Rochefoucauld Grail
The Rochefoucauld Grail, formerly Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, MS 1, is three volumes of an original four-volume illuminated manuscript from the 14th century. They were auctioned by Sotheby's in London on 7 December 2010,[1] realising a hammer price of £2,100,000 (£2,393,250 including the buyer's premium.)[2] The fourth volume is divided between the Bodleian Library in Oxford (Douce MS 215) and the John Rylands Library in Manchester (Ms Fr 1). The book contains the Lancelot-Grail cycle in French prose, the oldest and most comprehensive version of the legend of King Arthur and the Holy Grail.[3][4][5] The page size is about 405 mm by 295 mm, and the three volumes have respectively 118, 233 and 104 leaves, all appearing complete. The text is in two columns, by a number of scribes.[1][6]
It is claimed[5][7] that the Rochefoucauld Grail is one of the finest medieval manuscripts to still be privately owned. Two other complete versions of the text are held by the British Library, Additional MSS 10292-10294 of c. 1315 and MS Royal 14.E.iii, both produced by the same team of artists and scribes.[8] The Rochefoucauld Grail contains 107 illustrations, with backgrounds of gold leaf, showing the tale of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, Guinevere, Lancelot and Merlin and their quest for the Holy Grail. The hides of about two hundred cows would have been used in the manuscript's production.[3][5]
The four volumes were created in Flanders or Artois, possibly for the French nobleman Guy VII, Baron de Rochefoucauld, perhaps around the period 1315 to 1325 (based on the dating of similar manuscripts).[9] There are "baronial arms and standard of Rouchfoucauld inserted later (perhaps in fifteenth or sixteenth century)" indicating ownership at that point, and the four volumes may have belonged to the Rochefoucauld family until the 18th century, but were dispersed by the 1720s.[1] The three volumes previously in Amsterdam were acquired in two separate purchases by the 19th-century English antiquary and book collector Sir Thomas Phillipps and have subsequently been sold twice. Dr. Timothy Bolton of Sotheby's said of the Rochefoucauld Grail, "It is a monumental format, with 107 miniatures, each a dazzling jewel of early Gothic illumination. The scenes often have a riotous energy... lofty towers poking through the borders... and figures tumbling out on to the blank page as they fall or scramble to escape their enemies."[5]
The three-volume manuscript was sold by its previous owner, Mr Joost Ritman, for the benefit of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam.[3] It had been on loan to that library.[10]
References
- ^ a b c Sotheby's lot description
- ^ Sotheby's sale of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures Sale: L10241 Lots 1-36 on 7 December 2010. (accessed 19 March 2012)
- ^ a b c Sotheby’s To Offer the Rochefoucauld Grail Sotheby's Press Release 11 November 2010
- ^ What is the Lancelot-Grail and see table of MS, Lancelot-Grail Project website]
- ^ a b c d 'Legend of King Arthur on the table for £2m' The Times 12 November 2010 pg 27
- ^ Catalogue description of all four volumes by Alison Stones at the Lancelot-Grail Project website]
- ^ 'The Holy Grail of manuscripts: 14th century King Arthur text to be auctioned at Sotheby's' The Daily Mail 12 November 2010
- ^ Busby, Keith. Word and image in Arthurian literature, p. 238, note 13, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-8153-2050-7, ISBN 978-0-8153-2050-0
- ^ The Rochefoucauld Grail on Reuters 11 November 2010
- ^ Online images at the Lancelot-Grail Project website
External links
- The Rochefoucauld Grail in artdaily.org
- The Rochefoucauld Grail in The Guardian 11 November 2010