{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Bruges, Flanders" }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "Made for Jean de Montferrant of the House of Montferrand of Bugey. Later, it was owned by John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely. After his death, in 1715, it was presented to the University Library by King George I." }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "61 folios, numbered 1-31 and 33-62; fols 32 and 54 (blank) are missing; fols 1 and 62 are pastedowns. Leaf height: 275 mm, width: 203 mm. Written height: 160 mm, width: 115 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "1467-68 C.E." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "MS Nn.3.2" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Rhetoric" }, { "label": "Associated Name(s)", "value": "Chastellain, Georges, 1405?-1475; Philip, Duke of Burgundy, 1396-1467; Robertet, Jean; Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, 1401-1456; Montferrant, Jean de; Charles, Duke of Burgundy, 1433-1477; Jacques de Bourbon, 1455-1468; Master of the Dresden Prayerbook (Netherlandish illuminator and engraver, active ca. 1460-1520); Master of Anthony of Burgundy (Flemish illuminator, active 1460-1490)" }, { "label": "Format", "value": "Codex" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "This catalogue entry draws on unpublished MS notes by M. R. James and the description prepared for Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library<\/i> by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Cambridge, 2011 (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press)." }, { "label": "Language(s)", "value": "French and Latin" }, { "label": "Author(s)", "value": "Georges Chastellain, Jean Robertet, and Jean de Montferrant" }, { "label": "Binding", "value": "

Eighteenth-century light brown leather with a gilt frame amd central floral panel over wooden boards. Bronze clasps fitted with enamel with the arms of Montferrant, and engraved on the reverse. They are upside down, probably as a result of rebinding. <\/p>" }, { "label": "Condition", "value": "Generally superlative condition; the text remains clear and legible and the illustrations are remarkably well-preserved. Occasional woodworm holes but never intrusive on the text." }, { "label": "Script", "value": "

Written in Gothic bookhand (hybrida)<\/i>.<\/p><\/div><\/div>" }, { "label": "Excerpts", "value": "

Rubric:<\/b> 9r<\/a> Lettre envoyee par maistre Jehan Robertet secretaire de monseigneur le duc de Bourbon a monsigneur de Monferrant cheualier conseillier et chambellan de monseignuer le duc de Bourgoingne et gouuerneur de monsigneur Jaques fils et frere des ducs de Bourbon<\/div>
Incipit:<\/b> 9r<\/a> Monseigneur de Monferrant, je me recommende a vous de aussi bon cuer que oncquee vous recommandastes vostre cas amoureux a vostre dame<\/div>
Explicit:<\/b> 51v<\/a> Et alors quant sa faveur sera distilee parmy raison: sa dilection sera acceptable a George et non iamais effacee. Viue luy et prospere<\/div>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

CUL MS Nn.3.2 contains the work known as the Douze dames de rhétorique<\/i>, a fable comprising the correspondence, in both Latin and French, and in both prose and verse form, of an elite circle of three intellectual luminaries of fifteenth-century Burgundy: Georges Chastellain, writer and historiographer of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, Jean Robertet, poet and secretary to Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, and the chevalier Jean de Montferrant of Burgey, the chamberlain of both Philip the Good and his successor Charles the Bold, and, named here as tutor to Jacques de Bourbon (1455-1468), the son of the Duke of Bourbon. Although the exchange took place between 1463 and 1464, this manuscript was created for de Montferrant himself between 1467 (when he was appointed chamberlain) and the death of Jacques de Bourbon in 1468. It bears his arms of his seat of Bugey several times, once nestled in the beautful borders of the first page, and in enamel on the clasps.<\/p>

The story records the apparition of twelve allegorical ladies who accompany Rhetoric: Eloquence, Nobility of Nature, Clear thought, etc., each of whom has a delightful allegorical portrait with her imaginative attributes, some clothed as aristocratic ladies, others as craftswomen. Only one of the illustrations, that of Florie Memorie, has been cut out. The illuminations firmly locate the creation of the volume in the flourishing manuscript culture of medieval Bruges, in Flanders. Several enchanting details of the city, its street and canals can be glimpsed in the background of the portraits.<\/p>

It is very possible the illuminations were the work of known, if anonymous, artists, either the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook, or, perhaps more likely, the so-called Master of Anthony of Burgundy, and his associates, who specialised in secular works such as this one. Two other manuscripts of the same work, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 1174<\/a> and Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Gall. 15<\/a>, may have been copied from this one, or perhaps are more distant cousins, all stemming from an earlier exemplar.<\/p>

Arthur Westwell, Queens' College, Cambridge.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Montferrant, Jean de (15th century); Moore, John 1646-1714; George I, King of Great Britain, 1660-1727" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Les douze dames de rhétorique" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Arthur Westwell" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Parchment" }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "

The MS consists of 8 quires as follows: