Harley MS 4867

Contents:

Octavien de St. Gelais translated the Heroides in French for Charles VIII between 1490 and 1493. This translation was widely spread. The Heroides is divided in 21 epistles.

Here the prologue is missing. Some lines were missing throughout the text but added in the margins.

f. 1r: a pasted strip of parchment with five lines have been written by a 16th-century hand.

f. 3v: Table of epistles.

ff. 4r-188v: Ovid, Heroides translated in French by Octavien de St. Gelais. Incipit: 'Puisque tu es du retour paresseux/O Ulixes de cueur trop engoisseux'. Explicit: 'Et a Pharon a present ten iras/ Lequeldu tout en brief advertiras. Cy finissent les epitres d'Ovide'.

Decoration:

Some of the miniatures have been defaced intentionally.

21 miniatures with large historiated initials and full-borders in colours and gold, 1 at the beginning of each epistle. Line fillers in red, gold and blue. Incipits and explicits in red. Cadels.

f. 4r: Penelope giving a letter to a man in a boat, at the beginning of the epistle of Penelope to Ulysses;

f. 16v: Briseis at a window with a letter in her hand, at the beginning of the epistle of Briseis to Achilles;

f. 24v: Woman on a cart, at the beginning of the epistle of Phaedra to Hippolyta;

f. 43r: AYsiphile at a window with two children, at the beginning of the epistle from Ysiphile to Jason;

f. 51r: Dido is seated in the courtyard of a castle with a letter in her lap, thrusting a sword through her own chest, at the beginning of the epistle of Dido to Aeneas;

f. 60v: Hermione, seated at a desk, writing, at the beginning of the epistle of Hermione to Orestes;

f. 74v: Ariadne asleep in bed on an island surrounded by a lion, a wolf, a griffin and a dragon, at the beginning of the epistle of Ariadne to Theseus;

f. 88v: Medea standing with her children, and men feasting behind, at the beginning of the epistle of Medea to Jason;

f. 108v: Hypermestra at a window writing a letter, at the beginning of the epistle of Hpermestra to Linus;

f. 115r: Helen of Troy and Paris at windows, separated by water with Paris writing a letter and ships in the background, at the beginning of the epistle of Paris to Helen;

f. 170v: Cydippe writing a letter in bed, at the beginning of the epistle of Cydippe to Aconcius.