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Harley MS 4940

Record Id:

040-002050784

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050784

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0001cb

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100058018366.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4940

Title:

Matfre Ermengaud, Breviari d'amor

Scope & Content:

Contents:

Matfre Ermengaud (Matfres Ermengau, Eymengau) de Beziers, Breviari d'Amor. An encyclopedic work explaining how the world is an emanation of love, it consists of 34,550 lines in verse in the Occitan dialect composed between 1288 and 1292.

Decoration:

2 full-page miniatures with foliate extensions into the margins, in colours and gold (ff. 9r, 51r). 11 large miniatures, the first with a large decorated initial and a full border including heraldic shields and arms, in colours and gold (ff. 4r, 28r, 31r, 31v, 44v, 45v, 48r, 65v, 93r, 186r, 227r). Numerous small, mostly column-wide miniatures with foliate extensions into the margins, in colours and gold. Large and small initials in gold on red and blue grounds. Small initials in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Instructions to the rubricator throughout.

The subjects of the miniatures are:

f. 4r: A seated man (the author) with an open book, instructing three men standing before him, two wearing crowns;

f. 5r: A kneeling cleric (the author) asking God's blessing on his book; a bird emerges from the clouds behind;

f. 9r: The Tree of Love or 'Arbre d'Amor', with the figure of 'Amors Generals' at the centre;

f. 12v: An angel threatening two non-believers with a sword;

f. 13v: The Trinity (left); God gives the power of good to all living creatures (right);

f. 24r: The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden by the angel;

f. 27r: The Devil incites people to the sins of robbery, lust, violence and avarice and brings disaster to a ship at sea;

f. 28r: Two angels turning the axes of the world;

f. 28v: Aries;

f. 29r: Taurus; Cancer;

f. 29v: Gemini, Virgo, Leo;

f. 30: Scorpio, Capricorn, Sagittarius;

f. 30v: Aries, Pisces;

f. 31r: A wheel with the signs of the Zodiac (the order is incorrect);

f. 31v: A circular diagram of the sun;

f. 33r: Jupiter;

f. 33v: Mars; the Sun;

f. 34v: A diagram of solar eclipses;

f. 35r: Venus;

f. 35v: Mercury

f. 36r: A diagram of the phases of the moon;

f. 37v: Lunar eclipse;

f. 38r: A diagram of the stars

f. 42v: Water and earth

f. 43r: The nature of the earth;

f. 44r: Precious stones;

f. 44v: A diagram of the spheres;

f. 45v: A windrose of diagram of the winds;

f. 47v: A diagram of hours of daylight and nighttime;

f. 48r: A diagram of the seasons;

f. 48v: January: feasting;

f. 49r: February: warming by the fire; March: chopping wood; April: picking flowers;

f. 49v: May: hunting; July: harvesting;

f. 51r: A diagram of the first world-order: the Old Testament, from Adam to Abraham;

f. 57v, 58r, 58v, 59r: Scenes from Genesis: Adam and Eve;

f. 65v: God, and Moses with horns and people worshipping idols (right);

ff. 69v, 70v, 71r, 71v, 72r, 72v: Examples of Christian charity;

f. 80v: Virgin (n[ost]ra dona) and Child;

f. 81r: The Virgin defeats the serpent;

f. 81v: The burning bush;

f. 82v: The flower of Aaron;

f. 83r: Ezekiel with the Virgin Mary, showing the closed door;

f. 88r: Mary with angels; Isaiah prophesying the birth of Christ, with Mary and Joseph;

f. 90r-92v: A series of miniatures of Jews who did not believe in of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ;

f. 93r: God (upper right) blessing Abraham and his descendants, with Christ holding a globe beneath;

f. 111r: Penitence;

f. 112r: Mocking of Christ (left); Crucifixion (right);

ff. 113r-114r: A series of hell-mouths with sinners inside;

f. 134v: Jesus instructing two disciples;

f. 147r: The Annunciation to Elizabeth (left) and Mary (right);

f. 147v: Mary greets Elizabeth;

f. 150v: The Nativity (left); Annunciation to the Shepherds; the Circumcision of Christ;

f. 151r: The coming of the Magi; the Adoration of the Magi;

f. 151v: The Baptism of Christ;

f. 152r: The Flight to Egypt; the angel appears to Mary and Joseph;

f. 152v: Jesus in the Temple;

f. 153r: John the Baptist predicts the coming of Jesus;

f. 153v: John presents 'the saviour of the world'; Baptism of Christ;

f. 154r: The temptation of Christ; Jesus calls the fishermen to be his Disciples;

ff. 154v-156v: Christ's miracles;

f. 157r: The death of John the Baptist;

f. 157v: The miracle of the loaves and fishes;

f. 158v: Lazarus is brought to life;

f. 159r: The entry into Jerusalem; the moneylenders are thrown out of the Temple;

f. 160r: The washing of the feet;

f. 160v: Judas is given silver; the Last Supper;

f. 161r: The Agony of Christ;

f. 161v: The Betrayal;

f. 162v Peter's dream; Peter denies Christ; Christ before Pontius Pilate;

f. 163r: Jesus gives back the silver and Pilate hangs himself;

f. 163v: Jesus before Herod;

f. 164r: Pilate washes his hands;

ff. 164v-166r: The Crucifixion;

f. 166v: The Deposition;

ff. 171r-172r: Miniatures of hell-mouths with sinners inside;

ff. 173r:-174v: Miracles of the Resurrection;

f. 175r; The Ascension;

f. 176r: Pentecost;

f. 183v: Christ and John the Evangelist;

f. 186r: God separates the sinners from the blessed;

f. 190r: Matfre disputing with two accusers;

f. 193v: Matfre defends love before two troubadors;

f. 196r: Two lovers complain about love to Matfre;

f. 200r: Two lovers complain about women to Matfre;

f. 204v: Two women ask Matfre for advice on love;

f. 209v: Lovers ask for advice on happiness in love;

f. 227r: The seven virtues and vices of lovers.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050784", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4940: Matfre Ermengaud, Breviari d'amor" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050784

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4940 : Matfre Ermengaud, Breviari d'amor

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4940]/040-002050784

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

A parchment codex, 232 folios

Digitised Content:

https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058018366.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

French
Occitan, Old

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1340

End Date:

1370

Date Range:

Mid 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 340 x 245mm (text space: 240 x 170mm).

Layout: 2 columns of 40 lines.

Foliation: ff. i + 232 (+ 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf after f. 3; + 4 paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end); medieval foliation in roman numerals in the upper right margins running from i-ccxl

Script: Gothic.

Binding: BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1963.

Custodial History:

Origin: France, S. (?Toulouse)

Provenance:

Unidentified owner, early 14th century: arms, partially effaced (f. 4r).

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 '18 die Januarij, A.D. 1723/4.' (f. i recto); inscribed 'Oxford B.H.' (f. 1r).

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: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III, no. 4940.

Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 9.

Clovis Brunel, Bibliographie des manuscrits littéraires en ancien provençal (Paris: Librairie E. Droz, 1935), no. 20.

Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters, ed. by Harry Bober, 4 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1916-66), III: Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken (1953), pp. 193-95.

Katja Laske-Fix, Der Bildzyklius des Breviari D'Amor (Munich: Schnell and Steiner, 1973), p. 128 passim, manuscript K.

Geneviève Brunel, 'Un fragment du Breviari d'Amor au Palais du Roure (Avignon)', Romania. Revue trimestrielle consacrée à l'étude des langues et des littératures romanes,104 (1984), 177-97 (pp. 179-80).

Paolo Cherchi, 'L'enciclopedia nel mondo dei trovatori: il Breviari d'amor di Matfre Ermengau', in L'enciclopedismo medieval, Atti del convegno L'enciclopedismo medievale, San Gimignano, October 1992 (Ravenna: Longo Editore, 1994), pp. 277-91.

Peter Whitfield, The Mapping of the Heavens (London: British Library, 1995), half-title page.

Sophie Page, Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), frontispiece.

Lucy Freeman Sandler, The Lichtenthal Psalter and the Manuscript Patronage of the Bohun Family (London: Harvey Miller, 2004), p. 160 n. 107.

Carlos Miranda Garcia-Tejedor, 'Los manuscritos con pincturas del Breviari d'Amor de Matfre Ermengaud de Béziers: Un estado de la cuestión', in La miniatura medieval en la Penísula Ibérica, ed. by Joaquín Yarza (Murcia: Nausícaä, 2007), pp. 313-73 (p. 329, as 'K').

Sarah Kay, 'How long is a quotation ? Quotations from the Troubadours in the text and manuscripts of the Breviari d’amor', Romania, 127 (2009), 1-29 (p. 28, manuscript K).

Peter T. Ricketts, Connaissance de la littérature occitane: Matfre Ermengaud (1246-1322) et le Breviari d'amor, (Perpignan, Presses Universitaires de Perpignan, 2012), p. 76.

Maureen Boulton, Sacred fictions of medieval France: narrative theology in the lives of Christ and the Virgin, 1150-1500 (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2015), pp. 147, 153, 312.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)