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Detailed record for Stowe 54
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| Title |
Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César (Index Histoire Universelle) |
| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) |
| Date |
1st quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
Netherlandish artist working in Paris. See also Sloane 2433. |
| Decoration |
4 large full-page miniatures, surrounded by foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 30v, 83, 186, 203). 2 large half-page miniatures, in colours and gold (ff. 82v, 206v). 31 small miniatures, mostly placed in the margins, mostly surrounded by a large variety of different kinds of flowers and plants, in colours and gold (ff. 2, 3, 3v, 8, 10, 12, 13, 19v, 20v, 22, 22v, 24, 28v, 30, 38v, 42, 44, 60, 64, 76, 116 [two columns wide], 137v, 173v, 178 [two columns wide], 197 [in the text], 201v [two columns wide], 237v, 239 [two columns wide], 256v, 266v [in the text], 284v). Large puzzle initials in gold and blue with pen-flourishing in blue and red, at the beginning of the battles. Small initials in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. |
| Dimensions in mm |
375 x 260 (225 x 160) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 414 (+ 3 paper flyleaves at the beginning, and 2 original parchment and 3 paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Brown leather stamped in gilt with the arms of Jean Jacques Charron; red edges; 6 integral ribbon bookmarks. |
| Provenance |
Copied by a French scribe from a Neapolitan exemplar of c. 1340 (Royal 20 D. i), another copy is Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS fr. 301 (see Avril 1969).
Seigneurs d'Esgreville, 15th century: his arms on their own (f. 1v), and dimidiated with those of his wife (f. 2). For the same coat of arms supported by wild men, see also Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MSS fr. 6477 and 6479, Rothschild 2355 and Vélin 735.
Béraud III of Clermont-Sancerre (b. 1350, d.1426), dauphin d'Auvergne (1399-1426), comte de Sancerre (1419-1426), seigneur de Sagonne (1419-1426): the emblem of a basket encircled with a crown and suspended on a thorn branch (f. 414v). This emblem appears in other manuscripts once possessed by Beraud: Lansdowne 1178, Additional 17366, and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale MSS fr. 9141, 16995, 20089.
The motto on a scroll 'E non plus' and 'Pour la librairie d'Esgreville', in a late 15th-century hand (f. 414v).
Jean-Jacques Charron (b. 1643 d. 1718), vicomte, then marquis de Ménars (Ménars sur Loire, near Blois), baron de Conflans Sainte Honorine, Seigneur de Neufville: binding stamped with his arms; his sale: Abraham de Hondt, The Hague, 10 June 1720, no. 33: see Bibliotheca Menarsiana, ou Catalogue de la bibliothèque de feu Messire Jean Jaques Charron, Chevalier, Marquis de Menars ... Dont la vente publique se fera par Abraham de Hondt, le 10. juin et suiv. 1720.
Shelfmark-number: 'I. Cab. T. 5. A. 2' (inside upper cover).
No. 749 in an English sale-catalogue: printed description (inside upper cover).
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1776, d. 1839), 1st duke of Buckingham and Chandos, of Stowe House, near Buckingham.
Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1797, d. 1861), 2nd duke of Buckingham and Chandos; sold in 1849 to Lord Ashburnham.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham, of Ashburnham Place, Sussex.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1840, d. 1913), 5th earl of Ashburnham: purchased by the British Museum from him together with 1084 other Stowe manuscripts in 1883. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
This manuscript contains the second redaction of the Histoire Ancienne text and the Roman de Troie is Jung's prose version 5 (see Jung 1996, pp. 440, 506). |
| Select bibliography |
Catalogue of the Stowe Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1895-1896), I, no. 54.
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. 268-72.
François Avril, 'Trois Manuscrits Napolitains des Collections de Charles V et de Jean de Berry', Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 127 (1969), 291-328 (pp. 305 and n. 1, 306 n. 1).
Hugo Buchthal, Historia Troiana: Studies in the History of Mediaeval Secular Illustration (London and Leiden: The Warburg Institute and E.J. Brill, 1971), p. 19 n. 7.
Millard Meiss, with Sharon Off Dunlap Smith and Elizabeth Home Beaton, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and Their Contemporaries, 2 vols (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974), pp. 7, 25, 62, figs 84, 276.
Sandra Hindman, Christine de Pizan's "Epistre Othea": Painting and politics at the court of Charles VI, Studies and Texts, 77 (Toronto: Pontificial institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1986), pl. 86.
Jeffrey Hamburger, 'The Casanatense and the Carmelite Missals: Continental Sources for English Manuscript Illumination of the Early 15th Century', in Masters and Miniatures: Proceedings of the Congress on Medieval Manuscript Illumination in the Nothern Netherlands (Utrecht, 10-13 December 1989), ed. by Koert van der Horst and Johann-Christian Klamt (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1991), 161-67 (pp. 165-66).
Scot McKendrick, 'La vray histoire de Troye la grant': Truth and Romance in the Late Medieval Story of Troy in Literature and Art', in Why fakes matter: essays on problems of authenticity, ed. by Mark Jones (London: British Museum Press, 1992), pp. 71-87 (p. 75 n. 27).
The Mythical Quest: In Search of Adventure, Ropmance and Enlightenment, intro. by Penelope Lively (London: British Library, 1996), pls on pp. 13, 17.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), no. 121.
Marc-René Jung, La Légende de Troie en France au moyen age (Basel & Tubingen: Francke Verlag, 1996), pp. 440, 506, 536-38.
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. 14.
Pamela Porter, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), p. 42.
Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse, Manuscripts and their Makers: Commercial Book Producers in Medieval Paris 1200-1500, 2 vols (Turnhout: Harvey Miller, 2000), I: 293, 296, 402 n. 66, II: 124.
Inès Villela-Petit, 'Béraud III ou Guichard II Dauphin? Un cas d'homonymie héraldique', Revue française d'héraldique et de sigillographie, 71-72 (2001-2002), pp. 61, 63.
Paris 1400: Les arts sous Charles VI (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2004), no. 164 [exhibition catalogue].
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 126. |
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f. 1v
Heraldry |
f. 2
Oedipus hung from a tree |
f. 3
Oedipus at Delphi |
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f. 3v
Oedipus and the Sphinx |
f. 10
Tydeus and Eteocles |
f. 12
Battle between Tydeus and knights |
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f. 13
Tydeus and the daughter of King Lycurgus |
f. 20v
The Tiger of Thebes is killed |
f. 22
Amphiaraus swallowed up by the earth |
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f. 22v
Polynices wounding Eteocles |
f. 23
Text page |
f. 24
Athenians besiege Thebes |
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f. 28v
Hercules is offered an olive branch |
f. 30
Hercules and the giant |
f. 30v
Troy |
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f. 42
The first destruction of Troy |
f. 44
Medea and Jason |
f. 64
Paris and Helen in Troy |
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f. 76
Ulysses and Diomedes |
ff. 81v-82
Text page |
ff. 82v-83
Greeks attack Troy |
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f. 83
Greeks attack Troy |
f. 88v
Text page |
f. 116
Battle with centaur |
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f. 173v
Death of Troilus |
f. 178
Death of Achilles and Antilogus |
f. 197
Wheel of Fortune |
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f. 197
Wheel of Fortune |
f. 201v
The Trojan horse |
f. 206v
Destruction of Troy |
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f. 237v
Dido prepares for death |
f. 239
Theseus and the Minotaur |
f. 256v
The Persian women |
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f. 266v
Rhea Silvia and Amulius |
f. 284v
Battle |
f. 414v
Emblem with scroll |
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