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Add MS 19669
- Record Id:
- 032-002096317
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002096317
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000041.0x000226
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 19669
- 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 Cesar, compiled early in the 13th century. This manuscript, with the alternative title Le Tresor des Hystoires, contains the first redaction of the text, sections I-X (see Jung, Légende de Troie (1996)):
ff. 4r-54v: Genesis, incipit, 'Quant diex ot fait le ciel';
ff. 54v-58r: Orient I (Ninus and Semiramus);
ff. 58r-74r Thebes;
ff. 74r-77r: The Greeks and Amazons;
ff. 77r-94v: Troy;
ff. 94v-108v: Aeneas;
ff. 108v-122v: Rome I;
ff. 122v-139v: Orient II (Persians);
ff. 139v-168r: Macedonians, Alexander;
ff. 168r-238r: Rome II, explicit, 'Si come eutropius raconte qu'il nen estoit nule qui granment fust grevable par trestoute le monde'.
Decoration:
One historiated initial with a full border in colours with gold with added d'Averton coat of arms, de gueules a trois jumelles d'argent, with a small lion in the upper left corner (f. 4r). 36 miniatures in two, three or four parts in colours on gold grounds. 7 historiated initials in colours with gold. Three added d'Averton coats of arms (ff. 45r, 112r, 238r). An added pen drawing of a city (f. 57r). One miniature has been cut out (f. 52v). Numerous initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in both colours. Rubrics in red.
The subjects of the miniatures and historiated initials are:
f. 4r: The story of Genesis in 7 medallions;
f. 6r: Cain and Abel;
f. 7v: The story of Noah;
f. 14v, 20r, 22r, 24v: Scenes from the life of Abraham and Sarah;
f. 31r: Jacob and Esau;
ff. 38r, 43r, 45r, 47v, 50v: Scenes from the life of Joseph;
f. 54v: King Ninus;
ff. 55r, 58r, 62r, 71r: Thebes and the legend of Oedipus;
f. 77r: Initial: Jason; miniature: Greeks and Trojans;
f. 84r: Hector and Achilles;
f. 89r: The Amazons, Greeks and Trojans;
f. 91v: The Greeks' journey home;
f. 96v: Legend of Theseus;
f. 104r: Legend of Aeneis;
f. 112r: Brutus and the Etruscan war;
f. 117v: Cyrus the Great;
f. 129r: Judith and Holofernes;
f. 144r: Olympias and Nectanebus;
f. 146r: Darius and Alexander;
ff. 148v: Four part image: Alexander kneels before the High Priest in Jerusalem (upper left); Alexander makes an animal sacrifice at the altar (upper right); a battle between Alexander and Porrus (lower left); Porrus shows Alexander one of his gold statues (lower right);
f. 153v: Four part image: Alexander's army meets a horse-like creature the size of an elephant with 3 horns (upper left); Alexander prays to have the evil tribes enclosed between the two mountains of Scapios (upper right); King Porrus shows Alexander his gold idols of the gods Hercules and Liber (lower left); Alexander's army confronts the beast with the heads of a hippopotamus head and of a cocatrix (lower right);
f. 156r: Alexander fights against elephants (above); Alexander meets the talking trees of the sun and the moon and their Indian guardian (below);
f. 161r: Death of Alexander;
ff. 168r, 169r: The Phyrric War;
f. 172r: The first Punic War;
ff. 183r, 198v: The Carthaginian War and Hannibal;
f. 200r: Esther and Haman;
f. 203r: The sack of Carthage;
f. 215v: War between Jugurtha of the Numidians and the Romans;
f. 218v: Roman battles with the Tungri and the Cimbri and the death of the Cimbrian women.
All miniatures, with the exception of ff. 215v and 218v are by the same artist (see Oltrogge, Die Illustrationszyklen (1989), p. 269). The same cycle of illustrations is found in Chantilly, Bibliothèque du Château, MS 726, The Hague MS 78 D 47, Paris, BnF, f. fr. 17177, Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, MS francais Z. II, and Pommersfelden, Schloss Weissenstein, MS 295, XIII (see Ross (1985)).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002096317", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 19669: Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002096317
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002096317
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_19669 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1250
- End Date:
- 1299
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 13th century
- 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: 320 x 235 mm (text space: 230 x 170 mm) .
Foliation: ff. 238 (ff. 1 and 2 are paper flyleaves + 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end).
Script: Gothic.
Layout: Written in two columns of 40 lines.
Binding: Post-1600. Blue leather with marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France, N.
Provenance:
Jean or Jehan d'Averton: an inscription in fifteenth-century hand on f. 238v, 'Ce livre est a Jehan Daverton', probably Jean d'Averton of Maine, Seigneur of Belin and Couldreau, who was living in the year 1456; additions were made in the 15th century to the border and a rubric was added on f. 1, along with the coat of arms of d'Averton of Maine, de geules a trois jumelles d'argent, with a small lion in the upper left corner, on ff. 1r, 45r, 112r, and 238r.
A 16th-century inscription, 'De Couldreau' (f. 3r).
Bought by the British Museum from Messrs Boone, 12th November 1853 (a note on f. [v]).
- 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 1848-1853 (London: Woodfall and Kinder, 1868), p. 264.
D. J. A. Ross, Alexander Historiatus: A Guide to Medieval Illustrated Alexander Literature (London: Warburg Institute, 1963), p. 19.
François Avril, 'Trois manuscrits napolitains des collections de Charles V et Jean de Berry', Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 127 (1969), 291-328.
David J. A. Ross, Studies in the Alexander Romance (London: Pindar, 1985), pp. 175-78, 200-42.
Doris Oltrogge, Die Illustrationszyklen zur 'Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César', European University Studies, 28 (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1989), pp 13-16, 19, 117-20, 266-69.
Marc-René Jung, La Légende de Troie en France au moyen age (Basel & Tubingen: Francke Verlag, 1996), pp. 337-40, 342, 354, 355, pls 5, 6.
Histoire Ancienne jusqu'à César (Estoires Roger), ed. by Marijke de Visser-van Terwisga, 2 vols (Orleans: Paradigme, 1999), I [an edition of the text]; II, pp. 13, 18, n. 24.
Laurent Brun and Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, 'L'Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César: Bibliographie', Archives de littérature du Moyen Age, http://www.arlima.net/eh/histoire_ancienne_jusqua_cesar.html [accessed 23 March, 2015].
Alison Stones, Gothic Manuscripts: 1260-1320, 4 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 2013), II.1, p. 111; II.2, p. 127, n. 3.
Simon Gaunt and others, Medieval Francophone Literary Culture Outside France, http://www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk/ (see http://www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk/browse/mss/491/manuscript.html) [accessed 16 July 2015].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)