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Royal MS 15 E I
- Record Id:
- 040-002107088
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x0000ed
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 15 E I
- Title:
- William of Tyre, Histoire d'Outremer
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
Histoire d'Outremer, or Livre d’Eracles, a history of the Crusades in French, based on Guillelmus, Archbishop of Tyre (b. 1130, d. c.1190), Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, with a continuation to 1231.
Decoration:
18 large miniatures in colours and gold with full borders incorporating a coat of arms and banner (f. 16r) or partial foliate borders, and foliate initials in colours and gold (ff. 77r, 101v, 150v, 170r, 185r, 241r, 259r, 280v, 300r, 330v, 335r, 347r, 357r, 368v, 375v, 383r, 438r). 36 one-column miniatures in colours and gold, with partial borders and foliate initials in colours and gold (ff. 32v, 47r, 51r, 56r, 69v, 74r, 85r, 91r, 98v, 108v, 116r, 122r, 128v, 134r, 137v, 155v, 161v, 177v, 192v, 209r, 224v, 266r, 273v, 293v, 308r, 317v, 321v, 342r, 353r, 365v, 377r, 393r, 404v, 420v, 433v, 450v). Initials in gold with black pen-flourishing, or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Line-fillers in gold and blue.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 16r: Heraclius brings back the true Cross to Jerusalem; in the background an angel meets him at the gates;
f. 32v: Crusaders attack the walls of Nicaea;
f. 47r: A night attack by the Greeks on the Count of Toulouse;
f. 51r: Battle between Suliman and the Count of Toulouse;
f. 56r: Suliman attacks Bohemond and others;
f. 69v: Council of war before the attack on Antioch;
f. 74r: The destruction of Swain and his army by the Turks;
f. 77r: The governor of Antioch and his court, sending a letter to the Turks asking for assistance;
f. 85r: The siege of Rhodes by Corbagat or Kerboga, the governor of Mosul;
f. 91r: Crusader council of war;
f. 98v: A monk, perhaps Peter Bartholemew, handing over the spear used to pierce Christ's side;
f. 101v: Review of the crusader armies at Antioch;
f. 108v: The Lord of Asaz pays homage to Godfrey;
f. 116r: Godfrey besieges Gabala;
f. 122r: The walls of Jerusalem;
f. 128v: Procession of the pilgrims to the Mount of Olives;
f. 134r: Slaughter of the Turks in the Temple;
f. 137r: Duke Godfrey is presented in the Holy Sepulcre as ruler of Jerusalem;
f. 150v: Godfrey on his deathbed;
f. 155v: Reconciliation of Baldwin and the Patriarch;
f. 161v: Attack on Jaffa;
f. 170r: The marriage of Bohemond and Constance of France;
f. 177v: Seige of Tripoli;
f. 185r: Baldwin recieves a message from the Countess of Sicily;
f. 192v: The coronation of Baldwin II;
f. 209r: Siege of Tyre;
f. 224v: Marriage of Fulk and Melisende, with 'Moises' inscribed on the wall above;
f. 241r: Siege of Caesarea by the Emperor of Constantinople;
f. 259r: The coronation of Baldwin III;
f. 266r: The Crusaders are saved from Greek fire when the wind changes following the prayer of Robert of Nazareth;
f. 273v: The Turks defeat the Emperor Conrad;
f. 280v: The siege of Damascus, with the armies of King Louis of France (holding a standard with the fleur-de-lis) and Conrad, the Holy Roman Emperor (holding a standard with the double-headed imperial eagle) and King Baldwin of Jerusalem (holding a flag with the English lion instead of the insignia of the Latin Kingdom);
f. 293v: The Count of Tripoli is killed in battle;
f. 300r: A skirmish with the Turks at Askalon;
f. 308r; Adrian IV receives the bishops of Palestine;
f. 317v: The surrender of Aleppo to the Turks;
f. 321v: Baldwin III visits Emperor Manuel Comnenus;
f. 330v: The coronation of Amaury (Almaric);
f. 335r: Geoffrey Martel of Anjou and Hugh of Lusignan defeat Nureddin;
f. 342r: Hugh of Caesarea has an audience with the Caliph;
f. 347r: Battle between Amaury and Siracon;
f. 353r: Marriage of Amaury and Maria Comnena with 'Maria' inscribed above;
f. 357r: Attack on Tanis in Egypt;
f. 365v: The capture of Gaza by Saladin's army;
f. 368v: Amaury visits Constantinople;
f. 375v: Amaury is presented with treasure outside the walls of Caesarea Philippi;
f. 377r: The coronation of Baldwin IV;
f. 383r: Manuel Comnenus is defeated by the Turks;
f. 393r: Baldwin and the Turks skirmish in a forest;
f. 404v: Pilgrim ship arrives in Damietta in Egypt;
f. 420v: Andronicus is made to ride on a donkey as punishment;
f. 433v: The defeat of Guy of Lusignan by Saladin and the loss of the Cross;
f. 438r: The siege of Jerusalem by Saladin;
f. 450v: King Richard I lands in Palermo, Sicily.
Attributed to five artists by Kren and McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance (2003): the Master of the Flemish Boethius (ff. 69v, 77r, 91r, 108r, 137v, 150v, 155v, 170r, 185r, 192v, 241r, 259r, 438r), his two assistants (ff. 177v, 209r, 224v, 266r, 273v, 293v, 300r, 308r, 317v, 321v, 330v, 335r, 342r, 347r, 353r, 357r, 365r, 368v, 375v, 377r, 383r, 393r, 420v, 433v, 450v), the Master of Edward IV (f. 404v), and another artist identified with one of the illuminators of Paris, BnF, ms fr. 82 (ff. 32v, 47r, 51r, 56r, 74r, 85r, 98v, 101v, 116r, 122r, 128v, 134r, 162).
Catchwords written vertically and bifolium signatures (see ff. 130, 147). Foliation in red beginning on f. 16.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107088 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 15 E I : William of Tyre, Histoire d'Outremer - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1285]/040-002107088
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_15_E_I (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1478
- End Date:
- 1481
- Date Range:
- c. 1479-c. 1480
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 465 x 340mm (text space: 290 x 195mm).
Layout: Written in two columns of 39 lines.
Foliation: ff. 495 (+ 1 unfoliated modern paper flyleaf and 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Royal Library brown-leather binding with the royal arms of England and a date of 1757; gilt edges.
- 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 and encircled by the Garter; a banner with the royal arms of England and a badge of the rose-en-soleil with the Yorkist motto 'Dieu et mon droit' (f. 16r); made for him in the Southern Netherlands (Bruges), 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, 'Manuscripts of Edward IV', 1994).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): probably to be identified with 'Gordeffroy de Billon' included in the list of books at Richmond Palace of 1535, no. 44.
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 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:
-
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. 175.
F. Winkler, Die flämische Buchmalerei des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts: Künstler und Werke von den Brüdern van Eyck bis zu Simon Bening / Mit 91 Lichtdrucktafeln (Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1925), p. 179.
Margaret Kekewich, 'Edward IV, William Caxton, and Literary Patronage in Yorkist England', The Modern Language Review, 66 (1971) 481-87 (p. 486).
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 Press, 1987), pp. 23-42 (pp. 25, 39, pl. 2).
Jaroslav Folda, 'Manuscripts of the History of Outremer by William of Tyre: A Handlist', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 27 (1973), 90-95 (p. 94).
Otto Pächt, 'La terre de Flandres', Pantheon, 36 (1978), 3-16 (p. 14).
Scot McKendrick, 'Lodewijk van Gruuthuse en de Librije van Edward IV', in Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, Mecenas en Europees Diplomaats ca. 1427-1492, ed. by M. P. J. Marten (Bruges: Stichting, 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. 162, n. 75, 165, n. 101).
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 180.
Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard III’s Books: Ideals and Reality in the Life and Library of a Medieval Prince (Stroud, Gloucestershire, Sutton, 1997), pl. XI.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H1.42.
Pamela Porter, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), p. 58, p. 60.
Jessica Dobratz, 'Conception and Reception of William of Tyre’s Livre d’Eracles in 15th-century Burgundy', in ’Als Ich Can’: Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), I, pp. 583-609 (p. 585).
Hanno Wijjsman, 'William Lord Hastings, Les Faits de Jacques De Lalaing et le Maître aux inscriptions blanches à propos du manuscrit français 16830 de la Bibliothèque nationale de France', in ’Als Ich Can’: Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), II, pp. 1641-64 (p. 1653).
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 67.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: Getty Museum, 2003), no. 87, pp. 4, 224, 282, 304, 310-11. [exhibition catalogue].
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 100.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), p. 293 [exhibition catalogue].
Erin K Donovan, 'A Royal Crusade History: The Livre d’Eracles and Edward IV’s Exile in Burgundy', Electronic British Library Journal (2014), art. 6, online at https://www.bl.uk/eblj/2014articles/pdf/ebljarticle62014.pdf.
Philip Handyside, The Old French William of Tyre (Leiden: Brill, 2015), no. F.38, pp. 125, 216, 266.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)