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Detailed record for Egerton 912
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| Title |
Histoire Ancienne jusqu'a César, Le Fet des Romains |
| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) |
| Date |
c. 1415 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
The frontispieces by the Boethius Master, the small miniatures by the Master of the Berry Apocalypse (see Meiss 1974). |
| Decoration |
2 full-page miniatures, accompanied by large decorated initials and full foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 10, 202). 77 small one column wide miniatures, brown pencil drawings with layers of black and white, and red dots for details, followed by smaller puzzle initials in gold and blue with pen-flourishing in blue and red, and decorated extensions with fleur-de-lys in gold, blue, and red (ff. 11v, 14, 17, 22, 29, 30v, 35v, 38v, 46, 49, 50, 57, 64v, 73, 78, 88v, 93v, 95, 105, 108v, 127, 129v, 134, 137v, 139v, 140v, 144v, 151, 152v, 153v, 157v, 160, 161, 163v, 166v, 168v, 171v, 173v, 178, 181v, 187v, 192v, 197v, 198v, 201v, 213v, 223, 226v, 229, 236, 246, 249, 261v, 265v, 269, 278v, 289v, 292, 301v, 310v, 313v, 317v, 328v, 331, 335v, 338, 343, 348v, 351v, 358v, 364, 365, 373v, 376, 379v, 387, 388); 1 miniature missing on f. 396. Small initials in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Line fillers decorated in gold and blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
440 x 295 (295 x 175) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 397 (+ 1 original flyleaf at the beginning, and 1 modern paper flyleaf at the end) |
| Collation |
i8-4 (2nd, 3rd, 4th, and last excised; ff. 1-4), ii6-1 (last leaf excised, probably blank; ff. 5-9), iii-xvi8 (ff. 10-129), xvii8-8, xviii-xxvii8 (ff. 130-201), xxviii8-8, xxix6-6;xxx8 (ff. 202-209), xxxi8-8, xxxii-liv8 (ff. 210-393), lv6-2 (3rd and last leaf excised, last leaf probably blank; ff. 394-397). |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Pre-1600. Stamped brown leather over wooden boards; two clasps and center-piece missing. |
| Provenance |
Bought by the British Museum from Thomas Thorpe, London bookseller, 13th July 184 (note on 1st flyleaf verso), using the Bridgewater fund (£12,000 bequeathed in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829). |
| Notes |
A sheepskin chemise is kept seperately in a box under the same shelfmark number as the manuscript.
1 quire misbound, after f. 378 should follow ff. 381, 380, 379, 384, 383, 382, and 385. f. 396 mutilated; colophon on f. 397 excised.
Contains the first redaction of the text of the 'Histoire Ancienne jusqu'a César', sections I - X (see Jung 1996, pp.337-40). |
| Select bibliography |
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1841-1845 (London: British Museum, 1850), 1841, p. 68.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 13.
W. H. James Weale and Lawrence Taylor,Early Stamped Bookbindings in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1922), no. 39.
A Guide to the Exhibition of Some Part of the Egerton Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1929), no. 32, and 32a.
Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters, ed. by Harry Bober, 4 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1916-66), III: Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken (1953), pp. 136-38.
Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, 2 vols (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974), I, p. 369, II, fig. 783.
Marc-René Jung, La Légende de Troie en France au moyen age (Basel & Tubingen: Francke Verlag, 1996), pp. 337-40, 343, 356.
David J. A. Ross, Alexander Historiatus: A Guide to Medieval Illustrated Alexander Literature, 2nd edn, Beiträge zur Klassischen Philologie, 186 (Frankfurt: Athena¨um, 1988), p. 19.
Histoire Ancienne jusqu'a César (Estoires Roger), ed. by Marijke de Visser-van Terwisga, 2 vols (Orleans: Paradigme, 1999), vol 1 [an edition of the text], vol 2, p. 13, 18 n. 26. |
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f. 10
Adam and Eve in Paradise |
f. 10
Detail |
f. 198v
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f. 198v
Detail |
f. 202
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f. 202
Detail |
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f. 202
Detail |
f. 202
Detail |
f. 202
Detail |
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f. 202
Detail |
f. 343
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f. 343
Detail |
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