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Royal MS 19 E V
- Record Id:
- 040-002107638
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x00039d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 19 E V
- Title:
- Benvenuto da Imola, Romuléon, translated by Jean Miélot
- Scope & Content:
-
Romuléon of Benvenuto da Imola (Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola), compiled around 1361-1364, at the request of Gomez Albornoz, governor of the city of Bologna, in the French translation by Jean Miélot, canon of Lille, and secretary to Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, composed in 1463 ('Et fut ledit traittie translatte de latin en cler franchois par sir Jehan Mielot chanoine de Lille en Flandres l'an de grace mil quatrecens soixante et troiz en la fourme et stille plus au long declare', f. 336r). The text is preceded by a list of contents (ff. 1r-31v), and followed by an alphabetical index (ff. 397r-418v). Each chapter is headed with the first words of the Latin. Incipit: 'Principibus placuisse viris non ultima laus est: Cest adire avoir compleu ou savoir complaire aux princes'; explicit 'si grande quon ne la pourroit croire'. The date is inscribed in the miniature to book 10 (f. 367V).
Romuléon is a history of Rome from Aeneas to the division of the empire between Galerius and Constantius (A.D. 306), compiled from works by Livy, Augustine, Valerius Maximus, Sallust, Suetonius, the authors of the Historia Augusta, L. Florus, 'Justinius Lucius', Orosius, Vegetius, and Eutropius, and devided in ten books.
Only five other complete manuscripts of Miélot's French Romuléon are known: Besançon, Bibliothèque Municipale 850; Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale MS 9055 and MS 10173-10174; Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Med. Pal. 156, vols 1-2; and Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria L.I.4, vols 1-2; they all were produced in the Southern Netherlands.
Decoration:
9 large and 2 one-column miniatures in colours and gold with full (ff. 32r, 196r) or partial (62r, 98v, 125r, 160v, 233r, 238r, 280r, 336v, 367r) foliate borders, and initials in colours with penwork decoration in gold or foliate initials in colours and gold, at the beginning of books (except f. 233r). Full border with the Royal arms of England (ff. 32r, 196r). Some miniatures with instructions to illuminators (ff. 62r, 125r, 196r trimmed, 233r trimmed, 238r trimmed). Initials and paraphs in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in gold.
The miniature are attributed to the Master of the White Inscriptions.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 32r, The wolf suckling Romulus and Remus; Faustulus lifting his hands in surprise; behind, Faustulus giving the children to Laurentia. (large miniature).
f. 62r, Consuls administering an oath (by clasping of hands) for maintenance of liberties, with an instruction reading: ' Icy fault deux consulz Romains...'
f. 98v, Camillus and warriors in armour leaving the city over a bridge.
f. 125r, An army on the march, with an instruction reading: 'Il fault ung compagne aveques pluseurs gens darmes de pie et de chival alans guerroier par pais.'
f. 160v, Hannibal, preceded by a standard bearer, riding at the head of his troops.
f. 196r, Scipio Africanus (?) and troops issuing from the city over a bridge (large miniature).
f. 238r, Athenian envoys before the Senate (?).
f. 280r, Caesar being questioned by the Senate; an inscription on the wall behind reading 'Pour Parvenir'.
f. 336v, Return of Octavius with an apparition of the Virgin and Child in the sky.
f. 367v, Trajan enthroned adopting Hadrian, presented to him by Plotina; an inscription on the wall including the date 1480 and motto 'Gy tens '.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107638 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 19 E V : Benvenuto da Imola, Romuléon, translated by Jean Miélot - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1779]/040-002107638
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
418 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_19_E_V (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1480
- End Date:
- 1480
- Date Range:
- 1480
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment manuscript:
Dimensions: 475 x 335mm (text space: 290 x 185mm).
Foliation: ff. iv + 418 + v (the unfoliated flyleaves are: 3 modern paper leaves at the beginning and at the end, and 1 modern parchment leaf at the beginning and 2 medieval parchment leaves at the end).
Collation: Gatherings of 8 leaves (xxv4, end of book 5); catchwords and bifolium signatures.
Layout: Written in two columns of 39 lines.
Script: Gothic hybride (bâtarde). The script is close to the formal bastard secretary of manuscripts produced by David Aubert between 1458 and 1479/80, but is not in Aubert's hand (see Mc Kendrick 1994).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding. Rebound in 1985. Gilt and gauffered edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Southern Netherlands (Bruges).
Provenance:
Edward IV (b. 1442, d. 1483), king of England and lord of Ireland, made for him in 1480, probably in Bruges: the royal arms of England surrounded by the Garter with the motto 'Honny soit qui mal y pense' and surmounted by a crowned helm with a mantling in Edward IV's colours of red and blue and a crest of a lion, with the royal arms differentiated by labels of three and five points for Edward's sons, Edward, prince of Wales, and Richard, duke of York; the royal arms on banners (f. 32r), and the Yorkist badge with the motto 'Dieu est mon droit' (ff. 32, 196); the date of '1480' inscribed in the background of a miniature (f. 367v).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the list of books at Richmond Palace Library of Henry VIII in 1535, no. 32; included in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix, f. 13r.
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:
-
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 (p. 7).
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 314.
Paul Durrieu, La Miniature flamande au temps de la cour de Bourgogne (1415-1530) (Paris and Brussels: G. van Oest, 1921), p. 61, pl. LXV.
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, pp. 348-49.
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, 179.
F. Saxl and H. Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, 4 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1953), III: Manuscripts in English Libraries, p. 219.
D. J. A. Ross, 'Alexander Historiatus: A Supplement', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 30, (1967), 383-88 (p. 387).
Margaret Kekewich, 'Edward IV, William Caxton, and Literary Patronage in Yorkist England', The Modern Language Review, 66 (1971) 481-87 (p. 484).
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. 915.
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, ed. by David Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987), pp. 23-42 (p. 39).
P. Chavy, Traducteurs d'autrefois: dictionnaire des traducteurs et de la littérature traduite en ancien et moyen français (842-1600) (Paris: Champion, 1988), p. 1216.
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries, 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), p. 204.
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, (p. 110).
Wim Blockmans, 'The Devotion of a Lonely Duches', in Margaret of York, Simon Marmion, and the Visions of Tondal, ed. by Thomas Kren (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992), pp. 29-46 (pp. 32, 40, 56, n. 40, fig. 1).
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 (p. 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.
Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century: The Medieval World on Parchment (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), p. 467.
Bodo Brinkmann, Die flämische Buchmalerei am Ende des Burgunderreichs: der Meister des Dresdener Gebetbuchs und die Miniaturisten seiner Zeit (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997), p. 115, n. 60.
Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century (Leuven: Brepols, 1999), p. 467, pl. 70 on p. 466.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H1.32.
Hanno Wijjsman, 'William Lord Hastings, Les Faits de Jacques De Lalaing et le Maître aux inscriptions blanches à propos du manuscrit français 16830 de la Bibliothèque nationale de France', in ’Als Ich Can’: Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), pp. 1641-64 (p. 1652).
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), p. 289 [exhibition catalogue].
Anne-Marie Legaré, 'La librairye de Madame: Two Princesses and their Libraries', in Women of Distinction: Margaret of York, Margaret of Austria, ed. by Dagmar Eichberger (Davidsfonds: Brepols, 2005), pp. 207-19 (p. 210, fig. 3) [Exhibition catalogue, Mechelen, Lamot Sept. 17-Dec. 18, 2005].
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 51 [exhibition catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)