Franklin

[L'evangile de l'enfance] ...[etc.].

Publication:
[France], [between 1450 and 1499]
Format/Description:
Manuscript
104 leaves : paper, color illustrations ; 280 x 200 (176 x 140) mm bound to 295 x 215 mm
Status/Location:
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Details

Subjects:
Jesus Christ -- Biography -- Apocryphal and legendary literature.
Jesus Christ.
Children.
Childhood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ -- Childhood -- Poetry.
Jesus Christ -- Passion.
Passion of Jesus Christ.
Form/Genre:
Biographies.
Apocryphal and legendary literature.
codices (bound manuscripts)
Manuscripts, French -- 15th century.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.
Poetry.
Language:
Old French, last section has some Latin.
Summary:
Verse work relating apocryphal stories of the childhood of Jesus Christ, attributed to King Charles VI as translator; followed by the Gospel of Nicodemus, an apocryphal prose work on the Passion; and selections from Jean Lefèvre's translation of Cato's distichs (as identified by Anne D. Hedeman).
Contents:
1. f.1r-41r: [L'évangile de l'enfance]
2. f.41v-97r: [L'évangile de Nicodème]
3. f.99r-104v: [Catonis disticha (incomplete)]
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Title for manuscript from title of predominant work (Zacour-Hirsch), other titles supplied by cataloger.
Incipit, first work: Cy commancent les enfances nostre sire et partye des miraclez qu'il fist en son enfance et si commancent en la maniere qui ensuyt par vers rimes translatez de latin en francois par le roy Charles VIe (f. 1r). Explicit: Que nous puissions tous a luy plaire/Aussi a la Vierge marie/Amen amen chascun en dye (f. 40v).
Incipit, second work: Cy ensieut la passion de nostre doulx Sauveur Jhesucrist en rommans, lequel nous doint vivre en cest siecle en telle maniere comme il scet que mestier nous est et quant larme partyra de nostre corps qu'il lez vueille recevoir en son saint paradise. Amen (f. 41v). Explicit: Et quant les eveques ont oy la vraye reson de Nycodemus ilz se mettent les chaperons devant les yeulx et sen vont en leurs maysons ne onques puiz ung tout ceul mot ne parlement ne respondirent. Explicit gloriosissima passio domini nostri Ihesu Christi (f. 97r).
Incipit, third work: Inter convivas fac sis sermone modestus/Ne dicare loquax dum vis bonus ipse videre/Attempre toy quant tu seras a table/Que ne parles trop vray ne de fable (f. 99r). Explicit: Cum tibi continguat studio cognoscere multa / Fac discas multa vita nil velle doceri (f. 104v).
Collation: Paper, i + 104 + i; 1-4¹², 5-6¹⁰, 7¹¹ (+1), 8¹⁰, 9¹⁰ (-10), 10⁶ (all folios inserted); [1-104]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto. Link to collation model at end of record.
Layout: Written in 23 long lines; frame-ruled in lead; chancery folio format.
Script: Written in a French lettre bâtarde (Zacour-Hirsch) by one or two hands.
Decoration: First and last work have strapwork initials in red, black, and yellow, a number with grotesque faces (for example, f. 29v, 32r, 35v, 39v, 99v, 100r-v); 2-line initials and rubrics in red in first and second work.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet 2774.
Binding: 18th-century[?] red velvet (Zacour-Hirsch).
Origin: Written in France in the second half of the 15th century (Zacour-Hirsch).
Moderate to severe oxidation of ink on some folios.
A codicological description of the manuscript is in Penn Ms Fr 41: A Codicological Study by Anne D. Hedeman (1979), in the library's files.
Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann. The Old French Évangile de l'enfance : an edition (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1984) discusses the first text.
Ford, Alvin E. L'Évangile de Nicodème, les versions courtes en ancien franc̦ais et en prose (Genève: Droz, 1973) discusses the second text.
Ulrich, Jakob, ed. Der Cato Jean Le Fevre's, Romanische Forschungen 15 (1904), pp. 70-106.
Penn Provenance:
Ex libris Congregationis Oratorii à [Cleris?], 1674 (note, f. 1r).
Offered for sale at auction at Hôtel Drouot in part 3 of the library of Ambroise Firmin-Didot, 9-15 June 1881, lot 26.
Sold at auction at Hôtel Drouot in part 2 of the collection of Lucien Gougy (Paris), 7 November 1934, lot 615.
Sold by Laurence Witten (New Haven, Connecticut), 1959.
Cited in:
Described in Catalogue illustré des livres précieux, manuscrits et imprimés, faisant partie de la bibliothèque de M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot (Paris : Librairie Firmin-Didot et Cie., 1881), p.39-41 (no. 26).
Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), pp. 61-62 (Ms. French 41).
Cited as:
L'evangile de l'enfance (Oversize Ms. Codex 662). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.
Contributor:
Charles VI, King of France, 1368-1422, attributed name.
Lefèvre, Jean, 1493-1565, translator.
Firmin-Didot, Ambroise, 1790-1876, former owner.
Gougy, Lucien, 1863-1931, former owner.
Contains:
Catonis disticha. Old French & Latin. Selections.
Gospel of Nicodemus. French.
L'évangile de Nicodème.
OCLC:
155985344