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Harley MS 3983
- Record Id:
- 040-002049820
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049820
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0001ef
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100057738113.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3983
- Title:
-
Aimon de Varennes , Florimont; Chronicle of Rheims
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 2r-82v: Aimon (or Aimé) de Varennes, Florimont, incipit: 'Cil qui a cuer de vacelage', explicit: 'Adonc fu retrais par Aymon' with the colophon ending 'Le tiers jour de lassumption acompli sa devotion'. The poem was composed by Aimon de Varennes at Chatillon d'Azergues in the Forez region near Lyon in 1188. It consists of 13 000 lines in the Lyonnais dialect and relates the adventures of Florimont, the fictitious grandfather of Alexander the Great, a prequel to the Roman d'Alexandre. This text is also found in Harley 4487.
ff. 83r-114r: Chronique de Rains or Récits d'un ménestrel de Reims, a chronicle of France and England beginning with the conquest of Jerusalem by Geoffrey de Bouillon in c. 1000, incipit: 'Depuis celle heure que Godefroi de bouillon et la Roine de France orent conq[ui]s antioche et jerusalem' and ending with the death of Louis IX in 1260 (f. 113r), followed by a tale of Ysengrin the wolf and Renart the fox, explicit: 'sa vendenge quil nout talent ne pooir de regiler; si come vous avez oi ca arriere' (f. 114r). This text is also found in Additional 7103 and Additional 11753.
Decoration:
Puzzle initials in red and blue at the beginning of each text (ff. 2r, 83r). Initials in red or blue, some with pen-flourishing in the other colour.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049820", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3983: Aimon de Varennes , Florimont; Chronicle of Rheims" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049820 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3983 : Aimon de Varennes , Florimont; Chronicle of Rheims - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3976]/040-002049820
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- A parchment codex, 114 folios
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100057738113.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
French, Old - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1323
- End Date:
- 1323
- Date Range:
- 1323
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: parchment.
Dimensions: 155 x 230mm (text space: 195 x 120mm).
Layout: 2 columns of 40 lines.
Foliation: 114 folios (f. 1 is a paper flyleaf + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end).
Script: Gothic
Binding: Post-1600. Dark blue leather with Harley arms.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France.
Provenance:
The date of 1323 is included in the scribal colophon: 'Lan mil CCC et XX et trois/I mois devant la sainte crois/Fist Thomas le huchier cest livre/Moult fu lie que en fu deliver/Le tiers iour de lassumption/Acompli sa devotion' (f. 82v).
Nicolas Joseph Foucault (b. 1643, d. 1721), marquis de Magny, statesman and archaeologist: his book-plate with the legend 'EX BIBLIOTHECA | NICOLAI JOSEPH FOUCAULT | COMITIS CONSISTORIANI' with his arms [sable] a lion rampant, dexter, crowned [argent], as supporters two lions [argent]; a couronne de marquis surmounting the shield pasted on a flyleaf (f. [iii]verso) and his coat of arms from a former binding pasted to the inside upper and lower bindings.
Thomas Ballard, bookseller and book auctioneer in London; his sale, 20 February 1720/21, lot 338; bought for Edward Harley through Nathaniel Noel (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III, p. 101.
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), pp. 159-60.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 62, 438.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 799, pl. 201.
Daniel Queruel, 'La ~Chronique d'un Menestrel de Reims (MS 432) in Les manuscrits francais de la bibliotheque Parker: Actes du Colloque 24-27 mars 1993, ed. by Nigel Wilkins (Cambridge: Parker Library Publications, 1993), pp. 39-68 (MS H, pp. 59, 66).
Laurence Half-Lancner, 'Le Florimont d'Aimon de Varennes: un prologue du Roman d'Alexandre', Cahiers de civilisation medievale, 37 (1994), 241-53 [on the text].
Douglas Kelley, 'The composition of Aimon de Varennes' Florimont', Romance Philology, 23 (1969-1970), 277-92 [on the text].
Keith Busby, Codex and Context: Reading Old French Verse Narrative in Manuscript (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002), pp. 43, 46, fig. I, 16.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)