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Detailed record for Stowe 955
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| ff. 1-17 |
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| Author |
Pierre Sala |
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| Title |
Petit Livre d'Amour (Emblesmes et Devises d'Amour) |
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| ff. 18-34 |
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| Title |
Transcript of Pierre Sala's Petit Livre d'Amour (from part 1) |
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| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) and S. E. (Lyon) |
| Date |
1st quarter of the 16th century |
| Language |
French and Italian (f. 7v) |
| Script |
Pierre Sala's handwriting in gold on purple (f. 16v in mirror-script) |
| Scribe |
Pierre Sala |
| Artists |
Miniatures attributed to the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse (see Avril and Reynaud 1993); the portrait of Pierre Sala (f. 17) attributed to Jean Perréal. The Master of the Chronique scandaleuse left the face of Pierre Sala unfinished in his miniature on f. 6 for Jean Perréal, who did not complete it. |
| Decoration |
12 emblematical miniatures (ff. 6, 7, 8, 9, 9*, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17); on the page facing each miniature is a quatrain inscribed in gold or purple, on a placard of gold or white, accompanied by designs or emblems containing the letters 'M' and 'P' in gold on a panel of silver, suspended from cords in a trompe-l'oeil design. All pages are coloured in purple. |
| Dimensions in mm |
130 x 95 (85 x 70) |
| Official foliation |
ff. i + 34 (+ 1 original parchment flyleaf before f. 1 and 1 after f. 17) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Pre-1600. Purple velvet; original wooden carrying case covered with leather, coloured green and gold and carved with devices, among which are the letters P and M formed out of crossed compasses or staves; on the edges of the case are rings, intended for a chain to suspend the volume from the girdle. |
| Provenance |
Marguerite Builloud: at the beginning (ff. 1-4v) is an address in prose from the lover to his mistress, and at the end (f. 17) a portrait of the lover; on the back of this is written, 'Set de vray le portret de Pierre Sala mestre dotel de ches le roy avec des enimes quil avoit fet a sa mestresse qui estoit grand honcle a madame de Ressis laquelle est sortie de la mayson de Guillien en Quercy.' (f. 17v); the poems begin with 'Mon cueur veult estre en ceste Margueryte.' (f. 5v); throughout the letters M and P.
Marshal Junot, Duke of Abrantes: attached to the cover at the end is an extract from a sale catalogue, which states that the manuscript was formerly in his possession (f. 35).
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1776, d. 1839), 1st duke of Buckingham and Chandos, of Stowe House, near Buckingham: inscribed with the press-mark 'Appendix vol. I. Catal Mss. Stowe no. 26' (f. 18), corresponding to his catalogue (O'Conor 1818-1819); '26' also inscribed inside the carrying case.
Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1797, d. 1861), 2nd duke of Buckingham and Chandos; sold in 1849 to Lord Ashburnham.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham, of Ashburnham Place, Sussex.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1840, d. 1913), 5th earl of Ashburnham: purchased by the British Museum from him together with 1084 other Stowe manuscripts in 1883. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
A transcription of the content has been added later on paper (ff. 18-34), probably by Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1776, d. 1839). |
| Select bibliography |
Charles O'Conor, Bibliotheca Ms. Stowensis: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Stowe Library, 2 vols (Buckingham: Seeley, 1818-1819), I, 57.
Catalogue of the Stowe Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1895-1896), I, no. 955.
Grete Ring, A Century of French Painting 1400-1500 (London: Phaidon, 1949), no. 331, fig. 48.
Janet Backhouse, 'French Manuscript Illumination', in Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hill Press, 1983), 145-192 (no. 22 pp. 169-74).
François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peinture en France 1440-1520 (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), no. 208 [exhibition catalogue].
Daniel S. Russell, Emblematic structures in Renaissance French Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, (1995), pp. 63-64, 259.
Janet Backhouse and Yves Giraud, Pierre Sala: Petit Livre d'Amour, Stowe MS 955, British Library, London, Kommentar, Commentaire, Commentary (Luzern: Faksimile Verlag, 1994).
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), no. 194.
Michael Camille, The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire (London: Laurence King, 1998), p. 110, pl. 96.
Christopher de Hamel, The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination: History and Techniques (London: British Library, 2001), pl. 36.
Pamela Porter, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscript (London: British Library, 2003), pp. 10-11.
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 141.
Erik Inglis, Faces of Power & Piety (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008), no. 14.
Paola Cifarelli, 'Pierre Sala et le Petit Livre d’Amour (manuscrit Londres, BL, Stowe MS 955)', in Le recueil au Moyen Âge: La fin du Moyen Âge, ed. by Tania Van Hemelryck and Stefania Marzano (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), pp. 61-77.
Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France, ed. by Martha Wolff (New Haven: Yale, 2011), no. 89 [exhibition catalogue].
Arts et Humanisme: Lyon Renaissance, ed. by Ludmila Virassamyna?ken (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2015), cat. 67-68. |
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ff. 1-17 |
| Pierre Sala Petit Livre d'Amour (Emblesmes et Devises d'Amour) |
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box
Box |
upper binding
Upper binding |
lower binding
Lower binding |
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Carrying case
Carrying case |
Carrying case
Carrying case |
Carrying case
Carrying case |
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Carrying case
Carrying case |
Carrying case
Carrying case |
Carrying case
Carrying case |
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f. 1
Text page |
f. 1v
Text page |
f. 2
Text page |
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f. 2v
Text page |
f. 3
Text page |
ff. 3v-4
Text pages |
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f. 3v
Text page |
f. 4
Text page |
f. 4v
Text page |
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f. 5
Emblem 'M' |
ff. 5v-6
Dedication and Pierre Sala |
f. 5v
Emblem 'M' |
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f. 6
Pierre Sal |
f. 6v
Emblem |
f. 7
Blind man's bluff |
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f. 7v
Emblems and quatrain |
f. 8
Table with a candlestick |
f. 8v
Text page |
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f. 9
Man and woman |
f. 9*
Man and jester |
f. 9*v
Text page |
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f. 9v
Text page |
f. 10
Pilgrim and a man with a bell |
f. 10v
Emblems |
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f. 11
Two men grooming a horse |
f. 11v
Text page |
f. 12
Man carrying another |
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f. 12v
Emblems |
f. 13
Two women |
f. 13v
Emblems |
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f. 14
Two women |
f. 14v
Emblems |
f. 15
Man cutting down a tree |
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f. 15v
Emblems |
f. 16
Scythes and arrows |
f. 16v
Mirror writing |
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f. 17
Portrait of Pierre Sala |
f. 17v
Text page |
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