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MS. Douce 213

Summary Catalogue no.: 21787

Contents

Boccaccio, Decameron

French translation by Laurens de Premierfait .

Rubric: ... Le liure des Cent Nouuelles [or, "Le liure de cameron autrement surnomme de prince Galeoth"] que fist et composa ... Jehan Bocasse de Certald

With a prologue by the translator. A long colophon states that the book was translated first into Latin and secondly into French at Paris 'en lostel de noble homme ... Bureau de Dampmartin ... par moy Leurens de Premierfait famillier du dit Bureau. Lesquelles deux translacions par trois ans faites furent acompliés le vje iour de Juing lan MCCCC et xiiij.'.

Including the author's preface to the Duke of Berry, known from only one other manuscript. The manuscript belongs to the B family of the text.

Language(s): Middle French

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper (except for fols. 7, i, xii, parchment); watermarks, according to Bozzolo, Briquet 1739 (recorded 1458-78), and a bell mark not in Briquet.
Extent: 12 + cclvii leaves
Dimensions (binding): 15.375 × 11.75 in.
Dimensions (leaf): c. 380 × 276 mm.

Layout

2 cols., 48 lines, ruled space 270 × 180 mm. (Bozzolo)

Hand(s)

Cursive book hand by two scribes: the first, and more skilled, wrote only the first seven and a half lines of text on the opening illuminated page of the text (fol. i); the second used a more current hand.

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander i. 717, pl. LV

Fine miniature (fol. i r): a man reading the tales to a group of hearers, while a scribe writes them down.

Border.

Initials.

Binding

18th cent. with armorial device and legend 'Lud. Mag. Minst. 1695': Marquis de Paulmy (1722-87) (E. Olivier, G. Hermal, R. de Roton, Manuel de l'amateur de reliures armoriées françaises, XVIIe sér., Paris, 1929, pl. 1722).

History

Origin: 15th century, third quarter (before 1467) ; French, Anjou (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Tentatively attributed to Anjou by Pächt and Alexander, presumably on art historical grounds. Space left for a coat of arms, fol. i r.

Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy: perhaps made for him. Identifiable by second folio in the inventory of his library, 1469 (Corpus Catalogorum Belgii V: Dukes of Burgundy (2016), 5.484 (pp. 222-3); visible in later inventories of the Burgundian library, 1487 and 1536 (ibid., 8.82, p. 300 and n.)

Antoine-René de Voyer d'Argenson, Marquis de Paulmy (1722-87) (evidence of the binding). Note (by Paulmy?) that he also possessed another MS. of this translation on parchment with more miniatures dated 1408.

Justin MacCarthy-Reagh: his sale, May 1789, lot 1646; bought for £2 by:

Francis Douce, 1757–1834

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1834

Record Sources

Description adapted (2025) from the following sources, with additional reference to published literature as cited.
The Douce Legacy (Oxford, 1984), cat. 198
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, I (1966), no. 717
Summary Catalogue (1897)
Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 557

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2025-02: Incorporate all information from printed Bodleian catalogues.