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Add MS 10290
- Record Id:
- 032-002108084
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002108084
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000042.0x00020c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100173569430.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 10290
- Title:
-
The Middle Dutch Historie van Jason and Dat Scaecspel
- Scope & Content:
-
This paper manuscript contains two separately produced parts with Middle Dutch texts. The first part contains De Historie van Jason, the only extant handwritten copy of the Middle Dutch translation of l’Histoire de Jason written in 1460 by Raoul Lefèvre (15th century): an author who is thought to have been the chaplain to Philip the Good (b. 1396, d. 1467), Duke of Burgundy. Like the original French text, the work recounts that the ghost of the ancient Greek mythological hero Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, had requested the author to recount the history of his quest for the Golden Fleece to his patron Philip the Good, the founder of the Order of the Golden Fleece (1430).
The other part contains Dat Scaecspel, one of the nine extant copies of the Middle Dutch translation of De ludo scaccorum: a moralised explanation of the game of chess written by the Italian Dominican friar Jacobus de Cessolis (fl. 1288-1322) that had already been translated into Dutch before 1403. While the two parts were copied by different scribes, they were most likely produced in the same milieu: both parts contain the same type of paper, are marked with the same type of quire signature, and are illustrated by the same artist, the so-called ‘Master of the London Jason'. This also indicates that the two manuscripts were bound together at an early date.
In 1485, as is indicated by printer's notes and stains of printer's ink, De Historie van Jason was used as the exemplar from which Jacob Bellaert (fl. 1483-86), a publisher in Haarlem, printed the text. The copy of Dat Scaecspel is not thought to have served as an exemplar for the printed version of the work, published at Gouda in 1479. Nevertheless, it is possible that the manuscript as a whole was primarily produced for a printing house.
Contents:
ff. 2r-161v: De Historie van Jason.
ff. 162r-227r: Dat Scaecspel.
f. 71 is lost and replaced with a modern paper leaf on which a scribe in the 17th century added text and a blank space for an illustration.
Decoration:
33 pen drawings with a colour wash, illustrating De Historie van Jason (20) and Dat Scaecspel (13), executed by the Master of the London Jason, an artist at Haarlem whose work is known from several manuscripts produced in the 1470s. The subjects of the miniatures, identified in Lotte Hellinga, Texts in Transit (2014), pp. 362-64, can be described as follows:
f. 2r: The author's dedication of the work to Philip the Good.
f. 3v: King Eson summons Jason.
f. 6v: A joust at the court of the king of Thebes between Hercules and Jason.
f. 9r: Jason slays the drunken centaurs abducting a king’s bride.
f. 23v: Jason fights the giant Corfus.
f. 32r: Jason kills two kings in battle.
f. 37v: Queen Mirro follows Jason.
f. 41v: Two ships with Jason and Mirro are attacked in the port of Bisant.
f. 53r: Jason meets King Peleas, his uncle.
f. 58r: The Argos sets sail and Queen Ysiphile receives Jason and his companions.
[f. 71: The original folio is now lacking but probably would have illustrated Apollo building a city on Colchis].
f. 77v: Thirty men in the Argos row to the island of Colchis.
f. 82r: A fight between King Apollo and Zetephius.
f. 91r: King Oetes receives Jason, watched by Medea.
f. 106v: Jason slays the dragon and obtains the golden fleece.
f. 118r: Queen Ysiphile throws herself from a rock.
f. 130v: Medea’s magic bath kills King Peleus and restores King Eson to his youth.
f. 138r: Medea takes revenge at Jason’s wedding to Creuse.
f. 144r: Jason marries Queen Mirro and slays twelve knights.
f. 152r: Medea pleads with King Eson; Eson besieging Oliferne.
f. 157r: Patroclos kills Mirro with an arrow.
f. 165r: A king.
f. 171v: A queen.
f. 176r: A councillor.
f. 183r: A knight.
f. 197r: A rook.
f. 202v: A farmer.
f. 205v: A goldsmith.
f. 208v: A draper, weaver.
f. 211r: A merchant.
f. 215r: A scholar.
f. 219r: An innkeeper.
f. 222v: An aldermann
f. 223v: A fool.
One large blue initial with red pen flourishing (f. 2r); One large puzzle initial in red and blue with red pen flourishing (f. 162r).
Numerous small initials in red and blue throughout the manuscript.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002108084", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 10290: The Middle Dutch Historie van Jason and Dat Scaecspel" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002108084
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002108084
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100173569430.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Dutch
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1470
- End Date:
- 1480
- Date Range:
- c 1470 - c 1480
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 270 x 195 mm (text space: 190 x 130 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1*+ 227 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 5 at the end); f. 1* is a paper flyleaf; a folio has been removed between f. 70 and f. 71.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: BM/BL in-house. Olive morocco with gilt fore-edges, inscribed: 'HISTORIE VAN KONINCK JASON - SCHAECSPIL'.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Haarlem, North Netherlands.
Provenance:
The first section of the manuscript, containing De Historie van Jason, was in Haarlem in c. 1485, when it was used as a model for an edition by Jacob Bellaert (see Hellinga, Texts in Transit (2014), pp. 323-27).
Hendrik van Heydendal (17th century), Deventer jurist and poet, before 1630: his name inscribed (f. 1v).
Jacobus Revius (b. 1585, d. 1658), a vicar in Deventer, after 1630: received the book from Hendrik van Heydendal in 1630, noted on f. 1v.
Jobus Steenwijck and Carolus Bockelmann (17th century), after 1658: Revius bequeathed his manuscripts to Steenwijck and Bockelmann, respectively, his son-in-law and grandson (see Hellinga, Texts in Transit (2014), p. 364).
Hubertus Gregorius van Vrijhoff (b. 1704, d. 1754), law professor: ownership inscription (f. 1v); his sale, Amsterdam, Schouten, 21 October 1754, lot 319 (see Bibliotheca Vryhoviana); purchased by Balthazar Huydecoper.
Balthazar Huydecoper (b. 1695, d 1778), philologist and historian, from 1754 onwards: his sale, Amsterdam, Schouten, 29 March, 1779, lot 99 (see Bibliotheca Huydecoperiana); purchased by Cornelis Ploos van Amstel.
Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (b. 1726, d. 1798) painter and art collector, in 1779: his ownership inscription and armorial bookplate (f. 1v).
Jacobus Koning (b. 1770, d. 1832), antiquary: his sale, Amsterdam, Lamberts and Van der Vinne, 29 April, 1833, lot 196 (Prys-catalogus der letterkundige nalatenschap van wijlen den heere Jacobus Koning); probably purchased by Richard Heber.
Richard Heber (b. 1774, d. 1833), book collector, in 1833: his sale, London, Evans, 15 February 1836, lot 958, noted on f. 1*recto (see Bibliotheca Heberiana, 11, lot 958); purchased by the British Museum.
- Information About Copies:
-
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
H. L. D. Ward and J.A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, pp. 92-93.
Karel de Flou and Edward Gailliard, Beschrijving van Middelnederlandse andere handschriften die in Engeland bewaard worden, Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 3 vols (Ghent: Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 1895–1897), I, pp. 165-73 (no. 52).
F. van Veerdeghem, ‘Een en ander over den roman van Jason’, Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, 15 (1896), 100-107.
Robert Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften in England, 2 vols (Erlangen: Junge, 1896–1901), II, p. 105 (no. 121).
Gertrude H. van Schaick Avelingh, Dat Scaecspel (Leiden: Sijthoff, 1912), edition with this manuscript (F).
Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters, 4 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1953), III: Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken, ed. by Harry Bober, pp. 3-7, figs 67, 69.
Lotte Hellinga, 'Notes on the Order of Setting a Fifteenth Century Book', Quaerendo, 4 (1974), 64-69.
Lotte Hellinga, Methode en praktijk bij het zetten van boeken in de vijftiende eeuw (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Amsterdam, 1974) [on the text].
Anne Hagopian van Buren, 'The Model Roll of the Golden Fleece', Art Bulletin, 61 (1979), 359-76.
Henri L. M. Defoer and others, The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting (New York: Braziler, 1990), p. 239 (no. 79).
Rineke Nieuwstraten, 'The Jason Master as Narrator: The Illustrations to Raoul Lefèvre's Historie vanden Vromen Ridder Jason', in Masters and Miniatures: Proceedings of the Congress on Medieval Manuscript Illumination in the Northern Netherlands, Utrecht, 10-13 December 1989, ed. by Koert van der Horst and Johann-Christian Klamt (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1991), pp. 201-10.
Wilhelmina C. M. Wüstefeld, Middeleeuwse Boeken van het Catharijneconvent (Zwolle: Waanders, 1993), p. 221, n. 36.
Rineke Nieuwstraten, 'Overlevering en verandering: de pentekeningen van de Jasonmeester en de houtsneden van de Meester van Bellaert in de Historie van Jason', in Boeken in de late Middeleeuwen: Verslag van de Groningse Codicologendagen, 1992, ed. by Jos M. M. Hermans and Klaas van der Hoek (Groningen: Forsten, 1994), pp. 111-24.
The Mythical Quest: In Search of Adventure, Romance and Enlightenment, intro. by Penelope Lively (London: British Library, 1996), p. 12, p. 92.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), p. 191, no. 169.
Herman Pleij, 'Carrying Books', in Medieval Mastery: Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bold 800-1475 (Leuven: Davidsfond, 2002), pp. 35-46 (p. 42).
Lotte Hellinga, Texts in Transit: Manuscript to Proof and Print in the Fifteenth Century (Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 63, 82-83, 304-65, 415.
A synoptic critical edition of the London Jason, Bellaert’s print and the French source is in preparation by Dr Willem Kuiper.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)