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Yates Thompson MS 9

Record Id:

040-002354395

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002354332

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000772.0x0001cd

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Yates Thompson MS 9

Title:

Bible (Proverbs-Revelation)

Scope & Content:

Contents:

A copy of the Bible, containing Proverbs-Revelation. This manuscript was formerly known as Add MS 41751 and is the second of two volumes, the first being Harley MS 616, which contains Genesis-Psalms (incomplete). This two-volume Bible is one of the three extant manuscripts of the French translation of the Bible, known as the 'Bible du XIIIe siècle' (see Sneddon, 'The Bible du XIIIe Siècle' (1979), p. 130). The titles of the Biblical books are written in Latin, with II Thessalonians incorrectly headed 'Ad Philippenses'.

Readings have the appropriate date added in the margin beside them in Roman numerals. There are some 14th-century annotations in Latin (e.g. f. 260r), but most have been erased.

Decoration:

The illumination of the manuscript has been attributed to Richard de Verdun, son-in-law of Master Honoré; and related to the Master of the Méliacin (see L'art au temps des rois maudits (1998), p. 266).

22 miniatures, accompanied by large decorated initials with extensions into the margins, 2 of double height, framed by partial borders with animals, in colours and gold (ff. 1r, 14r, 18r, 20r, 27v, 49v, 75r, 104r, 106r, 110r, 132r, 141v, 162r, 177r, 187v, 188r, 205v, 218r, 239v, 255r, 290v, 313v).

31 historiated initials, accompanied by bars with foliate extensions, in colours and gold, for the books of the Prophets (ff. 145r, 146v, 149v, 150r, 150v, 153r, 154r, 155r, 156r, 157r, 161r) and for the writings of Paul, Peter, John and Jude (ff. 261v, 268r, 272r, 274r, 276r, 277v, 279r, 280v, 281r, 283r, 284r, 285r, 286r, 306v, 308r, 309v, 311r, 312v (2x), 313r).

Painting of a bust of Christ in the margin, painted apparently to conceal a mend in the parchment (f. 162r).

1 large decorated initial with extension into the margin, in colours and gold (f. 285v). Small decorated initials with extensions into the margins, in colours and gold.

The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:

f. 1r: Solomon instructing Rehoboam (above), the judgement of Solomon (below).

f. 14r: Solomon addressing a half-naked man, between them a human head.

f. 18r: Virgin and Child with a book.

f. 20r: Solomon seated; kneeling before him is a youth holding a sword.

f. 27v: A woman with a crown, cross and chalice: a personification of the Church.

f. 49v: The death of Isaiah.

f. 75r: The stoning of Jeremiah.

f. 104r: Jeremiah seated before Jerusalem.

f. 106r: Baruch writing on a scroll.

f. 110r: Ezekiel and his vision of the four beasts (an angel, an eagle, a lion, and an ox, the symbols of the Four Evangelists).

f. 321r: Daniel in the den of lions.

f. 141v: Hosea and Gomer seated on a throne.

f. 145r: The Almighty appears to Joel guarding his flock.

f. 146v: The Almighty appears to Amos, who is lying on a bed.

f. 149v: Obadiah, seated, holding a scroll.

f. 150r: Jonah emerging from the mouth of the whale.

f. 150v: Micab seated by a falling city.

f. 153r: Nahum addressing two men.

f. 154r: An angel holding the hair of Habakkuk.

f. 155r: Zephaniah, seated, holding a scroll.

f. 156r: Haggai, seated, holding a scroll.

f. 157r: Zechariah, seated, holding a scroll.

f. 161r: Malachi, seated, holding a scroll.

f. 162r: Mattathias slays the idolatrous Jew.

f. 177r: A crowned man, seated, receiving from a messenger:a letter from the Jews of Jerusalem to the Jews of Egypt.

f. 187v: Christ crucified, with the Virgin Mary and St John.

f. 188r: Tree of Jesse, with a dog chasing a hare in the border.

f. 205v: St Mark, seated, writing, with his symbol, a lion;

f. 218r: St Luke, seated, writing, with his symbol, a bull;

f. 239v: St John, seated, writing, with his symbol, an eagle.

f. 255r: St Paul addressing two men.

ff. 261v, 268r, 274r, 279r, 281r, 283r, 284r, 285r, 286r: St Paul, seated, holding a sword.

ff. 277v, 280v: St Paul, seated, holding a scroll.

f. 290v: A group of Apostles.

f. 306v: St James, dressed as a pilgrim.

f. 308r: St Peter, seated, blessing.

f. 309v: St Peter, standing, holding a book.

f. 311r: St John writing.

f. 312v: St John, seated, with a scroll (x2).

f. 313r: St Jude.

f. 313v: St John writing the Apocalypse.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Yates Thompson Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002354332
040-002354395

Is part of:

Yates Thompson MS 1-59 : Yates Thompson Manuscripts

Yates Thompson MS 9 : Bible (Proverbs-Revelation)

Hierarchy:

032-002354332[0010]/040-002354395

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Yates Thompson MS 1-59

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Old
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1275

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 380 x 285 mm (text space: 250 x 190 mm), written in two columns.

Foliation: ff. 320 (+ 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning, and 2 unfoliated parchment and 2 paper flyleaves at the end).

Collation: i-xl⁸ (ff. 1-320).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Pre-1600. Brown stamped leather binding; English, between 1548 and 1580 (see James Basil Oldham, English blind-stamped bindings (Cambridge: University Press, 1952), p. 51, pl. XLVII), silver clasps, one contemporary and the other a copy; fore-edge with a title written in brown ink.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Paris, France.

Provenance:

Reverend Frederick Kill Harford (b. 1832, d. 1906), Minor Canon of Westminster Abbey from 1861; inherited from his father in 1879, and said to have been in his family since at least 1685 (see Yates Thompson MS 54, ff. 12r-13r); bought by Henry Yates Thompson.

Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: his inscribed book-plate, '[MS] 37 / £yne [i.e. £350] / [bought from] Canon Harford / Nov 5th / 1896' (inside upper cover); in his sale, 2 June 1921, lot 66, sold to Ashley for £420, but then returned to the Yates Thompson collection. For correspondence relating to the manuscript see Yates Thompson MS 54, ff. 8r-18v.

The manuscript was given by Elizabeth Yates Thompson (b. 1855, d. 1941), widow of Henry Yates Thompson to the British Museum in memory of her husband in 1929. It became Add MS 41751 and was subsequenrly renumbered after the creation of the 'Yates Thompson' shelfmark, following Mrs Yates Thompson's bequest of other manuscripts in 1941.

Former Internal References:

Add MS 41751

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

Samuel Berger, La Bible Française au moyen âge (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1884), no. 616 p. 398 [for the Harley bible].

Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1898), no. 37 pp. 206-10.

Illustrations from One Hundred Manuscripts in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson, 7 vols (London: Chiswick Press, 1907-18), VI: Consisting of Ninety Plates Illustrating Seventeen MSS. with Dates Ranging from the XIIIth to the XVIth Century (1916), p. 3, pls. I-III.

Eric G. Millar, Souvenir de l'exposition des manuscrits français à peintures organisée á la Grenville Library (British Museum) en janvier-mars 1932: Étude concernant les 65 manuscrits exposés (Paris: Société française de reproductions de manuscrits à peintures, 1933), p. 22, pl. XVIII.

F. Wormald, 'The Yates Thompson Manuscripts', The British Museum Quarterly 16 (1952), 4-6 (p. 6).Josiah Q. Bennett, 'Portman Square to New Bond Street, or, How to Make Money though Rich', The Book Collector (1967), 323-39 (p. 325, 335).

Clive R. Sneddon, ‘'The Bible du XIIIe Siècle': Its Medieval Public in the Light of its Manuscript Tradition', in The Bible and Medieval Culture, Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, Series 1, 7 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1979), pp. 127-140 (p. 130).

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, 168 [rejected].

Michel Quereuil, La Bible française du XIIIe siècle: édition critique de la Genèse, Publications romanes et françaises, 183 (Genève: Droz, 1988), pp. 37-52 [for the Harley bible, cited as L].

L'art au temps des rois maudits: Philippe le Bel et ses fils (1285-1328) (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1998), p. 266 [as Additional 41751].

Clive R. Sneddon, 'On the Creation of the Old French Bible', Nottingham Medieval Studies, 46 (2002), 25-44 (p. 28 n. 11).

Deirdre Jackson, Marvellous to Behold: Miracles in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), pl. 11.

Eugenio. Burgio, 'I volgarizzamenti oitanici della Bibbia nel XIII secolo (un bilancio sullo stato delle ricerche', Critica del Testo, 8/1 (2004), pp. 1-40.

Elizabeth Morrison and Anne D. Hedeman, Imagining the Past in France: History in Manuscript Painting, 1250-1500 (Los Angeles: Getty Museum, 2010), p. 98, n. 2. Clive R Sneddon, 'The Old French Bible', in The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages, ed. by Susan Boynton and Diane J. Reilly (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), pp. 301, 310, n. 26.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Harford, Frederick Kill, Minor Canon of Westminster, 1832-1906
Thompson, Elizabeth, widow of Henry Yates Thompson, c 1854-1941
Thompson, Henry Yates, manuscript collector, 1838-1928

Subjects:

Bible

Places:

Paris, France

Related Material:

From the Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1926-1930 (London: British Museum, 1959), pp. 132-33:

'BIBLE, in French, being the second volume, containing Proverbs to Revelation, of Harley MS. 616, described by S. Berger, La Bible française au Moyen Âge, 1884, pp. 114, 115, where an apparently close relationship with Paris, Arsenal MS. 5056 is pointed out. The version is that designated by Berger, op. cit., pp. 109-156, as 'La Bible du XIIIe siècle' (see also Add. MSS. 40619, 40620). Most of the glosses mentioned by Berger are found, and Baruch, Romans, Titus and Hebrews have short prologues (see Berger, op. cit., pp. 137, 142). The order of the books is normal. Acts comes between the Pauline and Catholic Epistles. The Prayer of Jeremiah (Lamentations v) is omitted. Titles of the books are in Latin, II Thessalonians being wrongly headed 'Ad Philippenses'. For a previous description of the MS. see M. R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson, 1898, no. 37, pp. 206-210. Brit. Mus. Quart., iv, 1929-1930, pp.45-46. Vellum; ff. v + 320. 15 in. x 11 in. Mid XIII cent. Executed in France. Gatherings of 8 leaves (xiii, 3 and 4 cancelled, last^8, 7 and 8 cancelled) with catchwords, the first four leaves of each gathering being numbered in ink or plummnet. Sec. fol. 'de toutes tes bles'.

Illuminated initials occur throughout, partial borders on ff. 1, 188. At the beginning of each book there is either a miniature or historiated initial. The style of the illuminations recalls those in two other French Bibles, viz.:-Paris, Arsenal MS. 5056 (see H. Martin, Les Principaux Manuscrits à Peintures de la Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, 1929, pp. 18, 19, and pls. xv, xvi) and New York, Pierpont Morgan MS. 494 (see The Pierpont Morgan Library, Exhibition of Illuminated MSS. held at the New York Public Library, Nov. 1933-Apr. 1934, p. 27, no. 52 and pl. 48). Binding (rebacked) of brown calf, decorated with two rolls containing medallion heads, viz. nos. 772 and 775 in J. B. Oldham's English Blind-Stamped Bindings, 1952 (cf. p. 51 and pl. xlvii). The two rolls combined were used by a binder working in London between 1548 and 1580. Silver clasps, a portion of one being of later date. Belonged to the Rev. Frederick Kill Harford (1832-1906) of Frenchay, co. Glouc., Minor Canon of Westminster, from whom it was purchased, on 5 Nov. 1896, by Henry Yates Thompson (bookplate, f. i); cf. M. R. James, A descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson, 1898, no. 37; Illustrations from one hundred manuscripts in the library of Henry Yates Thompson, vi, 1916, pls. i-iii. Yates Thompson sale, Sotheby's, 22 June 1921, lot 66; subsequently re-acquired by Mr Yates Thompson. Correspondence relating to the MS. at the time of its original acquisition in 1896 is preserved in Add. MS. 46200, ff. 8-18. Presented by Mrs Yates Thompson in memory of Henry Yates Thompson, Esq.'

Related Archive Descriptions:

Harley MS 616