User:Dsmdgold/Manuscript articles under construction

Finished

• Mathematicat text fragment (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, pap. 11529)
• Fécamp Bible
• Psalter (British Library, Stowe 2)

Life of Saint Denis (Bibliothèque Nationale, MS fr. 2090-2092)

Bibliothèque Nationale, MS fr. 2090-2092 is a illuminated manuscript of The Life of Saint Denis, an hagiographical account of the life and martyrdom of Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris. The manuscript was produced in Paris and was begun at the request of John de Pontoise, Abbot of the Abbey of Saint Denis during the Reign of Philip IV. The manuscript was completed in 1317 and presented by the abbot to Philip V.

The manuscript is currently bound in four volumes, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS fr 2090, 2091, 2092 and Bibliothèque Nationale, MS lat. 13836. Lat. 13836 is a a framnet was separated form the main manuscript early in its history. The manuscript contains 77 illustrations of the life and martyrdom of Saint Denis. These 77 illustrations are are only a portion of the full iconographic cycle which had developed for the Life of Saint Denis. Twenty-nine of the Miniature (illuminated manuscript)miniatures contain, in addition to a scene from the Life of Saint Denis, depiction of various artisans and merchants of 14th century Paris at work.

This manuscript is a prominent example of one of two trends present in Parisian illumination during the first years of the 14th century. The first trend was acontinuation of the style of Master Honoré in which the human figure is treated with a sinuous plasticity.

Gospels of Mael Brigte

The illuminated Chi Rho monogram for Matthew 1:18 on folio 10 rect of the Gospels of Mael Brigte

The Gospels of Mael brigte (British Library, Harley MS 1802, also known as the Armagh Gospels and the Marelbrid Gospels) is an illuminated Gospel Book, with glosses. It was created in 1138 in Armagh by scribe named Mael Brigte Ua Maeluánaig. The codex includes the Latin text of the Gospels, along with glosses and prefatory material. There are also several inscription in Irish.

There are 156 vellum folios along with 2 parchment and 2 paper flyleaves whic are not counted in the offcial foliation. The leaves are 165 mm by 120 mm. The text is contained in area of 120 mm by 70 mm. The binding is of red leather with gilt tooling and dates from after 1600. The text is written in an Irish minuscule hand.

notes

Decoration 2 full-page miniature of Evangelist symbols in ink with washes of green, brown, red, and yellow (ff. 60v, 86v). 4 very large zoomorphic initials in ink with washes of colour in green, red, brown, and yellow at the beginning of the Gospels (ff. 20, 61, 87, 128). Large zoomorphic initials with interlace decoration in ink with washes of colour, in combinations of red, yellow, brown, or green. Highlighting of letters in red, green, brown, or yellow.

Provenance Colophons in Irish at the end of each Gospel that provide the scribe's name: Mael Brigte Ua Mael Uanaig; his age: 28; the fact that he was writing in Armagh; and the date of completion: 1138, e.g., 'Or(ait) do Maelbrigte q(u)i scr(i)bsit h(unc) l(ibrum) in xx viii anno aetatis suae . . .' (Pray for Maelbrigte, who wrote this book in his 28th year . . .) (f. 127v); 'Or(ait) do Maelbrigte q(u)i scribsit h(un)c libru(m) . . .' (Pray for Maelbrigte, who wrote this book. Great is the deed the Cormac mac Carthaig should have been slain by Tairdelbah O Briain (f. 60). Added 13th-century glosses and notes. Bibliotheque du Roi, Paris, by the beginning of the 18th-century: described as part of the library by Pere Richard Simon in his Bibliotheque critique published in 1708 (see Alexander 1978; Henry and Marsh-Micheli 1962 p. 149); from which it, together with other manuscripts, was stolen in 1707 by Aymon. Jean Aymon (b. 1661, d. 1720), priest and writer: taken to Holland where it was examined by John Toland, who advised Robert Harley to purchase it (see Henry and Marsh-Micheli 1962 p. 149). The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library. Notes According to Glunz, with marginal and interlinear glosses that were read in the cathedral school in Paris in the fourth decade of the 12th century.

Henry and Marsh-Micheli's Group IVA: 'Middle and Late Twelfth-Century Manuscripts from the North-East of Ireland and Galloway, with initials of Henry's 'knotted wire' type.

Reference

British Library Illuminated Manuscript Catalogue entry

Aditional reading

• A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, no. 1802.
• Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Ilustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 5.
• Facsimiles of Biblical Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Frederic G. Kenyon (London: British Museum, 1900), no. XVIII.
• J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 82.
• Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum, II (London, 1926), pp. 428-32.
• H. H. Glunz, History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933), no. 23 [wrongly identified as Harley 1803].
• Françoise Henry and G. I. Marsh-Micheli, 'A Century of Irish Illumination (1070-1170)', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 62 (1962), pp. 101-164 (pp. 102-3, 111, esp. 148-52, pls XXVI-XXVII).
• Françoise Henry, Irish Art in the Romanesque Period-1020-1170 A.D. (London: Methuen, 1970), pp. 47-8, 64.
• J. J. G. Alexander, Insular Manuscripts: 6th to the 9th Century, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1978), no. 77 [with additional bibliography].
• 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), no. 644.

Gallery

• 
  Folio 1 recto.
• 
  Folio 3 recto.
• 
  Folio 10 recto.
• 
  Folio 60 verso.
• 
  Folio 61 recto.
• 
  Folio 60 verso.
• 
  Folio 87 recto.
• 
  Folio 128 recto.

Cotton Troper

here

Caligula, A. XIV.

Codex membran. in 8vo. longiori, ex foliis constans 130.

1. Liber antiquus troporum, seu hymnorum, in celebrioribus festis anni; musicis notis insignitorum: eleganter scriptus, cum picturis. Sec. XII. et XIV. 1.

2. Fragmentum libri Homiliarum Saxonicarum, cujus nunc tantum restat partiuncula vitae S. Martini. Notandum vero quod, foliis hujusce fragmenti errore bibliopegi transpositis, sex folia priora quae ordine praecedebant, nunc librum claudunt. Sec. XI. 93.

Incipit fragmentum in medio sectionis IX. fol. 127.

"<FOREIGN LA="Saxon">& þa baermen sona stete faeste." Folium quo continebantur sectionum XXI et XXII. partiunculae, hodie desideratur. [Aelfric] [ff. 125-130, 93-111b. Capp. 9-55.]

3. Passio S. Thomae Apostoli. (Saxon.) praemittitur excusatio Aelfrici. (Lat.) [Aelfric] 111. b.

4. Natale S&cmacron;ae. Mildrythae virginis. (Saxon.) 121. b.

Codice truncato, desiderantur plura.

Made up of fragments from a late Anglo-Saxon liturgical chant book, the Caligula Troper's illuminations introduce songs which would be inserted into the mass on special feast days and sung by a soloist, hence the book's small scale. The pictures' geometric abstraction of form and use of vibrant colours embellished with gold give an opulence that speaks of manufacture for use by an important figure. It is named for its 17th-century position in a bookcase supporting a bust of Caligula in the Cotton rare books library. Its selection of tropes (songs) and where it was in the Middle Ages suggest origins at Winchester or Worcester.

Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium (British Library, MS Arundel 7)

British Library, MS Arundel 7 is an illuminated copy of Factorum et dictorum memorabilium by Valerius Maximus produced in northern Italy in the last half of the fourteenth century. The text is written in Latin in a Gothic script.

Author Valerius Maximus

Title Factorum et dictorum memorabilium, with glosses

Origin Italy, N. (Lombardy?)

Date 2nd half of the 14th century

Language Latin

Script Gothic, written above top line

Decoration: 1 large historiated initial, in colours and gold (f. 1). 9 large decorated initials, in colours and gold, at the beginning of the remaining books (ff. 10v, 20, 28v, 37, 46, 53v, 60v, 68v, 77), the first one with a three-sided foliate border. Smaller initials in red with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Small initials in plain red or blue.

Dimensions in mm 320 x 210 (215 x 110)

Official foliation ff. 78 (+ 2 modern paper and 1 medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning, and 1 medieval parchment and 2 modern paper flyleaves at the end)

Form Parchment codex

Binding BM/BL in-house.

Provenance Unidentified owner, last quarter of the 14th century: with his arms azure, two cowls proper on a fess or, below three fleurs-de-lys or (f. 1). Willibald Pirckheimer (b. 1470, d. 1530), son of Johann Pirckheimer, Nuremberg patrician, diplomat, and humanist: his armorial bookplate, with a birchtree, the arms of Pirckheimer, and a crowned mermaid with two tails, the arms of his wife, Crescentia Rieter (inside upper cover). ? Thomas Howard (b. 1585, d. 1646), 2nd earl of Arundel, 4th earl of Surrey, and 1st earl of Norfolk, art collector and politician. Henry Howard (b. 1628, d. 1684), 6th duke of Norfolk, presented to the Royal Society in 1667. The Royal Society, London (its ink stamp: 'Soc. Reg. Lond / ex dono HENR. HOWARD / Norfolciensis.', f. 1v; its book-plate, inside upper cover). Purchased by the British Museum from the Royal Society of London together with 549 other Arundel manuscripts in 1831. Notes At the end of the manuscript, epigram and the name of M. P(etrus) de Mulio who died in 1382 (f. 78).

Select bibliography

Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part 1: The Arundel Manuscripts, p. 2.

Alessandro Palma di Cesnola, Catalogo di manoscritti italiani esistenti nel Museo Britannico di Londra (Turin: Roux, 1890), p. 17 no. 247.

Niklas Holzberg, Willibald Pirckheimer: Griechischer Humanismus in Deutschland, Humanistische Bibliothek, ed. by Ernesto Grassi, series I: Abhandlungen, vol. 41 (Munich: Fink, 1981), p. 39.

Dorothy M. Schullian, A revised list of Manuscripts of Valerius Maximus (Padua: Antenore, 1981), 695-728 (p. 708).

Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), 126.

The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by James P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: British Library, 2000), p. 180 no. [H2]997.

King of Portugal's Bible

The King of Portugal's Bible (Lisbon, Arquivos Nacionais, Torre do Tombro, MS 161/2,4) is an eight volume illuminated glossed Bible made in the late fifteenth century in Florence for King Manuel I of Portugal.

• Set of 8 volumes
• Written in Florence
• 1494-97
• Sigismondo de'Sigismondi, Alessandro da Verrazzano and others scribes
• Attavante degli Attavanti, illunimator.
• Bible with Postillae of Nichals of Lyra
• Commisioned for Prince Manuel of Portgal (Manuel I of Portugal)
• Manuel succeded to throne before manuscript completed.
• Contract between his agent Chimenti di Cipriano di Sernigi and illuminator signed 23 April 1494.
• Bible to be seven volumes, plus one volume of Peter Lombard's Sentences
• Contract specified payments for each illumination
• 25 ducats for "principio"
• stipulations for time to complete project
• sysyem of fines if Attavante fails to deliver
• Provision for if scribes fall behind (shows ill and scribes work at same time) (Scribes not named)
• Volume I signed and dated Dec. 11 1495 by Sigismondo
• Volume II signeds and dated August 1495 by Allesandro
• Volumes III, IV, and VII appear to be in hand of Niccolò Mangona (priest)
• Niccolò's sig only appears in a manuscript of Boccacio's Ninfale fiesolano (1482)
• Volume V same hand as as Peter Lombard Sentences, ided in contract as frater Jacobus Carmelitanus
• Almost certainly same as scribe of another Peter Lombard manuscript (Florence, BML, 21,8) (signed by frater Jacobus Johannes Alamannus Crucenacensis)
• Florence BML 21,8 made for King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary
• Volume II (387 folios) (410 x 283 mm) Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth and I-IV Kings
• Volume II 1v Frontispiece "list of contents is written in gold on blue on a plaque eclosed by four columns. In front is an altar with a reclining female figure rendered as if carved on it. A number of male figures stand either side inside the portico. The arms of Manuel of Portugal are upheld by female figures in the centre of the border below and repeated on each side; at the top of the page are the arms of the Order of Christ, a silver and red cross on blue. The border to each side with gold acanthus, putti, simulated cameos and pearls on blue and red encloses six haloed but unidentifiable figures of Saints or Prohpets in roundels. The whole is enclosed by a gold filigree border."
• Volume II Folio 2r miniature of St. Jerome, adoring crucifix and kneeling outside of cave. Historiated initial "T", with seated figure. Page enclosed in border matching 1 verso. Oprning scriot written in gold.
• Other books in Volume II introduced with historiated intials: Judges "P", Judas as soldier; Ruth "I" Ruthe kneeling before Boaz; Prologue to Kings, "V" St, Jerome; 1 Kings "P", standing person, probably Samuel, 2 Kings "F" messenger before David; 3 Kings "E" King David and kneeling woman; 4 Kings "P", Hezekiah in bed with Elijah; Prologue to 1 Chronicles "T', St. Jerome; 1 Chronicles "A", Adam digging with spade; 2 Chronicles "C", Solomon kneeling before altar. Initals accompnied by borders