The Beauvais Cathedral Archive, a collection of six decorated and illuminated manuscripts, in Latin, on vellum [Beauvais, eleventh to fifteenth century]

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300,000 - 500,000 GBP

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Description

Vellum

six manuscripts: (i) Martyrology of Usuard, with added obituary notices of Beauvais cathedral, 182 leaves, 235mm. by 185mm., wanting single leaves from first and fourteenth gatherings, else complete, collation: i⁸ (iii a stub, iv wanting, viii a singleton once attached to endleaf), ii-iv⁸, v⁵ (iv a slip bound in), vi-xiii⁸, xiv⁶ (ii and iv wanting, vi-viii cancelled blanks), then an early twelfth-century addition to the volume: xv⁸, xvi⁹ (last singleton), and returning to the eleventh century original again: xvii-xix⁸, xx¹⁰, xxi-xxiii⁸, single column, 21 lines in brown ink in a number of late Carolingian minuscule and early gothic hands, rubrics and date headings in orange-red ornamental capitals, capitals in text touched in same, 2-line initials in red or part-coloured in red and following early Carolingian models, two large ornamental initials in red penwork with acanthus leaf infill, with animal masks (fols.137r and 144r), very large initial ‘A’, 115mm. high (fol.128r), in geometric knotwork on red grounds with a floral boss at its foot and a biting lion’s mask at its top, very large initial ‘F’, 145mm. high (fol.149v), in same with scrolling foliage and biting animal mask, early polyphonic music on a 5-line stave copied among other notes and pen trials on last endleaf, “Sancti petri Belvacensis” in bas-de-page of first leaf in contemporary hand, and armorial bookplates of cathedral chapter pasted on a blank leaf in text and on inside and outside of boards, a few leaves with corners and sections torn away, and where vellum thin and fine some leaves now with splits (affecting centre of large initial on fol.128r), corners of leaves at each end of volume curled and some leaves cockled, some staining of areas of borders through use of chemical reagents, overall in good condition, endleaf at front reused from thirteenth-century biblical commentary, strong in early medieval white leather tooled with chevrons over thick bevelled wooden boards, some minor splits at spine and small hole, manuscript of late eleventh and early twelfth century, with eighteenth-century handwritten cataloguing of Canon Danse (see below); (ii) Martyrology of Usuard, and a tabulated martyrology arranged according to the Calendar, both with added obituary notices of St. Nicholas, Beauvais, 155 leaves, 263mm. by 175mm., wanting single leaves from first, seventh and nineteenth gatherings, a bifolium from the fourteenth, and a few gatherings after fol.45, else complete, collation: i⁵ (wanting leaf at end), ii-vi⁸, vii⁷ (last a singleton), viii⁸, ix², x-xiii⁸, xiv⁶ (central bifolium wanting), xv-xviii⁸, xix⁷ (last leaf wanting), xx-xxi⁸ (last a stub), some contemporary quire signatures, single column, 24 lines in dark brown ink in a number of fine early gothic hands, initials in first part of text in alternate green or red, the larger ones touched in contrasting penwork, and in second part of text in red or blue with contrasting penwork, a few leaves torn or cockled, but overall in fair and presentable condition, some gatherings loose, medieval binding of brown leather (torn in places with a few holes) over bevelled wooden boards (back board with split, front board with small losses to lower corner and lower edge of board where a chain has been removed), manuscript of thirteenth century; (iii) Missal, Use of Beauvais, 151 leaves (including an endleaf at front), 245mm. by 150mm., apparently complete, collation: i³ (i the endleaf, ii a singleton), ii-x⁸, xi⁷ (last a cancelled blank), xii², xii-xxi⁸ (eighteenth gathering a near-contemporary addition), single column, 17 lines in a large and skilled early gothic bookhand, initials in red or pale blue, the larger with flourishes or dots mounted within their bodies, space left for very large initials on 9r and 10r, spaces left in added section for initials, drypoint sketch on last endleaf of a variegated initial ‘D’ (perhaps thirteenth century), worn area of border on first leaf with split, second half of volume cockled and slightly water damaged in places, medieval binding (perhaps thirteenth- or fourteenth-century, note “manuale” of that date on back board) of brown leather over bevelled wooden boards (the outer leather perhaps taken off in nineteenth century to allow for the spine to be strengthened with red fabric), remains of one clasp, manuscript of mid-twelfth century; (iv) Missal, Use of St. Quentin, Beauvais, 147 leaves, wanting single leaves throughout, the first 4 leaves now bound in on guards, fols.19-20 and 24 with their edges trimmed, fol.23 partly cut out, first part of volume (fols.1-59v): single column, 21-24 lines, rubrics in red, capitals touched in red, 2-line initials in red or blue with penwork, second part (fols.60-147): single column, 22 lines, rubrics in orange-red, 2- or 3-line initials in red or green with contrasting flourishes, larger initials in penwork bands terminating in foliage (that on fol.62v, 75r and 135r with winged dragons), one large initial in penwork (fol.136v), forming pillars entwined with scrolling foliage, on red and green grounds, some water damage to edges, leaving a few initials burnt through vellum, and vellum brittle in places (with some losses to edges and lower corners), else fair, nineteenth-century binding of marbled paper over pasteboards, gilt-tooled morocco spine, manuscript of twelfth century; (v) Missal (abridged), Use of St. Nicholas, Beauvais, 59 leaves (plus 3 paper and 2 original vellum endleaves), 240mm. by 180mm., wanting a number of leaves, collation: i-iv¹², v⁵ (wanting ii), vi², vii⁴ (these last two gatherings now bound erratically and following rust marks in first gathering perhaps once from beginning of volume), single column, 12 lines in a large and angular gothic bookhand, small interlinear crosses and rubrics in red, one-line initials in blue or red with contrasting penwork, 2-line initials in gold on blue and pink grounds heightened with white penwork, one very large initial ‘P’, 200mm. high (fol.5v), in pink, on blue grounds all heightened with white scalloping or foliate penwork, enclosing a large lacertine animal with a wide-open biting mouth, his tail terminating in coloured ivy leaves, on burnished gold golds, one rectangular miniature of the Crucifixion, 80mm. by 75mm. (fol.6v), on burnished gold grounds and above a pale blue cross, with protective cloth curtain stitched to leaf, sixteenth-century ex libris inside back cover: “Istud missale abbreviatum pertinent domino Lamberto de Vico presbytero vicario in ecclesia collegiata beati Nicolai Belvacensis”, some water damage, with losses to small areas of gold in initials and miniature and significant smudge to body of St. John, becoming loose in fifteenth-century binding of red leather tooled with chevrons over wooden boards (some stains, scuffs and bumps, back board split and stitched back together), thirteenth century; (vi) Missal, Use of Beauvais, 78 leaves (including pastedown at end, 2 leaves blank), 200mm. by 140mm., complete, collation: i² (added bifolium with contents list), ii-ix⁸, x⁶, xi⁸, contemporary foliation in upper border of each recto (foliated i-lxxvi), single column, 25 lines, rubrics in red, capitals touched in yellow, initials in alternate red and blue, good condition, contemporary binding of brown leather (some small holes and tears) over wooden boards, remains of 2 clasps (one with metalwork end still present), mid-fifteenth century

Provenance

These are the last remnant of the great library of the cathedral chapter of St. Peter’s, Beauvais; three of which were hitherto thought lost, and none of which have been seen in public for a century. The first contains an important early twelfth-century booklist of Classical texts presented to the cathedral chapter by Roscelinus Grammaticus, identified as the tutor of the scholastic philosopher Peter Abelard

provenance

(1) These volumes were written for use in the great cathedral of St. Peter’s, Beauvais, and its subsidiary churches of St. Quentin and St. Nicholas. By the close of the Middle Ages all the volumes here were most probably housed within the cathedral chapter library, and the earliest codex here was recorded there from 1656 to 1770, when it was used in the compilation of successive volumes of Gallia Christiana.

(2) Louis-Lucien Le Caron de Troussures (1751-1821) and his antiquarian uncle, the Canon Danse (1725-1806; whose handwritten notes accompany the first codex here). The latter had been a canon of the Cathedral, and the present volumes were taken into the family library in 1780, most probably for their protection during the period of unrest that led up to the French Revolution. The family and their library survived the Revolution, and by the beginning of the twentieth century it numbered some 3000 valuable early printed books and 43 manuscripts (23 from Beauvais cathedral chapter). Some of the manuscripts from the library at Troussures were exhibited in Beauvais in 1869, in an exhibition of pre-Revolutionary art attended by Emperor Napoleon III (the first codex here with a paper label evidently from this exhibition inside the front board, dated 1869 and listing it as "Inv. 1401"). Within a few years, the Beauvais manuscripts began to be dispersed, and apart from the present volumes they are all now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and a small number of European and American institutions. In 1907, three of those exhibited were privately sold to the Bibliothèque Nationale (i: a twelfth-century Beauvais Hymnal, now BnF, n.a. lat.1064; ii: a tenth-century Julianus Pomerius, De vita contemplativa, now BnF, n.a. lat.1065; and iii: a sixteenth-century L’Aveugle voyant, now BnF, Ms. Rothschild 3240) and seven others to Pierpont Morgan (1: a seventh-century Augustine of Hippo, Homiliae decem in epistolam S. Johannis, in Luxeuil minuscule, now M334; 2: an early ninth-century Bede, Explanatio in Samuelem, now M335; 3: a ninth-century Cura Pastoralis from Corbie, now M336; 4: an eleventh-century Evangeliary from St-Bertin, now M333; 5 and 6: two thirteenth-century Psalters, one with the commentary of Simon de Tournai, now M337-338; and 7: a fifteenth-century French translation of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy made for Antoine, Grand Bâtarde of Burgundy, now M332). Public sales in Paris of the remaining manuscripts followed on 9 July 1909 (in which the present codices were lots 10, 22, 12, 20, 13 and 24) and 20-21 June 1912 (lot 24 in the previous sale failing to sell and being reoffered as lot 8 of this sale). The Bibliothèque Nationale bought heavily, with others such as a ninth-century copy of the Letters of St Ambroise being acquired by J. Rosenthal and passing to Berlin, Staatsbibliothek (now Theol. Lat.fol.908); a ninth-century Commentary of Origen on Paul’s Epistles passing to Quaritch and then John Rylands (now Manchester, John Rylands Museum, MS.174); a ninth-century Commentary on Leviticus by Hesychius and a richly illuminated fourteenth-century Histoire ancienne jusqu’à Cesar to Pierpont Morgan (now M768 and M516); a twelfth-century pontifical from Reims, a thirteenth-century Bible and a copy of Martin le Franc, L’Estrif de Fortune, dated 1486, now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, and a late twelfth-century Priscian, Institutiones grammaticales, to Bernard Rosenthal and thence to T.E. Marston (now Yale, Beinecke, Marston MS.67).

(3) Joseph-Louis (1837-1912), marquis de Luppé; who purchased the first five manuscripts here directly in the 1909 sale, and acquired the last volume from the 1912 sale via the bookdealer Leclerc. By descent to the present owner.

Literature

literature

Pierre, Abel and Nicolas-Charles de Sainte-Marthe, et al., Gallia Christiana, qua series omnia archiepiscoporum, episcoporum et abbatum Franciæ, vols. II (1656), pp.373, 377, 379, 380-2, 386, 389, 394, 397, 399, 401; VII (1744), cols.900-01; VIII (1744), col.1456; IX (1751), cols.698, 707-08, 711, 714, 719, 722, 731, 739, 742, 744, 748-9, 751-2, 755, 757, 1004; and XII (1770), col.509.

L. Deslisle in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 32, 1884, p.160, editing the booklist of Roscelinus Grammaticus.

A. Molinier, Les obituaires français au Moyen Age, 1890, no.231, p.199.

H. Labande, Histoire de Beauvais, 1892, p.xxi.

H. Omont, Recherches sur la bibliothèque de l'église cathédrale de Beauvais, 1914, pp.2-3; re-editing the booklist.

J.L. Lemaitre, Répertoire des documents nécrologiques français, II, 1980, no.1921, p.827.

V. Leblond and Marquis de Luppé, Obituaires des églises Saint-Nicolas et Saint-Michel de Beauvais, 1923, p.ii; editing the obituaries added to item (ii) here.

M.F. Damongeot-Bourdat, ‘Les vicissitudes d’une collection de manuscrits: de la cathédrale de Beauvais’, Bulletin du Bibliophile 1, 2010, pp.131-52; without inspecting any of the present manuscripts, and listing three of them as “localisation inconnue”.

Catalogue Note

The libraries of Medieval Beauvais

The Le Caron family appear to have saved three types of books from the library of the Cathedral chapter at Beauvais: (i) early volumes from the tenth century or before, (ii) large illuminated volumes from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and (iii) the present manuscripts, the core liturgical books containing the offices of daily life there and unique records of the inhabitants of the town in the Middle Ages. These were central to life in medieval Beauvais, and often contain the only surviving record of an individual member of that community.

The contents of the manuscripts are: (i) Martyrology of Usuard, late eleventh and early twelfth century, with added obituary notices of Beauvais cathedral: the order and prayers for the sacrament of extreme unction (fol.1r), opening with a litany of saints; the formula for excommunication (fol.9r); a short tract on apostles, martyrs and Church fathers (fol.9v); the letter of Chromatius and Heilodorus to Jerome, and Jerome’s response (fol.12r); the Breviarum Apostolorum, opening “Incipit brevarium apostolorum ex nomine uel locis …” (13r); short Latin verses on the months, the zodiac and the six ages of man added in twelfth-century hands to a previously blank leaf (fol.14v); Usuard’s martyrology (fol.15r); the Office of the Dead (fol.99v), ending with the booklist of Roscelinus Grammaticus, musical notations and other additions; extracts from the writings of Isidore of Seville, Gregory the Great and Jerome (fol.111r) and sermons, including that of St. Augustine on the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (fol.128r), followed by others on the birth of the Virgin (fol.144r), the sermon of St Jerome to Paul and Eustochinus (fol.149v), and the same author’s discourse on the Assumption (fol.162r). (ii) Martyrology of Usuard, with added obituary notices of St. Nicholas, Beauvais, thirteenth century: a Calendar (fol.1r), Chromatius’ and Heilodorus’ letter to Jerome, and his response (fol.6r); the short tract on apostles, martyrs and Church fathers (fol.6v); Usuard’s martyrology (fol.8v); another martyrology set out in columns (fol.64r); readings from the Church fathers (fol.152v); two thirteenth-century documents from Beauvais added to leaves at end: the first a letter from the Cathedral Chapter concerning the number of canons and chaplains in St. Nicholas, Beauvais, dated October 1259, the second a similar document also from the Cathedral Chapter, dated 1298. (iii) Missal, Use of Beauvais, mid-twelfth century: various prayers (fol.2v); followed by the Masses for the entire liturgical year (fol.5r); ending with more specific Masses for various types of deaths and burials. (iv) Missal, Use of St. Quentin, Beauvais, twelfth century: prayers (fol.1r); the Rule of St. Augustine (fol.5v), ending with readings for various Sundays and feast days; capitula lists and readings for Mass on certain feastdays (fol.25r), ending with a Litany; Masses for the liturgical year and other events (fol.60r), with a Litany (wanting ending). (v) Missal (with abridged text), Use of St. Nicholas, Beauvais, thirteenth century: text of general Mass (wanting opening), followed by Masses and prayers for the dead, the Holy Cross, St. Matthew, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. (vi) Missal, Use of Beauvais, mid-fifteenth century: table of contents (fol.1r); Masses for the entire liturgical year (fol.3r), followed by others for the veneration of benefactors, to make amends for sins, for deaths and burials and ending with Biblical readings.

The first two manuscripts here, both copies of Carolingian martyrologies, contain in their margins many hundreds of records of individuals such as Drogo miles filius castellani (Drogo, knight and son of the lord of the castle; St. Peter’s, 9 Kalends May), Adelais castellana (St. Peter’s, 30 Kalends September), Hilduinus monetarius (Hilduin the moneyer; St. Peter’s, 3 Kalends May), Magister Petrus de Sancto Ypolito (St. Nicholas, 6 Kalends January), Odelina uxor Walberti (Odeline, wife of Walbert; St. Nicholas, 5 Ides March) and Ligardus uxor quondam petri (Ligard, once wife of Peter; St. Nicholas, 6 Kalends April), as well as many ecclesiastics of the cathedral and monasteries of Beauvais, and noble patrons, such as Iohannes miles de Coduno (St. Nicholas, 2 Kalends February), Philippus rex (ie. Philip Augustus, 1165-1223; St. Peter’s, 3 Kalends August) and rex lodovicus (ie. St. Louis, 1214-70; St. Peter’s, 2 Kalends August). The additions to the St. Peter’s martyrology continue up to the end of the thirteenth century, and only a few extracts have been published. Those in the volume from St. Nicholas’ concentrate in the twelfth to fourteenth century, with a few additions as late as the eighteenth century.

The booklist of Roscelinus Grammaticus

At the end of the main text of the St. Peter’s martyrology, there is a list of books in a hand of the early twelfth century, recording their gift to the community by Roscelinus Grammaticus. His death is recorded elsewhere in the martyrology for the 5 July. The titles of this list are utterly remarkable in that they are almost entirely Classical or Late Antique texts.

Roscelinus Grammaticus dedit libros suos sancto Pe[t]ro:

Augustinum super Johannem
Augustine’s Homiliae decem in epistolam S. Johannis; doubtless Pierpont Morgan, M334, in Luxeuil minuscule and dated 669. It beggars belief that the strange and swirling letterforms of Luxeuil minuscule were easily intelligible, if at all, to a twelfth-century reader, and perhaps Roscelinus sought it out because of its antiquity and archaic script, and should be seen as an early humanist scholar.

Augustinum de doctrina Christiana
Augustine on Christian Doctrine.

Prissianum
Priscianus Caesariensis, the late fourth- and early fifth-century Roman grammarian; most probably his Institutiones grammaticae or ‘Grammatical Foundations’. Beinecke, Marston MS.67, from Beauvais Cathedral, must be a copy of this lost manuscript made half a century after Roscelinus' gift.

Macrobium
Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, early fifth century Roman scholar; either his Commentary on Cicero, Somnium Scipionis or the Saturnalia, or just conceivably given Roscelinus’ interest in grammar, the now lost De differentiis et societatibus graeci latinique verbi, ‘On the differences and similarities of the Greek and Latin verb’.

Aristmethicam
most probably Boethius (c.480-524/5), De Arithmetica.

Dialecticam.
most probably Augustine, De Dialectica.

Rethoricam, de inventione
Cicero (106-43 BC.); De inventione, his youthful treatise on rhetoric, probably with its common companion, the Ad Herennium, which was attributed to Cicero in the Middle Ages.

Boetium de consolatione
Boethius (c.480-524/5); his philosophical magnum opus composed while in prison and awaiting execution.

Virgilium
Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC.), the Roman poet; probably all or part of his Eclogues, Georgics and the Aenied.

Oratium
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 BC.), the Roman poet; probably his Ars Poetica and perhaps his Satires and Epistles.

Juvenalem
Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, the late first- and early second-century Roman poet; doubtless his Satires.

Ovidium metamophoseon
Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC.-17/18 AD.); his Metamorphoses.

Statium Thebaidos
Publius Papinius Statius (c.45-c. 96 AD.); his epic poem the Thebaid.

et troparium

A personal collection of Classical literature such as this was rare at any point in the Middle Ages, and was nearly without parallel in the eleventh or twelfth century. It is perhaps equalled only by the tenth-century booklist of Wincerus, in Berne, cod.433 (Becker, Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui, 1973, no.45, pp.131-2), the eleventh-century list of Bernardus in Vatican, Palat. MS.828 (ibid. no.54, pp.138-9), that of Reginfridus whose books were left to Tegernsee Abbey in the eleventh century (ibid. no.57, pp.142-3) and Abbot Frowinus of Engelberg (after 1175; ibid. no.103, p.223). Such lists are among our most important witnesses to the survival of the Latin Classics in the Middle Ages, and their continued use by medieval scholars.

Moreover, Roscelinus Grammaticus has commonly been identified as Roscelin of Compiègne (c.1050-c.1121), the intellectual adversary of Anselm of Bec and tutor to the great Peter Abelard. He was nearly excommunicated and stoned at the Council of Soissons in 1092, and fled to England. There he attacked the doctrines of Anselm, was forced to flee again to Rome, and was reconciled to the Church. He returned to France, teaching at Tours and Loches, where he tutored the young Abelard. The two did not get on well, and we know of Roscelin of Compiègne’s lost works primarily now through Abelard’s criticisms of them and a single ascerbic letter from the tutor to his former pupil, cruelly alluding to Abelard's mutilation at the hands of his students. If correct, then the list here is of the greatest historical importance as a record of the books used by Abelard himself as a student. It should be noted that Abelard was familiar with almost all the works in this list, citing Priscian and Ovid in his Historia calamitatum, and Macrobius' Saturnalia, Cicero's rhetorical works and the works of Virgil and Horace in his letters to Heloise.

This list takes us to the very dawn of modern scientific thought and university education in Europe. Roscelinus was a grammaticus, a type of teacher new to the eleventh century, a secular cleric free to reject traditional teaching methodologies, and to take his services wherever they were in demand. He was among the very first of the itinerant scholastic theologians, and doubtless provided Abelard with a role model for his own career. Such teachers separated themselves from the traditional monastic schools and their teachings, and focused instead on the rediscovered works of Aristotle, and the use of empiricism to support Christian doctrines through reason and logic. In doing so, they laid the foundations of modern scientific thought, and redrew the template of the European universities.

Few booklists have ever come to the market. None of the same antiquity and historical importance as the present one has apparently been offered since records began, and it seems inconceivable that any similar will ever appear again. Sir Thomas Phillipps acquired three: a twelfth-century booklist from Corbie (his MS.1865); a twelfth-century copy of Jerome, In Vitas Patrum, with a list of the books of Santa Maria De Campis (his MS.7087); and the Rental of the Abbey De Valle-Yournai, with a list for the Abbey of St. Amand, dated 1461 (his MS.3532). The first two were bought by the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin in 1887, and the third passed soon after to the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels. There are two from medieval Europe in the Schøyen collection: MSS.1632 (a fifteenth-century list of books and plate from East Dereham, Norfolk: cf. Norfolk Archaeology 42 (1996), pp.332-39); and 1397 (an early sixteenth-century list of books in the Priory of St. Sebastian, Marostica). Quaritch offered a thirteenth-century Bible from Waltham Abbey with a booklist on fol.157r in their Cat.463 (1932), no.638.