Jean, de Meun, approximately 1240-approximately 1305
Published / Created:
[between 1300 and 1350]
Call Number:
Beinecke MS 703
Image Count:
45
Resource Type:
unspecified
Abstract:
Manuscript on parchment (low quality) of 1) Jean de Meun (ca. 1240, d. before 1305), Le Testament. 2) Raoul de Houdenc (ca. 1170-ca. 1230), Le Songe d'Enfer (La Voie d'Enfer), 1-672. At least 6 verses are missing at the end; they were probably written on a leaf now missing after f. 18.
Description:
In French., Script: Copied by one hand in a rather uneven Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria, marked by many fusions., The opening letters of all verses are heightened in red; in art. 1 the first verse of each quatrain except the first one opens with a 1-line plain red initial. Art. 1 opens with a 3-line plain red initial, art. 2 with a 2-line one. All initials are executed over guide-letters., The codex is badly trimmed, causing the loss of letters at the end of verses., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Half brown leather over pasteboard, the boards covered with red paper. On the spine a black leather label with the gold-tooled title "CODICILLE / I. DE MEUN" and a green circular paper label with the handwritten shelfmark "301".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Jean, de Meun, approximately 1240-approximately 1305. and Raoul, de Houdenc, approximately 1165-approximately 1230.
Subject (Topic):
French literature, French poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Roman de la Rose. With Poem on Paris of Troy, added in a later hand (15th/16th century); and Poem including the name of the man for whom the volume was copied, Pierre Louvel
Description:
In French., Script: Written in well-formed batarde by one scribe; art. 1 and some marginal notations in a slightly later hand., Inscriptions in almost every miniature to identify the figures. Sixty-six miniatures, 16- to 12-line, framed in gold, on f. 1r with a cusped arch and a full border of blue and gold acanthus at the corners and midpoints, red and blue flowers, and hair-spray with gold leaves, bounded in red and with a gold bar in inner margin. Other miniatures with 3/4 borders in the same style, some with birds. On f. 1r a 4-line initial, blue with white highlights, filled with red and blue ivy against a gold ground. 3- or 2-line initials, gold, with pink and blue grounds with white filigree. Capital at beginning of each verse stroked in yellow., Borders and miniature on f. 1r rubbed. Black ink hair-spray on many borders smeared., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Rigid vellum case heavily gold-tooled, with a red label. Gilt, gauffered edges. Motto on upper cover: "Nobilis ira." Bound by Bevan.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Guillaume, de Lorris, active 1230. and Jean, de Meun, approximately 1240-approximately 1305.
Subject (Topic):
French literature, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Romances
