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Harley MS 4605
- Record Id:
- 040-002050444
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050444
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000077
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165168958.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4605
- Title:
-
Christine de Pizan, Le livre des faits d'armes et de chevalerie
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
f. 2r-v: Table of contents to Le livre des faits d'armes et de chevalerie, with a rubric beginning, 'Cy commence la table des rubriches du livre des fais darmes & de chevalerie le quel dit livre est parti en quatre parties' (f. 2r); the main text beginning, 'La premiere partie devise la maniere que doivent tenir roys et princes ou fait de leurs guerres et batailles seld' lordre des livres ditz et exemples des nobles conquereurs du monde' (f. 2r).
ff. 3r-115r: Christine de Pizan (b. 1365, d. 1429/30), Le livre des faits d'armes et de chevalerie, the rubric beginning, 'Cy commence le livre des fays darmes et dechevalerie Le prumiere chapitre est le prologue ou quel christine sexcuse davoire ose emprendre de parler de si haulte matiere comme est ceste . J . tout prumierement' (f. 3r); the main text, beginning, 'Pour ce que hardement est tant neccesaire a haultes choses empreindre que sans luy iamays emprises ne servyent y celui mest convenable' (f. 3r), and ending, 'Et dicestes vj. couleurs sont differences toutes armes et lanieres par diverses devises prises par haultesse des le temps tres ancien'; with a colophon, 'Explicit. Digatz un pater noster et un ave maria per mossen pey delafita qui a escriut a quest present livre en lan de notre senhor mil. cccc. xxxiiijo Et fut feit alondres. A xv. de may' (f. 115r).
Decoration:
4 large miniatures with large decorated initials and full foliate borders, in colours and gold, at the beginning of each of the book's four parts (ff. 3r, 41r, 71r, 95r). The miniatures show stylistic similarities to those by Illuminator B of London, Victoria & Albert Museum, MS Reid 42 (see Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490 (1996), II, pp. 216, 217).
Large initials in gold on red and/or blue grounds. Small initials in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Cadels. Capital letters highlighted in yellow.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 3r: Christine in her study, writing, and, standing outside to the right, the goddess Minerva, armoured, crowned, and carrying a sword and shield.
f. 41r: A battle between fully armed men on foot, with, on the right, a man pouring blood out of a jug onto a stand of trees; this may refer to the frequently-illustrated, blood-soaked 'Tree of Battles' of Honoré Bovet (fl. 1378-1398), whose L'Arbre des batailles was Christine's major source for parts 3 and 4 of the Livre des faits d'armes (see Byles's introduction in Christine de Pizan, The Book of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyualrye (1932), pp. xviii-xix).
f. 71r: On the left, a bishop (or pope?), with mitre and halo, making a gesture of blessing and, on the right, a crowned emperor carrying an orb; behind them are two groups of fully armoured men; illustrates the beginning of part 3, which discusses whether an emperor has the right to make war on a pope, and vice versa.
f.. 95r: An armoured prince, seated on a throne, gesturing toward a merchant being escorted out a door by men-at-arms; may illustrate the beginning of part 4, which discusses whether a prince who has granted a safe-conduct for entering his court may arrest the visitor on leaving.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050444", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4605: Christine de Pizan, Le livre des faits d'armes et de chevalerie" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050444 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4605 : Christine de Pizan, Le livre des faits d'armes et de chevalerie - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4600]/040-002050444
- 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_100165168958.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1434
- End Date:
- 1434
- Date Range:
- 1434
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 310 x 210 mm (text space: 190 x 125mm), written in two columns.
Foliation: ff. 115 (+ 3 modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 medieval parchment flyleaf and 3 modern paper flyleaves at the end); f. 1 is a medieval parchment flyleaf.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum in-house binding; rebound in 1966.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
London, England.
Provenance:
'Delafita', 1434: colophon by the scribe, giving his name and the date: 'Explicit. Digatz un pater noster et un ave maria per mossen pey delafita qui a escriut a quest present livre en lan de notre senhor mil. cccc. xxxiiijo Et fut feit alondres. A xv. de may' (f. 115r).
Bigornet, 17th century: inscribed 'Ex dono dominj Bigornet amicj(?)' (f. 1r; see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 73, 77).
The Abbey of Sainte-Croix, Bordeaux, by 1718: inscribed 'Monasterij Sancte crucis Burdegal [Bordeaux] congregationis Sancti mauri catalogo inscriptus anno 1718' (f. 2r).
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: old British Museum press mark: '133. A. 6' (f. 1r).
- Information About Copies:
-
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. 178 (no. 4605).
Christine de Pisan, The Book of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyualrye, trans. by William Caxton, ed. by A. T. P. Byles, Early English Text Society, original series, 189 (London: Oxford University Press, 1932), pp. xviii-xix.
Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Manuscripts in English Libraries, ed. by Harry Bober, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, 3, 2 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1953), I, pp. 189-90.
Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 73, 77.
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. 811.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II, pp. 216, 217.
Ursula Pieters, Das Ich im Bild: die Figur des Autors in volksprachigen Handschriften des 13. bis 16. Jahrhunderts (Cologne: Bohlau, 2008), p. 221.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)