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Detailed record for Royal 12 C V
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| Title |
Libellus geomancie (Book of Astrological Tables) |
| Origin |
England |
| Date |
Last decade of 14th century, after 1391 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
16 miniatures in colours and gold in superimposed pairs illustrating a 'Table of figural images with their nature and properties' (ff. 16v, 17v, 18v, 19v, 20v, 21v, 22v, 23v). 1 foliate initial with a full border in colours and gold, at the beginning of the preface (f. 4). Initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in white. Initials in gold with purple pen-flourishing, or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Line-fillers in gold and blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
220 x 150 (145 x 85) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 229 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end, and 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the beginning and at the end; ff. 1-3 and 227-229 are medieval parchment flyleaves) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1969. |
| Provenance |
Added note recording that the text was compiled for Richard II (b. 1367, d. 1400), king of England and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine in 1391: inscribed 'Liber [regis] Ric[ard]i [secundi] quem fecit fieri motu p[ro]prio anno / regni [sui] Anglie et Franc[ie] quartodecimo', late 14th or beginning of the 15th century (f. 3v); Richard's name omitted from the prologue.
Inscribed 'Ich byn dyn / Tout p[our] le meuz', with a monogram 'H U P', 15th century (f. 2v).
William Middleton: inscribed 'orate p[ro] bono statu Wylliamus meddelton/ Orate p[ro] animab[us] s[ir] robert[us] massam et alc. /meddelton', late 15th, early 16th century (f. 227).
Humphrey Lloyd (b. c. 1527, d. 1568), Welsh antiquary, brother-in-law of John Lumley: inscribed 'Sum Humfredi Lloyde' (f. 4).
John Lumley, 1st baron Lumley (b. c. 1533, d. 1609), collector and conspirator: inscribed with his name (f. 4); listed in the 1609 catalogue of his collection, no. 1817 (see The Lumley Library, 1956); passed to Henry, prince of Wales.
Henry Frederick, prince of Wales (b. 1594, d. 1612), eldest child of James I: his collection became part of the Royal Library: included in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 8v; and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James's Palace (see Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697'), no. 8508).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Contains the Libellum geomancie composed for Richard II in 1391, but all references to Richard were omitted in the Prologue. Another contemporary copy, Oxford Bodleian Library, Bodley 581, containing Richard's portrait (f. 9) is probably the king's presentation copy.
Catchwords and bifolium signatures. |
| 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), II, p. xi n. 3, II, p. 23.
J. J. G. Alexander, 'Painting and Manuscript Illumination for Royal Patrons in the Later Middle Ages', in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages, ed. by V. J. Scattergood and J. W. Sherborne (London: Duckworth, 1983), 141-62 (p. 146).
The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609, ed. by Sears Jayne and Francis R. Johnson (London: British Museum, 1956), p. 213.
Jean-Philippe Genet, Four English Political Tracts of the Later Middle Ages, Camden Fourth Series, 18 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1977), p. 22, n. 2.
V. J. Scattergood, ‘Literary Culture at the Court of Richard II, in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages, ed. by V. J. Scattergood and J. W. Sherborne (London: Duckworth, 1983), pp. 29-43 (pp. 33, 42).
Lucy Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 5 (London: Harvey Miller, 1986), II, p. 175.
Jeanne E. Krochalis, 'The Books and Readings of Henry V and his Circle', The Chaucer Review, 23 (1988), 50-77 (p. 59).
Susan H. Cavanaugh, 'Royal Books: King John to Richard II', The Library, 6th series, 10 (1988), 304-16 (p. 314).
Hilary M. Carey, Courting Disaster: Astrology at the English Court and University in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Macmillan, 1992), pp. 33, 99, 173, 199.
Making and Meaning: the Wilton Diptych, ed. by Dillian Gordon with an essay by Caroline M. Barron and contributions by Ashok Roy and Martin Wyld (London: National Gallery, 1993), p. 93 [exhibition catalogue].
Patricia J. Eberle, 'Richard II and the Literary Arts', in Richard II: The Art of Kingship, ed. by Anthony Goodman an dJames Gillespie (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 231-53 (p. 242, n. 31).
Sophie Page, Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), p. 58, pl. 48.
Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 97 [exhibition catalogue]. |
| Last revised: 06 May 2011 |
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f. 3v
Inscription |
f. 4
Foliate initial |
f. 16v
Astrological tables |
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f. 17v
Astrological tables |
f. 18v
Astrological tables |
f. 19v
Astrological tables |
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f. 19v
Astrological tables |
f. 20v
Astrological tables |
f. 21v
Astrological tables |
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f. 21v
Astrological tables |
f. 21v
Astrological tables |
f. 22
Astrological tables |
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f. 22v
Astrological tables |
f. 23v
Astrological tables |
f. 25v
Astrological diagram |
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f. 25v
Astrological diagram |
f. 25v
Astrological diagram |
f. 26v
Astrological tables |
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f. 227v
Inscription |
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