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Sloane MS 2052
- Record Id:
- 040-002114415
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002112337
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000603.0x0002da
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165172363.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Sloane MS 2052
- Title:
- Sir Theodore de Mayerne, Pictoria, sculptoria et quae subalternarum artium (the 'Mayerne manuscript')
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript contains miscellaneous notes on the subject of artistic techniques, including the making of pigments, oils and varnishes, the priming and preparation of surfaces for painting, and the repair and conservation of paintings. The manuscript also contains notes of chemical experiments, including diagrams and sheets of pigment samples.
The notes were gathered in stages between 1620 and 1646 by Sir Theodore de Mayerne, physician to James I and Charles I. Many are written by his own hand, however Mayerne also drew on the services of amanuenses (such as John Colladon) and inserted leaves of notes written by other, miscellaneous hands.
Many of the notes were gathered from Mayerne's first-hand contact with both major and minor artists and artisans of his day, including Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. The manuscript also contains letters from artists, such as Jean Petitot.
For a complete English translation of the manuscript, see: Lost Secrets of Flemish Painting: Including the First Complete English Translation of the de Mayerne Manuscript, B.M. Sloane 2052, ed. by Donald C. Fels and others (Floyd, VA: Alchemist Inc., 2004).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Sloane Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002112337
040-002114415 - Is part of:
- Sloane MS 1-4100 : Sloane Manuscripts
Sloane MS 2052 : Sir Theodore de Mayerne, Pictoria, sculptoria et quae subalternarum artium (the 'Mayerne manuscript') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002112337[2056]/040-002114415
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Sloane MS 1-4100
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165172363.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Dutch
English
French
German
Italian
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1620
- End Date:
- 1646
- Date Range:
- 1620-1646
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: The volume measures 335 x 265 mm when closed, however the leaves it contains are of various sizes.
Foliation: ff. i + 170. The manuscript comprises 170 single leaves of paper. These were bound together in some form after Mayerne's death. They are now mounted individually on guards. There is no f. 164 between ff. 163 and 165; the leaf formerly foliated as f. 164r is now f. 166v. Four blank, unfoliated, modern paper endleaves at the beginning of the volume: an foliated slip of paper, bearing notes on the volume in an ?18th century hand, is pasted to the recto of the fourth endleaf. One blank, unfoliated, contemporary paper endleaf at the end of the volume (f. i), followed by three blank, unfoliated, modern paper endleaves.
Script: Cursive (continental).
Binding: BL in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne (b. 1573, d. 1655), physician: inscribed with his name and his personal motto in Greek (f. 2r) and many leaves throughout written by his hand.
?Sir John Colladon (b. 1608, d. 1675), physician and political agent: inherited the bulk of Mayerne's property, including his papers.
?Sir Theodore Colladon (d. 1712), physician: inherited Mayerne's papers, some of which he published in 1700 as Opera Medica.
Sir Hans Sloane (b. 1660, d. 1753), baronet, physician and collector: acquired Mayerne's papers following Sir Theodore Colladon's death.
Acquired by the British Museum as part of Sloane collection of manuscripts in 1753.
- Information About Copies:
- Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts, http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Quellen für Maltechnik während der Renaissance und deren Folgezeit (XVI.-XVIII. Jahrhundert) in Italien, Spanien, den Niederlanden, Deutschland, Frankreich und England: nebst dem De Mayerne Manuskript zum ersten Male herausgegeben, ed. by Ernst Berger, Beiträge zur Entwickelungs-Geschichte der Maltechnik, 4 (Munich: G.D.W. Callwey, 1901), pp. 92-410 [on the text].
Irene Scouloudi, 'Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne, Royal Physician and Writer, 1573-1655', Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London, 16 (1940), 301-37 (pp. 323, 336-37).
L.M. Payne, 'Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne, 1573-1655', British Medical Journal, no. 4916 (1955), 783.
Het de Mayerne Manuscript als Bron Voor de Schildertechniek van de Barok: British Museum, Sloane 2052, ed. by Johannes Alexander van de Graaf (Mijdrecht: Drukkerij, 1958) [on the text].
A.E. Werner, 'A "New" de Mayerne Manuscript', Studies in Conservation, 9 (1964), 130-34 (pp. 130, 132).
Pictoria, Sculptoria et quae Subalternarum Artium: Le Manuscrit de Turquet de Mayerne, ed. by M. Faidutti and Camille Versini (Lyon: Audin Imprimeurs, [1981]) [on the text].
Mary Beal, A Study of Richard Symonds: His Italian Notebooks and their Relevance to Seventeenth-Century Painting Techniques (New York: Garland, 1984), pp. 64-65.
Mark Stevenson, 'A Seventeenth-Century Manual for the Restoration of Prints', Print Quarterly, 7 (1990), 420-24 [on the text].
Hugh Trevor-Roper, 'Mayerne and his Manuscript', in Art and Patronage in the Caroline Courts: Essays in Honour of Sir Oliver Millar, ed. by David Howarth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 264-93 (pp. 264-65, 269-72, 274-82, 285-89, 290n, 291n).
Lost Secrets of Flemish Painting: Including the First Complete English Translation of the de Mayerne Manuscript, B.M. Sloane 2052, ed. by Donald C. Fels and others (Floyd, VA: Alchemist Inc., 2004) [on the text].
†Hugh Trevor-Roper, Europe's Physician: The Various Life of Sir Theodore de Mayerne (London: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 338-47.
Sietske Fransen, 'Iconography and Identity in Early 17th-Century Medical Portraiture: The Case of the Unknown Physician', British Art Journal, 12 (2011-12), 26-31 (pp. 26, 30-31).
- Exhibitions:
- Colour, National Gallery, London, 18 June 2014 - 7 September 2014
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- The Mayerne Manuscript. Exhibited: Colour, National Gallery, London, 18 June 2014 - 7 September 2014