Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Cotton MS Augustus V
- Record Id:
- 040-001102144
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x00021b
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165156549.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Augustus V
- Title:
- Le Trésor des Histoires or Le Trésor de Sapience
- Scope & Content:
-
Le Trésor des Histoires or Trésor de Sapience is an anonymous historical compilation in prose from Creation to the pontificate of Clement VI. The version of the Trésor in the manuscript is rare and has a Parisian origin. The only other copy of this version of the text is contained in Paris, BnF, MS n.a.f. 14285. The present version of the Trésor was probably compiled in Paris in 1416, possibly copied from an earlier codex of Parisian origin (see McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance (2003), no. 77).
The text begins with Philip of Valois's historical handbook, followed by the Chronicle of Baudouin of Avesnes. Several works of the fourteenth century have been interpolated: book XV of Jean de Corbechon's translation of Bartholomeus Anglicus's De proprietatibus rerum; Jean de Vignay's Jeu des Échecs moralisés; Willian of Tignonville's Dits des Philosophes; and a translation of the De mirabilia urbis.
Contents:
ff. 1r-17r: Table of chapters: 'C'est la table des rubriches de ce present volume, intitule le Tresor des hystoires'. The text is divided in 763 chapters described in the table.
ff. 18r-481v: Le Trésor des Histoires, inc.: 'Au commencement si comme l'escripture tesmoingne Dieu crea ciel et terre. Selon les docteurs et les sains en une masse confuse, laquelle ilz appellerent matiere sans forme'.
Decoration:
1 three-quarter-page miniature and 54 half page miniatures in colours and gold. Each folio with a miniature also includes a full border or a simple border with vegetal and occasionally animal ornaments. Numerous red, blue or gold small pen-flourished and decorated initials throughout. Line-fillers in gold and blue throughout. Red rubrics outlining changes in the text. Paraphs in red, blue and gold throughout. Void spaces remain in the borders that take the form of emblems and may have been intended for the patron's coat of arms.
Most of the miniatures were painted by the Master of the London Wavrin and the Master of the Getty Froissart. Two miniatures (ff. 22r and 30v) were painted by a third artist, a follower of Loyset Liédet (for the identification of artists, descriptions and accounts of several miniatures, see McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance (2003), no. 77). Instructions for the artists are inscribed in the lower margins: ff. 94v, 99v, 142r, 293v, passim.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102144 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Augustus V : Le Trésor des Histoires or Le Trésor de Sapience - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0428]/040-001102144
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex.
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165156549.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1475
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 480 x 230 mm (text space: 290 x 200 mm), in two columns.
Foliation: ff. i + 481 folios.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown morocco with the arms of Sir Robert Cotton gold-stamped on both covers; rebacked.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Bruges.
Provenance:
King Henry VIII of England (1509–1547): although the manuscript contains no mark of ownership, it is the 'item 23' in the 1535 Richmond Palace booklist (February 1535) (see Carley, The Libraries of King Henry VIII (2000), p. 10).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician. Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton.
Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet: bequeathed the entire Cotton collection of books and manuscripts to trustees ‘for Publick Use and Advantage’, 12 and 13 William III, c. 7. Formed one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753.
- Former Internal References:
- Cotton MS Augustus A V
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts, http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Backhouse, Janet, 'Founders of the Royal Library: Edward IV and Henry VII as Collectors of Illuminated Manuscripts', in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by David Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987), p. 40.
Carley, James P., The Libraries of King Henry VIII (London: Corpus of British Medieval Libraries Catalogues, 7, 2000), p. 10.
Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983), p. 7, fig. 2.
Kren, Thomas and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2003), no. 77.
McKendrick, Scot, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts, 1400-1550 (London: The British Library, 2003), no. 35.
Pacht, Otto, 'La terre des Flandres', Pantheon, 36 (1978), 3-16.
Planta, Joseph, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, deposited in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1802), p. 30.
Ross, David J. A., 'Some geographical and topographical miniatures in a fragmentary Trésor des Histoires', Scriptorium, 23 (1969), 177-86.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)