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).
Litera batarda
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
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.
Bruges
Dated February 20, 1489 CE
book
Non-original Binding
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.
The primary language in this manuscript is French. The secondary language of this manuscript is Latin.
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
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Bruges
Dated February 20, 1489 CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is French. The secondary language of this manuscript is Latin.
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
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
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).
Litera batarda
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
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.
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