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Add MS 35320
- Record Id:
- 040-002088798
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002088787
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001490.0x00014b
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161518904.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 35320
- Title:
- Pierre Louis de Valtan, Exposition of the Apostles' Creed
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript is a presentation copy of an Exposition of the Apostles' Creed, by Pierre Louis de Valtan (d. 1517), Archdeacon of Angers and later Bishop of Rieux. The text is written in rhymed Latin verse, with accompanying short prose texts placed as glosses in the margins. It features a dedication, in Middle French prose, to Charles VIII (r. 1483-1498), here styled King of France, Sicily and Jerusalem, suggesting that the manuscript was made between 1494/5, when he first adopted these titles, and his death in 1498.
A sister copy of the text (once Switzerland, Heribert Tenschert, Antiquariat Bibermuhle, LM2, 57), written by the same scribe and featuring similar miniatures, was dedicated to Isabella I of Castille (r. 1474-1504) and dated 13 December 1500 (see Hoffman, Jean Poyer (2004), p. 106).
Contents:
ff. 2r-3r: Dedication of the work to King Charles VIII of France (r. 1483-1498), in Middle French prose, beginning, 'A tresexcellent et treschrestien prince Charles par la grace de Dieu Roy de France de Secile et Jherusalem [Marc Picault] son treshumble et tresobeissant subgect et seruiteur domestique. Salut et Recommendacion treshumbles.' The author's name has been erased in the dedication, replaced by Picault's instead.
ff. 4r-25v: Pierre Louis de Valtan, Exposition of the Apostles' Creed, in Latin, written in 76 six-line stanzas of rhymed verse, with a marginal commentary in prose, beginning, 'Credo: fide militanti / Vera certa et constanti'.
Decoration:
The manuscript was principally illuminated by the French artist Jean Poyer (fl. 1465-1503), who was responsible for the 12 half-page miniatures of the Apostles. The presentation miniature (f. 3v) was added by a later artist, probably on behalf of the manuscript's owner Marc Picault, and made in the style of Poyer (see Hoffman, Jean Poyer (2004), p. 106; Hoffman, 'Jean Poyer im Spektrum seiner Auftraggeber' (2006), pp. 127-28).
1 full-page presentation miniature in colours and gold (f. 3v).
12 half-page miniatures of the Apostles writing articles of the Creed, in colours and gold, the first eight bearing the name 'PICAVLT' or 'M. PICAVLT' added in gold, with captions in blue ink (ff. 4r, 6v, 9r, 11v, 14r, 16r, 18v, 20v, 22r, 23r, 24r, 25r).
The added coat of arms of Marc Picault, azure, a cockerel argent, combed and clawed gules, in chief argent a cross sable between two cinquefoils gules (f. 4r).
76 decorated scrolls, each inhabited with a word of the Apostles' Creed, lined in gold and red ink, the text inscribed in gold and blue ink. 1 three-line initial in gold on blue grounds, decorated with fleur-de-lis (f. 2r).
Three-line initials in colours and gold, marking some of the individual articles of the Creed (ff. 4r, 6v, 9r, 14r, 22r, 23r, 25r). One-line initials in gold on coloured grounds at the beginning of each stanza. Marginal glosses in alternating blue and red ink. Rubrics in red ink.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 3v: A presentation miniature, showing the author or possibly the manuscript's later owner Marc Picault kneeling, presenting the book to King Charles VIII of France, who appears holding a falcon, with a hound by his side, surrounded by courtiers and men-at-arms.
f. 4r: St Peter (accompanying article: 'Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae').
f. 6v: St Andrew (accompanying article: 'Et in Ihesum Christum, Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum').
f. 9r: St James the Greater (accompanying article: 'Qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine').
f. 11v: St John (accompanying article: 'Passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus').
f. 14r: St Thomas (accompanying article: 'Descendit ad inferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis').
f. 16r: St James the Minor (accompanying article: 'Ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis').
f. 18v: St Philip (accompanying article: 'Inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos').
f. 20v: St Bartholomew (accompanying article: 'Credo in Spiritum Sanctum').
f. 22r: St Matthew (accompanying article: 'Sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam').
f. 23r: St Simon (accompanying article: 'Sanctorum communionem, remissionem peccatorum').
f. 24r: St Thaddaeus (accompanying article: 'Carnis resurrectionem').
f. 25r: St Matthias (accompanying article: 'Vitam aeternam. Amen').
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002088787
040-002088798 - Is part of:
- Add MS 35310-35324 : Rothschild Bequest
Add MS 35320 : Pierre Louis de Valtan, Exposition of the Apostles' Creed - Hierarchy:
- 032-002088787[0011]/040-002088798
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 35310-35324
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_35320 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1490
- End Date:
- 1500
- Date Range:
- c 1495
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 230 x 155 mm (written space: 135 x 80-90 mm).
Foliation: ff. I + 25 ( + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and the end); f. I is an inscribed paper note affixed to f. [i] recto; f. 1 is a pastedown affixed to the inside upper cover.
Collation: Quires of 8, i-iii8 (ff. 2-25).
Script: Humanistic.
Binding: Pre-1600. Original wooden boards cover with red velvet; the spine reinforced with a lighter red velvet.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Tours, France.
Provenance:
The manuscript was principally illuminated by the French artist Jean Poyer (fl. 1465-1503).
Charles VIII (r. 1483-1498), King of France, made for him c. 1495: featuring a dedication to him from the author (ff. 2r-3r) and including his portrait (f. 3v).
Marc Picault (fl. beginning of the 16th century), Canon of Le Mans, owned the manuscript by 1530: inscribed, 'Je suys a Marc Picault chanoine du mans, 1530' and 'F. Marc Picault, 1530' (inside upper cover); 'Pax tibi Marce Picault, 1530' (ff. 2r, 25v); his name, 'Marc Picault' added to the dedicatory text (f. 2r); his name, 'PICAULT' or 'M. PICAULT', inscribed in gold on the first eight miniatures of the Apostles (ff. 4r, 6v, 9r, 11v, 14r, 16r, 18v, 21v); his added coat of arms, azure, a cockerel argent, combed and clawed gules, in chief argent a cross sable between two cinquefoils gules (f. 4r).
Included in the sale of the libraries of Paul Petau (b. 1568, d. 1606), his son Paul Alexandre Petau (d. 1672) and the French architect Francois Mansart (b. 1598, d. 1666), The Hague, 23 February 1722 (see Bibliothecæ Petaviana et Mansartiana, (1722), p. 143 (no. 17).
Ferdinand James Anselm de Rothschild (b. 1839, d. 1898), art collector and politician; one of fifteen manuscripts bequeathed by him to the British Museum in 1889.
- Former Internal References:
- Rothschild Bequest No. XI
- Publications:
-
Bibliotheca Petaviana et Mansartiana; ou, Catalogue des bibliothheques de feu Messieurs A. Petau ... et François Mansart ... Aux quelles on a ajoute le cabinet considerable des manuscrits du fameux Justus Lipsius. La vente se fera par Abrah. de Hondt, le 23 fevrier & suiv. 1722 (The Hague: Abraham de Hondt, 1722), p. 143.
Leopold Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque imperiale, 3 vols (Paris, 1868-1881), I (1868), p. 96, n. 1; III (1881), p. 344.
A Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1894-1899 (London: British Museum, 1901), pp. 257-58.
Andre Salomon Blum and Philippe Lauer, La Miniature française aux XVe et XVIe siècles (Paris, 1930), p. 96, fig. 83.
John Plummer, The Last Flowering: French painting in manuscripts 1420-1530 (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1982), p. 87.
Janet Backhouse, 'A book of hours by a contemporary of Jean Bourdichon: A preliminary note on British Library, Yates Thompson Ms. 5', in Manuscripts in the fifty years after the invention of printing: some papers read at a colloquium at the Warburg Institute on 12-13 March 1982 (London: Warburg Institute, 1983), pp. 45-49 (pp. 45-46).
Janet Backhouse, 'French manuscript illumination 1450-1530', in Renaissance painting in manuscripts. Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1983), pp. 145-92 (pp. 173, 174 n. 21, 176, 178).
Janet Backhouse, 'The Tilliot Hours: Comparisons and Relationships', The British Library Journal, 13: 2 (1987), 211-231 (p. 215).
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries, 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), p. 121.
François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à Peintures en France 1440-1520 (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), p. 307.
Michelle P. Brown, Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms (London: J. Paul Getty Museum in association with the British Library, 1994), p. 102.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), no. 192 (p. 217).
Roger S. Wieck, W. M. Voelkle and K. M. Hearne, The Hours of Henry VIII, A Renaissance Masterpiece by Jean Poyet (New York: George Braziller, 2000), pp. 35-37.
Christopher de Hamel, The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination: History and Techniques (London: The British Library, 2001), p. 80, pl. 77.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: the Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), p. 376 n. 9.
Mara Hofmann, Jean Poyer: Das Gesamtwerk (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 24-25, 34, 61, 117, 170, 106-08.
Christopher de Hamel, The Rothschilds and their Collections of Illuminated Manuscripts (London: The British Library, 2005), pp. 9, 17.
Mara Hoffman, 'Jean Poyer im Spektrum seiner Auftraggeber' (2006), in Hofkultur in Frankreich und Europa im Spätmittelalter, ed. by Christian Freigang and Jean-Claude Schmitt (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2006), pp. 123-38 (pp. 127-28).
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), pl. 103.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)