Beinecke MS 318               France, s. XV^^med
Christine de Pizan; Jacques le Grand

1.  ff.  1r-137v Ci commence le Liure de la Cite des dames.  Du quel le
premier chappitre parle Coment pour quoy et par quel mouuement le dit liure fut
fait. j.  Selon la maniere que jay plus en vsaige.  Et a quoy est plus
dispose...La quelle ainsi par sa saincte grace vous face.  Amen.  Cy finist
las tierce et darniere partie du liure de la cite de Dames.  Deo gracias.

     Christine de Pizan, La Cite des dames.  Parts reproduced by E.
Hicks, Le Debat sur le Roman de la Rose, in Bibliotheque du XV^^e
siecle 43 (Paris, 1977) pp. 187-94, correspond closely with the text of MS
318.  Cf. the English translation by E. J. Richards, The Book of the Ladies (New
York, 1982).

2.  ff. 137v-139v Cy commence le liure jntitule De bonnes meurs, dont
sensuit premierement la table...Le .ix^^me. parle Comment on doibt penser
au jour du jugement.

     Table of contents for art. 3.

3.  ff. 139v-209r Cy commence le premier liure jntitule de bonnes meurs
du quel sensuit le premier chappitre...[text:]  Tous orgueilleux se
veulent a dieu comparer, en tant comme ils se gloriffient...de ceulx qui
disent que le monde durera moult longuement.  Explicit deo gracias.  f. 209v
blank

     Jacques le Grand, Le Livre de bonnes moeurs.  English version,
translated and printed by William Caxton, first appeared in 1487.

     Paper (watermarks similar to Briquet Char 3533 and Briquet Main 11086),
ff. iii (paper) + 209 + ii (paper), 263 x 178 (188 x 130) mm.  Written in 34
long lines, ruled in hard point; single vertical bounding lines, full length.
     I-V^^10, VI^^8 (+ 1 leaf sewn in after 8, f. 59), VII-XXI^^10.
Catchwords in center of lower margin, verso.
     Written by a single hand in small, even batarde.
     On f. iii verso, pasted in by a later owner, a miniature (80 x 61
mm.), the Queen of Sheba before Solomon, and a separate compartmentalized
border (161 x 105 mm.) of blue and gold acanthus on pink, and red, purple and
white flowers and grapevines, both with black dots and hair-spray, probably
from different Northern French Books of Hours (Paris or Rouen), ca. 1500.  The
whole is set within single horizontal and vertical rulings in red ink,
full length and full across.  A label identifying the scene in the miniature,
written in
black ink (s. xvi?), has been inserted inside the border on a separate piece
of parchment.  Pasted in on f. 137v a small miniature (41 x 32 mm.) of St.
Barbara, originally for a Suffrage, probably from the same Book of Hours as
the border of f. iii verso.  Seven initials (3- or 2-lines) in red or blue
with blue or red penwork flourishes.  Rubrics (faded) throughout.
     Some wormholes toward end of codex, not affecting text.
     Binding: s. xix [?].  Worn red velvet, rebacked.  Sewing and endbands
possibly earlier.

Written probably in Northern France, in the middle of the 15th
century.  The French caption below the miniature on f. iii verso suggests
that the manuscript was still in French hands in the 16th century.  Note, in
ink, inside front cover:  "Secundarius posessor et vetus peraccens erit quiuis
alius - I.g."  Purchased from L. C. Witten in 1964, with the Edwin J.
Beinecke and Frederick W. Beinecke Fund.

secundo folio:  aultres femmes

Barbara A. Shailor