Les XXI epistres des dames illustes traduicttes d'Ovide / par le Reverend Pere en Dieu Monseigneur l'Evesque de Angoulesme : [manuscript]
Creator
Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D
Contributor
Testard, Robinet, active 1475-1531, artist Saint-Gelais, Octavien de, 1468-1502, translator Le Clerc, Jean, 1657-1736, former owner Lawrence, Edwin Henry, former owner Hoe, Robert, 1839-1909, former owner Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Manuscript. HM 60
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Description
ff. 1-130v; f. 131r-v blank. [Ovid] Heroides. Incipit: Puys que tu es du Retour paresseux/ O ulixes de cueur trop angoisseux. Explicit: Et a phaon a present t'en iras/ Lequel du tout en brief advertiras. Cy finist l'espitre de sapho a phaon. Ces espitres d'ovide ont este translatees de latin en francoys par Reverend pere en dieu Monseigneur d'Engouleme par luy. Rubric: Cy commence la premiere espitre d'ovide de pennelope a ulixes. French. Other creator(s): Octavien de Saint-Gelais, translator. On ff. 1-2v, frontispiece and arguments of the letters. Several early editions; this manuscript lacks the dedication letter to Charles VIII occurring, for example, in the 1528 Paris edition. For other copies of this text, see P. Durrieu and J. J. Marquet de Vasselot,"Les manuscrits à miniatures des Héroïdes d'Ovide traduits par Saint-Gelais et un grand miniaturiste français du XVIe siècle," L'Artiste 7 (1894) 331-47 and 433-53; R. H. Lucas,"Mediaeval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500," Speculum 45 (1970) 225-53, esp. 244. Title from frontispiece Support: Parchment. Script: Bâtarde. Layout: 1² 2-4⁸ 5⁶(text complete) 6-17⁸ 18⁴(-4). Catchwords written lightly in a small noting script in the inner margin of the second leaf verso of each quire (in quire 5, on first leaf). 36 lines of verse, ruled in pale red ink. Span folios: ff. 1-131v. Decoration: Twenty-one miniatures, 24-line, within a patterned color and gold frame border, attributed to Robinet Testard but with faces and hands heavily repainted in the eighteenth century; the miniatures usually depict the writers, 3/4 length, dressed in handsome brocade robes, as they compose their letters, standing against simple architectural backgrounds. The frontispiece, f. 1, contains a blue medallion with a profile of Ovid, set in a gold architectural frame, with a cartouche bearing the inscription in red ink. Other Decoration: On f. 2, 2 KL monograms on blue and red grounds cut from a book of hours have been pasted in (the top one upside down) to serve as the initials "L." Acknowledgments: We thank Mme Nicole Reynaud for the attribution of the artist. Assigned Date: s. XV/XVI. Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 3/5/2012. Cataloged from existing description: C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Bound, s. XVIII, in Dutch red morocco, gold tooled; gilt edges. HM 60. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Mythology, Classical--Poetry Man-woman relationships--Poetry Love poetry, Latin--Early works to 1800 Epistolary poetry, Latin--Early works to 1800 Illuminations (Painting) France 15th century. (aat) Miniatures (Painting) France 15th century. (aat) Illuminations (Painting) France 16th century. (aat) Miniatures (Painting) France 16th century. (aat) Translations (rbgenr) Poems (rbgenr) Manuscripts (documents) (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
Belonged to Jean Le Clerc (1657-1736); his sale, Amsterdam, 6 September 1735 with the catalogue entry reprinted by F. L. Hoffmann,"Handschriften welche in Katalogen öffentlich verkaufter Bibliotheken verzeichnet sind," Serapeum 19 (1858) 194-98, especially p. 197. Guglielmo Libri (1803-1869) sale, Sotheby's, 25 July 1862, lot 429 to Edwin Henry Lawrence; his sale, Sotheby's, 9 May 1892, lot 484 to Quaritch. Robert Hoe collection: Bierstadt (1895) pp. 16-18 with plates of ff. 112 and 123; Cat. (1909) pp. 153-55; his sale, Anderson, New York, 1911, pt. I, n. 2168 with a plate of f. 112 to G. D. Smith; sold in 1918 to Henry E. Huntington.
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