Two (unreleated) leaves from the Roman de la Rose
Tonight, we're taking it all easy--a little bit of the St Alexis--a little of the Grail reading we had just begun, and then a few minutes getting started on a couple loose leaves from the Roman de la Rose.
First thing: have you noticed that we're moving forward in time? We looked at some (really very early) Gothic, and here we are, 150+ years later (both leaves today are from the 1st quarter of the 14th century), and look how the hands have evolved!
The first leaf is of the very first words of the monumental (and hilarious) Roman de la Rose, a tour de force of medieval scholarship and allegory. The leaf comes from
Cambridge, Harvard University, Houghton Library, Ms Fr 039
Description: ff. 152 - Brown calf binding with the Soubise armorial emblems on spine - Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617); Jean Jacques Charron Menars (1643-1718); Charles de Rohan Soubise (1715-1787); William Gibbons Medlicott (1816-1883); Dawson W. Turner (1815-1885) - De Ricci, I, p. 970
The leaf is, of course, extraordinary. Between the leafing, the trefeuilles (actually very helpful in dating a manuscript) and the highly individual, decorative hand (which we will examine in detail), this is a marvel.
(Do note that I understand that one or several of you have read passages of the Roman de la Rose before, in Medieval--and I know we worked on this passage in excruciating detail. We will use this leaf principally as ductus practice--can you do the first 10 lines?)
Our second work is an unbound leaf also from the Roman de la Rose. Can you think of reasons why there would be a wide supply of unbound leaves of this work? What must be true of the Roman de la Rose for this to happen?
Columbia, University of Missouri, Ellis Library, Special Collections, Fragmenta Manuscripta 156
Description: f. 1r-v - Not bound - John Bagford (1650s-1716) to St. Martin-in-the-Fields; sale 1861 to Sir Thomas Phillipps, n.15758; his sale 22 May, 1913, lot 742; Sir Sydney Cockerell (1867-1962) sale Sotheby's 3 April, 1957; William Salloch (Ossining NY) Cat. 258 (1968) to U. Missouri. - M. McC. Gatch, "Fragmenta Manuscripta and Varia at Missouri and Cambridge," Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society9 (1990) 434-75.
For our reading/transcription for next week, let's start in the left column: the first rubric above the illumination ("[C]o[m]ment Cortoisie prie l'Amant de karoler"), through to just above the rubric in the right column, ("Si je vous dirai qui il estoient").
Good luck!
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