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Detailed record for Royal 19 C I

Author Matfre Ermengaud
Title Breviari d'Amor
Origin France, S. (Toulouse?)
Date 1st quarter of the 14th century
Language French (Occitan or Provençal)
Script Gothic
Artists The same artist worked on Toulouse, Bibliothèque Municipale, ms 418 and Amiens, Bibliothèque Municipale, ms 355)
Decoration 3 full-page miniatures in colours and gold (ff. 11v, 30v, 125v). 23 two-column miniatures of varying size, in colours and gold (ff. 7, 33, 34v, 37, 37v, 42v, 50, 51, 53v, 54v, 58v, 67v, 74, 96, 168, 173, 177v, 202, 204, 204v, 245v). Numerous smaller miniatures in colours and gold. Puzzle initials in blue and red, with pen-flourishing in red and purple. Smaller initials in blue or red with pen-flourishing in red or purple. First letters of verses highlighted in yellow. Paraphs in blue or red. Foliation in Roman numerals in red and blue. Decorated catchwords.
Dimensions in mm 350 x 255 (in two columns)
Official foliation ff. i + 256 (+ 2 unfoliated modern parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end; f. i is a slip of paper attached to the 2nd unfoliated modern parchment flyleaf at the beginning, f. 256 is a medieval parchment flyleaf)
Form Parchment codex
Binding BM/BL in-house. Gilt edges.
Provenance Added title 'lo breuiari damors', 14th century (f. 255v).
Added drawing of a hooded head, 15th century? (f. 208).
Henry VIII (b. 1491, d. 1547), king of England and Ireland: the monogram 'HR' [for Henricus Rex] (f. 1).
?Shelfmark of a very large number in black ink (Carley's 'Old Large Number') '36' (f. 1).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 132' (f. 1), included in the inventory of books in the Upper Library at Westminster of 1542; and in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 14.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
Notes Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Contains 5 works by Matfre Ermengaud of Béziers (d. 1322):
The Chanson (f. 1);
The Breviari d'Amor, an Occitan encyclopædia composed between spring 1288 and c.1292 (ff. 7-250);
A letter of Matfre Ermengaud to his sister Suau (ff. 251-251v);
'Salve regina en romans' (ff. 252-253);
A legend of the Tree of the Cross entitled 'Del peccat dadam' (ff. 253v-255v).
Catchwords, foliation in Roman numerals in red and blue, beginning on f. 7; guide letters for the initials and page numbers; instructions to the rubricator (e.g., ff. 62v, 154).
Select bibliography Carl Bartsch, Denkmäler der provenzalischer Litteratur, Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, 39 (Stuttgart, 1856), p. 79. f. 1.

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, pp. 131-32.
Clovis Brunel, Bibliographie des manuscrits littéraires en ancien provençal, Société de publications romanes et françaises, 13 (Paris: Librairie E. Droz, 1935), no. 22.

Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, 4 vols (London: The Warburg Institute, 1953), III: Manuscripts in English Libraries, pp. 218-19.

Katja Laske-Fix, Der Bildzyklus des Breviari d’amor (Munich: Verlag Schnell & Steiner, 1973), pp. 128-29 [as manuscript L].

John E. Murdoch, Album of Science: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, ed. by I. B. Cohen (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1984), nos 253, 276.

Janet Backhouse, 'Illuminated Manuscripts Associated with Henry VII and Members of his Immediate Family', in The Reign of Henry VII: Proceedings of the 1993 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Benjamin Thompson (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1995), pp. 175-87 (p. 180).

Geneviève Brunel, 'Un fragment du Breviari d'Amor au Palais du Roure (Avignon)', Romania. Revue trimestrielle consacrée à l'étude des langues et des littératures romanes,104 (1984), 177-197 (p. 180).

A. Rudoloff Stanton, 'La Genealogie Comence: Kinship and Difference in the Queen Mary Psalter', Studies in Iconography, 17 (1996), 177-214 (fig. 18).

J. P. Carley, 'Marks in Books and the Libraries of Henry VIII', Papers-Bibliographical Society of America, 91 (1997), 583-606 (pp. 603, 605, pl. 4).

Le Breviari d'amor de Matfre Ermengaud, ed. by Peter T. Ricketts, with the collaboration of Cyril P. Hershon III (lines 8880T-16783), Association Internationale d'Etudes Occitanes, 5 (London: AIEO, Royal Holloway, University of London, 1998).

Cyril P. Hershon and Peter T. Ricketts, 'Les textes hébraïques du Brevari d'amor de Matfre Ermengaud', Revue des langues romanes, 103 (1999), 55-97 (p. 94).

The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.625, pl. 5a.

Sophie Page, Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), p. 36, pl. 26; p. 43, pl. 33.

Pamela Porter, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 24.

Sophie Page, Magic in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2004), pp. 36-37, pls. 36-37.

Federico Botana, 'Virtuous and Sinful Uses of Temporal Wealth in the Breviari D'Amor of Matfre Ermengaud (MS ROYAL 19.C.I)', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institues, 67 (2004), 49-80.

Federico Botana, 'Like the Members of a Body: Assisting the Poor in Matfre Ermengaud's Breviari d'Amor', Armut und Armenfürsorge in der italienischen Stadtkultur zwischen 13. und 16. Jahrhundert: Bilder, Texte und soziale Praktiken, ed. by Philine Helas and Gerhard Wolf (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2006), pp. 287-302 (pp. 287-92, 297-301, pl. XIII, fig. 104-06, 108-14).

Carlos Miranda Garcia-Tejedor, 'Los manuscritos con pincturas del Breviari d'Amor de Matfre Ermengaud de Béziers: Un estado de la cuestión', in La miniatura medieval en la Penísula Ibérica, ed. by Joaquín Yarza (Murcia: Nausícaä, 2007), pp. 313-73 (p. 326).

Galileo: Images of the Universe from Antiquity to the Telescope, ed. by Paolo Galluzzi, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi 13 March-30 August 2009 (Florence: Giunti, 2009), no. V.1.3. [exhibition catalogue].

Sarah Kay, 'How Long is a Quotation? Quotations from the Troubadours in the Text and Manuscripts of the Breviari d'amor', Romania, 127 (2009), 140-68 (MS L, Plate 1).

Peter T. Ricketts, Connaissance de la littérature occitane: Matfre Ermengaud (1246-1322) et le Breviari d'amor, (Perpignan, Presses Universitaires de Perpignan, 2012), p. 76.

Hiromi Haruna-Czaplicki, 'Les Manuscrits occitans enluminés du Breviari d'Amor: essai d'une approche artistique et historique' in Culture religieuse méridionale: les manuscrits et leur contexte artistique, Cahiers de Fanjeaux (Toulouse: Editions Privat, 2016), pp. 37-85 (p. 69, MS L, figs 1,5)
Last revised: Friday, September 18, 2009


Images
* * *
 
Matfres

f. 7
Matfres
Tree of Love

f. 11v
Tree of Love
Tree of Love

f. 11v
Tree of Love
 
Angel

f. 29v
Angel
Fall of the rebel angels

f. 33
Fall of the rebel angels
Fall of the rebel angels

f. 33
Fall of the rebel angels
 
Prince of Devils

f. 33
Prince of Devils
Temptation by lechery

f. 33
Temptation by lechery
Universe

f. 34v
Universe
 
Universe

f. 34v
Universe
Zodiac wheel

f. 37
Zodiac wheel
Zodiac wheel

f. 37
Zodiac wheel
 
Circular diagram

f. 37v
Circular diagram
Diagram of eclipses

f. 40v
Diagram of eclipses
The Sun crowned

f. 41
The Sun crowned
 
Venus and Mercury

f. 41v
Venus and Mercury
Venus

f. 41v
Venus
Mercury

f. 41v
Mercury
 
Diagram of the earth

f. 48v
Diagram of the earth
Spheres of elements and planets

f. 50
Spheres of elements and planets
Spheres of elements and planets

f. 50
Spheres of elements and planets
 
Planets

f. 53v
Planets
Diagram of the seasons

f. 54v
Diagram of the seasons
Virgin and Child

f. 89
Virgin and Child
 
God blessing Abraham

f. 96
God blessing Abraham
Three men

f. 122
Three men
The Last Judgement

f. 125v
The Last Judgement
 
The Last Judgement

f. 125v
The Last Judgement
Temptation of Christ

f. 164
Temptation of Christ
Christ healing demoniacs

f. 165v
Christ healing demoniacs
 
Mocking of Christ, Denial of Peter, Christ before Pilate

f. 174
Mocking of Christ, Denial of Peter, Christ before Pilate
Four scenes of Hell

f. 185v
Four scenes of Hell
Temptation of lovers and by fine clothing

f. 203v
Temptation of lovers and by fine clothing
 
Temptations of lovers

ff. 203v-204
Temptations of lovers
Temptations of lovers

f. 204
Temptations of lovers
Temptation by tournament

f. 204v
Temptation by tournament
 
Dancing

f. 204v
Dancing
Worship of a lady

f. 204v
Worship of a lady
Devil carrying off a lover's soul

f. 204v
Devil carrying off a lover's soul
 
Temptation of lovers

f. 204v
Temptation of lovers
Devil carrying off a lover's soul

f. 204v
Devil carrying off a lover's soul
Matfre, lovers, and troubadours

f. 227v
Matfre, lovers, and troubadours
 
Seven Virtues

f. 245v
Seven Virtues

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