Details

Standardized Title:

Image du monde.

Other Title:

Mapemonde.

Subjects:

Astronomy -- Early works to 1800.
Astronomy.
Cosmology -- Early works to 1800.
Cosmology.
Geography -- Early works to 1800.
Geography.
Geography, Medieval.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Diagrams.
Illuminations.
Poems.
Manuscripts, French.
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Middle French.

Summary:

Summary of all knowledge, divided into 3 parts on the creation of the world and man, geography, and astronomy; copy of the earliest recension in 6,600 octosyllabic lines of verse, as composed in 1245 by Gautier of Metz.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from opening rubric (f. 2r); title Mapemonde in caption title (f. 2r) and closing rubric (f. 130r).
Collation: Parchment, i (16th-century paper) + 132; 1-2⁸ 3⁶ 4-5⁸ 6-7⁴ 8-17⁸ 18⁴(+2). Horizontal catchwords, lower center. Link to collation model at end of record.
Layout: Written in 26 long lines; frame-ruled in lead with a narrow column along the left side of the text block for the initials at the beginning of each line.
Script: Written in a French hybrid script by at least 2 hands.
Decoration: 7-line illuminated opening initial in blue and red on a gold ground with extensions (f. 2r); 18 astronomical diagrams in red and black (f. 38r, 39v, 40v, 41r, 42r, 45r, 46r, 46v, 47r, 86v, 90r, 91v, 93r, 94v, 128r); first initials of sections alternate between red with purple flourishing and blue with red flourishing; first initials of page often enlarged and decorated, sometimes with red or blue pigment added, sometimes with faces (f. 14r-15v) or hands (f. 28v, 47v, 69r, 111v) or zoomorphic forms (dragons, f. 24r, 64r, 99r, 121r; storks or cranes, f. 71r, 119v, 127v; snake, f. 78v; wolves' or dragons' heads, f. 66r, 82r, 126v; geese, f. 49r, 120v, 130r); rubrics in red; initials touched with yellow; ascenders of top line and descenders of bottom line elongated and decorated; most catchwords enclosed in decorative frames, mostly touched with yellow, sometimes with additions in red ink (f. 8v, 16v, 22v, 30v, 38v, 46v, 50v, 54v, 62v, 70v, 78v, 86v, 94v, 102v, 110v, 118v).
Binding: 16th-century calf over boards, blind-stamped and -tooled, center armorial medallion of Benoît de Court (3 5-pointed stars on a shield enclosed by a wreath).
Origin: Written in France, ca. 1400.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Benoît le Court (binding, note of price on upper pastedown) and his son Antoine (signature Antonius Curtius Simphorianus on front flyleaf and lower pastedown, later notes in ink, f. 132v).
Formerly owned by Jehan de Gaignières (or Jean, Johannus in manuscript), procurator of the court of the Primate of Lyon (signature, f. 130r).
Sold by Librairie Thomas-Scheler (Paris), cat. Un Choix (1998), no. 1, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2012.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2019.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 133-134 (LJS 264).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 264.

Contributor:

Gautier, of Metz, active 1245.
Court, Benoît de, former owner.
Court, Antoine de, 16th century, former owner.
Gaignières, Jehan de, 16th century, former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

794856505

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page

Collation model