Estoire del saint graal
Manuscript Information
Title of manuscript: Estoire del saint graal
MS call number (and folio selected): British Library, MS Add 10292, fol. 34r
Current location: London, England
Place of creation: Northern France or Flanders
Date of creation: 14th century, first quarter
Codicology and Paleography
Language(s) of text: French, Picard dialect
Script: textualis cramped and slightly careless
Abbreviations: contractions, suspensions, Tironian notes
Textual corrections
Contemporary: none
Later: none
Marginal commentary
Contemporary: none
Later: none
Rubrication: 3-line rubric placed above miniature: ensi comme carpentiers faisoient une nef et Salemons et sa femme le regardent.
Instructions for scribe: none
Instructions for rubricator and/or artist: almost completely erased instructions written in lead and intended for the rubricator or artist in lower margin; guide letters for pen flourished initials in columns a and c (Q/L). Guide letters seen inside of the initials, partially concealed by pen flourishes
Provenance
Marks of ownership:
Previous owners:
Charles VI (b. 1368, d. 1422), king of France: listed in the 1411 inventory of his library (see Delisle 1907).
? Louis de Chalon Arlay, Prince of Orange (b. 1390, d. 1463).
The princes of Orange at Nozeroy: in the inventory of 1533 (no 5) and in the 1686 catalogue of their collection, (Additional 10292, 10293 and 10294 still bound together as no 5), (see Middleton 2006, p. 45).
Louis César de Baume le Blanc, Duc de La Vallière (b. 1708, d. 1780): his sale, Paris, 1783, lot 3989.
John Duke of Roxburghe (b. 1740, d. 1804), his sale, 1812, lot 6093. His family crest on the cover with motto 'Pro Christo et Patria'.
Richard Heber, book collector (b. 1773, d. 1833): the three volumes, now Additional 10292, 10293 and 10294 bought by the British Museum at his sale, 19 February 1836, lot 1488, for £131 5s.
Mise en page
Columns: 3Lines per column: 50 per column
Decoration (in hierarchical order)
Gilding: polished gold background for miniature at bottom of column c; 4-line gold initial on painted ground at bottom of column cSmall ink initials: none
Pen flourished initials: 2-line blue initial with red flourishes and blue and red marginal extensions in column a; 4-line red initial with blue flourishes and blue and red marginal extensions in column b
Painted initials: none
Gold initials: 4-line gold initial on pink and blue ground highlighted in white, column c
Foliate initials: none
Zoomorphic initials: none
Anthropomorphic initials: none
Historiated initials: none
Miniatures: 10-line (7x7cm) miniature bottom of column c: the crowned figures of King Solomon and his queen hold hands as they watch three carpenters hammer nails into a wooden boat.
Marginal Illustrations: none
Full page illustration: none
Other Information
Further readings
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, H. L. D. Ward, pp. 340-41.H. Oskar Sommer, The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, 7 vols (Washington, 1909-1916), I and II [for an edition of the text of this manuscript].
R.S. Loomis and L.H. Loomis, Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1938), pp.97-98.
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- Lit 150 Winter Quarter Kristy Golubiewski-Davis
