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Detailed record for Additional 38117
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| Author |
Robert de Boron |
| Title |
Joseph d'Arimathie (ff. 1-18), Le Livre de Merlin (ff. 18v-74), Suite de Merlin or Post-Vulgate Suite (ff. 74-226), ('the Huth Manuscript') |
| Origin |
France, N. (Arras) |
| Date |
1310 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Artists |
Master of St Benoit's workshop (Delcourt 2009) |
| Decoration |
69 historiated initials and miniatures in colours and gold at the beginning of chapters, some partially erased, depicting scenes from the text. Partial bar borders with hybrid creatures, animals and human figures. Puzzle initials with pen-flourished decoration in red, blue and gold. Line-fillers in colours with gold. |
| Dimensions in mm |
300 x 220 (230 x 140) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 226 (+ 1 unfoliated medieval parchment pastedown at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Pre-1600: leather over wooden boards with traces of clasps. |
| Provenance |
Charles du Fresne, Sieur du Cange (1610-1688), historian and philologist from Amiens, France: his inscription on f. 1 (see Delcourt 2009).
Jacques Joseph Guillaume Pierre, Comte de Corbière (1766-1853), academic and bibliophile, French minister of the interior: his notes and inscription on f. 1.
Librairie Bachelin-Deflorenne, Paris publisher and bookseller, acquired after the death of de Corbière.
Alfred Henry Huth (b. 1850, d. 1910), book collector: purchased by him for £250, c. 1870 (see Paris and Ulrich 1886). His bookplate and number inside the front cover and in his catalogue: The Huth Library, 5 vols (London: Ellis & White, 1880), III, pp. 954-57.
Bequeathed by him to the British Museum in 1910 (see Catalogue of the Huth Bequest (1912), pl. 4). |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Written in the Picard dialect of Old French.
The text of Joseph d'Arimathie is incomplete at the beginning and begins at l. 65 of the text (O'Gorman 1995, p. 49).
The Suite de Merlin lacks one leaf after f. 101 and two after f. 133. The only other copy of this text is in Cambridge, University Library, Additional MS 7071. |
| Select bibliography |
J. A Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts and Bindings of Manuscripts Exhibited in The Grenville Library, Guide to the Exhibited Manuscripts, 3 (Oxford: British Museum, 1923), p. 37, no. 4.
Robert de Boron, Merlin, Roman en Prose du XIIIe siècle, Société d'Anciens Textes Français, 2 vols, ed. by Gaston Paris and Jacob Ulrich (Paris: Librairie Firmin Didot, 1886), I, pp. i-iv, 1-280, II, pp. 1-254 [an edition of the text in this manuscript].
Alexandre Micha, 'Les Manuscrits du Merlin en Prose', Romania, 79 (1958), 78-94 (p. 88).
Fanni Bogdanow, 'Essai de Classement des Manuscrits de la Suite du Merlin', Romania, 81 (1960), 188-98 (pp. 188-90).
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1911-1915, ed. by T.C. Skeat, 2 vols (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1968), I, (pp. 16-17).
Alexandre Micha, Merlin, Roman du XIIIe siècle (Paris: Librairie Droz, 1980), pp. xvi, xxxii-xxxiii, 1-291 [for an edition of the text].
Robert de Boron, Joseph d'Arimathie, ed. by Richard O'Gorman (Toronto: Institute of Medieval Studies, 1995), pp. 8, 33-337 [for an edition of the text], 412, n. 65.
W. A. Nitze, 'Messire Robert de Boron, enquete et mise au point' in Fils sans père: Etudes sur le 'Merlin' de Robert de Boron, ed. by Denis Hue, Medievalia, 35 (Orleans: Paradigme, 2000), pp. 115-36 (pp. 116, 127-28).
Larry S. Crist, 'Les Livres de Merlin' in Fils sans père: Etudes sur le 'Merlin' de Robert de Boron, ed. by Denis Hue, Medievalia, 35 (Orleans: Paradigme, 2000), pp. 77-87 [on the text].
Alison Stones, 'Mise en Page in the French Lancelot-Grail: the First 150 years of the Illustrative Tradition' in A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, ed. by Carol Dover, Arthurian Studies, 54 (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), pp. 125-44 (pp. 131,137).
Roger Middleton, 'Manuscripts of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle in England and Wales: Some Books and their Owners' in A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, ed. by Carol Dover (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), pp. 219-35, (p. 233).
Linda Gowans, ' What did Robert de Boron really write ?' in Arthurian Studies in Honour of P. J. C. Field (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004), pp. 15-28 (pp. 17-18).
Fanny Bogdanow and Richard Trachsler, 'Rewriting Prose Romance: The Post-Vulgate Roman de Graal and Related Texts' in The Arthur of the French, ed. by Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt , Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, 4 vols (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2006), IV, pp. 342-392 (pp. 342-43, 347, 382).
La légende du roi Arthur, ed. by Thierry Delcourt (Paris: Bibiothèque nationale de France, 2009), pp. 25 (plate), 48.
Irene Fabry-Tehranchi, Texte et images des manuscrits de Merlin et de la Suite Vulgate (XIIIe-XVe siècle) (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), pp. 4, 25, 29, 38, 44, 45, 53, 54, 60, 91, 99. |
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f. 16v
Text page |
f. 73v
Arthur |
f. 97v
King Arthur setting infants adrift in a boat |
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f. 97v
Historiated initial |
f. 111
Decorated initials |
f. 161v
Merlin |
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f. 185
Musicians |
f. 224
Arthur and Ninianne |
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