MS E: Description and Contents

Livre de maistre GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT, là où sont les balades et chansons royaux, et complaintes et rondiaux non mises en chant, et plusieurs livres qui s'ensuivent ; et après ce s'ensuivent lays et mottés, rondyaux et balades, et virelays baladez, fais par ledit maistre Guillaume de Machaut, et mis en chant

Late 14th-century complete-works collection of Guillaume de Machaut's poetic and musical works, formerly owned by Jean, duc de Berry.

Object Description

Layout:

40.6 x 30 cm, writing block ca. 29.5 x 20.5 cm. 3 cols. at 60 ll./col.

Hand Description

Formal bookhand. Two scribes divided the copying: scribe A wrote fols. 1r-58r (Prologue, Loange, Vergier, Remede, Jugement Behaingne, Jugement Navarre, Lay de Plour) and fols. 107r-129r (Lais). Scribe B wrote fols. 61r-106r (Lyon, Alerion, Fonteinne, Confort, Harpe), fols. 131r-238r (remainder of music section, Voir Dit, Prise), and the original index on fols. Cr-Er. Prose letters of Voir Dit are in a formal cursive script, written in a second pass in long lines with a lighter brown ink (see comments in Cerquiglini 1985b, 41-42; 1991b, 343, 346).

Additions

INSCRIPTIONS: The second parchment bifolio guard sheet at the front of the manuscript has an Ex-libris inscribed in a very ornate script (Cadeaux or cadelure, Muzerelle 1985, [section sign]561.11) by Nicolas Flamel, seretary of John, duke of Berry (Poirion 1965, 172): "Ce libre de Machaut est de Jehan, filz de roy de France Duc de Berry et d'Auvergne, Conte de Poitou, d'Estampes, de Bouloingne et d'Auvergne. FLAMEL" [This book of Machaut belongs to John, son of the king of France, duke of Berry and Auvergne, count of Poitou, Estampes, Boulogne and Auvergne], with the monogram "N" below (reproduced in Lanson 1923, 110). The last folio (fol. 238v) contains an inscription effaced but still legible: "Ce livre est au duc de Berry et d'Auvergne, conte de Poitou et d'Auvergne" [This book belongs to the duke of Berry and Auvergne, conte de Poitou et d'Auvergne" [This book belongs to the duke of Berry and Auvergne, count of Poitou and Auvergne], with the duke's signature, JEHAN. The original binding called E the book of maistre Guillaume de Machaut; see chap. 1.2.8j.

History

DATE AND PROVENANCE. Some scholars had associated the copying of E with a pay document of 1371 from the duke of Berry to Machaut; see chap. 1.14.1b. On art historical grounds, dated ca. 1390 by Meiss (1967, 1:315) and Avril (1982a, 128). MS B served as the exemplar for about half of the music (Bent 1981, 301-2; 1983, 78 table 2). The musical notation shows signs of later fourteenth-century practice (Earp 1983, 125-26). The inclusion of voice parts not found in the central Machaut manuscripts also points to a later date, out of the purview of the author (Earp 1989, 489-92; for a different view, see Bent 1983, 72-74; 1990a, 139).Other studies that deal with the transmission of music in MS E include Hoppin 1960; S.J. Williams 1968; Dömling 1969; Hasselman/Walker 1970; and Strohm 1984a, 118-23. On the transmission of texts in MS E, see Hoepffner 1908-21, 1:xlvii; Bent 1983, 61-76; Kibler/Wimsatt 1987; Wimsatt/Kibler 1988. I consider Imbs's wise statement (Guillaume de Machaut 1982, 138) to summarize the issue fairly. Arguing from the readings for the rondeau Se vous n'estes (R7) in the Flemish source Gr 3360 [68], Strohm (1984a, 116 no. 7) suggests that E's exemplar for R7 may have come from a Machaut manuscript in Flanders; further, Gr 3360 stands in an intermediate position between E's exemplar for R7 and the many Italian anthology manuscripts that transmit the rondeau. Thus, it would seem that the Italian sources received their Machaut through Flanders, and that the filial relationships often noted between E and the anthology manuscripts (e.g., Dömling 1969) point to a Flemish source for the music in E not copied from B. MS E appears in the 1402 inventory of the library of the duke of Berry (Delisle 1907, 2:268* nos. 282-83). Ludwig (1926-54, 2:11a*) discusses references to inventories of 1404

Bibliography

• Delisle 1868-81, 1:58 nn. 1-2, 66; 3:193 nos. 282-83
• Omont 1895, 326
• Ludwig 1926-54, 10b*-12a*
• S.J. Williams 1952, 344-51
• Schrade 1956c, 28-30
• Meiss 1967, 1:315
• RISM 1969, 182-92
• Reaney 1980c, 663
• A partial copy of MS E made for La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (1697-1781) is in the MS F:Pa 3297 (see Martin 1886-89, 3:312; Ludwig 1926-54, 2:12a*). La Curne de Sainte-Palaye annotated the margins with his lexicographical studies.