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MS. Selden Supra 57

Summary Catalogue no.: 3445

Guillaume de Lorris; Jean de Meung, Le roman de la rose

Colophon: Fol. 153v: Explicit . . . Et fuit completum die veneris post festum beati martini hiemalis Et est ⟨... Parisius ... ⟨m c⟩ccº xlviii⟩ (four lines erased, treated with reagent and now only partly recoverable).

Language(s): Old French

2. (fol. 154)

Jean de Meung, Testament

Rubric: Le Testement mestre Iehean de Meu

Wanting the first leaf, the text beginning 'Bien se doit'.

In the same hand as art. 1 and with the same decoration and probably written at the same time.

Language(s): Old French

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: iii + 166 leaves

Dimensions (leaf): 240 × 180 mm.

Layout

2 cols., 38 lines, column space 185 × 60 mm.

Decoration

Illumination attributed (at least in part) to artist E of the Bible Moralisée, BnF MS. Fr. 167 (F. Avril, 'Un chef-d'œuvre de l'enluminure sous le règne de Jean le Bon : la Bible moralisée, manuscrit français 167 de la Bibliothèque nationale', in Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot, 58 (1972). pp. 91-125 at 104.

Fine miniatures (some defaced).

Fine border.

Fine initials. (Pächt and Alexander i. 597, pl. XLV)

Binding

Limp parchment (16th cent.) with arms, a tree proper between two griffins segreant supporting the stem, crest a demi-lion holding a serpent in its sinister paw, motto 'BART. SYLVA. SUBIT. ASPERA' (William Paddy: see British Armorial Bindings, and Provenance).

History

Origin: 1348 ; French, Paris

Provenance and Acquisition

'John Betts His Booke: 1606'

'153', and price-code 'r(?)/o', fol. i recto, early 17th century (?)

'21° January Arundell 1611', i. e. Thomas Howard earl of Arundel (d. 1646).

William Paddy, 1554–1634: his arms on the binding.

John Selden, 1584–1654

Acquired by the Bodleian in 1659