Royal MS 19 A XVII

'LA CHASSE du cerf volant, fait par Maistre Jehan Molinet' (d. 1507): a poem (18 x 8 lines, rhymes abaabbcc), descriptive of the expedition of Charles VIII of France into Italy in 1494, &c., with a prologue beg. 'Ia soit ce, treshault et puissant prince, que la froide'. Included, under the title of 'Le voyage de Naples', in Les faictz et dictz de . . . Maistre Jehan Molinet, Paris, 1540, p. 123. Followed (f. 4 b) by a similar poem of fourteen stanzas entitled 'La prinse et mort du cerf vollant, fait par le songeur', commemorative of the death of King Charles VIII at Amboise, 7 Apr. 1498. The flying stag was first adopted by Charles VI as a device (see Mrs. Bury Palliser, Historic Devices, 1870, p. 108). First poem beg. :-

'Quel title exquis, quel nom resplendissant Bien flourissant escripray ien mon liure.'

Second beg.:-

'Gens de deduyt qui tant amez quon chasse Voyez la chasse au cerf tant pourchasse.'

Colophon, 'Escript de la main du lacquet de monseigneur labbe de sainct Bertin en Sainctomer' (cf. 19 A. XVI).

Paper (vellum fly-leaf); ff. i + 7. Folio. 111/4 in. x 71/2 in. Early XVI cent. Sec. fol. 'Tygres'. Initials in colours and on f. 1 an illuminated border with the arms of France and England quartered. Perhaps included in the preceding in cat. of 1666.