|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Harley 4381
|
|
|
|
| Author |
Guiart des Moulins |
| Title |
Bible historiale (vol. 1) |
| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) |
| Date |
between 1403 and 1404 |
| Language |
French, with some Latin for frontispiece |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Scribe |
Regnault de Montet (see de Winter 1978). |
| Artists |
Attributed to three artists, the first Master of the Bible Historiale of the Duke of Berry (Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 159), rebaptised by Sandgren 2002 as the Ravenelle Master (ff. 3, 6v, 9, 9v), a follower of Jacquemart de Hesdin (ff. 1, 3v-5v, 7-8, 10-16), and the Virgil Master (ff. 21v-275) (see Meiss 1974, p. 410 and Komada 2000). |
| Decoration |
1 full-page miniature with bas-de-page and full foliate borders including 4 small miniatures in the corners, in colours and gold (f. 3). 1 small double-column-wide miniature, in colours and gold (f. 71). 60 small column-wide miniatures followed by large decorated initials with partial foliate borders, some with dragons, in colours and gold (ff. 1, 3v, 4, 4v, 5, 5v (x2), 6v, 7, 7v, 8, 9, 9v, 10, 12, 16, 21v, 25v, 27v, 29v, 30, 31, 34, 36v, 40, 42, 43v, 48, 59, 62, 70, 86v, 99, 105v, 107, 111, 112, 116, 119, 122v, 123, 127, 127v, 128v, 130v, 133, 136, 140, 158, 176, 214v, 224v, 225v, 229v, 240, 243, 247v, 250, 255v, 275). 10 large decorated initials (5-7 lines) with partial foliate borders some with dragons, in colours and gold (ff. 186v, 200, 203v, 208v, 259v, 261v, 264, 266v, 269, 272). Small decorated initials (3 lines) with foliate extensions into the margins, in colours and gold. Small decorated initials (1 line), headings (1 line), and line fillers, in colours and gold. 1 coloured diagram (f. 55). Capital letters highlighted in yellow. |
| Dimensions in mm |
415 x 305 (280 x 180) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. iv + 284 (ff. i is a parchment, f. ii is a paper, and f. iii is an original parchment flyleaf at the beginning, f. iv is a parchment flyleaf at the end; + 1 parchment flyleaf after f. iii; + 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 1 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Gold-tooled red leather over wooden boards with gold-tooled red and green leather inlays; gilt edges. Heraldic motivs and initials of the former binding of gold-tooled brown leather pasted to ff. i and iv verso (see provenance). |
| Provenance |
Jean, duke of Berry (b. 1340, d. 1416): inscribed by Jean Flamel, the duke's secretary 'Ceste belle bible est a Jehan, filz de Roy de France, Duc de Berry et d'Auvergne, Conte de Poitou, d'Estampes, de Bouloingne et d'Auvergne. Flamel' (f. iii verso); not in the duke's inventory (see Jules Guiffrey, Inventaires de Jean Duc de Berry (1401-1416), 2 vols (Paris: Leroux, 1894-96), I, CLXII no. 7, II, 317 no. 12).
Pierre II, duke of Bourbon (b. 1438, d. 1504): see his inscription in Harley 4382 (f. 267).
Paul Petau (b. 1568, d. 1614), classical scholar, senator of the Parlement de Paris and bibliophile: his stamped arms and motto ‘Non est mortale quod opto’ and monogram 'PETAV' (leather cuttings from a former binding, now pasted onto ff. i, iv verso);
Alexandre Petau (d. 1672), senator of the Parlement de Paris and bibliophile, son of Paul Petau: description in Boendermaker’s catalogue, cited below; monogram cited above, which may be 'AL. PET' rather than that of his father's: see discussion K. A. de Meyier, Paul en Alexandre Petau en de Geschiednis van hum Handschriften (Voornamelijk op grond van de Petau-Handschriften in de Universiteitsbibliotheek te Leiden), (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947), p. 148.
? Pierre Jean Mariette (b. 1694, d. 1774), son of the editor, engraver, and print dealer Jean Mariette (b. 1660, d. 1742): correspondence in 1717 (now in the Louvre) with his father shows that Mariette was attempting to obtain payment for goods delivered to Boendermaker: (see the edition of the correspondence edited by Bent Sorensen, forthcoming).
Theodore Boendermaker (b. 1682, d. 1720): listed in Catalogus bibliothecæ selectae librorum præstantium , codicum mss. & editionum rariorum , quam collegit vir nobilissimus Theodorus Boendermaker. Cujus auctio habebitur, ad diem 30. Mar. & sequentes, 1722 (Amsterdam: Joannis Boom, 1722), as no. 1: ‘La Sainte Bible MS. en François, avec des Miniatures representants chacun le contenu d’un chapitre, sur du Velin. 2 voll. Ex Biblotheca Alexandri Petavii, on trouve escrit sur la premiere page du premier volume. Cette belle Bible est a Jehan, fils du Roy de France, Duc de Berry, & d’Auvergne, Comte de Poitou, d’Estampes, de Boulogne & d’Auvergne. Sousigné Lamel. Dans le dernier Volume sur la fin. Cette Bible est au Duc de Berry ; sousigné Jehan [….] ‘; the manuscrit was sold for 500 florins [see annotated catalogue Bodleian Library, Mus. Bibl. III. 8° 349].
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 '18 die Februarij A.D. 1722/3.' (f. ii). 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 |
For the second volume, see Harley 4382. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III, no. 4381.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 9.
Léopold Delisle, Recherches sur la libraire de Charles V, 2 vols (Paris: Champion, 1907), II, 225 no. 11, 332 n. 11bis.
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 252.
[J. A. Herbert], British Museum: Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 2, 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1923), pl. 24.
Schools of Illumination: Reproductions from Manuscripts in the British Museum, 6 vols (London: British Museum, 1914-30), VI: French: Mid 14th to 16th Centuries, pl. 5.
Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late XIV Century and the Patronage of the Duke, 2 vols (London: Thames and Hudson, 1967), I, 189, 265, 298, 310-11, 319, 360, 383 n. 97, II, figs. 617, 622.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 72, 78, 274.
Millard Meiss, with Sharon Off Dunlap Smith and Elizabeth Home Beaton, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and Their Contemporaries, 2 vols (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974), I, 361, 408, 410, 414.
Patrick M. de Winter, 'Copistes, éditeurs et enlumineurs de la fin du XIVe siècle: La production à Paris de manuscrits à miniatures', in Actes du Congrès national des sociétés savantes: Section d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1978), 173-98 (p. 194).
Akiko Komada, Les illustrations de la Bible Historiale: les manuscrits réalisés dans le Nord, 4 vols (Paris: Thèse de doctorat, Université Paris IV, 2000), III, no. 35 pp. 756-58.
Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse, Manuscripts and Their Makers: Commercial Book Producers in Medieval Paris 1200-1500, 2 vols (Turnhout: Harvey Miller, 2000), I, 290, 400 n. 27.
Alixe Bovey, Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 26-27, pl. 22.
Eva Lindqvist Sandgren, The Book of Hours of Johannete Ravenelle and the Parisian Book Illumination around 1400, Figura Nova Series, 28 (Uppsala: Söderlind, 2002), pp. 60-62.
Éléonore Fournié, ‘Les éditions de la Bible historiale : Présentation et catalogue raisonné d’éditions de la première moitié du XVIe siècle’, 03.2 | 2009 – Sources et documents : La Bible historiale, L'Atelier du Centre de recherches historiques, Revue électronique du CRH 3.2 (2009), http://acrh.revues.org/index1468.html#tocto1n7 [accessed 15 March 2010].
Jeanette Patterson, 'Stolen Scriptures: The Bible Historiale and the Hundred Years’ War' Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures, 2.2 (2013), 155-80 (pp. 160-62, 175, n. 14). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
f. 3
Trinity and Virgin and Child |
f. 3
Trinity and Virgin and Child |
f. 3
Ptolemy |
| |
f. 4
God |
f. 6v
|
f. 7
Creation of Adam |
| |
f. 9
Expulsion |
f. 9v
Cain and Abel |
f. 10
Cain and Abel |
| |
f. 12
Noah's ark |
f. 29v
Jacob and the angel |
f. 30
Massacre of the Schechemites |
| |
f. 30
Massacre of the Schechemites |
f. 31
|
f. 34
|
| |
f. 34
Joseph |
f. 42
Moses |
f. 59
Moses |
| |
f. 70
Moses |
f. 71
Prophets |
f. 86v
Moses |
| |
f. 111
Samson and the lion |
f. 112
Samson and Delilah |
f. 127
Samuel and David |
| |
f. 150v
Isboseth |
f. 158
Ascension of Elijah |
f. 250
Esther |
| |
f. 255v
David |
|
|
|
|
