Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, 10175
Le livre qui parle du commencement du monde
» Full parent manuscript detail
General information
| Folios | None1 backend papers |
| Language | Language object (49) |
| Approx. date | ?1250 to 1275 |
| Date notes | Oltrogge 1989, 234 |
| Place(s) of production | AcreOltrogge 1989, 234 |
| First words of second recto folio | [f. 22ra] la vert erbe sur la douce rosee [original f.1 has been cut out] |
| First words of last recto folio | [f. 332ra] ala matinee . que ceaus |
| Incipit | [f. 21ra] le nil. Cil court parmi ethyope (et) ui / ent parmi egypte a damiate la dessent / il en la mer de grece . Seignors par cist |
| Explicit | [f. 332vb] il feis (et) de ce auient encores quele est / clamee sei?s? . (et) no(n) seis en n(ost)re lengua / ge . Cest Liure escrist Bernart / dacre |
Material
| Material: | Material object (4) |
| Watermark: | |
| Condition: | Good quality parchment (carta caprina?), some holes in the margins (e.g. f. 36, f. 60 hole in the lower margin; f. 119 hole in the left margin). Damage by humidity in the upper margin as from circa f. 310. |
Structure
| Collation: | 18-1(21-27) 2-198(28-175) 20-2210 (176-205)23--248 (206-221) 26-378 (222-327) 386 (328-333) 18-1(21-27) 28(28-35) 38 (36-43) 48 (44-51) 58 (52-59) 68 (60-67) 78 (68-75) 88 (76-83) 98 (84-91) 108 (92-99) 118 (100-107) 128(108-115) 138 (116-123) 148 (124-131) 158 (132-139) 1610 (140-149) 1710 (150-159) 188 (160-167) 198 (168-175) 2010 (176-185) 2110 (186-195) 2210 (196-205) 238 (206-213) 248 (214-221) 2510 (222-231) 268 (232-239) 278 (240-247) 288(248-255) 298 (256-263) 308 (264-271) 318 (272-279) 328 (280-287) 338 (288-295) 348 (296-303) 358 (304-311) 368 (312-319) 378 (320-327) 386 (328-333) |
| Quire structure: | One quaternion, the first folio of which has been cut, followed by eightteen quaternions, three quinions, fifteen quaternions and one ternion, the final folio of which functioned as a flyleaf. |
| Quire marks: | MSQuiremarkDisposition object (11) |
| Catchwords: | |
| Catchword disposition: | MSCatchwordDisposition object (10) |
Physical description
| General description: | The text runs from Genesis to the taking of Reims by Caesar. The text is structured by rubricated chapter headings. 'Coment li deables decut adam', 'Coment nostre sires parla a / adam . (et) le mist fors de paradis . (et) maudist / le serpent.'; 'De la biaute ada(m) (et) de sa science' . ; 'Coment adam ot ses enfans (et) en / quel aage' ; 'Coment caym ocist son frere' ; 'Coment nostre sires parla a caym' ; 'Del signe que ; nostre sires mist a Caym' ; 'Coment adam ot son fiz seth' ; 'De la lignee Caym' ; 'Encore de meismes' ; 'Coment lamech ocist caym dune seete' |
| No. of illustrations: | 36 |
| General illustration: | Different formats, some in two registers. In broad frames of red and blue or greenm decorated with geometric designs. Gilded backgrounds. (See Oltrogge) |
| General decoration: | The text is structured by means of puzzle initials (blue and red, height: 4-5 lines) with j-borders in the same colours. These generally correspond to the major subdivisions of the text. In addition to the puzzle initial, the sections on Troy (f. 121r) and Rome (f. 172r) have a miniature. Additionally, Noah's drunkness (f. 25v), Isaac and Rebecca (f. 49r), Joseph (f. 63r), the wedding of Eneas to Lavinia (f. 169r) a council of the senators by Brutus (f.177r), the section on Cambyses (f. 193v), Esther (f. 203r), the origin of the discord between Rome and Carthage (f.242r), the war with Hannibal (f.257r), battle between the Romans and Macedonians (f.273v), the destruction of Carthage (f. 282r) are also marked by a puzzle initial. The beginning of the section on Macedonia (f. 207r) is not marked with a large initial. The puzzle initial occurs at the beginning of the biography of Alexander (f. 211v). The opening of the Orient section is marked slightly later (f. 85v) at the beginning of the reign of Ninus. Smaller subdivisions are marked with pen-decorated initials (blue and red, height: 2 lines) with flourishing in the contrasting colour. All divisions are preceded by rubricated headings. Miniatures are generally preceded or followed by a rubricated caption and accompanied by a pen-decorated initial. Simple line-filling devices in red ink. |
| Evidence of readership: | 139: crosses Coment le roy Priant blasma mout anthenor (et) eneas (et) quil en traison sil peust les eust fait ocire 140v: cross: Coment la cite fu prise par traison (et) la gent a grant dolor tornee 333r and v: annotations connected to the Lusignan family 333r mentions the birth in 1433 of a daughter with the name ?Eleonor? by the annotator's wife demouza ?Bin? ?Babina?. 333v mentions the birth in 1432of another daughter to the same demouza babina with the name Gaca de Lezenian. Another annotation on the same page mentions the baptism of this daughter in 1432. |
| Foliations description: | Rubricated fifteenth-century foliation in arabic numerals (centered in the upper margin of the recto side of the folio) starts after the fifteenth-century list of rubrics and runs to f. 313, which corresponds to f. 332 in the modern foliation in pencil added in the upper right hand corner, taking into account also the table of contents. Traces of an older (original?) foliation in the top right corner of f. 333. |
Mise en page
| Description 1 | |
| Page sampled | 224r |
| Layout | None |
| Page dimensions | 356x256 (mm) |
| Justification | 250x167 (mm) |
| Columns | 213mm between columns Column ruling present in Colours object (5) (RulingMaterials object (3) ) |
| Lines | 38Line ruling present in Colours object (5) (RulingMaterials object (3) ) |
| Rubrication | Rubrics are used for chapter headings, line-filling devices in the decorated initials. Dashes of rubric mark sentence structure and the first letters of proper names. |
| Writing above top line? | False |
| Sample page layout: | |
Hand(s)
| Level of Execution: | Execution object (4) |
| Script | Script object (4) |
| Folio range | From 21ra to 332vb |
| Date | ?1250 to 1275 |
| Scribe description: | Littera textualis with northern features. Two-compartment 'a' the upper compartment of which is generally closed; exclusive occurence of uncial 'd'; 'e' with pronounced tongue; lower lobe of 'g' is closed and descends below the baseline; 'i' is marked only if confusion is possible; round 's' in final position; exclusive use of 'u' also for 'v'; diacritic on 'y'. Relatively few abbreviations: 'p' with crossed descender; superscript vowels ('i'); horizontal stroke for nasal consonant and q(ue); crossed titonian 'et' Biting of 'o' and 'p' and round 'r'; 'st'-ligature. Use of punctus. 141v, 146v, 153v correction sign + bottom margin (same hand); 154r, 159r right margin 46v strike-through |
| Notes | Remarkable is the use of line-filling devices in the text itself. |
Provenance
| Description | The colophon identifies the scribe as 'Jean d'Acre'. | |
| Date | ?1250 to 1275 | |
| Place | Place object (150) | |
| Description | On the last endpaper, there are annotations concerning the Lusignan family in Cyprus relating to the years 1432-33; these are almost certainly made by Phoebus de Lusignan, illegitimate son of Janus of Cyprus. See Gaullier Bougassas 2012, p. 47 for details. | |
| Date | 1432 to 1433 | |
| Place | Place object (205) | |
| Ownership | Person object (113) | |