Royal MS 19 A XVI

'TRAICTIE fait entre le Roy de France, Dengleterre, et monseigneur larcheduc, par Rhethoricque, le iiiie jour de Juillet, 1499': an ode (17 x 8 lines, rhymes abaabbcc, followed by a ballade in 3 x 11 + 5 lines) on the treaties of peace between Louis XII, Henry VII, and the Archduke Philip, beginning apparently (see l. 105) with 21 July, 1498, and concluding at Arras, 4 July, 1499. Neither of these dates corresponds precisely with any document printed by J. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, Hague, 1726, iii, pt. ii, but instruments printed pp. 396, 409, 412 refer to the same transaction (cf. also Add. MS. 30689, ff. 154, 168 b). The poem is anonymous, but the style is very like that of Jean Molinet (see 19 A. XVII), and the words 'par Rhethoricque' may possibly refer to the gild called Puy de Rhétorique at Valenciennes to which Molinet belonged (see Hédouin in Archives du Nord, 3e Sér., i, p. 212). Ode beg.:-

'Chantres joyeulx qui musicque hantez Et inuentez des faictz vng million.'

Ballade beg.:-

'Ou est eubal et Thubal les chanteurs Pan et cler accordans leur musette.'

Colophon, 'Escript de la main du lacquet de monseigneur labbe de sainct Bertin en Saintomer' (cf. 19 A. XVII). The abbot in question is Antoine de Bergues, author of a history of the Golden Fleece (see Sweert, Athenae Belgicae, p. 130).

Vellum; ff. 6. 11 in. x 71/2 in. Circ. 1500. Sec. fol. 'Courrez'. Initials in red and blue. Bound with 19 A. I, 19 A. X, 19 A. XVII, and 19 A. XXI. No. 100 of the cat. of MSS. at Richmond Palace in 1535 (cf. 15 D. I); cat. of 1666, f. 13; not in CMA.