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The "Bible Moralisée" in the Fifteenth Century and the Challenge of the "Bible Historiale"Author(s): John LowdenReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 68 (2005), pp. 73-136Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40026195 .

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THE BIBLE MORALISEE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY AND THE CHALLENGE OF THE BIBLE HISTORIALE*

John Lowden

paper considers the previously unrecognised connection between two ostensibly very different types of illuminated French Bible, each regarded

as a high point of medieval book production, namely the Bible moralisee and the Bible historiale. Although both types were new developments of the thirteenth century, the focus here will require a wide-ranging investigation into the Bible moralisee in the fifteenth century. The Bible moralisee began as a picture book of the Bible in which, on every page, four short biblical excerpts were accompanied by brief moralisations, and each text was accompanied by an image in a medal- lion, making eight texts and images per page. The arrangement of texts and images was unique to the Bibles moralisees. With literally thousands of images, they are the most ambitious attempts to illustrate the Bible ever made, and provide a moralising commentary, pictorial and verbal. The Bible historiale was a French vernacular translation of the full Bible, the text expanded by inclusion of much of the biblical paraphrase and commentary found in Peter Comestor's Historia scholastica. The text of many Bibles historiales was accompanied by images, but the vast bulk of a Bible historiale was due primarily to its very lengthy text. By the early fifteenth century, however, the distinctions between Bibles moralisees and Bibles historiales were beginning to become less clear-cut, and it is against this background that the present discussion needs to be seen.

The four Bibles moralisees that were produced in Paris in the twenties and thirties of the thirteenth century continue to be the subject of numerous studies. They are Vienna, Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek [hereafter ONB] MS 2554; ONB MS 1 179; the 'Oxford-Paris-London5 manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Bodley 270b; Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France [hereafter BnF] MS latin 11560; London, British Library [hereafter BL] MSS Harley 1526-27); and the Biblia de San Luis in the treasury of Toledo Cathedral.1 In

* I am most grateful to the custodians of the manuscripts studied here for permission to examine them. Acknowledgements for specific help and advice are also due to Louis-Jacques Bataillon, Nicole Beriou, Ilona Hans-Collas, Martine de Reu, Genevieve Hasenohr, Anne D. Hedeman, Peter Kidd, Anne Korteweg, Scot McKendrick, Richard and Mary Rouse, Pascal Schandel, and Patricia Stirnemann. Readers for this Journal made valuable suggestions, especially Martin Davies on incunabula.

The conventions used for transcription are those of Conseils pour I'edition des textes medievaux, fasc. i, Conseils generaux, ed. F. Vieillard, O. Guyotjeannin, Paris 2001.

1. For general bibliography see J. Lowden, The Making of the Bibles Moralisees, I, The Manuscripts, University Park 2000, pp. 333-51. A full bibliography is maintained on the author's Courtauld Institute website under 'Bibles moralisees: Electronic Bibli- ography'. Most of the 'Bible of St Louis' is in Toledo,

73

JOURNAL OF THE WARBURG AND COURTAULD INSTITUTES, LXVIII, 2OO5



74 BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

contrast, some, but not all, of the Bibles moralisees produced in the fifteenth century have been almost entirely overlooked. They are strikingly disparate in content. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional MS 10232 (the 'Bible of Osuna', Toledo c. 1430) contains a transcription of the Latin texts of the entire three-volume Toledo Bible moralisee, with the addition of a Castilian translation of all its moralisations.2 It has, however, no images. The 'Heures de Rohan', BnF MS lat. 9471 (Angers c. 1430), is a profusely illustrated Book of Hours of superlative quality, which includes marginal images and accompanying caption-like texts in French, derived from a Bible moralisee^ and extending from Genesis to Deuteronomy.3 The putative model of the Bible moralisee element of BnF lat. 9471 is the 'Neapolitan Bible', BnF fr. 9561 (Naples c. 1325-40), a biblical picture book descended in some as yet undefined fashion from a 'true' Bible moralisee^ with texts in French, closely related to ONB MS 2554 (Paris c. 1220-25), and extending from Genesis to Judges.4 Six further fifteenth-century manuscripts, together with an incunable, are all descended in some way from yet another Bible moralisee^ the mid-fourteenth-century Bible of King Jean II le Bon, BnF MS fr. 167 (Paris 1349-52). 5

They will be the subject of this paper. All of them are (or were), like BnF fr. 167, complete Bibles in one (generally large) volume. They are BnF MS fr. 166 (Paris c. 1400-04 and later);6 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana [hereafter BAV] MS Reg. lat. 25 (Paris c. 1410);7 Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek MS 141 (Paris c. 1420);8 BL Add. MS 15248 (Bruges c. 1455);9 BnF MS fr. 897 (Bruges c. 1455-60);10 The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek [hereafter KB] MS 76 E 7 (Bruges c. 1455-60);11 and LExposicion et la vraie declaracion de la Bible (printed at Lyons c. 1477). I2

Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada, except for 8 folios preserved in New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M. 240. See now Biblia de San Luis. Biblia rica de Toledo, facs. edn, 3 vols, Barcelona 1999; the accompanying scholarly edition is Biblia de San Luis: Catedral Primada de Toledo, 2 vols (1, Textos; 11, Estudios), ed. R. Gonzalvez Ruiz with M. Vivancos Gomez and J.-P. Aniel, Barcelona 2002-04.

2. See Biblia de San Luis: Catedral Primada de Toledos (as in n. 1), I, pp. 253-507 (the Osuna text is edited by M. Vivancos). See also R. Haussherr, 'Drei Texthandschriften der Bible moralisee', in Festschrift fiir Eduard Trier zum 60. Geburtstag, Berlin 1981, pp. 35-65 (37-38, 48); M. Morreale, 'La "Biblia Mora- lizada" latino-castellano de la Biblioteca Nacional (MS 10232)', Spanische Forschungen der Gorresgesell- schaft, ser. 1, Gesammelte Aufsdtze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens, xxix, 1978, pp. 437-56.

3. Paris 1400. Les arts sous Charles VI, exhib. cat. (Louvre), Paris 2004, no. 232, with further bibliography; A. de Laborde, La Bible moralisee conservee a Oxford, Paris et Londres, 5 vols, Paris 191 1-27, v, pp. 117-22, pis 768-81.

4. Y. Christe and L. Brugger, 'Quelques images de la Genese, de l'Exode et du Levitique dans la

Bible moralisee napolitaine de Paris et les Bibles moralisees du debut du XIIF siecle', in Iconographica. Melanges offerts a Piotr Skubiszewski, ed. R. Favreau and M.-H. Debies, Poitiers 1999, pp. 49-61; idem, 'Une Bible moralisee meconnue: la Bible napolitaine de Paris (BnF, ms fr. 9561, fol. ir-ii2v)', Arte cristiana, xci, 2003, pp. 237-51; Laborde (as in n. 3), v,pp. 114-17, pis 759-67.

5. Lowden (as in n. 1), 1, pp. 221-50; Lart a la cour de Bourgogne, exhib. cat., Dijon 2004, no. 28; F. Avril, 'Un chef d'oeuvre de l'enluminure sous la

regne de Jean le Bon: la Bible moralisee manuscrit francais 167 de la Bibliotheque Nationale', Monu- ments et memoires, LVlll, 1972, pp. 91-125.

6. Pans 1400 (as in n. 3), no. 184; Lowden (as in n. 1), pp. 251-84.

7. / Vangeli dei popoli, exhib. cat., Rome 2000, no. 94. Haussherr (as in n. 2), pp. 48-49, 56.

8. Haussherr (as in n. 2), pp. 56-58. First placed in an art historical context by C. Nordenfalk, Kung Praktiks och Drottning Teoris Jaktbok, Stockholm 1955, pp. 61, 94, fig. 66.

9. Laborde (as in n. 3), pp. 123-28, pis 788-89. 10. Laborde (as in n. 3), pp. 133-36, pis 806-07.



JOHN LOWDEN 75

In what follows I shall seek to establish with precision the relationships among these six later Bibles moralisees, and between them and their actual or hypothetical model or models. I shall also attempt to account for the ways they differ from the core group of seven fully-illustrated Bibles moralisees (one manuscript, BnF fr. 166, is in both categories).13 In sum I hope to lay stable foundations for a more comprehensive study which could explore the evidence of these six manuscripts and the incunable broadly and systematically. My principal argument is that these manuscripts bear witness to a challenge to the Bible moralisee in the course of the fifteenth century from a very different kind of illustrated book, namely the Bible historiale. I also emphasise the role of workshop models and records, rather than costly manuscripts, in the process of transmission. And I draw attention to the fact that these later Bibles moralisees represent major commissions by leading aristocratic bibliophiles of the period, and deserve to be rescued from their current relative obscurity.

Paris, BnF MS frangais 166

The earliest of the six fifteenth-century Bibles moralisees to descend from the Bible of Jean II le Bon, BnF fr. 167, has already been intensively, albeit selectively, studied. BnF fr. 166 is the last of the core group of fully-illustrated Bibles moralisees to survive, and thus an essential control and point of reference in the present enquiry. Like its six predecessors (ONB 2554 and 1179, the Toledo Biblia de San Luis, the Oxford-Paris-London Bible, BL Add. 18719 [London c. 1280], and BnF fr. 167) it is a true picture book, planned and executed around a layout dominated by eight quite small images on every page (Figs 1-2). Whereas in the four early Bibles moralisees these eight images are all circular, and the accompanying texts are in either Latin or French (except for some bilingual quires at the start of volume ill of the Toledo Bible), in BnF fr. 166 the images are tall rectangles and all the adjacent texts are in both Latin and French. In these aspects fr. 166 copies its direct model, fr. 167.

The manuscript was begun for Jean IPs third son, Philippe le Hardi, duke of Burgundy, but was left incomplete on the duke's death in 1404. The page-for- page textual transcription of fr. 167 (almost facsimilising in its close attention to detail) seems to have been finished by 1404, but of what would have been 321 folios only the first 169 have been preserved, together with five fragments from later quires.14 Of the 5112 images in fr. 167, which survives complete, only 2692

11. See Catalogue of French-Language Medieval Manuscripts in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library) and Meermanno-Westreenianum Museum, The Hague, compiled by E. Brayer, published on microfilm and microfiche, Amsterdam 2003, with a downloadable Guide and introduction by A. S. Korteweg: Guide, p. 22, Catalogue, microfiche 9; an up-to-date bibliography is maintained at the Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts section of the

Koninklijke Bibliotheek website. See also E. Laborde (as in n. 3), pp. 128-32, pis 782-87.

12. G. Mombello, 'Appunti su Julien Macho e sulla fortuna della Bible moralisee' ', Studi francesi, lxi, I977> PP- 157-76.

13. For the division between the fully-illustrated Bibles moralisees and the rest see Lowden (as in n. 1), pp. 2-4.




i. Bible moralisee, Paris, BnF MS fr. i66, fol. 46V, incipit of Joshua



JOHN LOWDEN

2. Bible moralisee, Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. 46V, incipit of Joshu




are supplied in fr. 166;15 by the time of Philippe's death probably only 384 of them had been finished in the book's first three quires., together with all but some final layers of the 128 miniatures in quire four. These are documented as the work of Paul and Jean, two of the so-called Limbourg brothers.16 In comparison with the high-quality grisaille images of fr. 167, the miniatures of fr. 166 are remarkable for the increasing use, quire by quire, of rich pigments., and for their exceptionally high degree of detail and finish. Study of the images of fr. 166 is facilitated by the manuscript's close relationship to fr. 167., but complicated by a series of attempts to continue the decorative programme., first, it would seem, in the household of Rene, due d'Anjou, probably in the 1450s (e.g. Fig. 1), and finally for Aymar de Poitiers, seneschal of Provence, in the I48os-'9os.17

No other illustrated medieval book was like a fully-illustrated Bible moralisee, not just in terms of the requirement to provide thousands of images, but also in fundamental aspects of layout and planning. For example, the page-for-page copying of the text of the model, characteristic of the relationship of fr. 166 (c. 1400) to fr. 167 (c. 1350), is also characteristic of the relationship of fr. 167 to its model, BL Add. 18719 (c. 1280), and of Add. 18719 to its model, the Oxford- Paris-London Bible moralisee (c. 1230-3 5). l8 The survival of so many links in the chain of transmission indicates how carefully these manuscripts were preserved over centuries. It also reveals much evidence of the minutiae of production. For example, the makers of BnF fr. 167 inserted at the end of Job an additional single leaf (fol. 113), blank on its verso, so as to enable Psalms to begin on the first recto of a new quire (fol. 114). This codicological anomaly was inherited from BLAdd. 18719, along with a system of quires of twelve folios/six bifolios (this was because the model, Add. 187 19, was not bound when copied, and hence by replicating its structure the numerous craftsmen of fr. 167 were able to work concurrently on copying the images on bifolios of the model onto corresponding bifolios of the work in progress). In contrast, because fr. 167 was not disbound to facilitate the making of fr. 166 (for fr. 167 was not a workshop model, but a treasured royal book), the quire structure of fr. 166 was the more usual eight folios/four bifolios. Nonetheless, fol. 112 ends a quire in both manuscripts, and fol. 113 is a single leaf inserted before the start of Psalms on fol. 114 in fr. 166, exactly as in its model, fr. 167.

On the other hand, it is the differing quire structures of model and copy that explain a textual disorder in fr. 166, which is crucial to the study of the Bibles moralisees in the fifteenth century. In copying quire six of fr. 167 the makers of quires nine and ten of fr. 166 were misled by a disorder of the inner two bifolios

14. L. Delisle, 'Livres d'images destines a l'instruction religieuse et aux exercices de piete des laiques', in Histoire litteraire de la France, xm, Quator- zieme siecle, Paris 1893, p. 242; Lowden (as in n. 1), 1, p. 256.

15. Note that the total of 1340 miniatures cited in Lowden (as in n. 1), is incorrect (e.g., 1, pp. 5, 252,

329 n. 11). The number of folios (169) should be multiplied by 16, not by 8 (and then 12 subtracted from the total, giving 2692), as the folios are decorated on both sides.

16. Discussed in Lowden (as in n. 1), 1, pp. 273-76. 17. Ibid., 1, pp. 256-84. 18. Ibid., I, pp. 139-284.



JOHN LOWDEN 79

of the model, which they failed to notice.19 Folios 69, 70, 71, and 72 of fr. 167 were copied in the order 71, 70, 69, 72. The sewing of quire six of fr. 167 must have come undone at the time of copying, with the two central bifolios (69/72 and 70/71) falling loose. Instead of being re-nested correctly one within the other, the bifolio 70/71 must have been folded back to front (71/70), and the second bifolio, 69/72, must have been tucked in after 71/70. To make matters more complicated, when fr. 167 was rebound at some later date the order of the bifolios 69/72 and 70/71 was corrected, but the bifolio 68/73 was misplaced before 67/74. The original numbering by the scribe of the first six leaves in quire 6 of fr. 167 as/z -fvi confirms that when the manuscript was produced there was no disorder. But the modern foliation postdates the misbinding, and so the bifolios in question were numbered in incorrect sequence:/^ was numbered 67/74 and placed before /m, which was numbered 68/73 (see diagram). Both fr. 167 and fr. 166 now have the same foliation, but the quire structure of fr. 166 does not permit the reordering of these leaves to achieve the correct reading. The situation is complex, but of great significance. It is crucial to observe that no later manuscripts reflect the disorder of bifolios 67/74 and 68/73 of fr. 167, and only fr. 166 has the disorder over fols 69-72. We can be certain, therefore, that none of the later manuscripts is a copy of the text of fr. 166.

The ambition and achievement of the makers of fr. 166 may be briefly summed up as follows. The manuscript was planned as a fully illustrated picture- book Bible rnoralisee, painstakingly reproducing the text and layout of its model,

Original binding: bifolios correctly nested

First misbinding, reflected in MS fr. 166

Second misbinding; modern misfoliation in brackets

Diagram showing successive bindings of BnF MS fr. 167, central part of quire six

19. The following discussion amplifies that in Lowden (as in n. i), I, pp. 254-55.



8o BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

3. Bible moralisee, BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 47V, incipit of Joshua



JOHN LOWDEN 81

fr. 167. The images of fr. 166 were much more carefully executed than those of fr. 167, each presenting a separate demonstration of artistic mastery. The illustrative project proved far too taxing, however, and it was never completed. The large pile of unfinished quires, carefully preserved and returned to at least twice throughout the fifteenth century, would have indicated to any patron or craftsman the difficulties inherent in the project to make a 'traditional' Bible moralisee, a project which, even had Philippe le Hardi not died in 1404, would very likely (or so it can be proposed) have proved too taxing for the Limbourgs to bring to completion.

Vatican City, BAV MS Reginensis latinus 25 (siglum R)

At roughly the same time as work was under way on BnF fr. 166, or more broadly in the decade c. 1400-10, a totally unprecedented type of Bible moralisee was also in production in Paris. BAV Reg. lat. 25 (R) is a work of high quality and expense.20 The unknown patron engaged four artists, one of whom can be identified as a member of the 'Boucicaut workshop', named for the Master of the Hours of the Marechal de Boucicaut (Paris, Musee Jacquemart Andre MS 2; Paris c. 1405-08). 2I

Like BnF fr. 166, BAV Reg. lat. 25 was based (in some manner) on Bnf fr. 167, the Bible of Jean II le Bon, but the result was a manuscript which is, para- doxically, both very similar to and very different from its model. The Reginensis manuscript has all the Latin and French texts of fr. 167, and consistently reproduces its model page for page, even in its overall dimensions (42 x 29-5 cm; fr. 167 measures 41-5 x 29 cm). In these aspects Reg. lat. 25 is also like fr. 166 (compare Figs 1-3) . However, because of the later inclusion of two prefatory leaves in the foliation of Reg. lat. 25, but the omission by oversight of one leaf after fol. 5 (added later, numbered '5 bis'), its folio numbers from fol. 6 onwards are always equivalent to fr. 167 (or fr. 166) plus one, and hence run to a total of 322 (instead of the 321 of fr. 167). Reg. lat. 25 is bound in gatherings of eight (like fr. 166) rather than the twelve of fr. 167, and it too has the added single leaf (its fol. 114) that permits Psalms to begin a new quire (on its fol. 115), following precisely the model of fr. 167's folios 113 and 114.

Yet despite these fundamental similarities, the appearance of Reg. lat. 25 is totally unlike that of fr. 167 or fr. 166. Although the overall dimensions to the ruled area are similar (283 x 193 cm, compared with 282 x 205 cm in fr. 167), instead of a four-column layout on every page, with eight texts and four images occupying equal space in alternating columns (each about 48-51 mm wide), the layout of Reg. lat. 25 provides for only two columns per page (each column about 86 mm wide). Instead of the 5 112 images of fr. 167, Reg. lat. 25 has just 76 images (none are missing or unfinished) . These images begin with a large frontispiece to Genesis (14*6 x 19-2 cm), which occupies the upper half of fol. 3r, the

20. See the references cited above, n. 7. 21. M. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: the Boucicaut Master, London 1968.




4. Bible moralisee, BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 35V, text page



JOHN LOWDEN 83

first original leaf. There is no equivalent frontispiece in fr. 167. (Fr. 166 has a magnificent drawing of St Jerome in his study on an unfoliated single leaf, facing fol. ir, which may always have been intended for this location.)22 The decorative scheme in the remainder of Reg. lat. 25 consists, as a general rule, of a pair of images at the incipit of each biblical book. The textual divisions are as defined in fr. 167 where, for example, the Gospels and Epistles are each treated as a single book, whereas the Minor Prophets are treated separately, and the eight-part Psalter division is also observed by the use of enlarged initials. Nonetheless, of the textual divisions recognised in fr. 167, the books of Ruth, Judith, Lamentations, Joel, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Haggai and Zechariah have no images in Reg. lat. 25; and Genesis, Judges, Psalm 1, Psalm 80, Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachi each have only a single (in each case a biblical) miniature instead of a pair.

Unlike the situation in fr. 167, where all the images are vertical rectangles measuring about 67 x 49 mm, and are flanked by text in a column to the left, in Reg. lat. 25 the images are all horizontal rectangles measuring 57-75 x 88 mm (they vary from 11 to 14 lines high, but mostly occupy 13 lines), and are located in spaces in the text column left blank for the purpose by the scribe. At each incipit the biblical image is placed above the first Latin and French biblical texts, as a kind of preface, with the moralisation image below, above the first Latin and French moralisation texts. On pages that include a pair of images, the texts often had to be squeezed up by the scribe so as to accommodate the spaces for the miniatures, but on the vast majority of pages (more than 93%), in which Reg. lat. 25 reproduces the texts of fr. 167 but has no images, the later manuscript has a strangely incomplete appearance, since the blank lines left between the sixteen texts (which would otherwise fill a much smaller area of each page) are very conspicuous (Fig. 4). The system of keeping in step, page-for-page, with the text of the model, while reducing the number of miniatures to two (or one) for each book of the Bible, broke down most notably in the Minor Prophets where, for example, on fol. 222V there are incipits to four biblical books (Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zechariah) but space could be found in the two columns for only a single miniature. (The four-column layout of fr. 167 here accommo- dates eight images on the corresponding fol. 22iv as usual. No page of Reg. lat. 25 could accommodate more than two images.)

In terms of its text, Reg. lat. 25 could either be a direct copy of the text of fr. 167, with the bifolios 69/72 and 70/71 of the model arranged in correct order,23 or, alternatively, of a lost intermediary in the form of a workshop copy of fr. 167, specifically created so as to enable the making of further Bibles moralisees without

22. Lowden (as in n. 1), 1, pp. 276-78 and colour pl. XXVI; Paris 1400 (as in n. 3), pp. 292-93, fig. 79.

23. As noted above (p. 6), only fr. 166 has the textual disorder over fols 69-72. In terms of its text, therefore, Reg., lat. 25 cannot be a copy of fr. 166. Nonetheless, the two manuscripts share a number of

minor variants, e.g. those listed in Lowden (as in n. 1), 11, The Book of Ruth, p. 258, scene 3, n. 7: ainsi] aussi; p. 259. scene 5, n. 2: fils I0] enfans; n. 6: moururent prophetes] prophetes morurent; etc. See also the discussion of the Sacrifice of Isaac, below in this article.




5. Bible moralisee, Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. IO2V, incipit of Job



JOHN LOWDEN 85

the need to consult fr. 167 directly.24 The presence of some minor textual variants in Reg. lat. 25 could support this theory, but systematic collation would be required to make the point secure. The putative workshop copy would have had to be organised so as to transmit the quire structure as well as the text and mis-en-page of fr. 167. Nonetheless the exceptional closeness of Vat. Reg. lat. 25 to fr. 167 can be seen, for example, where the French translation of the biblical texts of both Psalm 15 (fol. H5V) and Psalm 150 (fol. I32V) were omitted in fr. 167, and the scribe of Reg. lat. 25 left additional blank space to correspond to these lacunae (fols n6v, I33V). (The significance of these omissions will be discussed later.)

Moving beyond the evidence of the text, it is notable that many of the images of Reg. lat. 25 have no connection at all to those of fr. 167. For

6. Bible moralisee, BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. IO3V, incipit of Job

example, at the start of Job, Reg. lat. 25 illustrates a towering Job sheltering his family beneath his cloak, while in the moralisation image below, the Pope shelters male and female religious in a similar fashion (Fig. 6). In fr. 167, on the other hand, Job is shown enthroned between his sons and daughters, with two couples below representing 'the estates in the? Holy Church' (Fig. 5, images 1-2). It is obvious that fr. 167 cannot be the model for the images of Reg. lat. 25 at this point. Even where corresponding images are similar between the two manuscripts, the explanation could simply be that they both illustrate the same text with similar visual formulae. For example, the comparable images of the seven- columned building of Wisdom, moralised by clergy and members of religious orders supporting Holy Church (Reg. lat. 25, fol. I36V; fr. 167, fol. I35V; Figs 7-8), need not, I suggest, be linked directly as model and copy. Interestingly, some images, especially in the early biblical books, are comparable in the two manuscripts but are reversed in Reg. lat. 25, for example, the pairs of images at the start of Joshua (fr. 167, fol. 46V; Reg. lat. 25, fol. 47V; Figs 2-3). The most plausible explanation for these variations is, in my view, that Reg. lat. 25 was produced from a workshop model that contained brief written descriptions of

24. Haussherr (as in n. 2), p. 56, discusses a space left in the French text of fr. 167 (and fr. 166), fol.

26vb, which is not transmitted in Reg. lat. 25, fol. 27VD, but there is no such space in either manuscript.




7. Bible moralisee, Paris, BnF MS fr. 167, fol. I35V, incipit of Sapientia/Sirach



JOHN LOWDEN 87

8. Bible moralisee, BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. I36V5 incipit of Sapientia/Sirach




the images of fr. 167, not sketches or more finished miniatures. Certainly it would be difficult to explain why the makers of Reg. lat. 25, if they had based themselves directly on fr. 167, would have chosen to ignore its pictorial evidence so consistently, given the extraordinary care with which they copied its text.

The one element of Reg. lat. 25 that indicates an attempt to provide more than precedent called for is the large frontispiece image on fol. 3r (Fig. 9). Its location and general appearance conform to norms of Parisian book production at the beginning of the fifteenth century, rather than to anything to be found in an earlier Bible moralisee. More specifically the so-called Marriage of Adam and Eve in a paradise setting, with God the Father, flanked by angels, about to perform the dextrarum iunctio (but taking their left hands in this case) as various animals look on, is reminiscent of frontispieces in, for example, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum MS 251, fol. i6r (Livre des proprieties des choses, Paris c. 1415), or BnF MS fr. 6446, fol. 3V (Josephus, Antiquites Judaiques, Paris c. 1410).25 A characteristic detail linking BnF fr. 6446 and BAV Reg. lat. 25 is the presence of small devils observing the scene from the periphery of paradise.

By including moralisation images, some newly composed, within their drastically reduced illustrative plan, the makers of Reg. lat. 25 show real understanding of the special character of a Bible moralisee. And in choosing to reproduce the texts of a fully-illustrated Bible moralisee page-for-page, the makers show what an important element the layout was considered to be. But by changing to a two- column layout, integrating images into the text, locating them only at the start of biblical books, and providing a large frontispiece image within a complex border, Reg. lat. 25 indicates a desire on the part of its makers to assimilate this Bible moralisee more closely to norms of fifteenth-century book production. By contrast, the only decorated border in fr. 166 was to the opening leaf of Psalms, fol. ii4r, and it was supplied in the last phase of work;26 elsewhere the broad margins are left blank, as they are in fr. 167. Strikingly, however, the images of Reg. lat. 25, with the possible exception of the frontispiece, do not suggest a connection with that mainstay of early-fifteenth-century illuminated book production, namely the Bible historiale.

A possible scenario for the production of Reg. lat. 25 posits the use of a workshop copy of the texts of fr. 167, and a descriptive record of its images, both perhaps made at the time when fr. 166 was in production, but kept separately from that book. These workshop materials would have been intended to facilitate

25. Meiss, Boucicaut (as in n. 22), pp. 79-80; F. Wormald and P. M. Giles, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Additional Illuminated Manuscripts in the Fitz- william Museum, 2 vols, Cambridge 1982, 1, pp. 172- 75. Also BnF MS fr. 247, fol. 3 (c. 1420): see A. Heimann, 'Die Hochzeit Adam und Eva im Paradies nebst einigen andern Hochzeitsbildern', Wallraf Richartz Jahrbuch, XXXVII, 1975, pp. 11-40 (19-22); D. L. P. Byrne, 'The Illustrations to the Early Manu- scripts of Jean Corbechon's French Translation of

Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De Proprietatibus Rerum: 1372-c. 1420', PhD thesis, Cambridge University 1981, pp. 133-35. M.. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: the Limbourgs and their Contem- poraries, London 1974, pp. 391-92, figs 167-69. Also New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.133, fol. 8iv: idem, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: the Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke, London 1967, fig. 843.

26. Lowden (as in n. 1), 1, fig. 118.



JOHN LOWDEN 89

9. Bible moralisee, BAV MS Reg. lat. 25, fol. 3r, Creation




the making of further Bibles moralisees. That records of this sort once existed, and were regarded as valuable, is documented by the preservation for over a century, along with the unbound quires of fr. 166, of two quires of paper which were described in the 151 8 inventory of the royal library at Blois, as containing the 'forme de faire les dictz histoires'.27

Ghent, UB MS 141 (siglum G)

It was probably a few years after the making of BnF fr. 166 and BAV Reg. lat. 25, around 1410-20, that another entirely new type of Bible moralisee was produced in Paris. Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek MS 141 (G), is a somewhat smaller volume than the earlier Bibles moralisees we have examined, measuring 37-4 x about 26-5 cm, and it is notably shorter, now 196 folios (originally 212 folios; compare the 322 folios of BAV Reg. lat. 25). It is written in two columns, with 41 lines per page in the Old Testament (fols 12-149), and 43 lines per page for the prologues (see below) and New Testament (fols 1-11, 150-196), these two latter sections written by the same scribe. All the scribes used a ruled block of approximately 24-2-4 x 1 6* 1-2 x 6-7 cm (a perceptible reduction from the dimensions of the block in Reg. lat. 25: 283 x 193 cm). The production in Ghent UB 141 of a 'scaled-down' Bible moralisee was made possible by the radical decision to omit all the Latin texts of all the biblical and moralisation passages, with the exception of the incipits of the biblical books, the opening words of all the Psalms, and a few other short passages. The layout of the text bears no relation to the mis-en- page (or quire structure) of any previous Bible moralisee. Indeed it looks entirely like a 'normal' vernacular two-column illuminated manuscript of the period. The only conspicuous adjustment to the layout is found on fol. I49V, where the scribe compressed the text to ensure that the Old Testament ended at the end of a quire. But the close textual relationship to BnF fr. 167 can be seen, for example, in the omission on fol. 69V and fol. 9Or of the French texts to Psalms 15 and 150 (mentioned above). These were both later supplied in the margin by the same mid-fifteenth-century hand (see below).28

The illustration in Ghent UB 141 takes the form of a prefatory author portrait (fol. ir), an image with no Bible moralisee precedent, a large Genesis frontispiece (fol. I2r, 14 x 15-8 cm), and just fourteen biblical miniatures, generally squareish in format (approx. 7X7 cm), all but one at the incipits of selected biblical books (Leviticus, Numbers, Joshua, I Kings, Paralipomena/ Esdras/Nehemiah, Job, Parables, Ecclesiasticus, Daniel, Gospels, Acts, Epistles,

27. Lowden (as in n. i), I, pp. 255, 266. See also the case of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS d'Orville 141: D. Byrne, 'An Early French Humanist and Sallust: Jean Lebegue and the Iconographical Pro- gramme for the Catiline and Jugurtha\ this Journal, xlix, 1986, pp. 41-65. A. D. Hedeman, 'Making the Past Present: Visual Translation in Jean Lebegue's Twin Manuscripts of Sallust, in Patrons, Authors and

Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris circa 1400, forthcoming. Paris 1400 (as in n. 3), no. 117.

28. 'Sire garde moy pource que j'ay esperance en toy. Je dis a Nostre seigneur Tu es mon Dieu et tu n'aras pas deffaulte de mes benefices' (Psalm 15); 'Le tiltre est comme devant. Loez Nostre Seigneur en ses sains. Loez le ou firmament de sa vertu' (Psalm 150).



JOHN LOWDEN 91

Apocalypse). The one image to be included that is not associated with a biblical incipit (apart from the author portrait) is the Sacrifice of Isaac (fol. i6v; see below). Five further biblical images, or so it can be assumed, were at the incipits of Exodus, Judges, Psalms, Lamentations, and Hosea, on leaves that were subsequently cut from the manuscript. It is odd that an image of the Judgement of Solomon (III Kings 3.16-28) was used as the prefatory image to Ecclesiasticus (Fig. 11); this is a point to which we shall return. On fol. 32V space was left by the scribe for a miniature to Deuteronomy, but for some reason it was not supplied. Elsewhere, however, no space was left at the beginning of numerous other biblical books: for example, II-IV Kings, Tobit, Judith, Esther, etc. Most important, there are no moralisation images in Ghent UB 141. Many of the images are unfinished, but the work of the artist, now thought to be a follower of the Master of the Berry Apocalypse,29 can be readily identified elsewhere: for example, in a Bible historiale in London, BL Royal 19.D.VI; in another Bible historiale now preserved in to Japan (Nagoya, Furukawa Museum of Art, formerly in the Doheny Collection) together with cuttings in the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor; and in a manuscript containing Genesis from the Bible historiale^ together with other texts, sold at Sotheby's in 2003 (on all of which see below).30

The suppression of half the textual content of BnF fr. 167, fr. 166, or BAV Reg. lat. 25 (i.e. the part in Latin), the omission of all moralisation images, and the reduction of the vast illustrative cycle to a paltry twenty-one images, combine to suggest that Ghent UB 141 is an unambitious and (in text-critical terms) impoverished descendant of the fully-illustrated Bibles moralisees. But this is not the whole story. Ghent UB 141 contains a range of texts, not found in any earlier Bible moralisee, which together bear witness to a serious attempt to provide the reader of the book with additional information and guidance. The achievement of the makers of Ghent UB 141, as exemplified by these texts, has hitherto been overlooked. The additional texts are as follows:

(1) Two prefaces: (i) fols ir-2v and (ii) 2v-nr. (2) A prefatory index to the book's content, listing 46 biblical books, with

references to the folios: fol. 11™. (3) Six additional passages interspersed in the moralisations of the Creation

narrative, linking the six days of Creation to the first six of the seven Ages of Man: fols I2r-i3v.

(4) Four lengthy additional passages interspersed in Psalms 2-3, 6 and 26: fols 76r"v, 79r, and text on the lost leaf before fol. 76, supplied from BL Add. 15248, fol. iO9r"v.

29. Meiss, Limbourgs (as in n. 26), p. 370. The artist was first discussed by Nordenfalk (as in n. 8) .

30. The Estelle Doheny Collection, II, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, Christie's sale, London, 2 December 1987, lot 157 (olim Phillipps MS 11 826).

A Third Selection of Illuminated Manuscripts from the Tenth to the Sixteenth Centuries, the Property ofMrJ. R. Ritman..., Sotheby's sale, London, 17 June 2003, lot 12 (olim Phillipps MS 3668), currrently Antiquariat Bibermuhle AG (HeribertTenschert).




i. THE TWO PREFACES, for which earlier Bibles moralisees provide no precedent, are of special interest in that they prepared the reader for what followed and provided a guide as to how the Bible moralisee was to be understood.31 The theme of the first preface, the fourfold method of scriptural exegesis, is a commonplace in the period,32 but the particular treatment it receives here is striking.

(i) Ghent UB 141, first preface

Here is the opening passage (the French text is transcribed below, pp. 101-02 and n. 38):

How Holy Scripture can be expounded in four ways.

Holy Scripture can be expounded rationally in four ways. Firstly, according to the letter, and according to the story. Secondly, according to allegory, that is to say according to faith and according to those things we must believe. Thirdly, according to anagogy, that is to say in applying Holy Scripture to the good things of paradise which we await and for which we must hope. The fourth is according to tropology, that is to say when Holy Scripture is applied to good ways, to the teaching of good living, and according to charity. And the translator of this book intends to proceed according to this fourth method, that is to say to recount in short passages all the histories contained in the Bible, and to provide for each short moralities, concordant with the sequence of stories, according to the doctors of holy theology in the noble university of Paris, because many people may be struck to hear short discussions, for sometimes their understanding is impeded by the prolixity and slow pace of the language, so that they cannot understand what they hear, and others are wearied with impatience. And there are others who require long and extended scriptures, and for such as wish to hear the histories of the Bible more fully and prolixly he can have recourse to what is expounded according to the Master of the histories [i.e., in the Bible historiale] in which the Scriptures are large and extensive in several volumes.

And on this subject St Gregory, in the preface to his Moralities, says that Holy Scripture is like a river, and truly very wonderful, for altogether and at the same time it is low and shallow, high and deep, such that, he says, and in such a fashion that a lamb can go there on foot and an elephant can swim there.33 By the lamb, which among all little creatures is the most innocent and without any malice he means the simple folk, who have, as though by their nature, their hearts greatly devoted to virtues, but like the lamb have their heads

31. Laborde (as in n. 3), p. 125, discusses the parallel text in BL Add. MS 15248. See also Haussherr (as in n. 2), p. 57. In general see G. Dahan, 'Les prologues des commentaries bibliques (XIIe-XIVe siecle)', in Les prologues medievaux, ed. J. Hamesse (Textes et etudes du Moyen Age, xv), Turnhout 2000, pp. 427-70; and G. Hasenohr, 'Les prologues des texts de devotion en langue francaise (XIIIe-XVe siecles)', ibid., pp. 593-638.

32. E.g., H. De Lubac, Medieval Exegesis, 1, The Four Senses of Scripture, Grand Rapids and Edinburgh 1998.

33. Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, intr. R. Gillet, transl. A. de Gaudemaris (Sources chretiennes, xxxii bis), Paris 1975, 1, pp. 128-29. Cf. Haymo of

Halberstadt, Homily 119: Patrologiae cursus com- pletus. Series Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne, Paris 1844-64 [hereafter PL], cxviii, col. 639A.The allegory is used by Christine de Pisan; see Christine's Vision, transl. G. K. McLeod, New York and London 1993, pp. 142-43. The text was probably excerpted from the Manipulus florum of Thomas of Ireland: see the edition published in Venice c. 1495, sig. Gvir, now available on the internet through the Electronic Manipulus Florum Project of Wilfrid Laurier University: search under 'Scriptura sacra' chapter AK. See in general, R. H. and M. A. Rouse, Preachers, Florilegia and Sermons: Studies on the Manipulus Florum of Thomas of Ireland, PIMS Studies and Texts xlvii, Toronto 1979.



JOHN LOWDEN 93

[full of] goodness and caprice and innocence, that is to say little understanding and subtlety. By the elephant, which of all good beasts is the greatest on earth, such that it seems from a distance like a mountain, he means the valiant clerks, who surpass all others by goodness and understanding, as does the elephant all beasts, according to the naturalists

The text continues with a discussion of the marvels of Holy Scripture, and a strong warning as to the dangers of ignorant interpretation.34 It ends with a fourfold exposition of the meanings of Jerusalem35 (described as cUne cite faite de murs et de maison, comme est Paris') and Babylon. The final passage reads:

And so, in expounding the various words of Holy Scripture one must interpret them wisely, and question someone wiser than oneself. And because many words are found [which are to be expounded] in this way in the Bible, I have made a little treatise of them at the start of this book, which sets forth and defines the varied signification of all such words. I pray all those who will read this book that they will wish to tolerate my ignorance, and hold me forgiven, as to this little work.36

(ii) Ghent UB 141, second preface The second preface., the 'petit traictie'., is much longer than the first, and quite different in character. It consists of thirty-six passages each discussing different words. They are of varying length, from just a few lines (e.g. Parfaii) to four pages (Jugement), and they occur in an order lacking any obvious logic (such as their occurrence in the text) : Confession, Adinvention, Sire, Tabernacle, Prophete, Cantique, Comes, Enfer, Dieu, Plom, Bras, Crist, Burre, Salutaire, Repondre, Eglise I Triumphant, Jugement, Vin, Vengence, Aigle, Retribution, Main, Siecle, Catholique, Foy, Trinite, Confondre, Autre, Deite et Divinite, Incarnation, Parfait, Crist [again], Confusion, Unite, Descendit, Siet. The style of the passages varies greatly, as can be judged from a few examples (French texts are provided in the tables below on pp. 104-07), starting with the opening two.

Here begins the elucidation of several words contained in the Bible, and firstly of the word Confession.

Confession, in so far as it pertains to this work, is of two sorts, that is to say of praise and of denunciation. And so to confess to God, without saying 'I confess to God', is to attribute and give to him praise and glory and honour for all good things and all good accomplish-

34. Note that in the Introduction to book xi (i.e. vol. 11) of Raoul de Praelles's translation of Augustine's Civitas Dei there is much discussion of exposition and declaration but theology is strictly reserved for docteurs; see A. de Laborde, Les manuscrits a peintures de la Cite de Dieu de Saint Augustin, 3 vols, Paris 1909, 1, p. 38 and e.g. vol. ill, pl. XII (BnFMSfr. 171).

35. Compare Biblia Latina cum Glossa Ordinaria, 4 vols, Strasbourg 1480-81, repr. facs. ednTurnhout 1992, 1, p. 6a.

36. Ghent UB MS 141, fol. 2V: 'Et pourtant, en exposant les divers mos de la Sainte Escripture on les doit sagement interpreter, et a plus sages de lui demander, et pourtant que tout plein de mos sont trouvez de celle maniere en la Bible, en ay ie fait un petit traictie au commencement de ce livre, qui descript et determine la diverse signification de tous telz mos. Si prie a tous ceulx qui ce livre liront qu'ils vueillent mon ignorance supporter, et me tenir por excuse, quant a ceste petite euvre.'




merits. And alternatively, to confess is to denounce oneself, and to judge oneself culpable before a priest as before God, and so one says 'I have sinned in speaking too much, I confess it', as the Confiteor is understood in the ABC. And thus you can see how it can be understood in two ways, for whatever the circumstances the sergeant, who has erred, diminishes the anger of his lord when he concedes the right to him, and the wrong to himself, in humbly begging pardon. And sometimes it is to attest, or to authorise, as when one says 'I confess it to you', 'I attest it to you'. But this is not to our subject.

Of the word Invention (Adinvention)

The word Invention is sometimes understood in Scripture in a bad sense, and thus invention means invent a lie, falsehood, and wicked trap to deceive another. And sometimes it is understood in a good sense, and then it means some good new edict reached by great deliberation, of great sense and great virtue. Thus it is understood here.

Different in character are the elucidations of, for example., Vengence, which are systematic, and replace a conversational style with a dry listing of subdivisions, each exemplified by a biblical reference of a sort conspicuous by its absence, given the stated purpose of the preface, from some of the other passages (such as Confession and Adinvention). (French text below pp. 104-06.)

The exposition of the word Vengeance.

The word Vengeance is understood in several ways. First, vengeance of justice, of which one says in the litany, Neque vindictam sumas de peccatis meis, 'Lord, do not take vengeance on account of my sins'.37 Vengeance of bravery and of battle, of which David says 'God who gives me vengeance'.38 Vengeance of sentence of judgement, to which the wise Ecclesiastes refers [chapter] V, 'Do not wish' he says, 'to set your heart on iniquitous and tawdry possessions, for they will be worth nothing on the day of vengeance'.39 Vengeance of the pain of purgatory, of which the wise Proverbs V says 'The fury of God will spare nothing on the day of vengeance'.40 Vengeance of the fire of hell, of which the wise Ecclesiastes XXV says 'Who wishes to be avenged of God shall find vengeance'.41 Vengeance of temporal punishment, of which St John says in his Apocalypse in the person of the martyrs to God, 'How long, Lord holy and true, before you avenge our blood?'42

Although the second preface in Ghent UB 141, like the first, is anonymous, a number of sources are cited: cSaint Gregoire sus EzechieP (in Prophete), 'Saint Jherosme' (Come), 'Ysidore' (Dieu), 'Livre de la Propriete [des choses]' (Jugement), Tapie' [the Elementarium of Papias] (Siecle),43 'Maistre Richart de Saint Victor' (Foy), 'le poete [Ovid]' (Trinite), 'Maistre Hue de Saint Victor' (Incarnation). But these represent some of the authorities on whose work specific passages in the text are based, without taking us closer to the author/compiler. This we shall be able to do below.

37. Introduction to the litany after the Seven Penitential Psalms.

38. II Kings 22.48. 39. Sirach 5.1.

40. Proverbs 6.34. 41. Sirach 28.1. 42. Apocalypse 6.10. 43. See e.g. BL Add. MS 8244, fol. I35V.



JOHN LOWDEN 95

2. GHENT UB 141. INDEX OF CONTENTS

An index to the contents of a book, usually based on the rubrics, was a commonplace feature in manuscript production in Paris c. 1400, but no earlier Bible moralisee had contained one. A few elements of the list in Ghent UB 141 are notable. £Le livre de Paralipomenon' is listed separately from 'le livre de Esdras le prophete et de Neemie', although they are treated together. 'La premiere vision du prophete EzechieP (Ezechiel 1.1) is followed by cla seconde' (which begins at Ezechiel 8.1). The book of Micah is omitted: this is a characteristic of all the Bibles moralisees descended from the Oxford-Paris-London manuscript. The Gospels are termed 'les IIII ewangiles selon la Bible'. The epistles are listed as a unity under the name 'Saint Pol'. And the table is followed by a title: cCy apres s'ensuit le premier livre de la Bible nomme Genesis, moralisiez et translatez de latin en francois'.

3. GHENT UB 141. SEVEN AGES OF MAN

Moving from the prefaces to the additional texts in the opening pages of Genesis, these are included piecemeal after the moralisations that follow the biblical texts in the usual way on fols I2rb-i3vb. Days One, Two, and Seven are translated here to give an idea of their content and style (French texts transcribed below, pp. 109-10).

[Day One]

The doctors [of the church] say that man is like the microcosm {petit monde), for the creation of the macrocosm (grant monde) can be figured by the creation and regeneration of the microcosm, that is to say man, who has seven ages, of which the first is called childhood, which lasts until seven years [old].44 Of which we may say that God at the beginning of man created heaven and earth, that is to say body and soul, for heaven signifies the soul, which is eternal like heaven, and earth signifies the body, which in the end always returns to earth, as to its mother.

Text

After the spirit of God had moved over the waters, giving us his grace by the fount of baptism, then light was made. That is to say man becomes in a state of grace, who previously was in original sin, and so the first day was accomplished, that is to say the first age of man.

[Day Two]

The division of the good and bad [discussed in the moralisation] signifies the second age of man, and in Latin is called pueritia, which lasts from seven years to fourteen, which can be called the age of purity. And so we can say that the firmament which is in the middle signifies charitable people, for to the truly charitable little honour and moderate possessions

44. Note that the Historia Scholastica, although mentioning the microcosm, does not cite the macrocosm or ages of man: 'Unde a Domino homo omnis

creatura dictus est, et Graecus [i.e., Plato] hominem Microcosmum, id est minorem mundum vocat.' PL, cxcvm, col. 1055B.




suffice, seeing that charity is not at all without sufficiency and like the firmament is in the middle. And no position is as strong as the middle. And Aristotle, in his book of Ethics, bears witness to this when he says that virtue lies in the middle, etc.

The treatment of the days of creation concludes., however, with a moralisation derived from BnF fr. 167., which notably omits reference to the Ages of Man:

[Day Seven]

The seventh day is the state of the soul when it shall repose in contemplation of the eternal Church, which will be after judgement, when God will have said to the wicked 'Go hence, cursed ones', and to the good 'Come to me, blessed ones, come'.

The explicitly cited sources in these passages, apart from Aristotle, are St Augustine and 'Hue de Saint Victor ou VHP chapitre de son livre qu'il fist de l'Arche Noel', both in Day Six. The language and style of the texts are much like those of the Prefaces.

4. GHENT UB 141. PSALMS

In the Psalms, by contrast, the new texts are complex, wordy, and notable for the reference to Jewish sources and to the 'hebrieux presens', that is to say contemporary Jewish scholars.45 The first passage reads as follows (supplied from BL Add. 15248 [see below] due to the loss of the first leaf of Psalms in Ghent UB 141; French text below on pp. 1 12-13):

Here begins in the name of God the narration and discussion [French execution, from Latin executio] of this book, which can be divided into two overall parts, for in the first it treats of Jesus Christ's kingdom, in the second it treats of his priesthood, which begins Dixit Dominus etc. [Psalms 109]. And this division is not wholly distinct, for sometimes it talks in the first part of Jesus Christ's priesthood, and in the second of his kingdom, and so as is said above one cannot make a clear division by practical means in this book. And nonetheless one can divide the first part into seven, according to the seven matins. It is not possible to divide [it] otherwise except by expounding each Psalm individually. And this Psalm has no title, as stated above, by which one might know who made it. Nonetheless the Jews of today say that David made it for the victory he had over the Philistines, who came to fight him so as to destroy his kingdom when they heard tell that he was publicly anointed and consecrated king over all Israel, as it appears in the second book of Kings, in the first chapter. And according to this understanding they expound this Psalm literally [to be] of David who speaks personally and says, 'Why have the nations raged and roared and the peoples thought vain things?' 'Why have the nations raged', that is to say the Philistines, for all those who were not Jews were called nations or gentiles. 'And the peoples' that is to say of the various cities of the Philistines, who were the principal enemies of the Jews, 'have thought vain things', and have indeed said vain things, for they intended to destroy his kingdom, at which they failed.

45. See in general W. Bunte, Rabbinische Traditionen bei Nikolaus von Lyra: ein Beitrag zur Schriftauslegung des SpdtmittelalterS) Frankfurt 1994.



JOHN LOWDEN 97

10. Bible moralisee, Ghent UB MS 141, fol. I2r, Creation




No comparable exegetical passage had appeared previously in a Bible moralisee. Indeed, despite its clear construction and careful wording the passage could be thought completely inappropriate to a Bible moralisee, for it presents an entirely literal/historical interpretation of scripture, and is notable for lacking any moral/tropological explanation.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Turning to the illustrations of Ghent UB 141, these bear no close relation to the images of any previous Bible moralisee. The large Genesis frontispiece (Fig. 10), set within a fully-decorated border, shows God enthroned centrally in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by animals, and addressing Adam and Eve who stand at the left. It is of a type that might be found in a Bible historiale, although it does not closely resemble any particular surviving manuscript.

The subsequent biblical images are on pages without borders. The Judgement of Solomon, often used in Bibles historiales as one of the four images in the large frontispiece to volume two, which begins with Parables,46 is surprisingly used as an image to Ecclesiasticus (Fig. 11). The formulaic author portrait on fol. ir shows a monk or priest seated in a canopied wooden chair, wearing a black cap and an ermine-lined red habit preaching or teaching from an open book on a lectern to which a boy reaches up and points.47

11. Bible moralisee , Ghent UB MS 141, fol. IO2V, incipit of Ecclesiasticus, Judgement of Solomon

46. E.g., Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Biblio- theque Royale [hereafter KBR] MS 9002, fol. 3r;The Hague, Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum MS

10 B 23; BL Royal MSS 17.E.VII and 19.D.III; Eton College MS 3; BnF MSS fr. 159, fr. 20090.

47. Haussherr (as in n. 2), fig. 14.



JOHN LOWDEN 99

12. Bible historiale, Brussels, KBR MS 9001, fol. I9r, Creation



ioo BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

Sources of the New Material in Ghent UB 141. The Bible Historiale, Brussels, KBR MSS 9001-02 (siglum B)

In Ghent UB 141, in the prologue on the four methods of exposition of scripture, the author, while not naming himself, appears as 'le translateur de ce present livre'. He takes credit for authorship (cay je fait un petit traictie au commencement de ce livre'), and apostrophises readers in the first person ('qu'ils vueillent mon ignorance supporter et me tenir por excuse quant a ceste petite euvre');48 the other additional texts avoid the first person. But in fact not only was the author of the preface in Ghent UB 141 not the 'translator of the present book' (the French text of which goes back to BnF fr. 167), he was not even the author or translator of the first preface, nor of the 'little treatise' that follows it. What he actually did was, for the most part, merely adapt texts he found already translated in a Bible historiale. But, and this is crucial, these were not the standard prefaces or texts of the Bible historiale tradition, but texts now found in only a single Bible, KBR MSS 9001-02 (B), where they take the place of the usual prefaces: Tource- que le diable...', 'A honourable pere...' and 'En palais du roy et d'empereur...' .

A product of Parisian workshops of high quality of the years around 1410, that crucial period in which, as we have seen, entirely different ideas of what a Bible moralisee should be were in circulation,49 KBR 9001-02 is unlike all other Bibles historiales not only in including these particular prefatory texts, but in also including, scattered through its pages, large parts of the verbatim text of the moralisations of the Bible moralisee^ and in some cases its biblical texts as well.50 Samuel Berger, in his pioneering work, accurately termed KBR 9001-02 a 'Bible historiale avec moralites'.51 But he did not go on to explore or even to suggest any connection between this manuscript and the Bibles moralisees^ and neither have subsequent researchers.52

The nature of the close relationship between the Bible moralisee Ghent UB 141, and the Bible historiale Brussels, KBR 9001-02, can be demonstrated by a

48. See above, n. 38. 49. Pending the publication of B. Bousmanne,

F. Johan, C. van Hoorebeeck, La librairie des dues de Bourgogne. Manuscrits conserves a la Bibliotheque royale de Belgique, vol. VI (in preparation), in general see C. Gaspar and F. Lyna, Les principaux manuscrits a peintures de la Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique, I, Societe francaise de reproductions de manuscrits a peintures, Paris 1937, no. 189, pp. 445-50; Tresors de la Biblio- theque Royale de Belgique, Brussels 1958, no. 21, pp. 45-47; L. M. J. Delaisse et al., Middeleeuwse Minia- turen van de Librije van Boergonde tot het Handschriften- kabinet van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van Belgie, Amsterdam [1959], no. 21, pp. 96-99; A. Komada, 'Les illustrations de la Bible historiale: les manuscrits realises dans le Nord', PhD thesis, Universite Paris IV 2000, and pp. 653-59 on KBR 9001-02. Colour illustration of KBR 9002, fol. 6ir, in M. Camille,

Master of Death: the Lifeless Art of Pierre Remiet Illuminator, New Haven, CT and London 1996, p. 145; and of fol. 223r in P.-M. Bogaert, Les Bibles en frangais: histoire illustree du Moyen Age a nos jours, Turnhout 1991, p. 32. Camille, ibid., pp. 147-48 and 250, attributes to Pierre Remiet 'in MS 9001 marginal figures on fol. 1, miniatures on fols 2i2r, 2i4v, 374r, and in MS 9002 marginal figures on fol. 6ir and miniatures on fols 288r and 3i9v'.

50. For example all 14 pairs of biblical and moralisation texts to Ruth on fols i82r-83r.

51. S. Berger, La Bible frangaise au Moyen Age, Paris 1884, p. 421

52. Presence of moralisations noted in Komada (as in n. 51), pp. 653-59; but Lamentations and Mark, listed as without 'moralites' (p. 657), in fact preserve them (KBR 9002, fols I23V-28V, 26iv-62v), whereas Micah by contrast lacks them.



JOHN LOWDEN 101

number of test cases. The passages chosen here are those translated above. We can start by comparing the openings of the preface on the fourfold exposition of Scripture. This is accompanied in KBR 9001, as if it were the beginning of Genesis, by a large Creation image (Fig. 12), about 18-8 x 20*5 cm, with six panels, including Reason enthroned, the Trinity as Creator, and the Fall of the Rebel Angels (i.e., completely unlike the Creation image in Ghent UB 141, Fig. 10).

COMPARISON OF KBR 9OOI AND GHENT UB 141, START OF FOUR-FOLD EXPOSITION PROLOGUE

Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fols I9r-2OV Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fol. ir

Cy commence ung prologue sur le commencement de la Bible, comment par quatre sens ou par quatre manieres se puet la Comment la Sainte Escripture se puet exposer Sainte Escripture exposer. en quatre manieres.

La Sainte Escripture se puet La Sainte Escripture se peut raisonnablement par quatre manieres raisonnablement par IIII manieres exposer. exposer. Premierement selons la lettre et Premierement selon la lettre et selon selons l'istoire. Secondement selons l'istoire. Secondement selon l'alegorie, l'alegorie, c'est a dire selons la foy et selons c'est a dire selon la foy et selon les choses les choses que nous devons croire. La que nous devons croire. Tiercement selon tierce maniere selons l'anagogie, c'est a l'anagogie, c'est a dire en appliquant la dire en appliquant la Sainte Escripture aux Sainte Escripture aux biens de paradis biens de paradis lesquelz nous attendons et lesquelx nous attendons et desquelx nous desquelx devons esperance avoir. Le IIIIe devons esperance avoir. La IIIIe est selon la sens c'est selons la tropologie, c'est a dire tropologie, c'est a dire quant la Sainte quant la Sainte Escripture est appliquee a Escripture est appliquee aux bonnes bonnes meurs, et a l'instruction de bonne meurs, a l'instruction de bonne vie, et vie, et selon charite. Et pour ce ou proces selon charite. de cest livre quant l'exposition sera selons l'istoire il sera nottez et figurez, et pareillement des autres expositions.

Et selon cest quarte maniere entent le translateur de ce present livre proceder, c'est a ssavoir de raconpter en briefves paroles toutes les histoires qui sont contenues en la Bible, et sus chacune mettera assez briefves moralitez, concordans aux histoires procedant, selon les docteurs de la sainte theologie en la noble universite de Paris. Pource que




. . . Bible historiale, KBR 9001 . . . Bible moralisee^ Ghent UB 141

pluseurs se sioissent d'oir briefves^ matieres [col. 2] car aucune foiz par la prolixite et longueur du langage ilz sont empeschiez en leur entendement, siques ilz ne pevent pas comprandre de ce qu'ilz oyent, et les autres se ennuient par impatience. Et autres sont qui demandent longues et extendues escriptures, et pour tant qui vouldra oir les histoires de la Bible plus a plain et plus prolixement il pourra recourre a celle qui est exposee selon le Maistre es Histoires, ou les escriptures sont grandes et extendues en pluseurs volumes.

Et a ce propos Saint Gregoire, ou Et a ce propos dist Saint Gregoire, ou prologue de ses Moralitez, dit que la Sainte proesme de ses Moralitez, que la Sainte Escripture si est comme une riviere, et Escripture est aussi comme une riviere, et vraiement bien merveilleuse, car tout vraiement bien merveilleuse, car tout ensemble et en ung temps est petite et ensemble et en un temps est petite et basse, hauste et parfonde, et en tant, dit il, basse, hauste et parfonde, en tant, dist il, et et par telle maniere, que ung aingnel y puet par telle maniere, que un aignel y peut aler aler a pie et ung elephant y puet noer. a pie et un elephant y peut nouer.

Par T aingnel qui de toutes bestelletes Par 1' aignel qui entre toutes les est le plus innocent et sans quelque malice bestelletes est la plus innocent et sans il entent les simples gens, qui ont comme quelconques malice il entent les simples de nature les cuers a bien et a vertus gens, qui ont comme de leur nature leurs adonnez, mais comme l'aingnel ont avec cuers a bien et a vertus adonnez, mais leur ceste bonte et innocence, pou comme 1' aignel ont avecque leurs testes d'entendement et soutillite. bonte et teste et innocence, c'est a ssavoir

Par l'elephant qui de toutes bonnes pou d'entendement et de soubtillite. bestes est le plus grant sus terre, et en tant Par l'elephant qui de toutes bonnes qu'il semble une montaigne de loing, il bestes est le plus grant sus terre, et en tant entent les vaillans clercs, et qui les autres qu'il semble une montaigne de loing, il tous surmontent et de bonte et entent les vaillans clers, qui tous les autres d'entendement, comme fait l'elephant surmontent de bontez et de entendement, toutes bestes selon les naturiens. Doncques comme fait l'elephant toutes les bestes vuelt Saint Gregoire dire ... selon les naturiens. Dont Saint Gregoire

veult dire...

1. briefves] + paroles expunctuated.



JOHN LOWDEN 103

The 'translator of the present book' in Ghent UB 141 can be seen to have added the long passage that focuses on the tropological/moral interpretation and (un- aware of any irony) the benefits of concision. In KBR 9001, in contrast, the author states that he will draw attention to all four manners of exposition. Ghent UB 141 's reference to the Bible historiale as an alternative 'in which the scriptures are large and extensive in several volumes' can now be seen as not just a generic comparison, but possibly a knowing reference to a specific source: the two massive volumes of KBR 9001-02 (435 + 385 folios, 45-8 x 32-5 cm, ruled for 50 lines per page in two columns, 30 x 20*5 x 9 cm, with 183 miniatures) . The closing passage in the preface in Ghent UB 141 (translated above, p. 16), in which the author refers to his 'petit traictie' and asks for the reader's forgiveness, is also an addition not found in the text in KBR 9001, which ends by repeating the warning to leave exegesis to the masters.53

The second Bible moralisee preface, the lengthy Declaration des mots, is placed first in the Bible historiale KBR 9001 (fols ir-nv), and accompanied by a miniature (Fig. 13), about 9 cm square, showing the author at work on the left, and on the right the presentation of the book by a kneeling tonsured donor to an enthroned king, identified by Camille Gaspar and Frederic Lyna as Charles VI.54 The preface discusses the same words, in the same order, as in Ghent UB 141, with the following exceptions: KBR 9001 adds the heading Prophecie after Prophete (but the subsequent material is present in UB 141); KBR 9001 adds Les Dieux (only fifteen words long) after Plom; the heading Eglise I Triumphant is omitted in KBR 9001 (although the text for this entry, identifical to that in UB 141, appears at the end of Repondre); in KBR 9001, the heading Trinite et Unite replaces Trinite in UB 141 (but the material is identical in both manuscripts); KBR 9001 has Divinite (in place of Deite et Divinite in UB 141, which, however, has no extra material), followed by Tel et Quel (but this material is included in Deite et Divinite in UB 141); and KBR 9001 omits Unite, Descendit3 Siet3 but the material is all included in Confusion.

The close relationship of Brussels KBR 9001 and Ghent UB 141 in the preface on the Declaration de pluseurs mots is easily demonstrated by comparison of the first two passages (translated above, pp. 93-94) .

53. KBR MS 9001, fol. 20v: 'Que chacun doit doubter la maniere comment Ten puisse tous ses sens appliquer, aux maistres demandez, et aussi la laisse car laissier la doy qui bien regarde les choses ci dessus escriptes ou dites.'

54. Gaspar and Lyna (as in n. 51), p. 446. The idea to include a preface of 'mots estranges' (as the

running header in KBR 9001 terms it) may have been suggested by the preface to Pierre Bersuire's translation of Livy (' Tite-Live') made for Jean II le Bon, and a popular book in ducal libraries in the 15th century (a suggestion I owe to A. D. Hedeman) .




COMPARISON OF KBR 9001 AND GHENT UB 141, START OF 'DECLARATION DES

PLUSEURS MOTS'

Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. ir Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fols 2v~3r

Cy commence la declaration de pluseurs mots Ci commence la declaration de pluseurs mos contenus en la Bible et premierement declaire contenus en la Bible et premier [ement] de ce ce mot Confession, et les autres apres ensuivant mot Confession. ̂

par ordre.

Confession, quant a ceste oeuvre touche, Confession, en tant comme a ceste euvre est de deux manieres, c'est a ssavoir de appartient, est de deux manieres, c'est a loenge et de accusation. Et ainsi doncques ssavoir de louange et de accusation. Et selons ce confesser a Dieu, sans dire 'Je me ainsi confesser Dieu, sans dire 'Je me confesse a Dieu', c'est lui attribuer et a lui confesse a Dieu', c'est lui attribuer et donner la loenge, la gloire et l'onneur de donner la louenge et la gloire et l'onneur tout bien et de perfection, et ainsi la est il de tout bien et de toutes perfections. Et prins. Et confesser c'est soy accuser, et autrement, confesser c'est soy accuser, et iugier coulpable, et tesmoignier au prestre jugier coulpable au prestre comme a Dieu, comme a Dieu, et ainsi la est il prins et et ainsi confesser c'est soy accuser et iugier coulpable et tesmoignier au prestre comme a Dieu, et ainsi Ten dit 'J'ay pechie en trop dit on 'J'ay pechie parler, je m'en confesse', et ainsi est prins en trop parler, si m'en confesse', si comme confiteor en l'ABC. Et veoir povez que en confiteor est pris en l'ABC. Et par ainsi toutes les deux manieres aussi puet estre povez veoir comment il puet estre pris en ycy prins, car sur toutes choses du monde deux manieres, car sur toutes les choses du sergent, qui a mespris, rabat l'yre de son monde le sergent, qui a mespris, rabat l'ire seigneur quant a son seigneur donne le de son seigneur quant il lui donne le droit, droit, et a soy le tort, en demandant et a soy le tort, en demandant humblement humblement pardon. Et ainsi puet estre dit pardon, du second mot aprez seignie Confessez.

Et oultre ce, confesser est prins pour Et aucune fois est pour tesmoingnier, tesmoingnier et octroier, comme Ten dit 'Je ou pour octroier, si comme on dit 'Je le le vous confesse'. Mais de ce non plus, car vous confesse', 'Je le vous tesmoingne'. ce n'est pas a mon propos. Mais ce n'est pas a nostre propos.

La declaration de ce mot Adinvention. De ce mot Adinvencion. Ce mot adinventions aucune fois est prins Ce mot adinvencion est aucune fois pris en en l'Escripture en mauvaise signification, l'Escripture en mauvaise signification, et et ainsi adinvencion c'est a dire contreuve ainsi adinvencion c'est a dire contreuve bourde menconge et mauvaise cautelle bourde mensonge et mauvaise cautelle pour autrui decevoir. Et souvent est ainsi pour autrui decevoir. pris ou Psaultier.

1. de ce mot Confession: in margin.



JOHN LOWDEN 105

13. Bible historiale, Brussels, KBR MS 9001, fol. ir



io6 BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

. . . Bible historiale, KBR 9001 . . . Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141

Et aucune foiz est prins en bonne Et aucune foiz il est pris en bonne signification, et lors signifie aucune bonne signification, et lors il signifie aucune nouvelle ordonnance faite par grant bonne nouvelle ordonnance faite par grant deliberation, de grant sens et de grans deliberation, de grant sens et de grant vertus, et ainsi est yci prins. vertu. Ainsi est il y apris.

Although in these first two short elucidations Ghent UB 141 remains close to KBR 9001 (omitting the erroneously repeated passage in 'Confession', and cutting a few words here and there)., in many of the longer passages the UB 141 version is considerably abbreviated. Overall, this preface is some 30% longer in KBR 9001. Among the elements that fall victim to abbreviation in UB 141 are the acknowledgements of some of the sources on which the text draws. In addition to the attributions mentioned above, KBR 9001 qualifies 'Saint Jherosme' as 'sus Abacuch' (Come), cites Tlinius ung maistre' (Jugement), and adds to 'Maistre Richart de Saint Victor' the reference cen son livre de laTrinite' (Foy). KBR 9001 identifies in addition as sources 'Frere Morise en ses Distinctions' (Cantique, Bras, Jugement), 'la glose ou prologue sus le Psaultier' (Prophecie, C antique), 'la glose' (Come, Burre), 'Origenes sur le livre de Nombres' (Dieu), 'Maistre Nicole en sa Question contre les Juifs' (Dieu), 'Saint Gregoire en une Homelie' (Bras), 'Solon, ung des sept sages de Grece' (Jugement), 'Platon' (Foy), and 'Maistre Hue de Saint Victor ... en son Didascalion' (Foy).

MAURICE OF PROVINS AS A SOURCE OF KBR 9OOI AND GHENT UB 141

Of these sources, the most important for present purposes is the mention of the Distinctiones of Maurice of Provins ('Frere Morise'), for this text provides the material for entire entries, whereas the others are authors of quotations within the entries. Furthermore, Maurice is not only the source of C antique, Bras, and Jugement (as credited in the text of KBR 9001), but also of Burre, Main, Retribution, Vengence, and Vin (and Aigle could be a loose paraphrase). These are generally the longest entries in the Declaration des mots of KBR 9001 and Ghent UB 141, so only one short example (Vengence, translated above) will be cited here. Comparison shows beyond dispute that KBR 9001 's text is translated from Maurice, and that Ghent UB 141 is derived in turn from KBR 9001.



JOHN LOWDEN 107

COMPARISON OF KBR 9OOI AND GHENT UB 141, PASSAGES SOURCED FROM

MAURICE OF PROVINS55

Maurice, Distinctiones, Bible historiale, Bible moralisee, BnF lat. 3271, fol. 244rb litt. KBR 9001, fol. 6va"b Ghent UB 141, fol. 7ra"b

Vindicta La declaration de ce mot Lexposition de ce mot

Multiplex est vindicta. Vengence. Vengence. Iusticie,Tho. IIII: Ce mot 'vengence' est pris

en pluseurs manieres.

Vengence de justice, de Premierement vengence de Domine memento mei nee laquelle Ten dit en la justice, de laquelle Ten dit vindictam sumas etc.t1] Letanie Neque vindictam en la Letanie Neque

sumas de peccatis meis, 'Ne vindictam sumas de peccatis prens, Sire, vengence de meis, 'Sire, ne prens pas mes pechiez'. vengence de mes pechiez'.

Item audacie sive Vengence de hardiesce Vengence de hardiesce

pugne, II Regum XXII: et de bataille, de laquelle et de bataille, de laquelle Deus qui das vindictas dit David: Deus qui das dit David mihi.t2] vindictas michi

'Dieu tu me 'Dieu qui me donnes vengences'. donne vengence'.

Item sentencie Vengence de sentence Vengence de sentence

iudicialis, Ecclesiasticus V: de jugement, de laquelle de jugement, de laquelle Noli attendere ad entent le Sage Ecclesiastes entent le Sage Ecclesiastes

possessiones iniquas, et Ve 'Ne vueilles , dist il, V 'Ne veuillez pas, dist il, post, nichil enim proderunt mettre ton cuer a mettre ton cuer a in die vindicte.^3^ possessions miques et possessions miques et

torconnieres, car riens ne desraisonnables, car riens vauldront ou jour de la ne vauldront au jour de la

vengence'. vengence'. Item pene purgatorie, Vengence de la peinne Vengence de la paine

Proverbiorum V: Zelus et de purgatoire, de laquelle de purgatoire, de laquelle furor viri non parcet in die dit le Sage Proverbiorum Ve dit le Sage ProverbesV vindictae.^ 'La fureur de Dieu point 'La fureur de Dieu riens

1. Tobit 3:3; cf. Introduction to the Litany after the Seven Penitential Psalms.

2. II Kings 22.48. 3. Sirach 5.1. 4. Proverbs 6.34.

55. L.-J. Bataillon kindly corrected my transcription of this distinctio. In general see G. Hasenohr, 'Un recueil de distinctiones bilingue du debut du XIV6 siecle: le manuscrit 99 de la Bibliotheque municipale

de Charleville', Romania, xcix, 1978, pp. 47-96, 183- 206. R. H. and M. A. Rouse, 'Biblical Distinctions of the Thirteenth Century', Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Litteraire du MoyenAge, xli, 1974, pp. 27-37.



io8 BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

. . . Maurice, BnF lat. 3271 ... Bible historiale, KBR 9001 . . . Bible moralisee, UB 141

n'espairgnera au jour de la n'espargnera au jour de la

vengence'. vengence'. Item Gehenne, Vengence du feu Vengence du feu

d'enfer, de laquelle dit le d'enfer, de laquelle dit le Ecclesiasticus VII: Humilia Sage Ecclesiaste Sage Ecclesiaste valde spiritum tuum

quoniam vindicta carnis

impii ignis et vermis.^ Item humanae

nequitiae, Ecclesiasticus XXVIII: Qui vindicari vult XXVe, cQui veult estre XXV°, 'Qui veult estre a Domino inveniet vengie de Dieu trouvera vengie de Dieu il trouvera vindictam.t6] vengence'. vengence'.

Item temporalis, Vengence de pugnition Vengence de la punicion Apocalipsis VI: temporelle, apont^ VP dit temporelle, de laquelle dit

Saint Iehan en la personne Saint Iehan en son des martirs a Dieu Appocalipse en la personne

Usquequo 'Jusques des martirs a Dieu 'Jusques Dominus sanctus et verus a quant, Sire Dieu et vray, a quant, Sire saint et vray, non vindicaris sanguinem ne venges tu nostre sang?'. ne venges tu nostre nostrum etc.^ sancP'^.

Item sacramentalis Vengence du sacrement

penitentie, II Cor. VII: Ecce de penitence de laquelle enim hoc ipsum secundum entent l'apostle IP Cor Deum contristari quantam VIP. in vobis operatur sollicitudinem, et post, sed vindictam.^

5. Sirach 7.19. 1. Sic. 1. Apocalypse 6.9-10. 6. Sirach 28.1. 7. Apocalypse 6.10. 8. II Corinthians 7. 11.

Comparison shows, for example at the end of the passage, the abbreviation of Maurice's text when translated in KBR 9001, and the further abbreviation of KBR 9001 in Ghent UB 141. The passage omitted in KBR 9001 by eyeskip, jumping from Maurice's reference for Ecclesiastes VII to his later quotation of Ecclesiastes XXVIII (mis-cited as XXV), is passed on to Ghent UB 141 in a classic example of a scribal error and its transmission. The alternative attribution of the opening citation to Tobit (in Maurice) and to the Litany (in the Bible historiale and Bible moralisee) is noteworthy.



JOHN LOWDEN 109

COMPARISON OF THE AGES OF MAN IN KBR 9OOI AND GHENT UB 141

The additional texts linking the seven Days of Creation and the Ages of Man in Ghent UB 141 are also derived from KBR 900 1, but in this case the source used for the earlier manuscript has yet to be identified. Notably, the texts are again not derived from the tradition of the Bible historiale, and are found (amongst Bibles historiales) in the Brussels manuscript alone. Comparison of KBR 9001 and Ghent UB 141 again reveals the editing process by which the passages were adapted from this one Bible historiale for inclusion in the Bible moralisee:

Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. 2irb"va Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fol. I2rb"va

Moralite autrement dine tropologie. Dient les docteurs que l'omme est comme Les docteurs dient que l'omme est comme le petit monde, si mest avis que la creation le petit monde, car la creation du grant du grant monde puet estre figuree de la monde puet estre figuree de la creation et creation et de la regeneration du petit regeneration du petit monde, c'est a dire monde, c'est a dire de l'omme, lequel a de l'omme, lequel a sept aages, dont le sept aages, et si comme le monde fut premier est appelle enfance, qui dure parfait en VII jour aussi est l'omme en sept jusques a VII ans, duquel nous povons dire aages. Le premier aage c'est enfance, qui que Dieu ou commencement de l'omme dure jusques a sept ans, duquel nous crea le ciel et la terre, c'est a dire l'ame et povons dire que Dieu ou commencement le corps, car le ciel signifie l'ame, laquelle de l'omme il crea le ciel et la terre, c'est a est pardurable comme le ciel, et la terre dire l'ame et le corps, car le ciel signifie signifie le corps, lequel [fol. I2va] l'ame, laquelle est pardurable comme le finablement en terre comme en sa mere ciel, et la terre signifie le corps, lequel retourne touzjours. finablement en terre comme en sa mere retourne.

Mais qu'est ce a dire que la terre estoit vainne et vuide et que les tenebres estoient sur la face de l'abisme ne mais que l'omme est nez vuit de tous biens et sans perfection nulle et en tenebres de pechie originel.

Texte

Apres neantmoins l'esperit de Dieu se Apres l'esperit de Dieu se transportoit sur transportoit sus les eaues, en donnant sa les eaues, en nous donnant sa grace par la grace par la fontaine de baptesme, lors est fontaine de baptesme, lors est la lumiere la lumiere faite. C'est a dire que l'omme faicte. C'est a dire que l'omme devient devient en estat de grace, et ainsi en estat de grace, qui par avant estoit en s'acomplit la premiere journee, c'est a pechie originel, et ainssi s'accomplist le ssavoir le premier aage de l'omme. premier jour, c'est a ssavoir le premier aage

de l'omme.

... [fol.22ra] ... [fol. I2va-b]



no BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

. . . Bible historiale, KBR 9001 . . . Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141

Moralize Le second aage de l'omme, lequel dure La dessevrance des bons et des mauvais depuis sept ans jusques a XIIII, en latin signifie le second aage de l'omme, et est en est nomme puericia, et puet estre en latin appelle puericia, qui dure des VII ans francois dit l'aage de purte, car lors doit jusques a XIIII, qui puet estre dit l'aage de estre l'omme pur et se mettre a bien faire. purite. Nous povons doncques dire que le Et povons doncques dire que le firmament le quel devise les eaues signifie firmament qui est au milieu signifie les la charite et la grace de Dieu, laquelle rent charitables, la creature ferme et estable et la separe de la compaignie des mauvais, de laquelle dit Saint Pol l'appostre que riens ne vault beau parler ne autre chose sans charite. Et pevent signifier les eaues haultaines grant orgueil, et les basses grant couvoitise, desquelles est separe le charitable, car il lui car au vray souffit petite honneur et moyenne charitable petite honneur et moienne chevance, veu que vraie charite n'est point chevance lui souffist, veu que charite n'est sans sou sance. Et comme le firmament est point sans souffisance. Et comme le ou millieu, aussi nul estat n'est si ferme firmament est ou milieu, aussi nul estat comme le moyen. Et ce tesmoingne n'est si ferme comme le mylieu. Et ce Aristote en ses Poletiques, et mesmement tesmoingne Aristote, en son livre en son Ethique il dit que vertu gist ou d'Ethique, ou il dist que vertu gist ou moyen. M moien, etc.

1. Aristotle, Ethics, 11. 7.

For the seventh day, however, as noted above, Ghent UB 141 includes only the (traditional) moralisation, failing to complete the cycle of seven, and thus differing from KBR 9001. This is despite the fact that the passage in KBR 9001 is clearly rubricated 'Moralite'. The lack of parallel in this case is striking:

Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. 2irb"va Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, fol. I2rb"va

Moralize Le VIP jour signifie l'estat de paradis ou Le septiesme iour est l'estat de l'ame quant quel est parfait repos, et est le VIP et elle se reposera en contemplation de derrenier aage de l'omme, lequel est l'Eglise par pardurable, qui sera apres le saintifie car nulz se non sains en paradis ne iugement, puis que Dieu aura dit aux habitent. mauvaiz cAlez vous en, maudis', et aux

bons 'Venez a moy, benois, venez'.



JOHN LOWDEN in

It is important to note that whereas the two prefaces in KBR 9001 could have been easily located by a copyist, the Ages of Man passages, although integrated into the text., are still readily locatable (albeit not in black-and-white reproductions) thanks to the repetition of the rubric 'Moralite'. But the position is not straight- forward, for the scribe of KBR 9001 does not begin to include the moralisations of the Bible moralisee under the rubric 'Moralite' until fol. 29r. It seems possible, in sum, that a workshop record was kept in connection with the making of KBR 9001. This would have gathered together the non-Bible historiale texts that KBR 9001-02 was to include (or had included). Since most of these non-Bible historiale texts were from a Bible moralisee^ the workshop record might even have borne the title 'Bible moralisee'.

Further Sources of New Material in Ghent UB 141. Nicholas of Lyra's Postillae

The Bible historiale KBR 9001 precedes the Psalter with a rubric, ending with the programmatic words: cet apres s'ensuit le Psaultier en francois moralisie', and a short preface, which is in fact the moralisation to Psalm 1 in the Bibles moralisees (this leaf has been removed from Ghent UB 141):

Bible historiale, KBR 9001, fol. 389™ Bible moralisee, BnF fr. 167, fol. H4r (cf. BL Add. 15248, fol. io8v)

Le pseaulme de Beams vir qui est Cest pseaume premier premerain et commencement du Psaultier n'a point de tiltre, c'est a dire qu'il n'y a n'a point de titre, point de lettre devant qui parle de quelque c'est a dire qui n'i a point de lettre devant

matiere, comme il est en tous les autres qui parle de quel matere il est, comme il

pseaulmes, car c'est le prologue de tous les est en touz les autres, car c'est le prologue autres, et en general contient les vertus de touz les autres, et en general contient

Jhesucrist qui nous vint renouveller contre les vertus Jhesucrist qui nous vint les vices Adam, notre premier pere, car renouveler contre les vices Adam, car

Jhesucrist destruit le conseil de l'ennemy et Jhesucrist destruit le conseil de l'anemi et la voie d'iniquite et toute faulse doctrine. la voie d'iniquite et toute false doctrine.

Within the body of the Psalter of Ghent UB 141 (as partially reconstructed with the help of BL Add. 15248), however, the added passages at Psalms 2-3 and 26 are found not to be derived from KBR 9001 (which does however include all the 'usual' moralisations of the Bible moralisee). Instead these additions have been translated from passages excerpted from Nicholas of Lyra's Postillae^6 as can be exemplified by the passage added to Psalm 2 (English version above, p. 96).

56. Postilla super totam Bibliam, 4 vols, Strasbourg 1492, facs. repr. Frankfurt 1971, unfoliated.



H2 BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

Nicholas of Lyra, Postillae, excerpt from Bible moralisee, Ghent UB 141, additional Psalm 2 text in Psalm 2 (text from lacking folio

supplied from BL Add. 15248, fol. iO9r"v)

Hie communiter incipit executio huius libri Icy commence ou nom de Dieu la seu narratio. Et potest dividi in duas narration et execution de ce livre qui puet partes, quia primo agitur de Christi regno, estre devise en deux parties generales, car secundo de eius sacerdotio. Est enim en la premiere il traicte du royaulme Christus rex et sacerdos, ut declarat Jhesucrist, en la seconde il traicte de sa apostolus Ad Hebreos. Secunda incipit prestrise, qui ce commence Dixit Dominus Psal. CIX. Unde in illo Psalmo dicitur de etc. Christo: Tu es sacerdos in eternum etc. Ista tune divisio non est precisa, quia in prima Et ce^ n'est pas ceste division du parte et aliquando agitur de Christi toute distinctee, car aucunes foiz il parle en sacerdotio, et in secunda de eius regno. la premiere partie de la prestrise Jhesucrist, Non enim in hoc libro apparet mihi et en la seconde de son royaulme, et dont artiflcialis divisio propter supradicta, tamen comme dessus est dit Ten ne puet faire prima pars potest dividi in septem partes propre division et par art en ce livre. secundum septem eius distinctiones, Et neantmoins puet on deviser la secunda incipit in principio secundi premiere partie en sept selon les sept nocturni, tertia in principio tertii, et sic de matines. aliis.

Circa primam partem non video aliam divisionem rationabilem nisi quod quilibet Aultrement ne se puet diviser Psalmus per se exponatur, et maxime quia bonnement fors en exposant chacune intendo quantum potero sensum inquirere Pseaulme par soy. litteralem.

[...6 lines...]

Igitur quia iste Psalmus non habet Et ce Pseaulme n'a nul tiltre, comme titulum, ex titulo non apparet quis fuerit dessus est dit, par quoy Ten sceust qui le actor huius Psalmi. Dicunt autem Hebrei fist. Touctes foiz les hebrieux presens dient moderni quod David fecit hunc Psalmum que David le fist pour la victoire qu'il ot laudando Deum de victoria habita de des philistiens, qui se vindrent combatre Philisteis, qui ascenderunt ad pugnandum contre luy pour destruire son royaulme contra eum quando audierunt eum fuisse quant ilz oyrent dire que publiquement il inunctum publice super totum Israel ut estoit oint et sacre roy sur tout Israel, si habetur II Reg. V. Licet enim primo fuisse comme il appert ou second livre des Roys iniunctus in domo patris sui per ou premier chappitre. Samuelem, ut habetur I Reg. XVI. Hoc tamen fuit secrete. Et postea super tribum Iuda solam, ut habetur II Re. II, tamen postea fuit inunctus publice super

1 . Corn : si



JOHN LOWDEN 113

. . . Nicholas of Lyra, Postillae . . . Bible moralisee, UB 141 / BL Add. 15248

populum Israel. Quo audito Philistei ascenderunt vel destruerent regnum eius.

Et secundum istum intellectum Et selon cest entendement ilz exposent exponent hebrei moderni Psalmum istum ce Pseaulme a la lettre de David qui parle dicentes: Quare fremuerunt gentes, en sa personne et dist ainsy Tour quoy se

sont fremis et esmeus les gens et les id est peuples ont pense vanitez'. Tour quoy se

Philistei, quia omnes qui non erant de sont fremis les gens', c'est a dire les gente Iudeorum vocabuntur gentes sive Philistiens, car tous ceulx qui pas gentiles, ut habetur in Novo et Veteri n'estoient des Juifz estoient appellez gens Testamento in pluribus locis. Etpopuli ou gentilz. 'Et les peuples', c'est a ssavoir diversarum scilicet civitatum in terra de diverses citez de la terre de Philistins, Philisteorum existentium, meditati sum qui estoient les principalz ennemis des mania, intendebant enim destruere regnum Juifz, 'ont pense vanitez' et bien dist David, sed frustrati fuerunt ab intentione vanitez, car ilz entendoient a destruire son sua. royaulme, a quoy ilz faillierent.

The text is abbreviated in translation. One phrase indicates how the translation is adapted for inclusion in a Bible moralisee. The moralisation (see above) to Psalm 1 notes that it has no title ('Cest pseaulme premier n'a point de titre'), but goes on to state incorrectly that it is the only such case ('comme il est en tous les autres'). Psalm 2, however, also has no title, as noted correctly by Nicholas of Lyra ('iste Psalmus non habet titulum'). But when the passage in Nicholas's commentary on Psalm 2 was translated ('ce Pseaulme n'a nul tiltre') the translator related it back to the Bible moralisee discussion of Psalm 1 ('comme dessus est dit').

The text supplied in Ghent UB 141 for Psalm 6, which is similar in language and style, is puzzling for it is seemingly not based on Nicholas of Lyra (or at least not on the text that forms the printed edition of 1492). Perhaps one or more of the very numerous manuscripts of the Postillae does contain this text.

It may be that the texts from Nicholas were available to the makers of Ghent UB 141 because they had already been excerpted and translated with the in- tention that they be included in KBR 9001. This is, I think, plausible given that the author of the Declaration de pluseurs mots in KBR 9001 refers to and uses 'Maistre Nicole en sa Question contre les Juifs' and in Prophecie and Cantique KBR 9001 refers to 'la glose ou prologue sus le Psaultier'.

A Context for the Production of Ghent UB 141 and KBR 9001-02

The Bible historiale KBR 9001-02 is linked by a complex network of craft connections to other manuscripts of the period, apart from the Bibles moralisees. The principal artist was termed the Master of the Brussels Bible historiale (MS



ii4 BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

14. Bible historiale, Brussels, KBR MS 9024, fol. 3r, Creation

9001) by Delaisse.57The craftsman who supplied the line-endings and borders, who identifies himself as Petrus Gilberti (e.g. on fol. 24V), also included his name in another high-status Bible historiale, BL MS Royal 15.D.III.58 Royal 15.D.III includes work by at least four artists, including one close to an artist who worked in BAV MS Reg. lat. 25 (close to the Boucicaut Master), and another, termed by Meiss ca minor follower of the Jean sans Peur Master', who certainly also worked on the Furukawa (ex-Doheny) Bible historiale. The Creation image of Royal 15. D.III (Fig. 18) is close to that in Ghent UB 141 (Fig. 10), as is the incipit image

57. Delaisse (as in n. 51), p. 98. 58. Meiss, Boucicaut (as in n. 22), pp. 96-99; R.

H. Rouse and M. A. Rouse, Manuscripts and their Makers: Commercial Book Production in Medieval Paris 1 200-1 500, 2 vols,Turnhout 2000, 11, p. 112; B. Shailor, Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale

University, Binghamton 1987, 11, p. 279 (MS 400). Camille (as in n. 51), pp. 145-48. Note that BL Royal 19.B.XV does not contain work by Petrus Gilberti: contra e.g. P. d'Ancona, E. Aeschlimann, Dictionnaire des miniaturistes du moyen age et de la Renaissance, Milan 1949, p. 169.



JOHN LOWDEN 115

15. Jean Mansel, Fleurs des Histoires, Brussels, KBR MS 9231, fol. 9r, Creation



n6 BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

to Leviticus. The distinctive six-part Creation miniature of KBR 9001., with the Trinity as Creator, Reason, and the Fall of the Rebel Angels (Fig. 12), was repeated very accurately in KBR 9024-25 (Fig. 14), a Bible historiale made for Jean Chousat, maitre des comptes to the dukes of Burgundy, and purchased by the duke Jean sans Peur in 1415 for 500 ecus dyor at the request of his wife Marguerite.59 (But note that KBR 9024-25, like KBR 9001-02, appeared in the Burgundian inventories for the first time only in 1467.) The frontispiece of KBR 9001 was also repeated with exceptional fidelity in KBR 9231 (Fig. 15), a magnficent copy of the Fleur des Histoires of Jean Mansel, completed c. 1455, also in the Burgundian library in 1467.60 In addition, the same complex miniature was repeated in a simplified four-panel version in the Furukawa Bible historiale (Fig. 19), by an artist who worked on the Bible moralisee Ghent UB 141. A further close link exists

16. Bible historiale, Nagoya, Furukawa Museum of Art, fol. H3r, incipit of Proverbs, Judgement of

Solomon

17. Bible historiale, London, BL Royal MS 19.D.VI, fol. I45r, Judgement of Solomon

between the four-panel Furukawa Creation image and the frontispiece image of yet another Bible historiale;, BL Royal MS 19.D.VI (Fig. 20), which has, in addition, a Judgement of Solomon very close in iconography and style to the same scene in Ghent UB 141 (Figs 17, 11), and closely related to the comparable Furukawa image (Fig. 16). 6l

59. A. Heimann, 'Trinitas Creator Mundi', this Journal, n, 1938, pp. 42-52 (47); Byrne, 'De Proprie- tatibus Rerum' (as in n. 26), pp. 193-95. S. Hindman, 'Fifteenth-Century Dutch Bible Illustration and the Historia Scholastica, this Journal, xxxvn, 1974, pp. 131-44. Meiss, Limbourgs (as in n. 26), p. 174. On the artists of KBR 9001-02 see Meiss, ibid., attribution to Master of Berry's Cleres Femmes, p. 374; to Master of the Cite des dames, p. 378; to Virgil Master, p. 408. On KBR 9024-25 see Uart a la com de Bour- gogne (as in n. 5), no. 49; Gaspar and Lyna (as in n. 51), no. 199, 11, pp. 1-6. Meiss, ibid., pp. 374, 378, 411.

60. See also the Fall of the Rebel Angels in a copy of the Livre des bonnes meurs of Jacques le Grand, BnF MS fr. 1023, presented to the due de Berry in 1410: Paris 1400 (as in n. 3), no. 147. Meiss, Limbourgs (as in n. 26), fig. 671.

61. For a list of 35 manuscripts related to the work of the Master of the Berry Apocalypse (plus 12 by the Master himself), see Meiss, Limbourgs (as in n. 26), pp. 368-72.



JOHN LOWDEN 117

18. Bible historiale, London, BL Royal MS I5.D.III, fol. 3r, Creation



n8 BIBLES MORALISEES AND BIBLES HISTORIALES

19. Bible historiale, Nagoya, Furukawa Museum of Art, fol. 3r, Creation



JOHN LOWDEN 119

20. Bible historiale, London, BL Royal MS I9.D.VI, fol. 3r, Creation




In sum, Ghent UB 141 is a greatly reduced Bible moralisee, but it also has important additions. These were derived primarily from the Bible historiale KBR 9001-02. KBR 9001-02 was a Bible historiale with the unique addition of great parts of the (French) text of a Bible moralisee. Probably Ghent UB 141 was not based directly on KBR 9001-02, but on workshop records made in connection with the assembly and transcription of texts for KBR 9001-02. Ghent UB 141., although a far less costly product than KBR 9001-02 (to judge by materials and craftsmanship) , was the product of Parisian book-producers who had many points of contact.

The Descendants of Ghent UB 141. London, BLAdd. MS 15248 (siglum L), Paris, BnF MSfr. 897 (siglum F), The Hague, KB 76 E 7 (siglum H)

In the mid-i45os a Bible moralisee closely related to Ghent UB 141., probably a direct descendant, was produced in Bruges: BL Add. MS 15248 (L).62 In the same city, at the same period, a pair of Bibles moralisees were made, dependent to a large degree on Add. 15248: The Hague, KB 76 E 7 (H); and Paris, BnF fr. 897 (F). Together with Ghent UB 141 (G) these three manuscripts form a tightly-knit subgroup in textual terms (GLFH).The patronage circumstances of Add. 15248 are unknown (I shall propose in the Epilogue that the manuscript was intended at one stage for Philippe le Bon), but The Hague 76 E 7 and BnF fr. 897 were made for two of the most notable bibliophiles of the period, Louis de Gruuthuyse (d. 1492; 145 of his manuscripts survive),63 and Antoine de Bourgogne (d. 1504),64 who sought to emulate the book-collecting habits of the dukes of Burgundy.

BLAdd. 15248 is a carefully produced manuscript of much smaller dimensions than Ghent UB 141: 283 folios, only 29*5 x 21 cm, and ruled for 35 lines in two columns 20 x 13-5 x 6 cm. It is bound in quires of twelve folios. There is a large miniature for Genesis, about 13 x 14-5 cm, subdivided into seven square panels with the days of creation and God resting on the sabbath, enclosing a rectangular image of the Fall of Man (Fig. 21). This emphasis on the Fall, twice the size of the other images, is a highly unusual formula as the central focus of a Creation miniature. There is a full border. In the following pages Add. 15248 contains eighteen miniatures of an original thirty-three, all squareish in shape, and varying between 5*7 and 7*7 x 6 cm, i.e. ten to thirteen lines tall, but generally the scribe left eleven lines clear.65 These miniatures are numbered in the margin in a careful script, using the wordy formula 'la tierce hystoire', 'la quarte hystoire'

62. According to Laborde (as in n. 3), p. 124, BL Add. 15248 was copied and translated from the Oxford-Paris-London manuscript.

63. See notably Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, exhib. cat., Bruges 1992, p. 199, inv. no. 96.

64. A. Boinet, 'Un bibliophile du Xve siecle: Le Grand Batard de Bourgogne', Bibliotheque de Vecole des Chartes, lxvii, 1906, pp. 205-69; P. Charron, Le

Maitre du Champion des dames, Paris 2004, pp. 426-28 (MS 76 E 7 attributed to a follower of Jacquemart Pilavaine and dated 1440-50); H. Wijsman, Gebonden Weelde. Productie van geillustreerde handschriften en adellijk boekenbezeit in de Bourgondissche Nederlanden (1400-1550), Leiden 2003, pp. 205-07.

65. Laborde (as in n. 3), p. 127, stated that about 20 miniatures were missing.



JOHN LOWDEN 121

21. Bible moralisee, London, BL Add. MS 15248, fol. I7r, Creation




etc. (but xxv onwards have only the number). The numbering began with the Sacrifice of Isaac (Fig. 22), not the Creation, but the first two numbers have been erased. Fourteen folios have been lost with their miniatures (Judges, I Kings, IV Kings, Judith, Esther, Job, Wisdom, Isaiah, TAccomplissement de Jeremie', Maccabees, Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Apocalypse). The last surviving miniature (Ezechiel) is numbered xxviii.

22. Bible moralisee, London, BL Add. MS 15248, fol. 24V, Sacrifice of Isaac

24. Bible moralisee, Ghent UB MS 141, fol. 3 5r, incipit of Joshua

23. Vincent of Beauvais, Miroir historial, Paris, BnF MS fr. 308, fol. 58r, Sacrifice of Isaac

25. Bible moralisee, London, BL Add. MS 15248, fol. 54V, incipit of Joshua



JOHN LOWDEN 123

The miniatures are grisaille works of superb quality., and can be confidently attributed toWillemVrelant.The Sacrifice of Isaac (Fig. 22) can be closely compared, for example, with the same image in BnF MS fr. 3083 the first volume of a Vincent of Beauvais Miroir historial, the fourth volume of which is dated 1455 (Fig. 23), made (or rather completed) for Louis de Gruuthuyse (see below).66 The frontispiece miniature in Add. 15248 to Genesis, with the full border, is executed in opaque pigments rather than grisaille. The central image of the Fall of Man is quite unlike the Fall in Vrelant's Arenberg Hours (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum MS Ludwig IX. 8). 6j

But the treatment of God the Father is closely comparable to Vrelant's Fall of the Rebel Angels frontispiece for BnF MS fr. 308, and should thus be attributed to his hand. It is striking to observe that the central image of the Fall of Man (rather than of angels) is reminiscent of Hugo van der Goes's Vienna panel (datable c. 1470), albeit with the positions of Adam and Eve reversed (Fig. 26). 68 Given the com- parisons with fr. 308, however, it would be difficult to argue that Add. 15248 was executed around 1470, rather than around 1455. Since it is unlikely that Van der Goes based his Fall on the image in Add. 15248, probably both depend on a lost common model.69 Some support for this proposal is offered by the related image of the Fall in a Book of Hours in the Huntington Library, San Marino MS HM 1125,

26. Hugo van der Goes, The Fall of Man. Vienna, Gemaldegalerie

66. On BnF MS fr. 308-11 see B. Bousmanne, 'Item a Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur\ exhib. cat., Turnhout 1997, pp. 195-98, 290-96. This four- volume Miroir historiale was written and decorated in Paris c. 1400-10. Only vol. iv was illustrated at the time. This became separated from vols i-iii and is now The Hague, KB MS 72 A 24. Its miniatures are attributed to the Cite des Dames Master. A new volume iv, now BnF MS fr. 311, was made when vols 1- in were acquired by Louis de Gruuthuse. See also A. S. Korteweg, Splendour, Gravity and Emotion: French Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections, The Hague 2004 (Dutch edn 2002), no. 24, pp. 108-09, 210, figs 84-85. For the Trinity and Fall of Rebel Angels frontispiece see P. Durrieu, La miniature

flamande au temps de la cour de Bourgogne, Brussels and Paris 1 921, p. 46 and pl. XIV.

67. Bousmanne, Wyelant (as in n. 68), pp. 272-74 and fig. p. 330.

68. E.g., R. A. Koch, 'The Salamander in Van der Goes's Garden of Eden', this Journal, xxvm, 1965, pp. 323-26. On the date see J. Sander, Hugo van der Goes: Stilentwicklung und Chronologie, Mainz 1992, pp. 44-90.

69. See the comparable discussion of the putative links between BnF MS fr. 310 and Martyrdom of St Hippolytus triptych by D. Bouts and H. van der Goes: Bousmanne, Wyelant (as in n. 68), p. 103 and figs 74-75. Bousmanne prefers the lost model hypothesis.




fol. 8ir, which is dated to the mid-fifteenth century.70 The Huntington miniature is closer to Add. 15248 than to the Van der Goes panel., again pointing to a lost common model.

Although it has the two prefaces of Ghent UB 141 (written by a different scribe), Add. 15248 substitutes a decorated initial for the 'author portrait' on fol. ir. In the Declaration des mots3 the scribe omitted Catholique, seemingly an oversight that resulted when turning over from fol. I2r to I2V. The index on fol. i6r is rubricated as 'selon les hystoires de la Bible moralisee' where Ghent UB 141 had just 'selon... la Bible'. Add. 15248 also has the additional texts in the Creation and Psalms 2, 4-6 and 26. Like Ghent UB 141, Add. 15248 illustrates Ecclesiasticus with the Judgement of Solomon. The representation of Joshua in armour receiving a lance from God is also characteristic of both Ghent UB 141 and Add. 15248 (Figs 24-25). (The close comparison with the Joshua image in BnF fr. 166 [Fig. 1], from a phase of work probably of c. 1455, is explained by the shared origin of the composition in manuscripts of the Bible historiale.) The missing texts in Psalms 15 and 150 are supplied by the principal scribe, placed in the margins as in Ghent UB 141. Quite probably it was this same scribe who made good the lacunae in Ghent UB 141. There are conspicuous corrections in the margins of sixty-eight pages of Add. 15248, where the scribe added passages he had previously overlooked (often equivalent to two to four lines of the main text). There are no marginal additions on fols I7r-66V, however. The additions suggest that Add. 15248 might have been corrected to serve as a workshop model (presumably for the production of fr. 897 and The Hague 76 E 7).

BnF fr. 897 is a manuscript of similar, moderate, size to Add. 15248: 230 folios of text (II-III, 1-228), 27-5 x 19 cm, ruled for 40 lines, 20 x 13-5 x 6-4 cm.71 It is bound in quires of eight folios. The frontispiece miniature to Genesis, about 12-5 x 14 cm, is divided into seven panels (Fig. 27). In the centre is the Fall of the Rebel Angels, flanked by the six days of creation (the latter not close to the version in Add. 15248, Fig. 21), the whole within a decorated border. The forty-three biblical incipit miniatures are grisailles of high quality, about 6-7-5 x 6 cm (12-15 lines tall), similar to the work of Willem Vrelant in Add. 15248 but by a less skilful hand, presumably that of an assistant in the workshop. Only the Sacrifice of Isaac is thought to be by Vrelant himself.72 Each page with a miniature has a half border. The miniatures were numbered in a simple form, but most of the numbers were erased (Habakkuk is xxxiiii). There was no space left by the scribe for Sapientia, and hence there is no illustration (and no number). The arms of Louis de Bruges, seigneur de Gruuthuyse, on fol. ir were covered by those of

70. C. W. Dutschke et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library, 2 vols, San Marino, CA 1989, 11, pp. 426-29; online with excellent colour ills through the 'Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE'.

71. I am most grateful to Ilona Hans-Collas and Pascal Schandel for generously providing me with a

copy of their entry on BnF fr. 897 from the forthcoming Catalogue des manuscrits enlumines des anciens Pays-Bas meridionaux.

72. Hans-Collas and Schandel (as in n. 71).



JOHN LOWDEN 125

27. Bible moralisee, Paris, BnF MS fr. 897, fol. ir, Creation




Louis XII when the former died in 1492 and the latter acquired his books, but they are still legible on the back of the leaf.73

The Hague 76 E 7 is a manuscript of similar size to Add. 15248 and fr. 897: about 29 x 20-5 cm, ruled for 37 lines, 19-5 x 13-6 x 6 cm. It contains 259 folios. The forty-four biblical incipit miniatures are about 6-8-6 x 6 cm (12-16 lines tall), each with a quarter border. They are consistently very close in content to the images of fr. 897, and the manuscripts form a true pair. Instead of grisailles, however, the images are fully coloured, albeit less carefully executed.74 The Hague 76 E 7 is illustrated with a large frontispiece, divided like fr. 897 into seven panels (Fig. 28). In the centre is the Fall of the Rebel Angels (close to fr. 897, Fig. 27),75 and flanking this the six days of Creation. Whereas in fr. 897 (and Add. 15248) God stands on the earth in these scenes, in The Hague 76 E 7 he is enthroned in a blue heaven, flanked by shadowy angels, with the earth at small scale below. Alongside the miniature of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (fol. I72V) is written an instruction to the artist in Dutch as to how to colour the statue: 'goud, silvur, goud, zwart'. The miniatures are again numbered in the margin, in a simple form, starting with the Sacrifice of Isaac. Notably, the miniature for the book of Wisdom, which is absent in fr. 897, is present in The Hague 76 E 7 but has no number (it is located between xviii and xix).This implies that The Hague 76 E 7 is dependent on fr. 897. ?6 The frontispiece is by a superior artist, and the central image of God has an Eyckian face and hair. It might be the work of an assistant of Vrelant.77 The arms of Antoine, Grand Batard de Bourgogne, encircled by the collar of the Golden Fleece (he was appointed in 1456) are prominent on fol 3r, along with his emblem the barbecan (a defensive work).78 The arms and motto on the same page, Nul ne syfrotte, look to be an afterthought supplied over an erasure, perhaps suggesting a date of 1455-1456 for the manuscript. (Alternatively the arms and motto might have been added at a later date.) The texts to Psalms 15 and 150 are incorporated into the body of the page in both The Hague 76 E 7 and fr. 897, rather than added in the margin as in Ghent UB 141 and Add. 15248.

Comparison of Add. 15248 with BnF MS fr. 308 suggests, as noted above, that the London manuscript dates from around 1455. Fr. 897 and The Hague 76 E 7 were made to the same pattern, shortly thereafter, and very probably by direct reference to Add. 15248, although they did not copy its images. The image of the Fall of Man in the frontispiece of Add. 15248, which takes the place of the Fall

73. Lodewijk van Gruuthuse (as in n. 65), p. 199, inv. no. 96.

74. Sometimes attributed incorrectly to Jacque- mart Pilavaine or a follower (see above n. 66) . On this artist see A. Esch, 'La production de livres de Jacque- mart Pilavaine a Mons. Nouvelles perspectives', in (Als Ich Can' Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. B. Cardon et al., Leuven 2002, 1, pp. 641-68.

75- Cited (inaccurately as 'MS 7410') inY. Pinson, 'Fall of the Angels and Creation in Bosch's Eden:

Meaning and Iconographical Sources', in Flanders in a European Perspective: Manuscript Illumination around 1400 in Flanders and Abroad, ed. M. Smeyers and B. Cardon, Leuven 1995, pp. 693-707 (694).

76. For Laborde (as in n. 3), p. 135, fr. 897 was a copy of The Hague 76 E 7.

77. See first Bousmanne, Wyelant (as in n. 68), pp. 98-101, on the use of the lostVera Icon of Van Eyck in the circle of Vrelant.

78. On the 'barbecan' see Laborde, Cite de Dieu (as in n. 36), pp. 379-80.



JOHN LOWDEN 127

28. Bible moralisee, The Hague, KB MS 76 E 7, fol. ir, Creation




of the Rebel Angels in fr. 897 and The Hague 76 E 7, appears to be based on knowledge of a lost model., subsequently also consulted by Hugo van der Goes for his Fall (Fig. 26)., around 1470.

The Printed Version of the Bible moralisee. 'UExposicion et la vraie declaracion de la Bible' (siglum e)3 and its Relation to the Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts

The final stage in the history of the Bible moralisee in the fifteenth century to be briefly considered here was the printing at Lyons of the volume whose text begins 'L'Exposicion et la vraie declaracion de la Bible ...' (Fig. 29). It is assigned to the printer Martin Huss, and two issues appeared in or before 1477 (nine copies survive., of which only two are complete).79 The Exposicion is a volume of 354 folios, 27-2 x 19-8 cm, illustrated with forty woodcuts, mostly about 8 x 6-5 cm (one column wide) although three of them are two columns wide (Genesis and Judith are assembled from two separate images, but III Kings has a single double-width composition).80 The eight Psalter woodcuts were re-used in a French Psalter also printed at Lyons (but undated).81 The incunable depends on a manuscript with the GLFH text,82 and includes the additional material in Genesis but not the prefaces or the extra texts in Psalms 2-3, 6 and 26. It also adds many new readings, largely, it would seem, the result of editing by the Augustinian Julien Macho, which is referred to in the printed introduction and colophon: 29. {Bible moralisee) L Exposicion et la vraie declaracion

de la Bible, fol. 2r, Creation

79. Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century now in the British Museum, part VIII, London 1949, pp. xlviii, 249. For the BnF copy see Bibles imprimees du XVe au XVIIF siecle conservees a Paris, Paris 2002, no. 313. Histoire de V edition frangaise, I, Le livre con- querant, Paris 1982, p. 209. On Martin Huss see F. Geldner, Die deutschen Inkunabeldrucker, 2 vols, Stutt- gart 1968, 11, pp. 211-12; B.T. Chambers, Bibliography of French Bibles, I, Geneva 1983, nos 4-5, pp. 4-6. Note that E. Burin, Manuscript Illumination in Lyons, 1473-1530, Turnhout 2001, although she takes the

arrival of printing in Lyons as her starting point, has no discussion of woodblocks. The two copies which are complete, lacking only the blank at the beginning, are the BnF copy (see above; also lacks final blank) and that in the Rylands Library (see below, n. 85).

80. A copy in the British Library: IB. 41604, sigs aiir, lvir, oiiv.

81. Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century (as in n. 81), p. 249. British Library copy: G.12091.

82. For this group see above, pp. 120 ft.



JOHN LOWDEN 129

And subsequently the translation was looked over, read, and corrected point by point by the venerable doctor Master Julien of the Order of Augustinians of Lyon on the Rhone.

The which book before it was consigned for printing was looked over and corrected by the venerable doctor Master Julien Macho, religious of the Order of St Augustine of Lyon on the Rhone.83

Interestingly the colophon attributes the exposition and declaration to cde Lira et aultres docteurs', whereas the introduction attributes the work to a seemingly fictitious pope: 'Novellement faicte par ung tres excellent clerc lequel par sa science fut pape' (fol. 2r).The woodcut illustrations are not based on those of any surviving Bible rnoralisee, and are based on models that are German in style.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC

For the purposes of a textual comparison across all the Bibles moralisees considered here, together with the Bible historiale KBR 9001, we can take the account of the Sacrifice of Isaac. 84 The passage is significant, for the accompanying image is the only one in the later Bibles moralisees (GLFH) which is not at the incipit of a biblical book (the image, but not the text, is omitted in the Exposicion) .Why the Sacrifice of Isaac should be singled out in this way is at present unclear. The table below shows the French biblical text, followed by its moralisation. The evidence fits neatly into two families:

Fully illustrated Bibles moralisees: Later Bibles moralisees: BnF fr. 167, fr. 166 Ghent UB 141, BL Add. 15248,

Page-for-page copy: BAV Reg. lat 25 BnF fr. 897, The Hague 76 E 7 Incunable: L Exposicion Bible historiale: KBR 9001

Et quant Abraham ot lie son filz il le mist Et quant Abraham ot lie son filz il le mist sous la fovee, et prist I glaive pour le sous la fovee, ̂ et prist I glaive pour le sacrefler. sacrefier en la montaigne.

Et lors l'angre li dist 'Ne fai mal a Et lors l'angre li dist 'Ne fai nul mal ton enfant'. Et adonc regarda Abraham a ton enfant'. Et adonc regarda Abraham I mouton deles I buson, et le sacrefia en I mouton deles I buson, et le sacrefia en lieu de son filz. lieu de son filz.

Ceci segnefie le filz de Dieu selonc Ceci segnefie le filz de Dieu selonc la diuinite ne fu mie occis ne sacrefle, la diuinite ne fu mie occis ne sacrefie, mais Ih(es)u, qui est le vrai aigniau, fu mais Ih(es)u, qui est le vrai aigniau, fu sacrefie pour nouz selonc l'umanite, qui sacrefie pour nouz selonc l'umanite, qui estoit es espines es tribulations de cest estoit es espines es tribulations de cest monde. monde.

1. soubs la fovee] dessoubs 1. f. H\ sus l'autel




Two characteristic readings link GLFH, the Exposicion and KBR 9001-02., and distinguish them from the page for page copies of BnF fr. 167: the addition in the biblical passage of the phrase 'en la montaigne', and the elaboration of 'Ne fai maP into 'Ne fai nul maP. It is notable that the moralisation has no variants in any of the manuscripts, and this serves as a useful reminder that for the most part all textual witnesses are close to one another.

Conclusion

The fully-illustrated Bibles moralisees were the most ambitious examples ever undertaken of an attempt to combine biblical and moralised images and texts. They can be seen to have reached their apogee in the 51 12 images of BnF fr. 167., made for King Jean II le Bon in 1349-52. From the time of the death in 1404 of Jean II 's son, Duke Philippe le Hardi, the forty unbound and largely unfinished quires of fr. 166 (based directly on fr. 167) would have served as a reminder, to patron or artist, of the extraordinary difficulty of bringing such a project to completion. Within a few years, as we have seen, simpler solutions were indeed adopted, and it is notable that all (surviving) later Bibles moralisees were success- fully finished. BAV Reg. lat. 25 (c. 1410) retained the full text of a fully-illustrated Bible moralisee, but only about one percent of its images. Ghent UB 141 (c. 1420) halved the textual content, opting for a book in the vernacular, and omitted all moralising images (previously half the total), reducing the visual emphasis even more. The result provided the model followed a generation later in BL Add. 15248 (c. 1455), BnF fr. 897 and The Hague 76 E 7 (both c. 1455-60), and, with some further simplifications, also in the printed version, the Exposicion (c. 1477). Crucial to this process of adaptation and simplification was KBR 9001-02 (c. 1410), not a Bible moralisee but a Bible historiale.

The discovery of the Bible historiale connection, and consequent consider- ation of the nature and role of the ambitious Brussels work, opens an entirely new perspective on the later Bibles moralisees. KBR 9001-02 contained specially composed prefaces, as well as much of the textual content of a Bible moralisee, in a vast two-volume compendium. Ironically, or so it might seem, the Bible moralisee in the fifteenth century was adapted and simplified in response, at least in part, to a Bible historiale that was edited and assembled to surpass all precedent. Unlike BnF fr. 167, however, KBR 9001-02 had no descendants closely modelled on it. Throughout the fifteenth century workshop notes and records, rather than the luxury manuscripts themselves, seem to have played a key role in the process of

83. 'Et apres la translacion a este veu leu et corret de poent en poent par venerable docteur maistre iulien de l'ordre des augustins de lion suz le rosne' (fol. 2r). 'Lequel livre avant quil aye este mis a limpression a este veu et corrige par venerable docteur Maistre iulien macho religieulx de lordre sain augustin de lyon sus le rosne' (fol. 353r)-

84. J. Lowden, 'The Sacrifice of Isaac in the Bibles moralisees', in Opfere deinen Sohn! Das 'Isaak-Opfer' in Judentum, Christentum und Islam, ed. B. Greiner, B. Janowski and H. Lichtenberger, Tubingen 2007, pp. 197-241-



JOHN LOWDEN 131

transmission, with the possible exception of BL Add. 152483 which may have been kept for some time in a workshop.

In the first decades of the fifteenth century the Bible moralisee was challenged by the Bible historiale (or rather its makers and consumers were). The Bible moralisee emerged from this encounter greatly changed, still distinguishable in textual terms, but with its pictorial cycle drastically reduced and altered almost beyond recognition. Manuscripts of the Bible moralisee continued to be produced for aristocratic patrons, however, and when the illustrated vernacular Bible was first printed in France it was in the form of a Bible moralisee of the period, not a Bible historiale}5 More scholarly attention might have been paid in the past to this incunable had Julien Macho entitled his work 'Bible moralisee', instead of adapting the opening words of a Bible moralisee 's prefaces: cCi commence la declaration' and 'Comment la Sainte Escripture se puet exposer'. Nonetheless, LExposicion et la vraie declaracion de la Bible has a strong claim to be the first illustrated book printed in France: a worthy culmination, perhaps, to the manuscript history of the Bible moralisee}6

Epilogue, A Lost Bible moralisee Documented in the Fifteenth-Century 'Librairie' of the Dukes of Burgundy and its Implications

The story of the Bibles moralisees in the fifteenth century began with Philippe le Hardi, due de Bourgogne (d. 1404), and his commission of BnF fr. 166. Thereafter, to judge from surviving manuscripts alone, the dukes of Burgundy appear to have been directly involved only with the Bible historiale KBR 9001-02 (partly dependent, as we have seen, on a Bible moralisee) , and with that work's close relative KBR 9024-25, acquired by Philippe's son.87 The surviving fifteenth- century Bibles moralisees were either made for unknown patrons (BAV Reg. lat. 25, Ghent UB 141, BL Add. 15248), or for aristocratic collectors close to the dukes of Burgundy; but not, it would seem, for the ducal 'librairie' itself (The Hague 76 E 7 for Antoine de Bourgogne, and BnF fr. 897 for Louis de Gruuthuse).

85. The Bible historiale was printed at Paris in 1495 by Antoine Verard. The 'Nouveau Testament' had been printed in Lyons in 1476 for Barthelemy Buyer, edited by the Augustinians Julien Macho and Pierre Sarget. Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century (as in n. 81), p. 235. Chambers (as in n. 81), 1, no. 3, pp. 3-4. See BL copy: IB.41510.

86. If we accept the rubrication date of 1477 in the John Rylands University Library copy: U. Bauer- meister, '1481: A False Landmark in the History of French Illustration? The Paris and Verdun Missals of Jean Du Pre', in Incunabula: Studies in Fifteenth- Century Printed Books Presented to Lotte Hellinga, ed. M. Davies, London 1999, pp. 469-91 (469-70). Alternatively, a date after 1479 is suggested by the use of Venetian rather than Basle type (by Martin Huss), which would make the Mirouer de la redempcion

de lumain lygnage (two editions, dated 1478 and 1479) the oldest illustrated book printed in France, albeit that the 256 woodblocks employed were merely recycled from the German Spiegel menschlicher Behalt- nuss, printed by Bernard Richel in Basle in 1476 (BL copy: IC. 37172): Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century (as in n. 81), p. xlviii; Geldner (as in n. 81), p. 212. See also The John Rylands Library Manchester: Descriptive Catalogue of an Exhibition of Printed Book Illustrations of the Fifteenth Century, Arranged in the Main Library. With an Introduction by the Librarian, Manchester 1933, pp. 41, 84, and pl. 15 (facing p. 42); Caxton in the Context of European Printing: A Quincentennial Exhibition, typescript catalogue, Manchester 1976, no. 15.

87. For KBR 9024-25 see above, p. 116.




Burgundian documents, however, reveal that there was another ducal Bible moralisee^ although it has not survived, together (as has previously been recognised) with BnF MS fr. 167 - the mid-fourteenth-century model of BnF MS fr. 166 - and that this lost Bible moralisee was also in the ducal 'librairie' by 1467-68.

The inventory drawn up in 1467-69,88 after the death of Philippe le Bon in July 1467, lists five manuscripts relevant to the present discussion, each fortunately identifiable without doubt by their recorded secundo folio incipits. I shall refer here to the list in the edition compiled by Joseph Barrois (Paris 1830). 89 Numbers 711 and 722 are the two volumes of KBR 9001-02. Number 712 is the Bible moralisee of Jean II le Bon, BnF fr. 167. Number 720 is the single volume comprising KBR 9024-25. Number 721 is the key witness. It was inventoried as follows:

Ung autre livre en parchemin couvert d'ais noirs a grans cloutz, intitule au dehors cCy comance le premier livre de la Bible moraliset [sic], translatee de latin en francois'; comancant au second feuillet 'Naturiens' et au dernier 'le temps si est'.9°

The same item reappears in the Burgundian inventory of 1487 (Barrois no. 1726), where the secundo folio incipit is given in fuller form: 'Naturiens dont saint Gregoire', and the last folio incipit is replaced by a much less useful explicit: 'qui est benoit perdurablement'.9IThe secundo folio text 'naturiens [dont saint Gregoire] ' shows that the Bible moralisee in question, without any doubt, had the prefaces found in Ghent UB 141 and BL Add. 15248 (KBR 9001 has the same prefaces but reads 'Doncques vuelt Saint Gregoire' - see above, p. 102). But the location of the word 'naturiens' proves that it was not one of those manuscripts. In order for the scribe to have completed the text only as far as 'naturiens' by the commencement of fol. 2r it is most probable that the lost manuscript had a half- page frontispiece on its fol. ir (together with a page layout similar to that of BL Add. 15248), and this observation is important. We can also note that the title recorded in the inventory, 'Cy commence le premier livre de la Bible moralisee translatee de latin en francois', is that found on the opening page of Genesis in Ghent UB 141 (fol. i3r), BL Add. 15248 (fol. I7r), and The Hague 76 E 7 (fol. 3r). Comparison with those books shows that the phrase 'premier livre' should not be interpreted to mean that the lost Bible moralisee was in two or more volumes (the 'premier livre' was in fact Genesis).

88. See first B. Bousmanne and C. Van Hoore- beeck, La librairie des dues de Bourgogne, I, Turnhout 2000, pp. 13-43; and G. Doutrepont, La literature francaise a la cour des dues de Bourgogne, Paris 1909, pp. xxviii-xl, on the date and nature of the inventory.

89. For the list see J. Barrois, Bibliotheque Protypo- graphique, ou Librairies des fils du roi Jean, Charles V, Jean de Berry, Philippe de Bourgogne et les siens, Paris 1830, pp. 123-226. See also Doutrepont (as in n. 89), esp p. 201. Barrois's publication will be superseded Corpus Catalogorum Belgii, vol. V (in preparation).

90. 'Another parchment book covered with black boards with large studs titled on the outside 'Here begins the first book of the Bible moralisee', beginning on the second folio 'naturiens', and on the last 'le temps si est'.

9i. The inventory of 1487 also mentions the large size of the volume: 'Ung autre grant volume couvert de cuir noir, a tout deux cloans et cinq boutons de leton sur chascun coste, historie et intitule "Le premier livre de la Bible moralisee"...'. Barrois (as in n. 90), no. 1726.



JOHN LOWDEN 133

Fortunately, further Burgundian documents allow this lost book to be more precisely described, and firmly dated. In July 1468 (a year after Philippe's death), Jacques de Bregilles, garde desjoyaux to due Charles le Temeraire, son of Philippe le Bon, was repaid for sums disbursed, including:92

[31] Item, audit Loyset Liedet, pour avoir fait en ung livre nomme la Bible moralizee vingt histoires, assavoir sept grandes et treze petites de pluseurs couleurs au pris de douze sols chascune histoire Tune parmi l'autre, font 12 lb.

[32] Item, 43 grandes lettres ouvrees a champaigne d'or et vingnettes dedens, a deux gros pieces, 43 s.

[33] Item, 3750 de paraphes et lettres a trois solz le cent, 1 12 s. 6 d.

[34] Item, pour le relyage dudit livre y comprins la couverture, 31s.

[35] Item, pour dix grans clous de letton a boches, pour petis cloux pour les attachier dessus, et pour cuir a le fermer, 24 s.

[36] Font ces cinq parties ensemble 22 lb, 10 s. 6 d.

And after payments to Loyset Liedet for miniatures and large initials in a 'Vengance de Nostre Seigneur Jhesus Crist', and to Yvonnet le Jeune for writing the thirty-eight quires of that book (the content of paragraphs 37-41), we read in the same register:

[42] Item, audit Yvonnet le Jeune, clerc escripvain, pour aussi avoir escript 38 quayers de parchemin d'un livre nomme la Bible moralizee, audit pris de seze solz le quayer, font 30 lb. 8 s.

This text is appended to the bottom of fol. i83r of the account book and repeats verbatim much of the information in the entry above [no. 41]. The evidence here is puzzling.

No surviving Bible moralisee corresponds precisely to the characteristics of the manuscript described in the documents: namely, a volume of 304 folios with twenty miniatures by Loyset Liedet, forty-three large initials, 3750 small initials and paragraph signs, and text written by Yvonnet le Jeune.93 But taken individually the elements of this lost book can be usefully compared to what we find in the Bibles moralisees that have survived.

92. For the documents see A. Greve and E. Lebailly, Comptes de Vargentier de Charles le Temeraire due de Bourgogne (Recueil des historiens de la France, Documents financiers et administratifs, x), Paris 2001, 1, pp. 268-71, no. 1110, esp. pp. 270-71. They are cited here following the numbering in A. De Schryver, 'Jacques de Bregilles, responsable de la librairie des dues de Bourgogne sous Charles le Temeraire', in Les Chroniques de Hainaut, dir. P. Cockshaw, ed. C. Van den Bergen-Pantens, Brussels 2000, pp. 83-89, esp. 86-87. The documents were not cited by Laborde (as in n. 3) although published by

his grandfather: Leon Emmanuel, marquis de Laborde, Les dues de Bourgogne, etudes sur les lettres, les arts et Vindustrie ..., II. 1, Preuves, Paris 1849, pp. 501- 02, nos 1954-58. See also A. Pinchart, ' ' Miniaturistes, enlumineurs et calligraphes employes par Philippe le Bon et Charles le Temeraire er leurs oeuvres, Brussels 1865, p. 5.

93. On Loyset Liedet and Yvonnet le Jeune see esp. T. Kren and S. McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance, Los Angeles and London 2003, pp. 230- 33 and 519-20.




BL Add. 15248 originally had 295 folios (only nine less than the 304 folios of the lost manuscript). Assuming a large initial at the incipit of each of the biblical books listed in the table of contents, plus one for the preface., for the Sacrifice of Isaac, and for each of the eight-part Psalter divisions (as is the case in Add. 15248), we would expect the lost book to have had a total of fifty-four initials. Only forty-three are mentioned in the document, which might imply that some of its initials were by a different hand.

The total of twenty miniatures referred to in the documents seems on the low side for a fifteenth-century Bible moralisee^ for although Ghent UB 141 had only twenty-one, BL Add. 15248, for example, had thirty-five, and BnF fr. 897 and The Hague 76 E 7 had forty-four and forty-five respectively. This strongly suggests that Loyset Liedet's task was to complete the decoration of a part-finished book. The distinction in the accounting between large and small miniatures seems inconsistent with a fifteenth-century Bible moralisee^ in which only the roughly half-page Genesis frontispiece was notably larger than the usual single column miniatures, but when we note that payment was rounded to a single unit cost irrespective of size, this might seem to suggest that there was not in fact much difference between the grandes and petites histoires. An alternative explanation, however, is more likely: it has already been noted that the secundo folio incipit implied that the lost Bible moralisee had a half-page prefatory image (rather than the initial found in BL Add. 15248), and a page layout comparable to that in BL Add. 15248. Given that the manuscript was nine folios longer than Add. 15248 it might well have also had, for the sake of argument, up to thirty-six half-page miniatures (9 folios = 18 pages = 36 half-pages: assuming for the purpose of discussion that its page layout was identical to that of Add. 15248 - in practice there is no way of ascertaining the layout of the lost book with precision). The presence of grandes histoires might thus have been a key feature that clearly distinguished this Bible moralisee from those that survive.

The combination of small initials and 'paraphes', as described in the document, is certainly characteristic of the page layout of the later Bibles moralisees^ which have decorated initials for the start of each biblical text, and decorated 'paraphes' for each moralisation. There is a major discrepancy, however, between the number of small initials and 'paraphes' for which payment was made (3750), and the number that might be anticipated in a complete Bible moralisee^ i.e. approximately 5400 (allowing for double the frequency of initials and 'paraphes' in Psalms, because of the inclusion in the decorative scheme of each Psalm title, and its accompanying interpretation). But the total of 3750 is consistent with the hypothesis, advanced above, that the book was in part already decorated, and that Liedet was receiving payment for its completion.

It is important to note, in support of the proposal that what we have are payments for the completion of a part-finished book, that the document of July 1468 also refers to another manuscript without doubt begun for Philippe le Bon, and left unfinished at his death: this is the 'Vengance de Nostre Seigneur', which contains the date of 1465 written by Yvonnet le Jeune in its prefatory index.94



JOHN LOWDEN 135

What is more, the 'Vengance', which survives in the library at Chatsworth, was also included, like the lost Bible moralisee^ in the inventory of Philippe's books at his death in 1467 and again in 1487 (the secundo folio and last folio texts con- firm the book's identity), and was in part illustrated by Loyset Liedet, who was paid by Jacques de Bregilles - as described in paragraphs 37-41 of the document mentioned above - for twenty histoires and twenty-four large initials, as well as a binding that matched that of the Bible moralisee.95 The Bible moralisee for which payments were made, therefore, like the 'Vengence', must have been begun for Philippe le Bon, and it must have been this same Bible moralisee that was cited in the post mortem inventory of 1467-69.

Loyset Liedet, we can conclude, was paid to complete a Bible moralisee for the 'librairie' of Charles le Temeraire, a manuscript that had been begun for the duke's father. Charles (or rather Jacques de Bregilles) commissioned one of the duke's most prolific artists to supply the missing decoration, possibly including a number of half-page miniatures. How does this relate to the commissioning and production of the last three surviving Bibles moralisees some ten or fifteen years before? BnF fr. 897 and The Hague 76 E 7 are best understood, I suggest, as reponses on the part of aristocratic bibliophiles close to the duke(s) of Burgundy, to the commissioning c. 1455 of a comparable Bible moralisee by Philippe le Bon himself. This intended ducal manuscript, I propose, was BL Add. 15248. But Add. 15248, with its numerous marginal corrections, seems to have been demoted to serve, at least for a while, as a workshop model. Perhaps the lost but documented Bible moralisee with twenty images by Loyset Liedet was designed, with its larger miniatures, to take the place of Add. 15248. If this is correct, Add. 15248 must have been removed from the ducal 'librairie' before 1467 and given or sold to a new, unidentified owner.

Documentary evidence, together with the surviving manuscripts, implies that the descendants of Philippe le Hardi continued to regard the Bible moralisee as a book with dynastic significance,96 as Philippe had, when in BnF fr. 166 he paid tribute to his father's Bible moralisee^ BnF fr. 167. Philippe's son Jean sans Peur may well have commissioned KBR 9001-02, and with it attempted to outdo his father. Jean's son Philippe le Bon may have commissioned BL Add. 15248, and certainly, shortly before his death, commissioned a Bible moralisee of the type of Add. 15248, 'improving' it, it would seem, by the inclusion of larger miniatures. Philippe's son Charles le Temeraire paid for this book to be finished in 1468 in part, perhaps, as an act of filial pietas. Taken together with the evidence of the surviving manuscripts, the documented (albeit lost) Bible moralisee begun for

94. First identified by P. Durrieu, 'Decouverte de deux importants manuscrits de la "Librairie" des dues de Bourgogne', Bibliotheque de VEcole des Chartes, lxxi, 1910, pp. 58-71 (3-16). See also Treasures from Chatsworth. The Devonshire Inheritance , exhib. cat., intro. A. Blunt, Washington DC 1979, no. 131 (with earlier bibliography) .

95. See the documents published in De Schryver (as in n. 93), nos 37-41.

96. On the Bibles moralisees as books with dynastic significance see Lowden (as in n. 1), index 'Bibles moralisees, critical approaches to, royal/dynastic books'.




Philippe and finished for Charles shows that the dukes of Burgundy were., as might be expected., important to the history of the Bible moralisee through much of the fifteenth century.

Courtauld Institute of Art

