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Detailed record for Yates Thompson 21
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| ff. 3-142v |
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| Author |
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun |
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| Title |
Roman de la Rose |
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| ff. 143-171 |
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| Author |
Jean de Meun |
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| Title |
Testament |
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| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) |
| Date |
c. 1380 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Decoration |
25 small one-column miniatures in grisaille on coloured grounds, the first accompanied by a large decorated initial and a full foliate border in gold, red and blue (ff. 3, 3v, 4 (x3), 4v, 5 (x2), 5v, 6, 6v, 8v (x2), 9v, 10v, 11, 26v, 68v, 69v, 108, 127, 136, 137v, 138, 138v). Small initials in red with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Line-fillers in wavy lines in red or blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
317 x 225 (243 x 175) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 171 (+ 2 paper flyleaves at the beginning, and 2 at the end) |
| Collation |
i2 (ff. 1-2), ii-xiv12 (ff. 3-158), xv12+1 (13th leaf inserted after f. 170; ff. 159-171). |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Brown diced leather, Russian?, 18th century; same binding as Y. Th. 24. |
| Provenance |
The Jesuit College of Paris, College of Clermont: inscribed 'Paraphé au desir de l’arret du cinq Juillet mil sept cens soixante trois. Mesnil.' (f. 1); this inscription was written in all the manuscripts belonging to this Library before they were sold in 1764 upon the expulsion of the Jesuits from France (see Léopold Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale 3 vols (Paris: Imprimérie Impériale, 1868-81), I, p. 436); described in the sale catalogue of the Jesuits' Library manuscripts in 1764 (see Catalogus Manuscriptorum Codicum Collegii Claromontani, Paris: [n. pub.], 1764, no. 830 pp. 315-16); two former possessors mentioned in this catalogue, Guillaume Richerot and Achilles Herbelin.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham; his Appendix Ms. 171; bought from Woodburn, November 1851, for £20, according to the handwritten annotations in the BL Manuscript Department's copy of Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Ashburnham Place: Appendix (London: Hodgson, 1853).
Bertram Ashburnham, 5th earl of Ashburnham: his sale, May 1897, bought by Yates Thompson together with the entire Ashburnham Appendix: book-plate with an inscribed number 'From the Library of the Earl of Ashburnham Appendix no. CLXXI May 1897' (inside upper cover).
Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed '[MS] 77 / £bne.e.e [i.e. £150.0.0] / [bought from] Earl of / Ashburnham / 1897' (inside upper cover).
Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1941 by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
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. |
| Select bibliography |
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Second Series of Fifty Manuscripts (Nos. 51 to 100) in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1902), no. 77, pp. 186-88.
Virginia Wylie Egbert, The Mediaeval Artist at Work (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), p. 76, pl. 28.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, 168 [rejected].
Ursula Pieters, Das Ich im Bild: die Figur des Autors in volksprachigen Handschriften des 13. bis 16. Jahrhunderts (Cologne: Bohlau, 2008), p. 131.
Alessandra Fiori, 'La rapprentazione della musica nella letteratura e nella societa', Il Medioevo, 8 (2009), 634-41 (pp. 634, 637).
Herman Braet,, Nouvelle Bibliographie du Roman de la Rose (Louvain: Peeters, 2017), p. 203. |
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ff. 3-142v |
| Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun Roman de la Rose |
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f. 3
Dream |
f. 3
Dream |
f. 4
Felony and Villainy, Coveriousness and Avarice |
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f. 4
Detail: Felony and Villainy |
f. 4
Detail: Coveriousness |
f. 4
Detail: Avarice |
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f. 6v
Oyseuse |
f. 8v
Mirth and Gladness |
f. 8v
Mirth and Gladness, and God of Love |
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f. 9v
Richesse |
f. 11
Franchise |
f. 26v
Dread, Shame, and Danger |
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f. 26v
Detail: Dread, Shame, and Danger |
f. 26v
Detail: Flourished initial |
f. 69v
Jean de Meun writing in his study |
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f. 108
Nature and Genius |
f. 127
Genius' sermon |
f. 135
Flourished initials |
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f. 135
Detail: Flourished initials |
f. 136
Pygmalion |
f. 137v
Detail |
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f. 138
Pygmalion praying |
f. 138v
Pygmalion and sculpture |
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ff. 143-171 |
| Jean de Meun Testament |
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f. 143
Trinity |
f. 143
Detail: Trinity |
f. 165
Seven Deadly Sins |
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f. 165
Seven Deadly Sins |
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