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Add MS 11390
- Record Id:
- 032-002109150
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002109150
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000040.0x000233
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100057739145.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 11390
- Title:
-
Jacob van Maerlant, Der naturen bloeme
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript features one of the eleven extant copies of the Middle Dutch Der naturen bloeme (The Flower of Nature): a natural encyclopedia and bestiary in verse, divided into thirteen books. Der naturen bloeme was written around 1270 by the Flemish poet Jacob van Maerlant (b. c. 1200, d. c. 1272) at the request of his patron, the nobleman Nicolaas van Cats. The latter requested to have a book compiling all the available knowledge about the natural world. For his project, Van Maerlant used De natura rerum by the theologian Thomas of Cantimpré (b. c. 1201, d. c. 1270), but heavily adapted the work.
Contents:
ff. 1r-94v: Jacob van Maerlant, Der naturen bloeme, 'Der naturen bloeme . Natura rerum . beestiarius . hier sijn in dertiene boeken'.
Decorations:
Numerous miniatures (571), accompanied by captions, drawn with brown ink, most with colours. The miniatures illustrate the thirteen books (concerning mankind, quadrupeds, birds, sea creatures, fish, poisonous snakes, insects and crawling animals, common trees, spice trees, medicinal herbs, wells, gemstones, and metals), although the illustrations end in the eleventh book. Van der Voort, Dat seste boec (2003), pp. 80-84, notes that the miniatures are stylistically different from those in other copies of Der naturen bloeme, and speculates that they may have been executed by the manuscript's scribe.
One large puzzle initial in blue and red (f. 1r), one small initial in blue (f. 1r), and numerous small initials in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002109150", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 11390: Jacob van Maerlant, Der naturen bloeme" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002109150
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002109150
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100057739145.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Dutch, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1295
- End Date:
- 1305
- Date Range:
- c 1300 - c 1325
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: parchment.
Dimensions: 260 x 190 mm (text space: 230 x 130).
Layout: two columns with varying numbers of lines (44 to 49).
Foliation: ff. 94 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 2 unfoliated parchment stubs after ff. 9, 14 resulting from two extended single leaves inserted in quire 2 in lieu of a bifolium.
Collation: i-v8, vi6, vii-x8.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Netherlands, W.
Provenance:
Palaeographical features make the text dateable to the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The dialect of the Middle Dutch is typical for the region of West Flanders (see Van der Voort, Dat seste boec, (2003), pp. 74-79). The manuscript appears to have been preserved by an institution that lend the manuscript on at least on one occasion: an oath, written in a 14th-century, on a cross (drawn above the text) states that its borrower swears that he/she will return the manuscript or die. The oath is only signed by a woman, in a 14th- or 15th-century hand, who identifies herself as 'abstetrix heifmoeder' ('obstetrix: midwife').
Peeter Oris (b. 1582, d. 1647), a Dutch book collector (see Biemans, 'Handschriften', 1985, p. 37, 41).
Adriaan van Boscheiden (b. 1685, d. 1739), preacher (see Van der Voort, Dat seste boec, 2003, pp. 67-68).
Jacob-Arnoud Clignett (b. 1756, d. 1827), a Dutch scholar: notes on f. [v]verso that he received the manuscript as a gift in 1795 from an unnamed donor.
Petrus van Musschenbroek (b. 1764, d. 1823), a Dutch scholar and jurist: his sale, Leiden, 5 October 1826, lot 123: f. [95]r: ‘Musch. 5. Oct. 1826. Leyd. – N. 123’; and Bibliotheca Musschenbroekiana (1826), p. 174.
Purchased by the British Museum from Thomas Thorpe (b. 1791, d. 1851), London bookseller, for £18 on 1 June, 1838.
- Information About Copies:
-
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Jacob van Maerlant, Der naturen bloeme, ed. by Eelco Verwijs, 2 vols (Groningen: Wolters, 1872-78), on the text.
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), II (1896), pp. 239-40.
Robert Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften in England, 2 vols (Erlangen: Junge, 1896-1901), II, pp. 108-09.
J. Deschamps, Middelnederlandse handschriften uit Europese en Amerikaanse bibliotheken, 2nd edn (Leiden: Brill, 1972), p. 79.
Jos Biemans, ‘De Antwerpse boekenliefhebber Peeter Oris (ca. 1582 – ca. 1647)’, in Boeken verzamelen: Opstellen aangeboden aan Mr J. R. de Groot bij zijn afscheid als bibliothecaris der Rijskuniversiteit te Leiden (Leiden: Bibliotheek der Rijskuniversiteit, 1983), pp. 41-57 (p. 59).
Jos Biemans, 'Handschriften en oude drukken in het bezit van Peeter Oris Gebruikssporen van een kritische lezer uit de zeventiende eeuw', De Nieuwe Taalgids, 78 (1985), 34-51 (pp. 37, 41).
Maurits Gysseling. Corpus van Middelnederlandse teksten (tot en met het jaar 1300), Reeks II: Literaire handschriften, 6 vols (The Hague: 1980-87), II: Der Naturen Bloeme (1987), on the text.
Barbara Swater, 'De teksttraditie van Jacob van Maerlant's Der nature bloeme', Voortgang: Jaarboek voor de Neerlandistiek, 12 (1991),181-97 (pp. 181-83).
Marcel van der Voort, Dat seste boec van serpenten: Een onderzoek naar en een uitgave van boek VI van Jacob van Maerlants Der nature bloeme, Middeleeuwse Studies en Bronnen, 75 (Hilversum: Verloren, 2003), pp. 66-87.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)