02 April 2015
A Calendar Page for April 2015
To find out more about the London Rothschild Hours, take a look at our post A Calendar Page for January 2015.
Calendar page for April, with decorative border comprising a Zodiac sign, architectural column and roundels, and bas-de-page scene, from the London Rothschild Hours, Southern Netherlands (?Ghent), c. 1500, Add MS 35313, f. 3r
A pastoral scene greets us on the calendar page for April, with budding leaves on the trees heralding the onset of spring. Sheep and their lambs, a goat and two oxen are being shepherded out from half-timbered barns, to graze in the fields beyond. A cockerel, hens and their hatchlings scrabble about in farmyard, while in the background a woman stands churning milk for butter. The roundels depict the two main feast days for the month – for St George (on horseback, vanquishing a dragon with his lance) and for St Mark (seated at his desk and accompanied by his emblem, a winged lion). Taurus the Bull – the Zodiac sign for April – is standing at the head of page.
Detail of a bas-de-page scene of animals being let out to graze, Add MS 35313, f. 3r
Detail of a roundel depicting St George and the dragon, Add MS 35313, f. 3r
- James Freeman
29 March 2015
The Anglo-Saxon Origins of Medieval Justice
Our major Magna Carta exhibition is now open in London, but for those of you who can't come to the British Library in person, over the coming months we're going to showcase some of the exhibits on this blog. You may imagine that our story starts in the years immediately before the Great Charter was granted in 1215; but in fact the earliest items in our exhibition pre-date the Norman Conquest of England ...
Miniature of a king dictating the law (London, British Library, Royal MS 11 D IX, f. 6r)
‘No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.’
So reads the most famous clause of Magna Carta, still valid in English law. But what do we know about the concept of justice before the 13th century?
The earliest surviving Anglo-Saxon law code was actually issued around the year 600 by King Æthelberht of Kent (r. 560–616), and was written in Old English. Meanwhile, the Bible provided models for good Christian kingship, as demonstrated in this 11th-century manuscript of the Hexateuch (the first 6 books of the Bible), on show in Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy.
The Old English Hexateuch (London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius B IV, f. 59r)
Here is the biblical story of Pharaoh sentencing his chief baker to be hanged (Genesis 40:21-22). However, the 11th-century artist has dressed the figures in costumes of his own day: the king in the centre, holding a sword and a sceptre or rod, is surrounded by his counsellors; the condemned man, on the right, is being strung from the gallows. According to a 14th-century catalogue, this beautifully illustrated manuscript was kept in the monastery library at St Augustine’s Canterbury on the first shelf of its first bookcase. You can see this page in our Magna Carta exhibition, and the whole manuscript can be viewed on our Digital Manuscripts website.
The Ten Commandments were a particularly important model for the drafting of Anglo-Saxon law codes. They are referenced in the laws of Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) and formed part of the preface to his law book, grounding the secular laws in biblical precedents. God’s law is also specifically referenced in the longest Anglo-Saxon law code, which begins with the line, ‘I desire that justice be promoted and every injustice suppressed, that every illegality be eradicated from this land with the utmost diligence, and the law of God promoted’. This was issued by King Cnut (r. 1016–1035) with the advice of his counsellors. The text was drafted by Archbishop Wulfstan of York (d. 1023), and one of the eight surviving medieval manuscripts containing the text was produced in either York or Worcester in the 11th century. It was probably owned by the archbishop himself, and may contain his own annotations.
The Law Code II Cnut (London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero A I, f. 33r)
This item is also on display in our Magna Carta exhibition. When you see it in person, you realise that this pocket-sized book was deliberately made to be easily portable, perhaps by Archbishop Wulfstan himself.
It's quickly apparent that the concept of justice in medieval England was firmly established before King John came to the throne. We'll review why Magna Carta came to be granted in some of our later blogposts (look out for them on Twitter, @BLMedieval with the hashtag #MagnaCarta).
You can view the Old English Hexateuch and King Cnut's lawcode alongside other items relating to the history and legacy of Magna Carta in Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, on at the British Library until 1 September 2015. They are also featured on our new Magna Carta website (Old English Hexateuch and lawcode of King Cnut).
21 March 2015
True Nobility and Plagiarism
Being a royal librarian could be a lucrative business in the fifteenth century, as the career of Quentin Poulet illustrates. Born in Lille, he went from obscure scribe in a book-producer’s confraternity in Bruges in 1477-78, to keeper of the library of Henry VII in 1492. From the few records of his life that survive, we know that on 26th July 1497, he was paid £23 sterling for ‘a boke’ with a bonus of 10 marks on top from the royal purse. The ‘boke’ in question may well be Royal MS 19 C VIII, a copy of the Imaginacion de la vraie noblesse, which has just been photographed and uploaded to Digitised Manuscripts.
Miniature showing the young knight observing an archer and a carter as models for princely conduct, surrounded by a naturalistic scatter border, from the Imaginacion de la vraie noblesse, London and Bruges, c. 1496-97, Royal MS 19 C VIII, f. 41r
One might imagine why Henry was so chuffed with the present. The text is a knightly ‘mirror’ text, intended to offer moral guidance and instruction in courtly behaviour to its aristocratic reader – and what better reader than the ten-year-old Arthur Tudor, prince of Wales? For the heir apparent to Henry VII, this book could plausibly have formed part of his schooling. It offers edifying exempla: from the three aspects of nobility – love of God, love of justice, and love of good reputation – personified as three women, to the virtues embodied by the archer (his skill of focusing on a target) and the carter (his determination, or drive if you’re in the mood for a pun!). It warns how poor counsellors can lead a prince astray, while illustrating the divine right of kings in ruling over their realms.
Detail of the colophon of Quentin Poulet, Royal MS 19 C VIII, f. 97v
Poulet copied the manuscript himself, writing the text in an elegant Bâtarde script – a style of handwriting common among manuscripts produced under the patronage of the Burgundian court (as illustrated by the copy of the Mystère de la Vengeance made c. 1465 for Philip the Good, acquired last year by the British Library and now Add MS 89066/1 and Add MS 89066/2).
Miniature of Lady Imagination taking her leave of the young knight at the end of his pilgrimage, with the city of Halle in the background, Royal MS 19 C VIII, f. 90r
The text was not widely known in England: the only other known insular copy was made for Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, in 1464 (now Geneva, Bibliothèque publique et universitaire, MS fr. 166). Its obscurity may explain why Poulet was able to pass the work off as his own. The narrative frame of a pilgrimage from Lille to Halle (which town is illustrated in the background of many of the miniatures), and its attribution to a member of a prominent Flanders family, Hugues of Lannoy, also explain the text’s appeal to Poulet.
Detail of an historiated initial depicting the presentation of the manuscript by Quentin Poulet to Henry VII, Royal MS 19 C VIII, f. 1r
Poulet cannily repackaged the text, changing the title slightly from the Enseignement to the Imaginacion de la vraie noblesse, prefacing it with his own dedicatory introduction, and incorporating his name into the colophon at the end (which records the manuscript’s completion at the royal palace of Sheen on 30th June 1496). A historiated initial at the beginning of the preface depicts Poulet kneeling before Henry VII and offering him the book.
Miniature showing the young knight a man with severed arms, illustrative of his lack of honour, surrounded by a naturalistic scatter border and animal-rebus on the name of Quentin Poulet, Royal MS 19 C VIII, f. 32v – this image may be familiar to you from our Valentine’s Day post, An Illustrated Guide to Medieval Love
Poulet also had his name encoded into the decoration, in the form of a chicken (‘un poulet’, in French) emerging from a shell in one of the scatter borders that surround the miniatures. These borders contain naturalistic flowers and plants (pansies, roses, carnations and strawberry sprigs), animals, birds and insects (a bear, a jay, a grouse, an owl, a fly and a butterfly), and a cheeky monkey that is aping the gestures of the young knight (for more monkey business, take a look at our earlier post, Apes Pulling Shapes).
Miniature showing Lady Imagination introducing the young knight to the Three Aspects of Nobility, embodied as young women, surrounded by a naturalistic scatter border, Royal MS 19 C VIII, f. 11r
The manuscript contains six large illustrations, which were completed by the Bruges illuminator known to modern scholarship as the ‘Master of the Prayer Books of Around 1500’. (A note was added in pencil to f. 81v by Frederic Madden in 1845, drawing attention to the loss of the following leaf, which presumably contained a seventh miniature). His work is also found in Harley MS 4425, featured on this blog in our posts Sex and Death in the Roman de la Rose and The Height of Fashion, and Royal MS 16 F II, a compilation including poetry by Charles of Orléans. The British Library also holds one other copy of the Enseignement – Add MS 15469 – another illustrated but much less lavish production on paper.
- James Freeman
17 March 2015
Irish Manuscripts in the British Library
The British Library holds one of the great collections of Irish-language manuscripts in the world. While it is perhaps not as extensive a collection as those in Dublin or Oxford, and while most of the manuscripts are relatively recent in date, nonetheless the Library’s Irish manuscripts (over 200) contain much that is of considerable scholarly significance. In today’s post, we look at a few of the most important items in the collection.
The two Harley Gospel Books are perhaps the jewels of the collection. Harley MS 1802 was completed in Armagh in 1138, and Harley MS 1023 has been attributed to the same place and roughly the same time of origin. Both manuscripts contain the Gospels in Latin, and fine miniatures of Evangelist symbols in ink, along with typical zoomorphic initials. Harley 1802 contains partial commentary in Latin and Irish, and Irish poems and scribal notes. Harley 1023 contains only a few Irish glosses.
The Library has a particularly strong collection of Irish medical texts, including many translations of classical or medieval Latin texts. The highlight is undoubtedly Harley MS 546, a collection of medical tracts in Irish and Latin, dated to 1459, and now digitised in full. It includes such joys as the following advice on how ‘to make the face fair’ (Do gelad na haghthi), including some rather unusual uses for bull’s blood and what is translated by O’Grady as bovinum stercus.
Other key medical items available online include a fragment in Add MS 39583 of a 16th-century manuscript containing a translation of Hippocrates’ Aphorisms into Middle Irish, and a longer version of the same text from another 16th-century manuscript, Harley MS 4347.
The Irish collections also include many important poetic and legal texts, but we finish with the famous Egerton MS 88, a legal and grammatical miscellany produced by the school of Domhnall Ó Duibhdábhoirenn in around 1564. This manuscript is not only important for its contribution to the study of Irish legal history, but also for the many scribal notes found throughout the manuscript, which give a vivid insight into the everyday lives (and sufferings!) of 16th-century scribes. Many of these complain about the poor working conditions in which Domhnall’s scribes have to work, and we can quote only one here: "Is fuar mairt cin dinér a Domnaill .i. ria nodlaig" (A dinnerless Tuesday is a cold thing, Donall, and before Christmas too). And it would be hard to argue with that! The later history of Egerton MS 88, including the unusual box it was housed in when it arrived at the British Museum, is another story altogether, and one that will have to wait for another day. (Parts of the manuscript are now also to be found in the Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotekat MS 261B, and Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 Q 6.)
There are great riches to be found by dipping into the printed Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts, which contains transcriptions of many of the annotations and colophons, as well as some of the shorter poems, to be found in the Irish collections. There remains a great deal of work to be done on the collections, particularly on the 18th- and 19th-century manuscripts.
Further resources for the collections:
At present the online catalogue does not include most of the Irish manuscripts. Only a few have been digitised either in full or in part, and these can be viewed on the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts or on Digitised Manuscripts. Updated bibliography by shelfmark can be found on the Bibliography of Irish Linguistics and Literature housed at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies.
The most important resource remains the Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum, the third volume of which contains a history of the collection and its formation. Some information on the collectors whose activities contributed to the formation of the collections now in the British Library (including Cotton, O’Curry, and Hardiman) can be found in Nessa Ní Shéaghdha, ‘Collectors of Irish manuscripts: motives and methods’, Celtica 17 (1985), pp. 1–28 (also published separately, Dublin: DIAS 1985, BL shelfmark 2702.b.93).
The composition of the Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts is a tale unto itself, as it is the work of three major figures in Celtic scholarship spanning three generations: Standish Hayes O’Grady (who compiled Volume I), Robin Flower (Volume II and III), and Miles Dillon (who revised Volume III after Flower’s death). The story can be found in the prefaces to the individual volumes of the Catalogue, while for a richer picture, a brief biography of Standish O’Grady can be found in Seán Ua Súilleabháin, ‘Standish Hayes O’Grady’, in Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh: Reassessments, ed. by Liam P. Ó Murchú, Irish Texts Society Subsidiary Series 24 (London: Irish Texts Society, 2012), pp. 77-98. (BL Shelfmark YK.2014.a.9606). An obituary of Robin Flower by H. I. Bell was published in Proceedings of the British Academy 32 (1946) pp. 353-79.
- Cillian O'Hogan
05 March 2015
Collaboration and Customisation: The Evolution of a Royal Book
As we draw to the end of Paris fashion week, let us turn to a manuscript that exudes the best of Parisian style. The haute couture of book illumination, this glorious Book of Hours showcases the work of the French capital’s most in-demand fifteenth-century illuminators.
Miniature of the Visitation by the Egerton Master, from ‘The Hours of René of Anjou’, France (Paris), 15th century, Egerton MS 1070, f. 29v
It is the eponymous manuscript of the Egerton Master, whose mastery is elsewhere illustrated in the stunning two-volume Bible historiale that starred in our exhibition, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination. The Egerton Master collaborated on several occasions with other fashionable painters of the day. These included the Mazarine Master, who helped to complete the miniatures and decoration towards the end of this lavish manuscript, along with two lesser-known Parisian artists.
Detail of a miniature of The Last Supper by the Mazarine Master, Egerton MS 1070, f. 113r
One of the more unusual characteristics of Egerton MS 1070 is the unique border decoration. Angels carry freshly unearthed branches of acanthus, roots intact, which extend up the vertical margins.
Miniatures of Saint Denis and his companions, and Saint George, with border decoration of angels carrying branches of acanthus by the Egerton Master, Egerton MS 1070, f. 90v
A book fit for a king? Well, it was actually owned by several…
Following the original commission, this exceptional Book of Hours passed into the hands of a number of monarchs, including Henry VII, before entering the British Library’s collection (via a short residency at a Jesuit College in Krakow). Today the manuscript is identified by the name of one of its fifteenth-century owners, René of Anjou. ‘Le bon roi René’ (‘good king René’) was an influential European leader, patron of the arts and occasional author, whose many titles included duke of Anjou, duke of Lorraine and Bar, and count of Provence, as well as king of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem.
Full-page miniature of René’s coat of arms, Egerton MS 1070, f. 4v
Full-page miniature of Jerusalem with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock, Egerton MS 1070, f. 5r
When the book came into René’s possession, it was carefully customised to suit its new owner and assert his status. This is evident from the beginning of the book: two full-page miniatures depict firstly René’s coat of arms and, on the facing page, Jerusalem, the capital of his kingdom in the Holy Land. Painted by Netherlandish artist Barthélemy d'Eyck, they reflect the early stages of the close relationship between this artist and his patron.
Texts were also added to personalise the manuscript for René’s own private devotion, such as the prayer below which incorporates his name.
Detail of added prayer including René’s name [Renatum], Egerton MS 1070, f. 43v
The additions also permeate into the borders: many of the angels find the burden of their flight eased by billowing sails, which carry René’s motto 'En Dieu en soit' (‘in accordance with God’s will’). As well as furthering his devotional appropriation of the book, they function as a graffiti artist’s tag, stamping René’s ownership in his own distinctive manner.
Detail of border decoration including the addition of René’s motto 'En Dieu en soit', Egerton MS 1070, f. 16r
Why not delve deeper into this fascinating codex by exploring it in full on our Digitised Manuscripts website.
- Hannah Morcos
01 March 2015
A Calendar Page for March 2015
To find out more about the London Rothschild Hours, take a look at our post A Calendar Page for January 2015.
Calendar page for March, with decorative border comprising a Zodiac sign, architectural column and suspended roundel, and bas-de-page scene, from the London Rothschild Hours, Southern Netherlands (?Ghent), c. 1500, Add MS 35313, f. 2v
In this month’s border decoration, a roundel for the Feast of the Annunciation is suspended from a perpendicular gothic column. This elaborate architectural design itself encloses a scene showing the Mass of St Gregory, who died on 12th March 604. According to Paul the Deacon’s 8th-century biography of Gregory, the Man of Sorrows appeared as Gregory celebrated mass as Pope, in response to his prayers to convince someone of the doctrine of transubstantiation – that is, Christ’s physical presence in the consecrated host.
At the top of the page, there is the Zodiac sign for March: Aries the Ram. At the bottom, there is another scene of agricultural industriousness. Three peasants labour in a fenced-off garden: the men digging and planting fruit trees, the woman pulling up weeds. They are overseen by a gentlewoman, who is holding a small lapdog in her arms, and her female attendant. A large and imposing building, presumably the woman’s residence, stands in the background.
Detail of a bas-de-page scene of peasants labouring in a garden, Add MS 35313, f. 2v
Detail of an architectural column enclosing the scene of the Mass of St Gregory, Add MS 35313, f. 2v
- James Freeman
10 February 2015
Magna Carta Under The Proverbial Microscope
Last Wednesday, a select group of scholars and other interested observers were the first people in 800 years to compare the four surviving 1215 Magna Carta manuscripts side-by-side. This one-off event was held at the British Library, and was part of the Magna Carta unification, sponsored by the global law firm Linklaters. Everyone involved was thrilled to be a part of history and, equally importantly, great strides were made towards learning more about the production and later ownership of these four manuscripts, held respectively by Lincoln Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral and the British Library. More details will doubtless be published in due course on the Magna Carta Project website. In the meantime, here are some photos of our special day (you get a bonus point if you can identify all of the participants).
Chris Woods (Lincoln and Salisbury conservator), Nicholas Vincent (University of East Anglia), Tessa Webber (Trinity College, Cambridge) and David Carpenter (King's College, London)
Edward Probert (Salisbury Cathedral), Louise Wilkinson (Canterbury Christ Church University), Philippa Hoskin (University of Lincoln)
Tessa Webber, Nicholas Vincent and David Carpenter
David Carpenter getting to grips with the Lincoln Magna Carta
Trying to identify the inscription on the back of the 'London' Magna Carta
The examination continues ...
The lucky few!
05 February 2015
The Legend of Troy in Medieval Manuscripts
Currently on display in the Treasures Gallery at the British Library are two superb images of the legend of Troy in medieval manuscripts from our collections – Stowe MS 54 and Harley MS 4376 – both shown below. We thought this would be a good opportunity to re-discover how the familiar stories of the Greek and Trojan wars, the abduction of Helen by Paris, the Trojan horse and the Odyssey were viewed in the Middle Ages.
The Greeks attacking Troy from the Sea, with the Greek and Trojan soldiers equipped as medieval chivalric knights from the ‘Histoire Ancienne jusqu’à César’, France (Paris), 1st quarter of the 15th century, Stowe MS 54, ff. 82v-83r
History mingled with chivalric romance was a very popular subject with medieval aristocrats, and they were fascinated by accounts of the heroes of ancient world, some of whom were real, like Alexander the Great, some fictional, like Oedipus and Ulysses. Fact and legend became entangled in works such as the Histoire Ancienne jusqu’à César, an account of the history of the ancient world from Genesis to the Roman empire, including the stories of Jason and the Golden Fleece, tales of Thebes and the adventures of Aeneas.
Paris and Helen meeting Priam outside Troy from the ‘Chronique d’Histoire Ancienne’, France, N. W. (Normandy, Rouen), 3rd quarter of the 15th century, Harley MS 4376, f. 90r
The later Chronique d’Histoire Ancienne or Chronique de la Bouquechardière was written by the Norman knight Jean de Courcy just after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. His aim was to entertain and instruct his audience, while emphasising the moral lessons to be gained from history, at a time when Normandy was being conquered by the English under Henry V.
Theseus and Hercules jousting against the two sisters of Queen Antiope, from the ‘Histoire Ancienne jusqu’à César’, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Acre), before 1291, Add MS 15268, f. 103r
The British Library has nine out of a total of almost forty surviving manuscripts of the different versions of the Histoire Ancienne jusqu’à César. The work was first compiled and adapted from Latin into French in the early thirteenth century. One of the earliest copies in our collections was made in the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, perhaps for Henry II de Lusignan as a gift for his coronation in 1286. Medieval knights far from home in the Holy Land must have identified with these ancient heroes and studied the accounts of their military campaigns. This glorious image on a gold background shows Theseus and Hercules jousting against women. Yes, two of our most illustrious ancient heroes took on Queen Antiope and the Amazon women in order to seize the royal girdle. They arrived with nine warships and captured two of Antiope’s sisters, Melanippe and Hippolyte, along with the girdle.
Detail of a column miniature of the Greeks attacking Troy, with the rubric 'Ci commance la vraie hystoire de troies' from the ‘Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César’, France (Paris), 1340-1350, Add MS 12029, f. 22v
A version of the text omitting Genesis and beginning with the history of King Ninus and Queen Semiramis of Persia was copied in Paris about 50 years later, and contains 46 framed miniatures by four different artists. This image is at the beginning of the Troy legend, and shows the Greeks attacking Troy for the first time.
Add MSS 15268 and Add MS 12029 have recently been catalogued and are now online with a selection of the images in the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.
Detail of a four-part miniature of (1) the death of Hector, (2) Achilles and Polyxena on Hector's grave, (3) Achilles with Hecuba in the temple, and (4) the death of Achilles, from the ‘Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César’, France, N., 1250-1275, Add MS 19669, f. 84r
The earliest French Histoire Ancienne manuscript in our collections – Add MS 19669 – was made in Northern France in the mid-thirteenth century. It contains a series of miniatures in three or four parts, including this one of the deaths of Hector and Achilles. In the first scene (top left), Hector, the Trojan prince, is killed by the Greek hero Achilles as he bends to retrieve a jewelled helmet from a fallen knight; in the second (bottom left), Achilles visits Hector's grave, catches sight of Hector’s sister, Polyxena, and falls in love; in the third (top right), Hecuba tricks Achilles into coming to the Trojan temple to marry Polyxena; finally (bottom right), he is killed by Paris, Hector’s brother.
Miniature of the Sack of Troy, from the ‘Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César’, Naples, 1330-1340, Royal MS 20 D I, f. 169r
Different scenes from the Iliad and the Odyssey are portrayed in a series of tinted drawings and illuminations in a copy of a later version of the text of the Histoire ancienne – Royal MS 20 D I – produced by Italian artists for the French monarchs of the house of Anjou, who ruled Naples from 1266-1435. The Trojan Horse is shown in this extravagant full-page depiction of the sack of Troy, reminiscent of a large wall-painting. The 297 images are all available online in Digitised Manuscripts.
Detail of a bas-de-page miniature of Ulysses in Crete, from the ‘Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César’, Naples, 1330-1340, Royal MS 20 D I, f.181v
Here, Ulysses is shown arriving in Crete on his homeward journey from Troy, as related in the accompanying text, though this is not in the original version of the Odyssey.
Do you have any favourite scenes from these manuscripts? Let us know on Twitter @BLMedieval!
- Chantry Westwell
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