07 September 2012
Image and Text Meet in a Royal Regiment
Miniature of the author presenting his book to Henry V; from Thomas Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes, England (2nd quarter of the fifteenth century), Royal 17. D. vi, f. 40r.
This manuscript dates from the second quarter of the fifteenth century: shortly after, that is, the deaths of Thomas Hoccleve -- the author of the works contained in this collection -- and of King Henry V, to whom, as Prince of Wales, Hoccleve had dedicated the most famous of these works, the Regiment of Princes. The Regiment is an example of the 'Mirror for Princes' genre, where a poet gives advice to a prince or king on how he should rule both his nation and himself. Images of all of Royal 17. D. vi are available on the Digitised Manuscripts website.
In the miniature above, we see Hoccleve kneeling before Henry, presenting him with a copy of his book. Such presentation portraits are common features of the beginning of manuscripts, but this one is a bit unusual, falling as it does well into the text. It comes at the point when Hoccleve finally begins to speak directly to the prince, near the end of his astonishing prologue to the Regiment -- remarkable, because the prologue alone is nearly one half of the full work. In it, he explores his reasons for writing the Regiment, as well as his own position in the literary tradition.
And that tradition is very important to him. Hoccleve, like a number of his colleagues in the poetic circles of early fifteenth-century London, greatly admired Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of the Canterbury Tales, and the literary lion of the previous generation.
In fact, Hoccleve claims to have actually known Chaucer before the death of the great man, a death he repeatedly laments throughout the poem: 'My dere maister [master], God his soule quyte [acquit] / And fader Chaucers fayn wold me han taught [And father Chaucer wanted to teach me] / But I was dulle and lerned right naught' (f. 41r, Regiment lines 2077-79). As with the presentation portrait that interacts so closely with the text of the poem, appearing as it does right at the point when Hoccleve speaks to Henry directly ('Hye and noble prince excellent / My lord the Prince, O my lord gracious', f. 40r, Regiment lines 2017-28), Hoccleve also creates a unique interaction between text and image centred around the figure of 'Father Chaucer.'
Detail of a miniature of Geoffrey Chaucer; from Thomas Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes, England (2nd quarter of the fifteenth century), Royal 17. D. vi, f. 93v.
A portrait of the famous author stands in the margin. Unlike many medieval portraits, this one actually attempts to capture a likeness. It has been faithfully copied at the creation of the manuscript, along with the text, but is one of a number of manuscript drawings of Chaucer (compare, for example, the one found in Harley 4866) that are believed to descend from a painted panel portrait -- in this case, indirectly. To the best of our knowledge, then, this is what Chaucer really looked like! Here, the author points at the text where Hoccleve has explained his reasons for wanting the portrait to be included:
'Although his life queynte [quenched] be, the resemblaunce
of hym hath in me so fressh livelynesse,
That to putte other men in remembraunce
Of his persone, I have here the liknesse
Do make to this ende in Sothefastnesse,
[Caused to be made for this purpose, in truth,]
That [so that] they that have of hym lost thought and mynde
By this peynture [painting] may ageyn [again] hym fynde'.
(f. 93v, Regiment lines 4992-98)
In an age when each copy of a book was a unique artistic production, often made decades or centuries after the death of the author, Hoccleve's effort to draw text and image together so closely was an ambitious one, which we are fortunate to find here so faithfully reproduced.
Decorative border on a page from Thomas Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes, England (2nd quarter of the fifteenth century), Royal 17. D. vi, f. 48r. The Latin note in the margin has been provided by Hoccleve, and identifies the source he used when composing the adjacent text. The provision by an author of such additional apparatus, while not unique, is unusual, and is a further indication of Hoccleve's intention to take into account all aspects of the manuscript book -- not just the text alone.
01 September 2012
A Calendar Page for September 2012
For more details on calendar pages of the Hours of Joanna of Castile, please see the entry for January 2012.
Calendar pages for September, from the Hours of Joanna of Castile, Netherlands (Bruges), between 1496 and 1506, Additional 18852, ff. 9v-10
September is (and was) traditionally the month to begin the grape harvest, and the vitally important task of wine-making. The calendar pages for this month give us two such scenes, beginning on the left, where a group of men and a single woman are harvesting grapes and carrying them in wicker baskets, overlooked by a turreted castle on the hilltop. On the right hand page, two men with wicker baskets are carrying their grapes into a barn, where one man is pouring wine into casks and another is crushing grapes in a barrel (and making a bit of a mess, it appears). Above this scene is a strange-looking scorpion, for the zodiac sign Scorpio; this is most likely an error, since September is most traditionally associated with the sign Virgo (see last year's page, for example).
30 August 2012
The Art of Chivalry: The Texts of the Talbot Shrewsbury Book
Detail of a miniature of the storming of Corunna by Broadas, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 207r
The stunning images in the Talbot Shrewsbury Book (Royal MS 15 E. vi) are not the only treasure hidden between its covers (see our earlier post about the manuscript). Its contents are a unique collection of fifteen texts in French, compiled for a very important patron, the future Queen of England. Their subjects range from history to romance to military strategy - the common theme throughout is the art of chivalry. This was a fitting subject for a military commander such as John Talbot, the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, who commissioned the work and presented it to Margaret of Anjou, future wife of Henry VI, probably on her arrival in Rouen in March 1445 on her way to England. Whether or not the young Margaret found the military manuals and statutes of the Order of the Garter as entertaining as the tales of Alexander and the romance of the Swan Knight, this was certainly a wedding gift to be treasured and passed on to future generations. Sadly, her only son, Edward, Prince of Wales, was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, but this manuscript was certainly in the Royal library in the reign of Charles II, two centuries later, and remained in the Royal collection until its donation to the British Museum (now, of course, the British Library).
Stories of heroes and heroines of the past, both real and imaginary, in the form of chansons de geste (troubadour’s songs) and chivalric romances, fill two thirds of the volume. These are followed by more didactic texts in the form of chronicles, instructional manuals and statutes. Each text begins on a new folio in a separate gathering, and were all joined together in a single volume, with a list of contents on the verso of the first folio.
Two of the greatest heroes of the past are the subject of the first six texts in the collection:
Detail of a miniature of Alexander encountering blemmyae, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 21v
Alexander the Great
Le Livre de la Conqueste du Roy Alexandre is a French translation of the legend of Alexander, in which he is portrayed as the ultimate hero who conquers the known world, does battle with flying dragons, meets Amazonian women and horned men, and is lowered into the sea in a cask. Included here are tales of his childhood and legendary education by Aristotle, the murder of his mother, Olympias, and details of his successors. There are 81 colourful miniatures illustrating Alexander’s legendary exploits. The one above shows him meeting the Blemmyae, men-monsters with their heads in their chests.
Detail of a miniature of Charlemagne and four kings, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 25r
Charlemagne
The next five tales are set in the time of Charlemagne, the great military hero and Holy Roman emperor, whose reign provides the background to a huge epic cycle involving a plethora of subsidiary characters. The first four texts are in the form of chansons de geste and the fifth is a prose romance.
Simon de Pouille relates the events in the war between Charlemagne and Christian Jerusalem on the one side and Jonas of Babylon, on the other. Simon, one of the emperor’s companions, is sent as an envoy to the Saracen leader, a task fraught with difficulties.
Aspremont tells of Charlemagne’s campaigns in Italy. Aspremont is one of the peaks in the southern Appenines though which the army advances on the way to Rome.
Detail of a miniature of Charlemagne and Fierabras with the relics, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 70r
Fierebras is the tale of Charlemagne’s battles with the Saracens and of the encounter between his army and Fierebras of Alexander, in which the Crown of Thorns and other relics are recaptured for the Christians.
Ogier le Danois links the tales of Charlemagne with Arthurian legends, as common characters and places are introduced. Ogier, the Danish hero and enemy of Charlemagne, marries an English princess and becomes King of England, bearing a son by Morgan le Fee while he is shipwrecked on Avalon.
Detail of a miniature of Charlemagne at a table; and Aymon's sons on Bayard, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 155r
Quatre fils Aimon or Le livre de Renault de Montauban tells the story of four brothers who flee from persecution by Charlemagne, going on a crusade on Bayard, the magic horse. Renault eventually becomes a stonemason at the cathedral in Cologne and after his death his body develops miraculous properties.
Other romances
Two prose romances of Anglo-Norman origin and a chanson follow:
Pontus et Sidoine, adapted from the French version of the Anglo-Norman romance, King Horn, tells the story of the son of the King of Galicia and the daughter of the King of Brittany and their love for one another. A tale of chivalry as well as a moral treatise, it glorifies peace as a worthy aim for all, even knights and soldiers.
Detail of a miniature of Guy of Warwick as a courtier and pilgrim, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 227r
Le Romant de Guy de Warwik et d’Heraud d’Ardenne was one of the most popular romances in medieval England, judging from the number of copies that survive in both French and Middle English, mostly in verse. There are, however, only two known copies in French prose, of which this is one. Guy is an English knight who falls in love with a lady of high standing and must prove himself worthy to win her hand. He is taught chivalry by his foster-father, Heraud, and embarks on a series of successful adventures, but later comes to regret his violent past and goes on a crusade, then retires to a hermitage.
Miniature of a knight in a boat drawn by a swan; miniature of a mother in bed, with seven children in a cradle, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 273r
The last romance in the collection is a chanson called Lystoire du chevalier au Cygne, an abridged version of part of the vast Crusade cycle. The tale of the seven children turned to swans and of Hélias, the swan knight, was linked to the legendary origins of Godefroi de Bouillon, one of the leaders of the First Crusade (1096), who became the first ruler of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Didactic texts
The remaining third of the manuscript (from folio 293 onwards) contains texts which are more didactic in nature, perhaps intended for the instruction of Margaret of Anjou or of her future sons and heirs. There are three works on chivalry and warfare, an instructional manual for kings and princes, a chronicle and statutes.
Larbre des batailles is a treatise on war and the laws of battle, written for a wide audience in the style of a scholastic dialogue; a question is posed, both sides are debated and a conclusion follows.
Le gouvernement des roys et des princes is translated from Gilles de Rome’s De regimine principium, the Mirror of Princes, an influential text which interpreted (sometimes loosely) and promoted Aristotle’s political and moral philosophy to a medieval audience. It combined practical advice with philosophical guidance for rulers.
Detail of a miniature of Aubert and Ide, Robert the Devil, and Charlemagne, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 363r
Chroniques de Normandie is a history of the region from the 8th century to 1217. It begins in the time of the legendary Aubert and his son Robert le Diable, during the reign of Pepin, father of Charlemagne, the early part up to 1189 being a prose version of Wace’s Roman de Rou. The sources of the continuation from 1189 onwards have not been established beyond doubt, though there are parallels with other chronicles of the period such as Ralph of Coggeshall and Matthew Paris.
Breviaire des Nobles is a poem on the values of chivalry, beginning ‘Je Noblesce, dame de bon vouloir…’.
Detail of a miniature of Henry VI enthroned giving the earl of Shrewsbury the sword as constable of France, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 405r
Le livre des fais darmes et de chevalerie is a work on military strategy and the conduct of war, compiled by its author, Christine de Pizan in 1410, from a variety of sources, both ancient and contemporary, for the instruction of young knights. Although as a woman she had no direct experience of fighting, she succeeds here in producing an authoritative work on the subject, worthy to be translated and printed by Caxton in 1489.
The Statutes of the Order of the Garter (here written in French) are the rules for the government and organisation of the chivalric order founded by Edward III in the late 1340s. The original statutes do not survive and this version is slightly different from the four early texts which were printed by Ashmole in his comprehensive work on the subject in the 17th century. Included are rules pertaining to foreign travel by members of the Order, to uniforms and to the guardianship of the order in the king’s absence.
Detail of a miniature of the Chapter of the Garter, a king and knights gathered around an altar surmounted by George and the dragon, from Poems and Romances (the 'Talbot Shrewsbury book'), France (Rouen), c. 1445, Royal 15 E. vi, f. 439r
- Chantry Westwell
23 August 2012
Chronicles, Lancelot and a Journey to Jerusalem: Royal Manuscripts Now Online
Miniature of a lake, an island, and the ships of the Scots; from Jean de Wavrin, Recueil des croniques d’Engleterre, vol. 1, Netherlands (Bruges), 1471-1483, Royal 15 E. iv, parts 1 and 2, f. 146r
A new batch of images from the Royal collection of manuscripts has just been made available on the Digitised Manuscripts site. This latest collection includes a number of chronicles and one French romance -- a Lancelot du Lac. Most of the chronicle manuscripts were made in Bruges, but the text by Matthew Paris is an English production. This manuscript is particularly special, because the author himself both wrote and illustrated the manuscript: the itinerary map you see here is in his own hand! Links to all these images and more can be found below.
Page from the itinerary from London to the Holy Land with images of towns, their names, and descriptions of places, with attached pieces, including the city of Rome to the right; from Matthew Paris, Historia Anglorum, Chronica majora, Part III, England (St Albans), 1250-1259, Royal 14 C. vii, f. 4r
Royal 14 C. vii Matthew Paris, Historia Anglorum, Chronica majora, Part III, England (St Albans), 1250-1259
Royal 15 E. iv, parts 1 and 2 Jean de Wavrin, Recueil des croniques d’Engleterre, vol. 1, Netherlands (Bruges), 1471-1483
Royal 18 E. i Jean Froissart, Chroniques, vol. 2, Netherlands (Bruges), 4th quarter of the 15th century
Royal 19 E. v Benvenuto da Imola, Romuléon, translated by Jean Miélot, Netherlands (Bruges), 1480
Royal 20 D. iv Lancelot du Lac, France (Arras?), 1300-1380
Miniature of Arthur engaged in conversation with his barons, while Lancelot and Guinevere are whispering together, and on the right, the king and queen presiding over a banquet; with an illuminated initial 'M'(out) containing the arms of England and Bohun, and a full bar border with scenes of two men fighting and monkeys at school, in the lower margin; from Lancelot du Lac, France (Arras?), 1300-1380, Royal 20 D. iv, f. 1r
Detail of a miniature of the capture of Olivier du Guesclin; from Jean Froissart, Chroniques, vol. 2, Netherlands (Bruges), 4th quarter of the 15th century, Royal 18 E. i, f. 48r
20 August 2012
Gospels, Psalms, and Prayer Rolls: More Royal Devotional Manuscripts Online
Miniature of Matthew as a scribe, with his evangelist symbol, an angel (a man), with full acanthus borders in the Winchester style, from the Grimbald Gospels, England (Canterbury or Winchester?), between 1012 and 1023, Additional 34890, f. 10v
We are pleased to announce the full digitisation of yet another group of Royal medieval devotional manuscripts, all of which have recently been uploaded to our Digitised Manuscripts site. Like our previous group of devotional manuscripts, many of these texts either belonged to or were associated with royalty or aristocracy. Interestingly, all of the manuscripts below were produced in England, with the exception of the famous Smithfield Decretals, which was significantly embellished after its arrival on our shores in the 14th century.
Additional 34890 The Grimbald Gospels, England (Canterbury or Winchester?), between 1012 and 1023
Additional 88929 The Prayer Roll of Henry VIII, England, between 1485 and 1509 (for more information, please see Andrea Clarke's post on the prayer roll following its acquisition by the British Library in February 2011)
Harley 2278 John Lydgate's Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund, England (Bury St Edmunds), 1434-1439 (again, more details about this manuscript are available here)
Miniature of Henry VI praying at the shrine of king Edmund at Bury St Edmunds, from John Lydgate's Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund, England (Bury St Edmunds), 1434-1439, Harley 2278, f. 4v
Royal 1 E. vi Canterbury Gospels ('The Royal Bible'), England (Canterbury), early 9th century to the 1st quarter of the 11th century
Royal 2 B. i Psalms for Humfrey of Gloucester, England, c. 1430 - c. 1440
Royal 10 E. iv The Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), c. 1300, with illuminations added in England (London) c. 1340 (please see Alixe Bovey's excellent guest post, Finishing the Smithfield Decretals)
Royal 19 B. xv The Queen Mary Apocalypse, England (London or East Anglia), 1st quarter of the 14th century
Miniature of Alban holding a Tau-cross, presenting the kneeling duke Humfrey of Gloucester (or perhaps Henry VI), with a scroll reading 'Pietas tua domine operetur in me', to Christ as Man of Sorrows and figure of the Trinity, beneath the dove of the Holy Spirit and the Father, with two angels; and the historiated initial 'C'(um) of David playing the harp with two angels, at the beginning of Psalm 4, from Psalms for Humfrey of Gloucester, England, c. 1430 - c. 1440, Royal 2 B. i,f. 8r
Detail of a miniature of the angel with key and dragon chained, and souls in the mouth of Hell, from The Queen Mary Apocalypse, England (London or East Anglia), 1st quarter of the 14th century, Royal 19 B. xv, f. 38v
13 August 2012
Finishing the Smithfield Decretals
Detail of a miniature of the pope and cardinals, from the Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), c. 1300, with illuminations added in England (London) c. 1340, Royal MS 10 E. iv, f. 4r
In about 1300, a scribe wrote 'The whole thing is finished; give the guy who wrote it a drink' in Latin on the recto of folio 314 of a copy of the Decretals of Gregory IX that is now British Library, Royal MS 10 E. iv (see here for the Digitised Manuscripts record, and below for the scribe's note). This scribe and his colleagues had certainly earned a pint; the 1,971 papal letters and other documents that make up the Decretals and the accompanying gloss fill 310 of the preceding folios. When this line was written, the scribes’ work may have been done, but the manuscript, known as the Smithfield Decretals, wasn’t finished in any conventional sense of the word.
Detail of a scribe's note at the end of the Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), c. 1300, with illuminations added in England (London) c. 1340, Royal MS 10 E. iv, f. 314r
And my book about this manuscript isn’t finished, either: this is my great shame. I’ve been toiling away at the Smithfield Decretals for most of my adult life, and I can’t quite bring myself to part with it. But what is so special about this manuscript? After all, there are (according to Martin Bertram's indispensable list) nearly 700 surviving manuscripts of the Decretals. The Smithfield Decretals stands apart from these other copies not because of its texts, which are fairly unremarkable witnesses to both the Decretals and the gloss, but because of its extraordinary illumination. Some of these images were included at the time that the book was made: each of the five major divisions in the text have a miniature (folios 4r, 91v, 167v, 229v, and 251r, below). But the pictorial fireworks came about 40 years later. By this time, the book was in England, where its owner commissioned a group of artists to illuminate every one of its folios, and also to append a grand table of contents to the beginning (fols. 1v-3v). Recently, for the first time, the British Library made the entire manuscript freely available in digital form, so you can marvel at the achievement of the scribes and illuminators for yourself. As you browse, bear in mind that the manuscript is almost half a metre tall.
Detail of a miniature of two men standing before a bishop, from the Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), c. 1300, with illuminations added in England (London) c. 1340, Royal MS 10 E. iv, f. 251r
When I started working on the manuscript, the received wisdom was that the texts were copied in Italy, and that the marginal illumination was English; we also knew that by the 15th century the book was at the Augustinian priory of St Bartholomew's in Smithfield, London, because of the ex libris on folio 1r. Thanks to luck, good advice, and graft, I was able to link the coat of arms that appears some 25 times in the book to the Batayles of Essex (see, for example, folios 3v-4r, and the detail below of apes using the Batayle shield on folio 75v), and thus to a 14th century canon of St Bartholomew’s named John Batayle. It also became clear, especially following a steer from Robert Gibbs, that the book can’t have originated in Italy, but is more likely to have been French. In 2010, I stumbled across a copy of the Decretals from Toulouse (and now in Milan) that has illumination so similar to the chapter miniatures in the Smithfield manuscript that I am convinced that the book must originate in this vicinity.
Detail of a bas-de-page scene of apes using the Batayle shield, from the Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), c. 1300, with illuminations added in England (London) c. 1340, Royal MS 10 E. iv, f. 75v
The Toulousain discovery exemplifies the difficulty I have had finishing my book. Whenever I make a move to write the acknowledgments, number the figures, and check the notes one last time, I think: let’s have one last go at one or other intractable problem. Sometimes, I get somewhere; and then (of course) this makes it irresistible to have a crack at another niggling issue, and so it goes. I can’t quite bring myself to put into words how long this has been going on: let’s just say that my publisher isn’t known as ‘The Longsuffering David Way’ for nothing.
If the manuscript’s origins and provenance have been absorbing problems, then those presented by the English programme of illumination in its margins are positively addictive. There are more than 600 scenes in the bas-de-page and, depending on how you count, these comprise something like 30 narrative sequences, ranging from two to more than 40 scenes. Warner and Gilson’s 1921 catalogue of the Royal and King’s library gives a fair idea of the heterogeneity of the manuscript's pictorial contents. These tales have analogues in a dizzying variety of textual and visual sources, including the bible, hagiography, romance, preachers’ exempla, and fabliau. Some of the narratives have no surviving literary analogues; others constitute isolated visual renditions of once-popular tales.
Detail of a bas-de-page scene of the penitent harlot Thäis destroying her worldly goods with her spiritual guide Paphnutius, from the Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), c. 1300, with illuminations added in England (London) c. 1340, Royal MS 10 E. iv, f. 180v
Identifying and interpreting these tales has been the most exciting, frustrating, and joyous endeavour of my professional life. In recent years, the biggest thrills have come from pinning down tales that have resisted explanation. One such narrative is a tangled story of violence, fornication and atonement that turns out to be an extraordinary version of the legend of the penitent harlot Thäis (fols. 177r-184v; see the detail above); my article on this will appear next year in a volume called The Social Life of Illumination (Brepols).
Detail of a bas-de-page scene of a messenger approaching a king (King Horn?) and queen, from the Smithfield Decretals, southern France (probably Toulouse), c. 1300, with illuminations added in England (London) c. 1340, Royal MS 10 E. iv, f. 314r
The most recent ‘Eureka!’ came last December, when I was researching my paper for the conference accompanying the Royal Manuscripts exhibition. The last narrative in the manuscript, which ends on the same page as the scribe’s thirsty colophon, is a tale of romance, royalty, and frenzied letter writing. Could this be the only pictorial version of the romance King Horn? I suspect so; but I have to finish writing it up. When I do, my first toast will be to the Toulousain scribe who thought the Smithfield Decretals was finished when he put his pen down.
Alixe Bovey
University of Kent
09 August 2012
Books of Beasts, Adventure, and Two from New Minster: New Royal Manuscripts Online
Miniature of king Edgar presenting a charter (probably the New Minster Charter) to Christ in Majesty, watched by the Virgin and St Peter, from The New Minster Charter, England (Winchester, New Minster), c. 966, Cotton Vespasian A. viii, f. 2v
With abject apologies for the title above (which we couldn't resist), we are pleased to announce yet another upload of Royal manuscripts to the Digitised Manuscript site. This is a more diverse group than last week's devotional manuscripts. It includes a bestiary, an Isidore of Seville, a Roman de la Rose, the Tabula Cebetis, histories of Caesar and Alexander - and of course, as promised, two manuscripts from the New Minster of Winchester. Many of these manuscripts have been highlighted previously on the blog; the relevant links are below.
Miniature of the Seat of Virtue, with a personification of Virtue in a garden with Aeternitas, Gloria, Studius, and Mars, from Filippo Alberici's Tabula Cebetis, France (Paris), c. 1507, Arundel 317, f. 20v
Arundel 317 Filippo Alberici's Tabula Cebetis, France (Paris), c. 1507
Cotton Vespasian A. viii The New Minster Charter, England (Winchester, New Minster), c. 966
Royal 6 C. i Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, England (St Augustine's, Canterbury), 4th quarter of the 11th century
Royal 12 C. xix Bestiary with theological texts ('The Royal Bestiary'), central or northern England, c. 1200 - c. 1210 (for more details, please see the King of Beasts post on this manuscript)
Detail of a miniature of an elephant with a dragon on its back, from the entry for dragon (Draco), from Bestiary with theological texts ('The Royal Bestiary'), central or northern England, c. 1200 - c. 1210, Royal 12 C. xix, f. 62r
Royal 15 E. vi The Talbot Shrewsbury Book, France (Rouen), 1444-1445 (please also see our recent post on this manuscript here)
Royal 17 D. vi Thomas Hoccleve, The Regement of Princes, and other poems, England, 2nd quarter of the 15th century
Royal 17 F. ii La Grande histoire César (Les faits des Romains, with additional texts), Netherlands (Bruges), 1479
Royal 19 D. i Roman d'Alexandre (Romance of Alexander) in prose, and other texts, France (Paris), 1333 - c. 1340
Royal 20 A. xvii Roman de la Rose, (France, Artois or Picardy), c. 1340 - 1350
Stowe 944 The New Minster Liber Vitae, England (Winchester, New Minster), c. 1031 (for more details see this post on the New Minster Liber Vitae)
Miniature of the birth of Caesar, with a full border including the royal arms of England, from La Grande histoire César (Les faits des Romains, with additional texts), Netherlands (Bruges), 1479, Royal 17 F. ii, f. 9r
Detail of a miniature illustrating the song, 'La Bataille d'Annezin', about a pilgrim who made peace between battling Christians and Saracen, from Roman de la Rose, (France, Artois or Picardy), c. 1340 - 1350, Royal 20 A. xvii, f. 176v
06 August 2012
Psalters, Bibles, and the End of Days: Devotional Texts from the Royal Collection Go Online
Miniature of the Crucifixion, with an historiated initial 'D' and a full foliate border, including an inscription of Queen Elizabeth of York in the lower margin, reading 'Elysabeth ye quene', from the Hours of Elizabeth the Queen, England (London?), c. 1415, Add 50001, f. 22r
Our most recent Royal upload to the Digitised Manuscript site includes this group of devotional manuscripts. Many of these manuscripts once belonged to royalty, ranging from Æthelstan to Henry VIII (and including at least two aristocratic women - Elizabeth of York and Cecilia Welles). This group rather beautifully displays the wide variety of medieval devotional interests, and the many written (and illustrated) forms these could take - we hope you enjoy paging through these Bibles, Psalters, Apocalypses, and Books of Hours.
Miniature of God creating the animals, with a full border with hybrids and the royal arms of England, and an illuminated initial 'E'(n) of the York badge of the white rose en soleil with the motto 'dieu et mon droit', at the beginning of chapter 1, from the Bible Historiale of Edward IV, Netherlands (Bruges), 1479, Royal 18 D. ix, f. 5r
Add 50001 The Hours of Elizabeth the Queen (Book of Hours, Use of Sarum), England (London), c. 1415
Royal 1 B. vii Northumbrian Gospel Book ('The Royal Æthelstan Gospels'), England (Northumbria), 700 - 749
Royal 1 D. x Psalter, England (Oxford), 1200 - c. 1220
Royal 1 E. ix Bible (the 'Big Bible' or the 'Great Bible'), England (London?), 1st quarter of the 15th century (for more information on this manuscript; please see this post)
Royal 2 A. xvi The Psalter of Henry VIII, England (London), c. 1540 - 1541 (further information in our previous post: Henry VIII as King David)
Royal 15 D. ii La lumere as lais, and Apocalypse ('The Welles Apocalypse'), England, c. 1310
Royal 18 D. ix Bible historiale ('Bible Historiale of Edward IV'), volume 1, Netherlands (Bruges), 1479
Royal 18 D. x Bible historiale ('Bible Historiale of Edward IV'), volume 2, Netherlands (Bruges), 1479
Royal 19 D. ii Bible historiale ('The Bible of John the Good'), France (Paris), c. 1350 - 1356
Miniature in two registers from the prefatory cycle: upper register: the Holy Women at the Tomb; lower register: Christ's Descent into Hell, from a Psalter, England (Oxford), 1200 - c. 1220, Royal 1 D. x, f. 7r.
Full-page miniature of Christ enthroned with 24 Elders and, in the lower register, the door opened in Heaven, illustrating Revelation 4:2-9, from the Welles Apocalypse, England, c. 1310, Royal 15 D. ii, f. 117v
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