Bible Moralisee

The "Bible Moralise" in the Fifteenth Century and the Challenge of the "Bible Historiale" Author(s): John Lowden
Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 68 (2005), pp. 73-136 Published by: The Warburg Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40026195 . Accessed: 06/03/2013 22:02
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THE BIBLE MORALISEEIN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY AND THE CHALLENGE OF THE BIBLE HISTORIALE*
John Lowden paper considers the previouslyunrecognisedconnection between two ostensiblyvery differenttypes of illuminatedFrench Bible, each regarded as a high point of medievalbook production,namelythe Biblemoralisee the and both types were new developmentsof the thirteenth Bible historiale. Although century,the focus here will require a wide-ranginginvestigationinto the Bible in moralisee the fifteenthcentury.The Biblemoralisee began as a picturebook of the Bible in which, on everypage, four short biblicalexcerptswere accompanied and each text was accompaniedby an image in a medalby brief moralisations, lion, making eight texts and images per page. The arrangementof texts and With thousandsof images,they imageswas uniqueto the Biblesmoralisees. literally are the most ambitiousattemptsto illustratethe Bible ever made, and providea was moralisingcommentary,pictorial and verbal.The Bible historiale a French vernacular translationof the full Bible, the text expandedby inclusion of much of the biblical paraphrase and commentaryfound in Peter Comestor'sHistoria scholastica. text of many Bibleshistoriales accompaniedby images, but The was was to the vast bulk of a Biblehistoriale due primarily its very lengthytext. By the and early fifteenth century,however,the distinctions between Biblesmoralisees were beginning to become less clear-cut, and it is againstthis Bibleshistoriales that the presentdiscussionneeds to be seen. background The four Biblesmoralisees were produced in Paris in the twenties and that thirtiesof the thirteenthcenturycontinueto be the subjectof numerousstudies. They are Vienna, OesterreichischeNationalbibliothek [hereafterONB] MS 2554; ONB MS 1179;the 'Oxford-Paris-London5 manuscript(Oxford,Bodleian MS Bodley 270b; Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France [hereafter Library BnF] MS latin 11560; London, British Library [hereafterBL] MSS Harley In 1526-27); and the Biblia de San Luis in the treasuryof Toledo Cathedral.1
* I am most gratefulto the custodians of the studiedhere for permissionto examine manuscripts them. Acknowledgementsfor specific help and advice are also due to Louis-JacquesBataillon, Nicole Beriou,Ilona Hans-Collas,Martinede Reu, Genevieve Hasenohr, Anne D. Hedeman, Peter Kidd, Anne Korteweg,Scot McKendrick,Richard and Mary Rouse, Pascal Schandel, and Patricia Readersfor this Journalmade valuable Stirnemann. MartinDavieson incunabula. especially suggestions, The conventionsused for transcription those of are
Conseils pour I'edition des textes medievaux, fasc. i,
Conseils ed. generaux, F. Vieillard,O. Guyotjeannin, Paris2001. 1. For generalbibliography J. Lowden, The see
Making of the Bibles Moralisees, I, The Manuscripts,
Park2000, pp. 333-51.A full bibliography University is maintainedon the author'sCourtauldInstitute website under 'Bibles moralisees:ElectronicBibliMost of the 'Bibleof St Louis'is in Toledo, ography'.
73
OF AND COURTAULD JOURNAL THEWARBURG INSTITUTES,LXVIII,2OO5
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BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES
contrast, some, but not all, of the Bibles moralisees produced in the fifteenth have been almost entirely overlooked.They are strikinglydisparatein century content. Madrid, BibliotecaNacional MS 10232 (the 'Bible of Osuna',Toledo c. 1430) contains a transcriptionof the Latin texts of the entire three-volume of ToledoBiblemoralisee, the additionof a Castiliantranslation all its moralwith isations.2 has, however,no images.The 'Heures de Rohan',BnF MS lat. 9471 It c. 1430), is a profuselyillustratedBook of Hours of superlativequality, (Angers which includesmarginalimages and accompanying caption-liketexts in French, The and derivedfroma Biblemoralisee^ extendingfrom Genesisto Deuteronomy.3 element of BnF lat. 9471 is the 'Neapolitan model of the Biblemoralisee putative Bible', BnF fr. 9561 (Naples c. 1325-40), a biblical picture book descended in with some as yet undefinedfashionfrom a 'true'Biblemoralisee^ texts in French, relatedto ONB MS 2554 (Parisc. 1220-25), and extendingfrom Genesis closely to Judges.4 furtherfifteenth-century Six manuscripts, togetherwith an incunable, the are all descended in some way from yet another Bible moralisee^ mid-fourBible of King Jean II le Bon, BnF MS fr. 167 (Paris 1349-52).5 teenth-century They will be the subjectof this paper.All of them are (or were), like BnF fr. 167, completeBibles in one (generallylarge)volume.They are BnF MS fr. 166 (Paris c. 1400-04 and later);6 Vatican City, BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana [hereafter MS BAV]MS Reg. lat. 25 (Parisc. 1410);7Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek 141 BnF MS fr. 897 (Bruges (Parisc. 1420);8BL Add. MS 15248 (Brugesc. 1455);9 c. 1455-60);10 The Hague, KoninklijkeBibliotheek [hereafterKB] MS 76 E 7
(Bruges c. 1455-60);11 and LExposicion et la vraie declaracionde la Bible (printed at Lyons c. 1477). I2
Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada, except for 8 folios preserved in New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M. 240. See now Biblia de San Luis. Biblia rica de Toledo, facs. edn, 3 vols, Barcelona 1999; the accompanying scholarly edition is Biblia de San Luis: Catedral Primada de Toledo,2 vols (1, Textos;11, Estudios), ed. R. Gonzalvez Ruiz with M. Vivancos Gomez and J.-P. Aniel, Barcelona 2002-04. 2. See Biblia de San Luis: Catedral Primada de Toledos(as in n. 1), I, pp. 253-507 (the Osuna text is edited by M. Vivancos). See also R. Haussherr, 'Drei Texthandschriften der Bible moralisee', in Festschrift fiir Eduard Trierzum 60. Geburtstag,Berlin 1981, pp. 35-65 (37-38, 48); M. Morreale, 'La "Biblia Moralizada" latino-castellano de la Biblioteca Nacional (MS 10232)', Spanische Forschungender Gorresgesellschaft, ser. 1, Gesammelte Aufsdtze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens,xxix, 1978, pp. 437-56. 3. Paris 1400. Les arts sous CharlesVI, exhib. cat. (Louvre), Paris 2004, no. 232, with further bibliography; A. de Laborde, La Bible moralisee conservee a Oxford,Paris et Londres,5 vols, Paris 1911-27, v, pp. 117-22, pis 768-81. 4. Y. Christe and L. Brugger, 'Quelques images de la Genese, de l'Exode et du Levitique dans la Bible moralisee napolitaine de Paris et les Bibles moralisees du debut du XIIF siecle', in Iconographica. Melanges offertsa Piotr Skubiszewski, ed. R. Favreau and M.-H. Debies, Poitiers 1999, pp. 49-61; idem, 'Une Bible moralisee meconnue: la Bible napolitaine de Paris (BnF, ms fr. 9561, fol. ir-ii2v)', Arte cristiana, xci, 2003, pp. 237-51; Laborde (as in n. 3), v,pp. 114-17, pis 759-67. 5. Lowden (as in n. 1), 1, pp. 221-50; Lart a la cour de Bourgogne, exhib. cat., Dijon 2004, no. 28; F. Avril, 'Un chef d'oeuvre de l'enluminure sous la regne de Jean le Bon: la Bible moralisee manuscrit francais 167 de la Bibliotheque Nationale', Monumentset memoires, LVlll,1972, pp. 91-125. 6. Pans 1400 (as in n. 3), no. 184; Lowden (as in n. 1), pp. 251-84. 7. / Vangeli dei popoli, exhib. cat., Rome 2000, no. 94. Haussherr (as in n. 2), pp. 48-49, 56. 8. Haussherr (as in n. 2), pp. 56-58. First placed in an art historical context by C. Nordenfalk, Kung Praktiksoch DrottningTeoris Jaktbok, Stockholm 1955, pp. 61, 94, fig. 66. 9. Laborde (as in n. 3), pp. 123-28, pis 788-89. 10. Laborde (as in n. 3), pp. 133-36, pis 806-07.
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In what follows I shall seek to establish with precision the relationships and among these six later Biblesmoralisees, between them and their actual or hypothetical model or models. I shall also attempt to account for the ways Biblesmoralisees (one they differ from the core group of seven fully-illustrated In BnF fr. 166, is in both categories).13 sum I hope to lay stable manuscript, foundationsfor a more comprehensivestudy which could explorethe evidence of these six manuscripts and the incunable broadly and systematically.My principalargumentis that these manuscriptsbear witness to a challengeto the in Biblemoralisee the course of the fifteenthcenturyfrom a very differentkind of I illustratedbook, namely the Bible historiale. also emphasisethe role of workshop models and records, rather than costly manuscripts, in the process of transmission.And I draw attention to the fact that these later Biblesmoralisees representmajorcommissionsby leading aristocraticbibliophilesof the period, and deserveto be rescuedfrom their currentrelativeobscurity.
Paris, BnF MS frangais 166
to The earliest of the six fifteenth-centuryBiblesmoralisees descend from the albeitselectively, Bible of JeanII le Bon, BnF fr. 167,has alreadybeen intensively, Biblesmorastudied. BnF fr. 166 is the last of the core group of fully-illustrated liseesto survive, and thus an essential control and point of reference in the presentenquiry.Like its six predecessors(ONB 2554 and 1179,theToledo Biblia de San Luis,the Oxford-Paris-London Bible, BL Add. 18719 [London c. 1280], and BnF fr. 167) it is a true picturebook, plannedand executedarounda layout dominatedby eight quite small images on everypage (Figs 1-2). Whereasin the four earlyBiblesmoralisees these eight imagesare all circular,and the accompanytexts are in either Latin or French (except for some bilingual quires at the ing start of volume ill of the Toledo Bible), in BnF fr. 166 the images are tall and rectangles all the adjacenttexts arein both LatinandFrench.In these aspects fr. 166 copies its directmodel, fr. 167. The manuscriptwas begun for JeanIPs third son, Philippele Hardi,duke of Burgundy,but was left incomplete on the duke's death in 1404. The page-forof page textualtranscription fr. 167 (almostfacsimilisingin its close attentionto detail) seems to have been finished by 1404, but of what would have been 321 folios only the first 169 have been preserved,togetherwith five fragmentsfrom later quires.14 the 5112 images in fr. 167,which survivescomplete, only 2692 Of
11. See Catalogue of French-Language Medieval Manuscripts in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library) and Meermanno-WestreenianumMuseum, The Hague, compiled by E. Brayer, published on microfilm and microfiche, Amsterdam 2003, with a downloadable Guide and introduction by A. S. Korteweg: Guide, p. 22, Catalogue, microfiche 9; an up-to-date bibliography is maintained at the Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts section of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek website. See also E. Laborde (as in n. 3), pp. 128-32, pis 782-87. 12. G. Mombello, 'Appunti su Julien Macho e sulla fortuna della Bible moralisee' Studi francesi, lxi, ', I977>PP- 157-76. 13. For the division between the fully-illustrated and the rest see Lowden (as in n. 1), Bibles moralisees pp. 2-4.
76
i. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. i66, fol. 46V,incipit of Joshua
JOHN LOWDEN
2. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. 46V,incipit of Joshu
78
are supplied in fr. 166;15 the time of Philippe'sdeath probablyonly 384 of by them had been finishedin the book'sfirstthree quires., togetherwith all but some finallayersof the 128 miniatures quirefour.These are documentedas the work in In of Paul and Jean,two of the so-called Limbourgbrothers.16 comparisonwith the high-quality of of fr. 167,the miniatures fr. 166 areremarkable grisailleimages for the increasing and use, quireby quire,of richpigments., for their exceptionally of detail and finish.Study of the imagesof fr. 166 is facilitatedby the high degree but close relationship fr. 167., complicatedby a series of attempts to manuscript's to continue the decorativeprogramme., first, it would seem, in the household of Rene, due d'Anjou,probablyin the 1450s (e.g. Fig. 1), and finallyfor Aymarde Poitiers,seneschalof Provence,in the I48os-'9os.17 Biblemoralisee, No other illustratedmedievalbook was like a fully-illustrated not just in terms of the requirementto provide thousands of images, but also in fundamentalaspects of layout and planning.For example,the page-for-page of copying of the text of the model, characteristic the relationshipof fr. 166 (c. to fr. 167 (c. 1350),is also characteristic the relationshipof fr. 167 to its of 1400) model, BL Add. 18719 (c. 1280), and of Add. 18719 to its model, the OxfordParis-LondonBiblemoralisee 1230-35).l8The survivalof so many links in the (c. chain of transmissionindicateshow carefullythese manuscriptswere preserved over centuries.It also revealsmuch evidence of the minutiaeof production.For example,the makersof BnF fr. 167 insertedat the end of Job an additionalsingle leaf (fol. 113),blankon its verso,so as to enablePsalmsto begin on the firstrecto of a new quire (fol. 114).This codicologicalanomalywas inheritedfrom BLAdd. 18719,alongwith a system of quiresof twelvefolios/sixbifolios (thiswas because its the model,Add. 18719, was not bound when copied, and hence by replicating structurethe numerous craftsmenof fr. 167 were able to work concurrentlyon copying the images on bifolios of the model onto correspondingbifolios of the workin progress).In contrast,because fr. 167 was not disboundto facilitatethe making of fr. 166 (for fr. 167 was not a workshopmodel, but a treasuredroyal book), the quirestructureof fr. 166 was the more usual eight folios/fourbifolios. Nonetheless, fol. 112 ends a quire in both manuscripts,and fol. 113 is a single leaf inserted before the start of Psalms on fol. 114 in fr. 166, exactly as in its model, fr. 167. On the otherhand, it is the differingquirestructuresof model and copy that explain a textual disorderin fr. 166, which is crucial to the study of the Bibles moraliseesin the fifteenthcentury.In copying quire six of fr. 167 the makersof quiresnine and ten of fr. 166 were misled by a disorderof the inner two bifolios
14. L. Delisle, 'Livres d'images destines a l'instruction religieuse et aux exercices de piete des litteraire la France, de xm, Quatorlaiques',in Histoire ziemesiecle, Paris1893,p. 242; Lowden(as in n. 1), 1, p. 256. cited in 15. Note that the total of 1340miniatures Lowden (as in n. 1), is incorrect(e.g., 1, pp. 5, 252, 329 n. 11). The number of folios (169) should be multipliedby 16, not by 8 (and then 12 subtracted from the total, giving 2692), as the folios are decorated on both sides. 16. Discussedin Lowden(as in n. 1), 1,pp. 273-76. 17. Ibid.,1,pp. 256-84. 18. Ibid.,I, pp. 139-284.
JOHN LOWDEN
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of the model, which they failed to notice.19Folios 69, 70, 71, and 72 of fr. 167 were copied in the order 71, 70, 69, 72. The sewing of quire six of fr. 167 must have come undone at the time of copying, with the two centralbifolios (69/72 and 70/71) fallingloose. Insteadof being re-nestedcorrectlyone withinthe other, the bifolio 70/71 must have been folded back to front (71/70), and the second bifolio, 69/72, must have been tucked in after 71/70. To make matters more complicated, when fr. 167 was rebound at some later date the order of the bifolios69/72 and 70/71was corrected,but the bifolio68/73was misplacedbefore 67/74. The originalnumberingby the scribe of the first six leaves in quire 6 of fr. 167 as/z -fvi confirmsthat when the manuscriptwas producedtherewas no disorder.But the modern foliationpostdatesthe misbinding,and so the bifolios in questionwere numberedin incorrectsequence:/^ was numbered67/74 and placed before/m, which was numbered68/73 (see diagram).Both fr. 167 and fr. 166 now havethe same foliation,but the quirestructureof fr. 166 does not permit the reorderingof these leaves to achieve the correct reading.The situation is complex, but of great significance.It is crucial to observe that no later manuscriptsreflectthe disorderof bifolios 67/74 and 68/73 of fr. 167, and only fr. 166 has the disorderover fols 69-72. We can be certain,therefore,that none of the latermanuscriptsis a copy of the text of fr. 166. The ambition and achievement of the makers of fr. 166 may be briefly summedup as follows.The manuscript plannedas a fullyillustrated was picturebook Biblernoralisee, painstakingly reproducingthe text and layout of its model,
Original binding: bifolios correctly nested
First misbinding, reflected in MS fr. 166
Second misbinding; modern misfoliation in brackets
Diagramshowingsuccessivebindingsof BnF MS fr. 167, centralpart of quiresix

19. The following discussion amplifies that in Lowden(as in n. i), I, pp. 254-55.
8o
BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES
3. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 47V,incipit of Joshua
JOHN LOWDEN
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fr. 167.The imagesof fr. 166 were much more carefullyexecutedthan those of fr. The illustrative of 167,each presentinga separatedemonstration artisticmastery. projectprovedfartoo taxing,however,and it was nevercompleted.The largepile of unfinishedquires,carefully preservedand returnedto at leasttwice throughout the fifteenth century, would have indicated to any patron or craftsmanthe a difficultiesinherentin the projectto make a 'traditional' Biblemoralisee, project which,even had Philippele Hardinot died in 1404,wouldverylikely(or so it can be proposed)have provedtoo taxingfor the Limbourgsto bringto completion. Vatican latinus25 (siglumR) City,BAVMS Reginensis At roughly the same time as work was under way on BnF fr. 166, or more broadlyin the decade c. 1400-10, a totallyunprecedentedtype of Biblemoralisee was also in productionin Paris. BAV Reg. lat. 25 (R) is a work of high quality and expense.20 The unknownpatron engaged four artists,one of whom can be identifiedas a memberof the 'Boucicautworkshop',named for the Masterof the Hours of the Marechal de Boucicaut (Paris, Musee JacquemartAndre MS 2; Parisc. 1405-08).2I Like BnF fr. 166, BAV Reg. lat. 25 was based (in some manner) on Bnf fr. 167,the Bible of Jean II le Bon, but the result was a manuscriptwhich is, paradoxically,both very similarto and very differentfrom its model.The Reginensis manuscripthas all the Latin and French texts of fr. 167, and consistentlyreproduces its model page for page, even in its overalldimensions (42 x 29-5 cm; fr. 167 measures 41-5 x 29 cm). In these aspects Reg. lat. 25 is also like fr. 166 (compare Figs 1-3). However, because of the later inclusion of two prefatory leaves in the foliation of Reg. lat. 25, but the omission by oversightof one leaf afterfol. 5 (addedlater,numbered'5 bis'), its folio numbersfrom fol. 6 onwards are alwaysequivalentto fr. 167 (or fr. 166) plus one, and hence run to a total of 322 (instead of the 321 of fr. 167). Reg. lat. 25 is bound in gatheringsof eight (like fr. 166) ratherthan the twelve of fr. 167, and it too has the added single leaf (its fol. 114) that permitsPsalmsto begin a new quire (on its fol. 115),following preciselythe model of fr. 167'sfolios 113and 114. Yet despite these fundamentalsimilarities,the appearanceof Reg. lat. 25 is totally unlike that of fr. 167 or fr. 166. Although the overalldimensions to the ruled area are similar (283 x 193 cm, comparedwith 282 x 205 cm in fr. 167), instead of a four-columnlayout on everypage, with eight texts and four images occupyingequal space in alternatingcolumns (each about 48-51 mm wide), the layout of Reg. lat. 25 provides for only two columns per page (each column about 86 mm wide). Insteadof the 5112 images of fr. 167,Reg. lat. 25 has just 76 . images (none aremissingor unfinished) These imagesbegin with a largefrontisto Genesis (14*6x 19-2 cm), which occupies the upper half of fol. 3r, the piece
20. See the references cited above, n. 7. 21. M. Meiss, FrenchPainting in the Timeof Jean de Berry: the BoucicautMaster, London 1968.
82
4. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 35V,text page
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first original leaf. There is no equivalentfrontispiecein fr. 167. (Fr. 166 has a magnificentdrawingof St Jeromein his study on an unfoliatedsingle leaf, facing fol. ir, which may alwayshave been intendedfor this location.)22 The decorative scheme in the remainderof Reg. lat. 25 consists, as a general rule, of a pair of imagesat the incipit of each biblicalbook.The textualdivisionsare as definedin fr. 167 where, for example,the Gospels and Epistles are each treatedas a single book, whereas the Minor Prophets are treated separately,and the eight-part Psalterdivisionis also observedby the use of enlargedinitials.Nonetheless,of the textual divisionsrecognisedin fr. 167, the books of Ruth, Judith,Lamentations, Joel, Obadiah,Zephaniah,Haggai and Zechariahhave no images in Reg. lat. 25; and Genesis,Judges,Psalm 1, Psalm 80, Hosea,Amos,Jonah,Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachieach have only a single (in each case a biblical)miniatureinsteadof a pair. Unlike the situation in fr. 167, where all the images are vertical rectangles measuringabout 67 x 49 mm, and are flankedby text in a column to the left, in Reg. lat. 25 the images are all horizontalrectanglesmeasuring57-75 x 88 mm (they varyfrom 11 to 14 lines high, but mostly occupy 13 lines), and are located in spaces in the text column left blank for the purpose by the scribe. At each incipitthe biblicalimage is placed abovethe firstLatin and Frenchbiblicaltexts, as a kind of preface,with the moralisation imagebelow, abovethe firstLatin and Frenchmoralisation texts. On pages that include a pair of images,the texts often had to be squeezed up by the scribe so as to accommodatethe spaces for the miniatures,but on the vast majorityof pages (more than 93%), in which Reg. lat. 25 reproducesthe texts of fr. 167 but has no images, the later manuscript has a strangelyincomplete appearance,since the blank lines left between the sixteen texts (which would otherwisefill a much smallerarea of each page) are with the very conspicuous(Fig. 4). The system of keepingin step, page-for-page, text of the model, while reducingthe number of miniaturesto two (or one) for each book of the Bible, broke down most notablyin the Minor Prophetswhere, for example, on fol. 222Vthere are incipits to four biblical books (Habakkuk, but Zephaniah, Haggai,and Zechariah) space could be found in the two columns for only a single miniature.(The four-columnlayout of fr. 167 here accommodateseightimageson the corresponding 22iv as usual.No page of Reg. lat. 25 fol. could accommodatemore than two images.) In terms of its text, Reg. lat. 25 could either be a direct copy of the text of in fr. 167,with the bifolios69/72 and 70/71 of the model arranged correctorder,23 of a lost intermediary the form of a workshopcopy of fr. 167, in or, alternatively, without createdso as to enablethe makingof furtherBiblesmoralisees specifically
22. Lowden (as in n. 1), 1,pp. 276-78 and colour pl. XXVI;Paris1400(as in n. 3), pp. 292-93, fig. 79. 23. As noted above (p. 6), only fr. 166 has the textualdisorderoverfols 69-72. In terms of its text, therefore,Reg.,lat. 25 cannot be a copy of fr. 166. sharea numberof Nonetheless,the two manuscripts minorvariants,e.g. those listed in Lowden (as in n. 1), 11,TheBookof Ruth,p. 258, scene 3, n. 7: ainsi] aussi; p. 259. scene 5, n. 2: fils I0] enfans; n. 6: etc. moururentprophetes]prophetesmorurent; See also the discussionof the Sacrificeof Isaac,below in this article.
84
5. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. IO2V, incipit of Job
JOHN LOWDEN
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the need to consult fr. 167 directly.24 The presence of some minor textual variantsin Reg. lat. 25 could support this theory, but systematic collation would be requiredto make the point secure. The putative workshop copy would have had to be organisedso as to transmitthe quire structureas well as the text and mis-en-page fr. 167. of Nonetheless the exceptional closeness of Vat. Reg. lat. 25 to fr. 167 can be seen, for example, where the French translationof the biblicaltexts of both Psalm 15 (fol. H5V)and Psalm 150 (fol. I32V)were omitted in fr. 167, and the scribe of Reg. lat. 25 left additional blank space to correspond to these lacunae (fols n6v, I33V).(The significance of these omissions will be discussedlater.) Moving beyond the evidence of the text, it is notable that many of the 6. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. IO3V, incipit of Job images of Reg. lat. 25 have no connection at all to those of fr. 167. For example,at the start of Job, Reg. lat. 25 illustratesa toweringJob shelteringhis family beneath his cloak, while in the moralisation image below, the Pope sheltersmale and female religiousin a similarfashion (Fig. 6). In fr. 167, on the other hand, Job is shown enthronedbetween his sons and daughters,with two 'the couplesbelow representing estatesin the?Holy Church'(Fig. 5, images 1-2). It is obviousthat fr. 167 cannotbe the model for the images of Reg. lat. 25 at this point. Even where correspondingimages are similar between the two manuscripts, the explanationcould simply be that they both illustratethe same text with similarvisual formulae.For example,the comparableimages of the sevencolumned building of Wisdom, moralisedby clergy and members of religious fr. orderssupportingHoly Church(Reg.lat. 25, fol. I36V; 167,fol. I35V; Figs 7-8), need not, I suggest, be linked directly as model and copy. Interestingly,some images, especiallyin the earlybiblical books, are comparablein the two manuscripts but are reversedin Reg. lat. 25, for example, the pairs of images at the start of Joshua (fr. 167, fol. 46V;Reg. lat. 25, fol. 47V;Figs 2-3). The most plausible explanationfor these variationsis, in my view, that Reg. lat. 25 was produced from a workshopmodel that contained brief written descriptionsof
24. Haussherr in n. 2), p. 56, discussesa space (as left in the French text of fr. 167 (and fr. 166), fol. 26vb,which is not transmittedin Reg. lat. 25, fol. but 27VD, thereis no such spacein eithermanuscript.
86
7. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. I35V,incipit of Sapientia/Sirach
JOHN LOWDEN
87
8. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. I36V5 incipit of Sapientia/Sirach
88
the imagesof fr. 167,not sketchesor more finishedminiatures. Certainlyit would be difficultto explain why the makers of Reg. lat. 25, if they had based themselves directlyon fr. 167, would have chosen to ignore its pictorial evidence so care consistently, given the extraordinary with which they copied its text. The one element of Reg. lat. 25 that indicates an attempt to providemore than precedent called for is the large frontispieceimage on fol. 3r (Fig. 9). Its conformto norms of Parisianbook production location and generalappearance at the beginning of the fifteenthcentury,ratherthan to anythingto be found in an earlierBiblemoralisee. More specificallythe so-called Marriageof Adam and Eve in a paradise setting, with God the Father, flanked by angels, about to iunctio(but takingtheir left hands in this case) as various performthe dextrarum animals look on, is reminiscent of frontispieces in, for example, Cambridge, Parisc. 1415), des Fitzwilliam MuseumMS 251, fol. i6r (Livredesproprieties choses, A Paris c. 1410).25 or BnF MS fr. 6446, fol. 3V(Josephus,Antiquites Judaiques, characteristic detail linking BnF fr. 6446 and BAV Reg. lat. 25 is the presence of small devils observingthe scene from the peripheryof paradise. By including moralisation images, some newly composed, within their reduced illustrative drastically plan, the makersof Reg. lat. 25 show real underAnd of the specialcharacter a Biblemoralisee. in choosingto reproduce of standing the the texts of a fully-illustrated Biblemoralisee page-for-page, makersshow what an importantelementthe layoutwas consideredto be. But by changingto a twocolumn layout,integrating imagesinto the text, locatingthem only at the startof biblicalbooks, and providinga largefrontispieceimagewithin a complexborder, Reg. lat. 25 indicates a desire on the part of its makersto assimilatethis Bible book production.By contrast, moralisee more closelyto norms of fifteenth-century the only decoratedborderin fr. 166 was to the opening leaf of Psalms,fol. ii4r, elsewherethe broad marginsare and it was suppliedin the last phase of work;26 left blank, as they are in fr. 167. Strikingly, however,the images of Reg. lat. 25, with the possible exceptionof the frontispiece,do not suggest a connectionwith that mainstayof early-fifteenth-century illuminatedbook production,namelythe
Bible historiale.
A possible scenario for the production of Reg. lat. 25 posits the use of a workshopcopy of the texts of fr. 167,and a descriptiverecordof its images,both perhapsmade at the time when fr. 166 was in production,but kept separately fromthat book.These workshopmaterialswould havebeen intendedto facilitate
25. Meiss, Boucicaut (as in n. 22), pp. 79-80; F. Wormald and P. M. Giles, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Additional Illuminated Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum, 2 vols, Cambridge 1982, 1, pp. 17275. Also BnF MS fr. 247, fol. 3 (c. 1420): see A. Heimann, 'Die Hochzeit Adam und Eva im Paradies nebst einigen andern Hochzeitsbildern', Wallraf Richartz Jahrbuch, XXXVII, 1975, pp. 11-40 (19-22); D. L. P. Byrne, 'The Illustrations to the Early Manuscripts of Jean Corbechon's French Translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De ProprietatibusRerum: 1372-c. 1420', PhD thesis, Cambridge University 1981, pp. 133-35. M.. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: the Limbourgsand theirContemporaries, London 1974, pp. 391-92, figs 167-69. Also New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.133, fol. 8iv: idem, FrenchPainting in the Timeof Jean de Berry: the Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke, London 1967, fig. 843. 26. Lowden (as in n. 1), 1, fig. 118.
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9. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 3r, Creation
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the makingof furtherBiblesmoralisees. recordsof this sort once existed,and That were regardedas valuable,is documentedby the preservation over a century, for along with the unbound quires of fr. 166, of two quires of paper which were described in the 1518 inventoryof the royal libraryat Blois, as containingthe 'formede faireles dictz histoires'.27 Ghent,UB MS 141 (siglumG) It was probablya few yearsafterthe makingof BnF fr. 166 and BAVReg. lat. 25, was around 1410-20, that anotherentirelynew type of Biblemoralisee produced in Paris. Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek MS 141 (G), is a somewhat smaller volume than the earlierBiblesmoralisees have examined, measuring37-4 x we about 26-5 cm, and it is notably shorter, now 196 folios (originally212 folios; comparethe 322 folios of BAVReg. lat. 25). It is writtenin two columns,with 41 lines per page in the Old Testament (fols 12-149), and 43 lines per page for the prologues (see below) and New Testament(fols 1-11, 150-196), these two latter sectionswrittenby the same scribe.All the scribesused a ruled block of approxi1-2 mately 24-2-4 x 16* x 6-7 cm (a perceptiblereductionfrom the dimensions of the block in Reg. lat. 25: 283 x 193 cm). The productionin Ghent UB 141 of a 'scaled-down'Biblemoralisee made possibleby the radicaldecisionto omit was all the Latintexts of all the biblicaland moralisation passages,with the exception of the incipits of the biblical books, the opening words of all the Psalms, and a few other short passages.The layout of the text bears no relationto the mis-enIndeed it looks entirely page (or quire structure)of any previousBiblemoralisee. like a 'normal'vernacular two-columnilluminatedmanuscriptof the period.The wherethe scribe to only conspicuousadjustment the layoutis found on fol. I49V, the text to ensure that the Old Testament ended at the end of a compressed to quire.But the close textualrelationship BnF fr. 167 can be seen, for example, in the omission on fol. 69Vand fol. 9Orof the Frenchtexts to Psalms 15 and 150 (mentioned above).These were both later supplied in the marginby the same hand (see below).28 mid-fifteenth-century The illustration in Ghent UB 141 takes the form of a prefatory author portrait (fol. ir), an image with no Bible moralisee precedent, a large Genesis frontispiece (fol. I2r, 14 x 15-8 cm), and just fourteen biblical miniatures, generallysquareishin format (approx.7X7 cm), all but one at the incipits of selected biblical books (Leviticus, Numbers, Joshua, I Kings, Paralipomena/ Esdras/Nehemiah, Job, Parables,Ecclesiasticus,Daniel, Gospels, Acts, Epistles,
27. Lowden (as in n. i), I, pp. 255, 266. See also the case of Oxford,BodleianLibraryMS d'Orville 141: D. Byrne, 'An Early French Humanist and Sallust:Jean Lebegue and the Iconographical Programmefor the Catilineand Jugurtha\this Journal, xlix, 1986,pp. 41-65. A. D. Hedeman,'Makingthe Past Present:VisualTranslationin Jean Lebegue's Twin Manuscripts Sallust,in Patrons, of Authors and
Books and Book Production in Paris circa Workshops:
Paris1400(as in n. 3), no. 117. 1400,forthcoming. 28. 'Sire garde moy pource que j'ay esperance en toy. Je dis a Nostre seigneurTu es mon Dieu et tu n'araspas deffaultede mes benefices'(Psalm15); 'Le tiltre est comme devant.Loez Nostre Seigneur en ses sains. Loez le ou firmament de sa vertu' (Psalm150).
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The one image to be included that is not associatedwith a biblical Apocalypse). incipit (apart from the author portrait) is the Sacrifice of Isaac (fol. i6v; see below). Five furtherbiblicalimages,or so it can be assumed,were at the incipits of Exodus, Judges,Psalms, Lamentations,and Hosea, on leaves that were subsequentlycut from the manuscript.It is odd that an image of the Judgementof Solomon (III Kings 3.16-28) was used as the prefatoryimage to Ecclesiasticus (Fig. 11);this is a point to whichwe shallreturn.On fol. 32Vspacewas left by the scribefor a miniatureto Deuteronomy,but for some reasonit was not supplied. Elsewhere,however,no space was left at the beginningof numerousotherbiblical books:for example,II-IV Kings,Tobit,Judith,Esther,etc. Most important, there are no moralisationimages in Ghent UB 141. Many of the images are unfinished,but the workof the artist,now thoughtto be a followerof the Master of the BerryApocalypse,29 be readilyidentified elsewhere:for example, in can in London, BL Royal 19.D.VI;in anotherBible historiale a Bible historiale now preserved in to Japan (Nagoya, Furukawa Museum of Art, formerly in the Doheny Collection) together with cuttings in the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor; and in a manuscript containing Genesis from the Bible historiale^ togetherwith othertexts, sold at Sotheby'sin 2003 (on all of which see below).30 The suppressionof half the textual content of BnF fr. 167, fr. 166, or BAV Reg. lat. 25 (i.e. the part in Latin), the omission of all moralisationimages, and the reductionof the vast illustrative cycle to a paltrytwenty-oneimages,combine to suggest that Ghent UB 141 is an unambitious and (in text-criticalterms) Biblesmoralisees. this is not But impoverisheddescendantof the fully-illustrated the whole story.Ghent UB 141 containsa rangeof texts, not found in any earlier Biblemoralisee, which together bear witness to a serious attempt to providethe readerof the book with additionalinformationand guidance.The achievement of the makersof Ghent UB 141, as exemplifiedby these texts, has hithertobeen The additionaltexts are as follows: overlooked. (1) Two prefaces:(i) fols ir-2v and (ii) 2v-nr. (2) A prefatory index to the book's content, listing 46 biblical books, with referencesto the folios:fol. 11. (3) Six additional passages interspersedin the moralisationsof the Creation narrative, linkingthe six days of Creationto the first six of the sevenAges of Man:fols I2r-i3v. (4) Four lengthy additionalpassagesinterspersedin Psalms 2-3, 6 and 26: fols 76r"v, and text on the lost leaf before fol. 76, supplied from BL Add. 79r, 15248,fol. iO9r"v.
29. Meiss, Limbourgs in n. 26), p. 370. The (as artistwas firstdiscussedby Nordenfalk(as in n. 8).
30. The Estelle Doheny Collection,II, Medieval and A Third Selection of Illuminated Manuscriptsfrom the Tenthto the Sixteenth Centuries,the PropertyofMrJ. R.
Renaissance Christie'ssale, London, 2 Manuscripts, December1987,lot 157 (olim PhillippsMS 11826).
Ritman...,Sotheby'ssale, London, 17June 2003, lot 12 (olim PhillippsMS 3668), currrently Antiquariat Bibermuhle (HeribertTenschert). AG
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i. THETWOPREFACES, which earlier Bibles moralisees for provide no precedent, are of special interest in that they prepared the reader for what followed and was to be understood.31The theme provided a guide as to how the Bible moralisee of the first preface, the fourfold method of scriptural exegesis, is a commonplace in the period,32 but the particular treatment it receives here is striking. (i) Ghent UB 141, first preface Here is the opening passage (the French text is transcribed below, pp. 101-02 and n. 38): How Holy Scripture be expoundedin fourways. can in can Holy Scripture be expoundedrationally fourways.Firstly,accordingto the letter, to to that and according the story.Secondly,according allegory, is to say according faith to that to anagogy, is to say and according those thingswe must believe. to Thirdly,according whichwe awaitand forwhichwe in applying to Holy Scripture the good thingsof paradise must hope. The fourth is accordingto tropology,that is to say when Holy Scriptureis And the appliedto good ways, to the teachingof good living, and accordingto charity. to translator this book intendsto proceedaccording this fourthmethod,that is to sayto of recountin shortpassagesall the historiescontainedin the Bible, and to providefor each to shortmoralities, concordant with the sequenceof stories,according the doctorsof holy in the noble university Paris,becausemanypeoplemaybe struckto hearshort of theology is discussions,for sometimestheirunderstanding impededby the prolixityand slow pace of the language,so that they cannot understandwhat they hear, and others are wearied and with impatience. And there are otherswho requirelong and extendedscriptures, for he such as wishto hearthe historiesof the Biblemorefullyand prolixly can haverecourse in to whatis expoundedaccording the Masterof the histories[i.e., in the Biblehistoriale] to whichthe Scriptures largeand extensivein several volumes. are is in And on this subjectSt Gregory, the prefaceto his Moralities, that Holy Scripture says like a river,and trulyvery wonderful,for altogetherand at the same time it is low and shallow, high and deep, such that, he says,and in such a fashionthat a lamb can go there is on foot and an elephantcan swimthere.33 the lamb,whichamongall little creatures By the most innocentand withoutanymalicehe meansthe simplefolk,who have,as though by theirnature,theirheartsgreatlydevotedto virtues,but like the lamb havetheirheads
31. Laborde (as in n. 3), p. 125, discusses the parallel text in BL Add. MS 15248. See also Haussherr (as in n. 2), p. 57. In general see G. Dahan, 'Les prologuesdes commentaries bibliques ed. medievaux, (XIIe-XIVesiecle)', in Les prologues J. Hamesse (Textes et etudes du Moyen Age, xv), Turnhout2000, pp. 427-70; and G. Hasenohr,'Les prologuesdes texts de devotionen langue francaise (XIIIe-XVe siecles)',ibid.,pp. 593-638. 1, 32. E.g., H. De Lubac, MedievalExegesis, The Four Senses Scripture, GrandRapidsand Edinburgh of 1998. 33. Gregorythe Great, Moraliain Job, intr. R. A. Gillet,transl. de Gaudemaris (Sourceschretiennes, xxxii bis), Paris 1975, 1, pp. 128-29. Cf. Haymo of Halberstadt,Homily 119: Patrologiaecursus completus. SeriesLatina,ed. J.-P.Migne, Paris1844-64 is [hereafter PL], cxviii, col. 639A.The allegory used Vision,transl. by Christinede Pisan; see Christine's G. K. McLeod, New York and London 1993, pp. 142-43. The text was probablyexcerptedfrom the florum of Thomas of Ireland: see the Manipulus edition publishedin Venice c. 1495, sig. Gvir,now available on the internet through the Electronic Manipulus Florum Project of Wilfrid Laurier University:search under 'Scripturasacra' chapter AK. See in general, H. andM. A. Rouse,Preachers, R. Florilegiaand Sermons:Studies on the Manipulus Florum Thomas Ireland, PIMS StudiesandTexts of of xlvii, Toronto1979.
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[full of] goodness and caprice and innocence, that is to say little understanding and subtlety. By the elephant, which of all good beasts is the greatest on earth, such that it seems from a distance like a mountain, he means the valiant clerks, who surpass all others by goodness and understanding, as does the elephant all beasts, according to the naturalists
The text continues with a discussion of the marvels of Holy Scripture,and a It strongwarningas to the dangersof ignorantinterpretation.34 ends with a fourfold exposition of the meanings of Jerusalem35 as cUne cite faite de (described murs et de maison, comme est Paris')and Babylon.The finalpassagereads:
And so, in expounding the various words of Holy Scripture one must interpret them wisely, and question someone wiser than oneself. And because many words are found [which are to be expounded] in this way in the Bible, I have made a little treatise of them at the start of this book, which sets forth and defines the varied signification of all such words. I pray all those who will read this book that they will wish to tolerate my ignorance, and hold me forgiven, as to this little work.36
(ii) Ghent UB 141, second preface the The second preface., 'petit traictie'., much longer than the first, and quite is differentin character.It consists of thirty-six passages each discussing different words.They are of varyinglength, from just a few lines (e.g. Parfaii)to four and pages (Jugement), they occur in an orderlackingany obvious logic (such as
their occurrence in the text) : Confession,Adinvention, Sire, Tabernacle, Prophete, Comes, Enfer, Dieu, Plom, Bras, Crist, Burre, Salutaire, Repondre, Cantique, EgliseITriumphant, Jugement, Vin, Vengence,Aigle, Retribution, Main, Siecle, Catholique,Foy, Trinite, Confondre,Autre, Deite et Divinite, Incarnation, Parfait, Crist [again], Confusion, Unite, Descendit, Siet. The style of the passages varies
greatly,as can be judgedfrom a few examples(Frenchtexts are providedin the tablesbelow on pp. 104-07), startingwith the openingtwo.
Here begins the elucidation of several words contained in the Bible, and firstly of the word Confession. Confession, in so far as it pertains to this work, is of two sorts, that is to say of praise and of denunciation. And so to confess to God, without saying 'I confess to God', is to attribute and give to him praise and glory and honour for all good things and all good accomplish34. Note that in the Introductionto book xi (i.e. vol. 11) of Raoul de Praelles'stranslationof Augustine's Civitas Dei there is much discussion of exposition declaration theology is strictly and but reservedfor docteurs; A. de Laborde,Les manusee scritsa peintures la Citede Dieu de SaintAugustin, de 3 vols, Paris 1909, 1, p. 38 and e.g. vol. ill, pl. XII (BnFMSfr. 171). 35. CompareBibliaLatinacum GlossaOrdinaria, 1480-81, repr.facs. ednTurnhout 4 vols, Strasbourg 1992,1,p. 6a. 36. Ghent UB MS 141, fol. 2V:'Et pourtant,en exposantles diversmos de la Sainte Escriptureon les doit sagementinterpreter, a plus sages de lui et demander,et pourtantque tout plein de mos sont trouvezde celle maniereen la Bible, en ay ie fait un petit traictie au commencement de ce livre, qui de descriptet determinela diversesignification tous telz mos. Si prie a tous ceulx qui ce livrelirontqu'ils vueillentmon ignorancesupporter,et me tenir por excuse,quanta ceste petite euvre.'
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merits. And alternatively,to confess is to denounce oneself, and to judge oneself culpable before a priest as before God, and so one says 'I have sinned in speaking too much, I confess it', as the Confiteor understood in the ABC. And thus you can see how it can be is understood in two ways, for whatever the circumstances the sergeant, who has erred, diminishes the anger of his lord when he concedes the right to him, and the wrong to himself, in humbly begging pardon. And sometimes it is to attest, or to authorise, as when one says 'I confess it to you', 'I attest it to you'. But this is not to our subject. Of the word Invention (Adinvention) The word Invention is sometimes understood in Scripture in a bad sense, and thus invention means invent a lie, falsehood, and wicked trap to deceive another.And sometimes it is understood in a good sense, and then it means some good new edict reached by great deliberation, of great sense and great virtue. Thus it is understood here.
which are Different in characterare the elucidationsof, for example.,Vengence, and replace a conversational with a dry listing of subdivisions, systematic, style each exemplifiedby a biblical reference of a sort conspicuous by its absence, giventhe statedpurposeof the preface,from some of the otherpassages(such as and Confession Adinvention). (Frenchtext below pp. 104-06.)
The exposition of the word Vengeance. The word Vengeance is understood in several ways. First, vengeance of justice, of which one says in the litany, Neque vindictamsumas de peccatismeis,'Lord, do not take vengeance on account of my sins'.37Vengeance of bravery and of battle, of which David says 'God who gives me vengeance'.38 Vengeance of sentence of judgement, to which the wise Ecclesiastes refers [chapter]V, 'Do not wish' he says, 'to set your heart on iniquitous and tawdry possessions, for they will be worth nothing on the day of vengeance'.39Vengeance of the pain of purgatory, of which the wise ProverbsV says 'The fury of God will spare nothing on the day of vengeance'.40 Vengeance of the fire of hell, of which the wise Ecclesiastes XXV says 'Who wishes to be avenged of God shall find vengeance'.41 Vengeance of temporal punishment, of which St John says in his Apocalypse in the person of the martyrs to God, 'How long, Lord holy and true, before you avenge our blood?'42 Although the second preface in Ghent UB 141, like the first, is anonymous,
a numberof sources are cited: cSaintGregoiresus EzechieP(in Prophete), 'Saint Jherosme' (Come), 'Ysidore' (Dieu), 'Livre de la Propriete [des choses]' of 'MaistreRichartde (Jugement), Tapie' [the Elementarium Papias] (Siecle),43 Saint Victor' (Foy), 'le poete [Ovid]' (Trinite),'Maistre Hue de Saint Victor' But (Incarnation). these representsome of the authoritieson whose workspecific in the text are based, without takingus closer to the author/compiler. passages This we shallbe able to do below.
37. Introduction to the litany after the Seven Penitential Psalms. 38. II Kings 22.48. 39. Sirach 5.1.
40. 41. 42. 43.
Proverbs 6.34. Sirach 28.1. Apocalypse 6.10. See e.g. BL Add. MS 8244, fol. I35V.
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An index to the contents of a book, usuallybased on the rubrics,was a commonplace feature in manuscriptproduction in Paris c. 1400, but no earlierBible had moralisee contained one. A few elements of the list in Ghent UB 141 are is notable. Lelivre de Paralipomenon' listed separatelyfrom 'le livre de Esdras vision le propheteet de Neemie', althoughthey aretreatedtogether.'La premiere du propheteEzechieP(Ezechiel 1.1) is followedby claseconde' (whichbegins at Ezechiel 8.1). The book of Micah is omitted: this is a characteristicof all the descended from the Oxford-Paris-Londonmanuscript.The Bibles moralisees Gospels are termed 'les IIII ewangiles selon la Bible'.The epistlesare listed as a unity under the name 'Saint Pol'. And the table is followed by a title: cCyapres s'ensuit le premierlivre de la Bible nomme Genesis, moralisiezet translatezde latin en francois'.
3. GHENT UB 141. SEVEN AGES OF MAN
Movingfromthe prefacesto the additionaltexts in the openingpages of Genesis, that follow the biblicaltexts these are includedpiecemealafterthe moralisations here in the usualway on fols I2rb-i3vb. Days One,Two, and Seven aretranslated to give an idea of their content and style (French texts transcribedbelow, pp.
109-10). [Day One] The doctors [of the church] say that man is like the microcosm {petit monde), for the creation of the macrocosm (grant monde)can be figured by the creation and regeneration of the microcosm, that is to say man, who has seven ages, of which the first is called childhood, which lasts until seven years [old].44 Of which we may say that God at the beginning of man created heaven and earth, that is to say body and soul, for heaven signifies the soul, which is eternal like heaven, and earth signifies the body, which in the end always returns to earth, as to its mother. Text After the spirit of God had moved over the waters, giving us his grace by the fount of baptism, then light was made. That is to say man becomes in a state of grace, who previously was in original sin, and so the first day was accomplished, that is to say the first age of man. [Day Two] The division of the good and bad [discussed in the moralisation] signifies the second age of man, and in Latin is called pueritia,which lasts from seven years to fourteen, which can be called the age of purity. And so we can say that the firmament which is in the middle signifies charitablepeople, for to the truly charitablelittle honour and moderate possessions
although 44. Note that the HistoriaScholastica, the mentioning microcosm,does not cite the macrocosm or ages of man:'Unde a Domino homo omnis
creatura dictus est, et Graecus[i.e., Plato]hominem id Microcosmum, est minoremmundumvocat.'PL, cxcvm, col. 1055B.
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suffice, seeing that charity is not at all without sufficiency and like the firmament is in the middle. And no position is as strong as the middle. And Aristotle, in his book of Ethics, bears witness to this when he says that virtue lies in the middle, etc.
The treatmentof the days of creation concludes.,however,with a moralisation derivedfrom BnF fr. 167., which notablyomits referenceto the Ages of Man:
[Day Seven] The seventh day is the state of the soul when it shall repose in contemplation of the eternal Church, which will be after judgement, when God will have said to the wicked 'Go hence, cursed ones', and to the good 'Come to me, blessed ones, come'.
The explicitly cited sources in these passages, apart from Aristotle, are St Augustine and 'Hue de SaintVictor ou VHP chapitrede son livre qu'il fist de l'ArcheNoel', both in Day Six.The languageand style of the texts are much like those of the Prefaces.
4. GHENT UB 141. PSALMS
In the Psalms, by contrast,the new texts are complex, wordy, and notable for the reference to Jewish sources and to the 'hebrieux presens', that is to say The first passage reads as follows (supplied contemporaryJewish scholars.45 from BL Add. 15248 [see below] due to the loss of the first leaf of Psalms in Ghent UB 141;Frenchtext below on pp. 112-13):
Here begins in the name of God the narration and discussion [French execution, from Latin of this book, which can be divided into two overall parts, for in the first it treats of executio] Jesus Christ's kingdom, in the second it treats of his priesthood, which begins Dixit Dominusetc. [Psalms 109]. And this division is not wholly distinct, for sometimes it talks in the first part of Jesus Christ's priesthood, and in the second of his kingdom, and so as is said above one cannot make a clear division by practical means in this book. And nonetheless one can divide the first part into seven, according to the seven matins. It is not possible to divide [it] otherwise except by expounding each Psalm individually.And this Psalm has no title, as stated above, by which one might know who made it. Nonetheless the Jews of today say that David made it for the victory he had over the Philistines, who came to fight him so as to destroy his kingdom when they heard tell that he was publicly anointed and consecrated king over all Israel, as it appears in the second book of Kings, in the first chapter. And according to this understanding they expound this Psalm literally [to be] of David who speaks personally and says, 'Why have the nations raged and roared and the peoples thought vain things?''Why have the nations raged', that is to say the Philistines, for all those who were not Jews were called nations or gentiles. 'And the peoples' that is to say of the various cities of the Philistines, who were the principal enemies of the Jews, 'have thought vain things', and have indeed said vain things, for they intended to destroy his kingdom, at which they failed.
Traditionen 45. See in generalW. Bunte, Rabbinische bei Nikolaus von Lyra:ein Beitrag zur Schriftauslegung des SpdtmittelalterS) Frankfurt 1994.
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10. Bible moralisee,Ghent UB MS 141, fol. I2r, Creation
98
No comparable exegetical passage had appeared previously in a Bible moralisee. Indeed, despite its clear constructionand carefulwordingthe passage could be thought completelyinappropriate a Biblemoralisee, it presentsan for to literal/historical of scripture,and is notablefor lackingany entirely interpretation moral/tropological explanation.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Turning to the illustrationsof Ghent UB 141,these bear no close relationto the images of any previousBiblemoralisee. The large Genesis frontispiece (Fig. 10), set within a fully-decorated border,shows God enthronedcentrally in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by animals,and addressingAdam and Eve who stand at the left. It is of a type that might be found in a Bible historiale, although it does not closely resemble any particular surviving manuscript. The subsequent biblical images are on pages without borders. The Judgement of Solomon, often used
in Bibles historiales as one of the
four images in the large frontispiece to volume two, which begins with is Parables,46 surprisinglyused as an image to Ecclesiasticus (Fig. 11). The formulaic author portrait on fol. ir shows a monk or priest seated in a canopied wooden chair, wearing a black cap and an ermine-lined red habit preaching or teaching from an open book on a lectern to which a boy reachesup and points.47
11.Biblemoralisee , GhentUB MS 141,fol. IO2V, of Judgement Solomon incipitof Ecclesiasticus,
Bibliotheek/Biblio46. E.g., Brussels,Koninklijke thequeRoyale[hereafter KBR]MS 9002, fol. 3r;The MS Hague, Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum
Eton and 19.D.III; 10 B 23; BL RoyalMSS 17.E.VII CollegeMS 3; BnF MSS fr. 159,fr. 20090. (as 47. Haussherr in n. 2), fig. 14.
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12. Bible historiale,Brussels, KBR MS 9001, fol. I9r, Creation
ioo
Sources theNew Materialin GhentUB 141. of KBR MSS 9001-02 (siglumB) BibleHistoriale, The Brussels, In Ghent UB 141,in the prologueon the four methods of expositionof scripture, the author,while not naming himself, appears as 'le translateurde ce present livre'.He takes credit for authorship(cayje fait un petit traictieau commencement de ce livre'),and apostrophises readersin the first person ('qu'ilsvueillent mon ignorancesupporteret me tenir por excuse quant a ceste petite euvre');48 the other additionaltexts avoid the first person. But in fact not only was the author of the preface in Ghent UB 141 not the 'translatorof the present book' (the Frenchtext of which goes back to BnF fr. 167), he was not even the author or translator the firstpreface,nor of the 'littletreatise'that follows it.What he of translated actuallydid was, for the most part,merelyadapttexts he found already in a Biblehistoriale. and this is crucial,these were not the standardprefaces But, or texts of the Biblehistoriale tradition,but texts now found in only a single Bible, TourceKBR MSS 9001-02 (B), wherethey takethe place of the usual prefaces: le diable...', 'A honourablepere...' and 'En palaisdu roy et d'empereur...'. que A product of Parisianworkshopsof high quality of the years around 1410, that crucialperiod in which, as we have seen, entirelydifferentideas of what a KBR 9001-02 is unlike all other Biblemoralisee should be were in circulation,49 Bibleshistoriales only in includingthese particular not prefatorytexts, but in also scattered through its pages, large parts of the verbatimtext of the including, and moralisations the Biblemoralisee^ in some cases its biblicaltexts as well.50 of termed KBR 9001-02 a 'Bible SamuelBerger,in his pioneeringwork,accurately historialeavec moralites'.51 he did not go on to explore or even to suggest But and any connection between this manuscriptand the Biblesmoralisees^ neither have subsequentresearchers.52 Ghent UB The nature of the close relationshipbetween the Biblemoralisee Brussels, KBR 9001-02, can be demonstratedby a 141, and the Biblehistoriale
48. See above, n. 38. 49. Pending the publication of B. Bousmanne, F. Johan, C. van Hoorebeeck, La librairiedes dues de Manuscritsconservesa la Bibliotheque Bourgogne. royale de Belgique, vol. VI (in preparation), in general see C. Gaspar and F. Lyna, Les principaux manuscrits a peinturesde la Bibliotheque Royalede Belgique,I, Societe francaise de reproductions de manuscrits a peintures, Paris 1937, no. 189, pp. 445-50; Tresors la Bibliode thequeRoyale de Belgique, Brussels 1958, no. 21, pp. 45-47; L. M. J. Delaisse et al., MiddeleeuwseMiniaturenvan de Librijevan Boergonde het Handschriftentot kabinet van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van Belgie, Amsterdam [1959], no. 21, pp. 96-99; A. Komada, 'Les illustrations de la Bible historiale:les manuscrits realises dans le Nord', PhD thesis, Universite Paris IV 2000, and pp. 653-59 on KBR 9001-02. Colour illustration of KBR 9002, fol. 6ir, in M. Camille, Master of Death: the Lifeless Art of Pierre Remiet Illuminator, New Haven, CT and London 1996, p. 145; and of fol. 223r in P.-M. Bogaert, Les Bibles en frangais: histoireillustreedu Moyen Age a nos jours, Turnhout 1991, p. 32. Camille, ibid., pp. 147-48 and 250, attributes to Pierre Remiet 'in MS 9001 marginal figures on fol. 1, miniatures on fols 2i2r, 2i4v, 374r, and in MS 9002 marginal figures on fol. 6ir and miniatures on fols 288r and 3i9v'. 50. For example all 14 pairs of biblical and moralisation texts to Ruth on fols i82r-83r. 51. S. Berger, La Bible frangaise au Moyen Age, Paris 1884, p. 421 52. Presence of moralisations noted in Komada (as in n. 51), pp. 653-59; but Lamentations and Mark, listed as without 'moralites' (p. 657), in fact preserve them (KBR 9002, fols I23V-28V,26iv-62v), whereas Micah by contrast lacks them.
JOHN LOWDEN
101
number of test cases. The passages chosen here are those translated above. the We can startby comparing openingsof the prefaceon the fourfoldexposition of Scripture.This is accompaniedin KBR 9001, as if it were the beginning of Genesis, by a large Creation image (Fig. 12), about 18-8 x 20*5 cm, with six panels, including Reason enthroned,the Trinity as Creator,and the Fall of the RebelAngels (i.e., completelyunlike the Creationimage in Ghent UB 141, Fig.
10).
OF COMPARISON KBR9OOI AND GHENT UB 141, STARTOF FOUR-FOLD PROLOGUE EXPOSITION Bible historiale,KBR 9001, fols I9r-2OV
Cy commence ung prologue sur le commencement de la Bible, comment par quatre sens ou par quatre manieres se puet la Sainte Escripture exposer.
Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fol. ir
Comment la Sainte Escripture se puet exposer en quatre manieres.
La Sainte Escripture se puet raisonnablement par quatre manieres exposer. Premierement selons la lettre et selons l'istoire. Secondement selons l'alegorie, c'est a dire selons la foy et selons les choses que nous devons croire. La tierce maniere selons l'anagogie, c'est a dire en appliquant la Sainte Escripture aux biens de paradis lesquelz nous attendons et desquelx devons esperance avoir. Le IIIIe sens c'est selons la tropologie, c'est a dire quant la Sainte Escripture est appliquee a bonnes meurs, et a l'instruction de bonne vie, et selon charite. Et pour ce ou proces de cest livre quant l'exposition sera selons l'istoire il sera nottez et figurez, et pareillement des autres expositions.
La Sainte Escripture se peut raisonnablement par IIII manieres exposer. Premierement selon la lettre et selon l'istoire. Secondement selon l'alegorie, c'est a dire selon la foy et selon les choses que nous devons croire.Tiercement selon l'anagogie, c'est a dire en appliquant la Sainte Escripture aux biens de paradis lesquelx nous attendons et desquelx nous devons esperance avoir. La IIIIe est selon la tropologie, c'est a dire quant la Sainte Escripture est appliquee aux bonnes meurs, a l'instruction de bonne vie, et selon charite.
Et selon cest quarte maniere entent le translateurde ce present livre proceder, c'est a ssavoir de raconpter en briefves paroles toutes les histoires qui sont contenues en la Bible, et sus chacune mettera assez briefves moralitez, concordans aux histoires procedant, selon les docteurs de la sainte theologie en la noble universite de Paris. Pource que
102
BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES . . . Bible moralisee^Ghent UB 141
. . . Bible historiale, KBR 9001
Et a ce propos Saint Gregoire, ou prologue de ses Moralitez, dit que la Sainte Escripture si est comme une riviere, et vraiement bien merveilleuse, car tout ensemble et en ung temps est petite et basse, hauste et parfonde, et en tant, dit il, et par telle maniere, que ung aingnel y puet aler a pie et ung elephant y puet noer. Par Taingnel qui de toutes bestelletes est le plus innocent et sans quelque malice il entent les simples gens, qui ont comme de nature les cuers a bien et a vertus adonnez, mais comme l'aingnel ont avec leur ceste bonte et innocence, pou d'entendement et soutillite. Par l'elephant qui de toutes bonnes bestes est le plus grant sus terre, et en tant qu'il semble une montaigne de loing, il entent les vaillans clercs, et qui les autres tous surmontent et de bonte et d'entendement, comme fait l'elephant toutes bestes selon les naturiens. Doncques vuelt Saint Gregoire dire ...
pluseurs se sioissent d'oir briefves^ matieres [col. 2] car aucune foiz par la prolixite et longueur du langage ilz sont empeschiez en leur entendement, siques ilz ne pevent pas comprandre de ce qu'ilz oyent, et les autres se ennuient par impatience. Et autres sont qui demandent longues et extendues escriptures, et pour tant qui vouldra oir les histoires de la Bible plus a plain et plus prolixement il pourra recourre a celle qui est exposee selon le Maistre es Histoires, ou les escriptures sont grandes et extendues en pluseurs volumes. Et a ce propos dist Saint Gregoire, ou proesme de ses Moralitez, que la Sainte Escripture est aussi comme une riviere, et vraiement bien merveilleuse, car tout ensemble et en un temps est petite et basse, hauste et parfonde, en tant, dist il, et par telle maniere, que un aignel y peut aler a pie et un elephant y peut nouer. Par 1' aignel qui entre toutes les bestelletes est la plus innocent et sans quelconques malice il entent les simples gens, qui ont comme de leur nature leurs cuers a bien et a vertus adonnez, mais comme 1' aignel ont avecque leurs testes bonte et teste et innocence, c'est a ssavoir pou d'entendement et de soubtillite. Par l'elephant qui de toutes bonnes bestes est le plus grant sus terre, et en tant qu'il semble une montaigne de loing, il entent les vaillans clers, qui tous les autres surmontent de bontez et de entendement, comme fait l'elephant toutes les bestes selon les naturiens. Dont Saint Gregoire veult dire...
1.
briefves] + paroles expunctuated.
JOHN LOWDEN
103
The 'translator the presentbook' in Ghent UB 141 can be seen to have added of the long passagethat focuses on the tropological/moral and (uninterpretation awareof anyirony)the benefitsof concision.In KBR 9001, in contrast, author the states that he will draw attention to all four manners of exposition. Ghent UB as 'in 141's referenceto the Biblehistoriale an alternative which the scripturesare largeand extensivein severalvolumes'can now be seen as not just a genericcomparison, but possibly a knowingreferenceto a specific source:the two massive volumes of KBR 9001-02 (435 + 385 folios, 45-8 x 32-5 cm, ruled for 50 lines . per page in two columns, 30 x 20*5 x 9 cm, with 183 miniatures) The closing in the preface in Ghent UB 141 (translatedabove,p. 16), in which the passage authorrefersto his 'petit traictie'and asksfor the reader'sforgiveness,is also an additionnot found in the text in KBR 9001, which ends by repeating warning the to leave exegesisto the masters.53 The second Biblemoralisee des preface,the lengthyDeclaration mots,is placed first in the Biblehistoriale KBR 9001 (fols ir-nv), and accompaniedby a miniature (Fig. 13), about 9 cm square, showing the author at work on the left, and on the right the presentationof the book by a kneeling tonsured donor to an enthronedking,identifiedby CamilleGasparand FredericLyna as Charles VI.54 The preface discusses the same words, in the same order, as in Ghent UB 141, with the followingexceptions: KBR 9001 addsthe headingProphecie Prophete after (but the subsequentmaterialis present in UB 141);KBR 9001 adds Les Dieux I is (only fifteenwords long) afterPlom;the headingEgliseTriumphant omitted in KBR 9001 (althoughthe text for this entry,identificalto that in UB 141,appears at the end of Repondre); KBR 9001, the heading Trinite UnitereplacesTrinite in et in UB 141 (but the materialis identical in both manuscripts);KBR 9001 has Divinite (in place of Deite et Divinitein UB 141, which, however,has no extra material),followedbyTel et Quel (but this materialis includedin Deiteet Divinite in UB 141); and KBR 9001 omits Unite,Descendit3 but the materialis all Siet3 includedin Confusion. The close relationshipof Brussels KBR 9001 and Ghent UB 141 in the de motsis easily demonstratedby comparison prefaceon the Declaration pluseurs of the firsttwo passages(translated above,pp. 93-94) .
53. KBR MS 9001, fol. 20v: 'Que chacun doit doubter la maniere comment Ten puisse tous ses sens appliquer,aux maistresdemandez,et aussi la laissecarlaissierla doy qui bien regarde chosesci les dessusescriptesou dites.' 54. Gasparand Lyna (as in n. 51), p. 446. The idea to include a prefaceof 'mots estranges'(as the
running header in KBR 9001 terms it) may have been suggestedby the preface to Pierre Bersuire's translationof Livy ('Tite-Live') made for Jean II le book in ducallibraries the 15th in Bon, and a popular . century(a suggestionI owe to A. D. Hedeman)
104
COMPARISON OF KBR 9001 AND GHENT UB 141, START OF 'DECLARATION DES PLUSEURS MOTS'
Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. ir Cy commence la declaration de pluseurs mots contenus en la Bible et premierement declaire ce mot Confession, et les autres apres ensuivant par ordre.
Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fols 2v~3r Ci commence la declaration de pluseurs mos contenus en la Bible et premier[ement] de ce mot Confession. ^
Confession, quant a ceste oeuvre touche, est de deux manieres, c'est a ssavoir de loenge et de accusation. Et ainsi doncques selons ce confesser a Dieu, sans dire 'Je me confesse a Dieu', c'est lui attribuer et a lui donner la loenge, la gloire et l'onneur de tout bien et de perfection, et ainsi la est il prins. Et confesser c'est soy accuser, et iugier coulpable, et tesmoignier au prestre comme a Dieu, et ainsi la est il prins et confesser c'est soy accuser et iugier coulpable et tesmoignier au prestre comme a Dieu, et ainsi Ten dit 'J'aypechie en trop parler, je m'en confesse', et ainsi est prins confiteor en l'ABC. Et veoir povez que en toutes les deux manieres aussi puet estre ycy prins, car sur toutes choses du monde sergent, qui a mespris, rabat l'yre de son seigneur quant a son seigneur donne le droit, et a soy le tort, en demandant humblement pardon. Et ainsi puet estre dit du second mot aprez seignie Confessez. Et oultre ce, confesser est prins pour tesmoingnier et octroier, comme Ten dit 'Je le vous confesse'. Mais de ce non plus, car ce n'est pas a mon propos.
La declaration de ce mot Adinvention.
Confession, en tant comme a ceste euvre appartient, est de deux manieres, c'est a ssavoir de louange et de accusation. Et ainsi confesser Dieu, sans dire 'Je me confesse a Dieu', c'est lui attribueret donner la louenge et la gloire et l'onneur de tout bien et de toutes perfections. Et autrement, confesser c'est soy accuser, et jugier coulpable au prestre comme a Dieu, et ainsi
dit on 'J'aypechie en trop parler, si m'en confesse', si comme est confiteor pris en l'ABC. Et par ainsi povez veoir comment il puet estre pris en deux manieres, car sur toutes les choses du monde le sergent, qui a mespris, rabat l'ire de son seigneur quant il lui donne le droit, et a soy le tort, en demandant humblement pardon, Et aucune fois est pour tesmoingnier, ou pour octroier, si comme on dit 'Je le vous confesse', 'Je le vous tesmoingne'. Mais ce n'est pas a nostre propos.
De ce mot Adinvencion.
Ce mot adinventions aucune fois est prins en l'Escripture en mauvaise signification, et ainsi adinvencion c'est a dire contreuve bourde menconge et mauvaise cautelle pour autrui decevoir. Et souvent est ainsi pris ou Psaultier.
Ce mot adinvencion est aucune fois pris en l'Escripture en mauvaise signification, et ainsi adinvencion c'est a dire contreuve bourde mensonge et mauvaise cautelle pour autrui decevoir.
in 1. de ce mot Confession: margin.
JOHN LOWDEN
105
13. Bible historiale,Brussels, KBR MS 9001, fol. ir
io6
BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES Ghent UB 141 . . . Bible moralisee, Et aucune foiz il est pris en bonne signification, et lors il signifie aucune bonne nouvelle ordonnance faite par grant deliberation, de grant sens et de grant vertu. Ainsi est il y apris.
. . . Bible historiale, KBR 9001 Et aucune foiz est prins en bonne signification, et lors signifie aucune bonne nouvelle ordonnance faite par grant deliberation, de grant sens et de grans vertus, et ainsi est yci prins.
Although in these first two short elucidationsGhent UB 141 remainsclose to KBR 9001 (omitting the erroneouslyrepeated passage in 'Confession', and cutting a few words here and there).,in many of the longer passagesthe UB 141 version is considerablyabbreviated.Overall,this preface is some 30% longer in KBR 9001. Amongthe elementsthat fall victimto abbreviation UB 141 arethe in of some of the sources on which the text draws.In addition acknowledgements to the attributions mentionedabove,KBR 9001 qualifies'SaintJherosme'as 'sus Abacuch' (Come), cites Tlinius ung maistre' (Jugement),and adds to 'Maistre Richartde SaintVictor'the referencecenson livrede laTrinite'(Foy).KBR 9001 identifies in addition as sources 'Frere Morise en ses Distinctions' (Cantique, C 'la Bras,Jugement), glose ou prologue sus le Psaultier'(Prophecie, antique),'la sur le livre de Nombres' (Dieu),'MaistreNicole glose' (Come,Burre),'Origenes en sa Question contre les Juifs' (Dieu), 'Saint Gregoireen une Homelie' (Bras), 'Platon'(Foy),and 'MaistreHue 'Solon, ung des sept sagesde Grece' (Jugement), de SaintVictor ... en son Didascalion'(Foy).
MAURICEOF PROVINS A SOURCEOF KBR 9OOI AND GHENT UB 141 AS
Of these sources, the most important for present purposes is the mention of the Distinctiones Mauriceof Provins('FrereMorise'), for this text providesthe of materialfor entire entries, whereasthe others are authors of quotationswithin the entries.Furthermore,Maurice is not only the source of Cantique, Bras, and Jugement(as credited in the text of KBR 9001), but also of Burre, Main, These are and Retribution, Vengence, Vin (and Aiglecould be a loose paraphrase). des generallythe longest entries in the Declaration motsof KBR 9001 and Ghent translatedabove) will be cited UB 141, so only one short example (Vengence, here. Comparisonshows beyond disputethat KBR 9001's text is translatedfrom Maurice,and that Ghent UB 141 is derivedin turn from KBR 9001.
JOHN LOWDEN COMPARISON OF KBR 9OOI AND GHENT UB 141, PASSAGES SOURCED FROM MAURICE OF PROVINS55
107
Maurice, Distinctiones, BnF lat. 3271, fol. 244rb litt. Vindicta Multiplex est vindicta. Iusticie,Tho. IIII:
Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. 6va"b La declaration de ce mot Vengence.
Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fol. 7ra"b Lexposition de ce mot Vengence. Ce mot 'vengence' est pris en pluseurs manieres. Premierement vengence de justice, de laquelle Ten dit en la Letanie Neque vindictam sumas de peccatis meis, 'Sire, ne prens pas vengence de mes pechiez'. Vengence de hardiesce et de bataille, de laquelle dit David 'Dieu qui me donne vengence'. Vengence de sentence de jugement, de laquelle entent le Sage Ecclesiastes V 'Ne veuillez pas, dist il, mettre ton cuer a possessions miques et desraisonnables, car riens ne vauldront au jour de la vengence'. Vengence de la paine de purgatoire, de laquelle dit le Sage ProverbesV 'La fureur de Dieu riens
Domine memento mei nee vindictam sumas etc.t1]
Item audacie sive pugne, II Regum XXII: Deus qui das vindictas mihi.t2]
Item sentencie iudicialis, Ecclesiasticus V: Noli attendere ad possessiones iniquas, et post, nichil enim proderunt in die vindicte.^3^
Item pene purgatorie, Proverbiorum V: Zelus et furor viri non parcet in die vindictae.^
Vengence de justice, de laquelle Ten dit en la Letanie Neque vindictam sumas de peccatis meis, 'Ne prens, Sire, vengence de mes pechiez'. Vengence de hardiesce et de bataille, de laquelle dit David: Deus qui das vindictas michi 'Dieu tu me donnes vengences'. Vengence de sentence de jugement, de laquelle entent le Sage Ecclesiastes Ve 'Ne vueilles , dist il, mettre ton cuer a possessions miques et torconnieres, car riens ne vauldront ou jour de la vengence'. Vengence de la peinne de purgatoire, de laquelle dit le Sage Proverbiorum Ve 'La fureur de Dieu point
1. Tobit3:3;cf. Introduction to the Litanyafterthe Seven Psalms. Penitential 2. II Kings22.48. 3. Sirach5.1. 4. Proverbs 6.34.
55. L.-J.Bataillonkindlycorrectedmy transcripIn 'Un tion of this distinctio. generalsee G. Hasenohr, recueil de distinctiones bilingue du debut du XIV6 siecle:le manuscrit de la Bibliotheque municipale 99
de Charleville', Romania, xcix, 1978,pp. 47-96, 183206. R. H. and M. A. Rouse,'BiblicalDistinctionsof theThirteenthCentury', Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Litteraire MoyenAge, 1974,pp. 27-37. du xli,
io8
. . . Maurice, BnF lat. 3271
... Bible historiale, KBR 9001 n'espairgnera au jour de la vengence'. Vengence du feu d'enfer, de laquelle dit le Sage Ecclesiaste
. . . Bible moralisee, UB 141 n'espargnera au jour de la vengence'. Vengence du feu d'enfer, de laquelle dit le Sage Ecclesiaste
Item Gehenne, Ecclesiasticus VII: Humilia valde spiritum tuum quoniam vindicta carnis impii ignis et vermis.^ Item humanae nequitiae, Ecclesiasticus XXVIII: Qui vindicari vult a Domino inveniet vindictam.t6] Item temporalis, Apocalipsis VI:
XXVe, cQui veult estre vengie de Dieu trouvera vengence'. Vengence de pugnition temporelle, apont^ VP dit Saint Iehan en la personne des martirs a Dieu 'Jusques a quant, Sire Dieu et vray, ne venges tu nostre sang?'. Vengence du sacrement de penitence de laquelle entent l'apostle IP Cor VIP.
Usquequo Dominus sanctus et verus non vindicaris sanguinem nostrum etc.^ Item sacramentalis penitentie, II Cor. VII: Ecce enim hoc ipsum secundum Deum contristari quantam in vobis operatur sollicitudinem, et post, sed vindictam.^
XXV, 'Qui veult estre vengie de Dieu il trouvera vengence'. Vengence de la punicion temporelle, de laquelle dit Saint Iehan en son Appocalipse en la personne des martirs a Dieu 'Jusques a quant, Sire saint et vray, ne venges tu nostre sancP'^.
5. Sirach 7.19. 6. Sirach 28.1. 7. Apocalypse 6.10. 8. II Corinthians 7. 11.
1. Sic.
1. Apocalypse 6.9-10.
Comparison shows, for example at the end of the passage, the abbreviation of Maurice'stext when translatedin KBR 9001, and the furtherabbreviation of KBR 9001 in Ghent UB 141. The passage omitted in KBR 9001 by eyeskip, jumpingfrom Maurice'sreferencefor EcclesiastesVII to his later quotation of EcclesiastesXXVIII (mis-cited as XXV), is passed on to Ghent UB 141 in a classicexampleof a scribalerrorand its transmission. The alternative attribution of the opening citation to Tobit (in Maurice) and to the Litany (in the Bible
historialeand Bible moralisee)is noteworthy.
JOHN LOWDEN COMPARISON OF THE AGES OF MAN IN KBR 9OOI AND GHENT UB 141
109
The additionaltexts linkingthe seven Days of Creationand the Ages of Man in Ghent UB 141 are also derivedfrom KBR 900 1, but in this case the sourceused for the earliermanuscripthas yet to be identified.Notably, the texts are again and are found (amongst not derived from the tradition of the Bible historiale, in the Brusselsmanuscript alone. Comparisonof KBR 9001 and Bibles historiales) Ghent UB 141 again reveals the editing process by which the passages were for adaptedfrom this one Biblehistoriale inclusionin the Biblemoralisee:
Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. 2irb"va Moralite autrement dine tropologie. Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fol. I2rb"va
Dient les docteurs que l'omme est comme le petit monde, si mest avis que la creation du grant monde puet estre figuree de la creation et de la regeneration du petit monde, c'est a dire de l'omme, lequel a sept aages, et si comme le monde fut parfait en VII jour aussi est l'omme en sept aages. Le premier aage c'est enfance, qui dure jusques a sept ans, duquel nous povons dire que Dieu ou commencement de l'omme il crea le ciel et la terre, c'est a dire l'ame et le corps, car le ciel signifie l'ame, laquelle est pardurablecomme le ciel, et la terre signifie le corps, lequel finablement en terre comme en sa mere retourne. Mais qu'est ce a dire que la terre estoit vainne et vuide et que les tenebres estoient sur la face de l'abisme ne mais que l'omme est nez vuit de tous biens et sans perfection nulle et en tenebres de pechie originel. Apres neantmoins l'esperit de Dieu se transportoit sus les eaues, en donnant sa grace par la fontaine de baptesme, lors est la lumiere faite. C'est a dire que l'omme devient en estat de grace, et ainsi s'acomplit la premiere journee, c'est a ssavoir le premier aage de l'omme. ... [fol.22ra]
Les docteurs dient que l'omme est comme le petit monde, car la creation du grant monde puet estre figuree de la creation et regeneration du petit monde, c'est a dire de l'omme, lequel a sept aages, dont le premier est appelle enfance, qui dure jusques a VII ans, duquel nous povons dire que Dieu ou commencement de l'omme crea le ciel et la terre, c'est a dire l'ame et le corps, car le ciel signifie l'ame, laquelle est pardurablecomme le ciel, et la terre signifie le corps, lequel [fol. I2va] finablement en terre comme en sa mere retourne touzjours.
Texte
Apres l'esperit de Dieu se transportoit sur les eaues, en nous donnant sa grace par la fontaine de baptesme, lors est la lumiere faicte. C'est a dire que l'omme devient en estat de grace, qui par avant estoit en pechie originel, et ainssi s'accomplist le premier jour, c'est a ssavoir le premier aage de l'omme. ... [fol. I2va-b]
no
BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES Ghent UB 141 . . . Bible moralisee,
KBR 9001 . . . Bible historiale, Moralize Le second aage de l'omme, lequel dure depuis sept ans jusques a XIIII, en latin est nomme puericia, et puet estre en francois dit l'aage de purte, car lors doit estre l'omme pur et se mettre a bien faire. Nous povons doncques dire que le firmament le quel devise les eaues signifie la charite et la grace de Dieu, laquelle rent la creature ferme et estable et la separe de la compaignie des mauvais, de laquelle dit Saint Pol l'appostre que riens ne vault beau parler ne autre chose sans charite. Et pevent signifier les eaues haultaines grant orgueil, et les basses grant couvoitise, desquelles est separe le charitable, car il lui souffit petite honneur et moyenne chevance, veu que vraie charite n'est point sans sou sance. Et comme le firmament est ou millieu, aussi nul estat n'est si ferme comme le moyen. Et ce tesmoingne Aristote en ses Poletiques, et mesmement en son Ethique il dit que vertu gist ou moyen. M
1. Aristotle, Ethics, 11. 7.
La dessevrance des bons et des mauvais signifie le second aage de l'omme, et est en latin appelle puericia,qui dure des VII ans jusques a XIIII, qui puet estre dit l'aage de purite. Et povons doncques dire que le firmament qui est au milieu signifie les charitables,
car au vray charitable petite honneur et moienne chevance lui souffist, veu que charite n'est point sans souffisance. Et comme le firmament est ou milieu, aussi nul estat n'est si ferme comme le mylieu. Et ce tesmoingne Aristote, en son livre d'Ethique, ou il dist que vertu gist ou moien, etc.
For the seventh day, however,as noted above, Ghent UB 141 includes only the moralisation, (traditional) failingto completethe cycle of seven,andthus differing from KBR 9001. This is despite the fact that the passagein KBR 9001 is clearly rubricated 'Moralite'. The lack of parallelin this case is striking:
Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. 2irb"va Moralize Le VIP jour signifie l'estat de paradis ou quel est parfait repos, et est le VIP et derrenier aage de l'omme, lequel est saintifie car nulz se non sains en paradis ne habitent. Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fol. I2rb"va
Le septiesme iour est l'estat de l'ame quant elle se reposera en contemplation de l'Eglise par pardurable,qui sera apres le iugement, puis que Dieu aura dit aux mauvaiz cAlezvous en, maudis', et aux bons 'Venez a moy, benois, venez'.
JOHN LOWDEN
in
It is importantto note thatwhereasthe two prefacesin KBR 9001 could have been easily located by a copyist,the Ages of Man passages,althoughintegrated are locatable(albeitnot in black-and-white into the text., stillreadily reproductions) thanksto the repetitionof the rubric'Moralite'.But the position is not straightforward,for the scribe of KBR 9001 does not begin to include the moralisations under the rubric'Moralite'until fol. 29r. It seems possible, of the Biblemoralisee in sum, that a workshoprecordwas kept in connectionwith the makingof KBR texts that KBR 9001. This would have gatheredtogetherthe non-Biblehistoriale historiale 9001-02 was to include (or had included).Since most of these non-Bible the texts were from a Biblemoralisee^ workshoprecordmight even have borne the title 'Biblemoralisee'. FurtherSources New Materialin GhentUB 141. of Nicholasof Lyra'sPostillae KBR 9001 precedesthe Psalterwith a rubric,endingwith the The Biblehistoriale words:cet apress'ensuit le Psaultieren francoismoralisie',and a programmatic to short preface,which is in fact the moralisation Psalm 1 in the Biblesmoralisees leaf has been removedfrom Ghent UB 141): (this
Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. 389 Bible moralisee, BnF fr. 167, fol. H4r (cf. BL Add. 15248, fol. io8v) Cest pseaume premier n'a point de titre, c'est a dire qui n'i a point de lettre devant qui parle de quel matere il est, comme il est en touz les autres, car c'est le prologue de touz les autres, et en general contient les vertus Jhesucrist qui nous vint renouveler contre les vices Adam, car Jhesucrist destruit le conseil de l'anemi et la voie d'iniquite et toute false doctrine.
Le pseaulme de Beams vir qui est premerain et commencement du Psaultier n'a point de tiltre, c'est a dire qu'il n'y a point de lettre devant qui parle de quelque matiere, comme il est en tous les autres pseaulmes, car c'est le prologue de tous les autres, et en general contient les vertus Jhesucrist qui nous vint renouveller contre les vices Adam, notre premier pere, car Jhesucrist destruit le conseil de l'ennemy et la voie d'iniquite et toute faulse doctrine.
with Withinthe body of the Psalterof Ghent UB 141 (as partiallyreconstructed the help of BL Add. 15248),however,the added passagesat Psalms 2-3 and 26 are found not to be derivedfrom KBR 9001 (whichdoes howeverinclude all the 'usual'moralisationsof the Bible moralisee).Instead these additionshave been as translatedfrom passagesexcerptedfrom Nicholas of Lyra'sPostillae^6 can be the passageaddedto Psalm 2 (Englishversionabove,p. 96). exemplifiedby
56. Postilla supertotam Bibliam, 4 vols, Strasbourg
1971,unfoliated. 1492,facs.repr.Frankfurt
H2
BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, additional text in Psalm 2 (text from lacking folio supplied from BL Add. 15248, fol. iO9r"v) Icy commence ou nom de Dieu la narration et execution de ce livre qui puet estre devise en deux parties generales, car en la premiere il traicte du royaulme Jhesucrist, en la seconde il traicte de sa prestrise, qui ce commence Dixit Dominus etc. Et ce^ n'est pas ceste division du toute distinctee, car aucunes foiz il parle en la premiere partie de la prestrise Jhesucrist, et en la seconde de son royaulme, et dont comme dessus est dit Ten ne puet faire propre division et par art en ce livre. Et neantmoins puet on deviser la premiere partie en sept selon les sept matines.
Nicholas of Lyra, Postillae,excerpt from Psalm 2
Hie communiter incipit executio huius libri seu narratio.Et potest dividi in duas partes, quia primo agitur de Christi regno, secundo de eius sacerdotio. Est enim Christus rex et sacerdos, ut declarat apostolus Ad Hebreos. Secunda incipit Psal. CIX. Unde in illo Psalmo dicitur de Christo: Tues sacerdos eternumetc. Ista in tune divisio non est precisa, quia in prima parte et aliquando agitur de Christi sacerdotio, et in secunda de eius regno. Non enim in hoc libro apparet mihi artiflcialisdivisio propter supradicta, tamen prima pars potest dividi in septem partes secundum septem eius distinctiones, secunda incipit in principio secundi nocturni, tertia in principio tertii, et sic de aliis. Circa primam partem non video aliam divisionem rationabilem nisi quod quilibet Psalmus per se exponatur, et maxime quia intendo quantum potero sensum inquirere litteralem. [...6 lines...] Igitur quia iste Psalmus non habet titulum, ex titulo non apparet quis fuerit actor huius Psalmi. Dicunt autem Hebrei moderni quod David fecit hunc Psalmum laudando Deum de victoria habita de Philisteis, qui ascenderunt ad pugnandum contra eum quando audierunt eum fuisse inunctum publice super totum Israel ut habetur II Reg. V. Licet enim primo fuisse iniunctus in domo patris sui per Samuelem, ut habetur I Reg. XVI. Hoc tamen fuit secrete. Et postea super tribum Iuda solam, ut habetur II Re. II, tamen postea fuit inunctus publice super
Aultrement ne se puet diviser bonnement fors en exposant chacune Pseaulme par soy.
Et ce Pseaulme n'a nul tiltre, comme dessus est dit, par quoy Ten sceust qui le fist. Touctes foiz les hebrieux presens dient que David le fist pour la victoire qu'il ot des philistiens, qui se vindrent combatre contre luy pour destruire son royaulme quant ilz oyrent dire que publiquement il estoit oint et sacre roy sur tout Israel, si comme il appert ou second livre des Roys ou premier chappitre.
1.
Corn: si
JOHN LOWDEN . . . Nicholas of Lyra, Postillae populum Israel. Quo audito Philistei ascenderunt vel destruerent regnum eius. Et secundum istum intellectum exponent hebrei moderni Psalmum istum dicentes: Quarefremuerunt gentes, id est Philistei, quia omnes qui non erant de gente Iudeorum vocabuntur gentes sive gentiles, ut habetur in Novo et Veteri Testamento in pluribus locis. Etpopuli diversarum scilicet civitatum in terra Philisteorum existentium, meditatisum mania, intendebant enim destruere regnum David, sed frustratifuerunt ab intentione sua.
113
. . . Bible moralisee, UB 141 / BL Add. 15248
Et selon cest entendement ilz exposent ce Pseaulme a la lettre de David qui parle en sa personne et dist ainsy Tour quoy se sont fremis et esmeus les gens et les peuples ont pense vanitez'. Tour quoy se sont fremis les gens', c'est a dire les Philistiens, car tous ceulx qui pas n'estoient des Juifz estoient appellez gens ou gentilz. 'Et les peuples', c'est a ssavoir de diverses citez de la terre de Philistins, qui estoient les principalz ennemis des Juifz, 'ont pense vanitez' et bien dist vanitez, car ilz entendoient a destruire son royaulme, a quoy ilz faillierent.
The text is abbreviated translation.One phraseindicateshow the translation in is adapted for inclusion in a Bible moralisee. The moralisation (see above) to Psalm 1 notes that it has no title ('Cest pseaulmepremiern'a point de titre'),but that it is the only such case ('comme il est en tous les goes on to state incorrectly autres'). Psalm 2, however,also has no title, as noted correctlyby Nicholas of Lyra ('iste Psalmus non habet titulum'). But when the passage in Nicholas's commentaryon Psalm 2 was translated('ce Pseaulme n'a nul tiltre') the translator relatedit back to the Biblemoralisee discussionof Psalm 1 ('comme dessus est dit'). The text suppliedin Ghent UB 141 for Psalm 6, which is similarin language and style,is puzzlingfor it is seeminglynot based on Nicholas of Lyra(or at least not on the text that forms the printed edition of 1492). Perhapsone or more of the verynumerousmanuscriptsof the Postillaedoes containthis text. It may be that the texts fromNicholas were available the makersof Ghent to UB 141 because they had alreadybeen excerpted and translatedwith the intention that they be included in KBR 9001. This is, I think, plausiblegiven that the authorof the Declarationde pluseursmots in KBR 9001 refersto and uses 'MaistreNicole en sa Question contre les Juifs' and in Prophecie Cantique and KBR 9001 refersto 'la glose ou prologuesus le Psaultier'. A Context theProduction GhentUB 141and KBR 9001-02 for of The Bible historialeKBR 9001-02 is linked by a complex network of craft connectionsto other manuscriptsof the period, apartfrom the Biblesmoralisees. The principalartistwas termed the Master of the Brussels Biblehistoriale (MS
ii4
14. Bible historiale,Brussels, KBR MS 9024, fol. 3r, Creation
9001) by Delaisse.57Thecraftsmanwho suppliedthe line-endingsand borders, who identifieshimselfas PetrusGilberti(e.g. on fol. 24V),also includedhis name in another high-statusBible historiale, MS Royal 15.D.III.58 BL Royal 15.D.III includesworkby at least four artists,includingone close to an artistwho worked in BAVMS Reg. lat. 25 (close to the BoucicautMaster),and another,termedby Meiss caminorfollowerof the Jeansans PeurMaster',who certainlyalso worked on the Furukawa(ex-Doheny) Biblehistoriale. The Creationimage of Royal 15. D.III (Fig. 18) is close to that in Ghent UB 141 (Fig. 10), as is the incipit image
57. Delaisse (as in n. 51), p. 98. 58. Meiss, Boucicaut (as in n. 22), pp. 96-99; R. H. Rouse and M. A. Rouse, Manuscripts and their Makers:Commercial Book Productionin Medieval Paris 1200-1500, 2 vols,Turnhout 2000, 11, 112; B. Shailor, p. Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the BeineckeRare Book and ManuscriptLibrary, Yale University, Binghamton 1987, 11,p. 279 (MS 400). Camille (as in n. 51), pp. 145-48. Note that BL Royal 19.B.XV does not contain work by Petrus Gilberti: contra e.g. P. d'Ancona, E. Aeschlimann, Dictionnaire des miniaturistes du moyen age et de la Renaissance, Milan 1949, p. 169.
JOHN LOWDEN
115
15. Jean Mansel, Fleurs des Histoires,Brussels, KBR MS 9231, fol. 9r, Creation
n6
to Leviticus.The distinctivesix-partCreationminiatureof KBR 9001.,with the Trinity as Creator, Reason, and the Fall of the Rebel Angels (Fig. 12), was in made forJean repeated veryaccurately KBR 9024-25 (Fig. 14), a Biblehistoriale des and to Chousat,maitre comptes the dukesof Burgundy, purchasedby the duke at Jean sans Peur in 1415 for 500 ecusdyor the request of his wife Marguerite.59 (But note that KBR 9024-25, like KBR 9001-02, appearedin the Burgundian inventoriesfor the first time only in 1467.)The frontispieceof KBR 9001 was also repeatedwith exceptionalfidelityin KBR 9231 (Fig. 15), a magnficentcopy of the FleurdesHistoires JeanMansel,completedc. 1455,also in the Burgundian of in 1467.60In addition, the same complex miniaturewas repeated in a library simplifiedfour-panelversion in the FurukawaBible historiale(Fig. 19), by an artistwho workedon the Biblemoralisee Ghent UB 141.A furtherclose link exists
16.Biblehistoriale, Museumof Nagoya,Furukawa of Art,fol. H3r,incipitof Proverbs, Judgement Solomon
London,BL RoyalMS 19.D.VI, 17.Biblehistoriale, of fol. I45r,Judgement Solomon
between the four-panelFurukawaCreation image and the frontispieceimage of yet another Bible historiale;, Royal MS 19.D.VI (Fig. 20), which has, in BL addition, a Judgementof Solomon very close in iconographyand style to the same scene in Ghent UB 141 (Figs 17, 11), and closely relatedto the comparable 6l Furukawa image (Fig. 16).
59. A. Heimann, 'TrinitasCreatorMundi', this n, Journal, 1938,pp. 42-52 (47); Byrne,'De ProprietatibusRerum'(as in n. 26), pp. 193-95.S. Hindman, Dutch Bible Illustration the and 'Fifteenth-Century HistoriaScholastica, Journal,xxxvn, 1974, pp. this (as 131-44.Meiss,Limbourgs in n. 26), p. 174.On the artistsof KBR 9001-02 see Meiss, ibid., attribution to Master of Berry's Cleres Femmes, p. 374; to Masterof the Cite des dames,p. 378;toVirgilMaster, p. 408. On KBR 9024-25 see Uart a la comde Bourgogne(as in n. 5), no. 49; Gasparand Lyna (as in n. 51), no. 199,11, 1-6. Meiss,ibid.,pp. 374, 378, 411. pp.
60. See also the Fall of the RebelAngelsin a copy of the Livredes bonnesmeursof Jacquesle Grand, BnF MS fr. 1023, presentedto the due de Berryin 1410:Paris1400(as in n. 3), no. 147.Meiss,Limbourgs (as in n. 26), fig. 671. 61. For a list of 35 manuscriptsrelated to the workof the Masterof the BerryApocalypse(plus 12 (as by the Masterhimself), see Meiss, Limbourgs in n. 26), pp. 368-72.
JOHN LOWDEN
117
18. Bible historiale,London, BL Royal MS I5.D.III, fol. 3r, Creation
n8
19. Bible historiale,Nagoya, Furukawa Museum of Art, fol. 3r, Creation
JOHN LOWDEN
119
20. Bible historiale,London, BL Royal MS I9.D.VI, fol. 3r, Creation
120
In sum, Ghent UB 141 is a greatly reduced Bible moralisee, it also has but KBR additions.These were derivedprimarilyfrom the Biblehistoriale important with the unique addition of great 9001-02. KBR 9001-02 was a Biblehistoriale parts of the (French) text of a Biblemoralisee. ProbablyGhent UB 141 was not based directlyon KBR 9001-02, but on workshoprecordsmade in connection with the assemblyand transcriptionof texts for KBR 9001-02. Ghent UB 141., althougha far less costly productthan KBR 9001-02 (to judge by materialsand , craftsmanship) was the product of Parisian book-producerswho had many points of contact. TheDescendants GhentUB 141.London, BLAdd. MS 15248(siglumL), of Paris,BnF MSfr. 897 (siglumF), TheHague,KB 76 E 7 (siglumH) In the mid-i45os a Biblemoralisee closely related to Ghent UB 141.,probablya direct descendant,was produced in Bruges: BL Add. MS 15248 (L).62In the same city, at the same period, a pair of Biblesmoralisees were made, dependentto a largedegreeon Add. 15248: The Hague, KB 76 E 7 (H); and Paris,BnF fr. 897 with Ghent UB 141 (G) these threemanuscripts form a tightly-knit (F). Together of subgroupin textualterms (GLFH).The patronagecircumstances Add. 15248 areunknown(I shallproposein the Epilogue the manuscriptwas intendedat that one stagefor Philippele Bon), butThe Hague 76 E 7 and BnF fr. 897 were made for two of the most notable bibliophilesof the period, Louis de Gruuthuyse(d. and 1492; 145 of his manuscriptssurvive),63 Antoine de Bourgogne(d. 1504),64 who soughtto emulatethe book-collectinghabits of the dukes of Burgundy. BLAdd. 15248 is a carefullyproduced manuscriptof much smallerdimensions than Ghent UB 141:283 folios, only 29*5x 21 cm, and ruled for 35 lines in two columns 20 x 13-5x 6 cm. It is bound in quires of twelve folios.There is a large miniaturefor Genesis, about 13 x 14-5 cm, subdividedinto seven square panels with the days of creation and God resting on the sabbath, enclosing a rectangular image of the Fall of Man (Fig. 21). This emphasison the Fall, twice the size of the other images, is a highly unusual formula as the centralfocus of a Creationminiature.There is a full border.In the followingpages Add. 15248 contains eighteen miniaturesof an originalthirty-three,all squareishin shape, andvaryingbetween5*7and 7*7x 6 cm, i.e. ten to thirteenlines tall,but generally the scribe left eleven lines clear.65 These miniaturesare numberedin the margin in a carefulscript,using the wordyformula'la tiercehystoire','la quartehystoire'
62. Accordingto Laborde (as in n. 3), p. 124, Maitre Champion dames, Paris2004, pp.426-28 du des BL Add. 15248was copied and translatedfrom the (MS 76 E 7 attributedto a followerof Jacquemart Oxford-Paris-London Pilavaine dated1440-50);H. Wijsman, and Gebonden manuscript. van Gruuthuse, exhib. Weelde. Productie van geillustreerdehandschriften en 63. See notably Lodewijk Nederlanden cat., Bruges1992,p. 199, inv.no. 96. adellijk boekenbezeitin de Bourgondissche Leiden2003, pp. 205-07. 64. A. Boinet, 'Un bibliophiledu Xve siecle: Le (1400-1550), GrandBatardde Bourgogne',Bibliotheque Vecole de 65. Laborde(as in n. 3), p. 127, statedthat about desChartes, 20 miniatures weremissing. lxvii, 1906, pp. 205-69; P. Charron,Le
JOHN LOWDEN
121
21. Bible moralisee, London, BL Add. MS 15248, fol. I7r, Creation
122
etc. (but xxv onwardshave only the number).The numberingbegan with the Sacrificeof Isaac (Fig. 22), not the Creation,but the firsttwo numbershavebeen erased. Fourteen folios have been lost with their miniatures(Judges, I Kings, IV Kings, Judith,Esther,Job,Wisdom, Isaiah,TAccomplissementde Jeremie', Maccabees, Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Apocalypse).The last survivingminiature (Ezechiel)is numberedxxviii.
22. Bible moralisee, London, BL Add. MS 15248, fol. 24V,Sacrifice of Isaac
23. Vincent of Beauvais, Miroir historial,Paris, BnF MS fr. 308, fol. 58r, Sacrifice of Isaac
24. Bible moralisee,Ghent UB MS 141, fol. 35r, incipit of Joshua
London, BL Add. MS 15248, 25. Bible moralisee, fol. 54V,incipit of Joshua
JOHN LOWDEN
123
The miniatures are grisaille works of superb quality.,and can be confidently attributed toWillemVrelant.The Sacrifice of Isaac (Fig. 22) can be closely compared, for example, with the same image in BnF MS fr. 3083 the first volume of a Vincent of Beauvais Miroir historial, the fourth volume of which is dated 1455 (Fig. 23), made (or rather completed) for Louis de Gruuthuyse (see below).66 The frontispiece miniature in Add. 15248 to Genesis, with the full border, is executed in opaque pigments rather than grisaille. The central image of the Fall of Man is quite unlike the Fall in Vrelant's Arenberg Hours (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum MS Ludwig IX. 8). 6j But the treatment of God the Father is closely comparable to Vrelant's Fall of the Rebel Angels frontispiece for BnF MS fr. 308, and should thus be attributed to his hand. It is striking to observe that the central image of the Fall of Man (rather than of angels) is reminiscent of Hugo van der Goes's Vienna panel (datable c. 1470), albeit with the positions of Adam and Eve reversed (Fig. 26). 68 Given the comparisons with fr. 308, however, it would be difficult to argue that Add. 15248 was executed around 1470, rather than around 1455. Since it is unlikely that Van der Goes based his Fall on the image in Add. 15248, probably both depend on a lost common model.69 Some support for this proposal is offered by the related image of the Fall in a Book of Hours in the Huntington 26. Hugo van der Goes, The Fall of Man. Vienna, Library, San Marino MS HM 1125, Gemaldegalerie
66. On BnF MS fr. 308-11 see B. Bousmanne, 'Item a Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur\ exhib. cat., Turnhout 1997, pp. 195-98, 290-96. This fourvolume Miroir historialewas written and decorated in Paris c. 1400-10. Only vol. iv was illustrated at the time. This became separated from vols i-iii and is now The Hague, KB MS 72 A 24. Its miniatures are attributed to the Cite des Dames Master. A new volume iv, now BnF MS fr. 311, was made when vols 1-in were acquired by Louis de Gruuthuse. See also A. S. Korteweg, Splendour, Gravity and Emotion: FrenchMedieval Manuscriptsin Dutch Collections, The Hague 2004 (Dutch edn 2002), no. 24, pp. 108-09, 210, figs 84-85. For the Trinity and Fall of Rebel Angels frontispiece see P. Durrieu, La miniature flamande au temps de la cour de Bourgogne,Brussels and Paris 1921, p. 46 and pl. XIV. 67. Bousmanne, Wyelant(as in n. 68), pp. 272-74 and fig. p. 330. 68. E.g., R. A. Koch, 'The Salamander in Van der Goes's Garden of Eden', this Journal, xxvm, 1965, pp. 323-26. On the date see J. Sander, Hugo van der Goes:Stilentwicklung und Chronologie, Mainz 1992, pp. 44-90. 69. See the comparable discussion of the putative links between BnF MS fr. 310 and Martyrdom of St Hippolytus triptych by D. Bouts and H. van der Goes: Bousmanne, Wyelant(as in n. 68), p. 103 and figs 74-75. Bousmanne prefers the lost model hypothesis.
124
fol. 8ir, which is dated to the mid-fifteenthcentury.70 Huntingtonminiature The is closer to Add. 15248 than to the Van der Goes panel.,againpointing to a lost common model. Although it has the two prefaces of Ghent UB 141 (writtenby a different scribe), Add. 15248 substitutes a decorated initial for the 'author portrait'on fol. ir. In the Declaration mots3 scribe omitted Catholique, des the seemingly an The index on fol. oversightthat resultedwhen turning over from fol. I2r to I2V. i6r is rubricatedas 'selon les hystoiresde la Bible moralisee'where Ghent UB 141 had just 'selon... la Bible'. Add. 15248 also has the additionaltexts in the Creationand Psalms 2, 4-6 and 26. Like Ghent UB 141,Add. 15248 illustrates of Ecclesiasticuswith the Judgementof Solomon.The representation Joshuain armourreceivinga lance from God is also characteristic both Ghent UB 141 of and Add. 15248 (Figs 24-25). (The close comparisonwith the Joshuaimage in BnF fr. 166 [Fig. 1], from a phase of work probablyof c. 1455, is explainedby The the sharedorigin of the compositionin manuscriptsof the Biblehistoriale.) texts in Psalms 15 and 150 are suppliedby the principalscribe,placed in missing the margins as in Ghent UB 141. Quite probablyit was this same scribe who made good the lacunae in Ghent UB 141.There are conspicuouscorrectionsin the marginsof sixty-eightpages of Add. 15248,where the scribe added passages he had previouslyoverlooked(often equivalentto two to four lines of the main however.The additions text). There are no marginaladditions on fols I7r-66V, thatAdd. 15248mighthavebeen correctedto serveas a workshopmodel suggest for (presumably the productionof fr. 897 andThe Hague 76 E 7). BnF fr. 897 is a manuscriptof similar,moderate, size to Add. 15248: 230 folios of text (II-III, 1-228), 27-5 x 19 cm, ruled for 40 lines, 20 x 13-5 x 6-4 cm.71It is bound in quiresof eight folios.The frontispieceminiatureto Genesis, about 12-5 x 14 cm, is divided into seven panels (Fig. 27). In the centre is the Fall of the RebelAngels, flankedby the six days of creation(the latternot close to the versionin Add. 15248,Fig. 21), the whole within a decoratedborder.The biblicalincipit miniaturesare grisaillesof high quality,about 6-7-5 x forty-three 6 cm (12-15 lines tall), similarto the work of WillemVrelantin Add. 15248 but by a less skilfulhand, presumablythat of an assistantin the workshop.Only the Sacrificeof Isaac is thoughtto be by Vrelanthimself.72 Each page with a miniawerenumberedin a simpleform,but most turehas a halfborder. The miniatures of the numberswere erased (Habakkuk xxxiiii).There was no space left by the is The arms scribefor Sapientia, hence thereis no illustration and (andno number). of Louis de Bruges,seigneurde Gruuthuyse,on fol. ir were coveredby those of
70. C. W. Dutschkeet al., Guideto Medievaland
RenaissanceManuscripts in the Huntington Library, 2
copy of their entry on BnF fr. 897 from the forthcoming Cataloguedes manuscritsenluminesdes anciens Pays-Bas meridionaux.
vols, San Marino, CA 1989, 11,pp. 426-29; online withexcellent colourills through 'Berkeley the Digital SunSITE'. Library 71. I am most gratefulto Ilona Hans-Collasand PascalSchandelfor generouslyprovidingme with a
72. Hans-Collasand Schandel(as in n. 71).
JOHN LOWDEN
125
27. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. 897, fol. ir, Creation
126
Louis XII when the former died in 1492 and the latter acquiredhis books, but they are still legible on the back of the leaf.73 The Hague 76 E 7 is a manuscriptof similarsize to Add. 15248 and fr. 897: about 29 x 20-5 cm, ruled for 37 lines, 19-5 x 13-6 x 6 cm. It contains259 folios. The forty-fourbiblical incipit miniaturesare about 6-8-6 x 6 cm (12-16 lines tall), each with a quarterborder.They are consistentlyvery close in content to the images of fr. 897, and the manuscriptsform a true pair.Instead of grisailles, The executed.74 Hague the however, imagesarefullycoloured,albeitless carefully with a largefrontispiece,dividedlike fr. 897 into sevenpanels 76 E 7 is illustrated In the centreis the Fall of the RebelAngels (close to fr. 897, Fig. 27),75 (Fig. 28). and flankingthis the six days of Creation.Whereasin fr. 897 (and Add. 15248) God standson the earthin these scenes, in The Hague 76 E 7 he is enthronedin a blue heaven, flankedby shadowy angels, with the earth at small scale below. Alongside the miniature of Nebuchadnezzar'sdream (fol. I72V)is written an instructionto the artist in Dutch as to how to colour the statue:'goud, silvur, goud, zwart'.The miniaturesare again numbered in the margin, in a simple form, startingwith the Sacrificeof Isaac.Notably,the miniaturefor the book of Wisdom,which is absent in fr. 897, is present in The Hague 76 E 7 but has no number(it is locatedbetweenxviii and xix).This impliesthatThe Hague 76 E 7 is dependenton fr. 897.?6The frontispieceis by a superiorartist,and the central image of God has an Eyckianface and hair.It might be the workof an assistant of Vrelant.77 arms of Antoine, GrandBatardde Bourgogne,encircledby the The collarof the Golden Fleece (he was appointedin 1456) are prominenton fol 3r, The (a alongwith his emblemthe barbecan defensivework).78 armsand motto on the samepage,Nul nesyfrotte, look to be an afterthought suppliedoveran erasure, the perhaps suggesting a date of 1455-1456 for the manuscript.(Alternatively arms and motto might have been added at a later date.) The texts to Psalms 15 and 150 areincorporated the body of the page in bothThe Hague 76 E 7 and into fr. 897, ratherthan added in the marginas in Ghent UB 141 and Add. 15248. Comparisonof Add. 15248 with BnF MS fr. 308 suggests, as noted above, that the London manuscriptdates from around1455.Fr. 897 andThe Hague 76 E 7 weremadeto the samepattern,shortlythereafter, veryprobably direct and by referenceto Add. 15248,althoughthey did not copy its images.The image of the Fall of Man in the frontispieceof Add. 15248,which takes the place of the Fall
van (as 73. Lodewijk Gruuthuse in n. 65), p. 199, inv.no. 96. 74. Sometimes attributedincorrectlyto JacquemartPilavaine a follower(see aboven. 66). On this or artistsee A. Esch,'Laproduction livresde Jacquede mart Pilavainea Mons. Nouvelles perspectives',in
(Als Ich Can' LiberAmicorum in Memory of Professor
in Sources',in Flanders Meaningand Iconographical

a EuropeanPerspective: ManuscriptIlluminationaround 1400 in Flanders and Abroad, ed. M. Smeyers and B.
Dr. MauritsSmeyers, B. Cardon et al., Leuven ed. 2002, 1,pp. 641-68. as 75- Cited (inaccurately 'MS 7410')inY.Pinson, 'Fall of the Angels and Creationin Bosch's Eden:
Cardon,Leuven1995,pp. 693-707 (694). 76. For Laborde(as in n. 3), p. 135,fr. 897 was a copy of The Hague76 E 7. (as 77. See firstBousmanne,Wyelant in n. 68), pp. 98-101, on the use of the lostVeraIcon of VanEyck in the circleofVrelant. 78. On the 'barbecan'see Laborde,Cite de Dieu (as in n. 36), pp. 379-80.
JOHN LOWDEN
127
28. Bible moralisee, The Hague, KB MS 76 E 7, fol. ir, Creation
128
of the Rebel Angels in fr. 897 and The Hague 76 E 7, appearsto be based on knowledgeof a lost model.,subsequentlyalso consulted by Hugo van der Goes for his Fall (Fig. 26).,around1470.
The Printed Version the Bible moralisee.'UExposicion et la vraie declaracionde of la Bible' (siglum e)3 and its Relation to the Fifteenth-CenturyManuscripts
in The final stage in the history of the Biblemoralisee the fifteenthcenturyto be briefly considered here was the printing at Lyons of the volume whose text de et begins 'L'Exposicion la vraiedeclaracion la Bible...' (Fig. 29). It is assigned to the printer Martin Huss, and two issues appearedin or before 1477 (nine copies survive.,of which only two are is The complete).79 Exposicion a volume x 19-8cm, illustrated of 354 folios, 27-2 with forty woodcuts, mostly about 8 x 6-5 cm (one column wide) although three of them are two columns wide (Genesis and Judith are assembled from two separate images, but III Kings has a single double-widthcomThe position).80 eight Psalterwoodcuts were re-used in a French Psalter also The printed at Lyons (but undated).81 incunable depends on a manuscript with the GLFH text,82 includesthe and additionalmaterialin Genesis but not the prefacesor the extratexts in Psalms 2-3, 6 and 26. It also adds many new readings, largely, it would seem, the result of editing by the Augustinian Julien Macho, which is referred to in the printed introduction and colo29. {Bible moralisee)L Exposicionet la vraie declaracion phon: de la Bible, fol. 2r, Creation
79. Catalogueof Books Printed in the XVth Century now in the British Museum, part VIII, London 1949, pp. xlviii, 249. For the BnF copy see Bibles imprimees du XVe au XVIIF siecleconservees Paris, Paris 2002, a no. 313. Histoire de Veditionfrangaise, I, Le livre conquerant, Paris 1982, p. 209. On Martin Huss see F. 2 Geldner, Die deutschen Inkunabeldrucker, vols, Stuttgart 1968, 11, 211-12; B.T. Chambers, Bibliography pp. of French Bibles, I, Geneva 1983, nos 4-5, pp. 4-6. Note that E. Burin, Manuscript Illuminationin Lyons, 1473-1530, Turnhout 2001, although she takes the
arrival of printing in Lyons as her starting point, has no discussion of woodblocks. The two copies which are complete, lacking only the blank at the beginning, are the BnF copy (see above; also lacks final blank) and that in the Rylands Library (see below, n. 85). 80. A copy in the British Library: IB.41604, sigs aiir, lvir, oiiv. 81. Catalogueof Books Printed in the XVth Century (as in n. 81), p. 249. British Library copy: G.12091. 82. For this group see above, pp. 120 ft.
JOHN LOWDEN
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And subsequently the translation was looked over, read, and corrected point by point by the venerable doctor Master Julien of the Order of Augustinians of Lyon on the Rhone. The which book before it was consigned for printing was looked over and corrected by the venerable doctor Master Julien Macho, religious of the Order of St Augustine of Lyon on the Rhone.83
the the to Interestingly colophonattributes expositionand declaration cdeLiraet aultres docteurs', whereas the introductionattributesthe work to a seemingly fictitious pope: 'Novellement faicte par ung tres excellent clerc lequel par sa science fut pape' (fol. 2r).The woodcut illustrationsare not based on those of and Biblernoralisee, are based on models that are Germanin style. any surviving
THE EXAMPLE OF THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC
acrossall the Bibles moralisees considered For the purposesof a textualcomparison KBR 9001, we can take the account of the here, togetherwith the Biblehistoriale 84 for Sacrificeof Isaac. The passageis significant, the accompanying image is the which is not at the incipit of a one in the later Biblesmoralisees (GLFH) only biblicalbook (the image,but not the text, is omitted in the Exposicion) .Why the The table Sacrificeof Isaacshouldbe singledout in this way is at presentunclear. below shows the Frenchbiblicaltext, followedby its moralisation.The evidence fits neatlyinto two families:
Fully illustrated Bibles moralisees: Later Bibles moralisees:
BnF fr. 167, fr. 166 Page-for-page copy: BAV Reg. lat 25
Ghent UB 141, BL Add. 15248, BnF fr. 897, The Hague 76 E 7

Incunable: L Exposicion Bible historiale: KBR 9001
Et quant Abraham ot lie son filz il le mist sous la fovee, et prist I glaive pour le sacrefler. Et lors l'angre li dist 'Ne fai mal a ton enfant'. Et adonc regardaAbraham I mouton deles I buson, et le sacrefia en lieu de son filz. Ceci segnefie le filz de Dieu selonc la diuinite ne fu mie occis ne sacrefle, mais Ih(es)u, qui est le vrai aigniau, fu sacrefie pour nouz selonc l'umanite, qui estoit es espines es tribulations de cest monde.
Et quant Abraham ot lie son filz il le mist sous la fovee, ^ et prist I glaive pour le sacrefier en la montaigne. Et lors l'angre li dist 'Ne fai nul mal a ton enfant'. Et adonc regardaAbraham I mouton deles I buson, et le sacrefia en lieu de son filz. Ceci segnefie le filz de Dieu selonc la diuinite ne fu mie occis ne sacrefie, mais Ih(es)u, qui est le vrai aigniau, fu sacrefie pour nouz selonc l'umanite, qui estoit es espines es tribulations de cest monde.
1. soubs la fovee] dessoubs 1.f. H\ sus l'autel
130
Two characteristic and readingslink GLFH, the Exposicion KBR 9001-02., and them fromthe page for page copies of BnF fr. 167:the additionin the distinguish biblical passage of the phrase 'en la montaigne', and the elaborationof 'Ne fai maP into 'Ne fai nul maP. It is notable that the moralisationhas no variantsin any of the manuscripts,and this serves as a useful reminderthat for the most part all textualwitnessesare close to one another.
Conclusion
were the most ambitious examples ever The fully-illustratedBibles moralisees undertakenof an attempt to combine biblical and moralisedimages and texts. They can be seen to have reachedtheir apogeein the 5112 imagesof BnF fr. 167., made for King JeanII le Bon in 1349-52. From the time of the death in 1404 of JeanII's son, Duke Philippele Hardi,the forty unbound and largelyunfinished quires of fr. 166 (based directlyon fr. 167) would have served as a reminder,to difficultyof bringingsuch a projectto compatronor artist,of the extraordinary Within a few years, as we have seen, simpler solutions were indeed pletion. were successadopted,and it is notable that all (surviving)laterBiblesmoralisees finished.BAVReg. lat. 25 (c. 1410) retainedthe full text of a fully-illustrated fully Biblemoralisee, only about one percentof its images.Ghent UB 141 (c. 1420) but halvedthe textual content, opting for a book in the vernacular,and omitted all moralisingimages (previouslyhalf the total), reducingthe visual emphasiseven more. The result provided the model followed a generation later in BL Add. 15248 (c. 1455),BnF fr. 897 andThe Hague 76 E 7 (both c. 1455-60), and, with some furthersimplifications, in the printedversion,the Exposicion 1477). also (c. Crucialto this process of adaptationand simplificationwas KBR 9001-02 (c.
but a Bible historiale. 1410), not a Bible moralisee
The discoveryof the Biblehistoriale connection, and consequent consideration of the nature and role of the ambitious Brusselswork, opens an entirely KBR 9001-02 containedspecially new perspectiveon the laterBiblesmoralisees. in as well as much of the textual content of a Biblemoralisee, composedprefaces, a vasttwo-volumecompendium.Ironically, so it mightseem, the Biblemoralisee or in the fifteenthcenturywas adaptedand simplifiedin response,at least in part, to a Biblehistoriale was edited and assembledto surpassall precedent.Unlike that BnF fr. 167,however,KBR 9001-02 had no descendantsclosely modelled on it. Throughoutthe fifteenth centuryworkshopnotes and records,ratherthan the luxurymanuscriptsthemselves,seem to have played a key role in the process of
a 83. 'Et apresla translacion este veu leu et corret de poent en poent par venerabledocteur maistre iulien de l'ordredes augustinsde lion suz le rosne' (fol. 2r). 'Lequel livre avant quil aye este mis a limpression a este veu et corrige par venerable docteur Maistre iulien macho religieulx de lordre sain augustinde lyon sus le rosne'(fol. 353r)of 84. J. Lowden,'The Sacrifice Isaacin the Bibles
moralisees', in Opferedeinen Sohn! Das 'Isaak-Opfer' in Judentum, Christentumund Islam, ed. B. Greiner,
B. Janowskiand H. Lichtenberger, Tubingen2007, pp. 197-241-
JOHN LOWDEN
131
transmission,with the possible exception of BL Add. 152483which may have been kept for some time in a workshop. In the firstdecadesof the fifteenthcenturythe Biblemoralisee challenged was by the Bible historiale(or rather its makers and consumers were). The Bible moralisee emerged from this encounter greatly changed, still distinguishablein textualterms, but with its pictorialcycle drasticallyreduced and alteredalmost continuedto be produced beyondrecognition.Manuscriptsof the Biblemoralisee for aristocratic and when the illustratedvernacularBible was patrons,however, first printed in France it was in the form of a Biblemoralisee the period, not of a Bible historiale}5 More scholarlyattention might have been paid in the past to this incunablehad Julien Macho entitled his work 'Bible moralisee',instead of adaptingthe opening words of a Biblemoralisee prefaces:cCi commence la 's declaration'and 'Comment la Sainte Escripturese puet exposer'.Nonetheless,
LExposicion et la vraie declaracionde la Bible has a strong claim to be the first
illustratedbook printedin France:a worthyculmination,perhaps,to the manuscripthistoryof the Biblemoralisee}6

Epilogue,A Lost Bible moraliseeDocumented in the Fifteenth-Century 'Librairie'of the Dukes of Burgundy and its Implications
The story of the Biblesmoralisees the fifteenth century began with Philippe in le Hardi, due de Bourgogne (d. 1404), and his commission of BnF fr. 166. Thereafter,to judge from survivingmanuscriptsalone, the dukes of Burgundy KBR 9001-02 appearto have been directlyinvolvedonly with the Biblehistoriale as we have seen, on a Bible moralisee)and with that work's , (partlydependent, close relativeKBR 9024-25, acquiredby Philippe'sson.87 The surviving fifteenthBibles moralisees eithermade for unknownpatrons(BAVReg. lat. 25, were century Ghent UB 141, BL Add. 15248), or for aristocratic collectorsclose to the dukes of Burgundy;but not, it would seem, for the ducal 'librairie'itself (The Hague 76 E 7 for Antoine de Bourgogne, and BnF fr. 897 for Louis de Gruuthuse).
was printed at Paris in 1495 85. The Bible historiale by Antoine Verard. The 'Nouveau Testament' had been printed in Lyons in 1476 for Barthelemy Buyer, edited by the Augustinians Julien Macho and Pierre Sarget. Catalogueof Books Printedin the XVth Century (as in n. 81), p. 235. Chambers (as in n. 81), 1, no. 3, pp. 3-4. See BL copy: IB.41510. 86. If we accept the rubrication date of 1477 in the John Rylands University Library copy: U. Bauermeister, '1481: A False Landmark in the History of French Illustration? The Paris and Verdun Missals of Jean Du Pre', in Incunabula:Studies in FifteenthCentury Printed Books Presented to Lotte Hellinga, ed. M. Davies, London 1999, pp. 469-91 (469-70). Alternatively, a date after 1479 is suggested by the use of Venetian rather than Basle type (by Martin Huss), which would make the Mirouerde la redempcion de lumain lygnage (two editions, dated 1478 and 1479) the oldest illustrated book printed in France, albeit that the 256 woodblocks employed were merely Behaltrecycled from the German Spiegelmenschlicher nuss, printed by Bernard Richel in Basle in 1476 (BL copy: IC. 37172): Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century (as in n. 81), p. xlviii; Geldner (as in n. 81), p. 212. See also The John Rylands Library Manchester:Descriptive Catalogue of an Exhibition of Printed Book Illustrations of the Fifteenth Century, Arranged in the Main Library.With an Introductionby the Librarian, Manchester 1933, pp. 41, 84, and pl. 15 (facing p. 42); Caxton in the Context of European Printing: A Quincentennial Exhibition, typescript catalogue, Manchester 1976, no. 15. 87. For KBR 9024-25 see above, p. 116.
132
documents,however,revealthat therewas anotherducalBiblemoraBurgundian lisee^ althoughit has not survived,together (as has previouslybeen recognised) model of BnF MS fr. 166with BnF MS fr. 167- the mid-fourteenth-century was and that this lost Biblemoralisee also in the ducal 'librairie' 1467-68. by The inventorydrawn up in 1467-69,88after the death of Philippe le Bon in July 1467, lists five manuscripts relevant to the present discussion, each fortunatelyidentifiablewithout doubt by their recordedsecundo folio incipits.I 89 shallreferhereto the list in the editioncompiledby JosephBarrois(Paris1830). Numbers 711 and 722 are the two volumes of KBR 9001-02. Number 712 is the Biblemoralisee Jean II le Bon, BnF fr. 167.Number 720 is the single volume of KBR 9024-25. Number 721 is the key witness.It was inventoriedas comprising follows:
Ung autre livre en parchemin couvert d'ais noirs a grans cloutz, intitule au dehors cCy comance le premier livre de la Bible moraliset [sic], translatee de latin en francois'; comancant au second feuillet 'Naturiens' et au dernier 'le temps si est'.9
The same item reappearsin the Burgundianinventory of 1487 (Barrois no. 1726), where the secundo folio incipit is given in fuller form: 'Naturiens dont saintGregoire', the last folio incipitis replacedby a much less usefulexplicit: and secundo folio text 'naturiens[dont saint est benoit perdurablement'.9IThe 'qui ' shows that the Biblemoralisee in question,without any doubt, had the Gregoire] found in Ghent UB 141 and BL Add. 15248 (KBR 9001 has the same prefaces prefacesbut reads'Doncques vuelt Saint Gregoire' see above,p. 102). But the location of the word 'naturiens'provesthat it was not one of those manuscripts. In orderfor the scribeto have completedthe text only as far as 'naturiens' the by commencementof fol. 2r it is most probablethat the lost manuscripthad a halfpage frontispieceon its fol. ir (togetherwith a page layout similarto that of BL Add. 15248), and this observationis important.We can also note that the title recordedin the inventory,'Cy commence le premierlivre de la Bible moralisee translateede latin en francois', is that found on the opening page of Genesis in Ghent UB 141 (fol. i3r), BL Add. 15248 (fol. I7r), andThe Hague 76 E 7 (fol. livre'shouldnot with those books showsthatthe phrase'premier 3r). Comparison be interpretedto mean that the lost Biblemoralisee in two or more volumes was (the 'premierlivre'was in fact Genesis).
88. See first B. Bousmanne and C. Van Hoorebeeck, La librairiedes dues de Bourgogne,I, Turnhout 2000, pp. 13-43; and G. Doutrepont, La literature francaise a la cour des dues de Bourgogne,Paris 1909, pp. xxviii-xl, on the date and nature of the inventory. 89. For the list see J. Barrois, Bibliotheque Protypographique, ou Librairiesdes fils du roi Jean, CharlesV, Jean de Berry, Philippe de Bourgogneet les siens, Paris 1830, pp. 123-226. See also Doutrepont (as in n. 89), esp p. 201. Barrois's publication will be superseded CorpusCatalogorum Belgii, vol. V (in preparation).
90. 'Another parchment book covered with black boards with large studs titled on the outside 'Here beginning begins the first book of the Bible moralisee', on the second folio 'naturiens', and on the last 'le temps si est'. 9i. The inventory of 1487 also mentions the large size of the volume: 'Ung autre grant volume couvert de cuir noir, a tout deux cloans et cinq boutons de leton sur chascun coste, historie et intitule "Le premier livre de la Bible moralisee"...'. Barrois (as in n. 90), no. 1726.
JOHN LOWDEN
133
furtherBurgundiandocumentsallow this lost book to be more Fortunately, preciselydescribed,and firmlydated. In July 1468 (a yearafterPhilippe'sdeath), to Jacquesde Bregilles,gardedesjoyaux due Charlesle Temeraire,son of Philippe le Bon, was repaidfor sums disbursed,including:92
[31]Item,auditLoysetLiedet,pour avoirfait en ung livrenommela Biblemoralizee vingt histoires,assavoirsept grandeset trezepetites de pluseurscouleursau pris de douze sols chascunehistoireTuneparmil'autre,font 12 lb. d'or et vingnettesdedens,a deux gros [32] Item, 43 grandeslettresouvreesa champaigne pieces,43 s. et [33] Item, 3750 de paraphes lettresa troissolz le cent, 112 s. 6 d. 31s. [34] Item,pourle relyageduditlivrey comprinsla couverture, [35] Item, pour dix grans clous de letton a boches, pour petis cloux pour les attachier dessus,et pourcuira le fermer,24 s. [36] Font ces cinq partiesensemble22 lb, 10 s. 6 d. And after payments to Loyset Liedet for miniatures and large initials in a
'Vengancede Nostre SeigneurJhesusCrist', and to Yvonnetle Jeunefor writing the thirty-eightquiresof that book (the content of paragraphs 37-41), we readin the same register:
[42] Item, auditYvonnetle Jeune,clerc escripvain, pour aussi avoirescript38 quayersde d'un livrenomme la Bible moralizee,auditpris de seze solz le quayer,font 30 parchemin lb. 8 s.
This text is appendedto the bottom of fol. i83r of the accountbook and repeats verbatimmuch of the informationin the entry above [no. 41].The evidencehere is puzzling. No survivingBible moralisee of correspondspreciselyto the characteristics the manuscriptdescribedin the documents:namely,a volume of 304 folios with twentyminiaturesby Loyset Liedet, forty-threelarge initials,3750 small initials and paragraphsigns, and text written by Yvonnet le Jeune.93 But taken indivithe elementsof this lost book can be usefullycomparedto whatwe find in dually that the Biblesmoralisees have survived.
92. For the documents see A. Greve and E. de Lebailly, Comptesde Vargentier Charlesle Temeraire due de Bourgogne(Recueil des historiens de la France, Documents financiers et administratifs, x), Paris 2001, 1, pp. 268-71, no. 1110, esp. pp. 270-71. They are cited here following the numbering in A. De Schryver, 'Jacques de Bregilles, responsable de la librairie des dues de Bourgogne sous Charles le Temeraire', in Les Chroniques de Hainaut, dir. P. Cockshaw, ed. C. Van den Bergen-Pantens, Brussels 2000, pp. 83-89, esp. 86-87. The documents were not cited by Laborde (as in n. 3) although published by his grandfather: Leon Emmanuel, marquis de les Laborde, Les dues de Bourgogne,etudessur les lettres, arts et Vindustrie..., II. 1, Preuves,Paris 1849, pp. 501'' 02, nos 1954-58. See also A. Pinchart, Miniaturistes, enlumineurset calligraphesemployes Philippele Bon par et Charles le Temeraire leurs oeuvres,Brussels 1865, er p. 5. 93. On Loyset Liedet and Yvonnet le Jeune see esp. T. Kren and S. McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance,Los Angeles and London 2003, pp. 23033 and 519-20.
134
BL Add. 15248originally had 295 folios (only nine less than the 304 folios of the lost manuscript). Assuminga largeinitialat the incipit of each of the biblical books listed in the table of contents, plus one for the preface., the Sacrifice for of Isaac, and for each of the eight-partPsalter divisions (as is the case in Add. 15248), we would expect the lost book to have had a total of fifty-fourinitials. Only forty-threeare mentioned in the document,which might imply that some of its initialswere by a differenthand. The total of twentyminiatures referred in the documentsseems on the low to side for a fifteenth-century Biblemoralisee^ althoughGhent UB 141 had only for and twenty-one,BL Add. 15248,for example,had thirty-five, BnF fr. 897 andThe E 7 had forty-fourand forty-fiverespectively. This stronglysuggests Hague 76 that LoysetLiedet'staskwas to completethe decorationof a part-finished book. The distinction in the accounting between large and small miniaturesseems inconsistentwith a fifteenth-centuryBible moralisee^ which only the roughly in half-pageGenesis frontispiecewas notably largerthan the usual single column miniatures,but when we note that paymentwas rounded to a single unit cost irrespectiveof size, this might seem to suggest that there was not in fact much differencebetween the grandesand petiteshistoires. alternativeexplanation, An is more likely:it has alreadybeen noted that the secundo folio incipit however, had impliedthat the lost Biblemoralisee a half-pageprefatoryimage (ratherthan the initialfound in BL Add. 15248), and a page layout comparable that in BL to Add. 15248. Given that the manuscriptwas nine folios longer than Add. 15248 it might well have also had, for the sake of argument,up to thirty-sixhalf-page miniatures (9 folios = 18 pages = 36 half-pages:assuming for the purpose of discussionthat its page layout was identical to that of Add. 15248 in practice there is no way of ascertainingthe layout of the lost book with precision).The presence of grandeshistoires might thus have been a key feature that clearly this Biblemoralisee from those that survive. distinguished The combinationof small initials and 'paraphes',as describedin the docuof ment, is certainlycharacteristic the page layout of the later Biblesmoralisees^ which have decoratedinitials for the start of each biblical text, and decorated for There is a majordiscrepancy, 'paraphes' each moralisation. however,between the numberof small initialsand 'paraphes' which paymentwas made (3750), for and the number that might be anticipated in a complete Bible moralisee^ i.e. approximately 5400 (allowingfor double the frequencyof initialsand 'paraphes' in Psalms,because of the inclusionin the decorativescheme of each Psalmtitle, and its accompanying But interpretation). the total of 3750 is consistentwith the hypothesis,advancedabove, that the book was in part alreadydecorated, and that Liedetwas receivingpaymentfor its completion. It is importantto note, in support of the proposal that what we have are paymentsfor the completion of a part-finishedbook, that the document of July 1468 also refersto anothermanuscriptwithout doubt begun for Philippele Bon, and left unfinishedat his death:this is the 'Vengancede Nostre Seigneur',which contains the date of 1465 written by Yvonnet le Jeune in its prefatoryindex.94
JOHN LOWDEN
135
What is more, the 'Vengance',which survivesin the libraryat Chatsworth,was also included, like the lost Bible moralisee^ the inventoryof Philippe'sbooks in in 1467 and againin 1487 (the secundo folio and last folio texts conat his death firm the book's identity), and was in part illustratedby Loyset Liedet, who was paid by Jacquesde Bregilles as describedin paragraphs 37-41 of the document - for twenty histoires twenty-fourlargeinitials,as well as a mentioned above and The for binding that matched that of the Biblemoralisee.95 Biblemoralisee which were made, therefore,like the 'Vengence',must have been begun for payments that Philippele Bon, and it must have been this same Biblemoralisee was cited in the post mortem inventoryof 1467-69. for Loyset Liedet, we can conclude, was paid to complete a Biblemoralisee the 'librairie' Charlesle Temeraire,a manuscriptthat had been begun for the of duke'sfather.Charles(or ratherJacquesde Bregilles)commissionedone of the duke'smost prolificartiststo supplythe missingdecoration,possiblyincludinga numberof half-pageminiatures.How does this relateto the commissioningand some ten or fifteen years productionof the last three survivingBiblesmoralisees before?BnF fr. 897 and The Hague 76 E 7 are best understood, I suggest, as reponseson the part of aristocratic bibliophilesclose to the duke(s) of Burgundy, to the commissioningc. 1455 of a comparableBiblemoralisee Philippele Bon by himself. This intended ducal manuscript,I propose, was BL Add. 15248. But Add. 15248,with its numerousmarginalcorrections, seems to havebeen demoted to serve, at least for a while, as a workshopmodel. Perhapsthe lost but documented Biblemoralisee with twenty images by Loyset Liedet was designed,with its largerminiatures, takethe place of Add. 15248.If this is correct,Add. 15248 to must have been removedfrom the ducal 'librairie' before 1467 and given or sold to a new, unidentifiedowner. Documentaryevidence,togetherwith the surviving manuscripts, impliesthat the descendantsof Philippele Hardi continuedto regardthe Biblemoralisee a as book with dynasticsignificance,96 Philippehad, when in BnF fr. 166 he paid as BnF tributeto his father'sBiblemoralisee^ fr. 167. Philippe'sson Jean sans Peur well have commissionedKBR 9001-02, and with it attemptedto outdo his may father.Jean'sson Philippele Bon may have commissionedBL Add. 15248, and of certainly,shortlybefore his death, commissioneda Biblemoralisee the type of Add. 15248,'improving' it would seem, by the inclusion of largerminiatures. it, Philippe'sson Charlesle Temerairepaid for this book to be finishedin 1468 in part, perhaps,as an act of filialpietas.Taken together with the evidence of the survivingmanuscripts,the documented (albeit lost) Bible moralisee begun for
94. First identified by P. Durrieu, 'Decouverte 95. See the documentspublishedin De Schryver de deux importantsmanuscrits de la "Librairie" (as in n. 93), nos 37-41. des dues de Bourgogne', Bibliothequede VEcole des as 96. On the Biblesmoralisees bookswith dynastic Chartes,lxxi, 1910, pp. 58-71 (3-16). See also significancesee Lowden (as in n. 1), index 'Bibles Treasures , moralisees, critical approaches to, royal/dynastic from Chatsworth.The DevonshireInheritance exhib.cat., intro.A. Blunt,Washington 1979,no. DC books'. . 131(withearlier bibliography)
136
Philippe and finished for Charles shows that the dukes of Burgundywere.,as might be expected., throughmuch importantto the history of the Biblemoralisee of the fifteenthcentury.
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Bible Moralisee

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The "Bible Moralise" in the Fifteenth Century and the Challenge of the "Bible Historiale" Author(s): John Lowden

OF AND COURTAULD JOURNAL THEWARBURG INSTITUTES,LXVIII,2OO5

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

i. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. i66, fol. 46V,incipit of Joshua

2. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. 46V,incipit of Joshu

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

Original binding: bifolios correctly nested

First misbinding, reflected in MS fr. 166

Second misbinding; modern misfoliation in brackets

Diagramshowingsuccessivebindingsof BnF MS fr. 167, centralpart of quiresix

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

3. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 47V,incipit of Joshua

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

4. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 35V,text page

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

5. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. IO2V, incipit of Job

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

7. Bible moralisee,Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. I35V,incipit of Sapientia/Sirach

8. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. I36V5 incipit of Sapientia/Sirach

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

9. Bible moralisee,BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 3r, Creation

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

Renaissance Christie'ssale, London, 2 Manuscripts, December1987,lot 157 (olim PhillippsMS 11826).

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

40. 41. 42. 43.

JOHN LOWDEN 2. GHENT UB 141. INDEX OF CONTENTS

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

10. Bible moralisee,Ghent UB MS 141, fol. I2r, Creation

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

11.Biblemoralisee , GhentUB MS 141,fol. IO2V, of Judgement Solomon incipitof Ecclesiasticus,

12. Bible historiale,Brussels, KBR MS 9001, fol. I9r, Creation

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fol. ir

Comment la Sainte Escripture se puet exposer en quatre manieres.

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES . . . Bible moralisee^Ghent UB 141

. . . Bible historiale, KBR 9001

briefves] + paroles expunctuated.

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

in 1. de ce mot Confession: margin.

13. Bible historiale,Brussels, KBR MS 9001, fol. ir

Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. 6va"b La declaration de ce mot Vengence.

Domine memento mei nee vindictam sumas etc.t1]

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

. . . Maurice, BnF lat. 3271

5. Sirach 7.19. 6. Sirach 28.1. 7. Apocalypse 6.10. 8. II Corinthians 7. 11.

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES Ghent UB 141 . . . Bible moralisee,

Nicholas of Lyra, Postillae,excerpt from Psalm 2

. . . Bible moralisee, UB 141 / BL Add. 15248

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

14. Bible historiale,Brussels, KBR MS 9024, fol. 3r, Creation

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

16.Biblehistoriale, Museumof Nagoya,Furukawa of Art,fol. H3r,incipitof Proverbs, Judgement Solomon

London,BL RoyalMS 19.D.VI, 17.Biblehistoriale, of fol. I45r,Judgement Solomon

18. Bible historiale,London, BL Royal MS I5.D.III, fol. 3r, Creation

BIBLES MORALISEESAND BIBLES HISTORIALES

19. Bible historiale,Nagoya, Furukawa Museum of Art, fol. 3r, Creation

20. Bible historiale,London, BL Royal MS I9.D.VI, fol. 3r, Creation

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

21. Bible moralisee, London, BL Add. MS 15248, fol. I7r, Creation

BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

22. Bible moralisee, London, BL Add. MS 15248, fol. 24V,Sacrifice of Isaac

24. Bible moralisee,Ghent UB MS 141, fol. 35r, incipit of Joshua