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Add MS 20698
- Record Id:
- 032-002091044
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002091044
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000051.0x0001bf
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 20698
- Title:
-
Flemish translation of Christine de Pizan's Cité des dames ('De Lof der Vrouwen' or 'De Stede der Vrouwen')
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
The Cité des Dames of Christine de Pizan, translated into Flemish as 'De Stede der Vrouwen', or 'De Lof der Vrouwen' (The Praise of Women). The only surviving copy of this translation, dated to1475 in the translator's epilogue on f. 333r.
Decoration:
41 half-page framed miniatures in colours, some with gold, of which 16 are unfinished. Spaces for a further 92 images.
Large initials in colours and gold with partial foliate borders in colours with gold at the beginning of each chapter.
Rubrics with cadels in red.
The subjects of the miniatures include:
f. 2r: Christine seated in her study with her chin resting on her hands;
f. 5r: Christine in the company of three ladies;
f. 7v: Christine, seated with a book, talks to three ladies;
f. 11r: Lady Reason instructs Christine;
f. 12v: Lady Rectitude offers help to Christine;
f. 14r: Lady Justice introduces herself to Christine;
f. 15v: Christine expresses gratitude to the three ladies;
f. 17r: Lady Reason directs Christine as she digs the foundation for her city;
f. 22r: Lady Reason leans on a shovel while talking to Christine;
f. 26v: Lady Reason and Christine at the entrance to a building;
f. 32v: Christine and Lady Reason converse;
f. 34v: Christine and Lady Reason converse in a landscape, wearing hats and veils;
f. 35v: Queen Fredegund and her infant son Clotair exact the loyalty of armed barons;
f. 38v: Christine and Lady Reason holding hands;
f. 41r: The Assyrian Queen Semiramus is given a message;
f. 43v: The Coronation of an Amazon queen;
f. 45v: Amazon Queen Thamaris receives a messenger;
f. 47v: Hercules boarding a boat to set sail to the Amazons;
f. 51v: Amazon Queen Penthesilea comes to rescue the Trojans;
f. 63r: Fredegond on horseback with a baby in her arms, addressing troups;
f. 64v: The Escape of Camilla in a boat, with her father, the king, swimming behind, pushing the boat;
f. 68v: Christine and Lady Reason seated inside, conversing;
f. 70r: Cornificia (Corinse) in her study, seated at a desk with a book in front of her;
f. 71v: Proba, a poet versed in the seven liberal arts;
f. 73r: Sappho and her companions, the Muses, beside a river;
f. 75r: Manto (Mathoa) reading at her desk
f. 84r: Ceres ploughs a field with two oxen;
f. 85r: Isis directs the planting of trees;
f. 87v: Minerva with an attendant directs a blacksmith at a forge;
f. 90r: Arachne weaving a tapestry, with two baskets containing coloured wool beside her;
f. 99v: Three women;
f. 101r: Gaia Cirilla (Gaye Troyle) and another lady at the loom;
f. 109r: Lavinia;
f. 222r: Christine and Lady Justice talking;
f. 224: Dido of Carthage, with Aeneas leaving on a ship (sketch);
f. 230r: Hero visited by Leander;
f. 231v: Ghismonda's suicide;
f. 240r: Lisabetta at a window with her lover's head buried in a basil pot on the window sill;
f. 247r: Claudia Quinta tows a ship up the River Tiber using her belt;
f. 248v: Christine and Lady Justice conversing, with books on shelved behind them;
The first miniature (f. 2r) has been attributed to the Master of Margaret of York (see Kren and McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance (2003), p. 218, n. 7). Other images have been attributed to the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book (see Brinkmann, Die flämische Buchmalerei (1997), pp. 89-91).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002091044", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 20698: Flemish translation of Christine de Pizan's Cité des dames ('De Lof der Vrouwen' or 'De Stede der Vrouwen')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002091044
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002091044
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_20698 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Flemish
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1475
- End Date:
- 1475
- Date Range:
- 1475
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment and paper (f. 1 only).
Dimensions: 305 x 215 mm (text space: 180/90 x 105 mm), written in one column of 28-31 lines.
Foliation: ff. 333 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); f. 1 is a modern paper flyleaf.
Collation: i-xxviii10 (ff. 2-281), xxix8(ff. 282-289), xxx-xxxiii10(ff. 290-329), xxxiv4 (ff. 330-333).
Catchwords.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Red leather with gold tooling.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Bruges, Southern Netherland (modern-day Belgium).
Provenance:
Jan III de Baenst (b. c. 1420, d. 1486), knight, Heer van Sint-Joris-ten-Distel: written for him in 1475, according to the colophon on f. 333r: 'Dit was ghedan int jaer ons heeren dusent vier hondert ende vive ende tseventich up Sinte Kathelen avont die reyne maecht. Ter begheerten vanden voirseide Mer Jan de baenst riddere heere van Sint joris. Bidt voor my. Explicit.'
Balthazar Huydecoper (b. 1695, d. 1778), author: 18th-century inscription: 'B. Huydecoper' (f. 1v) and in his sale, 29 March 1799, lot 14.
Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (b. 1726, d. 1798), artist and collector: his etched stamp on the inside of the left board and 18th-century inscription: 'Ploos v. Amstel / Jh. Cornelisz / 1779' (f. 1v).
Thomas and William Boone (fl. 1815-1870), antiquarian booksellers: purchased by the British Museum from Messrs Boone on 1 February 1855, for the sum of £20.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1854-1860 (London: British Museum, 1875), p. 248.
Robert Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften in England, 2 vols (Erlangen: Junge, 1896–1901), II, p. 184 (no. 219).
Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages. III Manuscripts in English Libraries, 2 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1953), pp. 62-64, pl. 27.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library (London: British Library, 1979), I, no. 230.
Herman de la Fontaine Verwey, 'Boeken en Handschriften', in Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1727-1798): Kunstverzamelaar en prentuitgever, ed. by T. Laurentius, J.W. Niemeyer and G. Ploos van Amstel (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1980), p. 96.
Maureen Quilligan, The Allegory of Female Authority: Christine de Pizan's 'Cité des Dames' (New York: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 74, 191, 288, pls 9, 10, 14, 28.
Bodo Brinkmann, Die flämische Buchmalerei am Ende des Burgunderreichs: der Meister des Dresdener Gebetbuchs und die Miniaturisten seiner Zeit, 2 vols (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997), I: Text, pp. 89-91; II: Images, pls 71-74.
Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century (Leuven: Brepols, 1999), pl. 86 on p. 413.
Christopher de Hamel, The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illuminations. History and Techniques (London: British Library, 2001), p. 8.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), pp. 217-18.
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 31.
'De stede der vrauwen: Een diplomatische transcriptie van de Middelnederlandse vertaling (1475) van Christine de Pizans ‘Livre de la cité des dames’ (1405)', ed. by Noor Versélewel de Witt Hamer and Miriam Oort (2008) online transcription at http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/pisa001nver01_01/ [accessed 08.06.15].
Laura Rinaldi Dufresne, The Fifteenth-Century Illustrations of Christine de Pizan's 'The Book of the City of Ladies' and 'The Treasure of the City of Ladies': Analysing the Relation of the Pictures to the Text (Lewiston: Mellen, 2012), pp. 80, 94, 107, 124, 282, pls 7, 8, figs 9, 16, 20, 22, 26, 29, 31, 36, 37, 39, 42.
Orlanda S. H. Lie and others, Christine de Pizan in Bruges: Le Livre de la Cité des Dames' as 'Het Bouc van de Stede der Vrauwen' (London, British Library, Add. 20698) (Hilversum: Verloren, 2015).
- Exhibitions:
- Haute Lecture by Colard Mansion: Innovating Text and Image in Medieval Bruges, Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 1 March 2018 - 3 June 2018
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)