Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 324: Le Miroir des dames
Abstract/Contents
- Summary
- CCCC MS 324 contains a luxurious fourteenth-century copy of Le Miroir des dames, a translation into French of the Speculum dominarum, a didactic text written for Jeanne de Navarre (d. 1305), wife of Philip IV of France, by her confessor, Durand de Champagne OFM. The manuscript is described as bearing the sign manual of Charles V of France (1338-80), and in 1411 the catalogue of the French royal library recorded this manuscript as still being in the collection at the Louvre palace, where it is described as 'de bonne lettre de forme' in a linen cover with two gold clasps. It contains a miniature of the presentation of the book to Jeanne by her confessor, and many illuminated borders and initials.
- Contents
- Le Miroir des dames
Description
Alternative title | Miroir des Dames |
---|---|
Type of resource | mixed material |
Extent | ff. 2 + 298 |
Date created | [ca. 1300 - 1399] |
Language | French, Middle (ca. 1400-1600) |
Material | Vellum |
Layout | double columns of 24 lines |
Height (mm) | 234 |
Width (mm) | 161 |
Collation | a(2) I(12)-III(12) (12 canc.) IV(12) V(14) (14? canc.) VI(12)-XIV(12) (12 canc.) XV(12) XVI(12) XVII(4) XVIII(12)-XXIII(12) XXIV(10) XXV(12) XXVI(10) (wants 10). |
Writing | in fine upright French hand, brown ink |
Foliation | ff. aa + bb (binding fragments) + a-c + i-ii + 1-298 + d-f |
Provenance | From the Library of Charles V of France. |
Research | The prologue was printed by M. L. Delisle in Notices et Extraits, 1886, t. XXXI, as also the Catalogue of Charles V's library in his Cabinet des MSS. III 192. A copy occurs in the catalogue of the Library of the Louvre, the 2nd folio beginning ter et reposer. Two copies in Barrois' Bibliothèque protypographique (Bruges Inventory of Bibliothèque de Bourgogne) no. 949 (le souverain Roy) and 950 (Et des biens que j'en ay eus) also 2131, 2 which are the same. Other copies are at Brussels, no. 9555, British Museum Add. 29986 as well as in the Bibliothèque Nationale.The present copy is thus described in the Inventory of the Library of the Louvre drawn up in 1411. (No. 890.) Item le miroir des dames en françois, de bonne lettre de forme, a deux coulombes, historié et enluminé, commençant au iie fo. prudence ainsi li homs, et ou derrenier vertuz vengence, couvert d'une chemise de toille à queue, et ii petiz fermoirs d'argent dorez, esmaillez de France, et une pipe de broderie (Delisle, Recherches sur la Librairie de Charles V: 1907, I, p. 247).It is worth noting that William Worcester (Itineraries, p. 275) speaks of owning a copy of this book: de libro vocato le myrrour de dames cooperto rubeo coreo. |
Decoration | The style of writing and ornament is fine French. Borders of ivy-leaf (with many gold leaves) springing from straight bands of gold and blue. Smaller initials, blue with red flourishing, and red with green-blue flourishing. On iiv near upper L. corner: Charles. F. 1r is fully bordered. The miniature, a small square one, is much rubbed and part of the background scraped off. It represents the queen standing under a roof or canopy supported on gold shafts, a little white dog on R., on L. a Franciscan kneels and presents a gold book. Two shields are in the border below. (1) party per pale, dexter az. semee of fleurs de lys or, with a bend arg. bearing an indistinct charge gu.: sinister az. damaged. (2) party per pale az. fleurs de lys or: dexter has label of 3 points gu.: sinister plain. |
2 fo. | prudence. ainsi lisons |
Bibliographic information
M.R. James Date | xiv |
---|---|
Downloadable James Catalogue Record | |
Superseded Interim Catalogue Record | |
Contains |
|
TJames | 97(1) |
Stanley | I. 6 |
Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/xs715gp9158 |
Location | MS 324 |
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
Loading usage metrics...