Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, Trinity Hall, MS 12

De consolatione philosophiae

Contents

Introduction: This is an early fifteenth century translation of Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy in French. This copy had once belonged to a ‘noble damoyselle of Querqueville’ on the coast of the Manche. Written in double columns, each page is full of lively, if somewhat crudely executed, illustrations to the text. Interspersed throughout the story are numerous full page illustrations of scenes from the Holy Scriptures and of the Christian saints, including a number of images which tell the story of Christ’s Passion. In M.R. James’ opinion they were probably copied from a Psalter. Earthly suffering is the theme of most of the holy images in the manuscript. Depictions of the suffering of Christ and the ordeals of the saints were included in order to reinforce the central theme of Boethius’s work. The Consolation of Philosophy was written by Boethius while he was in prison in Pavia awaiting execution in 524 AD. Boethius had been known as an important scholar; apart from his many works, he was responsible for the very first translations of some of Aristotle into Latin, but this, his last work, caught the imagination and remained an enduring memorial to him. Bound in the same volume as the Consolation, are two other works, De la Regale du Monde, an unknown poem, and La Chastelaine de Vergy, a tragic story of love. Both are written and illustrated by the same hand. This manuscript was a gift from Robert Hare , with his name and the date 1551 at the top of the first page.

Language(s): fre

De consolatione philosophiae The consolation of philosophy Boethius, -524
La Chastelaine de vergi
La Regale du monde

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment and paper
Extent: ff. 146

Collation

a8 V., b16 (wants two : 6, 7, 8, 14 V., 2-6, 9-13 P.) c18 (1,9, 10, 18 V., 2-8, 11-17 P.) d18 (as c) e18 (as c) f22 (1, 11, 12, 22 V., rest P.) g24 (wants 9, 10 : 9 replaced by a leaf from quire b : outer and middle sheets V., rest P.) h26 (wants 25 blank: outer and middle sheets V., rest P.). One leaf of b is now bound after f.106: I find no trace of a lost leaf in the 1st half of b : but it must have had 16 leaves.

Layout

In double columns of 48 lines and 36 in the latter part of the volume

Decoration

The volume is very copiously illustrated, and in a very curious way. There are two sets of pictures : the one illustrates the text, the other consists of a series of full-page pictures (in nearly all cases) which are appropriate only to a religious book, and as I take it, must be copied from a Psalter. Psalters usually had a series of preliminary paintings illustrating the Life of Christ, and the principal Saints.

All these pictures are by the same hand. They are extremely roughly drawn and coloured, almost no gold is used. The originals were probably very fine.

History

Origin: 15th century ; France

Provenance and Acquisition

At the top of f.1 is: Roberti Hare, 1551.

On f.145v is:

Ce liure appartient a noble damoyselle mademoiselle de quiercheuille qui le trouuera cy luy Rende

and on 146 at top:

memoire que sur ce liure Jay preste (en bailie added) neuf solz *pad a *(?parisis).

Quiercheville may probably be Querqueville on the N. coast of the Dept of Manche.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description draws on James, M. R. (1907). A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Trinity Hall.

Bibliography

    Atkinson, J. Keith. ‘Miniatures as interpretation: Cambridge, Trinity Hall MS 12.’ Parergon, vol. 13 no. 2, 1996, pp. 1-20. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/pgn.1996.0013
    Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy (Penguin Books, 1999)
    Dwyer, Richard. Boethian Fictions: Narratives In the Medieval French Versions of the Consolatio Philosophiae. Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1976, pp. 27-29.
    Huot, Sylvia, “The Chastelaine de Vergi at the crossroads of courtly, moral and devotional literature”. In J. Tasker Grimbert and C. J. Chase (eds) Philologies old and new (New Jersey: Princeton, 2001), pp. 269-279.
    James, M. R. (1907). A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Trinity Hall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 14-32.

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