in the manuscript as a translation of Hugh of Saint-Victor's treatise De claestro animo, but in fact a vernacular composition derived from a number of different sources; beginning, 'La sainte abaye et la religion a parler espirituelement doit estre fondee en la conscience de homme et de femme'.

ff. 152v-154v: Les Meditacions saint Anseaume, a French prose translation of the second of St Anselm of Canterbury's Meditationes, beginning, 'Cy commencent les meditacions saint Anseaume et ore parle sa raison a s’ame et donne exemple a pecheur comment il doit son pechié cognoistre en grant douleur et soy convertir et dit ainsy: Ma vie m'espoente moult quant je regarde des yeus de mon cuer et pense quelle vie j'ay menee'.

ff. 154v-162v: Lettre de direction spirituelle, a French prose treatise addressed to a woman, proposing the construction of an edifice of virtues in her heart; beginning, 'Tout aussi comme la beste sauvage qui est enclose entre les roiseulz puet a paine eschaper'.

ff. 162v-166v: A collection of short treatises in French, excerpted from La Somme le Roi (chapter 56), collected under the title De repentence et vraye confession, concerning vices and virtues and preparation for confession; beginning, 'Cest la premiere bataille que les crestiens'.

ff. 166v-167r: Pour apprendre a mourir, a French prose extract from La Somme le Roi (chapter 40), concerning preparations for death; beginning, 'Envis muert qui apris ne la apren a morir si savras vivre'.

ff. 167v-175r: Du vrai amour, a French prose treatise concerning different kinds of love; beginning, 'Se je povoie trouver vraie amour voulentiers m’y repouseraye mais je ne la say ou trouver car je ne sent nul bien en moy', and ending with a colophon, 'Explicit le livre du mirouer de dames' (f. 175r).

Decoration:

The decoration of the manuscript was undertaken by an artist known as the Virgil Master (see Meiss, The Limbourgs (1974), I, p. 409), named after a 1403 copy of Virgil's Bucolics and Aeneid they illuminated (now Florence, Bibioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Med. Pal. 69). Their workshop was responsible for another contemporary copy of Le Miroir des Dames made in 1410 (now Bibliothèque royale de Belgique MS 9555-9558).

Two miniatures in colours with gold on tesselated grounds (ff. 1r, 152v), with a three-sided foliate border in gold and colours (f. 1r) and partial border in gold and colours (f. 152v).

Initials with foliate decoration in colours on gold ground (ff. 1r, 152v). Small initials and paraphs in gold with blue pen-flourishing and in blue with red pen-flourishing.

Running headings in red in the upper margin throughout, with additional titles in red in the lower margin indicating the different sections of the Miroir des dames (up to f. 99v).

The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:

f. 1r: A tonsured Franciscan friar, most likely the author Durand de Champagne, alongside an attendant, kneeling and presenting his book to Jeanne de Navarre, Queen of France, who holds a mirror in her right hand, alongside her female attendants; at the beginning of the translator's preface to the Miroir des Dames. The miniature has been partially effaced.

f. 152v: A female figure, sitting before a lectern and open book, instructing three women, at the beginning of the French translation of St Anselm's second meditation.