Vie de seint Aedward le Rei (Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.59)
This is the only known surviving copy of an illustrated Anglo-Norman verse Life of St Edward the Confessor, written in England probably in the later 1230s or early 1240s and, as preserved in this manuscript, executed c. 1250-60.
A masterpiece of mid thirteenth-century English illumination, the manuscript preserves vital evidence for the study of the hagiographical writings about Edward the Confessor that were sponsored by Henry III, and also for the complexity and sophistication of English pen and wash narrative art in this period. The text, entitled in the first rubric 'la estoire de seint aedward le rei translatee du latin' (f. 3r), is based upon Aelred of Rievaulx's Vita Sancti Edwardi regis et confessoris, which was composed in Latin around the time of the saint's canonisation in 1161. Aelred's Vita tells how Edward was exiled as a boy during the Danish occupation (see f. 4r), and how his rule proved of benefit to the English people; it describes his visions and miracles, his patronage of Westminster Abbey (f. 19r) and the manner of his death (f. 29r), before covering the downfall of his successor, Harold (f. 34v), and the eventual opening of the king's tomb (f. 36r).
The present translation into verse was composed by someone either at Westminster, where the shrine of the saint lay, or more probably at St Albans. Numerous correspondences between the text and the historical works of Matthew Paris (1200-1259) suggest very strongly that Matthew was in fact the author. The text opens with a form of dedication to Queen Eleanor of Provence, and was thus composed after 1236, when Eleanor married Henry III. It was probably written before the birth of Prince Edward, later Edward I, in 1239, and certainly before the start of work on the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey by Henry III in 1245, which the passages in the poem about Edward the Confessor's own refoundation of the Abbey appear to anticipate.
Consisting of thirty-seven folios and a total of sixty-four pictures, the present manuscript is a slightly later copy of the original. The script and illustrations demonstrate numerous points of contact with a number of stylistically and codicologically similar manuscripts produced not at St Albans but in London, or at Westminster itself: these include:
- the Getty (formerly Dyson Perrins) Apocalypse (Los Angeles, John Paul Getty Museum, MS Ludwig III)
- the Morgan Apocalypse (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.524)
- and the Tanner Apocalypse (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Tanner 184)
The format of the manuscript, with framed illustrations at the head of the page, resembles such autograph works of Matthew Paris as his Life of St Alban (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177), and also the stylistically related Apocalypses mentioned above. Here, however, the form of the poem, in octo-syllabic rhymed couplets that yield a short line and thus three columns of text per page, has shaped the appearance of each opening. As a rule the illustrations, accompanied by rubrics, cover all three columns, but occasionally occupy fewer. The marginalia are notable: that on f. 3r shows a semi-erased image of a man and woman kissing, perhaps a subversive reference to the substance of the main text, which stresses Edward's chastity.
Paul Binski
Professor of the History of Medieval Art
University of Cambridge
The manuscript featured in The moving word exhibition at Cambridge University Library, January-April 2014, and in the Library’s 600th anniversary exhibition Lines of Thought: Discoveries that changed the world, March-September 2016.
Information about this document
- Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
- Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.59
- Author(s): Matthew Paris
- Origin Place: England, London/Westminster.
- Date of Creation: Mid-13th century (perhaps c. 1255).
- Language(s): Anglo-Norman French
- Associated Name(s): Bradshaw, Henry, 1831-1886; Pink, H. L.; Moore, John, 1646-1714; Pine, John, 1690-1756
- Note(s): Decorated initial on f. 3r added later; should be 'C'.; First line of text inserted at foot of f. 3r.
- Physical Description:
4r: pur parchater
- Extent: Codex: ii + 2 + 33 + 1 + iii leaves. Leaf height: 280 mm, width: 195 mm.
- Collation:
The manuscript comprises four quires of eight leaves, plus a further quire now of only a single leaf but apparently originally a bifolium from which the first leaf has been lost.
1-48 52-1 (1st missing)No leaf signatures.
No quire signatures.
Catchwords.
- Material: Parchment (HFFH)
- Format: Codex
- Binding:
Full green morocco, by Douglas Cockerell and Son, Grantchester, 1967: note by H.L. Pink on front pastedown.
- Script:
Written in a cursive gothic bookhand.
- Foliation:
19th-century foliation
[i-ii] + 1-2 + 3-34, 36-37 + [iii-v]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, probably by Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian 1867-1886.
Folio numbers 35 and 38 assigned to leaves no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).18th-/19th-century pagination
1-65 (for ff. 3r-36r)
Pagination in ink in the lower outer corners of the rectos and versos.
- Layout: Written height: 100-110 mm, width: 165-175 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line. Three columns, 48 lines for a full column, 13-26 where the text is written below miniatures, written below top line.
- Decoration:
Miniatures:
Forty-two framed drawings stretching across all three text columns and twenty-two across two text columns, some containing more than one scene, tinted in blue, green, red, pink and brown, many with inscriptions, some rubbed, with occasional details in gold (14v, 19v, 20r) and fictitious heraldry in battle scenes (5r, 12r, 12v, 31r, 32v, 34r, 34v).
At least three artists. Manuscript may be compared with four related Apocalypse manuscripts from the same workshop (see: Morgan (1988), nos 122, 124–25 and 107), of which group this manuscript is latest in style and the most heterogenous:
- New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.524 (compare 3v-5r)
- London, British Library, Add. MS 35166
- Los Angeles, John Paul Getty Museum, MS Ludwig III
- Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Tanner 184 (compare 5v-6r
Also related to wall paintings of c. 1250 in the Dean's Cloister, Windsor Castle.
- 3v: Kings Alfred, Edgar, and Ethelred II, enthroned, with two angels.
- 4r: King Sweyn's oppressions. The flight of Queen Emma to Normandy with her two young sons.
- 4v: Queen Emma and her sons being received by Duke Richard II of Normandy. The death of King Sweyn.
- 5r: A fight on horseback between Cnut and Edmund Ironside. Peace concluded between the two kings. Death of Edmund Ironside.
- 5v: Godwin embraces Edward's brother Alured. Alured brought as a prisoner before King Harald Harefoot.
- 6r: Harald Harefoot oversees the torture of Alured. Oppression of the people of England.
- 6v: Vindication of the honour of Queen Gunnhilda.
- 7r: Death of King Harthacnut at a wedding feast. Bishop Brithwold 'of Winchester' kneels at an altar (Brithwold was in fact Bishop of Ramsbury).
- 7v: Brithwold dreams that Edward will reign, blessed by St Peter.
- 8r: Brithwold announces his dream. Edward as a young man, praying before an altar.
- 8v: Edward receives a letter announcing Harthacnut's death. He sails for England.
- 9r: Edward is received in England, and is crowned.
- 9v: Edward has a vision of the devil, seated upon the Danegeld tribute.
- 10r: Edward watches the thief in his chamber.
- 10v: Edward is advised to marry by his nobles. He prays at an altar, seeking guidance.
- 11r: Edward, enthroned, agrees to marry.
- 11v: Reception and coronation of Queen Edith.
- 12r: While at Mass, Edward has a vision of the drowning of the Danish king.
- 12v: Edward reports his vision to his nobles.
- 13r: Edward declares his intention to undertake a pilgrimage.
- 13v: The pilgrimage is discussed at court. Two bishops are sent instead.
- 14r: The two English bishops travel to Rome by sea.
- 14v: Edward's bishops are received by the pope in Rome.
- 15r: The two bishops return home.
- 15v: A hermit receives a vision of St Peter, and commits his experience to writing.
- 16r: Edward receives the hermit's letter, urging him to found a church for St Peter at Thorney.
- 16v: Edward receives a letter from the pope. Healing of a cripple.
- 17r: Edward carries the cripple to an altar.
- 17v: St Peter appears in a vision to a fisherman on a boat near Westminster.
- 18r: St Peter consecrates the Abbey at Westminster.
- 18v: St Peter and a fisherman draw up a net containing two salmon. The fisherman carries St Peter's choice of fish to Bishop Mellitus.
- 19r: Bishop Mellitus preaches. Edward orders the construction of Westminster Abbey.
- 19v: An Embassy is dispatched to Rome, and is received by the Pope.
- 20r: The embassy takes its leave of the Pope, and returns home.
- 20v: King Edward receives the Papal charter.
- 21r: King Edward's vision of Christ during the elevation of the Host.
- 21v: The king touches and cures a woman suffering from scrofula.
- 22r: The king cures a blind man.
- 22v: Cure of a second blind man.
- 23r: The king heals a sick woodsman.
- 23v: Man kneeling before the king. Procession of four blind men.
- 24r: The four blind men are healed, having drunk water in which the king has washed his hands.
- 24v: Quarrel between Harold and Tostig, the sons of Earl Godwin.
- 25r: Death of Earl Godwin at a royal banquet.
- 25v: The king receives a vision of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
- 26r: King Edward gives his ring to St John the Evangelist, who is disguised as a pilgrim.
- 26v: St John gives the king's ring to pilgrims.
- 27r: The pilgrims present the king with his ring. Edward bestows money and plate on the poor.
- 27v: Harold son of Godwin kneels before King Edward. The king is comforted at Mass.
- 28r: Edward's vision of the two pious monks. The king, supported by his queen, relates his vision.
- 28v: The king receives the last rites, before a distraught queen.
- 29r: Edward dies, and his soul is received into heaven, attended by St John and St Peter.
- 29v: The burial of King Edward. Three sick people seeking cures either kneel in prayer before the tomb, or crawl in and out of apertures.
- 30r: Cures of blind men at Edward's tomb.
- 30v: King Harold places the crown on his own head.
- 31r: The landing of King Harald Hardrada near York, and the defeat of the Northumbrian army.
- 31v: Edward appears in visions to Harold on his sickbed, and to the Abbot of Ramsey.
- 32r: The Abbot of Ramsey speaks to King Harold. Harold in discussion with courtiers.
- 32v: The Battle of Stamford Bridge and the death of Harald Hardrada (wielding a battleaxe).
- 33r: Cures at King Edward's tomb.
- 33v: King Harold hoards treasure.
- 34r: Duke William of Normandy lands in England.
- 34v: The battle of Hastings. Harold lies on the ground lower-right, an arrow in his left eye.
- 36r: Edward's body is found uncorrupt at the opening of his tomb in 1102. King Henry II kisses the corpse as it is transferred to a new shrine in 1163.
Ornamental and minor initials:
Ten-line initial initial A (should be C) in blue and gold, with red penwork flourishing, added at the opening of the text in the 14th or 15th century (f. 3r).
Two- and three-line initials, alternating in red and blue, with contrasting pale blue and red infill and marginal flourishing.
Bas-de-page:
A few bas-de-page drawings by the main artists:
- Heads of a man and a woman kissing below commentary on theme of chastity, faces rubbed out (f. 3r), with illegible red caption in hand similar to or identical with some captions in pictures (e.g. ff. 30r and 32v)
- Vines and oak leaves tinted in green and brown (ff. 13v, 14v, 16v, 20r) or only sketched out (f. 36r)
- Sketch of eagle's head (f. 28r)
- Additions:
List of the liberal arts added to the lower margin of f. 19v by a late 13th-/early 14th-century hand.
- Provenance:
Since the manuscript is a copy of London/Westminster origin, it was perhaps made for Queen Eleanor's daughter-in-law, Eleanor of Castile on her arrival in England in 1255. It may have been one of the books about Sts Thomas and Edward repaired and rebound for Eleanor in 1288 (wardrobe account in The National Archives, E101/352/11 mem. 2: see B.F. and C.R. Byerly, Records of the Wardrobe and Household, 1286-1289 (1986), p. 379, no. 3217).
Laurence Nowell (b. c. 1530, d. 1570), antiquary: name and date, 1563, inscribed on f. 3r. Nowell may have acquired the manuscript from William Bowyer (d. 1569/70), antiquary and Keeper of Records in the Tower, who made numerous manuscripts available to Nowell (see: Black (1982), p. 117 and n. 7).
William Lambarde (b. 1536, d. 1601), antiquary and lawyer, and friend of Nowell's: name inscribed in archaised form on f. 3r) (see: Black (1982), p. 116).
'Au Monsir Cope son Treschur Anye, Envoi a Guill. Lambard cest Poesie': manuscript apparently given by Lambard to Sir Walter Cope (d. 1614), administrator, according to inscription on f. 3r (see Watson (1987), MS B2).
Perhaps part of the collection of William Cecil, Lord Burghley (b. 1520/21, d. 1598), royal minister: it was apparently sold with other books from his library by T. Bentley and B. Walford, 21 Nov. 1687).
John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely: no. 36 (f. 2r) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).
- Origin: Mid-13th century (perhaps c. 1255). England, London/Westminster.
Sole extant copy of verse Life of St Edward the Confessor, originally composed probably by Matthew Paris for Queen Eleanor of Provence, using Vita by Aelred of Rievaulx and Matthew's own historical works. Contrary to Pam Robinson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge Libraries (1988), no. 24, only the date of composition of the lost original may be ascertained: 1236-72, probably 1236-45, and perhaps 1236-39 (see: Binski, 'Abbot Berkyng's Tapestries', pp. 89–95).
- Acquisition: Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I: donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 on front pastedown.
- Data Source(s): 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 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press).
- Author(s) of the Record: Suzanne Paul, James Freeman, Medieval Manuscripts Specialist, Cambridge University Library
- Bibliography:Luard (1858)James (1920) [facsimile]
Editions:
Luard, Henry Richards, Lives of Edward the Confessor, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 3 (London: Longman, 1858).Wallace, Kathryn Young (ed.), La estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei, Anglo-Norman texts 41 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1983).Translations:
The history of Saint Edward the King, by Matthew Paris translator: Thelma S. Fenster translator: Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies 341 (Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008).Facsimiles:
James, M.R., La Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei: the Life of St. Edward the confessor, reproduced in facsimile from the unique manuscript (Cambridge University Library Ee.3.59) together with some pages of the manuscript of the life of St. Alban at Trinity College, Dublin (Oxford: Printed at the University Press by Frederick Hall, 1920).Manuscript Descriptions:
A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, 6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1857) 2: Ee-Ff.Meyer, Paul, "Les manuscrits français de Cambridge. II. Bibliothèque de l'université", Romania 15 237-357 (1886) https://www.jstor.org/stable/45042111.Millar, Eric George, English illuminated manuscripts: from the Xth to the XIIIth century (Paris; Bruxelles: G. van Oest, 1926).Wormald, Francis, "Some illustrated manuscripts of the lives of the saints", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 35 248-266 (1952) https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m2025&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF.Rickert, Margaret, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages 2nd, Pelican history of art 5 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965).Henderson, George, "Studies in English Manuscript Illumination, Part III: The English Apocalypse; II", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 31 103-147 (1968) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750637.Morgan, N. J., Early Gothic manuscripts, A survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles 4, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1988) 2: 1250-1285.Robinson, P.R., Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge libraries, 2 (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1988).Parkes, M.B., Pause and effect: an introduction to the history of punctuation in the West (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1992).Scott, Kathleen L., Later Gothic manuscripts, 1390-1490, A survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles 6, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1996) I: Text and Illustrations & II: Catalogue and Indexes.Dean, Ruth J. and Maureen Barry McCann Boulton, Anglo-Norman literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society occasional publications series 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999).Morgan, Nigel, "The decorative ornament of the text and page in thirteenth century England: initials, border extensions, and line fillers", English Manuscript Studies: 1100-1700 10 1-33 (2002).Panayotova, Stella (ed.), The art & science of illuminated manuscripts: a handbook, Manuscripts in the making 3 (London: Harvey Miller, 2020).Exhibition Catalogues:
Verdier, Philippe, Peter H. Brieger and Marie Farquhar Montpetit, Art and the courts: France and England from 1259 to 1328, 2 (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1972).Alexander, J.J.G. and C.M. Kauffmann (eds), English illuminated manuscripts 700-1500 (Bruxelles: Bibliotheque Royale Albert Ier, 1973).Alexander, J.J.G. and Paul Binski (eds), Age of chivalry: art in Plantagenet England 1200-1400 (London: Royal Academy of Arts in association with Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987).Binski, Paul and Stella Panayotova (eds), The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West (London: Harvey Miller, 2005).Parkes, M.B., "Layout and presentation of the text", in Nigel J. Morgan and Rodney M. Thomson (eds), Cambridge history of the book in Britain (Cambridge: University Press, 2008) https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521782180.006 2: 1100-1400 55-74.Panayotova, Stella, Deirdre Elizabeth Jackson and Paola Ricciardi (eds), Colour: the art & science of illuminated manuscripts (London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2016).Secondary Studies:
Wormald, Francis, "The Wilton Diptych", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 17 3/4 191-203 (1954) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750319.Freyhan, R., "Joachism and the English Apocalypse", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 18 3/4 211-244 (1955) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750180.MacKinney, L. C. and Harry Bober, "A Thirteenth-Century Medical Case History in Miniatures", Speculum 35 2 251-259 (1960).Harrison, Madeline, "A Life of St. Edward the Confessor in Early Fourteenth-Century Stained Glass at Fecamp, in Normandy", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 26 1/2 22-37 (1963) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750568.Lewis, P. S., "Two pieces of fifteenth-century political iconography", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 317-320 (1964) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750525.Turner, D. H., "The Evesham Psalter", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 23-41 (1964) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750510.Henderson, George, "Studies in English Manuscript Illumination, Part III: The English Apocalypse; II", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 31 103-147 (1968) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750637.McKisack, May, Medieval history in the Tudor age (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).Montpetit, Marie, "Canada's first exhibition of mediaeval art: France and England (1259-1328)", Connoisseur 179 4 266-72 (1972).Vaughan, Richard, Matthew Paris Reissue with supplementary bibliography, Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought, second series 6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).Gouttebroze, Jean-Guy, "Structure et sens des textes de prière contenus dansLa Estoire de seint Aedward le Rei", in La Prière au Moyen Age (littérature et civilisation), Sénéfiance (Paris: Champion, 1981) 10 299-314.Yapp, W.B., Birds in medieval manuscripts (London: British Library, 1981).Black, Pamela M., "Some New Light on the Career of Laurence Nowell the Antiquary", The Antiquaries Journal 62 01 116-123 (1982).Watson, Andrew G., "The manuscript collection of Sir Walter Cope (d. 1614)", Bodleian Library Record 12 262-297 (1985).Morgan, Nigel J., "Matthew Paris, St. Albans, London, and the leaves of theLife of St. Thomas Becket", Burlington Magazine 130 1019 85-96 (1988).Binski, Paul, "Reflections onLa estorie de Seint Aedward le rei: hagiography and kingship in thirteenth-century England", Journal of Medieval History 16 4 333-350 (1990) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030441819090032V.Hahn, Cynthia, "Proper behavior for knights and kings: the hagiography of Matthew Paris, monk of St. Albans.", Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History 2 237-248 (1990).Binski, Paul, "Abbot Berkyng's Tapestries and Matthew Paris'sLife of St Edward the Confessor", Archaeologia 109 85-100 (1991) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/archaeologia/article/iii-abbot-berkyngs-tapestries-and-matthew-pariss-life-of-st-edward-the-confessor/17B0F98BD3F652C9268372E3C81F6558.Kauffmann, Martin, Hagiography, pictorial narrative and the politics of kingship: studies in the Matthew Paris Saints' Lives and illustrations to the Life of St Louis (unpublished PhD dissertation thesis 1992).Dutton, Marsha L., "Ælred historien: deux nouveaux portraits dans un manuscrit de Dublin", Collectanea Cisterciensia 55 1-2 209-230 (1993).Wright, Rosemary Muir, "An image fit for a king: the Glazier Psalter reconsidered", Journal of Medieval History 19 1-2 69-124 (1993).Jordan, Victoria B., "The multiple narratives of Matthew Paris'Estoire de seint Aedward le rei: Cambridge University Library MS Ee.iii.59.", Parergon: Bulletin of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies n.s. 13 2 77-92 (1996) http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/parergon/summary/v013/13.2.jordan.html.Collard, Judith, "A lesson in holy kingship: the thirteenth-centuryLa estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei", South African Journal of Art History 15 52-67 (2000).Hahn, Cynthia J., Portrayed on the heart: narrative effect in pictorial lives of saints from the tenth through the thirteenth century (Berkeley, CA. ;London: University of California Press, 2001).Gee, Loveday Lewes, Women, art and patronage from Henry III to Edward III, 1216-1377 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2002).Lachaud, Frédérique, "Dress and social status in England before the sumptuary laws", in Peter Coss and Maurice Keen (eds), Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2002) 105-123.Kauffmann, C.M., Biblical imagery in medieval England 700-1550 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003).Hanna, Ralph, London literature, 1300-1380, Cambridge studies in medieval literature 57 (Cambridge: University Press, 2005).Henderson, George, "Introduction: on making medieval illuminated manuscripts accessible", in Stella Panayotova (ed.), The Cambridge illuminations: the conference papers (London: Harvey Miller, 2007) 13-19.Hunt, Tony, "The Anglo-Norman book", in Nigel J. Morgan and Rodney M. Thomson (eds), Cambridge history of the book in Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-book-in-britain/anglonorman-book/F5073F7C93CC329CADC4C60E5BCC9649 2: 1100–1400 367-380.Bovey, Alixe, "Communion and community: Eucharistic narratives and their audience in the Smithfield Decretals", in Joyce Coleman, Mark Cruse and Kathryn A. Smith (eds), The social life of illumination: manuscripts, images, and communities in the Late Middle Ages, Medieval texts and cultures of Northern Europe 21 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013) 53-82.Clements, Jill Hamilton, "The Construction of Queenship in the Illustrated Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei", Gesta 52 1 21-42 (2013) http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669686.Sandler, Lucy Freeman, "Worded and wordless images: biblical narratives in the psalters of Humphrey de Bohun", in Joyce Coleman, Mark Cruse and Kathryn A. Smith (eds), The social life of illumination: manuscripts, images, and communities in the Late Middle Ages, Medieval texts and cultures of Northern Europe 21 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013) 83-120.Rudolph, Conrad, "The Tour Guide in the Middle Ages: Guide Culture and the Mediation of Public Art", Art Bulletin 100 1 37-67 (2018).
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- Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
- Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.59
- Author(s): Matthew Paris
- Origin Place: England, London/Westminster.
- Date of Creation: Mid-13th century (perhaps c. 1255).
- Language(s): Anglo-Norman French
- Associated Name(s): Bradshaw, Henry, 1831-1886; Pink, H. L.; Moore, John, 1646-1714; Pine, John, 1690-1756
- Note(s): Decorated initial on f. 3r added later; should be 'C'.; First line of text inserted at foot of f. 3r.
- Physical Description:
4r: pur parchater
- Extent: Codex: ii + 2 + 33 + 1 + iii leaves. Leaf height: 280 mm, width: 195 mm.
- Collation:
The manuscript comprises four quires of eight leaves, plus a further quire now of only a single leaf but apparently originally a bifolium from which the first leaf has been lost.
1-48 52-1 (1st missing)No leaf signatures.
No quire signatures.
Catchwords.
- Material: Parchment (HFFH)
- Format: Codex
- Binding:
Full green morocco, by Douglas Cockerell and Son, Grantchester, 1967: note by H.L. Pink on front pastedown.
- Script:
Written in a cursive gothic bookhand.
- Foliation:
19th-century foliation
[i-ii] + 1-2 + 3-34, 36-37 + [iii-v]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, probably by Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian 1867-1886.
Folio numbers 35 and 38 assigned to leaves no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).18th-/19th-century pagination
1-65 (for ff. 3r-36r)
Pagination in ink in the lower outer corners of the rectos and versos.
- Layout: Written height: 100-110 mm, width: 165-175 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line. Three columns, 48 lines for a full column, 13-26 where the text is written below miniatures, written below top line.
- Decoration:
Miniatures:
Forty-two framed drawings stretching across all three text columns and twenty-two across two text columns, some containing more than one scene, tinted in blue, green, red, pink and brown, many with inscriptions, some rubbed, with occasional details in gold (14v, 19v, 20r) and fictitious heraldry in battle scenes (5r, 12r, 12v, 31r, 32v, 34r, 34v).
At least three artists. Manuscript may be compared with four related Apocalypse manuscripts from the same workshop (see: Morgan (1988), nos 122, 124–25 and 107), of which group this manuscript is latest in style and the most heterogenous:
- New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.524 (compare 3v-5r)
- London, British Library, Add. MS 35166
- Los Angeles, John Paul Getty Museum, MS Ludwig III
- Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Tanner 184 (compare 5v-6r
Also related to wall paintings of c. 1250 in the Dean's Cloister, Windsor Castle.
- 3v: Kings Alfred, Edgar, and Ethelred II, enthroned, with two angels.
- 4r: King Sweyn's oppressions. The flight of Queen Emma to Normandy with her two young sons.
- 4v: Queen Emma and her sons being received by Duke Richard II of Normandy. The death of King Sweyn.
- 5r: A fight on horseback between Cnut and Edmund Ironside. Peace concluded between the two kings. Death of Edmund Ironside.
- 5v: Godwin embraces Edward's brother Alured. Alured brought as a prisoner before King Harald Harefoot.
- 6r: Harald Harefoot oversees the torture of Alured. Oppression of the people of England.
- 6v: Vindication of the honour of Queen Gunnhilda.
- 7r: Death of King Harthacnut at a wedding feast. Bishop Brithwold 'of Winchester' kneels at an altar (Brithwold was in fact Bishop of Ramsbury).
- 7v: Brithwold dreams that Edward will reign, blessed by St Peter.
- 8r: Brithwold announces his dream. Edward as a young man, praying before an altar.
- 8v: Edward receives a letter announcing Harthacnut's death. He sails for England.
- 9r: Edward is received in England, and is crowned.
- 9v: Edward has a vision of the devil, seated upon the Danegeld tribute.
- 10r: Edward watches the thief in his chamber.
- 10v: Edward is advised to marry by his nobles. He prays at an altar, seeking guidance.
- 11r: Edward, enthroned, agrees to marry.
- 11v: Reception and coronation of Queen Edith.
- 12r: While at Mass, Edward has a vision of the drowning of the Danish king.
- 12v: Edward reports his vision to his nobles.
- 13r: Edward declares his intention to undertake a pilgrimage.
- 13v: The pilgrimage is discussed at court. Two bishops are sent instead.
- 14r: The two English bishops travel to Rome by sea.
- 14v: Edward's bishops are received by the pope in Rome.
- 15r: The two bishops return home.
- 15v: A hermit receives a vision of St Peter, and commits his experience to writing.
- 16r: Edward receives the hermit's letter, urging him to found a church for St Peter at Thorney.
- 16v: Edward receives a letter from the pope. Healing of a cripple.
- 17r: Edward carries the cripple to an altar.
- 17v: St Peter appears in a vision to a fisherman on a boat near Westminster.
- 18r: St Peter consecrates the Abbey at Westminster.
- 18v: St Peter and a fisherman draw up a net containing two salmon. The fisherman carries St Peter's choice of fish to Bishop Mellitus.
- 19r: Bishop Mellitus preaches. Edward orders the construction of Westminster Abbey.
- 19v: An Embassy is dispatched to Rome, and is received by the Pope.
- 20r: The embassy takes its leave of the Pope, and returns home.
- 20v: King Edward receives the Papal charter.
- 21r: King Edward's vision of Christ during the elevation of the Host.
- 21v: The king touches and cures a woman suffering from scrofula.
- 22r: The king cures a blind man.
- 22v: Cure of a second blind man.
- 23r: The king heals a sick woodsman.
- 23v: Man kneeling before the king. Procession of four blind men.
- 24r: The four blind men are healed, having drunk water in which the king has washed his hands.
- 24v: Quarrel between Harold and Tostig, the sons of Earl Godwin.
- 25r: Death of Earl Godwin at a royal banquet.
- 25v: The king receives a vision of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
- 26r: King Edward gives his ring to St John the Evangelist, who is disguised as a pilgrim.
- 26v: St John gives the king's ring to pilgrims.
- 27r: The pilgrims present the king with his ring. Edward bestows money and plate on the poor.
- 27v: Harold son of Godwin kneels before King Edward. The king is comforted at Mass.
- 28r: Edward's vision of the two pious monks. The king, supported by his queen, relates his vision.
- 28v: The king receives the last rites, before a distraught queen.
- 29r: Edward dies, and his soul is received into heaven, attended by St John and St Peter.
- 29v: The burial of King Edward. Three sick people seeking cures either kneel in prayer before the tomb, or crawl in and out of apertures.
- 30r: Cures of blind men at Edward's tomb.
- 30v: King Harold places the crown on his own head.
- 31r: The landing of King Harald Hardrada near York, and the defeat of the Northumbrian army.
- 31v: Edward appears in visions to Harold on his sickbed, and to the Abbot of Ramsey.
- 32r: The Abbot of Ramsey speaks to King Harold. Harold in discussion with courtiers.
- 32v: The Battle of Stamford Bridge and the death of Harald Hardrada (wielding a battleaxe).
- 33r: Cures at King Edward's tomb.
- 33v: King Harold hoards treasure.
- 34r: Duke William of Normandy lands in England.
- 34v: The battle of Hastings. Harold lies on the ground lower-right, an arrow in his left eye.
- 36r: Edward's body is found uncorrupt at the opening of his tomb in 1102. King Henry II kisses the corpse as it is transferred to a new shrine in 1163.
Ornamental and minor initials:
Ten-line initial initial A (should be C) in blue and gold, with red penwork flourishing, added at the opening of the text in the 14th or 15th century (f. 3r).
Two- and three-line initials, alternating in red and blue, with contrasting pale blue and red infill and marginal flourishing.
Bas-de-page:
A few bas-de-page drawings by the main artists:
- Heads of a man and a woman kissing below commentary on theme of chastity, faces rubbed out (f. 3r), with illegible red caption in hand similar to or identical with some captions in pictures (e.g. ff. 30r and 32v)
- Vines and oak leaves tinted in green and brown (ff. 13v, 14v, 16v, 20r) or only sketched out (f. 36r)
- Sketch of eagle's head (f. 28r)
- Additions:
List of the liberal arts added to the lower margin of f. 19v by a late 13th-/early 14th-century hand.
- Provenance:
Since the manuscript is a copy of London/Westminster origin, it was perhaps made for Queen Eleanor's daughter-in-law, Eleanor of Castile on her arrival in England in 1255. It may have been one of the books about Sts Thomas and Edward repaired and rebound for Eleanor in 1288 (wardrobe account in The National Archives, E101/352/11 mem. 2: see B.F. and C.R. Byerly, Records of the Wardrobe and Household, 1286-1289 (1986), p. 379, no. 3217).
Laurence Nowell (b. c. 1530, d. 1570), antiquary: name and date, 1563, inscribed on f. 3r. Nowell may have acquired the manuscript from William Bowyer (d. 1569/70), antiquary and Keeper of Records in the Tower, who made numerous manuscripts available to Nowell (see: Black (1982), p. 117 and n. 7).
William Lambarde (b. 1536, d. 1601), antiquary and lawyer, and friend of Nowell's: name inscribed in archaised form on f. 3r) (see: Black (1982), p. 116).
'Au Monsir Cope son Treschur Anye, Envoi a Guill. Lambard cest Poesie': manuscript apparently given by Lambard to Sir Walter Cope (d. 1614), administrator, according to inscription on f. 3r (see Watson (1987), MS B2).
Perhaps part of the collection of William Cecil, Lord Burghley (b. 1520/21, d. 1598), royal minister: it was apparently sold with other books from his library by T. Bentley and B. Walford, 21 Nov. 1687).
John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely: no. 36 (f. 2r) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).
- Origin: Mid-13th century (perhaps c. 1255). England, London/Westminster.
Sole extant copy of verse Life of St Edward the Confessor, originally composed probably by Matthew Paris for Queen Eleanor of Provence, using Vita by Aelred of Rievaulx and Matthew's own historical works. Contrary to Pam Robinson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge Libraries (1988), no. 24, only the date of composition of the lost original may be ascertained: 1236-72, probably 1236-45, and perhaps 1236-39 (see: Binski, 'Abbot Berkyng's Tapestries', pp. 89–95).
- Acquisition: Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I: donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 on front pastedown.
- Data Source(s): 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 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press).
- Author(s) of the Record: Suzanne Paul, James Freeman, Medieval Manuscripts Specialist, Cambridge University Library
- Bibliography:Luard (1858)James (1920) [facsimile]
Editions:
Luard, Henry Richards, Lives of Edward the Confessor, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 3 (London: Longman, 1858).Wallace, Kathryn Young (ed.), La estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei, Anglo-Norman texts 41 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1983).Translations:
The history of Saint Edward the King, by Matthew Paris translator: Thelma S. Fenster translator: Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies 341 (Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008).Facsimiles:
James, M.R., La Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei: the Life of St. Edward the confessor, reproduced in facsimile from the unique manuscript (Cambridge University Library Ee.3.59) together with some pages of the manuscript of the life of St. Alban at Trinity College, Dublin (Oxford: Printed at the University Press by Frederick Hall, 1920).Manuscript Descriptions:
A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, 6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1857) 2: Ee-Ff.Meyer, Paul, "Les manuscrits français de Cambridge. II. Bibliothèque de l'université", Romania 15 237-357 (1886) https://www.jstor.org/stable/45042111.Millar, Eric George, English illuminated manuscripts: from the Xth to the XIIIth century (Paris; Bruxelles: G. van Oest, 1926).Wormald, Francis, "Some illustrated manuscripts of the lives of the saints", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 35 248-266 (1952) https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m2025&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF.Rickert, Margaret, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages 2nd, Pelican history of art 5 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965).Henderson, George, "Studies in English Manuscript Illumination, Part III: The English Apocalypse; II", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 31 103-147 (1968) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750637.Morgan, N. J., Early Gothic manuscripts, A survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles 4, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1988) 2: 1250-1285.Robinson, P.R., Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge libraries, 2 (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1988).Parkes, M.B., Pause and effect: an introduction to the history of punctuation in the West (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1992).Scott, Kathleen L., Later Gothic manuscripts, 1390-1490, A survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles 6, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1996) I: Text and Illustrations & II: Catalogue and Indexes.Dean, Ruth J. and Maureen Barry McCann Boulton, Anglo-Norman literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society occasional publications series 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999).Morgan, Nigel, "The decorative ornament of the text and page in thirteenth century England: initials, border extensions, and line fillers", English Manuscript Studies: 1100-1700 10 1-33 (2002).Panayotova, Stella (ed.), The art & science of illuminated manuscripts: a handbook, Manuscripts in the making 3 (London: Harvey Miller, 2020).Exhibition Catalogues:
Verdier, Philippe, Peter H. Brieger and Marie Farquhar Montpetit, Art and the courts: France and England from 1259 to 1328, 2 (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1972).Alexander, J.J.G. and C.M. Kauffmann (eds), English illuminated manuscripts 700-1500 (Bruxelles: Bibliotheque Royale Albert Ier, 1973).Alexander, J.J.G. and Paul Binski (eds), Age of chivalry: art in Plantagenet England 1200-1400 (London: Royal Academy of Arts in association with Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987).Binski, Paul and Stella Panayotova (eds), The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West (London: Harvey Miller, 2005).Parkes, M.B., "Layout and presentation of the text", in Nigel J. Morgan and Rodney M. Thomson (eds), Cambridge history of the book in Britain (Cambridge: University Press, 2008) https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521782180.006 2: 1100-1400 55-74.Panayotova, Stella, Deirdre Elizabeth Jackson and Paola Ricciardi (eds), Colour: the art & science of illuminated manuscripts (London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2016).Secondary Studies:
Wormald, Francis, "The Wilton Diptych", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 17 3/4 191-203 (1954) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750319.Freyhan, R., "Joachism and the English Apocalypse", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 18 3/4 211-244 (1955) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750180.MacKinney, L. C. and Harry Bober, "A Thirteenth-Century Medical Case History in Miniatures", Speculum 35 2 251-259 (1960).Harrison, Madeline, "A Life of St. Edward the Confessor in Early Fourteenth-Century Stained Glass at Fecamp, in Normandy", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 26 1/2 22-37 (1963) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750568.Lewis, P. S., "Two pieces of fifteenth-century political iconography", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 317-320 (1964) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750525.Turner, D. H., "The Evesham Psalter", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 23-41 (1964) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750510.Henderson, George, "Studies in English Manuscript Illumination, Part III: The English Apocalypse; II", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 31 103-147 (1968) http://www.jstor.org/stable/750637.McKisack, May, Medieval history in the Tudor age (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).Montpetit, Marie, "Canada's first exhibition of mediaeval art: France and England (1259-1328)", Connoisseur 179 4 266-72 (1972).Vaughan, Richard, Matthew Paris Reissue with supplementary bibliography, Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought, second series 6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).Gouttebroze, Jean-Guy, "Structure et sens des textes de prière contenus dansLa Estoire de seint Aedward le Rei", in La Prière au Moyen Age (littérature et civilisation), Sénéfiance (Paris: Champion, 1981) 10 299-314.Yapp, W.B., Birds in medieval manuscripts (London: British Library, 1981).Black, Pamela M., "Some New Light on the Career of Laurence Nowell the Antiquary", The Antiquaries Journal 62 01 116-123 (1982).Watson, Andrew G., "The manuscript collection of Sir Walter Cope (d. 1614)", Bodleian Library Record 12 262-297 (1985).Morgan, Nigel J., "Matthew Paris, St. Albans, London, and the leaves of theLife of St. Thomas Becket", Burlington Magazine 130 1019 85-96 (1988).Binski, Paul, "Reflections onLa estorie de Seint Aedward le rei: hagiography and kingship in thirteenth-century England", Journal of Medieval History 16 4 333-350 (1990) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030441819090032V.Hahn, Cynthia, "Proper behavior for knights and kings: the hagiography of Matthew Paris, monk of St. Albans.", Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History 2 237-248 (1990).Binski, Paul, "Abbot Berkyng's Tapestries and Matthew Paris'sLife of St Edward the Confessor", Archaeologia 109 85-100 (1991) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/archaeologia/article/iii-abbot-berkyngs-tapestries-and-matthew-pariss-life-of-st-edward-the-confessor/17B0F98BD3F652C9268372E3C81F6558.Kauffmann, Martin, Hagiography, pictorial narrative and the politics of kingship: studies in the Matthew Paris Saints' Lives and illustrations to the Life of St Louis (unpublished PhD dissertation thesis 1992).Dutton, Marsha L., "Ælred historien: deux nouveaux portraits dans un manuscrit de Dublin", Collectanea Cisterciensia 55 1-2 209-230 (1993).Wright, Rosemary Muir, "An image fit for a king: the Glazier Psalter reconsidered", Journal of Medieval History 19 1-2 69-124 (1993).Jordan, Victoria B., "The multiple narratives of Matthew Paris'Estoire de seint Aedward le rei: Cambridge University Library MS Ee.iii.59.", Parergon: Bulletin of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies n.s. 13 2 77-92 (1996) http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/parergon/summary/v013/13.2.jordan.html.Collard, Judith, "A lesson in holy kingship: the thirteenth-centuryLa estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei", South African Journal of Art History 15 52-67 (2000).Hahn, Cynthia J., Portrayed on the heart: narrative effect in pictorial lives of saints from the tenth through the thirteenth century (Berkeley, CA. ;London: University of California Press, 2001).Gee, Loveday Lewes, Women, art and patronage from Henry III to Edward III, 1216-1377 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2002).Lachaud, Frédérique, "Dress and social status in England before the sumptuary laws", in Peter Coss and Maurice Keen (eds), Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2002) 105-123.Kauffmann, C.M., Biblical imagery in medieval England 700-1550 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003).Hanna, Ralph, London literature, 1300-1380, Cambridge studies in medieval literature 57 (Cambridge: University Press, 2005).Henderson, George, "Introduction: on making medieval illuminated manuscripts accessible", in Stella Panayotova (ed.), The Cambridge illuminations: the conference papers (London: Harvey Miller, 2007) 13-19.Hunt, Tony, "The Anglo-Norman book", in Nigel J. 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Smith (eds), The social life of illumination: manuscripts, images, and communities in the Late Middle Ages, Medieval texts and cultures of Northern Europe 21 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013) 83-120.Rudolph, Conrad, "The Tour Guide in the Middle Ages: Guide Culture and the Mediation of Public Art", Art Bulletin 100 1 37-67 (2018).
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