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Add MS 24189
- Record Id:
- 032-002031473
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002031473
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000045.0x0003e3
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 24189
- Title:
-
Illustrations for Sir John Mandeville, Voyage d'outre mer
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript contains no text, but a series of 28 full-page miniatures (tinted grisaille drawings on green parchment) illustrating the Voyage d'outre mer, attributed to Sir John Mandeville (supposedly fl. c. 1357; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). The only writing is on a banner held by one of the figures in the miniature on f. 10r, 'SPQR', and astrologers' writing on the ground on f. 15r. The attribution of the miniatures is to the eponymous Master of the Mandeville Travels. They are based on the Czech translation of the Voyage by Vavřinec of Březová, written c. 1410. The sequence of leaves was rearranged when the manuscript was rebound in the 19th century, and their original order is no longer certain (see Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1983), pp. 12-13, p. 15).
The miniatures are:
f. 3r: Canon Otto von Diemeringen at work at his desk, translating the Voyage d'outre mer into German (see Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1983), pl. 1).
f. 3v: Mandeville sets out on his journey, in a boat with other travellers.
f. 4r: Mandeville at work at his desk, writing the Voyage d'outre mer.
f. 4v: Mandeville on shore, travelling to Constantinople, surrounded by other travellers both on land and in a boat.
f. 5r: The island of Cyprus with, above, the hill of the Holy Cross with the cross of Dismas the Good Thief, the tomb of St Sozomenos, and a vineyard and, below, a merchant ship docking at the port of Famagusta with St Barbara sitting by the gate (see Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1983), pl. 23).
f. 5v: Recreation in Cyprus with, above, a deer hunt using leopards and, below, a feast.
f. 6r: The tombs of Sts John Chrysostom, Luke the Evangelist, and Anne.
f. 6v: The tomb of Aristotle on an island, in front of the town of Stagira, with pilgrims making offerings on an altar in the foreground. In the background is a ruined city, representing Troy (see Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1983), pl. 18).
f. 7r: The discovery of the tomb of Hermes Trismegistus.
f. 7v: Pope John XXII, enthroned and surrounded by cardinals, receiving the rejection by the Greek church of his claims to supremacy.
f. 8r: Travellers arriving, above, by sea at Tyre and, below, on land at Jaffa (see Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1983), pl. 25).
f. 8v: The prophet Elijah, above, being fed by a raven on Mt Carmel and, below, the apostles John and James the Less, seated before their church in Sephoris.
f. 9r: Mandeville beside a riverbank, travelling to Constantinople, surrounded by other travellers both on land and in a boat.
f. 9v: The city of Constantinople, with a large statue of the Emperor Justinian standing before the cathedral of St Sophia.
f. 10r: The king of France, above, holding the head of the spear of Longinus and approached by three men holding a fleur-de-lis banner and, below, the Roman emperor, holding the head of the spear of Longinus and approached by three men holding an 'SPQR' banner (see Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1983), pl. 15).
f. 10v: The Byzantine emperor holding the head of the spear of Longinus, seated next to the 'enhydros stone' in Constantinople, depicted as a group of jugs pouring out water.
f. 11r: Clerics in Constantinople present to an emperor the relics of Christ's passion: his robe, crown of thorns, cross, and vinegar sponge.
f. 11v: The assembly of Christ's cross, from four different types of wood, depicted in different colours.
f. 12r: Christ being crowned with thorns before Caiaphas.
f. 12v: Christ being beaten with rods and crowned with thorns before Pilate.
f. 13r: Seth, at the gates of Paradise, receives from an angel a cutting of three seeds of the tree of knowledge.
f. 13v: The burial of Adam, with Seth placing the seeds of the tree of knowledge in his mouth.
f. 14r: The crown of thorns being presented to the king of France, probably King Louis IX (St Louis; b. 1214, d. 1270).
f. 14v: Christ being crowned with thorns in the garden of Gethsemane.
f. 15r: Astronomers on Mt Athos, above, studying the stars with astrolabes and quadrants and, below, inscribing strange characters in the dust with sticks.
f. 15v: A tournament in Constantinople, with jousting, watched by the Byzantine emperor.
f. 16r: Workers, above, mining the pit of Memnon for sand for glassmaking and, below, a glassblower and other craftsmen in a glassmaking workshop.
f. 16v: Samson carrying the gates of Gaza, watched from the city walls by armoured soldiers and, at a window, Delilah.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002031473", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 24189: Illustrations for Sir John Mandeville, Voyage d'outre mer" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002031473
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002031473
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_24189 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Not applicable
- Scripts:
- Not applicable
- Start Date:
- 1405
- End Date:
- 1425
- Date Range:
- c 1410-c 1420
- 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.
Dimensions: 225 x 180 mm (drawings: 180 x 140 mm).
Foliation: ff. 16 (+ 17 unfoliated modern paper leaves, coloured vivid red: 1 at the beginning, 2 before f. 3, 1 before f. 4, 1 before f. 5, 1 before f. 6, 1 before f. 7, 1 before f. 9, 1 before f. 10, 1 before f. 12, 1 before f. 13, 1 before f. 14, 1 before f. 15, 1 before f. 16, 3 at the end; ff. 1 and 2 are added notes on provenance, written on small paper leaves).
Collation: Bound together as individual leaves rather than bifolia.
Binding: Post-1600 binding; gilt fore-edge.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Bohemia.
Samuel Woodburn (b. 1783, d. 1853), London dealer in drawings and pictures, and collector: his note, bound into the manuscript as f. 1, relates that he had purchased it from 'M. Pesch', who told him that he bought it in Rome from a monk and that he believed it had been purloined from the Vatican Library. A description of the manuscript was made by Gustav Friedrich Waagen (b. 1794, d. 1868) while it was in Woodburn's possession (see Waagen, Works of Art (1838), II, p. 178), which is also transcribed on f. 2 of the manuscript. Both Woodburn and Waagen attribute to the manuscript a Spanish provenance, an attribution now generally rejected (see Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1983), p. 15).
William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890), Roman Catholic convert and liturgical scholar, fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London: purchased from him by the British Museum, 8 June 1861 (see inscription f. [i] recto).
- Administrative Context:
-
Bohemia.
- Information About Copies:
-
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts 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.
There is a colour reproduction of all 28 illustrations, which replicates the exact size of the folios, but re-orders the miniatures:
Josef Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville: A Manuscript in the British Library, trans. by P. Kussi (New York: Braziller, 1983).
- Publications:
-
Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, 3 vols (London: John Murray, 1838), II, p. 178.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years MDCCCLIV-MDCCCLXXV, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1877), II, p. 18 (no. 24189).
The Palaeographic Society: Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Second Series, ed. by Edward Augustus Bond, Edward Maunde Thompson, and George Frederic Warner, (London: Cloves and Sons, 1884-1894), II, pls 154-55.
The Buke of John Maundevill, Being the Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight 1322-1356, ed. by George Warner (Westminster: Roxburghe Club, 1889), pp. xli-xliii, with 28 plates.
[George Warner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series I (London: British Museum, 1907), pl. 36.
J.A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), pp. 308-09, pl. 49.
H.P. Cholmeley, John of Gaddesden and the Rosa Medicinae (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912), p. 125.
Otto Pächt, 'A Bohemian Martyrology', Burlington Magazine, 73 (1938), 192-204 (p. 201 pls 3c and 3d, and p. 203).
M. Letts, Sir John Mandeville: The Man and His Book (London: Batchworth, 1949), p. 170.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), p. 58, pl. 48.
Otto Lohr, 'Studien zum Londoner Mandeville' (unpublished master’s thesis, Universität Bamberg, 1981).
Josef Krása, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville: A Manuscript in the British Library, trans. by P. Kussi (New York: Braziller, 1983) [colour reproduction of all 28 miniatures].
Regensburger Buchmalerei (Munich: Prestel, 1987), p. 94 [exhibition catalogue].
Otto Lohr, 'Das Martyrologium von Gerona und die Illustrationen zu den Reisen des Ritters Mandeville: Beiträge zur Kenntnis der böhmischen Buchmalerei zu Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Bamberg, 1987).
Josef Krása, Ceske iluminovane rukopisy 13.-16. Stoleti (Prague: Odeon, 1990), pp. 245, 261, 268-97, figs 157-63.
Peter Whitfield, The Mapping of the Heavens (London: British Library, 1995), p. 48 [plate].
Andrea Kann, 'Picturing the World: The Illustrated Manuscripts of The Book of John Mandeville' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Iowa, 2002).
Joseph L. Henderson and Dyane N. Sherwood, Transformation of the Psyche: The Symbolic Alchemy of the 'Splendor Solis' (Hove: Brunner-Routledge, 2003), fig. 29.
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 133.
Eric Ramirez-Weaver, 'The Travels of Sir John Mandeville', in Prague: The Crown of Bohemia: 1347-1437, ed. by Barbara Drake Boehm and Jiří Fajt (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006), no. 88, fig. 6.5 [exhibition catalogue] [with additional bibliography].
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 5.
Georg Haggrén, 'Bohemian glass in the North. Producers, distributors and consumers of late medieval vessel glass', in Everyday Products in the Middle Ages: Crafts, Consumption and the Individual in Northern Europe c. AD 800-1600, ed. by Gitte Hansen, Steven P. Ashby and Irene Baug (Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2015), pp. 319-38 (pp. 325-26).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)