London, British Library, Ms Yates Thompson 21, fol. 108r, c. 1380 | MARGOT

Detailed manuscript information (based on British Library on-line Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts)

Parchment, measure: 317x225 (243x175) in two columns fols. 171 (+ 2 paper flyleaves at the beginning, and 2 at the end).

Scene depicted

Nature's confession to Genius

Miniature description

Size:

317x225mm

Column picture

Height: 7 lines

Materials and colours:

Parchment

Green, red, blue, yellow

Rubric:

Directly above miniature

"La confession nature"

Frame:

Simple frame with a brown exterior frame and a white inner frame delineated in black ink. Green foliate extenders appear at the corners and at the left, top and right sides of the frame. In addition there are five green sperms located two on the right and left and one on the bottom of the frame.

Background:

Red, green and blue diaper pattern. Checkerboard pattern with three red vertical and horizontal lines, and in the interior there are alternating small green circles and blue X's.

Placement of miniature:

Directly after Nature's confession

Place of Production of the Miniature:

Paris, France

Date of Production of the Miniature:

1380

Similarities to other images from the corpus:

This is a very unique representation of Nature's confession.

Secondary sources :

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Second Series of Fifty Manuscripts (Nos. 51 to 100) in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902, no. 77, pp. 186-88.

Egbert, Virginia Wylie. The Mediaeval Artist at Work. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967, p. 76, pl. 28.

Watson, Andrew G. Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols. London: British Library, 1979, I, 168 [rejected].

Detailed description

Allegories:

Genius is on the left (Bishop).

Lady Nature is on the right.

Clothing:

*All Clothing is done in grisaille.

1. Genius (dressed as a bishop)

White alb with long sleeves
Cape with large collar, clasped in the centre by a diamond-shaped morse with a cross in the interior
Mitre decorated with filigree

2. Lady Nature

Long robe
Cape
Wimple falling to the shoulders

Gestures:

Genius is sitting down, his right arm on his left knee, and his left hand holding his left cheek. His gesture suggests that he is listening to Nature's confession. He is looking down at Nature, who is kneeling in a submissive manner, her head down, eyes closed, and hands placed together in the act of prayer.

Objects:

All objects are in grisaille unless otherwise noted.

The whole scene takes place inside a cathedral. On the left there is stone altar over a pedestal. The front is decorated with an architectural motif, a trefoil lancet window, suggesting the architectural space of a cathedral. A cloth covers the altar. Over the altar there is a conical baldachin with a sphere decorating the top.

Genius is sitting on a brown wooden curule seat with curved legs that form a wide X, with a flower decorating the crossing. The seat has no back. The low arms are decorated with dog heads; the lower extremities of the legs are claw-shaped. The curule seat in this case represents the Bishop's cathedra, his symbol of power and authority. At the right of the composition, the entrance to the cathedral is represented from the exterior. The entrance has been fashioned following a Gothic design, with an arched brown wooden door with black metal hinges, surmounted by a gable decorated by a small rose window with trefoil tracery. On the right there is a buttress. The roof of the cathedral can be seen behind the gable in green.

Ex-libris

Fol. 1r: inscribed Paraphé au desir de l'arret du cinq Juillet mil sept cens soixante trois. Mesnil. This inscription was written in all the manuscripts belonging to this Library before they were sold in 1764 upon the expulsion of the Jesuits from France (see Léopold Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale, 3 vols (Paris: Imprimérie Impériale, 1868-81), I, 436); described in the sale catalogue of the Jesuits' Library manuscripts in 1764 (see Catalogus Manuscriptorum Codicum Collegii Claromontani, Paris: [n. pub.], 1764, no. 830 315-16).
Two former possessors mentioned in this catalogue, Guillaume Richerot and Achilles Herbelin.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham; his Appendix Ms. 171; bought from Woodburn, November 1851, for £20, according to the handwritten annotations in the BL Manuscript Department's copy of Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Ashburnham Place: Appendix (London: Hodgson, 1853).
Bertram Ashburnham, 5th earl of Ashburnham: his sale, May 1897, bought by Yates Thompson together with the entire Ashburnham Appendix: book-plate with an inscribed number From the Library of the Earl of Ashburnham Appendix no. CLXXI May 1897 (inside upper cover).
Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed [MS] 77 / £bne.e.e [i.e. £150.0.0] / [bought from] Earl of / Ashburnham / 1897 (inside upper cover). Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1941 by Mrs. Henry Yates Thompson.