YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 204 France, s. XV^^3/4
Frere Laurent, Somme le Roi
1. ff. 1r-5v [Table of contents:] Ci commence le mirroir du monde Et
premierement des .x. commandemens de la loy, dont les trois premiers
nous ordennent a dieu et les aultres vij. a noz proismes I...De
sobriete .CC. Des degrez sobriete CC et .I.
2. ff. 6r-312r Cy commence le mirroir du monde...Li premiers
commandement que dieux commanda si est teulz. Tu nauras mie diuers
dieux...La ou est par durable vie Amen. Amen, chascun en dit. Ung frere
Iacobin qui cest liure ordonna Pour le grant Roy Phellipe...Riens ny a
contenu. Ne soit verite pure. Explicit. [in a later hand: "1263. Vide
Baring Tab. 17"; added below in the original hand:] Cy fait des vices
la somme/...Que. Ia. sa mere ne sendueille. [f. 312v ruled, but blank;
contemporary inscription on f. 313r:] Ce liure fut a feu Madame agnes
de Bourgoigne en son viuant duchesse de bourbonn Et dauuergne. ff.
313v-315v blank
E. Brayer, "Contenu, structure et combinaisons du 'Miroir du
Monde' et de la 'Somme le Roi'," Romania 79 (1958) pp. 1-38, 433-70;
the Beinecke codex appears to follow most closely "Redaction X" (pp.
467-68).
Paper (watermarks: ff. ii-5, Briquet Armoiries 1876; ff. 6-315,
similar to Briquet Lettre P 8527), ff. i (paper) + 316 (foliated ii, 1-
315, in lower right corner; earlier pagination in upper left) + i
(paper), 277 x 207 (192 x 132) mm. Written in 25 long lines, single
vertical, single upper horizontal, single or double lower horizontal
bounding lines, all full across. Folios 1-5 ruled in lead; the
remainder in violet ink. Remains of prickings along outer edge.
I^^6 (ff. ii, 1-5); the codex seems to be composed of gatherings of
ten (sometimes of eight), but it is too closely bound to be certain.
Catchwords along inner ruling perpendicular to text (Scribe 2 only).
Written by two scribes in batarde script. Scribe 1: ff. 1r-100v,
131r-217v; Scribe 2: ff. 101r-130v, 217v-312r, 313r.
At the beginning of each book there are spaces (9 to 13 lines)
left blank for miniatures. 4- to 2-line initials for each book and for
a few chapters, gold against blue and red grounds with silver or white
filigree, with coarse gold ivy and black hair-spray. 2-line initials in
blue or red for chapters; 1-line initials, blue or red, in table of
contents. All initials with guide-letters. Chapter numbers and
paragraph marks in red. Rubrics throughout.
Binding: s. xviii. Edges red. Brown calf, spine gold-tooled, with
a red label: "Miroir du Monde M. S. S. Antiq."
Written in Northern France ca. 1470 presumably for Agnes of
Burgundy, Duchess of Bourbon, who died at Moulins-sur-Allier in 1476
(see art. 2). Unidentified shelf-mark on f. 1r: "N. 39. L. 2";
ownership inscription at top of same folio struck out. Note concerning
the author and text in an unidentified hand (s. xix) on f. 315r (see
art. 2). In the sale of the bookdealer W. J. Leighton (Sotheby's, 27
October 1919, no. 2428). Presented by Mrs. Charles A. Stonehill and
Robert J. Barry in memory of Charles A. Stonehill in 1955.
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 40, no. 204.
T. E. Marston, "Le Miroir du Monde," Gazette 30 (1956) pp. 153-54.
Barbara A. Shailor