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Detailed record for Royal 11 E XI


Author		Magister Sampson, Benedictus de Opitiis and others
Title		Motets
Origin		Netherlands, S. (Antwerp?)
Date		1516
Language		Latin
Script		Gothic cursive
Decoration		1 full-page miniature in colours and gold of the Tudor rose (f. 2). 2 miniatures in colours and gold of red roses of Lancaster surrounded by couplets with music inscribed on two circular staves (ff. 2v, 3). 1 historiated initial in colours and gold of the Virgin and Child (f. 10v). Illuminated initials in gold on coloured grounds, some with red roses. Calligraphic initials.
Dimensions in mm		495 x 345 (390 x 260)
Official foliation		ff. 17 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end, f. 1 is a medieval parchment flyleaf)
Form		Parchment codex
Binding		Post-1600. Royal Library parchment binding with the royal arms and a date of 1757.
Provenance		Petrus de Opitiis, Flemish merchant of Italian origin, prepared under his supervision for Henry VIII: inscribed 'Me fieri et componi fecit P. O. 1516' (f. 1v); includes a motet by his son, Benedictus de Opitiis, mentioned in royal accounts as 'player at organs' of the king in 1516-1522 (see Backhouse 1993). Henry VIII (b. 1491, d. 1547), king of England and Ireland, presented to him: allegorical miniature of the Tudor rose incorporating a Latin poem celebrating the House of Tudor, with banners of the royal arms of England, George and Castilla y Leon, with a pomegranate plant for his wife, Katherine of Aragon (b. 1485, d. 1536), daisies for his sister, Margaret of Scotland, and marigolds for his sister, Mary of France (f. 2). Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
Notes		Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts. Contains motets by a 'Magister Sampson', formerly believed to be bishop of Chichester 1536, but now thought to be a composer from the Netherlands, and by Benedictus de Opitiis, preceded by a hymn in honour of Henry VIII, with musical notation.
Select bibliography		George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, p. 260. Anglo-Flemish Art under the Tudors: An Exhibition held in the Department of Prints and Drawings (London: British Museum, 1954), no. 25. A. Dunning, Die Staatsmotette 1480-1555 (Utrecht, 1970), pp. 122-23. 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), I, no. 887. Arthur Searle, Music Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1987), pp. 2-3. Arthur Searle, A Canon in Honour of Henry VIII, A.D. 1516 (London: Pleiades Folios, 1990) [facsimile]. Janet Backhouse, 'A Salute to the Tudor Rose', in Miscellanea Martin Wittek: Album de codicologie et de paléographie offert à Martin Wittek, ed. by Anny Raman and Eugène Manning (Louvain: Peeters, 1993), pp. 1-13 (pp. 1-13, figs. 1, 2). Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 206. Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 111. James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives, preface by David Starkey (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 104. James Roland Braithwaite, 'The Introduction of Franco-Netherlandish Manuscripts to Early Tudor England: The Motet Repertory', (unpublished doctoral thesis, Boston University 1967), I, xxi, 30, 57-9, passim. Anna Parsons and Nick Sandon, The Crowned Rose: Motets for Henry VIII from London, British Library, Royal MS 11 E. XI (Moretonhampstead: Antico Edition, 2005). Theodor Dumitrescu, 'Constructing a Canonic Pitch Spiral: The Case of Salve radix', in Canons and Canonic Techniques, 14th-16th Centuries: Theory, Practice, and Reception History ed. by Katelijne Schiltz and Bonnie J. Blackburn (Leuven: Peeters, 2007), pp.141-70 (pp. 141-45, 163-64). Theodor Dumitrescu, The Early Tudor Court and International Musical Relations (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 129-47. Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 4. Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, ed. by Susan Doran (London: British Library, 2009), no. 98 [exhibition catalogue]. Music for King Henry: BL Royal MS II E XI, ed. by David Skinner, with commentary by Nicolas Bell, 2 vols. (London: The Folio Society, 2009) [facsimile]. Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 154 [exhibition catalogue].

Images



first flyleaf First flyleaf	second flyleaf Second flyleaf	third flyleaf Third flyleaf

fourth flyleaf Fourth flyleaf	inside back cover Inside back cover	inside front cover Inside front cover

first flyleaf verso First flyleaf verso	second flyleaf verso Second flyleaf verso	third flyleaf verso Third flyleaf verso

fourth flyleaf verso Fourth flyleaf verso	front binding Binding	back binding Back binding

f. 1 Inscription	f. 1v Blank page	f. 2 Tudor rose

f. 2 Tudor rose	f. 2 Tudor Rose	f. 2v Red rose

f. 3 Red rose	f. 3v Illuminated initials	f. 4 Illuminated initials

f. 4v Text page	f. 5 Text page	f. 5v Text page

f. 6 Text page	f. 6v Text page	f. 7 Text page

f. 7v Text page	f. 8 Text page	f. 8v Calligraphic initial

f. 9 Calligraphic initials	f. 9v Blank page	f. 10 Blank page

f. 10v Virgin and Child	f. 10v Virgin and Child	f. 11 Calligraphic initials

f. 11v Red rose	f. 11v Red rose	f. 12 Calligraphic initials

f. 12v Text page	f. 13 Text page	f. 13v Red rose

f. 13v Red rose	f. 14 Calligraphic initials	f. 14v Text page

f. 15 Text page	f. 15v Illuminated initial	f. 15v Illuminated initial

f. 16 Calligraphic initials	f. 16v Illuminated initial	f. 16v Illuminated initial

f. 17 Calligraphic initials	f. 17v Blank page

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