The Online Froissart

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, manuscrits français 2642

Godfried Croenen

Jean Froissart, Chronicles, Book I (incomplete), ca. 1400–1407

fol. 1r–16r: table of rubrics, rubric: "Cy commence la table des croniques que fist maistre Jehan Froissart, qui parlent des nouvelles guerres de France et d’Angleterre, de Bretaingne, Escoce, et Espaingne, les quelles sont divisees en IIII parties ", inc. : "¶ Prologue", expl. : "se rendirent a messire Bertran du Guesclin. IX^XX III."

fol. 17r–396v: Jean Froissart, Chronicles, Book I (A version), incomplete, ends in § 697 of the S.H.F. edition, rubric: "Cy commencent les croniques que fist maistre Jehan Froissart, qui parlent des nouvelles guerres de France et d’Angleterre, de Bretaingne, Escoce et Espaingne, les quelles sont divisees en IIII parties. Prologue", inc. : "Afin que honorables avenues et nobles aventures", expl. : "et esperons encores et cetera."

Physical description:

Parchment of good quality, some small repairs. The manuscript contains 394 folios.¹ Pages measure 387 mm by 300 mm. Written space measures 249 mm by 184 mm. Early-modern foliation, probably seventeenth-century, in black ink. Fol. 202 has been incorrectly numbered "222", while "151" and "319" have been skipped in the numbering. Collation: 50 quires, flesh side out: 1⁸, 2⁶, 3², 4–35⁸, 36¹⁰, 37–50⁸.Catchwords in the lower right-hand corner of the last page of each quire, written by the scribe. Quire signatures visible in quires 4–5, 7–8, 10–15, 17–18, 22–32, 34–37, 41–42 and 46. Secundo folio: "gneur natural" (fol. 2r, table) and "ou avecques ses gens" (fol. 18r, text).

Layout:

Ruled in leadpoint for 2 columns of 44 (43) lines. Written below top line. Ruling for running titles added in the body of the manuscripts (not in the table) but it has not been used. Prickings for the top and bottom horizontal ruling and for the vertical ruling visible in the margins. The ruling is sometimes not very well executed, with the ruled lines lower on the page not always running parallel to the short side of the page, but often at an upward (sometimes downward) angle, in particular on some recto sides (fol. 47r, fol. 67r, fol. 111r). This suggests that no pricking was used for the individual horizontal lines but that they were ruled parallel to the top (and bottom) line, for which prickings are visible.

Scribal Hands:

Copied by three early fifteenth-century hands in cursiva libraria.

The first main scribe has copied the text in quires 4–20 (fol. 17r–153v) and 25–37 (fol. 186r–291v) as well as the rubrics throughout the manuscript.

A second main scribe has copied the text in the quires 21–24 (fol. 154r–185v) and 38–50 (fol. 292r–396v).

A third scribe has copied the table of rubrics (quires 1–3, fol. 1r–16r).

Decoration:

This manuscripts contains 9 miniatures by two different artists.

Binding:

Seventeenth- or eighteenth-century binding typical of the Royal Library. Paper and parchment endleaves. Cardboard boards covered by red morroco, stamped in the front and back with the royal arms in gold. Six raised bands, tooled title on the spine between first and third band in gold lettering: "FROISSART / TOM. I." Above this a goldstamp of the royal arms.²

History:

The general style of script and decorative initials as well as the presence of miniatures by illuminators who were active in Paris suggests that the manuscript was produced in Paris.

No information is available about the intended first owner or subsequent medieval owners. On fol. 1r there are several ancient shelfmarks, probably from the Royal Library: "trois cens nonante six", "200", "8319".

Bibliography

François Avril, ‘Le Livre des Merveilles. Manuscrit français 2810 de la Bibliothèque nationale de France’, in Marco Polo. Le Livre des Merveilles. Extrait du Livre des Merveilles du Monde (Ms. fr. 2810) de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, ed. by Marie-Hélène Tesnière, François Avril and Marie-Thérèse Gousset (Tournai: La Renaissance du livre, 1999), pp. 197–221 (here p. 205, fig. 22 and p. 209–10)

Bibliothèque nationale. Département des manuscrits. Catalogue des manuscrits français, Tome premier. Ancien fonds (Paris: Librairie de Firmin-Didot frères, 1868), p. 438

George T. Diller, Attitudes chevaleresques et réalités politiques chez Froissart. Microlectures du premier livre des Chroniques, Études de philologie et d’histoire, 39 (Geneva: Droz, 1984) (listed p. 167)

Laurence Harf-Lancner, ‘Image and propaganda: the illustration of Book I of Froissart’s Chroniques’, in Froissart Across the Genres, ed. by Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox (Gainesville etc.: University Press of Florida, 1998), pp. 220–50 (here p. 243–4 and 223)

Laetitia Le Guay, Les Princes de Bourgogne lecteurs de Froissart. Les rapports entre le texte et l’image dans les manuscrits enluminés du livre IV des Chroniques, Documents, études et répertoires publiés par l’Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes ([Paris / Turnhout]: CNRS Éditions / Brepols, 1998) (listed p. 153)

Siméon Luce, ‘Introduction au premier livre des Chroniques de J. Froissart’, in Chroniques de J. Froissart, ed. by Siméon Luce, tome premier: 1307–1340 (depuis l’avènement d’Édouard II jusqu’au siége de Tournay) (Paris: Jules Renouard, 1869), pp. I–CXXXIV (listed on p. XXXIV; in the edition this MS is refered to with the sigil A9)

baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, ‘Introduction. Troisième partie: Description des manuscrits’, in Œuvres de Froissart publiées avec les variantes de divers manuscrits, I^II–III (Bruxelles: Devaux, 1873), pp. 185–461 (here p. 199–201)

Alberto Varvaro, ‘Il libro I delle Chroniques di Jean Froissart. Per una filologia integrata dei testi e delle immagini’, Medioevo Romanzo, 19 (1994), 3–36 (listed p. 10)

Notes

¹ The final folio is numbered 396, but this is the result of errors in the folio numbering.

² The armorial type is illustrated in Denise Bloch and others, Bibliothèque nationale. Catalogue général des manuscrits latins. Tables des tomes III à VI (N^os 2693 à 3775^B) (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1981), pl. XXIV, 2.