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Royal MS 18 D X
- Record Id:
- 040-002107563
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x000336
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 18 D X
- Title:
- Bible Historiale, Volume 2
- Scope & Content:
-
The second of two volumes, the first being Royal MS 18 D IX. The fourth volume in the set is Royal MS 15 D I, but it was written previously and altered to include the arms of Edward IV. It is not known whether the third volume ever existed. Contains the second edition of the Bible Historiale, a French adaptation of Peter Comestor's Historia scholastica by Guyart des Moulins (c. 1291-95). This volume contains Kings, Books 1-4, Job (f. 165r), the full text of the Psalter (f. 168r), with Canticles and prose Litany (ff. 242v-243v), Proverbs (f. 244r), Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (f. 277v), Wisdom (281v), and Ecclesiasticus (f. 298r). Prologue incipit, 'Ce livre des roix est...' (f. 2r). Text incipit, 'Ung homme de ramathayme sophym du mont effraym..' (f. 2v). Colophon, 'Cy fine le cinquieme et dernier livre de Salomon filz Dauid intitule Ecclesiasticus. Escript anno 1479' (f. 341r). The eleven Canticles include the Benedicite but not the Te Deum. The Litany contains some Norman saints.
Decoration: 5 large miniatures in colours and gold, with full borders containing the royal arms of England, and foliate initials in colours and gold, at the beginning of books (ff. 2r, 36r, 68r, 115v, 168r). 2 one-column miniatures partially in grisaille (f. 165r) and in colours (f. 244r), at the beginning of other books. Initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in white. Line-fillers in blue and rose with penwork decoration in white. Cadels.
Illuminations by the Master of Edward IV.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 2r, The dedication of Samuel in the temple, at the beginning of Kings 1.
f. 36r, Amalekite bringing Saul's crown to David, with the execution of the Amalekite in the background, at the beginnng of Kings 2.
f. 68r, Adonijah assuming royal status, at the beginning of Kings 3.
f. 115v, Ahaziah in bed, sending out his troops, with Elijah calling down fire upon them, in the background, at the beginning of Kings 4.
f. 165r, Job, with the loss of his servants and cattle in the background, at the beginning of the book of Job.
f. 168r, David with stringless harp, and angel with a sword: within, David writing, at the beginning of Psalms.
f. 244r, Solomon instructs Rehoboam at the beginning of Proverbs.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
Royal Manuscripts Digitisation Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
036-002107561
040-002107563 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 18 D IX-X : Bible Historiale, Volumes 1 and 2
Royal MS 18 D X : Bible Historiale, Volume 2 - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1712]/036-002107561[0002]/040-002107563
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_18_D_X (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1479
- End Date:
- 1479
- Date Range:
- 1479
- 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: 430 x 315mm (text space: 280 x 195mm).
Foliation: ff. [iii] + 341 + [ii + iii] (2 unfoliated leaves at the beginning, 2 after f. 167 and 1 at the end are medieval parchment flyleaves; the remainder are modern paper flyleaves).
Collation: i-vii8(ff. 1-56), viii3(ff. 57-59), ix8(ff. 60-67), x6(ff. 68-73), xi8(ff. 74-81), xii2(ff. 82-83), xiii-xiv8(ff. 84-99), xv6(ff. 100-105), xvi-xvii8(ff. 106-121), xviii2)ff. 122-123), xix-xxiii8(ff. 124-161), xiv8(ff. 162-167 + [ii]), xv-xix8 (ff. 168-207), xx-xxi6(ff. 208-219), xxii-xxvi8(ff. 220-259), xxvii6(260-265), xxviii-xxxvi8(ff. 266-337), xxxvii6(ff. 338-341 + [ii]). Catchwords and bifolium signatures.
Script: Gothic cursive (bâtarde).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding.
- 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 (ff. 2r, 36r, 68r, 168r), surmounted by a crown with two shields bearing the same arms differenced by labels of three points for Edward IV's two sons, and the Yorkist badge of a white rose en soleil and motto 'Dieu et mon droit' (volume 1, Royal 18 D IX, f. 1r, etc); written for him probably in Bruges, in 1479: inscribed 'Cy fine le cinquieme et / dernier livre de salomon / filz david intitule Ec/clesiasticus / Escript a[nn]o 1479' (f. 341r).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the list of books at Richmond Palace of 1535, no. 48; and in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 14.
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:
-
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 (pp. 7-8).
Samuel Berger, La bible française au moyen âge (Paris: Champion, 1884), pp. 389-90.
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. 314.
F. Winkler, Die flämische Buchmalerei des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts: Künstler und Werke von den Brüdern van Eyck bis zu Simon Bening (Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1925), pp. 137-8, 179.
Margaret Kekewich, 'Edward IV, William Caxton, and Literary Patronage in Yorkist England', The Modern Language Review, 66 (1971) 481-87 (p. 483).
A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library, 2 vols (London, 1979), I, no. 906.
Guy N. Deutsch, Iconographie de l'illustration de Flavius Josephe au temps de Jean Fouquet, Arbeiten zur Literatur und Geschichte des hellenistischen Judentums, 12 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986), pp. 136, 137, 144, 155.
Georges Dogaer, Flemish Miniature Painting in the 15th and 16th Centuries (Amsterdam: B. M. Israel, 1987), p. 117.
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 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1987), pp. 23-41 (pp. 26, 28, 39).
Walter Cahn, 'Margaret of York's Guide to the Pilgrimage Churches of Rome', in Margaret of York, Simon Marmion, and the Visions of Tondal, ed. by Thomas Kren (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992), pp. 89-98 (p. 93).
Lilian M. C. Randall, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, 3 vols (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989-1997), III: Belgium, 1250-1530, 2 parts, I, no. 284.
McKendrick, Scot, ‘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, (pp. 110, 116-20).
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 (pp. 154, 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. 68, 162, nn. 74, 75, 164, 165, n. 101).
Bodo Brinkmann, Die flämische Buchmalerei am Ende des Burgunderreichs : der Meister des Dresdener Gebetbuchs und die Miniaturisten seiner Zeit (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997), pp. 145, 293 - 296, 397, 399.
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. 45 n. 21.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H1.45.
Akiko Komada, Les illustrations de la Bible Historiale: les manuscrits réalisés dans le Nord, 4 vols (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Paris IV, 2000), III, no. 38 pp. 767-69.
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 48.
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. 83, pp. 224-5, 295, 297, 300-03, 304. [exhibition catalogue]. T
he Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at the New York Public Library, ed. by Jonathan J. G. Alexander, James H. Marrow, and Lucy Freeman Sandler (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), p. 107 n. 4 [exhibition catalogue].
Hanno Wijsman, 'Two Petals of a Fleur: The 'Copenhagen Fleur des Histoires' and the Production of Illuminated Manuscripts in Bruges around 1480', in Fund og Forskning I Det Kongelige Biblioteks, 47 (2008), 17-72 (p. 69, n. 109, pl. 24).
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 42.
A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges, ed. by Nigel Morgan and Stella Panayotova, Part one, vol. II: The Meuse Region, Southern Netherlands (London: Harvey Miller, 2009), p. 158.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 54 [exhibition catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)