Now is the time to get your very own medieval edition of the Roman de la Rose
On The 18th of November Fraysse & Associés will auction off a French manuscript from 1362 containing the Roman de la Rose.
The 14th century manuscript of the Roman de la Rose in 4o contains 142 folios with 19 miniatures by Richard et Jeanne de Montbaston. The miniatures are mainly distributed in the first part.
The first miniature is divided into four parts: the first shows the author asleep on a short bed, dreaming. The second shows a monk sitting on a bed, the third a man in a garden with trees and birds, and the fourth a monk and a woman chatting at the foot of the fortified tower. All these miniatures are framed with a border picturing foliage and medallions with portraits.
The eighteen other miniatures (65 x 57 mm) illustrate the novel. Orange and green colours dominate, but accentuated by gold, blue and pink. The last one shows Jehan de Meung writing his book. The text is interspersed with initials in gold and bright blue.
At the beginning is a long list of former owners and at the end is a contemporary poem by Jehan Adam (?).
Traces of smudge from fingers and a few stains of water may be found at the back. It was bound in green Morocco in the 18th century.
Richard de Montbaston is a well-known copyist, who owned an atelier in Paris in the 14th century. His wife, Jeanne de Montbaston, worked as illuminator in the workshop. Together, they are known for dozens of manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose. They lived in Rue Neuve Notre-Dame before 1338 – 1353, when he died. She inherited the workshop. Apparently – if the dating of the manuscript is correct – it belong to the period after his death, when she managed the workshop on her own.
The manuscript is offered for a price between €100.000 – 150.000.
The manuscript is part of collection of 31 medieval illuminated manuscripts and paintings from the 13th to the beginning of the 16th century, which are put up for sale in November at Drouet. Public inspection at the Hotel d’Evreux (75001 Paris 19 place Venôme) on the 16.11.2015 -17.11.2015. The Catalogue is available for perusal here.
On sale is also a Latin bible from 1260 with 129 illuminated and initials, another bible from ca. 1270 (also illuminated), a psalter from ca. 1280, a book of hours from ca. 1420 from Flanders, with 13 large miniatures painted by the Golden Master of Rinceaux, two books of Hours from Rouen from ca. 1430, a breviary from Lombardy (1457), another Book of Hours from Paris ca. 1460 and a number of other – very spectacular – manuscripts.
The sale is part of a public auction and buyers are warned that the sale is without warranty of any kind
SEE MORE
De la Rose: texte, image, fortune
(About the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston).
Catherine Bel, Herman Braet
Peeters Publishers, 2006
ISBN: 9789042916852
CONTACT:
Fraysse & Associés
E-mail: contact@fraysse.net
Tel. : (+) 01 53 45 92 10