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Add MS 27699
- Record Id:
- 040-002031113
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002031107
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000117.0x000239
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161503194.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 27699
- Title:
- Gaston Fébus, Livre de la chasse; Livre des oraisons
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains an illustrated copy of the Livre de la chasse (Book of the Hunt), a treatise on hunting in Middle French, written between 1387 and 1389 by Gaston III (b. 1331, d. 1391), count of Foix, commonly known as Gaston Fébus. Fébus was regarded as one of the greatest huntsmen of the period and his treatise became a standard text on the subject throughout medieval Europe, surviving in over 40 manuscripts. The text contains not only technical details about the practice of hunting in the 14th century, but also descriptions of the animals that were hunted and their behaviours. This volume also includes a copy of the Livre des oraisons, a collection of 37 prayers in Latin and Middle French, which has been attributed to the same author.
Fébus dedicated his work to Philip II the Bold (b. 1342, d. 1404), duke of Burgundy. It has been suggested that this manuscript was copied directly from the dedicatory volume presented to Philip himself (thought to be St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, MS OP N.o 2) (see Gaston Fébus (2011), p. 93).
Contents:
ff. 1r-2r: Table of contents.
ff. 3r-115v: Gaston Fébus, Livre de la chasse, in Middle French, beginning, 'Ci commence le Prologue du livre de Chasse que fist le conte Fébus de Foys, seigneur de Béarn'.
ff. 116v-134v: Gaston Fébus, Livre des oraisons, in Latin and Middle French, beginning, 'Adonai, domine, deus omnipotens qui fecisti ex solo verbo tuo celum et terram'.
ff. 2v and 116r are blank.
Decoration:
84 half-page miniatures of wild animals and hunting scenes illustrating the Livre de la chasse, in colours and gold (ff. 3r, 6r, 9v, 10v, 11r, 12v, 14r, 16r, 16v, 18v, 20v, 23r, 24r, 24v, 25r, 25v, 28v, 33r, 34r, 35r, 37v, 38v, 39r, 39v, 40r, 40v, 41r, 41v, 43v, 44v, 45r, 48v, 49r, 49v, 50r, 51r, 52r, 52v, 54v, 55v, 58r, 59r, 59v, 62r, 64r, 74v, 75r, 75v, 76v, 79v, 83r, 83v, 85r, 86r, 87v, 91r, 92v, 93r, 94r, 95v, 99r, 100r, 100v, 101r, 102r, 102v, 103r, 103v, 104r, 104v, 107r, 108r, 108v, 109r, 109v, 110r, 111r, 111v, 112r, 112v, 113r, 113v, 114r, 114v) and 1 half-page miniature at the beginning of the Livre des oraisons, in colours and gold (f. 116v). Large initials, with ivy-leaf decoration and partial borders in colours and gold. Some smaller initials in colours and gold (especially ff. 117r-118r).
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 3r: The author Gaston Fébus seated, surrounded by his retinue and hunting dogs.
f. 6r: Deer.
f. 9v: Reindeer.
f. 10v: Deer.
f. 11r: Wild goats.
f. 12v: Roe deer.
f. 14r: Hares.
f. 16r: Rabbits.
f. 16v: Bears.
f. 18v: Wild boar.
f. 20v: Wolves.
f. 23r: Foxes.
f. 24r: Badgers.
f. 24v: Wild cats.
f. 25r: Otters.
f. 25v: Dogs.
f. 28v: Dogs with a variety of wounds and illnesses, being looked after by their owners.
f. 33r: Alaunts (a now-extinct breed of dog).
f. 34r: Greyhounds.
f. 35r: Running hounds.
f. 37v: Spaniels.
f. 38v: Mastiffs.
f. 39r: A master instructing a group of trainee hunters, some holding scrolls with the names of the dogs that must be learned from memory.
f. 39v: A dog kennel.
f. 40r: Hunters grooming and preparing their dogs for a hunt.
f. 40v: Hunters making and preparing different types of snares and traps.
f. 41r: A band of pages, some blowing horns, others whooping (hallaing), assembled before Gaston Fébus, who is seated beneath a canopy.
f. 41v: Hunters training their dogs to pick up a scent.
f. 43v: A mounted hunter and another on foot holding a dog on a lead, looking for the footprints of a stag.
f. 44v: Two hunters, accompanied by a horse, and a dog tracking a stag's scent from its droppings.
f. 45r: A mounted hunter and another on foot holding a dog on a lead, looking for tracks or damage to the undergrowth made by a stag.
f. 48v: A hunter hiding in a tree, watching two stags grazing (damaged).
f. 49r: A hunter walking with a dog along a field.
f. 49v: A hunting walking with a dog through a patch of small trees.
f. 50r: A hunter walking with a dog through a wood.
f. 51r: A hunter hiding behind a tree, listening for the bell of a hart.
f. 52r: A hunter with a dog tracking a wild boar.
f. 52v: An assembly or banquet for the lord and his hunters, prior to the start of the hunt.
f. 54v: Hunters on horseback, one blowing a horn, and their dogs hunting a hart.
f. 55v: The butchering of a hart after its capture.
f. 58r: The hunting dogs eating the remains of the hart.
f. 59r: A group of hunters on horseback, blowing horns, and their dogs hunting a wild boar.
f. 59v: The butchering of the boar after its capture.
f. 62r: A mounted hunter, leading a pack of dogs.
f. 64r: Mounted hunters blowing horns and chasing after a hart.
f. 74v: Hunters and their dogs chasing after a reindeer.
f. 75r: Hunters and their dogs chasing after a reindeer.
f. 75v: Hunters and their dogs, one with a raised crossbow, surprising wild goats.
f. 76v: Hunters and their dogs chasing after a roebuck.
f. 79v: Hunters and their dogs chasing after a hare.
f. 83r: Hunters and their dogs chasing and trapping rabbits.
f. 83v: Hunters and their dogs, one with a raised crossbow, chasing a wild bear.
f. 85r: Hunters and their dogs, one with a spear and another a crossbow, chasing a wild boar.
f. 86r: A pair of hunters dispatching two wild boar with a sword and spear.
f. 87v: Hunters and their dogs chasing after a wolf.
f. 91r: Hunters and their dogs chasing after a fox.
f. 92v: Hunters and their dogs trapping badgers.
f. 93r: Hunters and their dogs chasing and catching a wild cat, probably a lynx.
f. 94r: Hunters catching and killing otters in a river.
f. 95v: Hunters creating false hedges to catch game.
f. 99r: Hunters using fences to trap a wild boar.
f. 100r: A bear trapped and shot by an arrow.
f. 100v: A wild boar lured into a pit in an apple orchard.
f. 101r: A wolf trapped and suspended in the air.
f. 102r: A wolf lured into a pit with a leg of meat.
f. 102v: Wolves being poisoned.
f. 103r: A wolf lured and trapped in an enclosure.
f. 103v: A wolf being lured into an enclosure with a leg of meat.
f. 104r: Wolves being lured and trapped in an enclosure with an animal carcass.
f. 104v: Hunters shooting deer with bows.
f. 107r: Hunters shooting deer with crossbows.
f. 108r: Hunters hunting from a camouflaged cart.
f. 108v: Hunters preparing to shoot at a group of deer with crossbows.
f. 109r: Hunters preparing to shoot deer with crossbows.
f. 109v: A hunter using a horse as cover while he aims at a group of deer.
f. 110r: Hunters surprising a wild boar.
f. 111r: A hunter shooting a crossbow at a pack of wild boar in a river.
f. 111v: Hunters shooting crossbows at a group of wild boar and deer.
f. 112r: Hunters shooting bows and crossbows at hares that are being herded by a man on horseback.
f. 112v: Hunters bagging hares in purse nets.
f. 113r: Hunters bagging hares in an enclosure.
f. 113v: Dogs dispatching hares in an enclosure.
f. 114r: Hunters and their dogs chasing hares out of a wood.
f. 114v: Hunters releasing their dogs into an enclosure to hunt hares.
f. 116v: Gaston Fébus kneeling in prayer before a seated figure on a plinth (the face damaged).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002031107
040-002031113 - Is part of:
- Add MS 27694-27699 : Formed part of the library of M. Yemeniz.
Add MS 27699 : Gaston Fébus, Livre de la chasse; Livre des oraisons - Hierarchy:
- 032-002031107[0006]/040-002031113
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 27694-27699
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_27699 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1424
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 305 x 240 mm (written space: 220 x 185 mm), in two columns.
Foliation: ff. 134 ( + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: 16th-century French binding. Olive morocco leather, with curved interlacing decoration on the upper and lowers covers; a motif of a crowned eagle with outstretched wings on the spine; probably executed in the workshop of the Mahieus Aesop Binder.
Examples of his work include: London, British Library, Davis408 and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, RES-V-327.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Paris, France.
Provenance:
An unidentified monogram, stamped in the lower margin (f. 1r), possibly 'ALRV', like that of Lugt No. 114 (see Frits Lugt, Les marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes (1921), L. 114).
Nicolas Yemeniz (b. 1783, d. 1871), silk manufacturer and bibliophile: his sale, 11 May 1867, lot 1036; purchased by the British Museum along with Add MSS 27694-27698 (see the note on f. [ii] recto; his bookplate of two coins, one with a lion labelled 'LUG' and 'DUN', and the other with his monogram, 'N YEMENIZ' (inside upper cover); see also, Yemeniz, Catalogue de mes Livres (1865), I, p. 218; Catalogue de la bibliotheque de Monsier Nicolas Yemeniz (1867), pp. 239-40).
- Publications:
-
Nicolas Yemeniz, Catalogue de Mes Livres, 3 vols (Lyon: Louis Perrin, 1865), I, p. 218.
A Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the years 1854-1875 (London: British Museum, 1877), p. 347.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawing and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts, with a Dictionary of Subjects in the British Museum (London: S. Bagster, 1879), pp. 14, 56, 57, 62, 78, 96, 100, 102, 123, 133, 137, 138, 143, 238, 235, 256, 276, and 297.
Gaston Fébus: Livre de chasse. Édité avec introduction, glossaire et reproduction des 87 miniatures du manuscrit 616 de la Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, ed. by Gunnar Tilander (Karlshamn: E. G. Johanssons Boktryckeri, 1971), p. 26 [edition].
Edmund A. Bowles, 'A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Museum', Notes, 29-4 (1973), 694-703 (pp. 695, 699, 703).
Lesley Suzanne Lawton, 'Text and Image in Late Mediaeval English Vernacular Literary Manuscripts', D. Phil dissertation, 4 vols, (University of York, English Dept, 1982), II, pp. 81 n. 120, 128,
Gaston Fébus: Prince Soleil, 1331-1391 (Paris: Rmn-Grand Palais, 2011), pp. 93, 96-97, 159.
Hannele Klemettilä, Animals and Hunters in the Late Middle Ages: Evidence from the BnF MS Fr. 616 of the Livre de Chasse by Gaston Fébus (London: Taylor & Francis, 2015), pp. 220, 231.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)