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Harley MS 4338

Record Id:

040-002050175

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050175

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00039a

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100161519321.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4338

Title:

Le Livre de Boèce de Consolacion (Book IV)

Scope & Content:

Contents:

This is the fourth volume of a five-volume set (Harley MSS 4335-4339) containing Boethius, Philosophiae consolatio (The Consolation of Philosophy), with an anonymous French verse-prose translation. Each chapter in Latin (alternating verse and prose) is followed by a commentary in Latin, then a French translation and gloss. The translation, dated c. 1350-1360, is linked to Jean de Meun's version, Li livres de Confort de Philosophie (early 14th century), and to Guillaume de Conches' (c. 1120-1125) glosses of the Latin commentary; it was the most widely copied version in the 15th century.

ff. 1-97v: Le livre de Boece de Consolacion, Book 4, in 14 chapters.

The colophon at the end of the fifth volume states that the work was copied by André Rousseau in 1477. The foliation is continuous across the five volumes.

Decoration:

One full-page miniature in a gold frame of Philosophy speaking to Boethius in front of Fortune in a cloister with four richly-dressed figures on the right. In the background is a city, perhaps Bourges. Beneath are three figures (perhaps corpses) lying on their backs; one is holding a text panel with a large initial, in blue with foliate decoration in red, pink and gold: (f. 1v).

Decorated initials in colours and gold at the beginning of major text divisions. Small initials, running titles, paraph marks and line-fillers in gold on red or blue grounds. Cadels. Capitals highlighted in yellow.

The illuminator has been identified as Jean Colombe (b. circa 1430, d. 1490), first librarian of the university library of Bourges, France (see Schaefer, 'Les débuts de l’atelier de Jean Colombe’, p. 144, and Cropp, 'Les manuscrits du Livre de Boece de Consolacion', p. 304).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050175", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4338: Le Livre de Boèce de Consolacion (Book IV)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050175

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4338 : Le Livre de Boèce de Consolacion (Book IV)

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4331]/040-002050175

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_4338 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1477

End Date:

1477

Date Range:

1477

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Material: parchment.

Dimensions: 185 x 130 mm (text space: 125 x 65 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 97 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the end).

Medieval foliation in roman numerals. Catchwords.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Pre-1600. Gold-tooled brown leather, c. 1616; remains of black silk ties; gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin:

France, Central (Bourges).

Provenance:

Copied in 1477 by André Rousseau who worked in association with the illuminator Jean Colombe and was the first librarian of the University library of Bourges: inscribed 'Explicit ... Prima mensis februarij Anno domini Millesimo quadringentesimo septuagesimo sexto [1477 n.s.] ... [signed] Roussellj' (Harley MS 4339, f. 80v).

Gabriel Hinselin, by 1616: his name inscribed with the date (f. 1*r); his arms (vol. I, ff. 91r, 92r and vol. V, f. 81r) and a black wax seal inside upper 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, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley '24 die Januarij, A.D. 1722/3.' (f. 1*r).

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/.

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III, no. 4338.

Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters, ed. by Harry Bober, 4 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1916-66), III: Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken (1953), pp. 165-68.

Robert Lucas, 'Medieval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500', Speculum, 45 (1970) , 225-53 (p. 231).

Claude Schaefer, 'Les débuts de l'atelier de Jean Colombe: Jean Colombe et André Rousseau, prêtre, libraire et escrivain', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 90 (1977), 137-50 (pp. 143-46, fig. ii).

Glynnis M. Cropp, ‘A Checklist of Manuscripts of the Medieval French Anonymous Verse-Prose Translation of the “Consolatio” of Boethius’, Notes and Queries, new series, 26 (1979, August), 294-96 (p. 296).

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. 808.

Glynnis M. Cropp, ‘Le Prologue de Jean de Meun et Le Livre de Boece de Consolacion’, Romania, revue trimestrielle consacrée à l’étude des langues et des littératures romanes 103 (1982), 278-98 (p. 289).

Glynnis M. Cropp, 'Les manuscrits du Livre de Boèce de Consolacion', Revue d’histoire des textes, 12-13 (1982-1983), 263-352 (pp. 265, 266, n.1, 303-05, 345-52).

Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1983), no. 20.

Glynnis M. Cropp, ‘Les gloses du Livre de Boece de Consolacion’, Le Moyen Age, revue d’Histoire et de Philologie, 42, 4th series, 41 (1986), 367-81 (p. 367, n. 2).

Yoshiaki Todoroki, 'A List of Miniatures of Goddess Fortune in Medieval Manuscripts', Cultural and Social Sciences 41 (1990), pp. 71-114 (p. 89).

François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520 (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), p. 347 [exhibition catalogue].

F. Ziino, 'Una traduzione latina del Boezio catalano', Romania, 119 (2001), 465-82.

'Traduction de l'ouvrage : Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. De consolatione Philosophiae.', in Frédéric Duval and Jeanne Vielliard, Miroir des classiques 17, 'Éditions en ligne de l'École des chartes' at http://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/miroir_des_classiques/xml/classiques_latins/de_consolatione_philosophiae_boethius.xml#presentation [accessed 13.01.2022].

Le Livre de Boece de Consolacion ed. by Glynnis M. Cropp, Textes Littéraires Français (Geneva: Droz, 2006), p. 31.

Exhibitions:

Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 30 July 2016 - 2 January 2017

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)