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Yates Thompson MS 20

Record Id:

040-002354539

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002354332

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000772.0x000219

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Yates Thompson MS 20

Title:

Guyart des Moulins, Bible historiale (Genesis-Maccabees)

Scope & Content:

A translation of the Vulgate Bible into French, Genesis to Maccabees, with a table of contents at the beginning of each book, and a Psalter and litany at the end of the volume (ff. 381r-412v).

Decoration:

Two main artists were responsible for the manuscript's decoration. The first is identified alternatively as the Fauvel Master or the Sub-Fauvel Master (see Stones, 'Stylistic Condex of the Roman de Fauvel' (1998), pp. 531, 532, 550). For a comparison for Fauvel, see Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 211-212, and for Sub-Fauvel see The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 71 A 23.

The second artist has been identified as the Perceval Master, who was also responsible for the illumination of Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms fr. 160. The Perceval and Fauvel Masters collaborated on the illumination of the Bible Historiale of Troyes (Paris, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 59). Both artists worked in Paris during c. 1320-1340.

1 half-page miniature, accompanied by a large decorated initial with three-sided foliate borders, in red, blue and gold (f. 2r).

71 small miniatures, accompanied by large decorated initials with partial foliate borders, in red, blue and gold (ff. 2v, 3r, 4r, 4v, 5r, 6v, 7v, 8r, 9v, 10r, 10v, 12v, 27r, 30r, 35v, 46r, 73r, 82r, 100v, 121r, 128v, 130v, 131r, 146r, 159r, 178v, 198r, 199r, 203v, 215r, 222v, 224r, 228r, 231v, 243r, 246r, 248r, 254v, 271r, 291r, 311v, 313v, 315v, 316v, 334r, 336r, 337r, 337v, 338r, 341v, 342r, 343r, 346r, 347r, 349v, 350v, 351v, 352v, 353r, 356v, 357v, 371v, 373r, 381r (x2), 385v, 391v, 394r, 397v, 400v, 403v).

2 diagrams in red ink (ff. 65r, 83r).

Small initials in gold on red and blue grounds.

A set of artists' instructions at the bottom of the illuminated leaves, describing quite precisely the content of most miniatures (e.g. f. 159r), many of these erased.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Yates Thompson Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002354332
040-002354539

Is part of:

Yates Thompson MS 1-59 : Yates Thompson Manuscripts

Yates Thompson MS 20 : Guyart des Moulins, Bible historiale (Genesis-Maccabees)

Hierarchy:

032-002354332[0021]/040-002354539

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Middle

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1315

End Date:

1340

Date Range:

c 1320-1340

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 400 x 300 mm (text space: 260 x 200 mm).

Foliation: ff. 413 (+ 5 unfoliated modern parchment flyleaves at the beginning, and 3 at the end).

Collation: i^8-1 (6th leaf excised after f. 5; ff. 1-7), ii⁸ (ff. 8-15), iii^8-1 (3rd leaf excised after f. 17; ff. 16-22), iv-xii⁸ (ff. 23-94), xiii^8-1 (1st leaf excised after f. 94; ff. 95-101), xiv⁸ (ff. 102-109), xv^8-1 (6th leaf excised after f. 114; ff. 110-116), xvi-xxvii⁸ (ff. 117-212), xxviii^8-1 (8th leaf excised after f. 219; ff. 213-219), xxix-xliv⁸ (ff. 220-347), xlv^8-3 (3 leaves excised; ff. 348-352), xlvi-xlviii⁸ (ff. 353-376), xlix⁴ (ff. 377-380), l⁸ (ff. 381-388), li⁴(ff. 389-392), lii^8-1 (1 leaf excised; ff. 393-399), liii⁸(ff. 400-407), liv⁶ (ff. 408-413).

Horizontal catchwords.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Modern parchment; gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Paris, France.

Provenance:

A countess of Valois, 14th century: inscribed, 'ceste bible est Madame la Contesse de Vallois' (f. 243r). Possible identifications include Jeanne de Bourgogne, wife of Philippe VI, count of Valois from 1325, then king of France 1328-1350; Blanche of France, married to Philippe d'Orléans, count of Valois from c. 1349; and Valentina Visconti, wife of Louis of France, Duke of Orléans and count of Valois from 1382. Louis acquired many books from Blanche (see Cockerell and Thompson 1907 p. 11, who, following Delisle, prefer Blanche as owner of this manuscript).

Two inscriptions, last quarter of the 18th century, suggest that this Bible might have been formerly bound in two volumes. The second volume would have begun on f. 243r: inscribed 'le surplus de ces paraboles est dans les trois premieres lignes du volume suivant au texte de l'Eclesiaste' (f. 242v); the second inscription suggests that the last folio of the Bible (f. 413r) marked the beginning of the second volume as a flyleaf (there is an off-set on the verso of f. 413r which corresponds to the miniature and borders of f. 243r). The inscription of a countess of Valois (f. 243r) could mean that when it was written, the Bible was already in 2 volumes, and that a countess of Valois was the owner of the second volume.

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Barrois (b. 1784, d. 1855), French deputy and book collector (on whom see Hugh Collingham, 'Joseph Barrois: Portrait of a Bibliophile XXVI', Book Collector 33 (1984), 431-48).

Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham: acquired with the other Barrois manuscripts in 1849.

Bertram Ashburnham, 5th earl of Ashburnham: the Ashburnham-Barrois sale, 10 June 1901, lot 144, bought by Baer.

Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed 'nee [i.e. £500] / [bought from] Harris / Nov 27 / 1901' (inside upper cover).

Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1941 by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson.

Publications:

Samuel Berger, La bible française au moyen âge: étude sur les plus anciennes versions de la bible écrites en prose de langue d'oïl (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1884), no. 110 p. 414.

A Descriptive Catalogue of Twenty Illuminated Manuscripts, Nos. LXXV to XCIV (Replacing Twenty Discarded from the Original Hundred) in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1907), no. LXXV pp. 9-15.

Alison Stones, 'The Stylistic Context of the Roman de Fauvel with a note on Fauvain', in Fauvel Studies: Allegory, Chronicle, Music, and Image in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. français 146, ed. by Margaret Bent and Andrew Wathey (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), pp. 529-67 (pp. 531 n. 6, 532, 550).

Akiko Komada, Les illustrations de la Bible Historiale: les manuscrits réalisés dans le Nord, 4 vols (Paris: Thèse de doctorat, Université Paris IV, 2000), III, no. 44.

Marie-Therese Gousset, 'Troyes, médiathèque de l'agglomération, ms. 59', Les manuscrits de Clairvaux de saint Bernard à nos jours. La vie en Champagne, 46 (2006), pp. 72-74.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Subjects:

Bible

Places:

Paris, France