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Detailed record for Harley 4379
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| Author |
Jean Froissart |
| Title |
Chroniques, Vol. IV, part 1 (the 'Harley Froissart') |
| Origin |
Netherlands, S. (Bruges) |
| Date |
between c. 1470 and 1472 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
This is the eponymous manuscript of the Master of the Harley Froissart, in collaboration with the Master of the Vienna Chroniques d'Angleterre. |
| Decoration |
11 large miniatures with large decorated initials and full foliate borders including hybrid figures and birds, in colours and gold (ff. 3, 23v, 34, 43, 60v, 64, 83v, 99, 112v, 135v, 146). 18 small column-wide miniatures with large decorated initials and partial foliate borders including hybrid figures and birds, in colours and gold (ff. 12, 12v, 19v, 29v, 32v, 36, 104v, 109v, 113, 122, 125v, 126, 142v, 145, 152v, 160, 170v, 182v). Small initials in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Line fillers decorated in gold and blue. Cadels. Capital letters highlighted in yellow. |
| Dimensions in mm |
420 x 320 (270 x 195) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 184 (+ 3 parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Green velvet over wooden boards with brass clasps, one missing, c. 1700; rebacked; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
Philippe de Commynes (b. 1447, d. 1511), statesman and chronicler: his added arms, quartered with those of his Flemish mother, Marguerite d'Armuyden (ff. 3, 12v, 20v, 29v, 32v, 36, 60v, 83v, 99, 109v, 135v, 142v, 146, 160); he probably acquired the manuscript before 1472, when he transferred his allegiance from Charles the Bold to the rival Louis XI of France (see Kren and McKendrick 2003).
The library at Château d’Anet, with the usual mark (f. 1).
Anne of Bavaria (b. 1648, d. 1723): her sale, Pierre Gaudouin, Paris, November 1724, lot 44; bought by James Woodman, London bookseller (see Kren and McKendrick 2003).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Vol. IV, part 2 is Harley 4380. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III, no. 4379.
G. G. Coulton, The Chronicler of European Chivalry (London: Studio, 1930), passim.
Loren MacKinney and Thomas Herndon, Medical Illustrations in Medieval Manuscripts, Wellcome Historical Medical Library, New Series, 5 (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965), no. 86.48.
Dorothy Mahoney, The Craft of Calligraphy (London: Pelham Books, 1981), pl. on p. 74.
Laetitia Le Guay, Les princes de Bourgogne, lecteurs de Froissart: Les rapports entre le texte et l’image dans les manuscrits enluminés du livre IV des Chroniques (Paris: CNRS, 1998), pp. 31-34, 173, 180-82.
Boccaccio visualizzato: Narrare per parole e per immagini fra Medioevo e Rinascimento, ed. by Vittore Branca, Biblioteca di Storia dell'arte, 30, 3 vols (Torino: Giulio Einaudi, 1999), III: Opere d'arte d'origine francese, fiamminga, inglese, spagnola, tedesca, p. 242.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: the Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), no. 68, pp. 225-26, 259, 262-63, 286.
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), figs. 25-26.
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), p. 152, pl. 94.
Scot McKendrick, 'The Earliest Reproduction of the Crucifixion of the Parlement de Paris?', in Von Kunst und Temperament, Festschrift zu Ehren Eberhard Königs 60. Geburtstag, ed. by Mara Hofmann and Caroline Zöhl (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), 177-82, pl. 1.
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 94.
Catherine Reynolds, ‘Makers of Royal Manuscripts: Court Artists in France and the Netherlands’, in 1000 Years of Royal Books and Manuscripts, ed. by Kathleen Doyle and Scot McKendrick (London: The British Library, 2013), pp. 131-48 (p. 146).
Scot McKendrick, ‘The Manuscripts of Edward IV: The Documentary Evidence’, in 1000 Years of Royal Books and Manuscripts, ed. by Kathleen Doyle and Scot McKendrick (London: The British Library, 2013), pp. 149-77 (pp. 151-52, 160, 165, 173). |
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f. 3
Queen Isobel |
f. 3
Queen Isobel |
f. 12
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f. 12v
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f. 15v
Text page |
f. 19v
Joust |
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f. 19v
Joust |
f. 19v
Stag with wings |
f. 19v
Pig on stilts |
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f. 23v
Inglevert |
f. 23v
Tents and mounted knights |
f. 23v
Tents and mounted knights |
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f. 23v
Rabbits and snails jousting |
f. 23v
Courtiers at a joust |
f. 23v
Castle |
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f. 29v
Comte de Foix |
f. 29v
Grotesque hybrid |
f. 29v
Grotesque hybrid |
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f. 29v
Comte de Foix |
f. 32v
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f. 34
Coronation of Pope Boniface VIII |
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f. 36
Surrender of Ventadour |
f. 36
Border |
f. 43
Tournament of Inglevert |
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f. 60v
Fleet |
f. 60v
Fleet |
f. 60v
Fleet |
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f. 64
Execution |
f. 83v
Assault on Ribodane |
f. 83v
Assault on Ribodane |
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f. 99
Knights |
f. 99
Knights |
f. 104v
Raising of the siege |
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f. 104v
Raising of the siege |
f. 109v
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f. 112v
Henry of Castile |
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f. 112v
Henry of Castile |
f. 113
Monkey |
f. 122
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f. 125v
Patient |
f. 126
Death of Comte de Foix |
f. 126v
Text page |
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f. 135v
Duke of Brittany |
f. 142v
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f. 145
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f. 146
King in council |
f. 152v
Attack on Olivier de Clisson |
f. 160
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f. 170v
Dukes of Berry and Burgundy |
f. 182v
Proclamation of truce |
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