{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Origin", "value": "France, Paris. Second quarter of the 14th century (probably c. 1330-1340).

The decoration of this manuscript was first ascribed by Sydney Cockerell to the fourth of four artists (working in the atelier of Jean Pucelle in Paris) who decorated the Hours of Jeanne II, Queen of Navarre (now Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, nouv. acq. lat. 3145<\/a>) (see Cockerell, A descriptive catalogue of fourteen illuminated manuscripts...<\/i> (1912), pp. 59-62, where the present manuscript is no. 15).<\/p>

The identification of this artist as 'Mahiet' (a diminutive form of Matthieu) by Kathleen Morand and François Avril (among others) has since been restated by Richard Rouse (see 'Mahiet, the illuminator of Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.5.5' (2007), p. 173). The earliest datable evidence of Mahiet's activities (and the only context in which he is named) is the Belleville Breviary (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 10483<\/a> and 10484<\/a>), produced in Paris between 1323 and 1326, which was painted by Jean Pucelle and four assistants, among them Mahiet (see f. 33r of MS lat. 10483 for Mahiet's name). The latest datable example is the Hours of Jeanne II, mentioned above, which was made between 1336 and 1340, 'though', according to Rouse, 'Mahiet probably lived until c. 1350', since he continued to produce work for an important court clientele during the reign of Philip VI of Valois (d. 1350). On this basis, the date of production of MS Dd.5.5 is sometimes tentatively assigned to around 1330 to 1340.<\/p>

The manuscript was originally the second in a two-volume breviary; the other would have contained the winter and spring offices, and is not known to have survived.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "France, Paris." }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "

Marie de Saint Pol (c. 1304-1377), countess of Pembroke and wife of Aymer de Valence (c. 1270-1324), earl of Pembroke: shown kneeling in veneration before St Cecilia, wearing a heraldic mantle bearing the arms of Châtillon-Saint Pol impaled with Valence, on f. 388r<\/a>. Other kneeling female figures, presumably also intended to represent Marie, are found on ff. 236r<\/a> and 274r<\/a>, and her arms were also frequently incorporated into the marginal decoration throughout the manuscript (see, for example, ff. 21r<\/a>, 28v<\/a>, 106r<\/a>, 211r<\/a>, 217v<\/a>, 236r<\/a>, etc).<\/p>

Perhaps William Morin, Franciscan confessor of Marie de Saint Pol; or Emma de Beauchamp, abbess of the Franciscan abbey at Bruisyard, Suffolk; or the house of Franciscan nuns at Denny Abbey, Cambridgeshire (see Introduction for further discussion and references).<\/p>

Erasure of 'Papa' from the text, indicating the manuscript's presence in England during the Reformation (see ff. 422r<\/a>, 430r<\/a>, 434r<\/a>, 438v<\/a>, and elsewhere).<\/p>" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Codex: i + 424 + i leaves. Leaf height: 200 mm, width: 135 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "Second quarter of the 14th century (probably c. 1330-1340)." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.5.5" }, { "label": "Additions", "value": "

Collation formula and date of rebinding written on the rear pastedown<\/a> by Arthur Owen.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Breviaries" }, { "label": "Associated Name(s)", "value": "Mahiet (French illuminator, 14th century); Pucelle, Jean, active 1320; Owen, A. E. B. (Arthur Ernest Bion); Farrant, Alan; Pink, H. L.; Pembroke, Aymer de Valence, ca. 1270-1324, earl of" }, { "label": "Format", "value": "Codex" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library<\/i> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press) and an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1947 and 1970 by H.L. Pink, now held in the University Archives (ULIB 7/3/75/2<\/a>)." }, { "label": "Binding", "value": "

Bound in alum-tawed pigskin; on the spine, blind-tooled zig-zag patterning at the head and foot, with >gold-tooled label and classmark. By Alan Farrant, Cambridge University Library, 1980.<\/p>

Binding removed in 1980 described by H.L. Pink in an unpublished description of the manuscript: 'Early xix cent. quarter russia, paper sides to 8 bands, edges gilt' (see Source for further details). A small portion of the leather cover has been retained on the rear pastedown<\/a>. <\/p>

Decorated edges, presumably contemporary or near-contemporary with the production of the manuscript, comprising coloured lozenge-shaped pattern (not currently digitised).<\/p>" }, { "label": "Script", "value": "

Written in textura quadrata<\/i>.<\/p><\/div><\/div>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

This manuscript was owned, perhaps commissioned, by Marie de Saint Pol, countess of Pembroke (c. 1304-1377) and wife of Aymer de Valence (c. 1270-1324), earl of Pembroke. Marie has a particular connection with the history of the University of Cambridge, being foundress in 1347 of the Hall of Valence Mary - now known as Pembroke College. She was also responsible for the refounding of a priory near Waterbeach for the Franciscan Poor Clares, which subsequently became known as Denny Abbey, and where she was later buried. <\/p>

This book certainly dates to within Marie's lifetime. In addition to thirty-nine illuminated column miniatures, the manuscript is heavily ornamented with decorated borders, marginal grotesques and bas-de-page scenes. These have been identified as the work of a single artist, known as 'Mahiet' (a diminutive form of Matthieu), a professional illuminator who worked in Paris during the second quarter of the fourteenth century, in the circle of Jean Pucelle. Its contents clearly chime with Marie's personal devotional preferences and her attentive patronage of a number of religious foundations within the Franciscan order, primarily in England but also in France. <\/p>

A breviary contains the prayers, hymns, psalms and readings for everyday liturgical use and this example contains the summer and autumn offices of the Franciscan use from Pentecost until the week before the start of Advent. (Another volume, preceding this one, would have contained the winter and spring offices; it is not known to have survived). Iconographic evidence demonstrates indisputably Marie's ownership of the manuscript. Among the thirty-nine miniatures is one that shows a woman in her heraldic mantle kneeling in veneration before St Cecilia (see f. 388r<\/a>). The arms shown - Châtillon-Saint Pol impaled with Valence - were Marie's own (and were adopted by Pembroke College) and are seen in numerous other places in the manuscript (see, for example, ff. 28v<\/a>, 106r<\/a>, 124v<\/a>, 160r<\/a> and elsewhere). Examination of these under a magnifying glass and ultraviolet light confirms that they were not painted over a previous coat of arms, establishing that the manuscript was made specifically for Marie.<\/p>

Whether it was Marie herself or a third party who ordered the production of the manuscript remains open to question, however. The precise origins and other provenance of this manuscript are much less clear and, in spite of promising documentary evidence, all of the interpretations have so far relied on circumstantial, suggestive evidence. Debate has arisen in particular over whether this manuscript may be identified with one or other of the two breviaries recorded in Marie's will. One, which she described as 'mon petit breviaire que ma la Royne me dona' ('my little breviary which my Queen gave to me'), she gave in turn to her Franciscan confessor, William Morin. On the basis of similarities noted by Henry Bradshaw and reported by Paul Meyer between the script in the present manuscript and certain books written for Charles IV of France (1294-1328), Hilary Jenkinson conjectured that this breviary and MS Dd.5.5 are one and the same. Richard and Mary Rouse, while not endorsing this identification (see below), have by contrast suggested that Marie's intended meaning here was the Queen of England, 'doubtless Philippa of Hainault' (rather than the Queen of France, presumably Jeanne d'Évreux, third wife of Charles IV). However, Sean Field has since argued that Isabella of France (1292-1358), consort of Edward II and mother of Edward III, is 'the more likely candidate', given the evidence of a longstanding relationship between these two women, and of Isabella's particular interest in book collecting as well as habitual borrowing from and lending to others.<\/p>

The other breviary recorded in Marie's will was gifted to Emma de Beauchamp, Abbess of the Franciscan abbey of nuns at Bruisyard in Suffolk, a book Marie noted as having previously belonged to the Sisters of Saint-Marcel (probably the Franciscan nuns of Lourcine-lez-Saint-Marcel near Paris). Disputing Jenkinson's interpretation, Richard and Mary Rouse proposed MS Dd.5.5 to be this breviary, pointing to the prominence given to the recipient and the breviary in Marie's will and the circumstantial connections that linked her to Emma (who had been a nun at Denny Abbey) and to the Franciscan nuns at Saint-Marcel (close neighbours to Marie's childhood home and later residence at Bièvre). The precise nature of the nuns' prior ownership of breviary is not clear from the text of the will, however, nor how a manuscript demonstrably made for Marie had belonged to them. The Rouses speculated that perhaps the nuns had been responsible for furnishing Marie with the text of a breviary she later had decorated in Paris, or had held the manuscript on deposit for Marie's use whenever she visited.<\/p>

As Sean Field has observed, it is also possible that MS Dd.5.5 is neither of these manuscripts, but a third breviary owned by Marie but donated prior to her death, perhaps (given its specifically Franciscan contents) to Denny Abbey - though there is very little evidence of the books that were held by this establishment: only two books are known to survive from there, a copy of the Northern Homilies in English (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 8335) and a copy of William of Nassington's Speculum vitae<\/i>, also in English (now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 18<\/a>).<\/p>

The manuscript was most recently displayed as part of the exhibition The Rising Tide: Women at Cambridge<\/a><\/i> (14th October 2019-21 March 2020), illustrating the important role women have played from the earliest times in the development of the University.<\/p>Dr James Freeman
Medieval Manuscripts Specialist
Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Marie de St Pol Foundress of Pembroke College, Cambridge; William Morin; Emma de Beauchamp" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Breviary of Marie de Saint Pol" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Suzanne Paul (March 2014); , Revised and expanded by James Freeman (August 2022)." }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Parchment, of very fine quality (disposition of hair and flesh sides unclear)" }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "

The manuscript comprises 36 quires, mostly gatherings of 12 leaves.<\/p>