Details

Subject(s)

• France—Kings and rulers—Genealogy—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• France—Court and courtiers—Genealogy—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Manuscripts, French—France [Browse]
• Manuscripts, French—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]
• Illumination of books and manuscripts [Browse]

Bookseller

• Berès, Pierre [Browse]

Related name

• Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Princeton MS. 56. [Browse]

Notes

• Script: Textualis libraria. Probably the work of one scribe.
• Decoration: At the top of the roll are two angels holding up the French royal arms, three fleurs-de-lis in burnished gold, on an azure field. Two bas-de-page figures are also depicted in this section of the roll. Most of the initials are gold and azure, with penwork infilling. The 26 medallion portraits are sketched in ink, then tinted in olive, pale blue, mauve, and other colors. The stylized portraits depict rulers from the mythi- cal Priamus the Younger to the Merovingian, Carolingian, Capetian, and Valois kings. Among them are portraits of two Burgundian dukes and a depiction of three mounted knights representing the founders of Lutesse (Paris). Many captions accompanying portraits identify a particular church or monastery as having been founded by that ruler. There are medallion portraits for the mythological figures Priamus the Younger and Marchomire; the Frankish rulers King Clovis I (r. 481-511), King Dagobert I (r. 629-634) [the founder of St. Denis], Pepin the Short (r. 752-768), and Charlemagne (r. 768-814); and the French kings Hugh Capet (r. 987-996), Louis IX (r. 1226-1270),* Philip VI Valois (r. 1328-1350), Charles V (r. 1364-1380), and others.

Binding note

The roll is stored in a custom clam-shell box.

Provenance

Princeton MS. 56 was probably executed for a member of the royal court, probably no later than 1422, because the text mentions the count of Ponthieu, who only came to the throne as King Charles VII in that year. Since such rolls were intended for courtiers, Alfred Foulet (1900-1987), Professor of French at Princeton University, speculated that the chronicle roll may have been executed at St. Denis. The Princeton University Library purchased the manuscript from the Parisian antiquarian book-dealer Pierre Berès in December 1947, with funds from the Chalfant Robinson Fund and the John Gould Ralston '99 Memorial Fund (Acc. no. 13510).

References

Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, page 249-250.

Cite as

Princeton MS. 56, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

OCLC

1107164001

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