A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Add. C. 29

Summary Catalogue no.: 28535

Guillaume de Deguilleville, Pèlerinages; France, c. 1400

Contents

1. (fol. 1)
Guillaume de Deguilleville, Le Pèlerinage de la vie humaine

More than half the poem is lost. What is left begins (late in the 3rd book) 'Se on mappelle Gloutonne': followed at fol. 24 by a Latin paraphrase in verse of the Apostles' Creed, Lord's Prayer, etc. beg. 'Credo ego catholicus') which is really part of the Pélerinage.

Final rubric: Amen. Explicit de Vie humaine Et commence Ihesucrist
Language(s): Old French (with a little Latin)
2. (fol. 32)
Guillaume de Deguilleville, Pèlerinage de l'âme
Rubric: Cy commence le Pelerinage de lame
Final rubric: Explicit le liure de lame
Language(s): Old French
3. (fol. 110)
Guillaume de Deguilleville, Pèlerinage de Jésus-Christ
Rubric: Cy commence le Pelerinage Ihesucrist
Final rubric: Cy fenist le Pelerinage Ihesucrist. Cy finent le trois Pelerinages […]
Language(s): Old French

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii + 188 + ii leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c. 280 × c. 220 mm.
Foliation: i-ii, 1-191 (191 is the back pastedown)

Condition

Imperfect and injured in parts by damp and the injudicious use of galls, and on fol. 7 by excision.

Layout

2 cols., 35 lines; ruled space 228 × 177 mm.

Hand(s)

Formal cursive bookhand.

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander i. 634:

Good grisaille miniatures (fols. 6v, 32r, 110r).

Good borders.

Penwork initials in gold, flourished with light blue, and dark blue, flourished with red.

Binding

Quarter leather and marbled pasteboard, 19th century (?)

History

Origin: c. 1400 ; French

Provenance and Acquisition

'Cest a moi Claude Fauchet 1596': Claude Fauchet, 1530-1601, French historian and philologist; not listed in S. W. Bisson, 'Claude Fauchet's Manuscripts', Modern Language Review 30/3 (Jul., 1935), 311-323.

'Ex Libris Biblio. D. D. Caroli de Pradel episcopi Montispessulani': Charles de Pradel, ?1644-1696

Probably purchased with Pradel's library by his successor bishop, Colbert de Croissi, 1667-1738 (cf. Paul Meyer, 'Les manuscrits français de Cambridge', Romania 8/31 (1879), 305-42 at 307-8) and identifiable in the catalogue of his sale, 1740 (Catalogus librorum bibliothecase ... D.D. Caroli-Joachimi Colbert de Croissi, II, 446).

'W. Reader, Coventry, 1808': William Reader, 1782–1852 (on whom see Oxford DNB).

Bought in 1848 for £12 12s.

Record Sources

Description adapted (March 2022) from the following sources, with additional physical description and provenance:
Summary Catalogue (1905)
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, I (1966), no. 634

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2022-03-22: Matthew Holford: revised to include all information from Summary Catalogue and P&A.