YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 226 Flanders, 1476
Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Fr. tr. Jean Duchesne
1. ff. 1r-10r [Table of contents:] Cy commence la table de ce
present volume...Et premiers. Le prologue de translateur. Prologue
general du premier chappitre I...La conclusion du translateur de ce
present volume...lxx^^e. Cy prent fin la table de tout ce present
volume. f. 10v blank
2. ff. 11r-261v Le prologue du translateur des commentaires de Julle
cesar. Tres hault tres puissant tres excellent victorieux et christien
prince Mon tres redoubte seigneur Charles...Atribuant les biens auz
composeurs non pas a lindigne escripuain qui de tel los se cognoist non
coulpable. Explicit. Cy prent le x^^e darrenier livre des commentaires
de cesar fin [partly erased] translatez en la ville de lille, lan mil
CCCCxxiii^^e par Jehan du chesne humble et indigne. Copie a loriginal
par hellin de burchgraue, a la Requeste de honnourable homme et saige
jaques donche, conseillier de mon tres redoubte seigneur, monseigneur
le duc de bourgogne, son Watregraue et moermaist re de flandres et
maistre de la chambre aux deniers de madame la duchesse de bourgogne et
cetera en lan mil iiij^^e soixante seize.
G. Doutrepont, La litterature francaise a la cour des ducs de
Bourgogne (Paris, 1909) 180; R. Bossuat, "Traductions francaises des
Commentaires de Cesar a la fin du XV^^e siecle," Bibliotheque
d'humanisme et Renaissance, v. 3 (Paris, 1943) pp. 253-373; R. H.
Lucas, "Medieval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500,"
Speculum p. 45 (1970) p. 235.
Paper, with parchment bifolios interspersed, ff. ii (paper) + 261
(watermarks similar to Briquet Armoires: Trois fleurs de lis 1741) + ii
(paper) 369 x 265 (ca. 256 x 190) mm., trimmed. Written in 2 columns,
35 lines; single bounding lines. Ruled in pale lavender ink; prickings
in outer margin of f. 214 (parchment).
I^^10, II-V^^12 (outer bifolios are parchment);ff. 59-239 too
tightly bound to be collated; ff. 240-49^^10, 250-261^^12 (6-7
parchment). The description of the construction given in the Exhibition
Catalogue, no. 75, is inaccurate.
Written in neat batarde script by Hellin de Burchgrave (see
contents for colophon, f. 261v).
The compositional types of the miniatures recall the work of
Loyset Liedet; the style that of the "Vrelant" circle. According to J.
Marrow, another manuscript by the same artists is a copy of Jean
Mansel's La Fleur des Histoires in Brussels, Bibl. Roy., MS IV 669 (see
Cinq annees d'acquisitions, 1969-1973 [Brussels: Bibliotheque Royale,
1975], pp. 93-99, with 2 illus.) One might also suggest comparisons
with miniatures from the circle of the Master of Louis de Bruges
(Exhibition Catalogue, no. 75, p. 255.). The thirteen miniatures in the
Beinecke codex closely resemble compositions found in the cycle of
twenty-three miniatures in London, B. L. Royal 16 G. VIII, ca. 1470
(see G. Keach, "Two Flemish Manuscripts of Caesar's Commentaries," M.A.
Thesis, Yale University, 1969).
Ten half-page miniatures, each in an arched frame composed of two
thin bands, gold and red highlighted with white, edged in black, the
arch with tiny cusps; beneath, initials, 6-, 4-, or 3-line, blue or
blue and red with white highlights on a gold ground of irregular shape
conforming to the letter, edged in black, with serifs protruding into
the left margin; filled with green and/or red and crimson trilobe
leaves on curling stems with white and/or yellow highlights, or with a
blue, green, crimson, and gold diapered ground with white highlights.
These miniatures are as follows: f. 11r (Prologue) Presentation of the
work to Charles, Duke of Burgundy; f. 67r (Bk. 2) The Three Parts of
Gaul and the Battle near the Saone; f. 89r (Bk. 3) The Romans battle
the Nervii; f. 102r (Bk. 4) Roman Ships on the Marne and the Ruse of
Titurius Sabinus against the Venelli; f. 113v (Bk. 5) Caesar Crossing
the Rhine; f. 127r (Bk. 6) The Arrival of the Roman Fleet in Britain;
f. 147r (Bk. 7) Gaius Trebonius leads the Attack outside Aduatuca; f.
163r (Bk. 8) The Surrender of Alesia and the Flight of the Mandubii; f.
197r (Bk. 9) The Surrender of the Aquitanians; f. 214r (beginning of
Bk. 10) Caesar's Embarkation for Thessaly. Three smaller miniatures,
12- or 14-line, occasionally cut off at the upper edge so as to fill
only part of a line of text; frames rectilinear, otherwise identical to
those described above: f. 25r (Bk. 1) The Birth of Caesar; f. 218r (Bk.
10, ch. 6) Caesar Crossing the Rubicon; f. 256r (Bk. 10, ch. 68) The
Assassination of Caesar. Beneath, 2-line initials, blue, with white
highlights, filled with trilobe leaves, as above, once (f. 25r) with
one leaf of spiky acanthus added, and once (f. 256r) with a pink ground
with gold filigree. There is a blank space on f. 27r for another
miniature of this type. Other decoration consists of 2-line
calligraphic initials, paragraph marks, line fillers (spirals and
heraldic dragons), page and chapter headings, all executed in red. The
first one or two lines of some books (as well as occasional lines
within the text) are underlined in red.
A few folios have tears in the margins.
Binding: s. xviii. Spattered and gilt edges. Red goatskin, gold-
tooled, with the arms of Eugene of Savoy on cover and his monogram on
spine.
Written for Jacques Donche, counselor of Charles the Bold of
Burgundy K. G. Van Acker, "Jacob Donche, Raadsheer Bij de Raad van
Vlaanderen, Baljum van Dendermonde," Handelingen der Maatschappij voor
Geschiednisen Oudheidkunde te Gent, Nieuwe Reeks 36 (1982) pp. 93, note
19; 94, 95; (J. Bartier, Legistes et gens de finances au XV^^e siecle;
les conseillers des ducs de Bourgogne...[Brussels, 1955] p. 325) by
Hellin de Burchgrave in 1476 (colophon on f. 261v; Colophons, v. 2, p.
341, no. 6291). Another manuscript owned by Donche is in the library of
Claremont Colleges (California), Denison Library, MS Kirby 1 (we thank
J. Marrow for this information). The decoration suggests that the Yale
copy was made in Bruges. Belonged to Prince Eugene of Savoy 1663-1736/
(arms and monogram on binding). Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 4739, tag on
spine; P. Durrieu, "Les manuscrits a peintures de la bibliotheque de
Sir Thomas Phillipps a Cheltenham," Bibliotheque de l'ecole des
Chartes 50 [1889] 404); Phillipps sale (Sotheby's, 1 July 1946, no.
25). Acquired from Dudley M. Colman through C. A. Stonehill in 1954 as a
gift of the Yale Library Associates.
secundo folio: Coment cesar se prepara
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 43, no. 226.
Exhibition Catalogue, p. 255, no. 75.
"Eight Medieval Manuscripts," Gazette 29 (1955) pp. 99, 107, 110
(with illustration of f. 113v facing p. 115).
Exhib. cat. The Waning Middle Ages (J. L. Schrader, The University
of Kansas Museum of Art, 1969) pp. 23-24, no. 20.
Barbara A. Shailor