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Harley MS 4425
- Record Id:
- 040-002050262
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050262
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000319
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4425
- Title:
-
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Roman de la Rose
- Scope & Content:
-
The text of the Roman de la Rose was begun around 1220, possibly by Guillaume de Lorris, and continued by Jean de Meun between 1269 and 1278. The text of this manuscript was copied from a printed edition published at Lyon, probably around 1487 (see Kren and McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance (2003), no. 120). The illuminators did not follow the illustrations of the printed exemplar.
The text is preceded by a list of rubrics (ff. 3r-6v).
Decoration:
4 large miniatures in colours and gold with a large initial with acanthus leaves and a full panel border with naturalistic flowers, acanthus leaves, birds and insects. 88 column miniatures in colours and gold. Initials in colours and gold. Smaller initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in gold with black pen-flourishing. Cadels in red ink (ff. 134v, 136r). Capitals marked with yellow wash.
The miniatures are attributed to the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 7r, The beginning of the dream of L'Amans (The Lover).
f. 8r, Portrait of Haine (Hatred).
f. 8v, Portrait of Felonie (Felony); Portrait of Vilanie (Villainy).
f. 9r, Portrait of Convoitice (Covetousness); Portrait of Avarice (Avarice).
f. 9v, Portrait of Envie (Envy).
f. 10r, Portrait of Tristesse (Sadness).
f. 10v, Portrait of Vielleice (Old Age).
f. 11r, Portrait of Papelardie (Hypocrisy).
f. 11v, Portrait of Povrete (Poverty).
f. 12v, Oyseuse (Idleness) leading L'Amans into the garden of Deduit (Diversion).
f. 14v, Cortoisie inviting L'Amans to join her with the other couples in a dance; musicians playing instruments in the background (a pipe and tabor, kortholt and harp).
f. 18v, Amors (the God of Love) and L'Amans; Amors holding a longbow in his left hand and five arrows in his right (representing Beauty, Simplicity, Openness, Company and Fair Seeming).
f. 20r, Narcissus being entranced by his reflection at the fountain.
f. 22r, Amors shooting L'Amans through the heart with the arrow Beauty.
f. 23v, L'Amans surrendering to Amors.
f. 24r, L'Amans kissing Amors.
f. 24v, Amors locking L'Amans heart with a key.
f. 25v, Amors and L'Amans seated; Amors instructing L'Amans in his commandments.
f. 30v, Bel Acueil (Fair Welcome) leading L'Amans to the Rose in a garden; Dangier (Danger/Resistance) and a companion lying hidden in the bushes.
f. 32r, Dangier warning L'Amans and Bel Acueil and sending them out of the garden.
f. 32v, Reson (Reason) instructing and rebuking the downcast L'Amans.
f. 33v, L'Amans confiding in Amis (Friend).
f. 34r, L'Amans begging forgiveness from Dangier.
f. 35r, Franchise (Sincerity) and Pitie (Pity) pleading L'Amans's cause with Dangier.
f. 36r, Bel Acueil showing L'Amans the Rose.
f. 37v, Jalousie (Jealousy) chastising Bel Acueil.
f. 38v, Dangier reclining; Peor (Fear) and Honte (Shame) reprimanding him.
f. 39r, Dangier (holding a set of keys) and a garrison of soldiers guarding the Tower of Jalousie, enclosed by a moat and wall; L'Amans looking on from the background.
f. 42r, L'Amans reflecting on the suffering caused by Amors, who is standing in the background.
f. 43v, L'Amans arguing with Reson.
f. 47v, A sufferer being given money by a true friend.
f. 54r, Appius Claudius ruling against Virginius in his appeal to have his daughter Virginia returned.
f. 54v, Virginius being about to behead Virginia, who is kneeling in prayer.
f. 57r, Reson showing L'Amans the Wheel of Fortune.
f. 59r, Nero looking on as the body of his mother Agrippina is disembowelled, in order to see the place where he was conceived, and praising her beauty.
f. 59v, Seneca committing suicide, watched by Nero.
f. 61r, Nero committing suicide, watched by two of his servants; in the background, a mob gathering beyond a wall.
f. 62r, Phanie (Phania/Revelation) interpreting Croesus's dream.
f. 67v, L'Amans confiding in Amis.
f. 72r, Amis advising L'Amans how to proceed.
f. 73r, Povrete begging from Richece (Wealth).
f. 74r, Amis and L'Amans conversing.
f. 76v, The Golden Age; ancient people living harmoniously in the forest.
f. 77r, Jalous (Jealous) reprimanding his wife.
f. 78r, Jalous reprimanding his wife.
f. 79r, Lucretia committing suicide; her relatives pleading with her.
f. 81v, Chastete (Chastity) being beaten by Biautez (Beauty) and Ledeur (Ugliness).
f. 83v, Delilah cutting off Samson's hair.
f. 85r, Jalous beating his wife, as neighbours look on.
f. 86r, Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece.
f. 87r, The first king and his court.
f. 90r, L'Amans leaving Amis.
f. 90v, L'Amans greeting Richece and her companion.
f. 93r, Amors questioning L'Amans.
f. 94v, Amors sending a messenger to summon his army.
f. 95r, Amors giving orders to his army.
f. 98v, Amors talking with Fausemblant (False Seeming).
f. 100v, Amors talking with Fausemblant.
f. 108r, Contreinte Atenance (Forced Abstinence) and Fausemblant, disguised as a Beguine and Franciscan friar, journeying to see Malebouche.
f. 108v, Contreinte Atenance and Fausemblant saluting Malebouche.
f. 111r (first column), Fausemblant cutting out Malebouche's tongue and slitting his throat;
f. 111r (second column), Cortoise and Largesse (Generosity), with Cotreinte Atenance and Fausemblant, approaching the castle of Vielle (the Duenna).
f. 113r, Vielle handing Bel Acueil a chaplet.
f. 114r, Bel Acueil looking at her reflection in a mirror, Vielle admiring.
f. 115v, Vielle and Bel Acueil talking.
f. 117v, Dido committing suicide, as Aeneas's ship is departing in the background.
f. 122v, Vulcan discovering his wife Venus in bed with Mars, both ensnared by the chains Vulcan had lain as a trap.
f. 123v, Portrait of Nature holding an anvil and hammer.
f. 129v, Vielle helping L'Amans to enter the castle.
f. 131v, Honte, Peor and Dangier beating L'Amans.
f. 132v, Amors's army; L'Amans being beaten in the background.
f. 133r, The author sitting at a writing bench, composing the Roman de la Rose.
f. 134v, Franchise fighting Dangier.
f. 136v, Peor fighting Seurete (Skilful Concealment) and Hardement (Boldness), while Honte looks on.
f. 137r, Peor and Honte fighting Hardement and Seurete; an army in the background.
f. 137v, Venus and a messenger.
f. 138v, Venus in her chariot, being pulled by four doves, and escorted by soldiers.
f. 139r, Soldiers besieging the Castle of Jalousie with cannons.
f. 140r, Nature at a furnace, forging a baby with a hammer on an anvil; discarded babies strewn on the floor.
f. 142r, Zeuxis painting five nude models.
f. 143r, Nature, kneeling, confessing to Genyus.
f. 153r, Deucalion and Pyrrah repopulating the world after the Flood; new humans springing from the stones Deucalion and Pyrrah cast behind themselves.
f. 161v, Nature sitting in the garden.
f. 166r, Nature sending Genyus to deliver her message.
f. 167v, Genyus portrayed as a bishop, preaching to the army of Venus.
f. 169r, Genyus portrayed as a bishop preaching.
f. 177v, Pygmalion and the statue.
f. 178v, Pygmalion, kneeling, asking for forgiveness from the statue.
f. 181r, The tower blazing; Dangier, Peor and Honte fleeing in the background; Cortoisie, Pitie and Franchise in the foreground.
f. 184v, L'Amans tending the Rose.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050262", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4425: Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Roman de la Rose" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050262 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4425 : Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Roman de la Rose - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4418]/040-002050262
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_4425 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
French, Old - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1485
- End Date:
- 1505
- Date Range:
- c 1490-c 1500
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 395 x 290 mm (text space: 255 x 190 mm).
Foliation: ff. i +186 + ii (+ 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 1; f. 185r is partly blank. ff. 185v-186r are ruled but blank; all flyleaves are unfoliated parchment leaves). Original foliation in red ink at the top of each folio.
Script: Gothic hybrid (bastarda).
Binding: BM/BL in-house. Gold-tooled green morocco binding, c. 1900. Fragments of an early-18th century gold-tooled red morocco spine, armorial binding of Jean Antoine II de Mesmes (device of three interlaced crescents and the monogram DDLLM encircled by collars of the Orders of Saint Michael and the Holy Spirit and surmounted by a ducal coronet) are pasted on f. 1r.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Southern Netherlands (Bruges).
Provenance:
Engelbert II, Count of Nassau and Vianden (d. 1504), made for him: the arms of Nassau quartered with those of Vianden (partially overpainted) surmounted by a helm with mantling of azure and or and crest of two raised wings of peacock feathers, encircled by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece (f. 7r).
Jean Antoine II de Mesmes (b. 1661, d. 1723), Count of Avaux and of Brie Comte-Robert, president of the Parlement of Paris: fragments of his armorial binding bearing a device of three interlaced crescents and the monogram DDLLM encircled by collars of the Orders of Saint Michael and the Holy Spirit and surmounted by a ducal coronet (pasted on f. 1r).
Added inscription, 16th century 'tmtty a. p.' (f. 2v).
Valentin Esprit Fléchier (b. 1632, d. 1710), Bishop of Nîmes : sold together with the rest of his library through Woodman and Lyon, London, January 25, 1726, lot 67.
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 ‘25 die mensis Januarij, A.D. 1725/6’ (f. 2r).
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish 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 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), no. 4425, p. 143.
Henry Shaw, Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages ([London]: William Pickering, 1843), pls. 56-58.
Harry Leigh Douglas Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), pp. 892-94.
Sir Reginald Blomfield and Francis Inigo Thomas, The Formal Garden in England, 3rd edition (London: Macmillan, 1892), pp. 22-25.
Albert Forbes Sieveking, 'The Medieval Garden as Pictured in the ‘Roman de la Rose', Country Life, 14 (1903), 916-20.
Francis William Bourdillon, The Early Editions of the Roman de la Rose (London: Bibliographical Society, 1906), p. 12.
Ernest Langlois, Les Manuscrits du Roman de la Rose: Description et classement, Travaux et Mémoires de l’Université de Lille, n.s., I, Droit Lettres, 7 (Lille: Tallandier, 1910), pp. 144-45.
George F. Warner, Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, 3 (London: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1910), pl. xlvii.
John Alexander Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts, (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 318.
Alfred Kuhn, 'Die Illustrationen des Rosenromans', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 31 (1913-14), 1-66 (pp. 40, 65, pl. 14).
Frederic Winkler, 'Studien zur Geschichte der niederländischen Miniaturemalerei des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 32 (1915), 279-342 (pp. 338-41).
Paul Durrieu, La Miniature flamande au temps de la cour de Bourgogne (1415-1530), (Paris and Brussels: G. van Oest, 1921), pl. LXXII.
Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, 3rd ser., 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1925), pl. 47.
Frederic Winkler, Die flämische Buchmalerei des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts: Künstler und Werke von den Brüdern van Eyck bis zu Simon Bening / Mit 91 Lichtdrucktafeln (Leipzig: Seeman, 1925), pp. 128-79.
Otto Cartellieri, Am Hofe der Herzöge von Burgund: Kulturhistorische Bilder (Basel: Schwabe, 1926), pl. 13.
Paul Durrieu, La Miniature flamande au temps de la cour de Bourgogne (1415-1530), 2nd edition (Paris and Brussels: [n. pub.], 1927), pp. 80-81.
Roger S. Loomis and Laura H. Loomis, Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), p. 129.
Otto Pächt, The Master of Mary of Burgundy, (London: Faber and Faber, 1948), p. 56n.
Flemish Art 1300-1700, Winter Exhibition 1953-54 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1953-54), no. 609.
Anna Maria Cetto, 'Anatomical Dissection in Pictorial Representation', CIBA Symposium, 5 (1957), 168-72 (p. 172, fig. 7).
Hermann Knaus, 'Handschriften der Grafen von Nassau-Breda', Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 3 (1960), cols 577-78.
Rosemond Tuve, Allegorical Imagery: Some Medieval Books and their Posterity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966), pp. 257n., 324.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 723-1726, p. 403.
John Vincent Fleming, The Roman de la Rose: A Study in Allegory and Iconography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 28, 42, 71, 208.
William O. Hassall, The Holkham Library: Illuminations and illustrations in the manuscript library of the Earl of Leicester (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1970), p. 343.
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. 145-46, 152, 238, 358-59, 444.
Margaret Scott, The History of Dress: Late-Gothic Europe, 1400-1500 (London: Mills & Boon, 1980), pp. 196-97, figs 135-37.
Vlaamse Kunst op Perkament: Handschriften en miniaturen te Brugge van 12de tot de 16de Eeuw, compiled by Maurits Smeyers and others, Exhibition Catalogue Bruges, Gruuthusemuseum (1981), no. 87.
Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1983), no. 6, pp. 49-58, pls VIII, IX.
Janet Backhouse, 'Founders of the Royal Library: Edward IV and Henry VII as Collectors of Illuminated Manuscripts', in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by David Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987), pp. 23-41 (p. 36).
William Douglas Simpson, Richard Fawcett, Edzell Castle (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1987), p. 24.
Michael Gullick, Calligraphy (London: Studio Editions, 1990), pl. 23.
Peter Murray Jones, Medieval Medicine in Illuminated Manuscripts, 2nd ed. (London: British Library, 1998), p. 55, pl. III.
Herman Braet, 'Der Roman der Rose, Raum im Blick', in Träume im Mittelalter: Ikonographische Studien, ed. by A.P. Bafliani and G. Stabile (Stuttgart: Belser, c. 1989), pp. 183-92.
Mise en page et mise en texte du livre manuscrit, ed. by Henri-Jean Martin and Jean Vezin (Paris: Cercle de la librairie - Promodis, 1990), p. 282.
Alain Arnould and Jean Michel Massing, Spendours of Flanders (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 207.
Janet Backhouse, 'A Salute to the Tudor Rose', in Miscellanea Martin Wittek: Album de codicologie et de paléographie offert à Martin Wittek, ed. by Anny Raman and Eugène Manning (Louvain: Peeters, 1993), pp. 1-14 (pp. 8n., 9n.).
Herman Braet, 'Aux Sources du Roman de la Rose', in Medieval Codicology, Iconography, Literature, and Translation: Studies for Keith Val Sinclair, ed. by Peter Rolfe Monks and Douglas David Roy Owen (Leiden: Brill, 1994), pp. 110-16.
Herman Braet, 'L'illustration de l'illustration: l'exemple et l'image dans le roman de la rose', in Ensi firent li ancessor: Mélanges de philologie médiévale offerts à Marc René Jung, ed. by Luciano Rossi, 2 vols (Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, c. 1996), II, pp. 491-504.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 190.
Michael Camille, The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire (London: Laurence King, 1998), pp. 80-81, 91-92, pl. 68, 78.
Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century (Leuven: Brepols, 1999), p. 444, pl. 37 on p. 445.
Janet Backhouse, 'Charles of Orléans Illuminated', in Charles d'Orléans in England (1415-1440), ed. by Mary-Jo Arn (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000), p. 160.
Greet Nijs, 'Typology of the Border Decoration in the Manuscripts of the Ghent-Bruges School', in 'Als Ich Can': Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), p. 1033.
Elisabeth Antoine and others, Sur la terre comme au ciel: jardins d'occident à la fin du Moyen-âge: Paris, Musée national du Moyen-âge, Thermes de Cluny, 6 juin-16 septembre 2002 (Paris: RMN, 2002), cat. no. 27.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), no. 120, pp. 4-5, 44, 73, 315, 323, 394, 398, 401-03 [exhibition catalogue].
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 93.
Pamela Porter, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 7.
Michaela Braesel, ‘The Influence of Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts on the Pre-Raphaelites and the Early Poetry of William Morris’, Journal of William Morris Studies, 15 (2004), 41-54 (pp. 45-50).
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), pp. 161-62, 164, pl. 100.
Lorne Campbell and others, Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian (London: National Gallery, 2008), no. 60 [exhibition catalogue].
Lieve De Kesel, 'Heritage and Innovation in Flemish Book Illumiation at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century: Framing the Frames From Simon Marmion to Gerard David', in Books in Transition at the Time of Philip the Fair: Manuscripts and Printed Books in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century Low Countries, ed. by Hanno Wijsman (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), 93-130 (p. 126n.).
Watercolour, ed. by Alison Smith (London: Tate Publishing, 2011), no. 3 [exhibition catalogue].
Roman de la Rose Digital Library, http://romandelarose.org/#home, accessed 20 January 2014.
Herman Braet, 'Le Jardin de la Rose/The Rose's garden, Cuadernos del Cemyr, 21 (2013), 101-29.
Herman Braet, Nouvelle Bibliographie du Roman de la Rose (Louvain: Peeters, 2017), p. 203.
- Exhibitions:
- British Library Treasures, (online), 27 February 2016-
In Search of Utopia, M - Museum Leuven, Leuven, 19 October 2016 - 17 January 2017
The Renaissance Nude, Getty Center, Los Angeles, 30 October 2018 - 27 January 2019
The Renaissance Nude, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 28 February 2019 - 2 June 2019 - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)