Livre des simples médecines, in French

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1 volume On paper and parchment, the external bifolium of quires 1-27 being on parchment; watermarks: 1. Fruit, grape, without additional motif, with stem consisting of one line with noose (height c. 73 mm; width 44 mm; distance between chainlines 43 mm), found in quires 1-27 (folios 1-304), similar to Piccard no. 128911 (Nurnberg, 1447), and Briquet no. 13040, the latter comprising a group of watermarks of similar design produced in Northern Italy, France, Switzerland and Southern Germany between 1430 and 1503 (Moorat - possibly arbitrarily - identified the present watermark as a variant dated Bourg, 1464 within this group: see Catalogue of Western Manuscripts ..., vol. 1, p. 483, followed by Baumann, Das Erbario carrarese ... (cited above), p. 114); 2. Monogram 'DP' in gothic style (height 94 mm; width 29 mm; distance between chainlines 41 mm) found in quire 28 (folios 306-316), similar but not identical to Piccard no. 30815 (Bruges, 1446), but see also Briquet no. 9744 for a group of watermarks of similar design produced in France and Flanders between 1433 and 1468 (formerly identified by Moorat as a variant to Briquet nos 9744 (Cluny, 1456) or 9771 (Chaussin, 1451): see Catalogue of Western Manuscripts ?, vol. 1, p. 483).316 leaves, plus single modern paper flyleaves and conjoint pastedowns at the beginning and the end; folios 315 and 316 blank; old foliation 'i-cclxiii' in light brown ink in upper right corner of rectos on folios 1-263, late 15th century; old foliation 'iiclxiiii-iiclxx[iii]' in light brown ink in upper right corner of rectos on folios 294-298 and 306-310, late 15th or early 16th century; modern foliation '264-316' in pencil in lower right corner of rectos on folios 264-316. 277 x 197 mm; the texts shows different layouts: a) folios 1r-263v, Livre des simples medecines: written space c. 208/212 x 143/145 mm, inconsistent ruling of single vertical and horizontal bounders in metal point for double columns to the page, no ruling for the horizontal written lines, 34/41 lines (above upper horizontal bounder) to the column; b) folios 264r-293v: written space c. 205 x 140 mm, ruling of single vertical bounders and horizontal bounders in metal point (grey line) for double columns to the page, no ruling for the horizontal written lines, 37/42 written lines (above upper horizontal bounder) to the column; c) folios 294r-314r, additional recipes written by a number of slightly later hands in long lines with different layouts mostly without ruling.Collation: 18, 2-2212, 2310 (formed of folios 259-263 and 294-298, as testified by the half watermarks on folios 261 and 262 finding their other half on folios 295 and 296), 24-2512, 2612-6 (folios 288-293; wanting vii-xii), 276, one parchment singleton (i.e. fol. 305, used as the lower pastedown of an earlier binding), 2812-1 (wanting xii); catchwords at centre of the lower margin on the verso of the last leaf in quires 1-22 and 24-25; trace of quire signatures 'i-vi' in quires 1-23 (see signatures in lower right corner of folios 34 and 37-38 in quire 4); trace of a new set of signatures 'ai-[avi]' in lower right corner of first leaf of quire 24 (f. 264r); signatures 'i-vi' in different style in brown ink in lower right corner of leaves in the first half of quires 25-26.There is evidence that the original ordering of the quires has been disturbed at an unknown date and they were originally bound as follows: quires 1-23 (folios 1-263, 294-298), 28 (folios 306-316), 24-27 (folios 264-304). This is suggested by the pattern of old foliation in quires 1-23 and 28 - with foliation 'i-cclxiii' on folios 1-263 (late 15th century) continued as 'iiclxiiii-iiclxx[iii]' on folios 294-298 and 306-310 (late 15th or early 16th century) - , by the collation of quire 23 (formed of folios 259-263 + 294-298), and by the evidence that f. 305 (a singleton) was used as the lower pastedown in a previous binding.Secundo folio: manieres il en sont.folios 1r-293v, written in an accomplished French cursive Gothic script (Northern Semihybrida or Libraria/Currens) in black and brown ink possibly by a professional scribe, using two forms for minuscule 'r' - the round-shaped Textualis, used also at the beginning of words, and a variant of the two-stroke Textualis form made in one counter-clockwise stroke: see A. Derolez, The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 149, Northern France (French Flanders or Picardy), c. 1470.Decorated in Northern France (French Flanders or Picardy), c. 1470 (written communication by Fran?ois Avril); previously attributed to Burgundy: see Baumann, Das Erbario carrarese?, p. 114, fig. 87b; W. Blunt and S. Raphael, The Illustrated Herbal, 2nd ed. (London: Frances Lincoln, 1994), p. 81; M. Collins, Medieval Herbals ?, p. 282, pl. XXX.Illuminated opening on f. 1r, with full border, two central vignettes, representing a physician in his study inspecting a urine flask and the arms and crest of the manuscript's patron, unidentified, his arms and motto 'Loue soit dieu' also in bas-de-page within the foliate decoration of the border.Column-wide and 10-18 lines high coloured images of the simples (plants, animals, minerals or other substances), mostly preceding the descriptions but occasionally within their text, as follows: 1. 11 framed vignettes depicting a king (f. 5r), men gathering plants or mining minerals (folios 4r, 7r, 10r, 21v, 30v, 52r, 166r, 223v), a turreted town (f. 22r) and a landscape with liverworts (f. 91v); 2. unframed images of plants (401 images throughout, plus three left unfinished on folios 75v, 86v, 217r), of men gathering, mining or producing simples (folios 29r, 63v, 249r, 252v), of animals such as fish (f. 17v), spiders, snakes and dogs (individually passim, and all together in the lower margin of f. 39r), shells (folios 43r, 159r), corals (f. 60r), a stag (f. 187r), an elephant (f. 228r), lizards (f. 228v) and a beehive (f. 165r), mummies in their sepulchre (f. 159v), and objects, such as barrels (f. 10r), furnaces (f. 20r), cauldrons (folios 48r, 92r), a turret (f. 73v), a fireplace (f. 110v) and a dash of blue (lapis lazuli?, f. 136r); 37 chapters are left without illustration.The illustration of plants follows in the tradition of British Library, Egerton MS. 747. It was carried by at least two artists, the first more accomplished and sophisticated in the rendering of leaves and colours (mostly on folios 2r-137r, but also on folios 144r and 218r), the second less competent and precise with flat and unshaded colouring (folios 137r-259v): see Baumann, Das Erbario carrarese?, p. 114; M. Collins, Medieval Herbals ?, p. 298 and n. 174, pl. XXX.Chapter initials (2-3 lines high) and paragraph marks in alternating red and blue on folios 1r-263v; rubrics and paragraph marks in red, but dedicated spaces for initials (2-3 lines high) left blank on folios 264r-287v; rubrics in red with dedicated spaces for 2-line initials left blank, first words in glossary in red ink with no initial but with dedicated space and small red guide-letter at their left, and paragraph marks in alternating red and blue on folios 288r-293v.Additional recipes in Latin and French written in cursive Gothic hands of various degrees of proficiency and cursivity by a number of different contributors on folios 294r-305r, possibly Eastern France (Bourgogne-Franche-Comt?, Cluny?), late 15th and early 16th century.Several annotations and marginalia by different readers, throughout; four long marginal additions as follows: 1. in correspondence to the chapter on 'Ieineure' [i.e. Iuniperus] written in light brown ink by a very cursive hand in the lower margin of folios 130v-131r; 2. in correspondence to the chapter on 'Melisse' [i.e. Melissa] entitled 'Aultre Recepte de la melisse' written in dark brown ink in accomplished cursive bookhand in the lower margin of folios 171v-172r; 3. in correspondence to the chapter on 'Raue' [i.e. Rapa or Turnip] written in dark brown ink in a cursive Gothic hand in the lower margin of folio 220r; 4. following the end of the Livre des simples m?decines on folio 261r and written in brown ink by a highly cursive hand; all datable to the late 15th and early 16th century, and possibly Eastern France (Bourgogne-Franche-Comt?, Cluny?); incorrect numbering of chapters as '1-458' by a later reader, late 16th or early 17th century.Binding: Half brown calf and decorated paper over pasteboards, with gilt title and tooling on spine compartments, spine restored, with bookblock edges sprinkled red, France [?], late 18th or early 19th century.

Livre des simples médecines, in French

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