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Yates Thompson MS 33
- Record Id:
- 040-002354848
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002354332
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000772.0x0002f0
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Yates Thompson MS 33
- Title:
-
Grand Chronique de Normandie
- Scope & Content:
-
This volume contains an illustrated copy of the Grande Chronique de Normandie, written in Middle French. Originally compiled around 1350, this anonymous work is based on a 13th-century chronicle of Normandy as well as the 12th-century Roman de Rou by the Norman poet Wace (b. c. 1110, d. after 1174). It tells the history of the Dukes of Normandy, from the arrival of the first duke, Rollo (d. between 928 and 933), to just after the accession of Henry III (r. 1216-1272) as King of England.
The manuscript was made for Philippe de Crèvecoeur (b. 1418, d. 1494), seigneur d'Esquerdes, a French military commander and later Marshal of France. His arms appear twice in the volume, though without the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which he was awarded in 1468, suggesting the manuscript was completed before this date.
Contents:
ff. 1r-257v: Grande Chronique de Normandie, written in Middle French, beginning,
Decoration:
The decoration of the manuscript has been attributed to a follower of the Girart Master, or of Dreux Jehan.
15 half-page miniatures, the first accompanied by a full foliate border, in colours and gold (ff. 1r, 24v, 35v, 74r, 88r, 89r, 101r, 138v, 155v, 160v, 167r, 176r, 186r, 213v, 244v).
2 historiated initials in colours and gold, enclosing the arms of Philippe de Crèvecoeur (ff. 1r, 115r).
Large decorated initials with monochrome grotesque and figural decoration, in colours and gold. Line-fillers, in colours and gold. Cadels.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 1r: The arrival of Duke Rollo in Normandy, at the city of Rouen.
f. 24v: The marriage of Duke Rollo and Gisela of France, daughter of Charles III, King of France.
f. 35v: The peace conference between William Longsword, Duke of Normandy, and Arnulf I, Count of Flanders, and William's subsequent ambush and murder by Arnulf's followers.
f. 74r: The rebuilding of the church of Fécamp Abbey, overseen by Duke Richard II.
f. 88r: Duke Richard II brought to Fécamp (right); the duke on his deathbed, surrounded by his attendants (left).
f. 89r: Duke Richard III attacking the castle of Falais, seized by his brother Robert; in the background, two men play chess beneath a tent.
f. 101r: Duke Robert I arriving at the city of Jerusalem as part of his pilgrimage, carried in a litter by Ethiopians.
f. 138v: Edward the Confessor on his deathbed; the coronation of Harold Godwinson as King of England.
f. 155v: The landing of William the Conqueror in England and the Battle of Hastings.
f. 160v: The Battle of Hastings, with the Normans pretending to retreat to draw the English out of their formation.
f. 167r: The aftermath of the Battle of Hastings, with four monks carrying the body of Harold Godwinson to Waltham Abbey.
f. 176r: The funeral of William the Conqueror in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen, Normandy (left); the coronation of William Rufus by Archbishop Lanfranc (right).
f. 186r: The death of William Rufus, shot by one of his men while hunting (left); the report of his death to Henry I (right).
f. 213v: Battle at Le Mans between Henry II, King of England, and Philip II, King of France.
f. 244v: Siege of the Castle of Châlus-Chabrol, in which Richard I, King of England, is mortally wounded.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Yates Thompson Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002354332
040-002354848 - Is part of:
- Yates Thompson MS 1-59 : Yates Thompson Manuscripts
Yates Thompson MS 33 : Grand Chronique de Normandie - Hierarchy:
- 032-002354332[0036]/040-002354848
- 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:
- 1455
- End Date:
- 1468
- Date Range:
- c 1460-1468
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 360 x 260 mm (written space: 220 x 155 mm).
Foliation: ff. 257 (+ 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Limp vellum binding. France, 17th or 18th century.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Brussels, Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium).
Provenance:
The manuscript was made for Philippe de Crèvecoeur (b. 1414, d. 1494), seigneur des Querdes, before 1468: his heraldic arms, without the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, of which he became a member in 1468; his initials (ff. 1r, 151r).
Upside-down inscriptions, c. 1600: possibly 'Gurels…(?)', and 'Croniques de normandye' (ff. 72v, 257v).
Charles-Antoine de Bernard (d. 1818), marquis d'Avernes, in 1767, who lent it to two Benedictines of the name of Haudiquier, who were preparing Vol. 11 of the Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, stating on p. 320 that the Marquis inherited it from his ancestors; bequeathed to de Vauquelin (see below).
M. de Vauquelin des Chênes (d. 1850), Ailly: his name inscribed, 'M. de Vauquelin a Ailly' (upper cover).
Ambroise Firmin Didot (b. 1790, d. 1876), publisher and book-collector: his book-plate, 'Bibliotheca Ambrosii Firmini Didoti' (inside upper cover); in his catalogue 1878, vol. 1, no. 64; bought by Margand and Fatout (Paris booksellers) for £2040; sold to Toustain (see Yates Thompson Catalogue (1912), p. 42).
Comte de Toustain, Vaux-sur-Aure; bought by Quaritch, priced £1500 in his Catalogue 369 (September 1886), and again in his Catalogue 103 (April 1890).
M. Bordes, Bordeaux: his sale, Paris 1898 (see Yates Thompson Catalogue (1912), p. 42).
Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed, '[MS] xcviii / beya [i.e. £1034] / [bought from] Vente de / M. Bordu / Paris / April 1898' (inside upper cover).
Bequeathed to the British Museum by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson in 1941.
- Publications:
-
Alphonse Labitte, Les manuscrits et l'art de les orner: ouvrage historique et pratique illustré de 300 reproductions de miniatures, bordures et lettres ornées (Paris: Mendel, 1893), pp. 272-76, fig. 215.
A Descriptive Catalogue of Fourteen Illuminated Manuscripts (Nos. XCV to CVII and 79A) Completing the Hundred in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1912), no. XCVIII pp. 41-44.
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), pp. 31-34, pls. LXIII-LXXII.
Seymour de Ricci, Les Manuscrits de la Collection Henry Yates Thompson, Extrait du Bulletin de la Societe Francaise de Reproductions de Manuscrits a Peintures (Paris: [n. pub.], 1926), no. XCVIII p. 32.
F. Wormald, 'The Yates Thompson Manuscripts', The British Museum Quarterly, 16 (1952), 4-6 (p. 6).
[L. M. J. Delaissé], La miniature flamande: le mécénat de Philippe le Bon (Brussels: Bibliothèque royale, 1959), p. 143.
Otto Pächt, Ulrike Jenni and Dagmar Thoss, Die illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Schrift- und Buchwesen des Mittelalters, 6 in 2 vols (Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften,1983), I: Flämische Schule I: Textband, pp. 52, 73-74, figs. 39, 80, 82, 83.
Janet Backhouse, Pictures from the Past: Using and Abusing Medieval Manuscript Imagery, Medieval Research Centre: Text and Studies, 1 (Leicester: University of Leicester, 1997), p. 9, pl. 3.
Gilette Labory, 'Grande Chronique de Normandie', Revue d'histoire des textes, 28 (1998), 183-233 (pp. 196-98).
Pamela Porter, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 6-7.
Anne Hagopian Van Buren, ‘Dreux Jehan and the Grandes Heures of Philip the Bold’ in 'Als Ich Can': Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), pp. 1377-1414 (p. 1402 n. 66).
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: Getty Museum, 2003), no. 57 pp. 237-38.
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 17.
Anne Hagopian Van Buren, 'Jean [Jehan], Dreux', in Grove Art Online (Oxford: University Press) [http://www.groveart.com/] [accessed 5 January 2006].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Subjects:
- History
- Places:
- Brussels, Belgium