Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 020: Apocalypse. Visio Sancti Pauli
Abstract/Contents
- Summary
- This richly illustrated Apocalypse, CCCC MS 20, was made for Sir Henry de Cobham in the decade before his death in 1339. He kneels in the historiated initial at the beginning of the book. It subsequently passed to Juliana de Leybourne, Countess of Huntingdon (d. 1367) who bequeathed it to St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. With no less than 106 pictures, it is one of the finest fourteenth-century illustrated copies of the Apocalypse in Anglo-Norman verse, although the commentary text is in Anglo-Norman prose. It is closely related in both iconography and text to another Anglo-Norman Apocalypse, Toulouse, Bibliothèque municipale MS 815, which is by a different artist. Both manuscripts also contain the Vision of St Paul (the Journey of St Paul to Hell), in Anglo-Norman verse, accompanied by illustrations. In addition, the Corpus manuscript contains the English Coronation Ordo in Anglo-Norman, preceded by a frontispiece showing the crowned king in his coronation vestments, flanked by the bishops. The text mentions a Prince Edward, and may be a version of that used for the coronation of Edward III in 1327. The style of the illustrations suggests the 1330s.
- Contents
- Apocalypse -- Visio Sancti Pauli -- Order of Coronation of a King
Description
Alternative title | Apocalypsis. Visio Pauli etc. |
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Type of resource | mixed material |
Extent | ff. 72 + 5 |
Date created | [ca. 1300 - 1325] |
Language | Latin; French, Middle (ca. 1400-1600) |
Material | Vellum |
Layout | double columns of 32 lines |
Height (mm) | 371 |
Width (mm) | 255 |
Collation | 3 flyleaves, 1(12)-6(12), 2 flyleaves. |
Writing | in a large slightly sloping hand |
Foliation | ff. a-b + i-iii + 1-72 + iv-v + c-d |
Provenance | On f. iiiv at top: Apocalipsis cum pictura de dono domine Juliane de leybourn comitisse de Huntyngdun. De librario S. Augustini Cantuarie Distinctione I Gradu III. See Ancient Libraries, p. 210, no. 224. The giver died in 1367 and was buried in the Abbey Church. |
Additions | One flyleaf at each end (ff. iiir-iiiv, ff. ivr-ivv) is a waste leaf of a similar copy of the Apocalypse, written by the same scribe, and with blanks left for pictures. That at the beginning has the Latin text: Et dabo duobus testibus meis etc., that at the end: Et cum aperuisset sigillum sextum etc. A similar phenomenon occurs in an Apocalypse at Trinity College (B. 10. 6). |
Decoration | The book is copiously illustrated. The pictures extend across the page and are in frames of gold and colour with foliage at the corners. The grounds are of very various colours, usually a chequer of some kind in blue or salmon colour with network of vermilion or blue lines over it and various patterns: one form unfamiliar to me is a ground of squares each containing a face roughly done, e.g. f. 10r and often elsewhere. Portions of gold ground also occur. The colouring is bright and light: the drawing not of the finest kind. The subjects of the pictures will be quite shortly indicated. There are coincidences of treatment with Brit. Mus. Add. 18633 which contains the same metrical version: but the two books are not alike. |
Bibliographic information
M.R. James Date | xiv early |
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Downloadable James Catalogue Record | |
Superseded Interim Catalogue Record | |
Contains |
|
TJames | 372 |
Stanley | K. 16 |
Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/wd721sy0357 |
Location | MS 020 |
Repository | UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Collection
Parker Manuscripts
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