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Detailed record for Yates Thompson 12


Author		William of Tyre
Title		Histoire d'Outremer, continued to 1232
Origin		France, N.(?)
Date		between 1232 and 1261
Language		French
Script		Gothic, written below top line
Decoration		25 historiated initials, with zoomorphic extensions into the margins, in colours (and gold), at the beginning of each book (ff. 9, 13v, 18v, 23v, 29, 34v, 40v, 46, 51v, 58v, 67v, 75, 82v, 90, 99v, 109v, 120, 132, 143, 152v, 161, 173v, 188v, 193, 204); another initial torn out from f. 1. Small initials in red with blue (and red) pen-flourishing or in blue with red (and blue) pen-flourishing. Added drawing of a man's head (f. 211v).
Dimensions in mm		340 x 245 (250 x 180) in two columns
Official foliation		ff. 211 (+ 1 medieval flyleaf at the beginning)
Form		Parchment codex
Binding		Pre-1600. 15th-century stamped leather over wood boards, with 5 brass bosses on each cover (one missing) and 2 leather straps; with copper stains from the fittings of a former binding on f. 211v.
Provenance		The manuscript must have been written after 1232, and probably before c. 1261, when a further continuation was written. Unidentified 14th- and 15th-century owners: inscribed 'Vilior est humana caro quam pellis ouina / Si moriatur ouis multum' (f. 211v); copied immediately below by another hand. Lyonet d'Oureille, 15th century: inscribed 'sera(?) de moy lyon(?) est / Lyonet doureille' (1st flyleaf verso), and 'autant pour autant / lyonet doureille' (f. 210v); the same name occurs in a Lancelot du lac (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, n.a. lat. 1119), which, like the present manuscript, was later owned by Firmin-Didot; perhaps bound for him; annotated perhaps by him with several notes concerning the Hospitallers of St John, and '+ de moy patriarche de alexandrie +' and 'sera(?) de moy lyon(?) est' (f. 122). This is the earlier of the two manuscripts, 'Manuscrit A', used by Paulin Paris in his Guillaume de Tyr et ses continuateurs: inscribed 'Man. A' (1st flyleaf), and with marginal notes, possibly by him (ff. 138v, 173, 182v). Ambroise Firmin-Didot (b. 1790, d. 1876), publisher and book-collector: his sale catalogue, Paris, 15 June 1881 (Catalogue illustré des livres précieux manuscrits et imprimés faisant partie de la bibliothèque de M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot (Paris, 1881), no. 62, pp. 87-88), bought by Yates Thompson. Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed '[MS] 42 / £bne [i.e. £150] / [bought from] M. Didot / Paris / June 5th / 1896'; his sale, 3 June 1919, lot 25, bought by Pickering and Chatto for £400. Pickering and Chatto, London booksellers: in their catalogue, 1923, no. 3531, for £1,200 (two unfoliated pages from this catalogue inserted at the beginning of the manuscript); subsequently bought back by Yates Thompson for £860, as described in a memorandum in his hand dated 23 July 1923. Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1941 by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson.
Select bibliography		Paulin Paris, Guillaume de Tyr et ses continuateurs: texte français du XIIIe siècle, revu et annoté, 2 vols (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1879-80), I, pp. xvi-xvii; II, p. 473. Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1898), no. 42, pp. 235-38. Illustrations from One Hundred Manuscripts in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson, 7 vols (London: Chiswick Press, 1907-18), III: Consisting of Sixty-Nine Plates Illustrating Ten MSS. of Various Countries from the IXth to the XVIth Centuries (1912), p. 13, pls. XLIX-LI. Jaroslav Folda, 'Manuscripts of the History of Outremer by William of Tyre: A Handlist', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits, 27 (1973), 90-95 (p. 94, no. 38). Jaroslav Folda, Crusader Manuscript Illumination at Saint-Jean d'Acre, 1275-1291 (Princeton: University Press, 1976), p. 32 n. 33, pls 169, 170. Andrew G. Watson, 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]. Alison Stones, 'Review of F. Avril and M-T. Gousset, in collaboration with C. Rabel, Manuscrits enluminés d'origine italienne, 2: XIIIe siècle, Paris: Biblbiothèque Nationale, 1984', Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, 61, 4 (1986), 886-90 (p. 889). Lilian M. C. Randall and others, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, 3 vols (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989-1997), I: France, 875-1420, pp. 126, 133. Jaroslav Folda, 'Images of Queen Melisande in Manuscripts of William of Tyre's History of Outremer: 1250-1300', Gesta: Internationl Center of Medieval Art, 32, 2 (1993), 97-112 (pp. 102-03, fig. 12). M. Milwright, 'The Cup of the Saqi: Origin of an Emblem of the Mamluk Khassakiyya', Aram , 9-10 (1997-98), p. 250, fig. 6. Pamela Porter, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), p. 49.

Images



f. 9 Detail	f. 13v Detail	f. 18v Knights

f. 23v Battle	f. 34v Detail: Flourished initial	f. 34v Adhemar

f. 40v Detail	f. 40v Battle	f. 46 Detail

f. 49v Flourished initials	f. 49v Initials	f. 51v Coronation

f. 51v Coronation	f. 58v Ship	f. 67v Bishop

f. 75 Battle	f. 75 Battle	f. 82v Coronation

f. 82v Coronation	f. 90 Emperor John	f. 90 Detail: Emperor John

f. 90 Emperor	f. 99v Murder	f. 109 Battle

f. 109v Battle	f. 120 Detail: Historiated initial	f. 132 Nureddin, Sultan of Damascus, flees on a beast of burden

f. 132 Detail: Nureddin, Sultan of Damascus, flees on a beast of burden	f. 132 Detail: Historiated initial	f. 142 Text-page with flourished initials

f. 142 Detail: Text-page with flourished initials	f. 143 Detail: Historiated initial	f. 152v Detail:

f. 152v Detail: Historiated initial	f. 161 Saladin ravaging the Holy Land	f. 161 Detail: Saladin ravaging the Holy Land

f. 161 Detail:	f. 193 Detail: Historiated initial

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