The Hangest Beauvais Missal in the 15th Century (II)

In the previous post we looked at the possibility that the Hangest / Beauvais Missal was once part of a four-volume Missal described in an 18th-century copy of an inventory "fait au mois de decembre 1464" which was was "remis au net ... l'an 1472".

The original inventory also survives however (or else a 15th-century copy of it). It includes a description, slightly different in interesting ways, of the same four-volume set:

Source

The Hangest Beauvais Missal in the 15th Century (I)

Lisa Fagin Davis, who is virtually reconstructing all the known leaves of the Hangest Missal and their textual contents, recently made the following observation to me in an email:

"The 1464 Beauvais catalogue lists a missal in four parts, of which the third does not describe what we've got here: "Et le tiers volume contient les Epistres et les Euvangilles, depuis l'Advent jusques au premier dimenche après Pasques ..." In fact, it is the description of volume II that seems closer to what survives: "... depuis la Resurrection jusques a la fin ..." (Omont, p. 39, no. 61)."

This got me thinking.

When an Illuminator Thinks a Scribe is an Ass

Today I was reminded of my favourite example of a medieval illuminator making a visual comment about a scribe. It occurs among the canticles that follow the psalms in the Eadwine Psalter. [1]

Ice-Cream Cones or Eyes?

One way in which ownership of manuscripts can be attributed Christ Church, Canterbury, is by the presence of some distinctive marginal markings:

This image comes from a description in a Sotheby's catalogue, 24 June 1980, lot 68, which Chrisopher de Hamel describes as

"three types of marginal markings: a hand with a triangular cuff and long pointing finger, a group of 4 dots arranged in a saltire pattern, and (most distinctive of all) a mark like a sideways icecream cone"

Robert de Hangest, Canon of Beauvais Cathedral

I have been exploring the Collection Bucquets-Aux-Cousteaux, which includes copies, extracts, and summaries of the earliest records of Beauvais cathedral, to see if there is any more material potentially relating to the so-called Beauvais Missal. Indeed there is.

In fact, there is quite a lot of potentially-relevant material, and some of it is rather complex, so I've decided to spread the discussion of it over multiple blogposts. Most of it concerns the Missal in the 15th century, so for now I will just share a small tidbit that concerns in the 14th century.

Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition Catalogues

Many readers of this blog will know the Burlington Fine Arts Club in London held a truly landmark exhibition of about 270 illuminated manuscript books, leaves, and cuttings in 1908, but perhaps most will not know that this was preceded by two others.

"Case B: English Psalters etc.", as displayed at the 1908 exhibition

The catalogues of all three are now available online.

Forthcoming Provenance Conference at the Warburg Institute, 11 March 2015

A Coordinated Approach to Recording and Searching Provenance Records and Images: Moving Forward

11 March 2015

Warburg Institute, London

There is now a provisional program for a conference organised by Raphaële Mouren and Cristina Dondi.  See the CERL conferences page, or go directly to the provisional program here (PDF).

von Scherling's Roman de Troie Miniatures

A week ago I mentioned and illustrated a pair of full-page miniatures from the earliest illuminated manuscript of the Roman de Troie, which were offered for sale, with the two shown above, by Erik von Scherling in his Rotulus catalogue, vol.IV (1937), no.1817:

Ege's 12th-Century Italian Lectionary

Looking through Erik von Scherling's Rotulus catalogue vol.IV (Winter, 1937) for the previous post, I came across a plate depicting a very familiar-looking manuscript: