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Cotton MS Vespasian B III
- Record Id:
- 040-001103223
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x0002a5
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165160745.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Vespasian B III
- Title:
- Complainte sur la mort d'Anne de Bretagne
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the Complainte sur la mort d'Anne de Bretagne, a eulogistic French poem in honour of Anne of Brittany (b. 1477, d. 1514), Queen of France, followed by a prose description of her funeral in 1514. The work has been attributed to Pierre Choque (b. c. 1450, d. 1530), herald and king of arms at Anne's court.
Other copies of the Complainte housed at the British Library are now Add MS 6277 and Stowe MS 584.
Contents:
ff. 1*v: An added inscription in Latin, detailing the contents of the manuscript.
ff. 1v-63v: Complainte sur la mort d'Anne de Bretagne, commemorating the death of Anne of Brittany, Queen of France in 1514, written in French and arranged as follows:
ff. 1v-12r: A eulogistic poem commemorating Anne's death.
ff. 12v-63v: A prose description of the funeral of the French queen.
Decoration:
9 large miniatures, in colours and gold (ff. 13r, 15r, 17v, 20r, 27r, 43v, 45v, 56v, 61r).
1 half-page miniature with the arms of Anne of Brittany, in colours and gold (f. 1v).
Large initials in gold or blue on rose grounds. Numerous small initials in gold on blue or rose grounds. Rubrics in red.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 1v: An angel and a lion hold a shield bearing Anne of Brittany's coat of arms; they have scrolls bearing their words, 'Rogo pro te Anna' (the angel) and 'Libera eam de ore leonis' (the lion); a dog in a field beneath stands on a scroll bearing her motto, 'A MA VIE'.
f. 13r: Anne on her deathbed with praying nuns and mourners in black robes, some wearing tunics with fleur-de-lis.
f. 15r: Anne's body is placed in the coffin in the Hall of Honour at the Chateau de Blois; her royal symbols are displayed on her bed behind.
f. 17v: Anne's tomb with her royal symbols and mourners praying.
f. 20r: Heaven with the suns and moons with faces, and a cross.
f. 27r: Anne's tomb with clerics and mourners praying.
f. 43v: Anne's effigy lies on her tomb in Notre Dame Cathedral, holding the main de justice and sceptre; mourners kneel around her.
f. 45v: Mourners in black robes around Anne's tomb, with effigy.
f. 56v: The gold reliquary containing Anne's heart surmounted by her motto, 'A MA VIE' and her emblem, a white ermine, on her parents tomb in the Carmelite church, Nantes.
f. 61r: An image of the gold heart reliquary topped by a crown and inscribed, 'En ce petit vesseau de fin or pure et monde Repose ung plus grant ceur que onque dame eust au monde ...'.
The miniatures of Anne's funeral were probably undertaken by the workshop of the French artist Jean Pichore (d. 1521).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001103223 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Vespasian B III : Complainte sur la mort d'Anne de Bretagne - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0925]/040-001103223
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165160745.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1514
- End Date:
- 1514
- Date Range:
- 1514
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 270 × 190 mm (text space: 200 x 130 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 63 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end); f. 1* is a parchment flyleaf.
Script: Humanistic.
Binding: British Museum in-house, 1856. Red leather binding, tooled in gold, with the Cottonian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Paris, France.
Provenance:
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st Baronet, antiquary and politician: his name 'Robertus Cotton Bruceus' inscribed (f. 1r); included in the first catalogue of his collection (Harley MS 6018, no. 363), and the Cottonian catalogue, Add MS 36789 (f. 21v); see Tite, The Early Records (2003), p. 176.
Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and grandson, Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet, who bequeathed the entire 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.
- Publications:
-
Brown, Cynthia J., 'Books in Performance: The Parisian Entry (1504) and Funeral (1514) of Anne of Brittany', in Meaning and Its Objects: Material Culture in Medieval and Renaissance France, Yale French Studies, 110 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 75-91 [on the text].
Héry, Laurent, 'Pierre Choque, héraut et roi d’armes d’Anne de Bretagne, voyageur et écrivain', Bulletin de la Société archéologique du Finistère, 141 (2013), 399-414 (p. 399).
Jones, Michael, 'Les Manuscrits d'Anne de Bretagne, reine de France, duchesse de Bretagne', Mémoires de la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Bretagne, 5 (1978), 42-81 (p. 80).
Jones, Michael , 'Les Manuscrits enluminés d'Anne de Bretagne: livres précieux ou instruments de propagande?', in Anne de Bretagne, Une histoire, un mythe (Paris-Nantes: Musée d'histoire de Nantes, 2007), pp. 94-95.
Planta, Joseph, ed., A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London: Hansard, 1802), p. 439.
Tite, Colin G. C., The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton's Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 176.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)