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...
Stowe MS 955
- Record Id:
- 040-001953803
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001952775
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000534.0x0001eb
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165174752.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Stowe MS 955
- Title:
- Pierre Sala, Petit Livre d'Amour (Emblesmes et Devises d'Amour)
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript contains the collection of love poems known as LePetit Livre d'Amour (also known as Emblesmes et Devises d'Amour) by the French writer and collector Pierre Sala, copied c. 1500 (ff. 1r-17v), and an 18th-century transcript of this collection (ff. 18r-34r).
Contents:
ff. 1r-17v: Pierre Sala, Petit Livre d'Amour (also known as Emblesmes et Devises d'Amour), a collection of twelve enigmas, arranged as follows:
ff. 1r-4v: A dedication in prose from the lover/author to his mistress Marguerite (i.e. Marguerite Bullioud, see Provenance), beginning, 'A vous ma treschiere et tres honnoree dame madame [erased]'.
ff. 5v-17v: Twelve enigmas, each consisting of a miniature on the recto and a quatrain or four-line poem on the verso, beginning: 'Mon cueur veult estre en ceste Margueryte', accompanied by an emblem with the initials 'M' and 'P'. One poem is written in Italian, beginning, 'Segua piano filliolo myo' (f. 7v). A missing leaf after f. 7 contained a poem, beginning, 'Servant au frais', which was transcribed on f. 34r.
ff 18r-34r: A transcript of Pierre Sala's poems included in the manuscript, written in an 18th-century hand, perhaps made when the manuscript belonged to Marechal Junot (b. 1771, d. 1813), duke of Abrantes.
f. 35r: A note with a printed modern description of the manuscript, affixed to f. [ii] recto.
f. 34v is blank.
Decoration:
The manuscript's miniatures are attributed to a Parisian artist, known as the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse (see Avril and Reynaud 1993). The portrait of Pierre Sala (f. 17r) is attributed to Jean Perréal (b. after 1450, d. after 1530), a portraitist who worked for the French royal family, and Sala’s friend. The Master of the Chronique scandaleuse left the face of Pierre Sala in his miniature on f. 6r for Jean Perréal to complete, but the painting remained unfinished.
12 emblematical miniatures (ff. 6r, 7r, 8r, 9r, 9*r, 10r, 11r, 12r, 13r, 14r, 15r, 16r, 17r); on the page facing each miniature is a quatrain inscribed in gold or purple, on a placard or scroll of gold or white, accompanied by designs or emblems containing the letters 'M' (consisting of crossed compasses) and 'P' in gold on a panel of silver, suspended from cords in a trompe-l'oeil design.
All pages are coloured in purple.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 6r: Pierre Sala dropping 'his' heart in a marguerite, a word-play on the name of his mistress Marguerite Bullioud.
f. 7r: A blind man's bluff.
f. 8r: A table with a burning candle.
f. 9r: A man and a woman playing bagpipes (Robin and Marion).
f. 9*r: A man painting a portrait of a jester (the wise man and the fool).
f. 10r: A pilgrim and a man with a bell (an illustration of the proverb 'clochier ne fault devant boîteux', 'you shouldn't limp in front of a lame person').
f. 11r: A horse 'fauveau'.
f. 12r: A man carrying another one on his shoulders and stamping on a man lying on the ground (an illustration of the proverb 'trampling on one man to help another').
f. 13r: Two women attempting to catch flying hearts.
f. 14r: Two women offering two dishes to a child, one of golden coins, the other of cherries.
f. 15r: A man cutting down a tree on which he sits (an illustration of the proverb: 'chopping down the branch that supports you').
f. 16r: Two men making scythes and arrows.
f. 17r: Portrait of Pierre Sala; on the facing page is an inscription in mirror writing, 'Regardez en pyte/ votre loyal amy / qui na Jour ne demy / Bien pour votre amyte'.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Stowe Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001952775
036-001953794
040-001953803 - Is part of:
- Stowe Ms 1-1085 : Stowe Manuscripts
Stowe MS 947-980 : CLASS XXI.POETRY, AND PROSE DRAMA.
Stowe MS 955 : Pierre Sala, Petit Livre d'Amour (Emblesmes et Devises d'Amour) - Hierarchy:
- 032-001952775[0021]/036-001953794[0009]/040-001953803
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Stowe Ms 1-1085
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165174752.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
Italian - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1495
- End Date:
- 1505
- Date Range:
- c 1500
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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 (ff. i, 1r-17v) and paper (ff. 18r-35v); with a watermark 'PRO PATRIA'.
Dimensions: 130 x 95 mm (text space: 85 x 70 mm).
Foliation: ff. i + 35 + 9* (+ 1 original parchment flyleaf before f. 1 and 1 after f. 17; 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end, and 1 original parchment pastedown at the end; f. i is an original parchment pastedown at the beginning; f. 35 is a printed paper slip pasted onto the 1st paper flyleaf at the end).
Script: Humanistic cursive; written by Pierre Sala in gold on purple (f. 16v in mirror-script).
Binding: Pre-1600. Purple velvet binding and original wooden carrying case. The case is covered with leather, coloured green and gold and carved with patterns of flowers and the initials P and M formed out of crossed compasses or staves; on the edges of the case are rings, intended for a chain to suspend the volume from the girdle.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France (Paris and Lyon).
Provenance:
Pierre Sala (b. 1457, d. 1529), valet de chambre of Louis XII, antiquary and writer, written by him for his mistress and future wife Marguerite Bullioud: his dedication to ‘Margueryte' (f. 5v); and his portrait with an inscription at the back: 'Set de vray le portret de Pierre Sala mestre dotel de ches le roy avec des enimes quil avoit fet a sa mestresse qui estoit grand honcle a madame de Ressis laquelle est sortie de la mayson de Guillien en Quercy' (f. 17v); initials of his name and that of his mistress ‘M’ and ‘P’ throughout; a motto 'Lessez le venir a la trappe' (f. i verso) and 'Lesses le venir' (f. 17r).
Jean-Andoche Junot (b. 1771, d. 1813), 1st duke of Abrantès, general and field marshal: attached to the cover at the end is an extract from a sale-catalogue, which states that the manuscript was formerly in his possession (f. 35r).
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1776, d. 1839), 1st duke of Buckingham and Chandos, of Stowe House, near Buckingham: inscribed with the press-mark 'Appendix vol. I. Catal Mss. Stowe no. 26' (f. 18r), corresponding to his catalogue (O'Conor 1818-1819); '26' also inscribed inside the carrying-case.
Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1797, d. 1861), 2nd duke of Buckingham and Chandos; sold in 1849 to Lord Ashburnham.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham, of Ashburnham Place, Sussex.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1840, d. 1913), 5th earl of Ashburnham: purchased by the British Museum from him together with 1084 other Stowe manuscripts in 1883.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Charles O'Conor, Bibliotheca Ms. Stowensis: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Stowe Library, 2 vols (Buckingham: Seeley, 1818-1819), I, p. 57.
Catalogue of the Stowe Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1895-1896), I, no. 955.
Grete Ring, A Century of French Painting 1400-1500 (London: Phaidon, 1949), no. 331, fig. 48.
Janet Backhouse, 'French Manuscript Illumination', in Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hill Press, 1983), pp. 145-192 (no. 22, pp. 169-74).
Elizabeth Burin, 'Pierre Sala's Pre-Emblematic Manuscripts', Emblematica, 2 (1988), 1-30.
François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peinture en France 1440-1520 (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), no. 208 [exhibition catalogue].
Janet Backhouse and Yves Giraud, Pierre Sala: Petit Livre d'Amour, Stowe MS 955, British Library, London, Kommentar, Commentaire, Commentary (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1994).
Daniel S. Russell, Emblematic structures in Renaissance French Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, (1995), pp. 63-64, 259.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), no. 194.
Michael Camille, The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire (London: Laurence King, 1998), p. 110, pl. 96.
Christopher de Hamel, The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination: History and Techniques (London: British Library, 2001), pl. 36.
Pamela Porter, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), pp. 10-11.
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 141.
Mark Evans, ‘The Pedigree of the Portrait Miniature: European Sources of an English Genre’ in Hans Holbein und der Wandel in der Kunst des fruhen 16. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Bodo Brinkmann and Wolfgang Schmid (2005), pp. 229-52 (pp. 236-237).
Erik Inglis, Faces of Power & Piety (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008), no. 14 [exhibition catalogue].
Paola Cifarelli, 'Pierre Sala et le Petit Livre d’Amour (manuscrit Londres, BL, Stowe MS 955)', in Le recueil au Moyen Âge: La fin du Moyen Âge, ed. by Tania Van Hemelryck and Stefania Marzano (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), pp. 61-77.
Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France, ed. by Martha Wolff (Chicago: the Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011), cat. 89, p. 169 [exhibition catalogue].
Arts et Humanisme: Lyon Renaissance, ed. by Ludmila Virassamynaїken (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2015), cat. 67-68 [exhibition catalogue].
- Exhibitions:
- Lyon in the 16th century, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lyons, 12 October 2015 - 25 January 2016
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)