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Royal MS 15 E V
- Record Id:
- 040-002107093
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x0000f1
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 15 E V
- Title:
- Perceforest, Volume 1
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the first volume of Le Roman de Perceforest (Anciennes croniques Dangleterre, faictz et gestes du roy Perceforest, et des chevaliers du Franc Palais), revised by David Aubert (fl. 1458-1479), librarian to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, with his preface (ff. 3-4). The other two volumes of the set are now Royal MSS 19 E III and 19 E II. The three Royal manuscripts correspond to volumes I-III of the 6-volume original produced by David Aubert for Philip the Good in 1459-1460, and were probably part of a printers' copy.
Paris Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal 3483-3485 is the only complete manuscript copy of the text; two other incomplete copies survive: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 106-109 and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 345-348 (see Roussineau, Roman de Perceforest (1987)).
Contents:
ff. 1r-2v: Table of Chapters;
ff. 3r-4r: Prologue;
ff. 4r-333v: Chapters 1-62;
f. 333v: Colophon.
Decoration:
A miniature in colours of a throned figure (Philip the Good), receiving the book from David Aubert, with a full tromp l'oeil border in colours and gold with a space left for a heraldic device, and an illuminated initial ‘L’(es fais)’ in colours and gold, at the beginning of the preface (f. 3r). Initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in white.
The miniature in this volume has been attributed to a follower of the Master of the Prayer Books of c. 1500.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107093 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 15 E V : Perceforest, Volume 1 - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1288]/040-002107093
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- French, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1490
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- Last decade of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 460 x 330mm (written area: 285 x 200mm) in two columns.
Foliation: ff. 333 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end, and 2 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end; 1 blank leaf after f. 2); foliation in red beginning on f. 3.
Script: Gothic cursive (Bâtarde).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Gilded edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Southern Netherlands (Bruges).
Provenance:
Henry VII (b. 1457, d. 1509), king of England and lord of Ireland perhaps belonged to him: inscription on a former 18th-century border mentioning, probably in error, Henry VI instead of Henry VII (see Warner and Gilson, Catalogue (1921).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix, f. 13.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Information About Copies:
-
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, pp. 377-81.
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, pp. 176-75.
I. M. P. Raeside, 'The Manuscripts of Les anciennes croniques de Pise', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 9 (1955) 85-104 (p. 90, n. 22).
Le Roman de Perceforest, Première partie, ed. by Jane Taylor (Geneva: Droz, 1979).
Le Roman de Perceforest: Quatrieme partie, ed. by G. Roussineau (Geneve: Librairie Droz, 1987), pp. xxi-xxxiii.
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), p. 238 n. 118.
Pascale Charron and Marc Gil, 'Les enluminures des manuscrits de David Aubert', in Les manuscrits de David Aubert escripvain bourguignon, ed. by Danielle Quéruel, Cultures et Civilisation Médiévales, 18 (Paris: Press de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1999), pp. 81-100 (pp. 86, 95-96).
Gilles Roussineau, 'David Aubert, copiste du Roman de Perceforest', in Les manuscrits de David Aubert escripvain bourguignon, ed. by Danielle Quéruel, Cultures et Civilisation Médiévales, 18 (Paris: Press de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1999) pp. 35-51 (p. 36, n. 8, 38).
Ursula Pieters, Das Ich im Bild: die Figur des Autors in volksprachigen Handschriften des 13. bis 16. Jahrhunderts (Cologne: Bohlau, 2008), p. 219.
Nigel Bryant, Perceforest: the prehistory of King Arthur's Britain (Cambridge: Brewer, 2011) [a summary edition of the text].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Aubert, David, French calligrapher, fl. 1458-1479,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000083454219,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/90629983
Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, 1457-1509 - Places:
- Bruges, Belgium
- Related Material:
-
From 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, pp. 175-76:
'PREMIER VOLUME des anchiennes cronicques de la Grant Bretaigne que nous appellons maintenant Angleterre' (or, as in colophon, 'des cronicques du roy Percheforest dangleterre'): the Romance of Perceforest compiled (or rather perhaps copied and slightly revised) by David Aubert of Hesdin for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. The first volume corresponds roughly to vol. i of the printed edition in six volumes (Paris, 1528); vols. ii, iii are 19 E. III, 19 E. II (see below). For fuller description of all three see Ward, Cat. of Romances, i, p. 377. After a table of rubrics Aubert's preface (f. 3) beg. 'Les fais des anciens doit on voulen, tiers lire oyr et tres diligament retenir'. Followed (f. 4) by a description of Britain, much shorter than in the printed edition, beg. 'Bretaigne que len dist estre la meilleur', and the story of Count William of Hainault finding the Greek MS. of the narrative (f. 26 b), beg. 'Lan de lincarnation nostre seigneur mil ccc. et sept'. Romance beg. (f. 28) 'Lan de la fondation de la noble cite de Romme quatrecens ans'. The volume ends (ed.1528, fol. clix) 'fist moult de plaintes'. Vellum; ff. 333. 18 in. x 131/2 in. Last quarter of XVcent. The MS. is not in Aubert's hand (cf. 16 G. III). Gatherings usually of 8 1eaves, without catchwords. Sec. fol. in table 'dolant pour ce'; in text 'voisines en continuant'. The format is not quite identical with 19 E. II, III, the columns being narrower and of 39, instead of 37, lines, and there is only one miniature (f. 3), representing Philip enthroned and the author offering the book: at the side a large portable altar. Flemish border of pinks, roses, pansies, birds, &c., on a pale gold ground: space for arms. A note on the 18th cent. binding that the book belonged to Hen. VI is probably an error for VII. Cat. of 1666, f. 13; not in CMA.'