{"id":50,"date":"2015-09-01T12:21:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T10:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/?p=50"},"modified":"2015-09-01T12:21:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T10:21:52","slug":"evidence-of-scribal-and-artistic-collaboration-in-two-fourteenth-century-french-arthurian-manuscripts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/50","title":{"rendered":"Evidence of Scribal and Artistic Collaboration in Two Fourteenth-Century French Arthurian Manuscripts"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Group Effort:\u00a0Evidence of Scribal and Artistic Collaboration in\u00a0Two Fourteenth-Century French Arthurian Manuscripts – by Katherine Sedovic, Trinity College Dublin<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Robert Branner, manuscript production in early-fourteenth-century France was a \u2018group enterprise\u2019, often involving collaboration between not only multiple artisans within the same workshop, but also between several separate workshops.[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Cases in which a single manuscript was illuminated by more than one artisan were therefore relatively common. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Q.b.6., is exemplary of this kind of collaboration. Q.b.6. is a massive tome of 410 folios, dating to Northern France circa<\/em> 1320-30, and containing the Vulgate Lancelot propre<\/em>, La Queste del Sainte Graal<\/em>, and Le Mort Artu<\/em> (figure 1). The manuscript is illuminated with 212 historiated initials, and exhibits evidence of the hands of at least two artisans, the first of whom, Ernoul d\u2019Amiens, is known through an inscription on folio 187 verso (figure 2). Considering the immense size of this volume, it is not surprising that multiple artisans would have been employed to assist with, and hopefully speed, its production. Although scholarship has tended to focus on collaborative production practices in Paris, the acknowledged centre of the commercial book trade in late-thirteenth and fourteenth-century France, the possible production of Q.b.6. in Amiens suggests that late medieval manuscript collaboration was in actuality more geographically widespread, encompassing commercial book markets in towns and cities outside of the \u00cele de France.[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> The different hands of Q.b.6. are evident through variations in the formation and size of the script, as well as through the varying shape of the historiated \u2018O\u2019 for \u2018or dit le contes<\/em>\u2019 which marks each new entrelacement, <\/em>or narrative transition, within the legends (figures 3-5).<\/p>\n

A second, Parisian, example of collaborative manuscript production is Paris, Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France 12577, circa <\/em>1315-25, which contains Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes\u2019 Le Conte du Graal<\/em> as well as the four later Perceval<\/em> continuations, and is illuminated with 52 miniatures (figures 6-7). Alison Stones has noted two to three different hands within this manuscript, and identifies these artisans as members of a network whose shops were located on the \u00cele de la Cit\u00e9 on the Rue neuve Notre Dame.[3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> These specific libraires<\/em> are known to have focussed on vernacular manuscript production, a subsection of the Parisian manuscript market that experienced heightened popularity in the late-thirteenth and fourteenth centuries due in part to the growing number of literate wealthy and nobility.[4]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Manuscripts such as BnF Fr. 12577 were therefore generally produced on a bespoke basis for wealthy clientele. Collaboration among the book artisans of the Rue neuve Notre Dame allowed for the expanded production of secular manuscripts, reflecting the development and expansion of the commercial Parisian book trade from the mid-thirteenth century onward.[5]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Despite their overall lavish appearances, the illuminations of both Q.b.6. and BnF Fr. 12577 exhibit signs of rote copying and a reliance on visual sources such as model books and previously completed manuscripts. Although the illuminations include a marked use of gilt and are carefully rendered overall, they lack artistic originality. This may be accounted for by the high demand for such vernacular romances, which resulted in the need for an increased rate of production, and would certainly have been assisted by both artistic collaboration and a reliance on already established imagery.<\/p>\n

\"ms1\"<\/a>

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Q.b.6. f.187v.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"ms2\"<\/a>

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Q.b.6. f.176v.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"ms4\"

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Q.b.6. f.318r.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"ms3\"<\/a>

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Q.b.6. f.259v.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"ms5\"<\/a>

Paris, BnF, Fr. 12577 f.1r.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"ms6\"<\/a>

Paris, BnF, Fr. 12577 f.18v.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Robert Branner, qtd. in \u2018The Commercial Production of Manuscript Books in Late-Thirteenth-Century and Early-Fourteenth-Century Paris\u2019 by Richard H. and Mary A. Rouse, In Medieval Book Production: Assessing the Evidence<\/em>, edited by Linda L. Brownrigg (Los Altos Hills:1990), 103.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Godfried Croenen, \u2018Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris Around 1400\u2019, In Patrons, Authors, and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400<\/em>, edited by Godfried Croenen, and Peter F. Ainsworth (Louvain: 2006), 1.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Alison Stones, \u2018The Illustrated Chr\u00e9tien Manuscripts and Their Artistic Context\u2019, in The Manuscripts of Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes Vol. 1<\/em>, edited by Keith Busby, Terry Nixon, Alison Stones, and Lori Walters (Amsterdam: 1993), 260.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Rouse and Rouse, \u2018The Commercial Production of Manuscript Books in Late-Thirteenth-Century and Early-Fourteenth-Century Paris\u2019, 105.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Godfried Croenen, \u2018Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris Around 1400\u2019, 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Group Effort:\u00a0Evidence of Scribal and Artistic Collaboration in\u00a0Two Fourteenth-Century French Arthurian Manuscripts – by Katherine Sedovic, Trinity College Dublin According to Robert Branner, manuscript production in early-fourteenth-century France was a \u2018group enterprise\u2019, often involving collaboration between not only multiple artisans within the same workshop, but also between several separate workshops.[1] Cases in which a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_license":"","publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[224682],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[224691],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"authors":[{"term_id":224691,"user_id":8172,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sarahlaseke","display_name":"Sarah Laseke","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7ff571f9af1bd6586fd83edb75f5c9f0c5e583c6ad515887db7d54a3982c4d0?s=96&d=blank&r=g","1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscollab.hypotheses.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}