Cambridge, University Library, MS Hh.3.16

Godfried Croenen

Jean Froissart, Chronicles, Book III. Fragment of the beginning of Book III used as flyleaf in a manuscript of the Livre de Pontus et de Sidoine, early 15^th century

Contents:

fol. VIIv-VIIr: Jean Froissart, Chronicles, Book III, opening (SHF § 1 and part of the rubric of § 2), rubric: "Ci aprés s’ensuit la tierce partie des croniques [que fist] sire Jehan Froissart sur les fais [...], d’Angleterre, d’Espaigne, [...] et de France", inc. : "[J]e me suis longuement tenus a parler", expl. : "Comment le roy d[e Portingal ...]"

Physical description:

Parchment of seemingly good quality, which was used as a paste-down in a binding.The use in the binding has caused text loss and staining, especially on the verso side (the original opening page), the side that was pasted down. There are several small holes in the parchment, also probably as the result of this later re-use. Currently only part of one folio remaining. Page trimmed by the binder of the manuscript in whose binding the fragment is currently found. The direction of the writing is perpendicular to the manuscript in which it is found. The lower part of the page has been folded and is partly hidden in the binding, with a small stub with some illegible writing, including a rubric, appearing between the last folio of the main manuscript (fol. 88) and the first flyleaf in the back of the manuscript (fol. II). What remains of the original folio now measures approximately 189 (185 + 4) mm by 253 mm. Written space was more than 179 mm (175 mm + 4 mm for the stub + lost parchment) by 175 mm. A strip across the top of the original page measuring 65 mm has been cut but re-attached using Japanese paper Modern foliation in pencil.

Layout:

Ruled in leadpoint for 2 columns of approximately 45 lines (30 remaining + 15 lost). Ruling only visible on opening page (fol. VII v). It may be that like in the main manuscript, copied by the same scribe, only one side of the folio was ruled.

Decoration:

fol. VIIv: space for a large opening miniature, 21 lines high and spanning the two columns. The miniature has not been executed.

History:

The manuscript was probably produced in Paris or its surroundings. M.-H. Tesnière has identified the scribe of this fragment as Raoul Tainguy, who on his own copied a set of Books I-III of Froissart’s Chronicles in 1413, probably for Arnaud de Corbie in Jagny (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, mss. fr. 6474-6475; Brussels, Royal Library, ms. IV 1102) and collaborated in the production of two further copies of Book I (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 2640; Leiden, University Library, VGGF 9, vol. 1). The fact that neither the opening miniature nor the opening initial in this fragment were executed, and that it was apparently cut up and used in another manuscript copied by Raoul Tainguy, suggests that the manuscript was part of a project that was abandoned.

***

***

Bibliography

Paul Binski, Patrick Zutschi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (p. 309–10, no. 337)

Marie-Hélène Tesnière, ‘Les manuscrits copiés par Raoul Tainguy: un aspect de la culture des grands officiers royaux au début du XV^e siècle’, Romania, 107 (1986), 282–368