Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. poet. 224
10
MS Rawl Poet
plain
1339955
2024-07-02T18:52:22-07:00
This manuscript is a compendium of texts related to the cult of the Holy Tear. Its size, physical qualities, combination of French and Latin language suggests that the manuscript was not produced at the abbey or for a monastic audience, but for a secular reader at a modest court workshop. However, even though the manuscript was probably not produced at the abbey, the nature of the texts suggests that the compiler and the author of the opening poem likely had very close contact with the abbey and its library.
Much information about the manuscript can be gleaned from the frontispiece. Four scenes from the legend of the Holy Tear appear in frames at the center of the page. The scenes are the four major scenes of the legend: the shedding of the tear at the tomb of Lazarus, Geoffrey Martel selecting the Holy Tear in the Imperial treasury in Constantinople; Geoffrey transporting the Holy Tear, and Geoffrey donating the relic to the abbey of La Trinité. The focus seems to be on Geoffrey as much as the Holy Tear.
The artist decorated the page outside the picture frame with floral and leaf designs of blue, green and pink. Among the decorations, five coats of arms offer crucial information regarding the possible provenance, function, and reader of the manuscript.
On the lower left hand of the folio appears the arms of René of Anjou. René sponsored a court of poets and painters, and was a poet himself, and likely he was responsible for producing the manuscript. Moving to the right, we come to the coat of the Dauphin, the heir apparent of the king of France, and the ruler of the Dauphiné in southeastern France, which was held by René's nephew, Louis, son of Charles VII, until 1461. Higher on the page near the right margin, appear the combined arms of Louis and Charlotte of Savoy after their marriage in 1453. Finally, in the upper right margin appears the arms of the King of France, either Charles VII, brother in law to René of Anjou, or his son, Louis XI, after his ascension in 1461.
The prominence of aristocratic coats of arms, as well as the central and honorific role that Geoffrey Martel plays on the frontispiece and in the opening poem, an intriguing explanation for the manuscript is that it may have been a gift from René to Louis XI. René and Louis were related by blood, and in 1475, René had asked Louis to ransom his daughter (and Louis’s cousin), Margaret of Anjou, who was held captive by rivals to the English crown during the war of the Roses.
