University of Chicago Library : Le Roman de la Rose & Le Jeu des Échecs Moralisé : Exposition

La Bibliothèque Universitaire de Chicago [Lien] expose deux manuscrits précieux de la littérature médiévale: Le Roman de la Rose (ms 1380) et le Jeu des échecs moralisés (ms 392) …
Communiqué donné sur le site University of Chicago News Office [Lien]:

University of Chicago Library reunites ‘most popular medieval love poem’ with its mate …
The University of Chicago Library acquired a 14th-century manuscript of “Le Roman de la Rose,” or “The Romance of the Rose”—which scholars have referred to as the most popular medieval love poem — reuniting it after a 100-year separation with a manuscript with which it was previously bound.
In 1907, the manuscript of “Le Roman de la Rose” was separated from that of “Le Jeu des Échecs Moralisé,” or “The Moralized Game of Chess,” which the University of Chicago Library acquired in 1931.

Both manuscripts will be on display in the Library’s Special Collections Research Center at 1100 E. 57th St., beginning Feb. 14 as part of the exhibition: “Romance and Chess: A Tale of Two Manuscripts Reunited.” Opening remarks will be made at 12:30 p.m. at the Valentine’s Day opening by Alice Schreyer, Director of the Special Collections Research Center; Daisy Delogu, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literature; and Aden Kumler, Assistant Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture at the University of Chicago. The event is free and open to the public. The exhibit will run through March 14.
“Bringing the two parts of this book back together will enable discoveries that would not be possible if they remained apart,” Schreyer said.
Added Delogu, “This ‘Le Roman de la Rose’ manuscript has extraordinary potential to enrich research and teaching opportunities here at Chicago, and will be of interest to scholars of manuscript culture and literary studies worldwide. ‘Le Roman de la Rose’ is arguably the single-most influential vernacular text of the late French Middle Ages.”
In addition to selected photographs and information already available online, the Library plans to add digital surrogates of the manuscripts to its Web site by Feb. 14 at http://roseandchess.lib.uchicago.edu.
The initial section of “Le Roman de la Rose,” an allegorical poem on the art of love, was written by Guillaume de Lorris beginning in the late 1230s — at the height of the age of courtly love and chivalry. The poem was extended and completed between 1270 and 1280 by Jean de Meun, who presented a more rational and cynical view of love. Numerous copies of the poem were made. The copy acquired by the University of Chicago Library was created in France about 1365 — almost 100 years before the invention of the printing press. The manuscript includes more than 40 miniatures by the Master of Saint Voult, an artist associated with illuminators who worked for King Charles V.
Chicago’s manuscript of “Le Jeu des Échecs Moralisé” was also created in France about 1365, and includes 13 illuminations by the Master of Saint Voult. The recorded provenance, or ownership history, of the two manuscripts bound together in one book dates to the 16th century.
In 1907, the manuscripts were purchased at Sotheby’s by Sir Sydney Cockerell, who had the volume disbound. The University of Chicago acquired “Le Jeu des Échecs Moralisé” in 1931; Cockerell sold “Le Roman de la Rose”to an antiquarian bookseller, Pierre Berès, in 1957, who later sold it to a private individual. The manuscript remained in private hands until it was purchased by the gallery Les Enluminures LTD of Paris and Chicago.
Sandra Hindman, a University of Chicago alumna who represented Les Enluminures, recognized the unusual provenance of the manuscript.
“Very few manuscripts of ‘Le Roman de la Rose’ now exist in private hands, so the opportunities for collectors — individuals or libraries — to acquire a copy remain very limited,” Hindman said. “This one, with its sterling provenance and its rich 14th-century cycle of illumination by an artist of the French court, is unusually fine.”
Members of the Library Visiting Committee, the University of Chicago Library Society, individual donors and the B.H. Breslauer Foundation also recognized the importance of bringing the manuscripts together. Their donations, combined with library endowments, made the purchase of this “Le Roman de la Rose” possible. It is now one of the highlights in the University of Chicago Library’s collection of early manuscripts, which also includes more than 60 Goodspeed New Testament manuscripts.
University faculty members in the departments of art history, music, Romance languages and literatures, English and history are pleased about the impact that the acquisition will have on research and teaching at Chicago.
“The reunion of parts of a medieval manuscript provides a rare and wonderful opportunity,” said Christina von Nolcken, Associate Professor in English Language & Literature and Chair of the Committee on Medieval Studies. “This is especially the case today, when scholars tend to work with manuscripts as a whole rather than with individual texts.”
Source:
University of Chicago News Office
5801 South Ellis Avenue – Room 200
Chicago, Illinois 60637-1473
Permalink: http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/08/080207.love.poem.shtml
Discover Two Reunited Medieval Manuscripts [Link]
Les manuscrits numérisés:
¤ Le Jeu des échecs moralisé (The Moralized Game of Chess) University of Chicago Library MS 392 [Link]
¤ Le Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose) University of Chicago Library MS 1380 [Link]
Illustration: (c) University of Chicago Library MS 1380

Voir sur notre blog [Lien] et la suite [Lien] pour les manuscrits du Roman de la Rose, et ICOROSE, le nouveau site de l’Université de La Laguna (Espagne) [Lien] 
Ici [Lien] pour le Jeu des échecs moralisés.

Auction : History roll ~ Psalterium ~ Horae …

Sur ebay, plusieurs pièces intéressantes. Les notices sont celles des vendeurs …
§ Un document d’origine française assez exceptionnel: une pancarte chronique du XIVe s.

Comment Godefroy de Billon conquist Ierusalem et en fut fait roy. etc

A 14 or 15th century sheet of parchment (125 x 57 cm) which traces the history and descent of the Popes, the Holy Roman Emperors, the Kings of France and of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Lot 111 in the celebrated Hauck sale (the History of the Book, 28 june 2006) was the last time to my knowledge that a complete roll came up for auction 55.5 x 1915cm (63’10\ » x 1’10\ ») and made a staggering 140.000 $.
In the last section of the sheet, the following genealogy of kings and queens is mentioned:
Philip IV (April-June 1268 – November 29, 1314)
Philip V (c.1292/93 – 3 January 1322)
Blanche of Valois (1317–1348)
On left side is a list with popes
Clement VI (1342-52)
Innocent VI (1352-62)
Urban V (1362-70)
Gregory XI (1370-78)
Urban VI (1378-89)
As I can figure out the segment next to Clement VI talks about indulgences, and I take this to refer to the Bull Unigenitus, January 27, 1343, in order to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences.
For it says in the HAUCK catalogue:
Other versions survive, showing that it was a composition (meaning the history of the kings of France, the conquest Jerusalem etc) that was repeatedly updated to provide a pedigree for the current King of France. For example the introduction to the manuscript in Paris (Bib. Nat. MS fr. 61) that ends with Charles VII (d.1461) declares the scope of the work to continue until 1375 and Charles V. The copyist obviously overlooked this anachronism. There is a similar scribal oversight in the present manuscript showing that this too was an updated copy of an earlier text.
Four other Chronicle rolls closely related to the Hauck manuscript and apparently copies of the same version are in the New York Public Library, MS 124 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the end of the Middle Ages, 1975, p.166), Cambridge, Mass., Houghton Library, bMS Typ 41 [Link] (Roger Wieck, Late Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts 1350-1525 in the Houghton Library, Cambridge, Mass. 1983, pp. 22-23), A roll in the London Borough of Croydon Archive and a roll formerly the property of the Earl of Derby sold at Christie’s, London, 26 November 1997 lot 5, for £40,000.
Illumination:
There are three miniature roundels: two of a king and one of a knight or king in a boat. Most likely depicting Godefroy de Bouillon on board a ship to conquer the Holy land (his name is mentioned in the manuscript). In the text 39 illuminated capitals, in blue with burnished gold.
Link: ebay Item number: 300198922634

§ Un psautier-hymnaire du XIV. Sud de la France, ou Italie.

111 f. 142 x 102 mm
Description: Measures approx. 6\ » x 4.25\ » (142 x 102mm) Collation is as follows: (1-11(8), 12(9) (of 10, lacking v, a blank? exised during construction?, a3(8), 14(6). 11 and vIII are blanks, as both 141 and v1. Both 1(8) and 14 have been folded back to form fly leaves when the present binding was put on. 28 lines written in a round gothic bookhand in dark brown and black ink. In two columns, except for the Kalendarium, between 4 verticals and 29 horizontals. Justification, written space 102 x 71mm; rubrics in red. Two-line initials in red or blue to begin with; hymns and canticles with penwork infill decoration and flourishes extending into margins. Each sentence beginning with a one-line initial in alternate red and blue. Eight historiated initials (Five seven-line; two six-line, and one five-line). Of very high quality. Some rubbing in places with a slight loss of text (except under UV light) at 12.8 recto. Written in one main hand, with a few additions by two other hands, the neater of which may have written the Kalendarium. There is no foliation, but 12 of the 14 gatherings have catchwords at the bottom of the verso of their last leaf, answered by the first word of the next gathering. These are from gatherings 2 to 13 inclusive. Content: (1) Kalendarium. (1.2 recto to 1.7 verso). Then (2) The 150 Psalms, interspersed with 25 hymns, dominical and ferial, with canticles, antiphons, and rubrics for offices of Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext etc. (On 2.1 recto to 12.1 verso column a). Then (3) Hymns, Canticles, including Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, TeDeum etc and Litany. The main text begins at 2. 1 recto with Incipit Liber Hymnorum vel Soliloquiorum Prophetans de Christo etc. Quire 12 has nine leaves. One leaf (the 5th in order) has been neatly removed, leaving only a stub. One would expect the bibliofola to conjunct thus; 1+10, 2+9, 3+8, 4+7, 5+6 but 5 is not conjunct with 6. Without stressing the binding, it is difficult to see its fellow. However it may have been cut out during the writing of this quire, as otiose. Comparison with the list of saints invoked in the Litany in York Minister Library Psalterium XVI.0.19 (of the 13th Century) reveals that ‘Omnes Sancti Confessores’ is immediately followed by ‘Sancta Maria Magdalena’. This is exactly the same sequence as we find here from the last entry on 12.4 verso and the and the first entry on the recto of the next text leaf. There is the further point that had a text leaf been lost, it would have had to contain an additional 112 saints names. For both these reasons, it seems safe to conclude that no text is missing, and that this handsome volume from circa 1350 A.D.
Illumination: The subjects of the historiated initials, and their placing are as follows: 2.1 Recto: Beatus Vir Qui. (Psalm 1) King David against cobalt blue background; the aged King plucks a four-stringed harp and wears a golden crown and halo. 3.5 Verso: Dominus Illuminatio Mea. (Psalm 26). S.James the Great. Against a pink oval field, clutching a black cross, with his left side covered by a lime green gown. Also a rough brown hair shirt etc. 5.4 Verso. Dixit Insipiens. In Corde Suo. (Psalm 52). A Fool against a light blue background, wearing a five-pointed jesters crown, and a three-buttoned orange tunic. His right hand loosely grips a curiously-headed rattle. There are further miniatures for Psalm 68 (S. Laurence); Psalm 80 (S.Benedict?), Psalm 97 (St. Barbara) and Psalm 109 (Christ). The 150 Psalms were sung each week. The historiated initials placed at the head of the Psalms mentioned, mark the first Psalms for Matins each day, and the first Psalm for Sunday Vespers. Hence there are, as there should be, eight such initials. The Hymarium with its 68 hymns begins at 12.8 recto. Its beginning is marked by an initial ‘P’ (for Primo dierium omnium). The figure which would originally have been within the bowl of the ‘P’ has, puzzingly, been rubbed out. (May one guess at a saint who subsequently fell into disfavour, or who’s feast was suppressed?)
Binding: The hollow back indicates the present binding to be later than 1770, probably 19th century. The covers are blindtooled to a panel design using a 7-line fillet, Inside this border is an intricate interlace pattern etc. Vellum pastedowns and rougher parchment endleaves. The four compartments of the spine are decorated with an X pattern framed by a 3-line fillet on each side. The sewing does not correspond with the three false raised bands, and its brightness suggests it may well be contemporary with the binding. The slight worming in the gutter margin of the Kalendarium leaves is not continued into the Incipit leaf which follows. This, coupled with the different hand of the Kalendarium from that of the main text, may suggest that the Kalendarium was written a little later than the main text.
Dating: A terminus post quem for the Kalendarium is provided by the presence of Peter Martyr O.P. among the April Saints. He was not canonised until 1253. A terminus for the main text is given by the inclusion (13.5 recto) of the Feast of Corpus Christi, whose observance was commanded by Urbanus IV in the Bull Transiturus of 1264. The liturgical, gothic bookhand remained remarkably consistent even to the end of the 15th century, but to suggest a date in the middle of the 14th century would seem reasonable. (1270 A.D.-1350 A.D.) Colouring and stylistic features of the historiated initials are both consonant with this date of 1350 A.D. Research into costume dress and features (eg. The three buttons of the Fools smock) (5.4 verso) may help to furnish a more precise date still.
Provenance: Of the saints in the Kalendarium whose feasts have a local rather than a general celebration, some 29 enjoy special veneration in the South of France and North Italy. The Feasts have either three or nine readings attached to them – a mark of a secular rather than a monastic church. This Psalterium seems likely to have been written then for a secular church somewhere near the borders between Provence and Northern Italy, a church rich enough to pay the services of an accomplished painter of miniatures.
Link: ebay Item number: 330208582330

§ HORAE B.M.V. Illuminated Manuscript Book of Hours.
Très modeste Livre d’heures.

Use of Poiters, France, Circa 1460 – 1480.
107 leaves on vellum, 99 x 77.5 mm with 17 lines per page.
Written in brown ink of letter batarde script. Rubrics in red, initials throughout in burnished gold on red and blue grounds and calendar with major feasts in red.
Seven leaves with ¾ borders of acanthus leaves and flowers with burnished gold bezants, three and four line initials of burnished gold on colored grounds, and colored initials on burnished gold grounds. Two miniatures in arched compartments above two and eight lines of text with full borders of colored acanthus leaves, flowers, branches and a bird.
Rebound in recent years in genuine 15th century red brocade velvet having string closures and nail studs on fore-edge of binding.
Fifteenth century English lead pilgrim badge mounted on front fly-leaf, probably remounted there when rebound.
f. 1-12. Calendar
f. 13. Fragments of Passion according to St John
f. 14v-17. Intercessory Prayers to the Virgin
f. 18-20. Blanks, ruled and lined
f. 21r-29r. The Hours of the Virgin (Matins); opens with a miniature of the Annunciation in a Gothic interior
f. 29v-38. Lauds through Vespers, each Hour opened with a ¾ border
f. 39r-56. Compline opened with a ¾ border
f. 57r-66. Penitential Psalms opens with miniature of King David in Prayer
f. 67r-70v. Litany of Saints
f. 71-100. Miscellaneous prayers
f. 101-102. Blanks, ruled and lined
f. 103. Prayers in Fench
f. 104-107. Prayers in Latin
Largely fine throughout, text lightly faded, a few leaves slightly rumpled, miniatures lightly thumbed with some light chipping. An elegant little personal prayer book no-doubt once owned by a wealthy nobleman or woman.
Link: ebay Item number: 270207745449

News

Galerie LES ENLUMINURES. Le Louvre des Antiquaires 2, place du Palais Royal – 75001 Paris
Current Exhibition:
Manuscripts Exhibition In Pursuit of Manuscripts: a Gentle Madness?
February 9 – April 6, 2008
Download catalogue En | Fr

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Notre ami Steven Van Impe (conservateur à la Stadsbibliotheek d’Anvers) nous signale que le ministère de la culture des Flandres vient d’acquérir le superbe antiphonaire d’Antoine Tsgrooten, abbé mécène de Tongerloo. Ce manuscrit a été commandé en 1522 et est magnifiquement enluminé.

La Bibliothèque de l’Université de Gand, qui l’a obtenu en dépôt, a numérisé la totalité du manuscrit (337 folios) et le présente en ligne [Lien] (site uniquement en néerlandais). Cliquer \ »Handschrift\ » puis \ »Bekijk het werk\ » puis \ »Showcase\ » au menu à gauche, et puis \ »ga naar de showcase [fullscreen popup]\ » en bas de l’écran pour arriver à la version numérisée.
(c) Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent. Antifonarium Tsgrooten, f. 47v, détail.

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Le LAMOP (LAboratoire de Médiévistique Occidentale de Paris, UMR 8589) présente le programme de son séminaire Livre, Manuscrit et Société dirigé par Jean-Philippe Genet (Paris I), Xavier Hermand (Namur), Ezio Ornato (CNRS):
Les séances ont lieu, sauf exception, en salle Perroy, à la Sorbonne (prendre l’escalier vers l’amphithéâtre Georges Lefèvre dans la Galerie Dumas, en rentrant par la place de la Sorbonne), le Jeudi de 17 h. à 19 h :
1. Jeudi 14 Février 2008, 17-19 heures, Salle Perroy :
– Béatrice Beys, L’hommage di livre à la cour de France (1200-1540). Approche culturelle, artistique et politique.
2. Jeudi 6 mars 2008, 17-19 heures, Salle Perroy :
– Tania Van Hemelrijk, L’écrit et le manuscrit.
3. Jeudi 13 mars, 17-19 heures, Salle Perroy :
– Hanno Wijzmann, Les livres des Luxembourg. Manuscrits et ambitions d’une lignée à cheval entre France et Bourgogne (XIVe-XVe siècles).
4. Jeudi 20 Mars, 9 h.-18 h. Institut des Traditions Textuelles, LAMOP, Villejuif
[Séance confondue avec les Journées de Villejuif, dir. Darwin Smith, Les regroupements textuels au Moyen Âge. Logiques de rassemblement, exploitation fonctionnelle :entre collections, manuscrits et archives]
5. Jeudi 3 Avril, 17-19 heures, Salle Perroy :
– Chiara Ruzzier, La production d’incunables aux Pays-Bas : les politiques éditoriales.
5. Jeudi 10 avril, 17-19 heures, Salle Perroy :
– Claire Priol, Les pratiques des imprimeurs parisiens : premier essai d’une base de données codicologiques.
Site du LAMOP [Lien]

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The following events are forthcoming at the Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies (at the Institute of English Studies, University of London) in February-March 2008:
History of Libraries Research Seminar Series
First meeting: Wednesday 27 February 2008; 5.30pm
David Pearson (Director, University of London Research Library Services) \ »Durham Cathedral Library in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries\ » This inaugural session will be introduced by Ian Willison, CBE, who will speak on the subject of library history research.
[Link]
Senate House Library Friends Workshops
Next meeting: Monday 3 March 2008; refreshments from 5.00pm, workshop starts at 5.30pm
Michelle Brown (Institute of English Studies), Arianna Ciula (King’s College London), David Way (British Library Publications) \ »‘Luxury commodity’ for scholarly research: the fine art manuscript facsimile\ ». A special event looking at the production and growing importance of manuscript facsimiles for scholarship. An exhibition of outstanding examples, including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Peterborough Bestiary facsimiles, from the Palaeography and Manuscript Studies Collection at Senate House Library will accompany the event.
[Link]
John Coffin Memorial Annual Palaeography Lecture
Monday 10 March 2008; 5.30pm
Professor Margaret Bent, CBE (All Souls College, Oxford)
\ »The re-making of the 15th-century Veneto musical anthology MS Bologna Q15\ »
[Link]

Jon Millington, Events Officer
Institute of English Studies
University of London – School of Advanced Study
Room NG18, Senate House
Malet Street – London WC1E 7HU
Email: jon.millington[at]sas.ac.uk

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The Public Library of Troyes website give an access to its digitalised documents XML-database with more than 2700 documents fully digitalised. 161 of those books are incunabula. Other documents are medieval manuscripts (more than 450), modern manuscripts (936), peddler books (925), reviews and other old books (230). Our program about incunabula is to digitalize all french incunabula in our collection (400 titles). During the year 2008, 149 new titles wil be digitalised in our database. You can see the complete list on our website. Frame: Collection numérisés; Livres numérisés; Recherche libre: \ »incunables\ »
[Link]
All the datas are free OAI harvestabe.
Geoffroy Grassin
database administrator
Fonds ancien
Médiathèque de l’Agglomération troyenne
7, rue des Filles-Dieu – 10000 Troyes – FRANCE
g.grassin[at]mediatheque-agglo-troyes.fr

Centre International de Recherche et de Documentation sur le Monachisme Celtique (CIRDoMoc) … Quelques souvenirs …

Au lendemain d’un Colloque scientifique consacrant le 15e centenaire de l’abbaye Saint-Guénolé de Landévennec (Finistère) [Lien], qui fut un succès évident (25-27 avril 1985), j’ai modestement initié avec quelques amis ce qui allait devenir le Centre de documentation et de recherche sur le monachisme celtique (Cirdomoc). J’ai encore souvenir de ces réunions préparatoires, notamment celle organisée en juin 1986 à Paris, au domicile même du professeur Pierre Riché [Lien], l’éminent historien universellement reconnu, qui alors était partie prenante dans cet ambitieux projet. Y assistaient deux amis aujourd’hui disparus, le grand celtisant Léon Fleuriot (1923-1987) [Lien] et son jeune confrère d’alors Gwénaël Le Duc (1951-2006) [Lien], lequel nous a quitté prématurément en décembre 2006. Quelques semaines plus tard une association fut créée, avec Gwénaël comme premier secrétaire, regroupant plusieurs chercheurs et universitaires intéressés par cette entreprise originale. S’y joignèrent, entre autres, Job an Irien (l’infatigable ermite du Minihy Levenez) [Lien], François Kerlouégan (l’éminent philologue exilé en Bourgogne), Bernard Merdrignac (auj. une référence dans le domaine hagiographique breton) [Lien], Louis Lemoine (spécialiste des manuscrits carolingiens), Bernard Tanguy (le maître de la toponymie bretonne) et bien entendu la caution monastique du Père Marc Simon, bibliothécaire de Landévennec. J’en oublie peut-être … surement … 
Alors que mon chemin s’est quelque peu écarté de la Bretagne, après la mort de Léon Fleuriot, le Cirdomoc, sous l’impulsion de nouveaux membres très actifs, s’est étoffé, a pris de l’envergure. Tous les ans, au premier week-end du mois de juillet, elle organise une rencontre où se produisent les meilleurs chercheurs du domaine breton. Les actes sont par la suite publiés dans Britannia monastica. 

Ainsi cette année, à la journée d’étude du 5 juillet, nous aurons l’occasion d’entendre les communications de deux grands spécialistes de la notation liturgique: Michel Huglo et Barbara Haggh-Huglo (University of Maryland). J’ai eu le privilège, il y a de cela bientôt trente ans (juillet 1981), de publier dans une collection éphémère, Britannia Christiana, le travail novateur de Michel Huglo sur la notation neumatique bretonne.

Saluons aujourd’hui l’initiative du Cirdomoc de mettre en ligne sur son site le cartulaire de l’abbaye de Landévennec dont une nouvelle édition est prévue [Lien]
Illustration: Troyes 960. Evangéliaire breton. Début Xe s. f. 108v. Saint Jean [Lien]
CIRDOMOC [Lien]