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Harley MS 4334
- Record Id:
- 040-002050171
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050171
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000396
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100057738134.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4334
- Title:
-
Girard de Roussillon, Chanson de geste
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
Girard or Girart de Roussillon, a chanson de geste, imperfect at the beginning and the end, with a lacuna of at least 3 quires after f. 37 and leaves missing after ff. 24, 30 and 43. There are 3,480 lines remaining out of a total of 10,000.
Girard de Roussillon was governor of the Duchy of Lyon and regent of Provence under Lothar, from 855-870 and he and his wife Bertha were founders of the monasteries of Vézelay and Pothières.
The text is copied in a northern dialect of Old French, with occasional southern forms remaining, particularly in the rhyming words. This suggests that the scribe has attempted to standardise the language from the original Provençal.
Decoration: Initials in red at the beginning of each verse.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050171", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4334: Girard de Roussillon, Chanson de geste" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050171 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4334 : Girard de Roussillon, Chanson de geste - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4327]/040-002050171
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100057738134.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Old
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1250
- End Date:
- 1299
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 170 x 110 mm (text space: 135/40 x 60/80 mm).
Foliation: ff. 58 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end.
Collation: i-iii8 (ff. 1-24), iv8-2 (ff. 25-30), v8-1 (ff. 31-37), vi8-2 (ff. 38-43), vii8 (ff. 44-51), viii7(ff. 52-58).
Layout: Single columns of 30 lines per page.
Script: Gothic, written above the top line
Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound in 1966.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
France, N.W.
Provenance:
The text is copied in a north-western dialect of Old French, with occasional southern forms remaining, particularly in the rhyming words.
Notes and pen-trials in cursive script in the margins.
John Chamberlayne (b. 1666, d. 1723), son of Edward Chamberlayne (b. 1616, d. 1703): his sale by Daniel Browne, bookseller at the Black Swan and Bible Without-Temple-Bar, 11 March 1723/4 (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; inscribed by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley, ‘11 die Martij, A.D. 1723/4’, in the upper margin of f. 1r.
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:
-
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. 663-70.
Girart de Roussillon, Chanson de Geste trans. by Paul Meyer (Paris: H. Champion, 1884) [on the text].
Girart de Roussillon, Chanson de geste, ed. by Winifred Mary Hackett, 3 vols (Paris, Société des anciens textes français, 1953-55) III, pp. 465-66, manuscript L.
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. 85, 100.
Mary Hackett, La langue de 'Girart de Roussillon', Publications romanes et françaises, 111(Geneva: Droz, 1970), pp. 64-65.
Mise en page et mise en texte du livre manuscrit, ed. by Henri-Jean Martin and Jean Vezin (n.pl.: Cercle de la Librairie-Promodis, 1990), p. 243.
Micheline de Combarieu du Grès et Gérard Gouiran, La chanson de Girart de Roussillon:Traduction, présentation et notes (Paris, Librairie générale française 1993).
John Frederick Hinnebusch, ‘Extant Manuscripts of the Writings of Jacques de Vitry’ Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 51 (1997), 156-64 (p. 159).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)