Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
i (eighteenth-century paper) + 100 + i (eighteenth-century paper) folios on parchment, modern foliation in pencil, 1-100, complete (collation i-xii8 xiii4), no catchwords or signatures, ruled in reddish brown ink (justification 112 x 75 mm.), written in dark brown ink in gothic bookhand (textualis) in two columns on 34 lines, rubrics in red, running titles in the upper margins, capitals touched in red, 1-line verse initials alternating in burnished gold and blue, 2- to 3-line initials in burnished gold on grounds in dark pink and blue with white penwork (alternating the color that infills the letter and the color of the ground around the letter; initials for ‘I’ extend the height of several lines), one 4-line initial in blue with white penwork, infilled with flowers, on a burnished gold ground, accompanied by flower borders in the upper and lower margins, and gold bands and some leaves in gold and colors framing the two columns (f. 22), THREE SMALL MINIATURES in the borders, two of which are painted in the lower margin accompanied by a floral border in the upper margin (ff. 1, 2), and one painted in the corner of the lower and outer margins accompanied by a floral border in the upper, lower and outer margins (f. 7v), all three pages with miniatures are decorated with bands in burnished gold, pink and blue framing the two columns, one of the miniatures presents a COAT OF ARMS executed in burnished gold, silver and colors, medieval repair on f. 23, brown stains on ff. 32-33, 48-49, some other minor stains and signs of wear, in overall very good condition. Bound in the eighteenth century in light brown mottled calf over pasteboards, blind-tooled with a single fillet frame, spine with five raised bands, gold-tooled with small flowers and foliage, entitled in gilt “Forma cleri,” marbled edges, endpapers and pastedowns, leather somewhat worn especially on the spine, in overall very good condition. Dimensions 156 x 112 mm.
This handsome illuminated Breviary, an exciting new discovery, belonged at the end of the sixteenth century to Jean Tabourot, Prior in St. Florent de Til-Châtel, a priory dependent of Saint-Étienne de Dijon. It was made a century earlier, most likely for the abbot of this abbey of Augustinian canons. Our Breviary and a Breviary housed in the Royal Danish Library can now be identified as part of the same liturgical manuscript. Together they constitute an important manuscript for the study of ecclesiastic institutions, liturgical practice, and illumination in Dijon at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century.
1. The manuscript was most likely made for an abbot of Saint-Étienne de Dijon around 1490-1510. However, more research is required for his identification. A coat of arms, presented by two angels, was painted on f. 1: d'azur à trois fasces d'argent accompagnées de trois coquilles d’or rangées en chef. The arms are accompanied by an abbatial or episcopal crozier and they are most probably that of the original owner. The liturgical use of Saint-Étienne de Dijon is indicated in the rubric beginning the manuscript: “breviarium secundum usum ecclesie beatissimi prothomartiris stephani divionensis” (f. 1) and repeated in subsequent rubrics in the text. Our manuscript and Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, MS Thott Nr. 109 8vo, were formerly part of the same manuscript (see the discussion below).
2. At the end of the sixteenth century the manuscript belonged to Jean Tabourot, Prior in St. Florent de Til-Châtel, who inscribed his name “J. Tabourot” on the last leaf, f. 100v. In 1579, Jean Tabourot was master of Hôpital Notre Dame de Dijon (founded in 1204 by Eudes III, duke of Burgundy), and in 1595, he was made prior of Saint-Florent of Til-Châtel.
Since Jean Tabourot’s inscription is found on the last leaf of our manuscript, where the text ends imperfectly, we know that our manuscript and the Copenhagen manuscript were bound separately at the end of the sixteenth century (Tabourot’s signature is also found in the Copenhagen volume, so there is no doubt that he owned both of them). The signature is also evidence that Offices now missing from the Temporal in our manuscript were already missing at that date in its history.
ff. 1-100v, Incipit breviarium secundum usum ecclesie beatissimi prothomartiris stephani divionensis primo. Sabbato. In prima dominica adventus domini: ad nativitatis seigneur possunt feriales antiphona, incipit, “Benedictus ... [concluding with the response to the eighth lesson during the Tenebrae celebrated on Holy Saturday], Agnus dei christus immolatus est pro salute mundi nam de parentis prothoplausti fraude facta condolens, quando pomi noxialis morte//”.
Temporale from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday (ending imperfectly).
Four illuminated pages, two (ff. 1 and 2) with three-quarter borders with floral panel borders in the upper and lower margins, connected with narrow colored bands in the inner margin and between the columns, and with small miniatures in the lower margin; on f. 22, the same type of borders is repeated, without the miniature. F. 7v is more lavishly decorated with a three-quarter floral border, with colored bands between the columns, and an ‘L’-shaped miniature in the lower margin, extending into the inner margin:
f. 1, Coat of arms (as described above) presented by two angels, with floral border;
f. 2, St. Jerome, accompanied by a lion, kneeling before the Crucifix, with floral border, illustrating the prologue of St. Jerome to the book of Isaiah, incipit, “Nemo cum prophetas versibus viderit...” (Stegmüller 482);
f. 7v, Mass of St. Gregory, with floral border, illustrating St. Gregory’s Homily 40 on the Gospels for the second Sunday in Advent, incipit, “Dominus ac redemptory ...”;
f. 22, Floral border marking the first lesson for the office for Christmas.
The manuscript was most likely illuminated by a local artist in Dijon, where illumination in Burgundy was almost exclusively centered. In the second half of the fifteenth century six illuminators are documented in Dijon (Cassagnes, 1999, pp. 165-166). Our manuscript provides an important contribution to the growing understanding of the artistic activity in this city. The subject of the most important image in our manuscript is the Eucharistic miracle known as the Mass of St. Gregory, when Christ’s body appeared behind the altar during Mass at the moment of the consecration, thus providing proof of the miracle of transubstantiation. Dijon was a center for intense Eucharistic devotion in the later Middle Ages, and the home of the Sacred Host of Dijon (a bleeding host), which was given to Duke Philip of Burgundy in 1433 and enshrined in his chapel, then re-named Ste.-Chapelle (see Wieck, 2014).
The text in our manuscript comprises the Breviary Offices of the Temporal from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday (ending imperfectly). If we compare the Temporal in the Copenhagen Breviary discussed below, we know that our manuscript is missing the conclusion of the Office of Holy Saturday through Trinity Sunday, including Easter Day, Ascension Day and Pentecost.
As mentioned above, our manuscript and the Breviary in Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, MS Thott Nr. 109 8vo were once part of the same book. The manuscript in Copenhagen contains a Calendar (ff. 1-6), a Psalter (ff. 9-103) and Offices (ff. 104-346; cf. Jørgensen, pp. 213-214). The rubric on f. 104 in the Copenhagen breviary is identical to the rubric in our Breviary (“Breviarium ad usum ecclesie beatissime prothomartiris Stephani Divionensis scriptum”). The Temporal begins with Trinity Sunday and continues through Advent, followed by the Sanctoral, litanies of saints, the Office of the Dead and the Hours of the Virgin (cf. Bruun, 1890, pp. 176-177). It is illustrated by miniatures of the Holy Trinity, and Saints Sebastian, Christopher, Anthony, Claude, Catherine, Genevieve, together with historiated initials, illuminated labors of the months in the calendar, and small vignettes for the signs of the zodiac. The floral borders, identical in style to our manuscript, include monkeys and hybrids typical of a date around 1500. This volume repeats the coat of arms found in our manuscript on f. 9, painted next to the original owner depicted kneeling in prayer (quite worn with loss of paint, but allows a dating around 1500; reproduced without the crozier in Jørgensen (Jørgensen, 1926; see Plates II, no. 2 in Online resources), and includes two ownership inscriptions from Jean Tabourot (front flyleaf: “Magister Jacobus Tabourot, rector hospitalis beate Marie 1579” and “A. J. Tabourot maistre de l’hospital nostre dame 1579 et depuis prieur de Trechatel en l’annee 1595.” Another inscription on f. 7 reads: “J. Tabourot, prieur de Saint Florent de Trechatel”).
The leaf dimensions of the manuscript in Copenhagen are identical to our manuscript. The styles of the illumination and script, the page layout and textual contents, all indicate that the two manuscripts were originally one unit, a Breviary made by one artist and one scribe around 1500 for the abbot of Saint-Étienne de Dijon. The fact that there is a separate incipit to both parts of the Temporal, and that the coat of arms was painted twice, possibly suggests that there were two separate volumes of the Temporal intended from the beginning, perhaps for some practical reasons. And, as noted in the provenance above, Tabourot’s signature at the end of our volume proves that these two manuscripts were bound in two volumes when they were owned by him.
Dijon was the capital of Burgundy since the eleventh century, yet despite its importance, the city did not have an episcopal seat until 1731 but instead belonged to the important diocese of Langres (whose saints are emphasized in the calendar in the Copenhagen part of the manuscript). The Abbey Saint-Étienne de Dijon was an abbey of Augustinian canons regular from the twelfth century until 1611 and served as a second cathedral to the bishops of Langres. A comprehensive history of the abbey was written by the abbot, Claude Fyot de La Marche, in 1696, and a summary of the history by canon A. Sébille survives in two unpublished manuscripts in Dijon (Bibliothèque municipale, MSS 1806-1807).
Alexandre de Pontalier (d. 1464), the abbot of Saint-Etienne, was at the end of his life persistently ill, almost blind and unable to recite his Breviary. He asked his superior to be dispensed of the recitation, and in its place to be allowed to recite to himself the Office of the Virgin and have a chaplain recite the Breviary in his presence (Fyot, 1696, p. 179). The abbots that followed Pontalier at Saint-Étienne de Dijon were Thibaud Viard (1453-1477; Pontalier resigned his abbatial early due to illness), Richard Chambellan (1477-1495), whose Missal illuminated by the Master of the Burgundian prelates (Henri Changenet?) survives in Paris (Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 879; see Online resources), Jacques Langley (1495-1496), and Antoine Chambellan (1497-1509).
Jacques Langley, who resigned his office after only a year in favor of Antoine Chambellan (Langley’s resignation was accepted in 1497), received his abbatial benediction in 1495 in the priory of St. Florent de Til-Châtel (Fyot, 1696, p. 194). The perpetual control of this priory was given to Antoine Chambellan, when he took possession of the abbey in 1497 (Fyot, 1696, p. 196). Following the death of Antoine Chambellan in 1509, the King Louis XII advised the prior and canons of Saint-Étienne to elect as the next abbot Claude de Husson, bishop of Poitiers and perpetual administrator of the bishopric of Séés in Normandy, whose father, Charles de Husson, was the Count of Tonnerre (Fyot, 1696, pp. 198-199). Two years later in 1511, Louis XII gave Saint-Étienne (upon the resignation of de Husson) to Francesco Sforza (1491-1512), the only son of the former duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Sforza (Fyot 1696, p. 199). The young Francesco Sforza had been brought to France after the French troops conquered Milan during the Italian Wars of 1499-1504. He died a year later, and the following abbots were: Jacques Hurault, bishop of Autun, and Étienne Falquier followed in close succession in 1512, René de Bresche de La Trémoïlle sometime before 1515, and Claude de Longwy de Givry in 1516 (Fyot 1696, pp. 199-200, 205-206).
The style of the manuscript suggests that it was made at the end of the fifteenth century or the early sixteenth century. The coat of arms painted twice in the book does not seem to match with any of the arms belonging to the abbots discussed above. Yet, the presence of the crozier indicates that the arms belong to a bishop or an abbot (a prior would have a bourdon or a knobbed staff), and the use of the manuscript is clearly that of Saint-Étienne de Dijon. More research is required to identify the original owner. Perhaps there is a clue in the later history of the manuscript. In 1495 the priory of St. Florent de Til-Châtel was reconsecrated, and was so important that the new abbot, Jacques Langley, received his abbatial benediction there. This is where the manuscript was found a century later. This church, which preserved the relics of the third-century martyr, St. Florent, had been given to the Augustinians of Saint-Étienne de Dijon in 801 by the bishop of Langres. A chapter of canons regular of St. Augustine was founded at Saint-Florent in 1033, making it a collegiate, as well as priorial church dependent of Saint-Étienne.
We are grateful to Laura Søvsø Thomasen at the Royal Library of Denmark in Copenhagen, who kindly sent us pictures allowing the identification of our manuscript as part of Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, Ms. Thott Nr. 109 8vo.
Avril, F. and Reynaud, N. Les manuscrits à peintures en France: 1440-1520, Paris, 1993.
Bardy, G. “Saint Florent de Tilchâtel,” Mémoires de l’Académie (Dijon) 53 (1947), pp. 85-94.
Bruun, C. De illuminerede haandskrifter i det Store kongelige bibliothek, Copenhagen, 1890, pp. 176-177.
Available online
https://permalink.kb.dk/permalink/2006/manus/718/dan/176/
https://archive.org/details/130020100479-color/page/n5/mode/2up
Cassagnes, S. “Les peintres, verriers et enlumineurs en Bourgogne au temps des Rolin,” La splendeur des Rolin: Un mécénat privé à la cour de Bourgogne, ed. by B. Maurice-Chabard, Paris, 1999, pp. 163-168
Elsig, F., ed. Peindre à Dijon au XVIe siècle, Milan, 2016.
Fyot de La Marche, C. Histoire de l’eglise abbatiale et collegiale de saint Estienne de Dijon, Dijon, 1696.
Available online
Guillot, J. “Vie commune et régularité à Saint-Étienne de Dijon, XIIe – XVe siècles,” Masters thesis, Dijon, Université de Bourgogne, 2006.
Harper, J. The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians, Oxford, 1991.
Jørgensen, E. Catalogus Codicum Latinorum Medii Ævi Bibliothecæ Regiæ Hafniensis, Copenhagen, 1926, pp. 213-214.
Available online,
https://permalink.kb.dk/permalink/2006/manus/699/dan/213/?var=
Leroquais, V. Les bréviaires manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, 5 vols, Paris, 1934.
Picard, J.-C. “Langres et Dijon au Moyen Âge: christianisation et réseau urbain en Bourgogne,” La Bourgogne: études archéologiques, Actes du 109e Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes, Dijon, 1984. Section d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art I, Paris, 1984, pp. 85-99.
Sebille, A. Histoire du chapitre collégial et cathédral de l'église Saint-Étienne, puis de l'église Saint-Bénigne de Dijon, unpublished manuscript, Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, MSS 1806-1807.
Van Dijk, S. Sources of the Modern Roman Liturgy: The Ordinals of Haymo of Faversham and Related Documents (1243-1307), 2 vols, Leiden, 1963.
Viaux, D. La vie paroissiale à Dijon à la fin du Moyen Âge, Dijon, 1988.
Wieck, R. S., Illuminating Faith : the Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art, The Morgan Library & Museum, in association with Scala Arts Publishers, 2014.
Missal of Richard Chambellan, abbot of Saint-Étienne de Dijon, Paris, BnF, MS Lat. 879
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b531384120
Lebigue, J.-B. “Initiation to Liturgical Manuscripts”
https://cel.archives-ouvertes.fr/cel-00194063/document
Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, MS Thott Nr. 109 8vo
https://soeg.kb.dk/permalink/45KBDK_KGL/1pioq0f/alma99122244275705763
Coat of arms painted in our manuscript and in Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, Ms. Thott Nr. 109 8vo, reproduced without the episcopal cross in Jørgensen, Plates II, no. 2
https://permalink.kb.dk/permalink/2006/manus/699/dan/Tabula+II/?var=
TM 1345
