J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig XV 7, fol. 54r, 1405 | MARGOT

Detailed manuscript information (based on Roman de la Rose: digital surrogates of medieval manuscripts and Anton von Euw and Joachim M. Plotzek, Die Handschriften der Sammlung Ludwig, Cologne: Schnügen-Museum, 1979-85, vol. 4:228-239.)

Parchment, measure: 372x258mm, 138 folios, two columns, 44 lines.

Scene depicted

Textually: Jealous husband scolds his wife.

Visually: Jealous husband beats his wife with neighbours in the background. (This passage appears much further into the Jealous husband's tirade)

Miniature description

Size:

372x258mm

Column picture

Height: 14 lines

Materials and colours:

Parchment

Blue, grey, gold leaf

Initial:

Foliate initial “T” on gold leaf background. Directly below the miniature. Letter in blue, detail in red, white, and blue. Gold leaf foliate extenders spring upwards and downwards, partially framing the left side of the miniature and the text.

Frame:

Simple gold leaf exterior frame with simple blue/white and red/white inner frame

Background:

Attempt at atmospheric perspective. The sky gets darker towards the top. Brown ground.

Placement of miniature:

It is curious that this miniature is placed at the beginning of the jealous husband's tirade. In most manuscripts, the miniature is placed with the textual description of the violent scene.

Secondary Sources:

Euw, Anton von and Joachim M. Plotzek. Die Hanschriften der Sammlung Ludwig. Cologne: Schnütgen-Museum, 1979-1985, pp. 228-239.

Detailed description

Allegories:

Jealous husband

Wife

Neighbour

Neighbour's wife

Clothing:

* semi-grisaille. Landscape, flesh and objects are rendered in colour, whereas clothing is not.

1. Jealous husband:

Kirtle
Houppelande
Girdle with sword attached
Chaussemble
Ducal mortier

2. Wife:

Floor length gown.
Pouleines

3. Neighbour:

Chaperon
Knee-length surcot
Chaussemble

4. Neighbours wife:

Hood
Floor length gown
Pouleines

Gestures:

Jealous husband holds his wife by the hair with one hand, while the other hand, which is holding a club, is raised as he is going to strike her. The wife is pushing the husband's arm that is holding her hair.

Objects:

Club

“This weapon […] semiotically connects the husband with the allegorical figure of Dangier, who is usually depicted wielding a club at Amant” (Desmond, Marilynn. Ovid’s Art and the Wife of Bath. The Ethics of Erotic Violence. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2006, p. 95)

Sword – See 21v and 22r

Landscape:

Grass ground

Blue Sky

Ex-libris

On the recto of the first flyleaf: The owner is probably Jean du Rueil (1474-1537) according to an erased entry, read as J Duryeil.
On the verso of the same leaf: A medieval entry reading (La) mauie and F. Lorris (?).
Louis-Jean Gaignat (1697-1768).
Charles-Adrien Picard. Philippe l'Ain, Marseille (glued on the recto of the 2nd overleaf, the text from the auction catalog of his manuscripts).
Possible owners of the manuscript: Claude-Joseph Clos (1812); Probably Count MacCarthy-Reagh (1744-1811); William Beckford, Fonthill (1759-1844), bought Oct. 1814 from Auguste Chardin, Paris; in Beckford's inventory of the year 1844, it carried the no. 36; Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852); he inherited the manuscripts of his father-in-law, William Beckford (on the recto of the 1st overleaf in pencil HB no. 427); Berlin, Graphiksammlung of the Königlich-Preußisches Museum. Albert de Naurois (his ex libris with the motto "Tantum prodest quantum prosunt" in the inner front cover); Edouard Rahir, Paris (1862-1924); Adolphe Bordes; Jacques Guérin.

The manuscript belongs to the most beautiful of the approximately three hundred extant Roman de la Rose manuscripts. Furthermore it is, with its 101 column-wide miniature paintings, one of the most richly decorated copies of the text that was so popular from its emergence into the 16th century.