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Add MS 15268
- Record Id:
- 032-002086972
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002086972
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000052.0x00022c
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 15268
- Title:
-
Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
The Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César is a universal chronicle covering the period from Creation to the rise of Julius Caesar. It was compiled early in the 13th century. This manuscript, with the alternative title Li Livre des Ansienes Estoires, contains the first redaction of the text, sections I-X (see Jung, La Légende (1996)). This is one of three comparatively early copies made in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, probably in the scriptorium of St-Jean-d'Acre, before the fall of Acre in 1291.
ff. 2r-70v: I, Genesis;
ff. 70v-75r: II, Orient, part 1;
ff. 75v-99v: III, Thebes;
ff. 99v-105r: IV, The Greeks and Amazons;
ff. 105v-129r: V, Troy;
ff. 129r-155v: VI, Aeneas;
ff. 155v-173v: VII, Rome, part 1;
ff. 173v-193r: VIII, Orient, part 2;
ff. 193r-225r: IX, Alexander;
ff. 225r-314v: X, Rome, part 2.
Decoration:
3 full-page (ff. 1v, 7v, 105v) and 39 three-quarter to half-page framed miniatures in colours on gold grounds; initials in blue with pen-flourishing in red . Rubrics in red.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 1v: The Creation in 8 roundels with angels in between;
f. 7v: Noah's ark: building the ark (above); Noah ushering in the animals (below);
f. 16r: King Ninus on a throne holding an orb;
f. 24v: The birth of Isaac announced to Abraham by the Lord;
f. 26v: The destruction of Sodom, with Lot and his family leaving the city;
f. 30v: Abraham and Isaac;
f. 37v: Jacob and Isaac;
f. 48r: Joseph and his brothers;
f. 54r: Joseph tempted by Potiphar's wife;
f. 56v: Pharoah's dream of the seven fat and seven thin calves;
f. 58r: Joseph paraded through the city in triumph;
f. 59r: Joseph's brothers taking leave of their father, Jacob;
f. 64r: Joseph's brothers kneeling before him;
f. 65v: Jacob setting out on the journey to Egypt;
f. 67r: Jacob kneeling before Pharoah;
f. 69r: The funeral procession of Jacob;
f. 71r: Ninus enthroned;
f. 75v: Polibus finding Oedipus hanging in a tree and having him taken down;
f. 77v: Oedipus attacking the sphinx;
f. 81v: Battle between Polynices and Tideus;
f. 95r: The tiger of Thebes;
f. 101v: The Scythian women attacking a castle;
f. 103r: Hercules and Theseus jousting with the two sisters of Antiope;
f. 104v: Battle between Hercules and Antaeus;
f. 105v: Jason and the Argonauts;
f. 114v: Achilles slaying Hector;
f. 122r: The Amazons captured in Troy;
f. 123r: Battle between the Greeks and Amazons;
f. 136v: Theseus attacking Crete from the sea;
f. 149r: Queen Camilla captured by King Turnus;
f. 156r: The construction of Rome;
f. 161v: Brutus and the Senate of Rome;
f. 179v: Nebuchadnezar and Holofernes;
f. 181r: Judith and Holofernes;
f. 203r: The Amazons surrendering to Alexander;
f. 204r: Battle between the Macedonians and the Indians, with elephants;
f. 208r: The beast with three horns;
f. 210v: The beast with two heads;
f. 214v: Alexander and the prophesying trees;
f. 217r: Battle between Alexander and Porus;
f. 226r: King Pyrrus's army with elephants;
f. 242v: Temple of Janus with senators dining in the foreground;
f. 292r: King Jugurtha paraded through Rome as a prisoner (left); King Boctus making peace with the Romans (right).
The images belong to Oltrogge's 'D' cycle, which includes the other Acre manuscripts (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, MS. 10175 Dijon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS. 562). The same cycle is present in Paris BnF fr. 9682 and BnF fr. 20125, and also, with some changes, in the Italian manuscripts, Paris, BnF fr. 168 and BnF fr. 686 (see Oltrogge, Die Illustrationszyklen (1989), p. 54 onwards).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002086972", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 15268: Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002086972
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002086972
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex, 314 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_15268 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1275
- End Date:
- 1290
- Date Range:
- Late 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 370 x 250 mm (text space: 260 x 165 mm).
Foliation: ff. 314 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end).
Layout: 2 columns of 41 lines.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather with gold tooling; made by Charles Lewis of St James's, according to the sale catalogue.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Acre).
Provenance:
Made before the fall of Acre in 1291, perhaps for Henry II de Lusignan as a gift for his coronation in 1286 (see Buchthal, Miniature Painting (1957)).
Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (b. 1801, d. 1843), his armorial bookplate on the inside upper binding; his sale, part II: Evans, 31 July 1844, lot 215; bought by the British Museum for £30.
- 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:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1841-1845 (London: British Museum, 1850), p. 121.
Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, III: Manuscripts in English Libraries, ed. by Harry Bober, 2 vols (London: The Warburg Institute, 1953), I, pp. 27-29.
Hugo Buchthal and Francis Wormald, Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), pp. 72, 79-87, cat. no. 18, pp. 150-51.
Jaroslav Folda, Crusader Manuscript Illumination at Saint-Jean d'Acre, 1275-1291 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), pp. 77-82 and passim.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), pl. 33.
Il Medio Oriente e l'Occidente nell'arte del XIII secolo, ed. by Hans Belting (Bologna: CLUEB, 1982), pl. 149.
David J. A. Ross, Studies in the Alexander Romance (London: Pindar, 1985), pp. 175-78.
John Lowden, Illuminated Prophet Books: A Study of Byzantine Manuscripts of the Major and Minor Prophets (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988), p. 35.
David J. A. Ross, Alexander Historiatus: A Guide to Medieval Illustrated Alexander Literature, ed. by Ernst Heitsch and others, Athenäum Monografien, Altertumswissenschaft, Beiträge zur Klassischen Philologie, 186, 2nd edn (Frankfurt: Athenäum, 1988), p. 18.
Doris Oltrogge, Die Illustrationszyklen zur 'Histoire ancienne jusqu'a César', European University Studies, 28 (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1989), pp 141-42, 261-66.
The Mythical Quest: In Search of Adventure, Romance and Enlightenment, intro. by Penelope Lively (London: British Library, 1996), pl. on p. 43.
Barbara Zeitler, '"Sinful Sons, Falsifiers of the Christian Faith": The Depiction of Muslims in a "Crusader" Manuscript', Mediterranean Historical Review, 12 (1997), 25-50.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997, no. 72.
Marc-René Jung, La Légende de Troie en France au moyen age (Basel & Tubingen: Francke Verlag, 1996), pp. 337-40, 342, 354, 355.
Histoire Ancienne jusqu'a César (Estoires Roger), ed. by Marijke de Visser-van Terwisga, 2 vols (Orleans: Paradigme, 1999), I [an edition of the text]; II, pp. 12, 13, 15, 18, n. 10.
Alixe Bovey, Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), p. 19.
Bianca Kuhnel, 'The Perception of History in Thirteenth-Century Crusader Art', in Crusader France and the Holy Land: Frankish Culture at the End of the Crusades, ed. by Daniel H. Weiss and Lisa Mahoney (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2004), pp. 161-86 (p. 162).
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), pl. 43.
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 21.
Lisa Mahoney, 'The Histoire ancienne and Dialectical Identity in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem', Gesta, 49.1 (2010), 31-51 (pp. 31, 41, fig. 11).
L'Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César, ou, Histoires pour Roger, châtelain de Lille de Wauchier de Denain; L'Histoire de la Macédoine et d'Alexandre le Grand, ed. by Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), pp. 40, 45, 48
Simon Gaunt and others, Medieval Francophone Literary Culture Outside France, http://www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk/ (see http://www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk/browse/mss/37/manuscript.html) [accessed 16 July 2015].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)