Manuscript on parchment (poor quality) of 1) Herman de Valenciennes, Bible. 2) Herman de Valenciennes, L'Assomption de Notre Dame. Often found, as here, following the poem on the Bible by the same author. 3) Petrus Alphonsus, Disciplina clericalis, followed by three moral precepts. 4) Poem in Anglo-Norman on Genesis. 5) Robert de Ho, Les Enseignements de Robert de Ho. 6) Extract from the romance Partenopeus de Blois. 7) Vie de saint Eustache. 8) Letter of Prester John to Emperor Manuel Comnenus, tr. into Anglo-Norman verse by Raoul d'Arundel; this is the earliest translation of the letter (ante A.D. 1200), and the only one known in French verse. 9) Guillaume le Clerc, Bestiaire. 10) Notes on the influence of the moon. 11) Le voyage du Chevalier Owen au purgatoire de saint Patrice. 12) Wace, Roman de Brut. Some 15th-century glosses, in Middle English and Latin, occur in the text
Description:
In Anglo-Norman and Latin., Script: Written by 6 scribes in large gothic bookhand. Scribe 1: ff. 1r-75r, 111r-130v, 153r-183v (characterized by decorative descenders in final line of text); Scribe 2: ff. 75r-97v (z with small horizontal crossbar); Scribe 3: ff. 98r-110r, 131r-152v, 189r-201v, 212v-216v (exaggerated ascenders in top line of text); Scribe 4: ff. 184r-188v; Scribe 5: second column of f. 201v (crude script); Scribe 6: ff. 202r-212r, 216v-224v (poorly formed)., 4-line initials, divided blue and red (ff. 111r, 153r, 189r), with penwork in red and blue or red only. 3- and 2-line initials, red with blue penwork or vice versa (quire VI lacks flourishes on initials). Paragraph marks in red or blue; some rubrics at beginning of articles. 1-line initials stroked with yellow or red. Ink drawings in margins include King Arthur (f. 189r)., Early repairs with parchment throughout; no loss of text. Waterstains, ff. 221v-224r. Rubbing on f. 224v has caused some loss of text in col. a., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Diced red/brown calf, gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Anglo-Norman poetry, Bestiaries, Christian poetry, French, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Romances, Anglo-Norman
Manuscript on parchment (trimmed) of 1) Robert de Borron, Joseph d'Arimathie. 2) Robert de Borron, Lestoire de Saint Graal. 3) Robert de Borron, Lestoire de Merlin. Lestoire de Merlin was copied in 1357, by Jehan de Loles. The other two works are probably contemporary, but rubbing on the first folio of each work suggests that they were once bound separately
Description:
In French., Script: Written by five scribes in gothic textura. Scribe 1: ff. 1r-11r (Joseph d'Aramathie). Scribes 2: ff. 12r-83v and 3: ff. 84r-140r (Lestoire de Saint Graal). Scribe 4: ff. 141r-317v (Lestoire de Merlin), except ff. 149r-156v, the second gathering, written by Scribe 5. Scribe 4 is identified as Jehan de Loles from the colophon. Guides for rubrics written in lower or inner margin. Inscriptions adjoining miniatures in 14th-century cursive, brown or black ink, are possibly either later identifications or instructions to the minaturist., The decoration, the work of four hands, is of relatively poor quality. Three large miniatures, 11- to 13-line and two column, blue and/or red frames, gold squares in corners, surrounded by a thin gold band, with gold ivy leaves on black hair-lines at midpoints and corners. Miniatures accompanied by 3/4 bar borders, red, blue and gold, with white highlights; dragon and ivy terminals, with additional ivy extending from the gold segments. 182 small miniatures, 8-line, one column, most in bottom margin, suggesting execution after the original illumination had been completed: thin gold, red, and blue frames, single gold ivy leaf on hair-line stem at each corner; gold and diapered grounds., One historiated initial, f. 186v, 3-line, red against a blue and gold ground, knight and three men outside tent. Illuminated initials, 6- to 4-line, for books and chapters, red against irregular blue grounds with white highlights; gold dots in cusps at corners, infilled with blue and red ivy against gold. 2-line initials (guide-letters remain), gold, against irregular blue, orange, and red grounds with white highlights; black hair-lines at corners. Rubrics in red throughout, with guides for rubrics written in lower or inner margin., and Binding: Sixteenth century. Worn purple velvet over boards, with massive brass corner pieces and fastenings; plaque with arms removed from front cover. Made for Henri, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Robert, de Boron, 13th cent.
Subject (Topic):
Arthurian romances, French literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Le livre de Lancelot du Lac, part III. 2) La queste del Saint Graal. 3) La mort au Roy Artus
Description:
In French., Script: Written in elegant gothic textura by one scribe, with a few interlinear corrections in later hands (14th and 15th centuries)., The decoration of this lavishly illuminated manuscript consists of seventy-seven large column miniatures, fifty-one smaller miniatures, and thirty-six historiated initials. Miniatures and historiated initials by at least two artists, the scale and quality of whose work distinguish the manuscript from contemporary and most fourteenth-century Arthurian manuscripts., Large miniatures, 12- to 11-lines, one column, framed and usually divided into two registers by thin bands, gold, red and/or blue with white highlights, edged in black, sometimes with arched canopies, often with architectural elements protruding (a few frames composed of thicker bands); figures in black pen against burnished gold (occasionally with painted gold diaperwork), blue or black grounds; chief colors: light blue, dark blue, grey, light brown, white, maroon, with some orange, green and gold. Borders on folios with large miniatures of a variety and inventiveness that defy strict classification: gold, red, and blue bands, edged in black, also running between, below and/or above text columns, terminating in dragons, dragon or human heads, groteques or, most commonly, floral spirals, some with frets, blue and red with white highlights and orange and green dots, against gold, blue and/or maroon cusped grounds, often with pinwheel-like projections. The borders are populated with magnificent grotesques and marginalia in the same style as the miniatures, many of them of a narrative or satirical character; some of these incorporate coats of arms., Small miniatures, 5- to 6-line, 1/2 text column, often with a 2-line initial inserted in upper right corner, otherwise as above, with border decoration on a smaller scale and unattached to miniature. Historiated initials, 5-line (letters without ascenders or descenders) to 13-line, red and/or blue, with geometric motifs in paler shades of red and blue, white, with touches of orange, against gold grounds, edged in black, with long dragon and floral serifs, as above, against cusped gold grounds; figures in same style as miniatures, against gold grounds., Illuminated initials, 3- to 1-line, gold, with globular serifs, edged thickly in black, against irregular red and blue grounds, also edged in black, with white floral filigree or heraldic birds, in white; flowers touched in with orange. On folios without miniatures (except ff. 2v-8v), a thin gold band runs along the left side of each text column, interrupted by initials, with a thin red pen-line on either side; adjacent, to the left, a column of I's each 3-line and blue and red alternately, with small spiral and curlicue flourishes, terminating in large flourishes in red or blue on alternate openings, each with pinwheel-like arms projecting from a central spiral with small petals and flourishes in blue and red; design of the terminal flourishes varies from one gathering to another; some with naturalistic leaves and flowers or fleurs-de-lis; terminals on ff. 1v-2r by the same hand as penwork initials on those folios. Line-fillers of varying design: two pairs of blue and red tapering bands, heraldically arranged and joined at center by red flower; undulating red line with red and/or blue balls under and over each crest and trough; red zigzag with blue infilling and spiral flourishes at terminals; alternating red and blue flowers; red and blue dots, etc., Some folios stained; f. 253 slashed in margin; f. 361 cut right across and glued together., and Binding: 2003. Full alum-tawed goatskin. See conservation treatment report for full description. Former binding stored in separate box: 18th century. Light brown calf blind- and gold-tooled. Sewing holes in inner margins.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Arthurian romances, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Fragments of a Brut Chronicle. Begins imperfectly in chapter 36 (Constantine) and has several lacunae. The work ends in chapter 86 (beginning on f. 11r) with the thirty-first year of Edward III. With art. 3) A note (in Latin) stating that King Henry IV was consecrated in 1399 and documenting his descent from Adam. 4) A list (in Latin) of 86 kings (each numbered) from Brutus to Edward III. 5) Names of prisoners captured and killed at the battle of Poitiers (19 Sept. 1356). 6) Terms of the treaty of Bretigny (8 May 1360). 7) Parliamentary text
Description:
In Anglo-Norman., Script: Written in Anglicana bookhand by one scribe., Decorative initials, blue with red penwork, appear only on ff. 1-12; initial strokes and headings, in red, throughout., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Stab sewn to a vellum folder made up of a legal document (trimmed with some loss of text) dated 1766 and involving the manors of Whitechurch and Milbourne in Wiltshire. The outside has an inscription, 19th century, "Some leaves of early English History in Norman French supposed to have come from Malmesbury Abbey." A similar inscription occurs on f. i verso.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
England.
Subject (Topic):
Anglo-Norman literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on parchment of the Brut Chronicle, up to 1333
Description:
In Anglo-Norman., Script: The codex is composed of two distinct parts that were early on bound together. Part I (ff. 1-16): Written in delicate Anglicana bookhand. Running titles, trimmed. Part II (ff. 17-74): Written in bold Anglicana bookhand., In Part II, Crude initials, 2-line, alternate red with purple penwork designs and blue with red, many with three-leaf clover design in body of letter., Worn, stained, and repaired throughout., and Binding: 18th century. Brown, mottled calf with a gold-tooled spine and a red label.
Manuscript leaf on parchment of fragments of French verse
Description:
In French., Script: copied by a single hand writing Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria. The opening majuscules of the verses are written in a separate column but there is no decoration., and The inner edge is damaged and on the recto a few opening letters of verses are lost because of a hole in the parchment. In the center of the upper margin of f. 1r, in red ink: "XII."
Geoffrey, of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1100?-1154
Published / Created:
[between 1175 and 1250]
Call Number:
Beinecke MS 590
Image Count:
278
Resource Type:
unspecified
Abstract:
Manuscript on parchment (sheepskin?) of 1) Geoffrey of Monmouth (Galfredus Monemutensis, d. 1154), Historia regum Britanniae. The text, containing the double dedication, to Robert of Gloucester and Waleran Count of Mellent, and wanting the epilogue addressed to Henry of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury, is believed to be the earliest version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's work. 2) Unidentified French poem of which the end is missing (1276 verses preserved), on the vanity and corruption of the world. 3) Le Roman des Romans
Description:
In French and Latin., Script: Art. 1: Copied by one hand, writing a large Praegothica. Art. 2: Copied by a single hand in early Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria. Art. 3: Copied by a single hand in early Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria., Art. 1: The decoration consists of Romanesque flourished (in one or two colours) or plain initials (2 lines, on f. 1r 4 lines), alternately in red and green. Guide-letters in the margins. On f. 55r, at the beginning of the history of Merlin, a male bust is drawn in the margin., and Binding: Original white leather over rounded oak boards; spine with four raised bands. Marks of one strap fixed to the front cover and clutching over a pin in the rear cover. The front pastedown (detached) consists of fragments of a court roll (from a trial of 1334), identified by N.R. Ker (note kept in the documentary folder in the Beinecke Library) and copied in Gothica Cursiva Antiquior (Anglicana).
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Geoffrey, of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1100?-1154.
Subject (Topic):
French poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript on parchment (trimmed) in two volumes of Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica, translated into French by Guyart des Moulins. Missing the beginning of Numbers (v. 1, one folio following f. 115), the beginning of 3 Kings (v. 1, one folio following f. 236), and part of Luke (v. 2, one folio following f. 260).
Alternative Title:
Historia scholastica
Description:
In French., Script: Written in a formal batarde with some loops by one scribe. Marginal glosses in a similar but smaller script by the same hand. Corrections by a later hand (15th century) in brown ink., One large, 2-column miniature, 18-lines, f. 3r, of three scribes, set in a wide (25 mm.) frame, brown, decorated with a continuous garland of flowers in gold, green and white, outlined on both inner and outer edges with bands of pink, gold and blue, highlighted in white. Text surrounded by a 3/4 band of pink and gold with white highlights, edged in black. Full border: curling sprouts of blue, gold and some red and light blue acanthus on green stems, largely confined to the corners and centers of the border, with blossoms containing animals, devils, knights; the intervening spaces filled with trailing vines of green and gold leaves with varied flowers in red, blue, light blue, strawberries, grapes and beans as well as denser vines in black ink with leaves in gold and green, with flowers, as above; the entire border densely filled with pen flecks, black, with gold dots., Historiated initials (one column, 8-line), for the Seven Days of Creation (ff. 4v, 5r, 5v, 6v, 7v, 8v and 10r), roundels, with circular frames, brown with garlands as above, in some cases with the top and bottom of the roundel lopped off, set against a field of acanthus and/or flowers, as above, and set between two thin gold bands, edged in black. Short, thin borders of acanthus, vines, and flowers as above, divided from text by gold and pink bands, edged in black. Each miniature with a 5-, 4- or 3-line initial, blue with white highlights, filled with strapwork and blue and pink ivy with white highlights, on irregular gold ground. 2-line initials throughout, gold filled with red set against a blue ground or vice versa, trailing black hairspray with gold, red and blue dots. Initials cruder in v. 2. Line-fillers in both text and glosses in similar fashion. Running headings (in v. 1 only), and keys for glosses in red throughout. Traces of tabs in outer margins., and Binding: 1981. Bound in a brown, linen buckram case in the Yale Library Conservation Studio to replace an 18th century brown calf binding. One board of this binding retained in box.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Petrus, Comestor, 12th cent.
Subject (Topic):
History Bibles, French literature, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment (trimmed) in two volumes of Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica, translated into French by Guyart des Moulins. Missing the beginning of Numbers (v. 1, one folio following f. 115), the beginning of 3 Kings (v. 1, one folio following f. 236), and part of Luke (v. 2, one folio following f. 260).
Alternative Title:
Historia scholastica
Description:
In French., Script: Written in a formal batarde with some loops by one scribe. Marginal glosses in a similar but smaller script by the same hand. Corrections by a later hand (15th century) in brown ink., One large, 2-column miniature, 18-lines, f. 3r, of three scribes, set in a wide (25 mm.) frame, brown, decorated with a continuous garland of flowers in gold, green and white, outlined on both inner and outer edges with bands of pink, gold and blue, highlighted in white. Text surrounded by a 3/4 band of pink and gold with white highlights, edged in black. Full border: curling sprouts of blue, gold and some red and light blue acanthus on green stems, largely confined to the corners and centers of the border, with blossoms containing animals, devils, knights; the intervening spaces filled with trailing vines of green and gold leaves with varied flowers in red, blue, light blue, strawberries, grapes and beans as well as denser vines in black ink with leaves in gold and green, with flowers, as above; the entire border densely filled with pen flecks, black, with gold dots., Historiated initials (one column, 8-line), for the Seven Days of Creation (ff. 4v, 5r, 5v, 6v, 7v, 8v and 10r), roundels, with circular frames, brown with garlands as above, in some cases with the top and bottom of the roundel lopped off, set against a field of acanthus and/or flowers, as above, and set between two thin gold bands, edged in black. Short, thin borders of acanthus, vines, and flowers as above, divided from text by gold and pink bands, edged in black. Each miniature with a 5-, 4- or 3-line initial, blue with white highlights, filled with strapwork and blue and pink ivy with white highlights, on irregular gold ground. 2-line initials throughout, gold filled with red set against a blue ground or vice versa, trailing black hairspray with gold, red and blue dots. Initials cruder in v. 2. Line-fillers in both text and glosses in similar fashion. Running headings (in v. 1 only), and keys for glosses in red throughout. Traces of tabs in outer margins., and Binding: 1981. Bound in a brown, linen buckram case in the Yale Library Conservation Studio to replace an 18th century brown calf binding. One board of this binding retained in box.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Petrus, Comestor, 12th cent.
Subject (Topic):
History Bibles, French literature, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Literature, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Pierre de Peckham, La lumiere as lais. All of Books I and VI, and part of Books II and V are missing
Description:
In French., Script: Written in gothic bookhand, below top line., Plain initials, 3- to 2-line, alternate red and blue for each chapter. Headings in red. Guide letters for decorator., Many leaves stained, damaged, but with little loss of text, except on bottom of f. 1 and top of f. 36, which are torn with loss of text., and Binding: Thirteenth century, England. Original wound, caught up sewing with heavy thread, on four tawed skin, slit straps laced through tunnels in the edge to channels on the outside of oak boards and wedged. The natural color endbands are sewn on leather cores which are laid in grooves on the outside of the boards and pegged. The spine is back bevelled. Covered in tawed skin, originally white, but now dark brown on the outside. The turn-ins of the upper board are serrated. Two strap-and-pin fastenings, the pins (traces only) on the lower board, the upper one cut in for the fabric-reinforced leather straps. Some sewing supports broken, one board detached, and some covering leather and straps wanting.
Subject (Geographic):
England., Connecticut, and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Pierre, de Peckham, -1293.
Subject (Topic):
French literature, Laity, Books and reading, Manuscripts, Medieval, Theology, and Study and teaching
