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Royal MS 14 E I vol 1
- Record Id:
- 040-002107002
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x000098
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 14 E I vol 1
- Title:
-
Vincent of Beauvais, translated by Jean de Vignay, Le miroir historial (a French translation of the Speculum historiale), books 1-5
- Scope & Content:
-
The first volume (books 1-9) of Le miroir historiale, (32 books in total) is now bound in two parts, foliated separately, of which this manuscript is part 1 and contains books 1-5 with a table of contents of book 6. Part 2 is Royal MS 14 E I, vol 2 and contains books 6-9. The original Latin work, the Speculum Historiale was compiled by Vincent de Beauvais, a Dominican scholar (c 1194-c 1260) for Louis IX, and contains a history of man from the beginning of the world up to the 13th century, together with saints' lives and florilegia or collections of excerpts from the works of famous scholars. It was the third part of his Speculum Maius, a vast compendium of all the knowledge of the Middle Ages, compiled from biblical, classical, Arabic and contemporary sources. Jean de Vignay dedicated his translation, made between 1320 and 1332, to Jeanne de Bourgogne, wife of Philip VI of France. Fewer than 40 volumes of the text are now extant; most were produced in Paris in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries. This copy is one of only six volumes of the text to have been produced in the southern Netherlands. Three manuscripts remaining books of the text, now The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek MS 128 C I (1-3), were probably conceived originally as part of the same set (Chavannes-Mazel 1988).
This part contains the translator's prefix, the general prologue (numbered as Book 1 in this manuscript), four further books (2-5) and the table of contents of book 6. The opening rubric, 'Cy commen[c]e le premier volume du mireor hystorial translate de latin en francoys par la main de Jehan du Vignoy selon loppinion de frere Vincent, qui en latin le compila a la requeste de mon seigneur saint Loys roy de France', is followed by the translator's preface beginning. 'Pour ce oyseuse est chose...'(f. 2r). The first book begins: 'Pour ce que la multitude des livres...' (f. 3r). Books 2-5 relate the history of mankind from Genesis to the death of Alexander the Great. Explicit: 'Derechief d'alexandre a dydimie' (f. 206v), followed by the prologue and a contents list of book 6, ending 'Cy fine la table des rubrics du sixieme livre du miroir historial. Ensuyt le vie livre' (f. 208v).
Decoration:
4 miniatures in colours and gold with full (f. 3r), or partial (ff. 77r, 133r, 177v) borders, and initials in colours with penwork decoration in gold, or foliate initials in gold and colours, at the beginning of books. Small initials in colours with penwork decoration in gold. Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing, or in gold with black pen-flourishing. Line-fillers in gold and blue. First letters of sentences highlighted in yellow.
The first miniature is by the Master of the White Inscriptions and the remainder are by the Master of Edward IV.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 3r, Vincent writing at a desk; in the background books lying on sloping shelves and a large magnifying glass.
f. 77r, Amram's dream.
f. 133r, The infancy of Cyrus.
f. 177v, The birth of Alexander.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
Royal Manuscripts Digitisation Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107002 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 14 E I vol 1 : Vincent of Beauvais, translated by Jean de Vignay, Le miroir historial (a French translation of the Speculum historiale),… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1201]/040-002107002
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
The first part of a parchment codex bound in two volumes
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_14_E_I_Vol_1 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1479
- End Date:
- 1480
- Date Range:
- 1479-1480
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 470 x 340mm (text space: 295 x 225mm)
Foliation: ff. [ii] + 208 + [vi] (1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf attached to a modern paper flyleaf at the beginning, 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the beginning and at the end, 2 unfoliated blank parchment leaves after f. 2 and 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end).
Collation: (part 1): i6 (ff. [i]-2), ii-xxiii8 (ff. 3-208) xxivi(f. [vi]); catchwords at the end of most gatherings and bifolium signatures.
Layout: Written in two columns of 42 lines.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. The Royal Library binding of brown leather.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Netherlands, S. (Bruges).
Provenance:
Edward IV (b. 1442, d. 1483), King of England and Lord of Ireland: the royal arms of England surmounted by a crowned helm with mantling in Edward's colours of red and blue, with two escutcheons bearing the royal arms differenced by labels of three or five points for his sons, and a Yorkist badge, 'Dieu et mon droit', with a lozenge bearing a white rose of the York family (f. 3r, vol. 1); made for him in the southern Netherlands, probably c. 1479- c. 1480: record of payment to the foreign merchant Philip Maisertuell for books and record of books in the Great Wardrobe Accounts of 1480 (see McKendrick 1994).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the list of books at Richmond Palace of 1535, no. 26 and in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71 (f. 15r).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts: 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:
-
H. Omont, 'Les manuscrits français des rois d'Angleterre au château de Richmond', in Etudes romanes dédiés à Gaston Paris (Paris: É. Bouillon, 1891), pp. 1-13 (p. 6).
G. C. Keidel, 'The History of French Fable Manuscripts', Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 24 (1909) 207-19 (p. 215).
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, p. 139.
Margaret Kekewich, 'Edward IV, William Caxton, and Literary Patronage in Yorkist England', The Modern Language Review, 66 (1971) 481-87 (p. 483).
Janet Backhouse, 'Founders of the Royal Library: Edward IV and Henry VII as Collectors of Illuminated Manuscripts', in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by David Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1987), pp. 23-42 (pp. 25, 39).
Claudine A. Chavannes-Mazel, ‘The Miroir historial of Jean le Bon: The Leiden Manuscript and its Related Copies’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Leiden University, 1988), pp. 106-10.
Scot McKendrick, ‘La Grande Histoire Cesar and the Manuscripts of Edward IV’, in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 2, ed. by Peter Beal and Jeremy Griffiths, (London: British Library, 1990), pp. 109-38, (p. 110).
Claudine A. Chavannes, 'Expanding Rubrics for the Sake of a Layout: Mise-en-Page as Evidence for a Particular Scribe?', in Medieval Book Production, Assessing the Evidence: Proceedings of the Second Conference of The Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Oxford, July 1988, ed. by Linda l. Brownrigg, (Los Altos Hills, California: Anderson-Lovelace, 1990), pp. 117-31 (p. 130, n. 9).
Scot McKendrick, 'Lodewijk von Gruuthuse en de Liberije van Edward IV', in Lodewijk von Gruuthuse: Mecenas en europeen Diplomaat, ca.1427-1492, ed. by M.P.J. Martens (Bruges, 1992), pp. 153-59 (p. 159, n. 89).
Scot McKendrick, 'The Romuléon and the Manuscripts of Edward IV', in England in the Fifteenth Century, ed. by Nicholas Rogers, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 4 (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1994), pp. 149-69 (pp. 161, n. 72, 162, nn. 74, 75, 163, 165, n. 101).
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H1.26.
Justin Clegg, The Medieval Church in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 58, pl. 48.
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London, 2003), p. 61, pl. 46.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), p. 296, n. 6. [exhibition catalogue].
James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives, preface by David Starkey (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 35.
Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), pl. 2-2.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 57 [exhibition catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)