Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Harley MS 4373
- Record Id:
- 040-002050210
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050210
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0003bd
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100057740280.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4373
- Title:
- Valerius Maximus, translated by Simon de Hesdin and Nicolas de Gonesse Les Fais et les Dis des Romains et de autres gens, books 6 to 9
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
Simon de Hesdin and Nicolas de Gonesse, Les Fais et les Dis des Romains et de autres gens, a translation of Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, books 6-9.
Simon de Hesdin, Knight Hospitaller of Jerusalem and Master of Theology (d. 1383), according to the rubric on f. 11v, began the translation/commentary for Charles V in 1375, but completed only as far as book 7, Chapter 4. Nicolas de Gonesse, Master of Arts and Theology, completed the work for presentation to Jean, Duc de Berry (b. 1340, d. 1416) in 1400-1401.
Originally bound as one single volume, the manuscript was divided into two volumes in the early modern period. At this time a folio (the original f. 246) was probably discarded intentionally so that volume 1 would end with book 5 and volume 2 would start with book 6. It was replaced by two folios written in a 17th-century hand, retaining the original initials by pasting them in the appropriate locations (the recto of the lost folio containing the end of book 5 was copied on f. 246r in Harley 4372, and the verso containing the beginning of book 6 on f. 1v of the present manuscript.
Harley 4373 contains the following:
ff. 1v-13v: Book 6, Loyalty;
ff. 14r-47r: Book 7, Happiness (on f. 32v is the rubric at the beginning of the section by Nicolas de Gonesse, 'Cy commence la nouvelle translacion dudit Valerius Maximus, .......par mastire N. de Gonesse maistre es ars et en theologie et par ainsi est le livre....tout entier et parfait'.
ff. 47v-88r: Book 8, Justice and education:
ff. 88v-153v: Book 9, Vices;
ff. 153v: Translator's epilogue.
Decoration:
3 large miniatures in gold and colours at the beginning of books 7-9 surrounded by a full border with acanthus leaves, flowers, fruits and gold leaves on unpainted ground (ff. 14r, 47v, 88v). The decoration includes fleur-de-lys on f. 14r (a reference to Louis de Bourbon?). The borders contain a hybrid creature and a shepherd playing music to a dog (f. 14r), a wolf running with a sheep in its mouth and a crippled hybrid creature (f. 47v), a man climbing a vine and a hybrid creature wrestling a bear (f. 88v). An added 17th-century miniature with full border (f. 1v). Numerous initials in gold and colours, some with with tendrils of gold leaves and flowers extending into the margin. Large initials in red ink with elaborate cadels including foliate decoration used for important rubrics (ff. 13v, 47r, 153v). Smaller initials in red with brown penwork decoration and a yellow wash. Paraphs in colours and gold. Capitals marked with yellow. Some ascenders, descenders and catchwords decorated with cadels in brown ink with a yellow wash (e. g., f. 151v). Line-fillers in gold, blue and red. Catchwords.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 1v: Tarquin and Lucrecia (early modern copy);
f. 14r: Fortune with her wheel, surrounded by supplicants;
f. 47v: A battle scene with a castle in the background;
f. 88v: Courtiers and servants observing a couple lying in bed.
In the style of the Master of the Echevinage de Rouen (index Master of the Geneva Latini), closely related to Chantilly, Musée Condé, 875, dated 1446.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050210", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4373: Valerius Maximus, translated by Simon de Hesdin and Nicolas de Gonesse Les Fais et les Dis des Romains et de autres gens, books 6 to 9" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050210 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4373 : Valerius Maximus, translated by Simon de Hesdin and Nicolas de Gonesse Les Fais et les Dis des Romains et de autres gens, books 6 to 9 - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4366]/040-002050210
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- A parchment codex, 153 folios
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100057740280.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1455
- End Date:
- 1490
- Date Range:
- c. 1460-1487
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 480 x 355 (330 x 205/10) written in 2 columns.
Foliation: ff. 153 (+ 2 modern unfoliated parchment and 1 paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 modern unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the end. f. 142 is lacking).
Script: Gothic cursive (Bâtarde).
Post-1600. Gold-stamped red leather, gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France, N. W., Normandy (Rouen).
Provenance:
Probably made for Louis, bâtard de Bourbon, count of Roussillon, admiral of France (d. 19 January 1487): his arms (f. 12r of Harley 4372).
Originally bound as a single volume, the manuscript was divided into two volumes, probably in the 17th century. At this time a folio (the original f. 246) is thought to have been discarded intentionally so that volume 1 would end with book 5 and volume 2 would start with book 6. It was replaced by two folios written in a 17th-century hand, retaining the original initials by pasting them in the appropriate locations (the recto of the lost folio containing the end of book 5 was copied on f. 246r in Harley 4372, and the verso containing the beginning of book 6 on f. 1v of the present manuscript.
Charles Davis (bap. 1693, d. 1755), bookseller and apprentice to the London bookseller Nathaniel Noel: sold to Harley on 24 January 1722/3 (see Wright, Diary (1966) and 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.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 4372.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Ilustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 18.
F. Saxl and H. Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin middle Ages, III : Manuscripts in English Libraries, (London: British Museum, 1953), pp. 168-69.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 186 n. 1.
Robert H. Lucas, 'Mediaeval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500', Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, 45-2 (1970), 225-53 (p. 247).
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 125.
Edmund A. Bowles, 'A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Museum', Notes, 29-4 (1973), 694-703 (pp. 697, 701, 702).
Dorothy M. Schullian, ‘A Revised List of Manuscripts of Valerius Maximus’, Miscellanea Augusto Campana. Medioevo e Umanesimo 45 (1981), 695-728 (p. 708).
Claudia Rabel, 'Artiste et clientèle à la fin du Moyen Age : les manuscrits profanes du Maître de l’échevinage de Rouen', Revue de l’art, 84 (1989), 48-60 (p. 56).
'M. Valerius Maximus. Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri novem: Traduction de Simon de Hesdin et Nicolas de Gonesse (1375-1401)', in Frédéric Duval and Jeanne Viellard, Miroir des classiques 17 (Éditions en ligne de l'École des chartes) [http://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/miroir/valeremaxime/traduction/?para=Hesdin_Gonesse] [accessed 1 June, 2016].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)