Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Roman de la Rose, single leaf with Narcissus gazing at his own reflection as life passes him by, in Old French, from a decorated manuscript on parchment [France (perhaps Paris), c. 1410] Single leaf, text in two columns, remains of 38 lines of verse in an angular vernacular hand in brown ink, rubrics in red, 2-line initials in blue with red penwork or gold with blue penwork, one miniature in black penwork with colour wash within 3-line penwork frames, some worm damage, stains and scuffs, 305mm. by 250mm. From the archive of the chateau of Labarthe-Bleys (Tarn), and most probably seen and identified by Breillat there in the 1940s (‘Fragment d'un manuscrit du "Breviari d'amor"’ , Romania, 68, 1944-45, pp. 376-381). The Roman de la Rose is probably the single most influential literary text of the Middle Ages, exceeding both Chaucer and Dante in the production and circulation of manuscripts. C.S. Lewis stated that in cultural importance “it ranks second to none except the Bible and the Consolation of Philosophy” (Allegory of Love, 1936, p. 157). It is of fundamental importance for the history of French literature, and is the first example in French of a sustained first-person narrative and a narrative allegory. The poem has two authors. It was begun c. 1240 by Guillaume de Lorris (d. c.1278) who wrote the first 4058 lines. As he explains, he wished to tell the reader all that he knew of love, and the poem describes a dream in which Amant is taken by Oiseuse into a pleasure garden where he meets the allegorical figures of Pleasure, Delight, Cupid and others, finally catching sight of and falling in love with the ‘Rose-in-bud’. He is held back by the figures of Danger, Shame, Scandal and Jealousy who imprison the Rose in a castle. To this text, Jean de Meun (a friend of Dante) added another 17,724 lines some forty years later. These changed its tone to a biting satire on contemporary society with a dark and vicious sense of humour. His lover-hero makes war on the castle, debates with Reason, Nature and Genius, and with heavy sexual overtones, finally enters the inner chamber of the Rose. His advice to the lover includes sections on how a man should keep his mistress (study the arts, ignore any infidelities, offer flattery but never advice) and how a lady might keep her male lover (use false hair, make up and perfume, avoid getting so drunk you fall asleep at dinner, only have intercourse in the dark to hide imperfections of the body, and avoid poor men and foreigners - except very rich ones).The only systematic census of manuscripts of the text is that of Langlois in 1910 (Les Manuscrits du Roman de la Rose: Description et Classement), although there has been a recent collaborative scholarly project between John Hopkins University and the Bibliothèque nationale de France on the text resulting in a vast website: The simple but effective technique of line drawing with grey wash used to pick out facial and drapery tones and green used to heighten foliage and water, is closely echoed by several other manuscripts of the text: Oxford, Bodleian, Douce MS. 371 (Paris, c. 1410; which is probably by the same artist as the present leaves) and perhaps also Douce MS. 332 (Paris, fifteenth century; which has similar figures but uses them before strongly coloured diapered backgrounds), and the present leaves are most probably all that remains of a lost copy of the text from the same Parisian workshop.
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Roman de la Rose, single leaf with Narcissus gazing at his own reflection as life passes him by, in Old French, from a decorated manuscript on parchment [France (perhaps Paris), c. 1410] Single leaf, text in two columns, remains of 38 lines of verse in an angular vernacular hand in brown ink, rubrics in red, 2-line initials in blue with red penwork or gold with blue penwork, one miniature in black penwork with colour wash within 3-line penwork frames, some worm damage, stains and scuffs, 305mm. by 250mm. From the archive of the chateau of Labarthe-Bleys (Tarn), and most probably seen and identified by Breillat there in the 1940s (‘Fragment d'un manuscrit du "Breviari d'amor"’ , Romania, 68, 1944-45, pp. 376-381). The Roman de la Rose is probably the single most influential literary text of the Middle Ages, exceeding both Chaucer and Dante in the production and circulation of manuscripts. C.S. Lewis stated that in cultural importance “it ranks second to none except the Bible and the Consolation of Philosophy” (Allegory of Love, 1936, p. 157). It is of fundamental importance for the history of French literature, and is the first example in French of a sustained first-person narrative and a narrative allegory. The poem has two authors. It was begun c. 1240 by Guillaume de Lorris (d. c.1278) who wrote the first 4058 lines. As he explains, he wished to tell the reader all that he knew of love, and the poem describes a dream in which Amant is taken by Oiseuse into a pleasure garden where he meets the allegorical figures of Pleasure, Delight, Cupid and others, finally catching sight of and falling in love with the ‘Rose-in-bud’. He is held back by the figures of Danger, Shame, Scandal and Jealousy who imprison the Rose in a castle. To this text, Jean de Meun (a friend of Dante) added another 17,724 lines some forty years later. These changed its tone to a biting satire on contemporary society with a dark and vicious sense of humour. His lover-hero makes war on the castle, debates with Reason, Nature and Genius, and with heavy sexual overtones, finally enters the inner chamber of the Rose. His advice to the lover includes sections on how a man should keep his mistress (study the arts, ignore any infidelities, offer flattery but never advice) and how a lady might keep her male lover (use false hair, make up and perfume, avoid getting so drunk you fall asleep at dinner, only have intercourse in the dark to hide imperfections of the body, and avoid poor men and foreigners - except very rich ones).The only systematic census of manuscripts of the text is that of Langlois in 1910 (Les Manuscrits du Roman de la Rose: Description et Classement), although there has been a recent collaborative scholarly project between John Hopkins University and the Bibliothèque nationale de France on the text resulting in a vast website: The simple but effective technique of line drawing with grey wash used to pick out facial and drapery tones and green used to heighten foliage and water, is closely echoed by several other manuscripts of the text: Oxford, Bodleian, Douce MS. 371 (Paris, c. 1410; which is probably by the same artist as the present leaves) and perhaps also Douce MS. 332 (Paris, fifteenth century; which has similar figures but uses them before strongly coloured diapered backgrounds), and the present leaves are most probably all that remains of a lost copy of the text from the same Parisian workshop.
.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
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