Theological miscellany : in French

Item Information

Title:
Theological miscellany : in French
Title (alt.):
Somme des vices et vertus
Meditationes. French
Somme le roi
Aguillon de crainte
Aguillon de sainte amour
Meditacions Saint Bernart
Ecclesiastique
Title (uniform):
Bible. Ecclesiasticus. French
Description:
A group of texts relating to virtues and vices. "Laguillon de crainte" and its later supplement, "Laguillon de sainte amour," are also found in several manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (Fr. 22938, Arsenal 2070 and Arsenal 6879; the first of these also includes the same French translation of Ecclesiasticus). The "Meditationes" are here attributed to St. Bernard, but this attribution is thought to be spurious (see PL 184:485-507). Although the portion of the manuscript containing "La somme le roi" is codicologically distinct, beginning with a new quire following a blank leaf, the fact that the entire manuscript was written by a single scribe suggests that the codex was compiled all at once, rather than the texts having been brought together by a later binder.
Contributor:
Laurent, d'Orléans, active 1279
Contributor:
Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint, 1090 or 1091-1153
Former owner:
Lamoignon, Chrétien-François de, 1735-1789
Former owner:
Ashburnham, Bertram Ashburnham, Earl of, 1797-1878
Former owner:
Barrois, Joseph, approximately 1785-1855
Former owner:
Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle, Sir, 1867-1962
Auctioneer:
Sotheby's (Firm)
Date:
[1425]
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Gothic scripts
Morocco bindings
Library copies
Inscriptions
Bookplates
Embossed stamps
Shelf marks
Manuscripts, French--France
Manuscripts, Medieval--France
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Subjects:
Meditations--Early works to 1800
Devotional literature--Early works to 1800
Conduct of life--Early works to 1800
Theology--Early works to 1800
Places:
France
Extent:
176 leaves : parchment ; 294 x 212 (200 x 135) mm bound to 31 cm, in box 35 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/wm11bs898
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[France]
Language:
French
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1-58v: Laguillon de crainte [author unknown] Je par qui vanite.../...laguillon de crainte filiale qui est la premiere partie de notre enttention dont soit loue notre seigneur. Amen.
2. fol. 59: Laguillon de sainte amour [author unknown, slighter later addition] [A]pres laguillon de crainte sensuit le doulx aguillon de sainte amour.../...mie a louer silz ayment leurs enfans [incomplete].
3. fol. 59v-60v: blank.
4. fol. 61-80v: Ecclesiastique [trans. of Ecclesiasticus] Ci commance ecclesiastique qui contient xliiii chappitre/ Toute sapience est de dieu qui est.../...Et ils te rendront louer quant le temps vendra. Amen./ Cy finist a ecclesiastique.
5. fol. 81-98: Bernard of Clairvaux, Meditationes [anon. trans.] Ci commancent les meditacions saint Bernart et premier le prologue/ Plusieurs sceyvent maintes choses.../...et garder de mal faire. Dire et pences Amen Amen A[men].
6. fol. 98v: blank.
7. fol. 99-176v: [Friar Laurent], La somme le roi (Books III-V only, see Leurquin-Labie, pp. 113.) Livres des vices et des vertus autrement appelle La somme Le Roy / Monseigneur saint jehan ou livre de ses revelations.../...Dont je nen vueill ores plus dire. Mais yci fineray ma matiere. A la gloire nostre seigneur A qui en soit toute lonneur qui nous maint en sa compaignie. La ou est pardurable vie. Amen amen amen./ Ci finist le livre des vices et des vertus autrement appelle la philipine que compila et parfist un frere un frere de lordre des freres prescheurs A la requeste du bon roy phelipes de france qui morist en arragon priez pour luy et pour moy qui lay escript en lan mccccxxv.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Title devised by cataloger.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Written in France in 1425.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: "24 February 1761" written on recto of front paper flyleaf (currently pasted to marbled endleaf), bleed-through legible on verso under ultraviolet light, possibly the date of acquisition by and binding for Chrétien-François de Lamoignon (1735-1789); his "Bibliotheca Lamoniana" bookplate inside front cover and monogram "L" stamp on fol. 1. The manuscript was number "K.64" in his self-published library catalogue of 1770 (Catalogue des Livres imprimés et manuscrits de la bibliothèque de M. de Lamoignon (Paris, 1770), p. 108); K.64 written on fol. ii, the 64 crossed out and replaced with 74 (this provenance corrects Haraszti's interpretation of the bookplate in More Books, p. 69). The collection was sold in Paris in 1790 to dealer Thomas Payne, who issued his own catalogue in 1793; this manuscript is not included in either catalogue. Dominique-Martin Méon, his sale at Bleuet, 15 November 1803, lot 583; Deville and Dufour sale at Bohaire, February 1841, lot 152; collection of Charles Giraud, 1841 (mentioned in M. le Roux de Lincy, Les Quatre Livres des Rois (Paris, 1841), p. CXLV, note 1); owned by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Barrois (1784-1855), his 1849 sale (n. 130) to Bertram, the Fourth Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), with Ashburnham's round green Barrois label on spine.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Ashburnham sale, Sotheby's London, 10 June 1901, lot 321 (lot number written on fol. iv) to Sydney Cockerell for the Boston Public Library (BPL bookplate inside front cover, Cockerell's notes inside front cover).
Notes (date):
This date is inferred.
Notes (citation):
Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, I:923
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: ...en quelconque maniere...
Collation: Parchment, fol. ii (paper) + 176 + ii (paper) ; 1-7⁸ 8¹⁰ 9-21⁸ 22⁶ ; catchwords in lower center margin, final verso of each quire. Modern arabic pencil foliation, upper outer corner of each page.
Layout: One column, 36 lines. Bounding and ruling lines in light red ink.
Script: Written in a gothic cursive (fol. 59 in mid 15th-century bâtarde) in brown ink with brown rubrics.
Decoration: 2- to 4-line initials throughout in red with black filigree or blue with red (space on fol. 59 left blank); 4-line blue and red "puzzle" initials with black and red filigree at text incipits on fol. 1, 61, 81 and 99.
Binding: 18th-century green morocco over thick cardboard, tight at spine (boards are therefore slightly warped); blind double-fillet border on covers, gilt filigree board edges (worn) and turn-ins, marbled paper pastedowns and conjugate endleaves, paper front and back flyleaves, contemporary with binding; decorative head and tailbands; spine gilt in compartments, red leather gilt-stamped labels, "TRAITE de/ MORALE man/et le somme/ DU ROY/ Charles VII/ 1425" (the dedication of the text is mistakenly assigned by the binder to Charles VII, presumably because he was on the throne in 1425 when the manuscript was written) and "MANUSCRIT/ 1425"; gilt florets in each spine compartment; blue ribbon bookmark laid-in; binding attributed by de Ricci to Anguerrard, ca. 1780, in which case it would have been bound for its then-owner Lamoignan.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Zoltan Haraszti, "Medieval Manuscripts in The Library," More Books III (1928): 69-70; Leurquin-Labie. La Somme de Roi par Frère Laurent (Paris, 2008): 484-485.
Notes (language):
In French.
Identifier:
06_01_018652
Call #:
RARE BKS MS f Med.30
MS G.31.80 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999090776590