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Add MS 21247
- Record Id:
- 032-002091623
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002091623
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000051.0x0002d6
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165146110.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 21247
- Title:
-
Alain Chartier, Le Livre des Quatre Dames
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
Le Livre des Quatre Dames, a poem of 3531 lines that was composed by Alain Chartier ( b. 1385, d. c.1433), political writer and ambassador for Charles VII of France, shortly after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The poet meets four ladies who tell of the fates of their four lovers who were lost in the battle. On the lower flyleaf is an added quatrain, 'Car piecza l'am/Pour ce belle que prins a l'ain/Avez le cueur du pouvre Allain/Ou il n'entre pencer villain'.
Decoration: Five framed miniatures in colours with gold (ff. 1r, 22v, 40v, 52r, 69r), each with full rinceaux border and a decorated initial, one containing a coat of arms (f. 1r). Framed initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in white. Cadels.
The subjects of the images are:
f. 1r: The poet looking up at the four ladies with the coat of arms of the Montmorency family;
f. 22v: The poet and the lady in brown;
f. 40v: The poet and the lady in blue;
f. 51r: The poet and the lady in green;
f. 69r: The poet, kneeling, presenting a book to a seated lady; on his sleeve are the words 'eu poure prisonnier'.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002091623", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 21247: Alain Chartier, Le Livre des Quatre Dames" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002091623
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002091623
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165146110.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1440
- Date Range:
- Early 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 245 x 165mm (text space: 140 x 85mm)
Foliation: ff. 71 (f. 71 is a parchment flyleaf + 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Red leather loose cover over original brown leather binding with blind-tooling. Marbled end-papers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France, W. (Brittany).
Provenance:
Anne de Laval (b.1385, d.1466), probably commissioned by her (see Booton, Medieval Brittany (2010)).
The Montmorency-Laval family of Brittany and Maine, supporters of the French king: their coat of arms in the initial on f. 1r.
D. Francis Vera, bought by the British Museum from him with two other manuscripts (now Additional MS 21245 and 21246) for £60 on 22 March 1856.
- 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:
-
James. C. Laidlaw, 'The Manuscripts of Alain Chartier', The Modern Language Review, 61.2 (1966), 188-98 (p. 190).
The Poetical Works of Alain Chartier, ed. by James C. Laidlaw (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), pp. 45, 66-67, ms Df.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten centuries of manuscript painting in the British Library (London : British Library, 1997), no. 141.
Ursula Pieters, Das Ich im Bild: die Figur des Autors in volksprachigen Handschriften des 13. bis 16. Jahrhunderts (Cologne: Bohlau, 2008), pp. 100, 182-84, 189, pls. 97, 98.
A Companion to Alain Chartier (c. 1385-1430), ed. by Daisy Delogu, Joan E. McRae and Emma Cayley (Leiden, Brill, 2015), pp. 74-75, 98-99,102.
Diane E Booton, Manuscript, Market and the Transition to Print in Late Medieval Brittany (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 35, 310, 329.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)