Add MS 35321

Contents:

Boccaccio, Des cas de nobles hommes et femmes, translated into French by Laurent de Premierfait, beginning with the second prologue, 'Selon rayson et bonnes meurs', omitting the dedication to the Duc de Berry and verses to Boccaccio.

f. 1r-2r: Prologue;

ff. 2r-33v: Book 1, preceded by a table of chapters;

ff. 33v-66r: Book 2, preceded by a table of chapters;

ff. 66r-106v: Book 3, preceded by a table of chapters;

ff. 107r-144v: Book 4, preceded by a table of chapters;

ff. 145r-179v: Book 5, preceded by a table of chapters;

ff. 179v-218v: Book 6, preceded by a table of chapters;

ff. 219r-246v: Book 7, preceded by a table of chapters;

ff. 246v-283r: Book 8, preceded by a table of chapters;

ff. 283r-321v: Book 9, preceded by a table of chapters.

Decoration:

Nine half-page miniatures with illuminated initials on dark red grounds beneath and full foliate borders in colours and gold, at the beginning of each of the nine books. One historiated initial of Boccaccio writing (f. 1v), and seventy-five smaller miniatures, one at the beginning of each chapter. Framed initials in gold on blue and rose grounds. Numerous small initials in gold with pen-flourishing in black or in blue with pen-flourishing in red. Rubrics in red. Cadels in brown ink in upper and lower margins.

The subjects of the miniatures are:

f. 2v: The Garden of Eden: the Creation, the Temptation and the Expulsion of Adam and Eve ;

f. 4v: Nimrod orders the building of the Tower of Babel;

f. 8v: Cadmo orders the building of the city of Tyre;

f. 11r: The birth of Oedipus, with Jocasta lying in bed; Oedipus is taken by a shepherd and hung by the feet in a tree; the suicide of Jocasta;

f. 14r: Phaedra stabs herself before Theseus;

f. 22r: Paris kneels before Priam and Hecuba with Helen by his side;

f. 25r: Agamemnon is stabbed by Aegisthus, while Clytemnestra watches;

f. 28r: Delilah cuts Samson's hair and Samson destroys the temple;

f. 34r: Samuel anoints Saul; the battle of Mount Gelboe (or Gilboa); the suicide of Saul;

f. 34v: A man and a king seated at a table, probably Saul and Samuel;

f. 37r: The temple of Jerusalem is sacked; the death of King Roboam;

f. 40v: Athalia, Queen Consort of Judah, is dragged through the gate of Jerusalem and executed;

f. 43r: The suicide of Dido;

f. 46v: Sardanapalus is burned with his treasure in a besieged city;

f. 50v: The murder of Amasias, King of Judah and the sack of Jerusalem; Joshua with incense before an altar;

f. 52r: King Zedekiah watches his children being murdered at the order of Nebuchadnezzar; Zedekiah dies in prison;

f. 54v: Astyages asleep, (right); Cyrus is suckled by a dog; Harpagus presents a stillborn child to Astyages as the dead Cyrus;

f. 59v: Croesus' son tries to save the life of a Persian soldier who is about to murder him; Croesus burned at the stake;

f. 64r: Metius Fufetius of Alba Longa beats Tullus Hostilius in battle, watched by their armies;

f. 67r: Andalus de Nigro teaching (left); Poverty overcomes Fortune outside a walled city;

f. 72r: Tullia is driven in her chariot to Rome, riding over the body of her father, Servius Tullius;

f. 83v: The Persians in a sea battle; Xerxes is attacked by Artabanus and his sons;

f. 89r: Verginius stabs his daughter, Verginia in front of Appius Claudius; Appius Claudius stabs himself (right);

f. 94r: Alcibiades lies in bed, while four men approach, holding torches, to set his bed alight;

f. 100r: The Carthaginian Hanno the Great is beheaded before a crowd;

f. 105v: Artaxerxes I of Persia has his wife and children murdered; Ataxerxes on his deathbed (above);

f. 107v: Boccaccio seated in his study indicating a crowd of men in the next room;

f. 108r: Marcus Manlius is thrown into the Tiber;

f. 112r: Diogenes of Syracuse orders his men to destroy two statues;

f. 114v: Polycrates is hanged;

f. 118v: Alexander, King of Epirus, is stabbed with a lance while swimming in a river; a battle in the foreground, with a solider lying, beheaded;

f. 120r: Darius and his army fleeing from Alexander; the body of Darius on a funeral carriage (above);

f. 124v: The body of Alexander lies in state (above); an army in retreat;

f. 126r: Olympias persuades her daughter, Cleopatra of Macedon to stab herself; crows devour a king's body;

f. 129r: Agathocles of Syracuse orders his soldiers to kill three young men; lying sick in bed (right), he orders his wife and children to flee to Egypt;

f. 135v: Watched by her husband King Ceraunus of Macedonia, Arsinoe defends her two sons, who are murdered by soldiers; Arsinoe is tied behind a horse and dragged out of the city;

f. 140r: Pyrrhus' soldiers are repulsed from the walls of Argos; Antigonus' son, Alcyoneus, presents him with the head of Pyrrhus (above);

f. 141v: Berenice orders the murder of Demetrius and Arsinoe intervenes; a man is stabbed by soldiers outside the walls (right);

f. 145v: Seleucus orders his soldiers to kill Berenice; Antiochus, his son, is captured by soldiers; Seleucus falls from his horse (above);

f. 149r: Marcus Atilius Regulus is tortured (above); a battle between the Romans and Carthaginians;

f. 155r: Syphax of Numidia is brought as a prisoner to Italy;

f. 159v: Two armies in battle, one probably the army of Antiochus;

f. 163v: Hannibal takes poison, his troops are surrounded by Prusias of Bithynia's soldiers;

f. 166v: Nicomedes Epiphanes watches the murder of his father, Prusias;

f. 167r: King Perseus of Macedonia rides in a carriage, prisoner of Lucius Aemilius Paullus;

f. 169v: Pseudo-Phillip of Macedonia is brought to Rome as a prisoner;

f. 170r: The head of Alexander Balas, king of the Seleudid empire, is brought to Ptolemy, who is ill in bed;

f. 173r: Demetrius of Syria is decapitated in Tyre;

f. 175r: Alexander Zabinas is attacked on the orders of Antiochus Grypus, king of the Seleucids;

f. 177v: Jugurtha of Numidia orders the murder of his brothers, Hiempsal and Adherbal;

f. 180r: Boccaccio talking to the Lady Fortune; a battle in a walled, moated city;

f. 185v: Gayus Marius is murdered by his slave;

f. 190v: King Mithradates III, who has taken refuge in a tower, is murdered on the orders of his son Pharnaces;

f. 195v: King Orodes of Parthia shows the body of Marcus Crassus having molten gold poured into his mouth; Orodes is murdered by his son, Phraates IV;

f. 198v: A battle involving Pompey's army;

f. 209r: Cicero is decapitated;

f. 216r: Mark Anthony presents prisoners to Cleopatra;

f. 219v: Octavian watches the murder of the young Mark Anthony, who clutches a statue of Julius Caesar; Quintus Gallius is blinded (right); Julia and Marcus Agrippa prostrate themselves, mourning (upper right); Gaius Cassius Parmensis is murdered (upper left);

f. 221r: Herod oversees the execution of his sons, Aristobulus and Alexandros;

f. 230v: Nero watches Sporus being castrated and Agrippina being murdered; Nero kills himself;

f. 237v: Vespasian has Vitellius stabbed; Vitellius' body is dismembered and floated down the Tiber;

f. 242r: Titus conquers Jerusalem;

f. 247v: Petrarch appears to Boccaccio in a building decorated with the coat of arms of the French royal family;

f. 252v: The armies of Sapores and Valerian do battle; a massacre of Christians; Valerian climbs on Sapores to mount his horse (below left);

f. 256r: Queen Zenobia is paraded in front of Aurelian's triumphal chariot;

f. 259r: Constantine murders Maximian;

f. 260r: Galerius persecutes Christians and refuses the Host, though his body is crawling with worms (above left);

f. 263v: Julian the Apostate is killed by St Mercurius;

f. 270r: The Vandal army under King Radagaisus meets the Roman army under Flavius Stilicho; Radagasius, kneeling, is killed by two soldiers;

f. 273v: Odoacre is attacked by four soldiers, with Theodoric watching;

f. 277r: King Arthur is seated at the Round Table with his knights; the battle with Mordred's army;

f. 281r: Rosamunda on the throne, watches as her husband, the Lombard King Alboinus is murdered by Helmichild and his men;

f. 284r: Muḥammad preaches to a seated crowd; Brunhilde is quartered in front of King Clothar and his followers (above left);

f. 291r: Lombard emperors suffer tortures; one of them, perhaps the Emperor Filippicus is chained (above left);

f. 294r: Charlemagne and his army attacking Desiderius at Pavia;

f. 296v: Pope John the XII is crowned; a falconer and two women approach the Pope while two cardinals are attacked;

f. 299r: The Byzantine Romanos Diogenes is humiliated by the Turkish emperor, who uses him as a footstool;

f. 300v: Andronicus Comnenus orders Empress Maria and her son Alexius to be killed;

f. 303r: Henry VI and his army take Henry I of Sicily and his three sisters prisoner;

f. 304v: Henry, King of Germany is taken prisoner and his sons are killed; he and his horse fall into a river (above left);

f. 307r; Charles of Anjou and his army are defeated by Manfred of Sicily; Charles lies ill in bed;

f. 309v: Five Templars are burned at the stake before Phillip of France;

f. 314v: Walter de Brienne is made governor of the city of Florence;

f. 318v: Robert of Calabria and Queen Violante watching Philippa the Catanese feeding their infant son (above right); Philippa and her sons are burned at the stake.

Attributed to the workshop of Maître François, a Parisian artist associated with the court of Charles II, count of Maine (b.1414, d. 1472) in 1473, and illuminator of Harley MS 4374 and Harley MS 4375 (a two-volume copy of Valerius Maximus, Les Fais et les Dis des Romains).