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Harley MS 4325

Record Id:

040-002050162

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050162

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00038d

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4325

Title:

Loys Papon, Pastorelle sur la victoire obtenue contre les Allemands, Reytres, Lansquenets, Souysses et Francoys rebelles a Dieu et au Roy treschretien l'an 1587

Scope & Content:

This manuscript is the autograph copy of the Pastorelle sur la victoire obtenue contre les Allemands, Reytres, Lansquenets, Souysses et Francoys rebelles a Dieu et au Roy treschretien l'an 1587 (Pastoral on the victory won against the Germans, the Reytres, the Landsknecht (German military soldiers), the Swiss and the French rebels by God and our most Christian King in the year 1587), a play in five acts, written by the French playwright Loys Papon (b. 1533, d. 1599). The play celebrates the victory of Henry I, Duke of Guise (b. 1550, d. 1588) against the combined Huguenot forces at the Battles of Vimory on 26 October and Auneau on 24 November 1587, during the French Wars of Religion.

The manuscript contains the text of the play and an account of its first staging in the Salle de Diane at Montbrison on 25 February 1588. The title page features a dedication to 'M. le duc de Mayne', who can be identified as Charles de Lorraine (b. 1544, d. 1611), Duke of Mayenne, the second son of Francis de Lorraine II (b. 1519, d. 1563) and Henry's brother. The manuscript was probably the presentation copy given to Charles (see Pastorelle (1976), p. 33 n. 1).

The play also features two songs with accompanying musical notation (ff. 24v-25r; 44v-45r).

Contents:

ff. 1r-54r: Loys Papon, Pastorelle sur la victoire obtenue contre les Allemands, Reytres, Lansquenets, Souysses et Francoys rebelles a Dieu et au Roy treschretien l'an 1587;

ff. 55r-57v: A 'discours' providing a detailed account of the first staging of the play in the Salle de Diane at Montbrison on 25 February 1588.

[ff. 5v-6r, 54v, and 58v are blank].

Decoration:

1 fold-out watercolour on paper depicting the setting of the first staging of the play at Montbrison in 1588 (f. 58r). 6 figures painted in watercolour of characters of the play, including 'Mercure' (Mercury) (f. 2v), 'Renommee' (Fame) (f. 3r), 'Ceres' (f. 3v), 'Sylves and Sylvie' (f. 4r), and 'Alexis and Cloris' (f. 5r), and the arms of Henry I, Duke of Guise (f. 4v). Blank spaces for the four other characters in the play (ff. 5v-6r). Device of clouds and lightning with the name 'Guise', in watercolour, on the title-page (f. 1r). Double gold frame combined with a rope pattern on all folios, occasionally with blue (ff. 27r-42v only).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

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Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050162

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4325 : Loys Papon, Pastorelle sur la victoire obtenue contre les Allemands, Reytres, Lansquenets, Souysses et Francoys rebelles a Dieu et…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4318]/040-002050162

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1588

End Date:

1588

Date Range:

1588

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment and Paper.

Dimensions: 115 x 75 mm (text space: 90 x 55 mm).

Foliation: ff. 58 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 57 + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf at the end); f. 58 is a paper fold-out.

Script: Humanistic.

Binding: Pre-1600. Original 16th-century embroidered red velvet covers (restored) with silver, gold, and coloured threads of various symbols, including hands holding a sword, a crown of thorns, an eye above clouds; gilt edges. The former spine pasted on the inside of the upper cover.

Custodial History:

Origin: France, S. E. (Montbrison).

Provenance:

Loys Papon (b. 1533, d. 1599), French playwright: the dedication inscribed with his name (f. 2r).

Charles de Lorraine (b. 1554, d. 1611), Duke of Mayenne: dedicated to 'M. le duc de Mayne' (f. 1v).

'Capt. Trelani', ?17th century: inscribed, 'For Capt. Trelani' (inside of the lower cover).

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:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 4325.

Loys Papon, Pastorelle sur la victoire obtenue contra les Alemands, Reytres, Lansquenets, Souysses et Françoys rebelles à Dieu et au Roy treschr etien l'an 1587, texte établi, présenté et commenté par Claude Longeon (Saint-Etienne: Centre d'Études Foréziennes, 1976).

Frank Dobbins, 'Music in French Theatre of the Late Sixteenth Century', Early Music History, 13 (1994), 85-122 (pp. 115-21 with plates).

Margaret M. McGowan, 'The Arts Conjoined: A Context for the Study of Music', Early Music History, 13 (1994), 171-98 (pp. 179-80, especially n. 26).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Lorraine, Charles, Duc de Mayenne, 1554-1611
Papon, Loys, French playwright, 1533-1599,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000109019099,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/54152334

Places:

Montbrison, France