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Detailed record for Additional 11696
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| Author |
Giovanni Boccaccio |
| Title |
Des cas de nobles hommes et femmes translated from the Latin 'De casibus virorum illustrium' by Laurent de Premierfait |
| Origin |
Netherlands, S. |
| Date |
c. 1470 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
Workshop of Loyset Liédet (see Reynolds, Illustrated Boccaccio Manuscripts (1988). |
| Decoration |
8 large framed miniatures (ff. 8, 40, 136v, 200v) with decorated initials and full borders in colours with gold, incorporating flowers, fruit and birds, including a peacock (f. 1). Coats of arms in the borders (ff. 1, 8) or within the miniatures (ff. 8, 40, 136v, 200v). Framed initials in gold on a blue and rose ground. Rubrics in red. Book and page numbers in red and blue in the upper margins. |
| Dimensions in mm |
370 x 260 (240 x 155) written in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 302 (+ 3 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end) |
| Collation |
i-xxi8(ff. 1-168), xxii8-1 (ff. 169-175), xxiii-xxvi8 (ff. 176-207), xxvii6 (ff.208-211), xxviii-xxxiii8 (ff. 212-259), xxxiv8-1(260-267), xxxv-xxxviii8(268-299) xxxix5 (ff. 300-302+[ii]). |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Red leather; the label of the bookbinder, William W. Potter, and the number 66 attached to the inside upper binding. |
| Provenance |
The Montferrand family of Bugey, near Lyon: their coat of arms (ff. 1, 8, 40, 136v, 200v), paly of six argent and sable, a chief gules; Jean de Montferrand was chamberlain to Charles the Bald in 1469 and Benoit de Montferrand was bishop of Coutances and then Lausanne between 1470 and 1491.
An erased signature after the explicit (f. 302v).
Joseph Bonaparte, count de Survilliers (b. 1768, d. 1844), brother of Napoloen I, bought from him by the British Museum, 9 May 1840. |
| Notes |
This is the only manuscript in Britain of the earlier or A-version of Premierfait's translation, completed in 1400, according to Mortimer, Fall of Princes (2005).
The opening folios of Books 6 and 9, originally with miniatures, have been removed. |
| Select bibliography |
The British Museum Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, 1836-1840 (London: British Museum, 1843), 1840, p. 4.
Lydgate's Fall of Princes, ed. by Henry Bergen, 3 vols, Early English Text Society, 121-23 (London: Early English Text Society, 1924), p. xiii.
Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages. III: Manuscripts in English Libraries, ed. by H. Bober, 2 vols (London: The Warburg Institute, 1953), Part 1: p. 12.
Patricia M. Gathercole, 'The manuscripts of Laurent de Premierfait's Du cas des nobles (Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium)', Italica, 32:1, (1955), 14-21, (p. 19).
Carlo Bozzolo, Manuscrits des traductions franc¸aises d'oeuvres de Boccace, Xve sie`cle (Padova: Editrice Antenore, 1973), p. 131.
Catherine Reynolds, 'Illustrated Boccaccio Manuscripts in the British Library (London)', Studi sul Boccaccio, 17 (1988), 113-81 (pp. 151-53).
Nigel Mortimer, John Lydgate's Fall of Princes: narrative tragedy in its literary and political contexts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 32.
Erik Ingles, 'The Production and Program of Fouquet's Boccaccio', in Tributes to Lucy Freeman Sandler: Studies in Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. by Kathryn A. Smith and Carol H. Krinsky (London: Harvey Miller, 2007), pp. 373- 86 (p. 377, n. 22). |
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f. 1
Boccaccio with kings and queens |
f. 8
Boccaccio, Adam and Eve |
f. 71
Andalo del Negro |
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f. 102v
Boccaccio and Marcus Manlius Capitolinus |
f. 102v
Boccaccio and Marcus Manlius Capitolinus |
f. 136v
Boccaccio and punishments |
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f. 136v detail
Boccaccio and punishments |
f. 200v
Boccaccio, a king and queen |
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