A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Two. Thomas Frognall Dibdin
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that the celebrated Laurent le Premier Fait was the principal scribe who gave a sort of fashion to this MS. in France.
PTOLEMÆUS, Latinè. A magnificent MS.--if size and condition be alone considered. It is however precious in the estimation of Collectors of portraits, as it contains one of Louis XII;40--This portrait is nearly in the centre of the frontispiece to the book. Behind the monarch stand two men; one leaning upon his staff. A large gothic window is above. A crucifix and altar are beneath it. There is but one other similar illumination in the volume; and each nearly occupies the whole of the page--which is almost twenty-three inches long by fourteen wide. The other illumination is hardly worth describing. This noble volume, which almost made the bearer stoop beneath its weight, is bound in wood:--covered with blue velvet, with a running yellow pattern, of the time of Louis--but now almost worn away.
TITE-LIVE. Fol. A noble and magnificent MS. apparently of the beginning of the XVth. century. It seems to point out the precise period when the artists introduced those soft, full-coloured, circular borders--just after the abandonment of the sharp outline, and thin coat of colour--discoverable in the illuminations of the XIIIth and XIVth centuries. The first grand illumination, with a circular border, is an interesting illustration of this remark. The backgrounds to the pictures are the well-known small bright squares of blue and gold. The text is in a firm square and short gothic character.
L'HISTOIRE ROMAINE: No. 6984: Folio, 3 vols. written in the French language. These are among the shew books of the library. The exterior pattern of the binding is beautiful in the extreme. Such a play of lines, in all directions, but chiefly circular, I never before saw. The date, on the outside, is 1556. The writing and the illuminations are of the latter part of the XVth century; and although they are gorgeous, and in a fine state of preservation, yet is the character of the art but secondary, and rather common.
ROYAL BIOGRAPHY OF FRANCE. Fol. This exquisite volume may be justly designated as the nonpareil of its kind. It is rather a book of PORTRAITS, than a MS. with intermixed illuminations. The scription, in a sort of cursive, secretary gothic character, merits not a moment's attention: the pencil of the artist having wholly eclipsed the efforts of the scribe. Such a series of exquisitely finished portraits, of all the Kings of France (with the unaccountable omission, unless it has been taken out, of that of Louis XII.) is perhaps no where else to be seen. M. Coeuré, the French artist employed by me, stood in ecstasies before it! These portraits are taken from old monuments, missals, and other ancient and supposed authentic documents. They are here touched and finished in a manner the most surprisingly perfect. The book appears to have been executed expressly for CHARLES IX.--to whom it was in fact presented by Dutilliet, (the artist or the superintendant of the volume) in his proper person. The gilt stamp of the two reversed C's are on the sides of the binding. I should add, that the portraits are surrounded by borders of gold, shaded in brown, in the arabesque manner. All the portraits are whole lengths; and if my time and pursuits had permitted it, I should, ere this, have caused M. Coeuré to have transfused a little of his enthusiasm into faithful facsimiles of those of Francis I.--my avowed favourite--of which one represents him in youth, and the other in old age. Why do not the Noblesse of France devote some portion of that wealth, which may be applied to worse purposes, in obtaining a series of engravings executed from this matchless volume?!
ROMANCES, BOOKS OF TOURNAMENT, &c.
LANCELOT DU LAC shall lead the way. He was always considered among the finest fellows who ever encircled the Table Ronde--and such a copy of his exploits, as is at this moment before me, it is probably not very easy for even Yourself to conceive. If the height and bulk of the knight were in proportion to this written record of achievements, the plume of his helmet must have brushed the clouds. This enormous volume (No. 6783) is divided into three books or parts: of which the first part is illuminated in the usual coarse style of the latter end of the XIVth century. The title to this first part, in red ink, is the most perfect resemblance of the earliest type used by Caxton, which I remember to have seen in an ancient manuscript. The other titles do not exhibit that similarity. The first part has ccxlviij. leaves. The second part has no illuminations: if we except a tenderly touched outline, in a brownish black, upon the third leaf--which is much superior to any specimen of art in the volume. This second part has cccj. leaves. At the end:--
Sensuit le liure du saint graal.
The spaces for illuminations are regularly preserved, but by what accident or design they were not filled up remains to be conjectured. The third part, or book, is fully illuminated like the first. There is a very droll illumination on folio vij.xx. xij. At the end of the volume, on folio ccxxxiij., recto, is the following date: "Aujourduy iiij. Jour du Jullet lan mil ccc. soixante dix a este escript ce livre darmes par Micheaugatelet prestre demeurant en la ville de Tournay." Just before the colophon, on the reverse of the preceding leaf, is a common-place illumination of the interment of a figure in a white sheet--with this incription:
ICI: GIST. LECORS: GALAHAVT: SEIGNEVR DES. LOINTENES. ILES. ET. AVECQVES. LVI. REPOVSE: MESIRE LANCELOT. DVLAC. MELLIEVR. CHRL. DV. MVDE. APRES. GVALEAT.
There are two or three more illuminated MSS. of our well-beloved Lancelot. One, in six volumes, has illuminations, but they are of the usual character of those of the fifteenth century.
LANCELOT DU LAC, &C. This MS. is in three volumes. The first contains only, as it were, an incipient illumination: but there is preserved, on the reverse of the binding, and written in the same character with the text, three lines--of which the private history, or particular application, is now forgotten--although we learn, from the word bloys being written at top, that this MS. came from the library of Catherine de Medici--when she resided at Blois.
The second volume of this copy is in quite a different character, and much older than the first. The colophon assigns to it the date of 1344. The volume is full of illuminations, and the first leaf exhibits a fair good specimen of those drolleries which are so frequently seen in illuminated MSS. of that period. The third volume is in a still different hand-writing: perhaps a little more ancient. It has a few slight illuminations, only as capital initials.
LANCELOT DU LAC: No. 6782. This MS. is executed in a small gothic character, in ink which has now become much faded. From the character of the illuminations, I should consider it to be much more ancient than either of the preceding--even at the commencement of the thirteenth century. Among the illuminations there is a very curious one, with this prefix;
Vne dame venant a.c. chr. q dort en son lit & ele le volt baisier. mais vne damoiselle li deffendi
You will not fail to bear in mind that the history of Lancelot du Lac will be also found in those of Tristan and Arthur. I shall now therefore introduce you to a MS. or two relating to the former.
TRISTAN. No. 6957, 2 vols. folio. This is a very fine old MS. apparently of the middle of the XIVth century. The writing and the embellishments fairly justify this inference. The first volume contains three hundred and fifty-one leaves. On the reverse of the last leaf but one, is the word "anne" in large lower-case letters; but a ms. memorandum, in a later hand, at the end, tells us that this copy was once the property of "the late Dame Agnes" &c. The second volume is written in more of the secretary gothic character--and is probably somewhat later than the first. It is executed in double columns. The illuminations are little more than outlines, prettily executed upon a white ground--or rather the vellum is uncoloured. This volume seems to want a leaf at the commencement, and yet it has a title at top, as if the text actually began there. The colophon is thus:
Explicit le Romãt de. T. et de yseut qui fut fait lan mille. iijc. iiijxx. et xix. la veille de pasques grans.
TRISTAN, FILS DE MELIADUS. No. 6773. A folio of almost unparalleled breadth of back;--measuring more than six inches and a quarter, without the binding. A beautiful illumination once graced the first leaf, divided into four compartments, which is now almost effaced. In the third compartment, there are two men and two women playing at chess, in a vessel. What remains, only conveys an imperfect idea of its original beauty. The lady seems to have received check-mate, from the melancholy cast of her countenance, and her paralised attitude. The man is lifting