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Detailed record for Royal 11 E XI
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| 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 |
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]. |
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first flyleaf
First flyleaf |
second flyleaf
Second flyleaf |
third flyleaf
Third flyleaf |
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fourth flyleaf
Fourth flyleaf |
inside back cover
Inside back cover |
inside front cover
Inside front cover |
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first flyleaf verso
First flyleaf verso |
second flyleaf verso
Second flyleaf verso |
third flyleaf verso
Third flyleaf verso |
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fourth flyleaf verso
Fourth flyleaf verso |
front binding
Binding |
back binding
Back binding |
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f. 1
Inscription |
f. 1v
Blank page |
f. 2
Tudor rose |
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f. 2
Tudor rose |
f. 2
Tudor Rose |
f. 2v
Red rose |
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f. 3
Red rose |
f. 3v
Illuminated initials |
f. 4
Illuminated initials |
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f. 4v
Text page |
f. 5
Text page |
f. 5v
Text page |
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f. 6
Text page |
f. 6v
Text page |
f. 7
Text page |
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f. 7v
Text page |
f. 8
Text page |
f. 8v
Calligraphic initial |
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f. 9
Calligraphic initials |
f. 9v
Blank page |
f. 10
Blank page |
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f. 10v
Virgin and Child |
f. 10v
Virgin and Child |
f. 11
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 11v
Red rose |
f. 11v
Red rose |
f. 12
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 12v
Text page |
f. 13
Text page |
f. 13v
Red rose |
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f. 13v
Red rose |
f. 14
Calligraphic initials |
f. 14v
Text page |
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f. 15
Text page |
f. 15v
Illuminated initial |
f. 15v
Illuminated initial |
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f. 16
Calligraphic initials |
f. 16v
Illuminated initial |
f. 16v
Illuminated initial |
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f. 17
Calligraphic initials |
f. 17v
Blank page |
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