Royal MS 19 A VI

EXTRACTS and Translations, in French, of moral treatises, viz 1. 'Cy commence vng tractie de conseil extraict du second volume de la thoison dor de mon tresredoubte seigneur monseigneur le duc Charles de Bourgongne. compile par reuerend pere en dieu Guillaume euesque de Tournay.' Guillaume Fillastre, Bishop of Tournay 1460-1473 and Chancellor of the Golden Fleece, completed in 1472 and dedicated to Charles the Bold the first volume of his projected six Toisons, and soon afterwards the second or Toison de Jacob from which this extract is taken (ed. 1516, ii, foll. xcvcviii), cf. Paulin Paris, Les MSS. François, i, pp. 269-277. Beg. 'Socrates le philozophe vuelt innuer et dire'; ends 'esmeu et tourble sans cause'. Colophon, 'Cy fine ce present tractie de conseil'. f. 1 b.

2. 'Cy commence le liure de Tulle appelle de viellesse': anonymous condensed translation of Cicero's Cato Maior or De Senectute. Beg. 'O noble philozophe et vailliant duc Cathon'; ends 'ie uiueray pardurablement en gloire, a laquelle nous ottroie paruenir cellui qui vit et regne per infinita secula seculorum. amen'. f. 110.

3. 'Cy sensuiuent les enseignemens de Cathon quil bailla son filz pour le endoctriner en bonnes meurs': prose translation of the Disticha of Pseudo-Cato, apparently by the same translator, who regards them as the work of M. Porcius Cato the elder (Cato Maior of the De Senectute). At the end, however, he introduces a further blunder by adding an appendix 'de la mort de Cathon au vray', which refers to the death of M. Porcius Cato of Utica. Preface beg. 'Puis que iay parle de la mort de sy grant philozophe'; translation, 'Cum animaduerterem, &c.: Comme ie Cathon regardasse et appercheusse'. Appendix (f. 171 b) beg. 'Moult dautres parolles et prouerbes prouffitables dit et escripuy lors Cathon . . . Mais nous raconterons encoires au vray la mort de Cathon en la maniere comme cy apres sensuit. Pour parler de la mort'; ends 'fut son ame du corps separee'. f. 158.

At the end of art. 3 is an erased rubric, which apparently reads '[Cy commence?] vng petit traictic [qui] parle de la nature et de la propriete des oyseaux de proye' (cf. 19 B. X, f. 150).

Vellum ; ff. i + 176. 11 in. x 7 1/2 in. End of XV or beg. of XVI cent. Gatherings (beg. f. 2) of 8 leaves (xiv⁴, last ³). Sec. fol. 'et meismes'. Illuminated initials and three miniatures with borders in Flemish style of rather coarse execution and much oxidized. The subjects are:-

1. A king enthroned, three courtiers seated on each side, in a colonnade behind which gardens and spires are seen. f. 2.

2. Cato and Scipio conversing in a hall from which steps lead to a garden on r., in which gardeners are working. f. 110.

3. Cato seated with book, instructing his son. f. 158.

On f. 1 is the signature (as owner ?) of E[dward Stafford, Duke of] Buckingham (exec. 1521). Afterwards (or before ?) the Ms. belonged to Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester (d. 1526), whose arms within the Garter (quarterly, France and England within a bordure compony arg. and az., over all an escutcheon of pretence, party per pale gu. and az., three lioncels arg., for Herbert) are introduced into the border of the first miniature. He married Lady Elizabeth Herbert in 1492 and became K.G. in 1496. Old large numbering (f. i) 60. Cat. of 1666, f. 14; not in CMA.