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Royal MS 20 D VI
- Record Id:
- 040-002107695
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x00023e
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161508864.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 20 D VI
- Title:
-
A French legendary, comprising 57 saints' lives in prose, including some attributed to Wauchier de Denain
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript is a legendarium (legendary), or collection of saints' lives, a term which derives its name from the Latin word legenda 'things to be read'. The text is written in prose and represents one of over 30 French prose legendaries to survive from the 13th and 14th centuries.
The text of the Royal manuscript comprises 57 saints' lives and represents an early stage in the evolution of the French legendary. It was grouped with two other surviving copies of the same text (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MSS lat. 411 and 412) under the name of the prose legendary C (see Meyer, 'Versions en vers et en prose des vies des pères' (1906), 254-458). These three manuscripts incorporate parts of an older collection that was compiled and translated by the early 13th-century writer Wauchier de Denain (fl. 1190-1210) for his patron Philip (b. 1175, d. 1212), Margrave of Namur (see Thompson, 'Waucher de Denain's Li Seint Confessor' (1998), pp. 121, 129; La vie mon signeur seint Nicholas le benoit confessor (1999), pp. 18, 62). The Royal legendary is the oldest surviving copy of the C group.
Wauchier's legendary was entitled Li saint confessor (The Saints Confessor) and appears to have included the lives of four French and four Italian saints (Sts Martin, Briccius, Giles, Martial, Nicholas, Jerome, Benedict and Alexius), the largest and most coherent addition in the C legendary. The translator reveals his name in the lives of St Martin and St Martial. Wauchier also dedicated another hagiographical collection to Philip of Namur, the Vies des sainz peres (Lives of the Holy Fathers), which survives in a unique manuscript (now Carpentras, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 473).
Related French legendaries now housed at the British Library are Add MS 6524 (part of the B Group of legendaries, with additions) and Add MS 17275 (part of the G Group, a much longer collection attributed to the French translator Jean Beleth).
Contents:
ff. 1r-233r: La Vie des Saints (The Life of the Saints), a legendary comprising 57 saints' lives, translated into French prose from Latin originals, some attributed to the writer and translator Wauchier de Denain, beginning, 'Quant saint Pous fu venus a Rome li juif vindrent a lui et li distrent'. The legends are as follows:
ff. 1r-6r: Dispute de saint Pierre et de saint Paul contre Simon le magician (The Dispute of St Peter and St Paul with Simon Magus).
ff. 6r-10r: Vie et passion de saint Pierre (The Life and Passion of St Peter).
ff. 10r-13v: Passion de saint Paul (The Passion of St Paul).
ff. 13v-17r: Vie de saint Jean l'évangéliste (The Life of St John the Evangelist).
ff. 17r-30v: Passion, translation et miracles de saint Jacques le Majeur (The Passion, Translation and Miracles of St James the Greater).
ff. 30v-35r: Vie daint Matthiew (The Life of St Matthew).
ff. 35r-40v: Vie des saints Simon et Jude (The Lives of St Simon and St Jude).
ff. 40v-41r: Vie de saint Philippe (The Life of St Philip).
ff. 41r-42r: Vie de saint Jacques le Mineur (The Life of St James the Lesser).
ff. 42r-45v: Vie saint Barthelemy (The Life of St Bartholomew).
ff. 45v-46v: Vie de saint Marc (The Life of St Mark).
ff. 46v-48v: Vie de saint Longin (The Life of St Longinus).
ff. 48v-51r: Vie de saint Sébastien (The Life of St Sebastian).
ff. 51r-54v: Vie de saint Vincent (The Life of St Vincent).
ff. 54v-58r: Vie de saint Georges (The Life of St George).
ff. 58r-64v: Vie de saint Christophe (The Life of St Christopher).
ff. 64v-66v: Vie de sainte Agathe (The Life of St Agatha).
ff. 66v-68v: Vie de sainte Luce ou Lucie (The Life of St Lucy).
ff. 68v-71v: Vie de sainte Agnès (The Life of St Agnes).
ff. 71v-72v: Vie de sainte Félicité et de ses sept fils (The Life of St Felicity and her Seven Sons).
ff. 72v-78r: Vie de sainte Christine (The Life of St Christina).
ff. 78r-82v: Vie de sainte Cécile (The Life of St Cecilia).
ff. 83r-84r: Vie de saint Sixte (The Life of St Sixtus).
ff. 84r-86v: Vie de saint Laurent (The Life of St Laurence).
ff. 86v-88v: Vie de saint Hippolyte (The Life of St Hippolytus).
ff. 88v-92r: Vie de saint Lambert de Liège (The Life of St Lambert of Liege).
ff. 92v-96v: Vie de saint Pantaléon (The Life of St Pantaleon).
ff. 97r-99r: Vie de saint Clément (The Life of St Clement).
ff. 99r-112r: Dossier sur saint Martin de Tours (On St Martin of Tours), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 112r-127r: Dialogues de Sulpice-Sévère (The Dialogues of Sulpicius Severus), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 127r-128r: Vie de saint Brice (The Life of St Brice), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 128r-131v: Vie de saint Gilles (The Life of St Giles), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 131v-144r: Vie saint Martial de Limoges (The Life of St Martial of Limoges), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 144r-159v: Dossier sur saint Nicolas (On St Nicholas), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 159v-161v: Vie de saint Jérôme (The Life of St Jerome), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 161v-171r: Vie de saint Benoît (The Life of St Benedict), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 171r-174r: Vie de saint Alexis (The Life of St Alexius), attributed to Wauchier de Denain.
ff. 174r-176r: Vie de sainte Irène (The Life of St Irene).
ff. 176r-178v: Assomption de Notre Dame (The Assumption of Our Lady).
ff. 178v-185r: Vie de sainte Cahterine (Life of St Catherine).
ff. 185r-187v: Passion de saint André (The Passion of St Andrew).
ff. 187v-192v, 213r: Vie et miracles de saint André (The Life and Miracles of St Andrew), bound in the wrong order (see below).
ff. 195v-198r: Vie de saint Paul ermite (The Life of St Paul the Hermit).
ff. 198r-200v: Translation des reliques de saint Benoît à Fleury (The Translation of the Relics of St Benedict to Fleury).
ff. 200v-205v: Vie de saint Maur (The Life of St Maurus).
ff. 205v-207v: Vie de saint Placide (The Life of St Placidus).
ff. 207v-208v, 217r-218r: Vie de saint Eustache (The Life of St Eustace), bound in the wrong order.
ff. 213v-216v, 193r-195v: Purgatoire de saint Patrice (The Purgatory of St Patrick), bound in the wrong order.
ff. 218r-220r: Vie de saint Fursi (The Life of St Fursey).
ff. 220r-221v: Vie de sainte Marguerite (The Life of St Margaret).
ff. 221v-222v: Vie de sainte Pélagie (The Life of St Pelagius).
ff. 222v-224v: Vie de saint Siméon le stylite (The Life of St Simeon Stylites).
ff. 224v-226r: Vie de saint Mamertin (The Life of St Mamertinus).
ff. 226r-228r: Vie de saint Julien du Mans (The Life of St Julian of Mans).
ff. 228r-231v: Vie de sainte Marie l'Egyptienne (The Life of St Mary the Egyptian).
ff. 231v-232v: Vie de sainte Euphrasie (The Life of St Euphrasia).
f. 232v: De l'antéchrist (On the Antichrist).
f. 233r: Jugement dernier (The Last Judgement).
f. 233v is blank.
Decoration:
The manuscript's decoration was completed by four artists, three of whom were working in Parisian workshops that emerged in the 2nd quarter of the 13th century, under the influence of the production of the Bibles moralisées. The majority of the historiated initials in the manuscript were illuminated in two styles close to those of the Psalter and Hours for the use of Soissons (now New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. M. 92) and the so-called Potocki Psalter (now Warsaw, Biblioteka Narodowa, MS 8003 I). The third major contributor elaborated the style found in the Sainte Chapelle Evangeliary (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS la. 8892) and a Psalter (now Philadelphia, Free Library, MS Lewis E 185), both produced in c. 1225-1230. The identity of the fourth artist remains unknown.
60 historiated initials, containing portraits of saints, in colours and gold, marking the opening of each legend (ff. 1r, 6r, 10r, 13v, 17r, 20r, 30v, 35r, 40v, 41r, 42r, 45v, 46v, 48v, 51r, 54v, 58r, 64v, 66v, 68v, 71v, 72v, 78r, 83r, 84r, 86v, 88v, 92v, 97r, 99r, 111r, 112r, 127r, 128r, 131v, 144r, 153v, 159v, 161v, 171r, 174r, 176v, 178v, 185r, 187v, 195v, 198r, 200v, 205v, 207v, 213v, 218r, 220r, 221v, 222v, 224v, 226r, 228r, 231v, 232v).
Puzzle initials in red and blue with long pen-flourished extensions in red and blue.
Marginal pen-flourished decoration in red and blue forming a partial border (f. 1r).
The subjects of the historiated initials are as follows:
f. 1r: St Peter, St Paul, and Simon Magus before the Emperor Nero.
f. 6r: The Crucifixion of St Peter, with two executioners nailing his feet to the cross.
f. 10r: The beheading of St Paul with a sword.
f. 13v: St John the Evangelist, holding a book and reviving Drusiana, with her father standing behind him.
f. 17r: St James the Great preaching to two Jews.
f. 20r: The disciples of St James the Greater taking his body to Iberia by sea.
f. 30v: The martyrdom of St Matthew, kneeling at an altar, impaled with a lance.
f. 35r: The martyrdom of St Simon and St Jude.
f. 40v: St Philip between two other saints, with a crowd below.
f. 41r: The martyrdom of St James the Lesser, killed by two men, one with a club, the other with a large stone.
f. 42r: The flaying of St Bartholomew.
f. 45v: The martyrdom of St Mark, torn asunder by horses.
f. 46v: St Longinus knocking down idols with an axe.
f. 48v: The martyrdom of St Sebastian, shot with arrows by two archers.
f. 51r: The martyrdom of St Vincent of Saragossa on a spiked wheel.
f. 54v: St George in armour, with a red shield bearing a white eagle, riding on horseback.
f. 58r: St Christopher preaching to a group of black men in a castle.
f. 64v: St Agatha of Sicily being tortured with pincers.
f. 66v: The martyrdom of St Lucy, burned alive in a fire and pierced by a spear, with a divine head above.
f. 68v: St Agnes of Rome, naked, clothed by her overgrown hair and given a robe by an angel.
f. 71v: St Felicity of Rome, alongside the executioner of her seven sons, holding one of their heads.
f. 72v: St Christina, being bound and beaten.
f. 78r: St Cecilia, holding a wreath, alongside her husband Valerian.
f. 83r: St Sixtus before the Emperor Decius, holding a sceptre with a bird.
f. 84r: The martyrdom of St Laurence, being burned alive on a gridiron.
f. 86v: The martyrdom of St Hippolytus, being dragged to death by horses.
f. 88v: The martyrdom of St Lambert, kneeling at an altar, being impaled with a spear.
f. 92v: St Pantaleon before the Emperor Diocletian.
f. 97r: The martyrdom of St Clement, being tied to an anchor and thrown into the Black Sea.
f. 99r: St Martin of Tours sharing his cloak with a beggar.
f. 111r: The translation of St Martin of Tours.
f. 112r: The dialogue of Posumianus and Gallus.
f. 127r: St Brice, seated with a book, adjuring the child imputed to him to speak.
f. 128r: St Giles the Hermit and the hind shot with an arrow.
f. 131v: St Martial, holding the pastoral staff of St Peter, resuscitating Austridinianus.
f. 144r: St Nicholas putting gold pieces through the window of a poor man as a dowry for his three daughters.
f. 153v: The translation of St Nicholas in a boat.
f. 159v: St Jerome and the lion.
f. 161v: St Benedict and his nurse, holding a mended pitcher.
f. 171r: St Alexius of Rome lying dead under a staircase, with his father on the stair above.
f. 174r: St Irene, with a dove holding an olive-branch in its mouth, a raven holding a snake in its mouth, and an eagle with a crown.
f. 176v: The Death of the Virgin Mary, with the apostles standing at her head and feed, and Christ standing behind holding her soul.
f. 178v: St Catherine of Alexandria before the Emperor Maxentius enthroned and his philosophers.
f. 185r: The Crucifixion of St Andrew on a Latin cross placed sideways, with two men nailing his hands, one of them standing on a ladder.
f. 187v: St Andrew resuscitating the child Aegyptius, his father standing alongside.
f. 195v: St Paul the Hermit, reading an open book.
f. 198r: The translation of St Benedict.
f. 200v: St Maurus, with a jug of water, and other monks before St Benedict of Nursia, seated with a book and crozier.
f. 205v: The martyrdom of St Placidus and his companions, beheaded with swords.
f. 207v: The martyrdom of St Eustace, his wife and children, roasted in a brazen bull before the Emperor Hadrian and an attendant.
f. 213v: St Patrick asleep on a knoll, beneath which are two animals, alongside a figure holding a book.
f. 218r: The vision of St Fursey, his soul carried to Heaven by two angels, a third angel with a shield, and three devils shooting at it.
f. 220r: St Margaret in prison, issuing from the side of the dragon, her skirt still in its mouth.
f. 221v: The baptism of St Pelagia.
f. 222v: St Simeon Stylites sitting on his pillar, with pilgrims below.
f. 224v: The baptism of St Mamertinus.
f. 226r: St Julian planting his staff in the ground, and a spring issuing from it.
f. 228r: Zosimas and St Mary of Egypt, with a stream between them.
f. 231v: St Euphrasia becoming a nun.
f. 232v: The Antichrist killing the saints.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107695 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 20 D VI : A French legendary, comprising 57 saints' lives in prose, including some attributed to Wauchier de Denain - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1836]/040-002107695
- 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_D_VI (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1225
- End Date:
- 1249
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 330 x 220 mm (written space: 240 x 150 mm).
Foliation: ff. i + 233 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end); f. i is a medieval parchment flyleaf.
Script: Gothic, written below the top line, by two scribes: A (ff. 1-98v) and B (ff. 98v-233r).
Binding: Post-1600. Royal library brown leather binding, with the Royal arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Paris, France.
Provenance:
An unidentified shelfmark, '3° y' (?), (f. 1r) and added title, 'La vie de sains', 15th century (f. i recto).
Henry VII (b. 1457, d. 1509), king of England and lord of Ireland, and Elizabeth of York (b. 1466, d. 1503), queen of England, his consort: inscribed, 'God save kyngge Harre / and kyenne Ellessabet' (f. i recto), suggesting that the manuscript must have been in England during his reign and before Elizabeth's death (i.e. the period 1485-1503).
Henry VIII (b. 1491, d. 1547), king of England and Ireland: the large number, '63' written in brown ink (Carley's 'Old Large Number') on an initial flyleaf (f. i recto) (see Carley, 'Marks in Books' (1997), p. 606).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the Catalogue of 1666, f. 14r.
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:
-
Paul Meyer, 'Notice sur le manuscrit 307 (anciens 851) de la Bibliotheque d'Arras, recueil de vies de saints en prose et en vers', Romania, 17 (1888), 366-400 (pp. 373, 374, 375, 376, 377, 381, 382, 383, 385).
Paul Meyer, 'Versions en vers et en prose des vies des pères', Histoire littéraire de la France, 331 (1906), 254-458.
Bertold Georg Vitzthum, Die Pariser Miniaturmalerei von der Zeit des hl. Ludwig bis zu Philipp von Valois und ihr Verha¨ltnis zur Malerei in Nordwesteuropa (Leipzig, 1907), p. 13.
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. 379-81.
Robert Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris During the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), pp. 58, 61, 63, 81, 123, 207, 209, 220, fig. 108, 115, 208.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), pl. 34.
The Libraries of the Cistercians, Gilbertines, and Premonstratensians, ed. by David N. Bell, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 3 (London: British Library, 1992), pp. 7, 9.
J. P. Carley, 'Marks in Books and the Libraries of Henry VIII', Papers-Bibliographical Society of America, 91 (1997), 583-606 (p. 606).
John Jay Thompson, ‘The Recent Discovery of a Collection in Early French Prose, Wauchier de Denain’s Li Seint Confessor’, Romance Notes, 38 (1998), 121-37 (pp. 121, 129).
Wauchier de Denain, La vie mon signeur seint Nicholas le benoit confessor, ed. by John Jay Thompson (Geneva: Droz, 1999), pp. 18, 62, pls. 1-2.
Keith Busby, Codex and Context. Reading Old French Verse Narrative in Manuscript (New York, Rodopi, 2002).
Sophie Page, Magic in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2004), p. 8, pl. 3.
La vie Seint Marcel de Lymoges, ed. by Wauchier de Denain and Molly Lynde-Recchia (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2005), pp. 14, 30, 33.
Deirdre Jackson, Marvellous to Behold: Miracles in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), pls 37- 38.
Anne-Françoise Labie-Leurquin, 'Les hesitations du cycle christique du légendier G de Paul Meyer', in Le recueil au Moyen Âge : le Moyen Âge central, ed. by Yasmina Foehr-Janssens and Olivier Collet (Turnhout: Brepols, c. 2010), pp. 223-236 (p. 224).
Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 78 [exhibition catalogue].
Martina Di Febo, Les versions en prose du Purgatoire de saint Patrice en ancien français (Paris: Champion, 2012), p. 53.
'London, British Library, Royal 20.D.VI', online record on 'Jonas: Répertoire des textes et des manuscrits médiévaux d'oc et d'oïl' (IHRT, 2013) at http://jonas.irht.cnrs.fr/manuscrit/31258 [accessed 26.01.2022].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)