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Detailed record for Harley 6199
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| Title |
Statuts de l'Ordre de la Toison d'Or |
| Origin |
Netherlands, S. (Bruges) |
| Date |
between 1481 and 1486 |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
Circle of the Master of the London Wavrin |
| Decoration |
Miniature depicting the knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with a scatter border with four escutcheons, and a large initial 'P'(helippe) with acanthus motifs (f. 7). Full-length portraits of Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, founder of the Order (f. 57v), Charles the Bold, his successor (f. 69), and Maximilian, archduke of Austria, the latter's son-in-law (f. 73v). Full-, three-quarter-, half, and quarter-page miniatures on gray grounds, showing the Achievements of arms of the first knights of the Order arranged in groups or pairs, starting with that of Guillaume de Vienne (ff. 59, 59v, 60, 60v, 61, 61v, 62v, 63, 63v, 64, 65, 66, 66v, 67, 67v, 68, 70, 70v, 71v, 72, 75, 75v, 76v, 77). Large champ initials. Numerous smaller initials in gold with black pen-flourishing, alternating with initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Rubrics and Roman numerals in red. Cadels. |
| Dimensions in mm |
260 x 185 ( 164 x 120) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 77 (+ 1 unfoliated paper and 3 parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 6 blank, ruled, unfoliated leaves after f. 56 + 15 blank, ruled, unfoliated leaves after f. 77 + 1 paper flyleaf at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Gold-tooled red morocco leather; marble endpapers; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
Escutcheon with the arms of Jean de Lannoy as abbot; escutcheon with the arms of the abbey of St. Bertin; escutcheon with the arms of Maximilian as archduke of Austria impaled by those of Burgundy, surmounted by archducal bonnet; escutcheon with the arms of Maximilian as king of all the Romans (f. 7).
Jean de Lannoy, abbot of St Bertin and chancellor of the Order of the Golden Fleece: made for him c. 1481.
Mesmes, Jean Antoine II de (1661-1723), Comte d'Avaux et de Brie-Comte-Robert etc. (Wright, 1972, p. 238).
Woodman; armorial binding Président de Mesmes (Wright and Wright, 1966, II, 513). Acquired by James Woodman (d. 1728), bookseller at Russell St., Covent Garden. Woodman's bill (in Welbeck Harley papers (Edw. Harley Book Bills) under June 30 1725 shows that the price paid was £25 (Wright and Wright, 1966, II, p. 360 n. 2).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library. |
| Notes |
The earliest copy of the Statutes of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with a register of chapters held from 1429 to 6 May 1481. The miniatures have been attributed to the circle of the Master of the London Wavrin (see Kren and McKendrick, 2003). Harley 6199 is the first manuscript to contain full-length portraits of the patrons of the Order of the Golden Fleece. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 6199.
Henry Shaw, Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages from the seventh to the seventeenth centuries 2 vols (London: W. Pickering, 1843), II, pl. 53.
Paul Durrieu La Miniature flamande au temps de la cour de Bourgogne (1415-1530) (Paris and Brussels, 1921), pl. LVIII.
[J. A. Herbert], Illuminated Manuscripts and Bindings of Manuscripts Exhibited in The Grenville Library, Guide to the Exhibited Manuscripts, 3 (Oxford: British Museum, 1923), no. 78.
[J. A. Herbert], British Museum: Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 2, 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1923), pl. 35.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, pp. 360, 360 n. 2.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 238, 359.
Ann Payne. ‘Statutes and Armorial of the Order of the Golden Fleece, British Library, Harley Ms 6199’, in L'Ordre de la Toison d'Or, de Philippe le Bon à Philippe le Beau (1430-1505). Idéal ou reflet d'une société?, ed. by Pierre Cockshaw and Christine Van den Bergen-Pantens (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996), pp. 45-46.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 178.
Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century (Leuven: Brepols, 1999), p. 452, pl. 47 on p. 448.
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pls. 59-60.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), no. 76.
Charles le Téméraire: Faste et Déclin de la Cour de Bourgogne, ed. by Susan Marti, Till-Holger Borchert, and Gabriele Keck (Brussels: Fonds Mercator, 2008), no. 21. [exhibition catalogue] |
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f. 1
Decorated initials |
f. 7
Meeting of the Order of the Golden Fleece |
f. 57v
Philip the Good |
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f. 59
Achievements |
f. 59v
Achievements |
f. 60
Achievements |
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f. 60v
Achievements |
f. 61
Achievements |
f. 61v
Achievements |
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f. 62v
Achievements |
f. 63
Achievements |
f. 63v
Achievements |
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f. 64
Achievements |
f. 65
Achievements |
f. 66
Achievements |
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f. 66v
Achievements |
f. 67
Achievements |
f. 67v
Achievements |
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f. 68
Achievements |
f. 69
Charles the Bold |
f. 69
Charles the Bold |
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f. 70
Achievements |
f. 70v
Achievements |
f. 71v
Achievements |
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f. 72
Achievements |
f. 73v
Maximilian |
f. 73v
Maximilian |
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f. 75
Achievements |
f. 75v
Achievements |
f. 76v
Achievements |
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f. 77
Achievements |
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