Beinecke MS 230                                                    Flanders, ca. 1485
Honore Bonet, L'Arbre des batailles, etc.

     1. ff. 1r-4v    [Prologue, Des droits d'armes:] Cy commence le prologue
     de ce present traittie Intitule des drois darmes a la loenge de dieu
     nostre benoit createur a lonneur des princes...Quod nobilis est ille
     quem nobilitat sua vertus.

     2. ff. 4v-9r    Table of Contents (ff. 4v-6v: Des droits d'armes; ff.
     7r-9r: L'Arbre des batailles). f. 9v ruled, but blank

     3. ff. 10r-11r    Es saintes couronnes de iherusalem et de France au
     iourdhui par lordonnance de dieu regne loys de charles cousin...Et sur
     cestui arbre feray la quarte partie de mon livre ainsy comme veoir le
     pourrez es choses qui sont aprez.

          Prologue, L'Arbre des batailles.

     4. ff. 12r-116v    Maintenant puis que vous veez comment sur larbre de
     dolour sont deux entrees lesqueles est grande discorde...et conduie a
     la sienne sainte gloire de paradis. Amen. ff. 117r-v ruled, but blank

          Honore Bonet, L'Arbre des batailles. See E. Nys, ed., L'Arbre des
     Batailles d'Honore Bonet (Paris, 1883) and, for sources and a partial
     list of manuscripts, G. W. Coopland, The Tree of Battles of Honore
     Bonet (Cambridge, Mass., 1949) pp. 217-25.

     5. ff. 118r-144v    Cy commence un petit traittie de noblesse compose
     par [jacques de valere en langue despagne et nagueres translate en
     francoys par maistre] hugues de salues preuost de furnes. Lors que ie
     me trouuay a par moy et deliure de toutes pensees...au long traitie
     comment elles se doiuent entendre et blasonnes.

        Jacques de Valere, Diego de Valera, Espejo de verdadera
          nobleza,
     Fr. tr. Hugues de Salve. Portion of heading in brackets reconstructed
     on basis of Paris, B. N. fr. 1280; see H. J. Horn, "Honore Bonet's
     L'Arbre des batailles and Jacques de Valere's Traite de
     noblesse: A
     Late Fifteenth-Century Manuscript in the Yale University Library" (M.A.
     Thesis, Yale University, 1968, p. 7). For the French text, see the
     edition of 1497, published in Paris by Antoine Verard; for the original
     Spanish text, see J. A. de Balenchana, Epistolas y otros varios
     tratados de Mosen Diego da Valera (Madrid, 1878). Horn (op. cit., pp.
     6-10) lists six other manuscripts of the Traite de noblesse: Brussels,
     Bib. Roy. MS II 7057; Paris, B. N. fr. 1280, written for Louis of
     Bruges, who composed one of the treatises in Des droits d'armes (see
     art. 6-vii); Paris, B. N. fr. 5229 (the only manuscript listed here
     that is without illustrations); Phillipps 10396, present location
     unknown, described in Coopland, op. cit., p. 303; Vienna, Oest.
     Nationalbib. Cod. 2616, written for Adolph of Cleves; and a manuscript,
     present location unknown, formerly in the book-trade, described in Hess
     Antiquariat, 50 Fine Books, Manuscripts...and Bindings, Cat. I (Bern,
     1937) p. 35. Cahn and Marrow, Exhibition Catalogue, no. 76, p. 256,
     list one further manuscript in the book-trade, H. P. Kraus,
     Catalogue 126
     (New York, n.d.) no. 11, pp. 9-12. As in the Yale manuscript,
     Bonet's L'Arbre des batailles occurs in the Kraus manuscript as an
     interpolation.

     6. ff. 144v-196v    Seven short treatises, known in conjunction with
     art. 5 as Des droits d'armes. i) f. 145r La table des xij chapittres du
     blason darmes; ii) f. 153r Comment on fait de nouuel vn empereur par
     election; iii) f. 163v Thomas, Duke of Gloucester: La maniere de faire
     champ a oultrance, dedicated to Richard II; iv) f. 170v Les ordonnances
     aux gaiges de bataille en champ ferme [an ordinance of Philip IV of
     France]; v) f. 179r La premiere institucion des roys darmes et heraulx
     et des seremens et promesses quilz font a leur creation; vi) f. 186v
     La
     Maniere de faire tournoiz et behours...; vii) f. 192r Louis of
     Bruges, section begins without rubric: Pour mettre fin et conclusion a ce present
     traittie Intitule loffice darmes et noblesse.... f. 197r-v ruled, but blank

          See J. van Praet, Recherches sur Louis de Bruges (Paris, 1831) pp.
     190-97. These seven treatises occur in conjunction with the Traite de
     noblesse in three manuscripts: Paris, B. N. fr. 1280; H. P. Kraus, op.
     cit., and Vienna, Oest. Nationalbib. Cod. 2616.

     7. ff. 198r-206v    Cy contient comment le roy darmes des francoiz fut
     premierement cree et puis nomme mon Joye et la facon de son noble
     couronner les seremens quil fait aussy les droiz et ce quil est tenu de
     fere. Comme il soit vray selon les anciennes escriptures nous
     trouuons...de ceste tres noble ordonnance perdue ia longtempz a.

          This treatise, as well as that in art. 8, occur in the manuscript
     once owned by Hess Antiquariat, 50 Fine Books, op. cit., as well as in
     H. P. Kraus, op. cit. and Phillipps 10396 (See Coopland, op. cit., p.
     303).

     8. ff. 207r-210v    Status royaulx touchant le fait de la guerre prins
     en la chambre du tresorier a paris par philippe sans terre quant il se
     vint marier a madame margueritte de flandres...ses mareschaulx et
     autres de son conseil en lan de grace vii^^c lxix.

          Ordinances relating to the armies and marshals of France.

          Parchment, ff. ii (parchment) + 209 + ii (parchment), 345 x 243
     (227 x 158) mm. Written in two columns of 33 lines, each with single
     vertical bounding lines; single horizontal bounding lines, top and
     bottom of written space, full across. Ruled in red ink.
          I^^4 (+ 2 leaves glued in at beginning), II^^2 (+ 1 leaf glued in at end),
     III-XV^^8, XVI^^4, XVII-XXVI^^8, XXVII^^8 (+ 4 additional leaves glued in).
          Written in formal batarde script. Folios 7r-9r, also in formal
     batarde, but in a different hand.
          The fine miniatures are by the Master of Bruges of 1482, named for
     the frontispiece in a manuscript of the Livre de la propriete des
     choses, London, B. L. Royal 15 E III. The cycle of miniatures in the
     Yale manuscript closely resembles the series in the Kraus manuscript
     (op. cit., p. 10, pl. cf f. 169r on p. 11), by the Atelier of the
     Edward IV manuscripts; the Yale cycle, however, does not appear to be by
     the Edward IV shop as stated by Kraus, nor is the Kraus manuscript by
     the Master of 1482 as stated in Exhibition Catalogue. (p. 258). In
     addition to the manuscript in London for which he is named and the Yale
     manuscript, the Master of 1482 contributed miniatures to an Ovide
     moralise, Copenhagen, Royal Library, Thott 399; Frederick II of
     Hohenstaufen's De l'art de la chasse des oyseaux, Geneva, Bib. Publ. et
     Univ. fr. 170; Caesar's Gallic Wars (French translation by Jean
     Duchesne), London, B. L. Egerton 1065; and Oxford, Bod. Lib. Douce 208;
     and perhaps to a Decameron, The Hague, Kon. Bib. 133 A 5. The
     miniatures, in arched frames composed of thin gold and pink bands, are
     as follows: one full-page miniature, f. 11v The Tree of Battles; ten
     half-page miniatures, f. 1r The Shame of Noah, f. 10r Honore Bonet
     presents the L'Arbre des batailles to Maximilian I of Austria in the
     presence of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor (see H. J. Horn, "Two
     Rulers, One Throne: An Illumination by the Master of Bruges of 1482,"
     Essays in Northern European Art presented to E. Haverkamp-Begemann on
     his 60th Birthday [Dvornspijk, 1983] pp. 110-112, with pl. 1 of f. 10r;
     pl. 5 of f. 153v); f. 118r Maximilian I awarding the Golden Fleece to
     person kneeling before him and Marie of Burgundy gives gold collar to
     lady; f. 145r The author delivers his treatise to Nobles and Heralds;
     f. 153v The Coronation of an Emperor; f. 164r A Battle a
     l'outrance; f.
     187r Tournament; f. 192r Funeral Procession; f. 198r Crowning of the
     King of Arms of France; f. 207r A Marshal of France, with followers
     before a military encampment; and one small column miniature (11-line),
     f. 179r Institution of a Herald in his Office. Between ff. 147r and
     152r there are sixty-three painted armorial bearings, perhaps a later
     addition (s. XVI?) as indicated by the type of pigment, the occasional
     lack of correspondence with the original preparatory drawings, and the
     fact that some drawings were never overpainted. 5-, 4-, 3-, and 2-line
     initials, gold, edged in black, against irregular blue and red grounds
     with white highlights. 1-line initials in the table of contents, red
     and blue, with guide-letters to illuminator; ff. 7r-9r (the section for
     the L'Arbre des batailles) in darker shades and without notes,
     suggesting, as does the change of hand, that this section of the table
     as well as the portion of the text to which it refers were added to the
     manuscript in a second stage of its production. Paragraph marks, 1-
     line, red and blue. Pages foliated in red, upper right recto. Headings
     in red throughout.
          Binding: s. xix. Edges gilt. Purple goatskin case with brilliant
     gold tooling and elaborate doublures.

          Written in Bruges ca. 1485. A statement on f. 196v, "il le fault
     imputer au tempz qui regne de present qui est lan mil iiij^^c iiij^^xx
     j." referring to the decline of courtesy, provides a terminus post
     quem of 1481 for the compilation of the text. The relation of the text
     as well as the miniatures to manuscripts produced for the court circles 
     of Maximilian I and Louis de Bruges, Seigneur de la Gruthuyse, clearly
     suggest an origin in Bruges in the mid-1480's. Belonged to George
     Hibbert (Evans Sale, 30 March 1829, no. 2707); Sir Thomas Phillipps
     (no. 3873); William Robinson, Ltd. Collection of Dudley M. Colman,
     1946; sold by Colman in 1954 to C. A. Stonehill. Acquired from C. A. 
     Stonehill in 1955 as a gift of the Yale Library Associates.

     secundo folio: aprez. Ceste figure

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, pp. 43-44, no. 230.
     Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 256-58, no. 76,  pl. 27 of f. 198r.          
          "Eight Medieval Manuscripts," Gazette 29 (1955) pp. 106-07, 109-
     10, pl. of f. 164r.
          J. L. Schrader, The Waning Middle Ages, exhib. cat. (The
     University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1969) no. 19, p. 23, pl. XXXVIII
     (f. 164r). 
	     The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle
     Ages, exhib. cat. (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975) no.
     277, p. 276.
          B. Gagnebin, L'Enluminure de Charlemagne a Francois Ier.
     Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque publique et universitaire de Geneve,
     exhib. cat. (Geneva, Musee Rath, 1976) p. 168.
          A. J. Vanderjagt, "Qui sa vertu anoblist: The Concepts of
     noblesse and chose publique in Burgundian Political Thought," D. Phil.
     dissertation (Groningen, 1981), pp. 117-18 and pls. 18-19 (of ff. 1r
     and 118r).

     Barbara A. Shailor