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Royal MS 19 C IV
- Record Id:
- 040-002107614
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x000368
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 19 C IV
- Title:
- Le songe du vergier, attributed to Évrart de Trémaugon
- Scope & Content:
-
Le Songe du vergier is a French translation of the Latin tract Somnium viridari compiled in 1376 and attributed to Évrart de Trémaugon, councillor to Charles V and maître des requêtes at the hotel de roi (see Schnerb-Lièvre, 1982, pp. lxxvii-lxxxviii). The manuscript is the presentation copy offered to Charles V of France in 1378. It contains a prologue (ff. 2r-6r), incipit: 'Audite sopnium (sic) meum quod vidi: ces paroles sont escriptes Gen. xxxviio capitulo. Ia soit ce que il soit dit'; two books (ff. 6r-153r and 154r-227r), incipit: 'Le clerc se merucille . . . Mainte foys me suis esmerueillie de ce que ie vois que le temps'; explicit: 'deuant le pueple disputees. Codice de summa trinitate et fide catholica, lege Venio. Tout donques ce que iay dist soit dit a loneur de la vierge et a la correccion de sainte eglyse laquelle est fondee de Ihesu xprist le benoit filz de Marie, qui cum patre,' etc. Colophon, 'Cy finist le secont livre du songe du vergier'; an epilogue (ff. 227v-239r), incipit: 'Ecce soporatus sum et exurrexi': Iay pris sompne et me suis eveillie'; explicit: 'benedictum a domino deo Israel qui regnat in secula seculorum. Amen'. Colophon, 'Explicit liber. deo gracias'; and a table of contents (ff. 233r-247v). The text is additionally divided into four parts (ff. 2-74, ff. 75-152, ff. 154-192, ff. 193-232), each marked by a letter 'a, b, c, d' in the right top corner of each recto. It consists of a dialogue between a clerk and a knight on the limits of spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. Each speech is preceded by an introductory sentence written in smaller characters and starts with a rubric including the name of the person speaking ('clerc' or 'chevalier') and a number which is referred to in the table of contents.
Decoration:
1 full-page miniature in colours and gold preceding the text, showing a debate between a clerk and a knight presided by king Charles V and the Spiritual and Temporal Power (f. 1v). 2 two-column miniatures in colours and gold, at the beginning of the prologue: the author presenting the book to the king (f. 2r) and book 2: King Charles V presiding the debate between the knight and clerk (f. 154r). 1 one-column miniature in colours and gold of the the debate between the knight and clerk, at the beginning of book 1 (f. 6r). Large foliate initials in colours and gold, full bar borders with ivy extensions, and the royal arms of France flanked by lions in the lower margins, at the beginning of the prologue and both books. 3 small foliate initials in gold and colours, with partial or full borders (ff. 74v, 154v, 192v). Initials, paraphs, and running titles in blue with red pen-flourishing, or in red with blue pen-flourishing. Line-fillers in red and blue. Marginal notes and catchwords in frames in red and blue.
The miniatures are attributed to the Master of Bible of Jean de Sy named after the Bible translated by Jean de Sy for John II of France, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 15397, formerly known as the Maitre aux Boquetaux (see Avril 1982, Stratford 2006).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107614 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 19 C IV : Le songe du vergier, attributed to Évrart de Trémaugon - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1761]/040-002107614
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
247 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_19_C_IV (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1378
- End Date:
- 1378
- Date Range:
- 1378
- 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:
-
Material: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 315 x 235 mm (text space: 205 x 130 mm).
Foliation: ff. v + 247 + iv (the unfoliated flyleaves are: 4 modern paper leaves at the beginning and at the end, and 1 medieval parchment leaf at the beginning; 1 blank leaf after f. 232). Letters 'a, b, c, d' at the right top corner of each recto divide the whole volume into four sections (ff. 2-74, ff. 75-152, ff. 154-192, ff. 193-232).
Collation: 12, 2-148, 151+8, 16-198, 201+8, 216, 22-298, 3012, 314(including 1 unfoliated leaf after f. 232), 328, 336+1; catchwords; correction signs 'cor' (e.g., f. 57v).
Layout: Written in two columns of 44 lines. Ruling in light brown ink.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding. Rebound in 1957.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France (Paris).
Provenance:
Charles V (b. 1338, d. 1380), king of France, made for him as the presentation copy in 1378: erased inscription, 'Cest livre nomme le Songe du Vergier est a nous Charles Ve de ce nom roy de France et le fimes compiler translater et escrire lan mil ccc lxxviii. Charles R' (f. 247v); his portrait (ff. 1v, 2r, 154r), and the royal arms of France (ff. 2v, 6r, 154r); listed as borrowed by Évrart de Trémaugon in the 1380 inventory of his possessions et the royal castle, Vincennes [Delisle 1907, no. 434]; and included in the 1411 inventory of the Louvre library left to his son, Charles VI (see Delisle 1907, no. 433).
Charles VI (b. 1368, d. 1422), king of France: listed in the 1424 inventory of the Louvre library, no. 165, valued for his executors and priced 12 Parisian pounds (see Inventaire de la bibliothèque du roi Charles VI 1867).
John [John of Lancaster], duke of Bedford (b. 1389, d.1435), regent of France and prince, probably purchased by him with the entire library of Charles V after Charles VI's death.
Humfrey [or Humphrey of Lancaster], duke of Gloucester (b. 1390, d. 1447), prince, soldier, and literary patron, duke of Gloucester from 1414, and brother of John, duke of Bedford: erased inscription, 'Cest livre est a nous Homfrey Duc de Gloucestre' (f. 247v).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 437' (f. 2r), included in the inventory of books in the Upper Library at Westminster of 1542; and in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 14v.
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 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Paulin Paris, Les Manuscrits François de la Bibliothéque du Roi, leur histoire et celle des textes allemands, anglois, hollandois, italiens, espagnols de la même collection, 7 vols (Paris, 1836-1848), IV, p. 299.
Inventaire de la bibliothèque du Roi Charles VI, fait au Louvre en 1423, par ordre du régent duc de Bedford, ed. by Louis Douët d'Arcq (Paris: Société des Bibliophiles Français, 1867), no. 165.
The Palaeographic Society: Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Second series, ed. by Edward Augustus Bond, Edward Maunde Thompson, and George Frederic Warner (London: Cloves and Sons, 1884-1894), II, pl. 169.
Léopold Delisle, Recherches sur la Librairie de Charles V, 2 vols (Paris: Champion, 1907), I, pp. 320-21, II, p. 74, nos 433, 434.
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 254.
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. 334.
Louis Mourin, 'Le manuscrit ex-bement du Songe du verger', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 6 (1952), 95-102 (p. 96).
B. L. Ullman, 'Manuscripts of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester', in Studies in the Italian Renaissance, Storia e letteratura, 51 (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e letteratura, 1955), pp. 345-55 (p. 354 no. 15).
M. Lièvre, 'Notes sur le manuscrit original du Songe du Verger', Romania, 77 (1956) 352-60 (p. 353).
La Librairie de Charles V (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1968), no. 187 [exhibition catalogue].
Claire Richter Sherman, The Portraits of Charles V of France (1338-1380) (New York: College Art Association, 1969), pp. 30-31, fig. 13.
Claire Richter Sherman, 'Representation of Charles V of France (1338-1380) as a Wise ruler', Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, New Series 2 (1971) 83-96 (p. 91, fig. 13).
Francois Avril, Manuscript Painting at the Court of France: The Fourteenth Century (1310-1380) (London: Chatto and Windus, 1978), pl. 31, p. 101.
Francois Avril, L'enluminure à l'epoque gothique 1200-1420 (Paris: Famot, 1979), p. 87.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, no. 912.
Fastes du Gothique: le siècle de Charles V, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais 1981-1982 (Paris, 1982), no 282 [exhibition catalogue].
Le Songe du Vergier, ed. by M. Schnerb-Lièvre, 2 vols (Paris, 1982) [edition of Royal MS 19 C IV with introduction and bibliography].
Patrick M. de Winter, 'The Grandes Heures of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy: The Copyist Jean l'Avenant and his Patrons at the French Court', Speculum, 57 (1982) 786-843 (p. 797, n. 40).
J. J. G. Alexander, 'Painting and Manuscript Illumination for Royal Patrons in the Later Middle Ages', in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages, ed. by V. J. Scattergood and J. W. Sherborne (London: Duckworth, 1983), pp. 141-62 (p. 150).
Marta O. Renger, 'Some Distinctive Utrecht Workshop Procedures around 1400', in Masters and Miniatures: Proceedings of the Congress on Medieval Manuscript Illumination in the Nothern Netherlands (Utrecht, 10-13 December 1989), ed. by Koert van der Horst and Johann-Christian Klamt (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1991), pp. 315-26 (p. 315, fig. 2).
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.260, p. xxiv.
Christopher de Hamel, The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination: History and Techniques (London: British Library, 2001), pl. 31.
Carra Ferguson O'Meara, Monarchy and Consent: The Coronation Book of Charles V of France: British Library MS Tiberius B VIII (London : Harvey Miller, 2001), pp. 114, 332, n. 7, ill. 11.
James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives, preface by David Starkey (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 31.
Paris 1400: Les arts sous Charles VI (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2004), no. 11 [exhibition catalogue].
David Rundle, 'Habits of Manuscript-Collecting: the Dispersals of the Library of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester', in Lost Libraries: The Destruction of Great Book Collections since Antiquity, ed. by James Raven (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 106-24 (p. 120, n. 18).
Jenny Stratford, 'The Illustration of the Songe du Vergier and some Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts', in Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400, ed. by Godfried Croenen and Peter Ainsworth (Louvain: Peeters, 2006), pp. 473-88 (pp. 474, 476-80).
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), pl. 66.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 139 [exhibition catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)