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Detailed record for Harley 1319
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| Author |
Jean Creton |
| Title |
La Prinse et mort du roy Richart (Book of the Capture and Death of King Richard II) |
| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) |
| Date |
c. 1401 - c. 1405 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
Virgil Master |
| Decoration |
16 miniatures in colours and gold with ivy leaf borders of: the author Jean Creton and a French knight (f. 2), Henry of Monmouth knighted in the field (f. 5), the relief ships (f. 7v), MacMorogh, the Irish chieftian (f. 9), Archbishop Arundel (f. 12), Salisbury's arrival at Conway (f. 14v), Richard's fleet (f. 18), Richard at Conway (f. 19v), the dukes of Exeter and Salisbury (f. 25), Bolingbroke and the dukes (f. 30v), Richard and the duke of Northumberland (37v), Northumberland's oath (f. 41v), Richard captured (f. 44), Richard and Bolingbroke at Flint (f. 50), Richard delivered to the citizens of London (f. 53v), Parliament recognizes Bolingbroke as king (f. 57). 1 large initial in colours and gold 'A'(u) with foliate motifs (f. 2). Large initials in gold on coloured grounds. Cadels. Capitals marked in yellow. |
| Dimensions in mm |
280 x 105 (170 x 80/120) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 80 ( + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Red leather with gold tooling; marbled endpapers |
| Provenance |
Jean de Montaigu (b. 1363, d.1409), illegitimate son of Charles V of France, half-brother of Charles VI, the superintendent of finances for Charles VI: given by him to his uncle the duke of Berry (see Delisle 1868-81, iii, pp. 190-91, no. 252).
John of Valois, Jean, duke of Berry (b.1340, d.1416): c.1405, included in his inventory of 1413 (see Delisle 1868-81, iii, pp. 190-91, no. 252).
Charles du Maine (b. 1414, d. 1472), count of Maine, the third son of Louis II of Anjou and Yolande of Aragon: his ownership inscription and signature (f.78v).
f. 1 is a parchment leaf inscribed on the verso in a late-sixteenth century hand: 'Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre, Richard, traictant particulierement la rebellion de ses subiectz et prinse de sa personne etc. Composée par un gentilhomme françois de marque, qui fut a la suite dudict Roy avecque permission du Roy de France', with the date '1399' added below in darker ink.
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.
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.
ff. 79-80 are paper leaves with descriptions of the miniatures written in 1767 by Dr Thomas Percy (b. 1729, d. 1811). |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Illustrated by the Virgil Master (fl. in Paris, c. 1309-1420).
Jean Creton (fl. 1386–1420), historian and poet. This work was commissioned between November 1401 and March 1402 by Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy. On him see J. J. N. Palmer, ‘Creton, Jean (fl. 1386–1420)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004), [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50197, accessed 19 Oct 2010].
In verse, with some prose interpolations. Creton wrote the work to present to the duke of Burgundy before July 1402. In April 1399 Creton was sent by Charles VI of France (r. 1380-1422) to accompany Richard II to Ireland. Creton sailed with the earl of Salisbury to north Wales, and gave an eyewitness account of the capture of the king.
This is one of seven copies of the texts: see Jean Creton, Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA) , http://www.arlima.net/il/jean_creton.html#prinse [accessed on 19 October 2011].
Horizontal catchwords
1 blank parchment leaf after f. 78. |
| Select bibliography |
Walter Harris, Hibernica or some antient pieces relating to Ireland (Dublin: W. Williamson, 1757), pp. 23-28.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 1319.
[J. Creton], ‘Translation of a French metrical history of the deposition of King Richard the Second with a copy of the original’, ed. and trans. by John Webb, Archaeologia, 20 (1824), 1-442 [a translation of the text].
Michel Francisque, Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire de France: Rapports au Ministre (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1839), p. 117.
P. W. Dillon, ‘Remarks on the manner of the death of King Richard II’, Archaeologia, 28 (1840), 75-95.
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. 11.
Facsimiles of National Manuscripts in Ireland, ed. by John T. Gilbert, 5 vols (London: H.M.S.O., 1879-84), III, pls. xxxii, xxxiii.
E. Maunde Thompson, 'A contemporary account of the fall of Richard II', Burlington Magazine, 5 (1904), 160-72, 267-70, (pl. 2).
Eric G. Millar, British Museum Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 4 (London: British Museum, 1928), pl. 33.
Evan J. Jones, 'An Examiniation of the Authorship of The Deposition and Death of Richard II Attributed to Creton', Speculum, 15 (1940), 460-77 (p. 460 n. 4).
Pamela Wynn Reeves, 'The Guildhall Chronicles of the Kings of France,' The Guildhall Miscellany, 2 (1953), pp. 3-15 (p. 5 n. 21).
Gervase Matthew, The Court of Richard II (London: Murray, 1968), p. 209 and plate opposite p. 164 [with reproductions of ff. 53v, 57].
Pierre Cockshaw, ‘Mentions d'auteur, de copistes, d'enlumineurs et de libraires dans les comptes généraux de l'Etat Bourguignon (1384-1419)’, Scriptorium, 23 (1969), 122-44 (Creton mentioned in no. 20, 50, 61, 69).
Millard Meiss and Sharon Off, 'The bookkeeping of Robinet d'Estampes and the chronology of Jean de Berry's Manuscripts', Art Bulletin, 53 (1971), 225-35.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 50, 72, 242.
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, p. 409.
J. J. N. Palmer, ‘The Authorship, Date and Historical Value of the French Chronicles on the Lancastrian Revolution’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library, 61 (1978-79), 145-81; 398-421 (p. 151 n. 1).
Lorna. A. Stewart, 'The works of Jehan Creton: a critical edition' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1979), https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.757604.
Sharon Dunlap Smith, 'New Themes for the City of God Around 1400: The Illustrations of Raoul de Presles' Translation', Scriptorium, 36 (1982), 68-82 (pp. 77-78).
Michelle P. Brown, A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 (London: British Library, 1990), pl. 40.
Making and Meaning: The Wilton Diptych, ed. by Dillian Gordon (London: National Gallery, 1993), p. 82, fig. 32 [exhibition catalogue].
Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing in England II c. 1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century (New York: Routledge, 1996), pp. 161, 189 n. 186.
Laetitia Le Guay, Les princes de Bourgogne lectures de Froissart: Les rapports entre le texte et l’image dans les manuscrits enluminés du livre IV des 'Croniques' (Paris: CNRS Editions, 1998), p. 197.
Paul Strohm, England’s Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation, 1399-1422 (New Haven: Yale, 1998), pls 2, 5.
Pamela Porter, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), p. 14.
Peter Lord, The Visual Culture of Wales: Medieval Vision (Cardiff: University of Wales, 2003), p. 198, fig. 306 [miniature of f. 41v].
Maidie Hilmo, Medieval Images, Icons, and IIlustrated English Literary Texts: From the Ruthwell Cross to the Ellesmere Chaucer (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), p. 183.
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 81.
Anne D. Hedeman, 'Advising France through the Example of England: Visual Narrative in the Livre de la prinse et mort du roy Richart (Harl. MS. 1319)', Electronic British Library Journal (2011), 1-22 [http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2011articles/article7.html] |
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f. 2
Jean Creton |
f. 2
Jean Creton |
f. 5
Richard II knighting Henry of Monmouth |
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f. 5
Richard II knighting Henry of Monmouth |
f. 7v
Relief ships arriving in Ireland |
f. 9
MacMorogh the Irish chieftian |
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f. 9
MacMorogh the Irish chieftian |
f. 12
Archbishop Arundel preaching |
f. 12
Archbishop Arundel preaching |
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f. 14v
Duke of Salisbury arriving at Conway |
f. 14v
Duke of Salisbury arriving at Conway |
f. 14v
Duke of Salisbury arriving at Conway |
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f. 14v
Duke of Salisbury arriving at Conway |
f. 18
Fleet of Richard II |
f. 18
Fleet of Richard II |
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f. 19v
Richard II at Conway |
f. 19v
Richard II at Conway |
f. 25
Dukes of Exeter and Salisbury |
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f. 25
Dukes of Exeter and Salisbury |
f. 25
Dukes of Exeter and Salisbury |
f. 30v
Bolingbroke meeting the Dukes |
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f. 30v
Bolingbroke meeting the Dukes |
f. 30v
Bolingbroke meets the Dukes |
f. 37v
Richard II and the Duke of Northumberland |
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f. 37v
Richard II and the Duke of Northumberland |
f. 41v
Duke of Northumberland's oath |
f. 41v
Duke of Northumberland's oath |
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f. 44
Richard II |
f. 44
Richard II |
f. 50
Richard II and Bolingbroke |
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f. 50
Richard II and Bolingbroke |
f. 53v
Richard II |
f. 53v
Richard II |
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f. 53v
Richard II |
f. 57
Bolingbroke claiming the crown |
f. 57
Bolingbroke claims the crown |
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