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Detailed record for Harley 4425
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| Author |
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun |
| Title |
Roman de la Rose |
| Origin |
Netherlands, S. (Bruges) |
| Date |
c. 1490-c. 1500 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500 |
| Decoration |
4 large miniatures in colours and gold with a large initial with acanthus leaves and a full panel border with naturalistic flowers, acanthus and insects, of the Beginning of the Dream (f. 7), the Lover entering the Garden (f. 12v), the Carolle (f. 14v), and the Tower of Jealousy (f. 39)). 88 column miniatures in colours and gold (ff. 8, 8v (x2), 9 (x2), 9v, 10, 10v, 11, 11v, 18v, 20, 22, 23v, 24, 24v, 25v, 30v, 32, 32v, 33v, 34, 35, 36, 37v, 38v, 42, 43v, 47v, 54, 54v, 57, 59, 59v, 61, 62, 67v, 72, 73, 74, 76v, 77, 78, 79, 81v, 83v, 85, 86, 87, 90, 90v, 93, 94v, 95, 98v, 100v, 108, 108v, 111 (x2), 113, 114, 116v, 117v, 122v, 123v, 129v, 131v, 132v, 133, 134v, 136v, 137, 137v, 138v, 139, 140, 142, 143, 153, 160v, 166, 167v, 169, 177v, 178v, 181, 184v). Initials in colours and gold. Smaller initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in gold with black pen-flourishing. Cadels in red ink (ff. 134v, 136). Capitals marked in yellow. |
| Dimensions in mm |
395 x 290 (255 x 190), in 2 columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 186 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment leaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 1 + 2 parchment leaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. London, c. 1900, gold-tooled green morocco; fragments of an early-18th century gold-tooled red morocco spine, armorial binding of Jean Antoine II de Mesmes (device of three interlaced crescents and the monogram DDLLM encircled by collars of the Orders of Saint Michael and the Holy Spirit and surmounted by a ducal coronet (pasted on f. 1)). |
| Provenance |
Made for Engelbert II, count of Nassau and Vianden (d. 1504): the arms of Nassau quartered with those of Vianden (partially overpainted) surmounted by a helm with mantling, crest of two raised wings of peacock feathers, encircled by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece (f. 7).
Jean Antoine II de Mesmes (b. 1661, d. 1723), Count of Avaux and of Brie Comte-Robert, president of the Parlement of Paris: fragments of his armorial binding bearing a device of three interlaced crescents and the monogram DDLLM encircled by collars of the Orders of Saint Michael and the Holy Spirit and surmounted by a ducal coronet (pasted on f. 1).
Added inscription, 16th century 'tmtty a. p.' (f. 2v).
Valentin Esprit Fléchier (b. 1632, d. 1710), bishop of Nîmes : sold together with the rest of his library through Woodman and Lyon, London, January 25, 1726, lot 67.
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, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘25 die mensis Januarij, A.D. 1725/6’ (f. 2).
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.
The text of this manuscript was copied from a printed edition published at Lyon, probably around 1487 (see Kren and McKendrick 2003 no. 120). The illuminators did not follow the illustrations of the printed exemplar.
The text of the Roman de la Rose was begun around 1220, possibly by Guillaume de Lorris and continued by Jean de Meun between 1269-1278. It is around 20,000 octosyllabic lines of French verse narrating the dream of a young lover, in which the long quest he has undertaken ends when he breaches the castle of Jealousy and obtains the rose. The earlier text is around 4,000 lines, and is lyrical and courtly, while the later addition is more didactic, scholarly, and pessimistic. Around 300 manuscript copies survive.
Beginning with a list of rubrics (ff. 3-6v).
Original foliation in red ink at the top of each folio.
f. 185 is partly blank.
Ff. 185v-186 are ruled but blank. |
| Select bibliography |
Henry Shaw, Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages ([London]: William Pickering, 1843), pls. 56-58.
Paul Durrieu, La Miniature flamande au temps de la cour de Bourgogne (1415-1530), (Paris and Brussels, 1921), pl. LXXII.
Harry Leigh Douglas Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), pp. 892-94.
Sir Reginald Blomfield and Francis Inigo Thomas, The Formal Garden in England, 3rd edn (London: Macmillan, 1892), pp. 22-25.
Albert Forbes Sieveking, 'The Medieval Garden as Pictured in the ‘Roman de la Rose', Country Life, 14 (1903), 916-20.
Francis William Bourdillon, The Early Editions of the Roman de la Rose (London: Bibliographical Society, 1906), p.12.
Ernest Langlois, Les Manuscrits du Roman de la Rose: Description et classement, Travaux et Mémoires de l’Université de Lille, n.s., I, Droit Lettres (Paris and Lille, 1910), pp. 144-45.
George F. Warner, Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, III (London, 1910), pl. xlvii.
John Alexander Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 318.
Alfred Kuhn, 'Die Illustrationen des Rosenromans', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 31 (1913-14), pp. 40, 65, pl.14.
Frederic Winkler, 'Studien zur Geschichte der niederländischen Miniaturemalerei des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 32 (1915), 338-41.
Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 3, 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1925), pl. 47.
Frederic Winkler, Die flämische Buchmalerei des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts: Künstler und Werke von den Brüdern van Eyck bis zu Simon Bening / Mit 91 Lichtdrucktafeln (Leipzig, 1925), pp.128-79.
Otto Cartellieri, Am Hofe der Herzöge von Burgund: Kulturhistorische Bilder (Basel: Schwabe, 1926), pl. 13.
Paul Durrieu, La Miniature flamande au temps de la cour de Bourgogne (1415-1530), 2nd edition (Paris and Brussels, 1927), pp. 80-81.
Roger S. Loomis and Laura H. Loomis, Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), p. 129.
Otto Pächt, The Master of Mary of Burgundy (London: Faber and Faber, 1948), p. 56 n. 27.
Flemish Art 1300-1700, Winter Exhibition 1953-54 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1953-4), no. 609.
Anna Maria Cetto, 'Anatomical Dissection in Pictorial Representation', CIBA Symposium, 5 (1957), 168-72 (p. 172, fig. 7).
Hermann Knaus, 'Handschriften der Grafen von Nassau-Breda', Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 3 (1960), cols. 577-78.
Rosemond Tuve, Allegorical Imagery: Some Medieval Books and their Posterity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966), p. 257 n. 15, p. 324.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 723-1726, p. 403.
John Vincent Fleming, The Roman de la Rose: A Study in Allegory and Iconography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 28, 42, 71, 208.
William O. Hassall, The Holkham Library. Illuminations and illustrations in the manuscript library of the Earl of Leicester (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1970), p. 343.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 145-46, 152, 238, 358-59, 444.
Margaret Scott, The History of Dress: Late-Gothic Europe, 1400-1500 (London: Mills & Boon, 1980), pp. 196, 197, figs. 135-37.
Vlaamse Kunst op Perkament: Handschriften en miniaturen te Brugge van 12de tot de 16de Eeuw, compiled by Maurits Smeyers and others, Exhibition Catalogue Bruges, Gruuthusemuseum (1981), no. 87.
Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1983), no. 6, pp. 49-58, pls VIII, IX.
Janet Backhouse, 'Founders of the Royal Library: Edward IV and Henry VII as Collectors of Illuminated Manuscripts', in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by David Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987), pp. 23-42, fig. 36.
William Douglas Simpson, Richard Fawcett, Edzell Castle (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1987), p. 24.
Michael Gullick, Calligraphy (London: Studio Editions, 1990), pl. 23.
Peter Murray Jones, Medieval Medicine in Illuminated Manuscripts, 2nd ed. (London: British Library, 1998), p. 55, pl. III.
Herman Braet, 'Der Roman der Rose, Raum im Blick', in Träume im Mittelalter. Ikonographische Studien, ed. by A. P. Bafliani and G. Stabile (Stuttgart, Zürich, 1989), pp. 183-91.
Mise en page et mise en texte du livre manuscrit, ed. by Henri-Jean Martin and Jean Vezin (n.pl.: Cercle de la Librairie-Promodis, 1990), p. 282.
Ian Roberts, Pontefract Castle (Wakefield: West Yorkshire Archaeology Service, 1990), p. 41.
Alain Arnould and Jean Michel Massing, Spendours of Flanders (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 207.
Janet Backhouse, ‘A Salute to the Tudor Rose’, Miscellanea Martin Wittek. Album de codicologie et de paléographie offert à Martin Wittek, ed. by Anny Raman et Eugène Manning (Louvain-Paris: Peeters, 1993), 1-14 (p. 8, n. 50, p. 9, n. 54).
Herman Braet, 'Aux Sources du Roman de la Rose', in Medieval Codicology, Iconography, Literature, and Translation. Studies for Keith Val Sinclair, ed. by Peter Rolfe Monks and Douglas David Roy Owen (Leiden: Brill, 1994), pp. 110-16.
Herman Braet, 'L'illustration de l'illustration: l’exemple et l'image dans le roman de la rose', in Ensi firent li ancessor: Mélanges de philologie médiévale offerts à Marc René Jung, ed. by Luciano Rossi, 2 vols (Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 1996), II, pp. 491-504.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 190.
Michael Camille, The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire (London: Laurence King, 1998), pp. 80-81, 91-92, pl. 68, 78.
Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century (Leuven: Brepols, 1999), p. 444, pl. 37 on p. 445.
Janet Backhouse, 'Charles of Orléans Illuminated', in Charles d'Orléans in England (1415-1440), ed. by Mary-Jo Arn (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000), pp. 157-63 (p. 160).
Greet Nijs, 'Typology of the Border Decoration in the Manuscripts of the Ghent-Bruges School', in 'Als Ich Can': Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), pp. 1007-036 (p. 1033).
Elisabeth Antoine and others, Sur la terre comme au ciel: jardins d'occident a` la fin du Moyen-âge: Paris, Muse´e national du Moyen-âge, Thermes de Cluny, 6 juin-16 septembre 2002 (Paris: RMN, 2002), cat. No. 27.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), no. 120, pp. 4-5, 44, 73, 315, 323, 394, 398, 401-03 [exhibition catalogue].
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 93.
Pamela Porter, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 7.
Michaela Braesel, ‘The Influence of Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts on the Pre-Raphaelites and the Early Poetry of William Morris’, Journal of William Morris Studies, 15.4 (2004), 41-54 (pp. 45-50).
Ewan Clayton, 'Workplaces for Writing', in Pen in Hand: Medieval Scribal Portraits, Colophons and Tools, ed. by Michael Gullick (Walkern, Herts: Red Gull Press, 2006), pp. 1-18 (p. 12, fig. 14).
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), p. 161, pl. 100.
Lorne Campbell and others, Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian (London: National Gallery, 2008), no. 60 [exhibition catalogue].
Lieve De Kesel, ‘Heritage and Innovation in Flemish Book Illumiation at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century: Framing the Frames From Simon Marmion to Gerard David’, in Books in Transition at theTime of Philip the Fair: Manuscripts and Printed Books in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century Low Countries, ed. by Hanno Wijsman (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), 93-130 (p. 126 n. 76).
Watercolour, ed. by Alison Smith (London: Tate Publishing, 2011), no. 3 [exhibition catalogue].
Herman Braet, 'Le Jardin de la Rose/The Rose's garden, Cuadernos del Cemyr, 21 (2013), 101-29.
Herman Braet,, Nouvelle Bibliographie du Roman de la Rose (Louvain: Peeters, 2017), p. 203. |
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f. 7
The beginning of the dream |
f. 7
The Lover |
f. 7
The Lover |
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f. 8
Haine |
f. 8v
Vilenie |
f. 8v
Feloniye |
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f. 9
Convoitise |
f. 9
Avarice |
f. 9v
Envie |
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f. 10
Tristesse |
f. 10v
Vieillesse |
f. 11v
Pauvrete |
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f. 12v
Garden of Pleasure |
f. 12v
Garden of Pleasure |
f. 12v
Garden of Pleasure |
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f. 12v
Garden of Pleasure |
f. 14v
Dancing |
f. 14v
Dancing |
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f. 16
Text page |
f. 18
Champ initials |
f. 18v
Amour and the Lover |
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f. 20
Narcissus |
f. 22
Amour and the Lover |
f. 23v
Amour and the Lover |
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f. 24
Amour kissing the Lover |
f. 24v
Amour and the Lover |
f. 25v
Amour and the Lover |
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f. 25v
Amour and the Lover |
f. 30v
Bel Accueil and the Lover |
f. 30v
Bel Accueil and the Lover |
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f. 32
Danger, Bel Accueil and the Lover |
f. 32v
Reason and the Lover |
f. 32v
The Lover and Raison |
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f. 33v
L'Ami and the Lover |
f. 34
The Lover and Danger |
f. 34
The Lover and Danger |
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f. 35
Pitie and Franchise |
f. 36
Bel Accueil and the Lover |
f. 37v
Bel Accueil and Jalousie |
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f. 37v
Bel Accueil and Jalousie |
f. 38v
Honte, Peur and Danger |
f. 39
Castle of Jalousie |
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f. 39
Castle of Jalousie |
f. 42
Amour and the Lover |
f. 42
Amour and the Lover |
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f. 43v
Raison and the Lover |
f. 43v
Raison and the Lover |
f. 47v
Friendship |
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f. 54
Virginius and Appius |
f. 54v
Virginius and Virginia |
f. 57
Reason and the Lover |
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f. 59
Nero and Agrippina |
f. 59v
Nero and Seneca |
f. 61
Suicide of Nero |
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f. 62
Croesus and Phanie |
f. 67v
L'Ami and the Lover |
f. 72
L'Ami and the Lover |
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f. 73
Pauvrete and Richesse |
f. 74
The Lover and L'Ami |
f. 76v
Commune |
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f. 77
Jealous man and his wife |
f. 78
Jealous man and his wife |
f. 79
Suicide of Lucrecia |
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f. 80v
Beaute, Chastete, and Laideur |
f. 83v
Samson and Delilah |
f. 85
Jealous husband |
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f. 86
Jason and the Golden Fleece |
f. 87
King and his court |
f. 90
L'Ami and the Lover |
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f. 90v
The Lover and Richesse |
f. 93
The Lover and Amour |
f. 94v
Amour and a messenger |
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f. 95
Amour and his army |
f. 98v
Faux Semblant and Amour |
f. 100v
Faux Semblant and Amour |
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f. 108
Abstinence Contrainte and Faux Semblant |
f. 108v
Faus-semblant, Contrainte-Abstinence and Malebouche |
f. 111
Death of Malebouche |
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f. 111
Convoitise and Largesse |
f. 113
Bel Accueil and la Vieille |
f. 114
Bel Accueil and la Vieille |
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f. 116v
Bel Accueil and la Vieille |
f. 117v
Death of Dido |
f. 122v
Vulcan, Venus and Mars |
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f. 123v
Nature |
f. 129v
The Lover and la Vieille |
f. 131v
Honte, Peur, Danger and the Lover |
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f. 132v
Armies of Venus |
f. 133
Author |
f. 133
Author |
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f. 134v
Franchise and Danger |
f. 136v
Peur |
f. 137
Puer, Honte and other allegories |
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f. 137v
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f. 138v
Venus in her chariot |
f. 138v
Venus in her chariot |
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f. 139
Assault on the castle |
f. 139
Assault on the castle |
f. 140
Nature forging a baby |
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f. 140
Nature forging a baby |
f. 142
Zeuxis and nude models |
f. 142
Zeuxis and nude models |
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f. 143
Nature and priest |
f. 153
Deucalion and Pyrrah |
f. 161v
Nature in a garden |
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f. 166
Nature |
f. 166
Nature |
f. 167v
Priest and armies of Venus |
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f. 169
Priest and armies of Venus |
f. 177v
Pygmalion and the statue |
f. 177v
Pygmalion and the statue |
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f. 178v
Pygmalion and the statue |
f. 178v
Pygmalion and the statue |
f. 181
Castle on fire |
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f. 181
Castle on fire |
f. 184v
The Lover and the rose |
f. 184v
The Lover and the rose |
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