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Cotton MS Nero D IX
- Record Id:
- 040-001102733
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x0003ac
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161502902.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Nero D IX
- Title:
- Antoine de La Sale (Salle), Le Petit Jehan de Saintré; Rasse de Brunhamel, Floridan et Elvide
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 2r–108r: Antoine de La Sale or Salle (b. c. 1398, d. c. 1461), Le Petit Jean de Saintré, a didactic romance about the adventures of the hero, Jean, at the court of King John of France, and of his lady, the Dame des Belles Cousines, who teaches him how to become the perfect knight. The rubric states, 'Et p[r]imerement listoire de madi[cte]da[m]e des belles cousines et de Saintre' and there is a prologue addressed to John of Anjou, Duke of Calabria (d. before 1471) and an epilogue, with the date of composition given as 1459 (see Ward, Catalogue of Romances,1883).
ff. 109r–115r: Rasse de Brunhamel or Brinchamel, Floridan et Elvide, a prose romance based on the Latin epistles of Nicolas de Clamenges (d. after 1431), with the rubric, 'Cy commence la trespiteuse histoire de messier floridam jadis chevalier. Et de la tresbonne et vertueuse demoiselle Elluide et leurs trespiteuses fins'. Brunhamel is in eastern Picardie, and Rasse is believed to have been in the service of the Comte de San Pol at the same time as La Sale. Brunhamel added a prologue and an epilogue, dedicating the work to La Salle and stating that the events took place in the time of Boccaccio, who related them in his De Claris mulieribus. This is one of only four surviving copies of Floridan et Elvide in French, all following the Petit Jehan de Saintré text in the manuscripts (see Clive, 'Floridan et Elvide', 1957).
Paris, BnF n.a.10057, which contains the earliest copy of Floridan et Elvide, and of the second version of Petit Jehan de Saintré, has corrections in La Sale's hand.
Decoration:
11 half-page miniatures in colours with full foliate borders in colours and gold, the first with a historiated initial depicting a book presentation (ff. 2r, 32v, 40r, 46r, 48r, 51r, 55v, 59v, 77v, 103r, 109r). Framed initials with foliate decoration in blue and rose on gold grounds. Initials with foliate decoration in gold on blue or rose grounds. Paraphs and line-fillers n gold on blue or rose grounds
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 2r: A young man (?Jean de Saintré) kneeling before a woman seated on a throne, surrounded by other women (? la Dame des Belles Cousines);
f. 32v: A tournament with Jean de Saintré jousting, watched by the King and ladies;
f. 40r: Saintré beats Enguerrand in a joust, with men and ladies in separate pavilions, watching and a small figure climbing a ladder with a flask;
f. 46r: Saintré and Enguerrand are fighting with poleaxes; Enguerand has dropped his weapon and is bleeding from his hand; the King casts down his baton to stop the contest;
f. 49r: Jean de Saintré takes leave of the King and rides out of Barcelona on a white horse that the latter has presented to him; in the foreground he shakes hands with a nobleman outside the city, while a woman weeps;
f. 51r: Jean de Saintré greeting courtiers and the King and Queen on his return to Paris, in the background he kisses the Dame aux Belles Cousines in a garden;
f. 55v: A joust between Saintré and the Seigneur de Loissele, with the King and Queen watching;
f. 59v: Saintré and the Seigneur de Loissele fighting with lances on foot, watched by the King, men and ladies, with men holding pikes;
f. 77v: A battle between Christians and Saracens;
f. 103r: Saintré overpowers his rival, the Lord Abbot in front of his mistress, the Dame aux Belles Cousines; three clerics and three women watch;
f. 109r: Elvide watches as one of the four intruders throws a spear and kills Floridan; the scene takes place in an inn.
Attributed to the Master of Jacques de Besançon (fl. 1480–1500) by Paul Durrieu, Un grand enlumineur parisien au XVe siècle, Jacques de Besançon et son oeuvre (Paris, 1892).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102733 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Nero D IX : Antoine de La Sale (Salle), Le Petit Jehan de Saintré; Rasse de Brunhamel, Floridan et Elvide - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0652]/040-001102733
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Cotton_MS_Nero_D_IX (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:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Condition: outer edges of leaves scorched by fire in 1731.
Materials: Parchment
Dimensions: 340 × 270 mm (text space: 250 x 175 mm).
Layout: Written in two columns of 40 lines.
Foliation: ff. 116 (ff. 1 and 116 are medieval flyleaves + 1 parchment former paste-down and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end).
Binding: Post-1600. British Museum 1863.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France (Paris).
Provenance:
Anne de Graville (d. c. 1540): her name inscribed on a parchment flyleaf, 'A Madamoiselle Anne de granville dame du boyd de mallesherbes et Contesse de Saintt yon' (f. 1v).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: inscribed with his name, 'Robertus Cotton Bruceus', (f. 2r) and included in the first catalogue of his collection (Harley MS 6018, no. 206), and the Cottonian catalogues, Additional MS 36789 (f. 8r) and Additional MS 36682; see Colin G. C. Tite, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 138. 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.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Clive, Peter, 'Floridan et Elvide: A critical edition', Medium Ævum, 26.3 (1957),154-85, online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43626693.pdf [accessed 26.10.2018];
Fletcher, Chris, Roger Evans, and Sally Brown, 1000 Years of English Literature: A Treasury of Literary Manuscripts (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003), p. 52;
Hughes-Hughes, Augustus, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 3 vols (London, 1906–09), III, p. 361;
Porter, Pamela, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), p. 2 (frontispiece);
Porter, Pamela, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), pp. 30-31;
Taylor, Jane H. M., ‘Image as reception: Antoine de la Sale’s Le Petit Jehan de Saintré’, in Donald Maddox & Sara Sturm-Maddox (eds.), Literary Aspects of Courtly Culture: Selected papers from the seventh triennial congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A., 27 July-1 August 1992 (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 265–79;
Watson, Andrew G., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, p. 166 [rejected];
Ward, H. L. D., & J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London, 1883–1910), I, pp. 775–82.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)