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Harley MS 4389
- Record Id:
- 040-002050226
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050226
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0003e5
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4389
- Title:
- Roman de Tristan
- Scope & Content:
-
Roman de Tristan in prose.
For an edition of the text, see Curtis, Le Roman de Tristan (1985). Opening rubric (in red) now worn into illegibility. Incipit (f. 1; see Roman 1985, I, p. 120): 'En ceste partie dit li contes que tant demora li rois Apollo a la cort li roi Clodovex'. Explicit (f. 61v; see Roman 1985, II, p. 81): 'Je voussisse parler al lui . se ie trover le peusse Car ie li a Port unes novelle'.
Decoration:
40 coloured pen drawings (ff. 2v, 5r, 6v, 7r, 8v, 10v, 12v, 13v, 14v, 15r, 15v (two separate miniatures), 17r, 18r, 18v, 19r, 19v, 20v, 23v, 26r, 29r, 30r, 32v, 34r, 35v, 38r, 39v, 40r, 42v, 43r, 45v, 47r, 48v, 49v, 51v, 55r, 57r, 59v, 60v). Large initial in colours with geometrical designs (f. 2r). 5 large puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in the same colours (ff. 35v, 46v, 51r, 58v, 61v). Display initials with penwork decoration embellishing the opening words (f. 2r): '[E]n ceste partie dit li c[ontes]'. Coloured initials in alternating red or blue.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 2v: A battle with knights in red or blue;
f. 5r: The birth of Tristan: two knights come upon Helyabel, Tristan's mother, lying dead in the forest, and her maidservant holding the baby Tristan;
f. 6v: The boat from Ireland arrives in Cornwall and King Mark receives the visitors who demand tribute;
f. 7r: King Mark killing his brother Perneham;
f. 8v: King Meliadus with the flask of poison, his second wife, and Tristan;
f. 10v: Tristan and his guardian Governal arrive in Gaul;
f. 12v: King Pharamont finds his daughter Belide holding on to Tristan in her chamber;
f. 13v: Belide is asked to choose between her cousin Meliant and Tristan, and she chooses Tristan to stop her father King Pharamont from killing him;
f. 14v: Belide kills herself for love in front of the messenger who is to take her little dog and the message to Tristan;
f. 15r: The messenger brings the dog to Tristan and Governal;
f. 15v: Tristan and Governal arrive at Tintagel (above) and the boat from Ireland arrives in Cornwall (below);
f. 17r: The ambassadors from Ireland demand tribute from Tristan and King Mark;
f. 18r: Tristan before King Mark, offering to fight Morholt;
f. 18v: Tristan and Morholt jousting;
f.19r: Tristan kills Morholt;
f. 19v: Tristan with his sword (right); he sets off in a boat to be cured from his wound;
f. 20v: The wounded Tristan in his boat comes to the castle of Hanguin, father of Isolde;
f. 23v: Knights jousting in a tournament at the Chateau de la Lande;
f. 26r: A battle;
f. 29r: Tristan before the King of Ireland;
f. 30r: Tristan's boat returning to Cornwall;
f. 32v: Tristan beating King Mark at jousting;
f. 34r: Tristan fighting with Securades;
f. 35v: Segurades fighting with Blyoberys (Blioberis), and Segurades' wife watching;
f. 38r: A battle;
f. 39v: Tristan and Blyoberys jousting;
f. 40r: A sword fight between Blyoberys and Tristan, with Gouvernal watching;
f. 42v: Hestor (Hector) de Mares and Marganor joust against Tristan;
f. 43r: Tristan and Hestor jousting;
f. 45v: Tristan is given a blue shield by a lady messenger;
f. 47r: The lady messenger watches as Tristan defeats the knight in blue;
f. 48v: Tristan and a knight (?Blyoberys) jousting
f. 49v: Sword fight between Tristan and Blanor
f. 51v: Ships from Cornwall and Ireland arrive at the castle of King Hanguis of Ireland;
f. 55r: Tristan and Isolde's ship comes to a castle on an island;
f. 57r: The giant Dialetes (Dyaletes) killing his twelve sons;
f. 59v: Isolde and the beautiful Jaiande, mother of Galahot, and Tristan fighting Brunor, father of Galahot;
f. 60v: Tristan kills Brunor and cuts off the head of Jaiande.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050226", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4389: Roman de Tristan" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050226 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4389 : Roman de Tristan - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4382]/040-002050226
- 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_4389 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Old
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1275
- End Date:
- 1324
- Date Range:
- 1275-1324
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 290 x 205 mm (text space: 205 x 145 mm), in 2 columns.
Foliation: 63 folios (ff. [1*] and 63 are the pastedowns, both covered in 17th-century writing, of which f. [1*] is unfoliated).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600 brown polished leather binding.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Italy (Genoa).
Provenance:
Legal documents in French relating to the Cassin family and others have been used for the flyleaves (ff. 1, 62) and for pasting inside the boards, one of them is dated 1639.
Nicolas Joseph Foucault (b. 1643, d. 1721), marquis de Magny, statesman and archaeologist (see Wright 1972): 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 (inside the upper cover, pasted over some of the 17th-century text of the pastedown).
Thomas Ballard (fl. 1690-1725), bookseller and book auctioneer in London (see Wright 1972); his sale, 20 February 1720/21, lot 237, bought for Edward Harley through Nathaniel Noel.
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 Harley, 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, 1808-1812), III (1808), p. 140 (no. 4389).
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. 9.
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, H. L. D. Ward, pp. 356-57.
Eirlert Löseth, Le Tristan et le Palamède des manuscrits français du British Museum: Etude critique, (Christiana: Jacob Dybwad, 1905), pp. 3, 5.
Roger Sherman Loomis and Laura Hibbard Loomis, Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), p. 117, figs 318-19.
Brian Woledge, Bibliographie des romans et nouvelles en prose française antérieurs à 1500 (Genève: Lille, 1954), p. 123.
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. 91 n. 5.
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, 155.
Le Roman de Tristan en prose, ed. by Renée L. Curtis, Arthurian Studies, 12-14, 3 vols (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1985).
Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, 'Frühe angiovinische Buchkunst in Neapel: Die Illustrierung französischer Unterhaltungsprosa in neapolitanischen Scriptorien zwischen 1290 und 1320', in Festschrift Wolfgang Braunfels, ed. by Friedrich Piel and Jörg Traeger (Tübingen: Wasmuth, [1978]), p. 89 n. 8, fig. 10.
Allessandra Perriccioli Saggese, I romanzi cavallereschi miniati a Napoli (Napoli: Società editrice napoletana, 1979), p. 100, pl. 29.
Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450: Teil II: Venedig, Addenda zu Süd- und Mittelitalien (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1980), cat. 672.
Manuscrits enluminés d'origine italienne à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, ed. by François Avril, Yolanta Zaluska, et al. (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1980-), II (1984), p. 49.
Marie-Thérèse Gousset, 'Étude de la décoration filigranée et reconstitution des ateliers: le cas de Gênes à la fin du XIIIe siècle', Arte medievale, 1 (1988), 121-52 (p. 130).
G. D'Aron, La grant queste del Saint Graal del ms. Udine, Bibl. Arcivescovile 177 (Tricesimo (Udine): Roberto Vattori Editore, 1990), pp. 33-34, figs. 7, 10, 18.
Fabrizio Cigni, 'Pour l'édition de la Compilation de Rustichello da Pisa: la version du ms. Paris, B.N., fr. 1463', Neophilologus, 76 (1992), 519-34 (p. 522).
Pamela Porter, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), p. 16.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)