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Royal MS 16 F II
- Record Id:
- 040-002107213
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x000167
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 16 F II
- Title:
- Charles d'Orleans, Poetry; Pseudo-Heloise, Epistles; 'Les demands d'amours'; 'Le livre dit grace entiere'.
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-136v: Charles d'Orleans, Poetry (a selection of 166 poems, many of them written during his captivity in England from 1415 to 1440).
ff. 137r-187v: Pseudo-Heloise, 'Les epistres de labesse Heloys du Paraclit, laquelle abaye maistre Abaielart fonda aincois quil mourust', a prose discourse on love, put into the mouth of Heloise and addressed to 'ung sien disciple qui Gaultier ot nom'. It has of course no connection with the Latin epistles of Abelard and Heloise. Incipit: 'Tous ceulx qui ce livre veullent entendre oiuent savoir que quant maistre Pierre Abaielart'; The text proper opens: 'Premierement elle lui demonstre se il la veult croire'. Explicit: 'yssy du vergier et reuint a son maistre'.
ff. 188r-210r: 'Les demandes en amours': eighteen questions in verse, followed by eighty-seven in prose.
ff. 210v-248v: 'Le livre dit grace entiere sur le fait du gouuernement dun prince', a manual on princely education.
Decoration:
Illuminated by 2 artists: the miniatures and borders on ff. 1r, 73r are perhaps by a Dutch artist working in London (see Kren and McKendrick 2003) who might have started the work (according to Backhouse 1987, 1995, 2000, they were executed already during the first campaign, for Edward IV); and 4 miniatures are by the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500 (ff. 89r, 137r, 188r, 210r) working under the direction of Quentin Poulet, Henry VII's librarian from 1492, who, according to Backhouse 1995, completed the text on added pages (ff. 137r-v, 188-189v, 210r-v).
6 large miniatures at the openings of texts (f. 1r, 73r, 89r, 137r, 188r, 210v). Foliate initial in colours and gold (f. 73r). Large initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in gold (ff. 1r-138v), some with the royal arms of England or heraldic lions (ff. 21v, 59r, 59v, 76r). Smaller initials in gold on blue or rose grounds with penwork decoration in gold. Line-fillers in blue and gold or in rose and gold. Calligraphic initials and cadels (e.g., ff. 82v, 139v).
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 1r, A lady (Jeunesse) presents a kneeling youth (the poet) to a lord and lady (Bel Accueil and Plaisance) accompanied by musicians, courtiers, and a jester (See 'Poème de la Prison', in Héricault [ed.] 1874, p. 5). This is a more likely interpretation (see Warner 1921, lc) than those given by Michel and Vallet de Viriville. In the foreground is a gilt fountain. In the border at the sides, on a grey ground, are mottoes 'La plus eure' and 'Dieu et mon droit', pseudo-arms of Henry VII and his queen, Elizabeth of York (France and England quarterly, impaling quarterly, 1st, France and England, 2nd and 3rd, or, across gules, for De Burgh, 4th six or and azure, on a chief of the first 2 pallets between 2 girons of the second, over all an inescutcheon argent, for Mortimer) and arms of Prince Arthur (France and England, a label of 3 points argent) separated by roses en soleil. Below, on a blue ground, a red rose supported by a white greyhound and red dragon between a red and a white rose. The heraldry in the border of this miniature appears to have been repurposed for Henry VII and his family during the last decade of the fifteenth century (see Royal Manuscripts 2011, no. 133).
f. 73r, The Tower of London with London Bridge, the Custom's House, and the city, behind. The Duke is seen writing within, also at a window, and in the court sending a letter. Border on a gold ground, foliage, flowers and fruit, arms of Edward IV supported by white lions (the Lions of March).
f. 89r, Paris with a view of Notre-Dame. Above (in reference to the poem 'France iadis on te souloit nommer') are the arms, ampoule, and oriflamme of France. In the foreground is the Crucifixion, the Virgin and nine kneeling figures (representative of France?). In the border, on a gold ground, in perspective, foliage, flowers, fruit, butterflies and birds (cocks), the Prince's ostrich feather with 'Ic dene' and crowned portcullis and the red rose supported as before.
f. 137r, The abbess Heloise and her pupil seated; a group of ladies listening. A full foliate border with the arms, devices and mottoes of Henry VII: a portcullis surmounted by a crown, a red rose with white greyhound and red dragon as supporters, an ostrich feather piercing a scroll on which is the motto 'ic dene', and a scroll with the motto, 'dieu et mon droit'.
f. 188r, Chastel d'Amours: three ladies at the gate to the Castle of Love converse with a young man. Border in the same style as the previous two, with ostrich feather and the arms of Henry VII and Elisabeth over a scroll 'Dieu et mon droet'. In the lower portion of the border, red and white (and quarterly, red and white) roses.
f. 210v, Under a canopy, the prince reading from a roll to two priests and four others, a grey hound. In the background, the prince kneels before an altar and attends a mass. The border in the same style as the previous, with ostrich feather and two roses (one supported by a white greyhound and a red dragon) coloured quarterly.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107213 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 16 F II : Charles d'Orleans, Poetry; Pseudo-Heloise, Epistles; 'Les demands d'amours'; 'Le livre dit grace… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1378]/040-002107213
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_16_F_II (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1483
- End Date:
- 1500
- Date Range:
- 1483; 1492-1500
- 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:
-
Material: Parchment codex.
Foliation: ff. i + 248 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end, 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 2 at the end; f. i is a medieval parchment flyleaf).
Dimensions: 370 x 260 mm (text space: 220 x 160 mm).
Decoration: Large initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in gold (ff. 1r-138v), some with the royal arms of England or heraldic lions (ff. 21v, 59r, 59v, 76r). Smaller initials in gold on blue or rose grounds with penwork decoration in gold. Line-fillers in blue and gold or in rose and gold. Calligraphic initials and cadels (e.g., ff. 82v, 139v).
Binding: Post-1600. Royal library binding of brown leather with the royal arms and a date of 1757; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Bruges and London(?).
Edward IV (b. 1442, d. 1483), king of England and lord of Ireland: perhaps originally intended for him, but left unfinished after his death in 1483: the royal arms of England in initials (ff. 21v, 59), the Yorkist badge of a white rose en soleil (f. 1r), and the Lions of March as supporters of the Royal arms (f. 73r).
Henry VII (b. 1457, d. 1509), king of England and lord of Ireland adapted for him: the royal arms of England (ff. 1r, 73r) and the arms of his wife, Elisabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, surmounted by crowns (f. 1r) and impaled (f. 188r), with two mottos 'la plus eure' (f. 1r) and 'Dieu et mon droit (ff. 1r, 137r, 188r), and the arms of Edward the Confessor and George (f. 1r); two shields bearing the royal arms of England labelled with three points, perhaps for prince Arthur (f. 1r), red rose of Lancaster supported by a white greyhound and a red dragon between red and white roses (ff. 1r, 89r, 137r, 210v), ostrich feather with a motto 'Ic dene', and a Beaufort's badge of a portcullis used by Henry VII (ff. 89r, 137r, etc).
Grevais De La Roue, abbot: inscription of the title in his hand (f. i verso) (see Warner and Gilson, 1921).
?Shelfmark of a very large number in brown ink (Carley's 'Old Large Number') '53'.
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the list of books at Richmond Palace of 1535, no. 84, and in the catalogue of 1666, Royal appendix 71, f. 15.
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.
- Publications:
-
Francisque Michel, Rapport à M. le Ministre de l'instruction publique sur les anciens monumens de l'histoire et de la littérature de la France qui se trouvent dans les bibliothèques de l'Angleterre (Paris, 1839), pp. 61-72 [for a list of the Charles d'Orleans poems in this manuscript].
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. 10).
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 317.
G. F. Warner and J. P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 203-04.
The Beginnings of English Topographical and Landscape Drawing: An Exhibition Held in the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum 1949-1950 (London: British Museum, 1949), no. 3.
Charles d’Orléans: Poésies, ed. by Pierre Champion (Paris: Champion, 1923-27), pp. x-xii. Flemish Art 1300-1700, Winter Exhibition 1953-54 (London: Royal Academy of Arts ,1953-1954), no. 615.
Peter Dronke, Abelard and Heloise in Medieval Testimonies, The Twenty-sixth W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture Delivered in the University of Glasgow, 29th October 1976 (Glasgow: University of Glasgow Press, 1976), pp. 52-54.
Gordon Kipling, The Triumph of Honour: Burgundian Origin of Elizabethan Renaissance (The Hague: Leiden University Press, 1977), pp. 42-46.
David Fallows, 'Words and Music in Two English Songs of the Mid-15th Century: Charles d'Orléans and John Lydgate,' Early Music, 5 (1977), 38-43.
Gordon Kipling, 'Henry VII and the Origin of Tudor Patronage', in Patronage in the Renaissance, ed. by G. Fitch Lytle and S. Orgel (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 117-64 (p. 127).
Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520-1620, ed. by R. Strong with contributions by V. J. Marrell (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983), no. 1 [exhibition catalogue].
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. 36-38).
Timothy Hobbs, 'Prosimetrum in Le Livre dit Grace Entière sur le fait du Gouvernement d'un Prince, the Governance of a Prince Treatise in British Library Royal 16 F II', in Littera est Sensus: Essays on Form and Meaning in Medieval French Literature Presented to John Fox, ed. by D. A. Trotter (Exeter: University of Exeter, 1989), pp. 49-62 (pp. 53-54).
Janet Backhouse, 'A Salute to the Tudor Rose', in Miscellanea Martin Wittek: Album de codicologie et de paléographie offert à Martin Wittek, ed. by Anny Raman and Eugène Manning, (Louvain: Peeters, 1993), pp. 1-13 (p. 8, fig. 4).
Leslie Brook, Two Late Medieval Love Treatises: 'Heloise's Art d'Amour' and a Collection of 'Demandes d'Amour' (Oxford: Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and Literature, 1993), pp. 1-3.
Janet Backhouse, 'Illuminated Manuscripts Associated with Henry VII and Members of his Immediate Family', in The Reign of Henry VII: Proceedings of the 1993 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Benjamin Thompson (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1995), pp. 175-87 (p. 176).
Julia Boffey, 'Charles of Orleans Reading Chaucer's Dream Visions', in Mediaevalitas: Reading the Middle Ages, ed. by Piero Boitani and Anna Torti (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1996), pp. 43-61 (pp. 43, 61).
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 189.
Janet Backhouse, 'Pictures from the Past: Using and Abusing Medieval Manuscript Imagery', Medieval Research Centre: Text and Studies, 1 (Leicester: University of Leicester, 1997), pl. 6.
James P. Carley, 'Marks in Books and the Libraries of Henry VIII', Papers-Bibliographical Society of America, 91 (1997), 583-606 (p. 605).
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. 252 n. 50.
Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, ‘The Device of Queen Elizabeth Woodville: A Gillyflower or Pink’, The Ricardian 11 (1997), 17-24.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H1.77.
A. E. B. Coldiron, Canon, Period, and the Poetry of Charles of Orleans. Found in Translation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), pp. 8, 44-45, 79-85, 182-85.
A. E. B. Coldiron, ‘Translation, Canons, and Cultural Capital: Manuscripts and Reception of Charles d’Orleans’s English Poetry’, in Charles of Orléans in England (1415-1440), ed. by Mary-Jo Arn (Cambridge, MA: Brewer, 2000), 183-214 (pp. 186-87).
Janet Backhouse, 'Charles of Orléans Illuminated', in Charles of Orléans in England (Cambridge, MA: Brewer, 2000), pp. 157-63 (pp. 157-59).
C. Fletcher, R. Evans, and S. Brown, 1000 Years of English Literature: A Treasury of Literary Manuscripts (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003), p. 38.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), no.119, pp. 394, 398-400, 403.
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 94.
James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives, preface by David Starkey (London: British Library, 2004), p. 41, pl. 40.
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 24.
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), pl. opposite p. 7, pl. 98.
Kathleen L. Scott, Tradition and Innovation in Later Medieval English Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 163, n. 223.
P. Howard, The British Library: A Treasure House of Knowledge (London: Scala Publishers, 2008), no. 48.
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 127.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 133 [exhibition catalogue].
- Exhibitions:
- Picturing places, (online), 27 April 2017-
The Middle Ages, (online), 26 March 2015- - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript was originally intended for Edward IV but was probably not presented to him before his death in 1483. Illuminated by 2 artists: the miniatures and borders on ff. 1r and 73r are perhaps by a Dutch artist working in London (see Kren and McKendrick 2003) who might have started the work (according to Backhouse 1987, 1995, 2000, they were executed already during the first campaign, for Edward IV); and 4 miniatures are by the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500 (ff. 89r, 137r, 188r, 210r) working under the direction of Quentin Poulet, Henry VII's librarian from 1492, who, according to Backhouse 1995, completed the text on added pages (ff. 137r-v, 188r-189v, 210r-v).