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← search Gossouin of Metz W.199
Manuscript Overview
References
Bindings & Oddities

Abstract

This manuscript, which is dated in a colophon to 1489, is one of the three known fifteenth-century copies of a rare vernacular cosmography originally composed in verse under the title "Image du Monde" (The Mirror of the World) in Lorraine dialect ca. 1245-46. The manuscript provides descriptions of the seven liberal arts along with astronomical theories, especially about the earth, the creatures that inhabit it, and its movements within the universe. Each one of the liberal arts is illustrated with a small miniature in grisaille, and extraordinary geometric astronomical diagrams recur throughout the book. The importance of W.199 is both textual and pictorial. Illuminated by followers of Willem Vrelant, active in Bruges 1454-1481, the manuscript reveals affinity of format and content with a 1464 copy of the Mirror of the World made in Bruges (London, British Library, Royal 19 A.IX).

Hand note

Litera batarda

Contributors

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Valle, Chiara

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Contributor: Emery, Doug

Contributor: Herbold, Rebekah

Contributor: Noel, William

Contributor: Schuele, Allyson

Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel

Contributor: Toth, Michael B.

Contributor: Valle, Chiara

Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber

Conservator: Owen, Linda

Bibliography

Delisle, Léopold. Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V. Vol. 2. Paris: H. Champion, 1907; p. 302, cat. no. 141.


De Ricci, S. and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 845, cat. no. 504.


Francis, Winthrop Nelson. The Books of Vices and Virtues. EETS. London: Early English Text Society, 1942; p. xx (ref. to 504, de Ricci number).


Miner, Dorothy. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Exhibition Catalogue. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949; cat. no. 134.


Meyers, Bernard Samuel. Encyclopedia of the Art World, vol. 10. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959; p. cxi.


Destombes, Marcel. Mappemondes A.D. 1200-1500. Monumenta cartographica vetustoris aevi A.D. 1. Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1964; p. 143: 46.1.


McCulloch, F. "L'éale et la centicore: Deux bêtes fabuleuses." In Mélanges offerts à René Crozet. Edited by P. Gallais and Y.-J Riou. Vol. 2. Poitiers: Société d'études médiévales, 1965; p. 1168 (n. 4).


Diringer, David. The Illuminated Book: Its History and Production. London: Faber and Faber, 1967; p. 454 (pl. vii-35b).


Bowles, Edmund A. "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery." Quarterly Journal of the Muisc Library Association 32, no. 4 (1976): 719-726; pp. 720-722, 724.


Evans, Michael. "Allegorical Women and Practical Men: The Iconography of the Artes Reconsidered." In Medieval Women. Edited by Derek Baker. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1978; pp. 315, 318 (n. 76).


Howard, Donald R. Writers and Pilgrims: Medieval Pilgrimage Narratives and Their Posterity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980; frontispiece illustration (f. 42).


National Endowment for the Humanities. Annual Report. Washington D.C., 1984; p. 6 (illus. of f. 94v).


Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, pt. 2. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997; pp. 438-447, cat. no. 283.


Nevins, Teresa. "Image du Monde." In Medieval Mastery: Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bold (800-1475). Edited by William Noel and Lee Preedy. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002; pp. 324-325, cat. no. 91.


Newman, Paul B. Growing Up in the Middle Ages. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2007; pp. 116 (fig. 27), 131 (as fig. 27).


Roux, Brigitte. Mondes en miniatures: L'iconographie du Livre du trésor de Brunetto Latini. Paris: Libraire Droz, 2009; p. 266.


These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.

Upper board outside

Back flyleaf iii bookmark v

Lower board outside

Spine

Fore-edge

Head

Tail

Keywords
Flemish
Flanders
15th century
Astrology
Cosmology
Grammar
Logic
Science
Treatise
Drawing
Grisaille
Illustration
Miniature

Origin Place

Bruges

Date

Dated February 20, 1489 CE

Form

book

Binding

Non-original Binding

Binding Description

Bound in Paris by León Gruel in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century with red morocco. Foliate motifs in blind on sides and spine. On the spine in blind: "Le miroire / Du Monde" "M.S. 1489" at tail-edge above binder's name "GRUEL"; crimson silk ribbon marker.

Language

The primary language in this manuscript is French. The secondary language of this manuscript is Latin.

Provenance

Made in Bruges, dated "14.89. 20. februarii" in colophon on fol. 134r

Unknown private collection, Paris, 1894

Léon Gruel and Edmond Engelmann collection, Paris, late nineteenth to early twentieth century; their bookplate on inside upper board, inscribed "No. 76"

Henry Walters, Baltimore, acquired from Gruel between 1900 and 1931

Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

← search Gossouin of Metz W.199

Origin Place

Bruges

Date

Dated February 20, 1489 CE

Form

book

Language

The primary language in this manuscript is French. The secondary language of this manuscript is Latin.

Provenance

Made in Bruges, dated "14.89. 20. februarii" in colophon on fol. 134r

Unknown private collection, Paris, 1894

Léon Gruel and Edmond Engelmann collection, Paris, late nineteenth to early twentieth century; their bookplate on inside upper board, inscribed "No. 76"

Henry Walters, Baltimore, acquired from Gruel between 1900 and 1931

Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

Manuscript Overview

Abstract

This manuscript, which is dated in a colophon to 1489, is one of the three known fifteenth-century copies of a rare vernacular cosmography originally composed in verse under the title "Image du Monde" (The Mirror of the World) in Lorraine dialect ca. 1245-46. The manuscript provides descriptions of the seven liberal arts along with astronomical theories, especially about the earth, the creatures that inhabit it, and its movements within the universe. Each one of the liberal arts is illustrated with a small miniature in grisaille, and extraordinary geometric astronomical diagrams recur throughout the book. The importance of W.199 is both textual and pictorial. Illuminated by followers of Willem Vrelant, active in Bruges 1454-1481, the manuscript reveals affinity of format and content with a 1464 copy of the Mirror of the World made in Bruges (London, British Library, Royal 19 A.IX).

Hand note

Litera batarda

References

Contributors

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Valle, Chiara

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Contributor: Emery, Doug

Contributor: Herbold, Rebekah

Contributor: Noel, William

Contributor: Schuele, Allyson

Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel

Contributor: Toth, Michael B.

Contributor: Valle, Chiara

Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber

Conservator: Owen, Linda

Bibliography

Delisle, Léopold. Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V. Vol. 2. Paris: H. Champion, 1907; p. 302, cat. no. 141.


De Ricci, S. and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 845, cat. no. 504.


Francis, Winthrop Nelson. The Books of Vices and Virtues. EETS. London: Early English Text Society, 1942; p. xx (ref. to 504, de Ricci number).


Miner, Dorothy. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Exhibition Catalogue. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949; cat. no. 134.


Meyers, Bernard Samuel. Encyclopedia of the Art World, vol. 10. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959; p. cxi.


Destombes, Marcel. Mappemondes A.D. 1200-1500. Monumenta cartographica vetustoris aevi A.D. 1. Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1964; p. 143: 46.1.


McCulloch, F. "L'éale et la centicore: Deux bêtes fabuleuses." In Mélanges offerts à René Crozet. Edited by P. Gallais and Y.-J Riou. Vol. 2. Poitiers: Société d'études médiévales, 1965; p. 1168 (n. 4).


Diringer, David. The Illuminated Book: Its History and Production. London: Faber and Faber, 1967; p. 454 (pl. vii-35b).


Bowles, Edmund A. "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery." Quarterly Journal of the Muisc Library Association 32, no. 4 (1976): 719-726; pp. 720-722, 724.


Evans, Michael. "Allegorical Women and Practical Men: The Iconography of the Artes Reconsidered." In Medieval Women. Edited by Derek Baker. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1978; pp. 315, 318 (n. 76).


Howard, Donald R. Writers and Pilgrims: Medieval Pilgrimage Narratives and Their Posterity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980; frontispiece illustration (f. 42).


National Endowment for the Humanities. Annual Report. Washington D.C., 1984; p. 6 (illus. of f. 94v).


Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, pt. 2. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997; pp. 438-447, cat. no. 283.


Nevins, Teresa. "Image du Monde." In Medieval Mastery: Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bold (800-1475). Edited by William Noel and Lee Preedy. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002; pp. 324-325, cat. no. 91.


Newman, Paul B. Growing Up in the Middle Ages. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2007; pp. 116 (fig. 27), 131 (as fig. 27).


Roux, Brigitte. Mondes en miniatures: L'iconographie du Livre du trésor de Brunetto Latini. Paris: Libraire Droz, 2009; p. 266.


Bindings & Oddities

These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.

Upper board outside

Back flyleaf iii bookmark v

Lower board outside

Spine

Fore-edge

Head

Tail

Keywords
Flemish
Flanders
15th century
Astrology
Cosmology
Grammar
Logic
Science
Treatise
Drawing
Grisaille
Illustration
Miniature
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