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Add MS 5474
- Record Id:
- 032-002029033
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002029033
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000050.0x0001e8
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 5474
- Title:
-
Le Roman de Tristan en prose
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
The longer version (Version II) of the prose Roman de Tristan, Part II, with interpolations from the Lancelot en prose (ff. 141-151). The death of Tristan is followed by nine episodes, each beginning with a formula such as 'Or dist li contes..' (Chapters IX to XVII in Ménard, Tristan en Prose, vol XI (1997). The final episode is imperfect at the end, explicit, 'ains la port a mon col pendue si com vous vees. diex aide fait il qui fu chil qui...'. Some pages (e.g. ff. 139 and 267) are damaged and there are lacunae in the text.
Royal MS 20 D II has a slightly more complete version of the final episode.
Decoration:
26 miniatures in colours with gold (ff. 2r, 9r, 12r, 23v, 27v, 41r, 52r, 58v, 72v, 74r, 94v, 115r, 130r, 144r, 150v, 162r, 172r, 191v, 209v, 230v, 243v, 250r, 258v, 268v, 283v. 290v). Ink drawings of helmets and crowns added later (f. 133v, 137v, 147v, 221v). Puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in both colours, in formula such as 'Or dist li contes...' and 'En ceste partie..'. Numerous initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour at minor divisions in the text. Small initials in red or blue at the beginning of each verse in the 3 lais (ff. 30r-v, 179r, 214r, 215r).
The subjects of the miniatures (as described in the accompanying rubrics) are:
f. 2r: Battle between Ywain and the King Mark ('March');
f. 9r: Battle between Dynas and another knight;
f. 12r: A maiden speaking to Tristan, Palamedes and Dynadan who are imprisoned in tower;
f. 23v: Tristan and Sagremor jousting;
f. 27v: A knight (?Tristan) swearing fealty before an altar with two other knights watching;
f. 41r: Palamedes doing battle against a group of knights;
f. 52r: Two knights jousting;
f. 58v: The king giving a letter to a maiden;
f. 72v: The king seated before a harpist;
f. 74r: Tristan doing battle against fourteen knights of the Round Table;
f. 94v: A knight in a boat comes to a castle on a rock in the middle of the water;
f. 115r: The King of Ireland and ?King Mark talking;
f. 130r: Palamedes and two kings on horseback;
f. 144r: Lancelot rescuing a lady from a tub;
f. 150v: Lancelot leaving a lady's chamber in breeches and a chemise;
f. 162r: Lancelot embracing Elain, the daughter of Bors;
f. 172r: Galahad riding without a shield;
f. 191v: Iseult of Cornwall dictating a letter, which is being written by her scribe on 'parkemin' (parchment);
f. 217v: Brelius attaching his horse to a tree and his shield to a branch, and a knight rides up to him;
f. 230v: Galahad jousting with his shield covered with a sheet;
f. 243v: A hermit speaking to Lancelot;
f. 250r: Bors talking to a man in a white robe;
f. 258v: Galahad defeating a host of knights;
f. 268v: King Mark and his knights burning down a castle;
f. 283v: Kay ('Kex') attacks Tristan;
f. 290v: Tristan disguised as a harpist, playing for Iseult, while Mark stabs him with a spear from behind.
Illuminated by the same artist as Paris, BnF, f. fr. 110 (see Stones, 'Mise en page' (2003)).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002029033", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 5474: Le Roman de Tristan en prose" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002029033
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002029033
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex, 305 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_5474 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1275
- End Date:
- 1299
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 355 x 255 mm (270 x 185 mm).
Foliation: ff. 305 (f. 1 is a modern paper flyleaf + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).
Script: Gothic.
Layout: Written in two columns.
Binding: Post-1600. Red leather with gold tooling; marbled endpapers (perhaps the Paulmy binding).
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France, N.
Provenance:
The Cistercian Abbey of Fontfrede (or Fontfroide), Languedoc, sold to a family whose name is not given (note on f. 1r).
'Anthoinne de Campo': his name inscribed in a hand of the 15th century.
Marc-Antoine-René de Voyer d'Argenson, Marquis de Paulmy, Minister of France and bibliophile (b. 1722, d. 1787): rebound by him (note on f. 1r).
Louis César de la Baume-le-Blanc (b. 1708, d. 1780), duc de la Vallière, peer of France, governor of the Bourbonnais, and book collector: his sale, Paris, 1784, no. 3991 (see Guillaume de Bure, Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. le duc de la Vallière (Paris: Guillaume de Bure, 1783)).
Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna (d. 1792): his sale, Amsterdam, 26th April 1790, no. 513.
Purchased by the British Museum from a French emigrant before 1810 (see Ward (1910) and Middleton (2003)).
- 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:
-
Index to the Additional Manuscripts, with those of the Egerton Collection, Preserved in the British Museum, and Acquired in the Years 1783-1835 (London: British Museum, 1849), p. 390.
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. 359-61.
Eilert Løseth, Le Tristan et le Palamède des manuscrits français du British Museum: étude critique (Kristiania, 1905), pp. 8-29.
Eugene Vinaver, Etudes sur le Tristan en Prose (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1925), pp. 34, 47.
Emanuèle Baumgartner, Le 'Tristan en Prose': Essai d'interprétation d'un Roman médiévale, Publications Romanes et Francaises, 133 (Genève: Droz, 1975), p. 19.
Le Roman de Tristan en Prose, ed. by Philippe Ménard and others, 9 vols (Geneva: Droz, 1991-1997), III, p. 8, IV, p. 12, V, p. 14, VI, p. 33, VII, p. 11, VIII, p. 9, XI, p. 13 [manuscript M].
Anne Bondeelle-Souchier, Bibliothèques cisterciennes dans la France médiévale: Répertoire des Abbayes d’hommes (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1991), p. 113.
The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, ed. by Norris J. Lacy and others (New York: Garland, 1991), p. 305.
Jacqueline Thibault Schaefer, 'The Discourse of the Figural Narrative in the Illuminated Manuscripts of Tristan (c. 1250-1475)', in Word and Image in Arthurian Literature, ed. by Keith Busby (New York: Garland, 1996), pp. 174-202 (p. 175, 179).
Alison Stones, 'Mise en page in the French Lancelot-Grail: the First 150 years of the Illustrative Tradition', in A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, ed. by Carol Dover (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), pp. 125-44 (pp. 127, 131, 137).
Roger Middleton, 'Manuscripts of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle in England and Wales: Some Books and their Owners', in A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, ed. by Carol Dover (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), pp. 219-35 (p. 227).
Emmanuèle Baumgartner, trans. Sarah Singer, 'The Prose Tristan', 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. 325-41 [on the text].
The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, ed. by Norris J. Lacy and others (New York: Garland, 1991), p. 305
Alison Stones, 'Fabrication et illustration des manuscrits arthuriens', in La Légende du roi Arthur, ed. by Thierry Delcourt (Paris: Bibiothèque nationale de France, 2009), pp. 19-30 (p. 24) [exhibition catalogue].
Fabrizio Cigni, 'Per un riesame della tradizione del Tristan in prosa, con nuove osservazioni sul ms. Paris, BnF, fr. 756-757', in Culture, livelli di cultura e ambienti nel Medioevo occidentale. Atti del IX Convegno della Società Italiana di Filologia Romanza (S.I.F.R.), Bologna, 5-8 ottobre 2009, ed. by Francesco Benozzo (Rome: Aracne, 2012), pp. 247-78.
Simon Gaunt and others, Medieval Francophone Literary Culture Outside France, http://www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk/ (see http://www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk/browse/mss/172/manuscript.html) [accessed 16 July 2015].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)