Royal MS 16 G III

'VITA CHRISTI' and 'La Vengance de la mort Jhesu Crist'. The same two works occur in Paris MS. fonds fr. 181 (formerly 6844), executed for Louis de Gruthuyse (see Van Praet, Recherches sur Louis de Bruges, p. 119). The style of the preface to art. 2 rather suggests the compiler of 16 G. I, and it is not impossible that David Aubert compiled both MSS., as well as writing this. contents:

1. 'Cy commence la table des rubrices de ce present liure, qui est intitule Vita Christi et est declaire au long en sept petitions selon les vii. iours de la septimaine'; the work follows. Substantially it is a translation of the Meditationes Vitae Christi commonly ascribed to S. Bonaventura, but really by a Franciscan of Tuscany, perhaps Johannes de Caulibus (cf. 7 A. I, art. 5, and another translation below, 20 B. IV). It is supplemented, however, by large additions from the Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony and from other sources. Preface (f. 8, mainly from Ludolph) beg. 'La vie et conversation de nostre seigneur Jhesucrist, filz de dieu, dieu et homme'; text, 'Comme par tres long temps et espace de cinq mil et enuiron deux cens ans'. Ends 'garir et saner ou nom de nostre seigneur jhesu, le filz de dieu, saulueur du monde, roy de gloire, qui aueuc le pere', &c. Colophon, 'A tant prent fin ce liure intitule vita Christi'. f. 1.

2. 'Cy commence la vengance de la mort Jhesucrist nostre seignur, et comment icelle mort fut vengie sur Iudas qui le vendi, sur Pilate qui le iuga et sur les Iuifs qui le misrent cruellement a mort'. Most of the story as told here follows closely the version of the legend given by Jacobus de Voragine in the Legenda Aurea, legends for S. Matthias, the Passion, and S. James the Less (ed. Graesse, capp. 45, 53, 67). lt has, however, one peculiar feature, viz. that after Vespasian is cured by Albanus he delays to perform his vow of vengeance and is punished with leprosy and cured by the vernicle after sending four knights to Judaea to seek for relics, Verona [Veronica] being warned in a dream to go and meet them. This duplication, by which both Tiberius and Vespasian are the subject of vernicle-miracles, and Vespasian suffers both from worms and leprosy, looks like an attempt to reconcile the story of the French chanson de geste (cf. 16 E. VIII, art. 3) with the legends of Jacobus (see a comparison of the variant forms in J. A. Herbert's introduction to the poem Titus and Vespasian, Roxburghe Club ed., 1905). Beg. 'Pourtant que la passion de nostre seignur Jhesuerist fut en tous endrois iniuste et despiteuse'; ends 'ceulz qui coulpes y eurent'. Colophon, 'Cy fine le traittie intitule la vengance. Escript par Dauid Aubert en la bonne ville de Gand, lan de grace mil cccc. lxxix'. f. 193.

Vellum ; ff. 212. 15¹/₄ in. x 11 in. Written at Ghent, A. D. 1479, by David Aubert, scribe to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Other examples of his hand are, Brussels MSS. 9066-9068. (dated 1458, in New Pat. Soc., Facsimiles, pl. 44), Oxford, Douce 365, and Paris, Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 92, while in other MSS., e.g. 15 E. V, he is compiler only. Gatherings of 8 leaves (ii^l, xii⁶, xxiii⁴, last⁶). Double columns. Sec. fol. in table 'Comment ilz furent'; in text, 'familiarite'. Illuminated initials, nine miniatures, and borders of foliage, fruit, birds, &c., on a white ground. The miniatures (see pl. 98) are attributed by Comte Paul Durrieu to Alexander Bening (Gaz.des Beaux-Arts, 1891, p. 364). Directions in French, e.g. no. 7 below. The subjects are:

1. Translator at work; presentation of the book to a patron. f. 8.

2. In one compartment, God the Father, enthroned, with Christ, and two kneeling figures; above, the Holy Ghost, and in the other compartment, the Annunciation. f. 18 b.

3. The Nativity. f. 33 b (small).

4. Baptism of Christ. f. 59b.

5. Four compartments: election of the disciples; Christ going into the desert; feeding the 5000; healing the sick. f. 86.

6. Four compartments: entry into Jerusalem; cleansing of the temple; the woman taken in adultery; Judas selling Christ. f. 113.

7. Comment nostre seigneur fut mene par les Juifs deuant Cayphas euesque des Juifs et autres de la loy.' f. 141.

8. Two compartments: Christ's resurrection; Christ appears to Mary (in a room). f. 168 b.

9. Four compartments: find of the infant Judas; he kills his fosterbrother; he kills his father ; Pilate with Cyborea and Judas. f. 193.

Old large numbering 38. No. 69 in cat. of MSS. at Richmond Palace in 1535 (cf. 15 D. I); cat. of 1666, f. 13 b; not in CMA.