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Royal MS 20 A IV
- Record Id:
- 040-002107643
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x0003a2
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165171894.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 20 A IV
- Title:
- Martin de Brion, Tresample description de toute la Terre Saincte, prefaced with a dedication to Henry VIII
- Scope & Content:
-
This volume is one of only three known manuscript copies of a historical geography of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, written by Martin de Brion, a relative of Philippe de Chabot (b. 1492, d. 1543), seigneur of Brion and Admiral of France.
The work is a description of various sites of interest in the Holy Land, written in French and organised alphabetically, beginning with 'Arbee' and ending with 'Ziph'. Each site is described according to more or less the same template: after the place is named, its geographical position is detailed in relation to other known locations; a significant biblical event that occurred in the place is mentioned; and, in some cases, greater detail of the event is provided, occasionally in original verses by de Brion followed by a citation of the biblical book, chapter and verse in which it is described. This copy of the text is prefaced by a dedication to King Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547), praising his wisdom and appreciation for 'cosmographie'.
A contemporary copy of the French text was made for King Francis I (r. 1515-1547) and is now Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 5638. A similar but slightly abridged version of the work in Latin was printed in Paris in 1540 by Guillaume Bossozel, entitled Totius terrae sanctae descriptio, and also featured a dedication to Francis I.
Contents:
ff. 2r-3v: Dedication in French, partly written in verse, addressed to Henry VIII.
ff. 4r-125v: Martin de Brion, Description de toute la Terre Saincte, in French, beginning, 'Arbee est une petite ville'.
f. 1r is blank.
Decoration:
1 full-page miniature of the arms of France and England quarterly within the Garter with 'H. H.' on either side, roses, fleurs-de-lis, and crowns (f. 1v).
Full foliate borders in colours and gold with birds, insects, roses, and acanthus motifs, framing texts written in gold on red grounds (ff. 2r-3v).
1 miniature in colours on a gold ground of roses, a ladybird, a butterfly, and a bee (f. 25v).
Numerous initials with floral or foliate motifs in colours and gold. Tudor roses in gold at the corners of the text blocks. Titles in gold.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107643 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 20 A IV : Martin de Brion, Tresample description de toute la Terre Saincte, prefaced with a dedication to Henry VIII - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1784]/040-002107643
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_20_A_IV (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1535
- End Date:
- 1545
- Date Range:
- c 1540
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 230 x 160 mm (written space: 165 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 125 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning and end).
Script: Humanistic.
Binding: Pre-1600. Crimson velvet with the Royal arms (between the initials H. H.) and roses embroidered in coloured silks, gold-thread and seed pearls.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Central France (probably Paris).
Provenance:
Henry VIII (b. 1491, d. 1547), king of England and Ireland (from 1509): arms of France and England quarterly within the Garter with 'H. H' on either side, roses, fleurs-de-lis, and crowns (f. 1v); dedicatory letter and poem addressed to him (f. 2); binding of crimson velvet with the Royal arms (between H. H.) and roses embroidered in coloured silks, gold-thread and seed-pearls.
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal library): included in Henry VIII's 1547 post-mortem inventory as 'the description of the holy lande and a boke covered with vellat enbrawdred with the kings armes declaring the same, in a case of blacke leather with his graces Armes' in 'the llittle Study called the newe Librarye' at Westminster (see Backhouse, 'Sir Robert Cotton's Record' (1992), p. 46); included in a list of books of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d.1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician ( in 'the privy closet at Whitthall' Palace, Cotton MS Vespasian B IV, f. 25r, as 'Discription of the holy places in scripture dedicated to H. 8 in french--4t' (see Backhouse, 'Sir Robert Cotton's Record' (1992), p. 46).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Information About Copies:
- Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Cyril Davenport, ‘Embroidered Bindings of Bibles in the Possession of the British and Foreign Bible Society’, Burlington Magazine, 4, No. 12 (1904), 267-80 (pp. 268-69).
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. 352.
Janet Backhouse, 'Sir Robert Cotton's Record of a Royal Bookshelf', The British Library Journal, 18 (1992), 44-51 (p. 46).
Robert W. Karrow, Jr, Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and Their Maps: Bio-Bibliographies of the Cartographers of Abraham Ortelius, 1570 (Chicago: Speculum Orbis Press, 1993), pp. 94-95.
Livres en broderie: reliures françaises du Moyen Age à nos jours, ed. by Sabine Coron and Martine Lefèvre (Paris: Bibliotheque nationale de France, 1995), pp. 25-26.
James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives, preface by David Starkey (London: British Library, 2004), p. 11.
Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 146 [exhibition catalogue].
Eleri Lynn, Tudor Textiles (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020), p. 148.
- Exhibitions:
- Gold, British Library, London, 20 May 2022 - 2 October 2022
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)