Lot 4

Ambroise, L'Estoire de la Guerre Sainte, in French, fragment of a decorated manuscript on vellum

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

a fragment, the upper part of a leaf bisected horizontally, 163mm. by 135mm., double column, 22 lines in black ink in an accomplished yet somewhat informal early Gothic bookhand, two large 5-line simple initials on recto in alternate terracotta-red and blue, recovered from a binding and hence with loss to the beginnings of a few lines in column 1 on recto and initial letters of lines in column 1 of verso and last letters of 2 lines of column 2 of verso, last 5 lines of each side separated from main body of fragment by a horizontal split part way across leaf where the fragment was folded around first gathering of book it was subsequently bound around, else in good condition and fully legible on both sides of leaf

Catalogue Note

The earliest of only three manuscript witnesses to the oldest French work to describe contemporary historical events, namely Richard the Lionheart's part in the Third Crusade (1190-92)

This fragment is hitherto unrecorded and is the only known manuscript of the text still in private hands. The only complete manuscript of the text is Vatican, Codex Regin. 1659 from the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden (England, second half of thirteenth century), which was edited by Gaston Paris in 1897 and more recently re-edited and translated by M. Ailes and M. Barber in 2003. That manuscript is replete with errors, and the various editors have had to make numerous amendments to the text in the production of their editions, Paris concluding that it must have been blindly copied by a scribe with little or no knowledge of the text in front of him. In 1986, Richard Linenthal of Bernard Quaritch Ltd discovered another fragment: a single leaf recovered from a binding and much discoloured and damaged on the verso, which is now Tokyo, Keio University MS. 170X.9.11 (England, second half of the thirteenth century; identified and published by M.L. Colker, "A Newly Discovered Manuscript Leaf of Ambroise's L'Estoire de la Guerre Sainte", Revue D'Histoire des Textes 22, 1992, pp. 159-67 & Hidechi Matsubara, "On Ambroise, The History of the Holy War", Juku: Keio University Newsletter for Students 3, 1987, in Japanese). The present leaf recently came to light in a nineteenth-century book purchased for a few pounds, in which it had been used as a bookmark.

The author of the text, who names himself as Ambroise (Paris, line 171: Ambroise dit, qui fist cest livre and elsewhere in lines 2401, 3226, 3734, 4560, 4828 & 6012), narrates the events as an eye-witness, and it has long been concluded that he was in the retinue of King Richard the Lionheart (here li roi Rich[ard], recto: column 1, 18th line & column 2, 5^th line; and li rois dengletere, column 2, 12^th line). Ailes and Barber have recently identified him with the cleric 'Ambrosius' in the accounts of King John, who was paid for singing at the coronation of John's queen soon after their marriage in 1200. His poem is a laudatory work about Richard's exploits in the Third Crusade, composed in 12,351 lines of vernacular rhyming octosyllabic verse. Since its publication, modern scholars have heralded the text as a crucial milestone in French literature, as the first extant example of a work which seeks to record contemporary historical events; for Hubert and La Monte (The Crusade of Richard Lionheart, 1941) it is "almost unique, occupying a transitional position between the fiction of the heroic chansons de geste and the prose narratives of men such as Villehardouin and Joinville". In addition, the work is of the utmost historical importance for Richard's part in the Third Crusade. For A. Molinier the poem was "un monument historique de premier ordre" (Les sources de l'histoire de France des origines aux guerres d'Italie, 1903, III, p. 35), to H.E. Mayer it is "eine unschätzbare Quelle historischer Information" (Das Itinerarium peregrinorum: Eine zeitgenössiche englishche Chronik zum dritten Kreuzzug, MGH: Schriften, 1962, p. 108), and to Hubert and La Monte it is "unique and unexcelled", providing information more accurately than the other sources, and offering a window into the mind and spirit of the crusaders.

The present fragment contains 88 lines which narrate Richard's actions in Sicily. That on the recto (lines 1041-62 & 1078-99) begins immediately after Richard's sack and capture of Messina in 1190, and his distribution of his own wealth among disgruntled Crusaders after they waited there all summer (Li chevalier qui en leste..., beginning the 13^th line of column 1 here). The next column narrates the great feast of Christmas day in that year (Le ior de la Nativitie ..., 4^th line of column 2) in the vast hall at Mategrifon built by Richard, and over which he presided with King Philip Augustus of France. After a break of 15 lines the text continues on the verso (lines 1115-31 & 1152-73) immediately after Philip and his forces have left Sicily for Acre. Richard is preparing to follow when his mother arrives with his bride (La pucelle ..., 6^th line, second column here). Keeping his bride with him, he sent his mother home to rule in his stead, with the faithful Walter, archbishop of Rouen (le arcevesque de ruen ... Gauter, 10^th and 11^th lines here) and Gilbert of Vascueil (Gilebert de gascuil, 15^th line here), who as Ambroise notes in an aside, would later betray Richard and surrender Gisors to the French in 1193 (Cil qui Gisorz prendre laissa, line 16 here). The text here ends with Richard departing for Acre with his barons and his bride.