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Detailed record for Royal 16 G IX
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| Author |
Xenophon, translated by Vasco da Lucena |
| Title |
Cyropaedia (Cyropédie) |
| Origin |
Netherlands, S. (Bruges) |
| Date |
c. 1470- before 1483 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive (bâtarde) |
| Decoration |
6 large miniatures in gold and colours with full or partial borders and foliate initials in gold and colours, at the beginning of each book and the prologue (ff. 7, 42v, 76v, 112, 140v, 169). Initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with white decoration in white. |
| Dimensions in mm |
400 x 280 (240 x 170) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 203 (+ 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf attached to a modern paper flyleaf at the beginning and at the end, and 2 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Royal library parchment binding, golded edges. |
| Provenance |
Edward IV (b. 1442, d. 1483), king of England and lord of Ireland: the royal arms of England (ff. 7, 112), and a Yorkist badge, 'Dieu et mon droit', with a lozenge bearing a white rose of the York family (ff. 42v, 140v, 169); made for him in the Southern Netherlands (Bruges), probably during his stay in the Burgundian territory (1470-1471), or after his restauration to the throne of England in 1471.
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the list of books at Richmond Palace of 1535, no. 59; and in the catalogue of 1666, Royal appendix 71, f. 14, or f. 14v.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Contains Cyropaedia of Xenophon translated in French as the Cyropédie from a Latin version of Poggio Bracciolini by Vasco da Lucena, a Portuguese in service of Isabella of Portugal and then Margaret of York; preceded by a list of contents (ff. 1-5v) and the prologue of the translator (ff. 7-10v).
Catchwords written vertically, 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. 213.
Margaret Kekewich, 'Edward IV, William Caxton, and Literary Patronage in Yorkist England', The Modern Language Review, 66 (1971) 481-87 (p. 484).
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, 1987), pp. 23-42 (p. 40).
Scot McKendrick, 'Lodewijk van Gruuthuse en de Librije van Edward IV', in Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, Mecenas en Europees Diplomaats ca. 1427-1492, ed. by M. P. J. Marten (Bruges: Stichting, 1992), pp. 153-59 (p.159, n. 89).
Scot McKendrick, 'The Romuléon and the Manuscripts of Edward IV', in England in the Fifteenth Century, ed. by Nicholas Rogers, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 4 (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1994), pp. 149-69 (pp. 162, n. 75, 165, n. 101).
Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard III’s Books: Ideals and Reality in the Life and Library of a Medieval Prince (Stroud, Gloucestershire, Sutton, 1997), fig. 41.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H1.57.
Pamela Porter, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), p. 31.
A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges, ed. by Nigel Morgan and Stella Panayotova, Part one, vol. II: The Meuse Region, Southern Netherlands (London: Harvey Miller, 2009), p. 158. |
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f. 7
Charles the Bald |
f. 42v
Army |
f. 76v
Cyrus and his troops |
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f. 112
Cyrrus and Hyrcanian |
f. 112
Cyrrus and Hyrcanian |
f. 140v
Army |
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f. 140v
Army |
f. 169
Cyrrus |
f. 169
Cyrrus |
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