Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français 773
[Part 1]
» Full parent manuscript detail
General information
| Folios | 115 |
| Language | Language object (48) |
| Approx. date | 1250 to 1275 |
| Date notes | 1250-1275 according to Avril 1984, 58 n. 62; 1290 according to Stones (accepted by Brunetti 2011); 13th-14th c. according to Micha 1960, 173, 13th c. according to ed. Kennedy, vol. II, p. 5. |
| Place(s) of production | Northern ItalyAvril 1984, 58 n. 62. |
| First words of second recto folio | [f. 2ra] peisera m(u)lt car ie uos seroie |
| First words of last recto folio | [f. 115r] combatras alui oue astre |
| Incipit | [f. 1ra] EN la marche de gaule / enla petite bretaigne auo [then for lines very faded] rois ban [...] benoic (et) liau / tres li rois b[..]ort de gau(n)es / li rois bans estoit uielz home (et) sa fame jue / ne dame (et) bele trop (et) mult estoit bone da / me (et) amee de totes lesgens . |
| Explicit | [f. 115vb] Mes atant se test chi endroit hore / li contes aparler destor ede monsegne(ur) / Gau(uain) (et) deu nain (et) de la damoiselle (et) / retorne aparler de lanc(elot) du lac come(n)t / il se deliure de [...]aegran le fiz au roi / bau[...]s en la meslee quil fist por / la[...] la reine gene[...]e / feme del roi artus del[...] for a different transcription, cf. ed. Kennedy, v. II, p. 5. |
Material
| Material: | Material object (4) |
| Watermark: | |
| Condition: | The MS is generally in good condition, apart from some material lacunae (see below, structure). On the first and the last folio the ink is faded and / or scraped off. Medium quality vellum, with holes and stitches usually outside the justification (e.g. f. 8, 70, but f. 71). Some pages are stained and / or darker. |
Structure
| Collation: | 18 26- 3-48 56 6-108 11-12?? 1310 14-158 [question marks refer to ff. 75-89, for which neither quire marks nor catchwords are visible] |
| Quire structure: | The quire structure is based on quaternions. The first two folios of the 2nd and 5th quire have been lost. |
| Quire marks: | MSQuiremarkDisposition object (23) |
| Catchwords: | |
| Catchword disposition: | MSCatchwordDisposition object (4) |
Physical description
| No. of illustrations: | 2 |
| General illustration: | Two drawings gouache painted: At f. 51r, the writing space is limited to 27 ll. and under it a joust and a 'meslee' between two knights are represented, a simple drawing with only a few colours, with no landscape and no background. At f. 51v there is a full page representation of a castle, with two towers red and yellow. There is a guard on the top of each tower, while on the top of the central building there is a mullioned window with romanesque arches. Behing the window, a male figure (crowned?) is offering a red fruit to a woman. In front of a castle, some ondulated lines perhaps represent a battle. Under the illustration, a contemporary hand wrote in a cursive script: Iij li(br)ede cera rubea pona(n)t(ur) t(em)pre yemala de treme(n)tina i(n) vna libra cere vu(n)t ij / et de iqual[...] vu(n)t .j. ans paulominus |
| General decoration: | Frontispice (f. 1r) with a decoration with guirlande and grotesque motives, mainly coloured in red and blue, that runs along the margins of the justification and in the intercolumn. On the left margin, the bust of a knight turned to the left with a shield with 7 horizontal bands alternatingly blue and white. Over the top margin of the intercolumn, a musician and on the right top margin again the bust of a knight turned to the right with a white shield with one horizontal blue band, and in his hand a stick that ends with a flower or a star. Historiated initial 8 (f. 1ra, height: 8 lines), red letter on a blue background. Inside the letter, a knight with gown and chainmail with a shield coloured with white and blue squares. Big decorated initials (ff. 53v, 60v, height: 8 lines), with bottom branches developing in the margin, decorated with guirlande motives. Framed fleuron initials, usually 4-5 lines high (ff. 2vb, 4rb, 6vb...) sometimes with branches (f. 11rb). Initials (height: 3-4 lines) red and blue with blue and red flourishings, alternate with smaller initials(height: 1-2 lines) starting from the second quire (f. 9ra). Initials are either integrated in the column or located in the margins. Occasionally, drawings are associated with catchwords (e.g. a howl at f. 30vb). |
| Evidence of readership: | Crosses traced in the margins (e.g. f.3vb, 4vb, 5rb, 5vb, etc.). A particularly big one at f. 39rb, the text mentions that king Ban is "uns des C. ch(eualie)rs de les charguete". |
| Foliations description: | Modern foliation in arabic numerals, written in black ink in the upper right corner of the recto (f. 30-f.30bis). Some folios are missing (cf. collation and quire structure). |
Mise en page
| Description 1 | |
| Page sampled | f. 37v |
| Layout | MSLayout object (3) |
| Page dimensions | 311x214 (mm) |
| Justification | 240x152 (mm) |
| Columns | 216mm between columns Column ruling present in Colours object (4) (RulingMaterials object (3) ) |
| Lines | 38Line ruling present in Colours object (4) (RulingMaterials object (3) ) |
| Rubrication | No tituli in red ink. |
| Writing above top line? | False |
| Sample page layout: | |
Hand(s)
| Level of Execution: | Execution object (4) |
| Script | Script object (10) |
| Folio range | From f. 1ra to f. 115vb |
| Date | 1250 to 1275 |
| Scribe description: | Many hands probably of the same atelier. A clear change of hand at ff. 35v-36r. |
| Notes | Catchwords are written in a cursive script. The same hand probably added a note at f. 43vb under the b column, then crossed out. |