Bibliothèque interuniversitaire section médecine, Université Montpellier, H245, fol. 58r, 1375-1400 | MARGOT

Detailed manuscript information (based on Ernest Langlois, Les manuscrits du Roman de la rose. Description et classement, Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1974, p. 134-35):

Parchment, measure: 305x216mm, 157 fols. at two columns 42 lines. Beginning of second folio: Et qui de vous se part et emble. The Roman de la rose is on fols 1r to 131r, followed by the Codicille on fols 131r-v and the Testament on fols 131r-157r.

Scene depicted

Jealous husband beats his wife.

Miniature description

Size:

Column picture.

Height: 9 lines.

Material and colors:

Parchment

Red, blue, black, white, green, gold leaf

Initial:

Decorated foliate initial “L” on gilded background. Foliate is red and blue with white ink detail. Stem in red with white ink detail. Initial is blue with white ink detail. Foliate extenders from ‘L’ from top and bottom of “L”. Foliate is red, blue and gold.

Rubric:

Placed above miniature. Reads : “C[om]me[n]t le jalous bat sa fame”

Frame:

White exterior border with diamond shaped gilded decorative cornerpieces. Red inner border with white wavy pattern on the top, bottom and left and zigzag pattern on the right.

Background:

Diaper pattern background. Square grid is composed of three thin gilded lines and gold rounded corner accents over blue background.

Place of production of miniature:

France.

Date of production of miniature:

1375-1400.

Detailed description

Allegories:

Wife on the left

Jealous husband on the right

Clothing:

1. Wife:

Red short-sleeved gown
White tippets with red accents
Grey kirtle
Black pouleines

2. Jealous husband:

Blue knee-length courtepy
Red chaperon
Red hose
Black baldrick with sword attached
Black pouleines

Gestures:

*Wife’s face seems to be scratched/rubbed out. There are three other manuscripts where the face seems to be scratched out, but in the other three miniatures (WAM, Ms. W. 143, fol. 62v, OBL, Sel. sup. 57, fol. 64r and BNF, Ms. Fr. 12595, fol. 69v) it is the husband’s and not the wife’s face that is scratched out.

Husband's right hand, holding a club, is raised over his head and ready to strike his wife. His left hand is grasping her hair. The wife is crouched on the ground. Both arms are outstretched as she attempts to push her husband away.

Objects:

Sword

Stick/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: 95) (See fols 18r and 19r)

Landscape:

Grass ground

Ex-libris

Fols 1r and repeated on 157r: The signature of P. Florimond dated from 1567.
On the first flyleaf: Ms. de la bibliothèque de Mr. le P. Bouhier .C. 33. MDCCXXI.
At the end, the following lines have been added:
1. Explicit le Romans de la Rose,
  Ou l'Art d'Amours est toute enclose.
  Nature rit, si com moy semble,
  Quant hic et hec joingnent ensemble.

At the end of the manuscript, a booklet has been appended containing Remarques sur le Roman de la Rose by M. Lucotte, S^r du Tillot. Two of these remarks are perhaps noteworthy:

A Rome, dans la bibliothèque du cardinal Bagny, il y a un Roman de la Rose écrit de la main d'un nommé Nicolas Flamel, qui étoit un écrivain qui travailloit et négocioit à Paris et ailleurs pour les juifs en l'année 1393.
Il y a encore un ms. du Roman de la Rose dans la bibliothèque d'Oxford, qui est très bien écrit sur du velin avec de fort jolies figures en miniature, qui est une marque de son antiquité.