MS F: Contents and Description

Bibliothèque nationale de France
fonds français
22545

Guillaume de Machaut, Nouviaus dis amoureus, volume 1
Late 14th-century complete-works collection of Guillaume de Machaut's poetic and musical works. Forms a pair with BNF ff. 22546
1r-3r
Prologue
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Comment nature volant orendroi plus que onques mais reveler et faire essaucier les bien et honneurs qui sont en amours, vient a Guillaume de machau, Et li ordene et encharge a faire seur ce nouviaus dis amoureus, Et li baille pour lui consillier et aidier ad ce faire trois de ses enfans, Cest assavoir, scens, retorique, et musique, Et li dit par ceste maniere
Incipit: Je nature par qui tout est forme
Explicit: Commencier le dit dou vergier
Final Rubric:
[Note: ]
3r-9v
Le Dit de Vergier
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence le dit dou vergier
Incipit: Quant la douce saison repaire
Explicit: Ci fenist le dit du vergier
Final Rubric: Explicit le dit du vergier
[Note: ]
9v-19r
Jugement Behaingne
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: [C]i commence le iugement du bon Roy de behaingne
Incipit: Au temps pascour que toute rieus sesgaie
Explicit: a gentil mal cuide humble secours
Final Rubric: Explicit le iugement du bon Roy de behangne
[Note: ]
19v-40r
Jugement Navarre
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: [L]e iugement du Roy de navarre contre le iugement du bon Roy de behangne.
Incipit: Au departir du bel este
Explicit: Commencier .i. amoureus lay
Final Rubric: Explicit.. le iugement du Roy de navarre contre le iugement du bon roy de behangne
[Note: ]
40r-63v
Remede de Fortune
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence Remede de fortune
Incipit: Cils qui vuet aucun art aprendre
Explicit: Et quen li servant ne mespreingne
Final Rubric: Explicit Remede, de fortune
[Note: ]
63v-75r
Le dit de Lyon
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: [C]i commence le dit dou lyon
Incipit: Quant la saison d'iver decline
Explicit: Avoit mon cuer qui la creu
Final Rubric: Explicit le dit dou lyon
[Note: ]
75v-98v
Le dit de l'Alerion
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence le dit de l'alerion
Incipit: En tout le monde entierement
Explicit: Qui fit le dit de quatre oiseaus.
Final Rubric: Explicit le dit de l'alerion
[Note: ]
98v-119v
Confort d'ami
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence Confort d'ami
Incipit: Amis a toy donner confort
Explicit: Pour qui maint soupir ay vomi
Final Rubric: Explicit
[Note: Hard to discern, but seems to be bleed-through from a now-missing page running perpindicular to the "explicit"]
119v-134v
Le dit de la Fonteinne Amoureuse
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence le dit de la fonteinne amoureuse
Incipit: Pour moy deduire et solacier
Explicit: Dites moy fu ce bien songie
Final Rubric: Explicit le dit de la fontaine amoureuse
[Note: ]
135r-137r
Le dit de la Harpe
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence le dit de la harpe
Incipit: Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer
Explicit: Sage d'un fol einsi faire einsi les devis
Final Rubric: Explicit
[Note: ]
137v-198v
Le Livre du Voir Dit
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence le livre du voir dit
Incipit: A la loenge et a l'onnour
Explicit: Son ame en gloire toute belle, Amen
Final Rubric: Explicit le livre du voir dit
[Note: ]
198v-199v
Le dit de la Marguerite
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence le dit de la marguerite
Incipit: [J]'aim une fleur qui sueure et qui s'encline
Explicit: C'est chose voir
Final Rubric: Explicit le dit de la marguerite
[Note: ]
199v-200r
Le dit de la Rose
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Ci commence le dit de la harpe Rose
Incipit: En may que printemps renouvelle
Explicit: Com mon cuer tant com vis seray
Final Rubric: Explicit le dit de la Rose
[Note: ]
200r-200v
Vesci les biens
Author: Guillaume de Machaut
Rubric: Vesci les biens que ma dame me fait Pour amender moy mouveur et mon fait
Incipit: Son gent corps fait atour
Explicit: Pour ce qu'il n'est plus belle ne millour
Final Rubric: Amen
[Note: ]

Object Description

Support:

Parchment with three paper flyleaves in front and two in back.

Extent:

200 fols.

Collation:

1-25⁸. More on signatures and collation in Earp 1983, 99-101, 350-54.

Layout:

35.5 x 26 cm, writing block ca. 29 x 19 cm 2 cols. at 52 ll./col.

Hand Description

Formal bookhand. One scribe throughout. For additional information on scribal practice, see Earp 1983, 97-101; Harden 1983, 138-47.

Music

Contains music. Red staves 1.25 cm tall for Remede, ruled, it seems, without a rastrum.

Decorations

Rubrics. MS F fol. 1r has a floriated initial three lines tall for the opening rubric of the Prologue, pink and blue with gold background, and an initial eight lines tall for the first ballade of the Prologue, with gold bar borders with ivy and dragon at top. New poems usually begin with a gold and blue divided initial four lines tall, with red and black filigree. Other initials are two lines tall, alternating solid red with black filigree and solid blue with red filigree. On the 148 miniatures, see the descriptions in chap. 4.4. Avril (1982a, 128-29), discusses the date of the miniatures and identifies the illuminator as Perrin Remiet (or Remy). For further on Remy, see chap. 4.2 tables 4.7 and 4.10. Of the forty-six prose letters in the Voir Dit, all except the following thirteen are marked off to the left with the sign "[insert graphic]": no. 1, fol. 140r; no. 2, fol. 140r (ed. P. Paris 1875 as no. 4); no. 7, fol. 147r (ed. as no. 3); no. 9, fol. 148r; no. 14, fol. 156v; no. 23, fol. 167r; nol. 25, fol. 167v; no. 34, fol. 179v; no. 36, fol. 180v; no. 38, fol. 182v; no. 39, fol. 183r; no. 41, fol. 189r; no. 44, fol. 195r. Four ballades are marked by the initials .y.p. near the flourish initial for the first line of the poem, some of which were apparently written before the flourish initial itself was painted (fol. 154r, Le plus grant bien [VD30]; fol. 162r, Gent corps [VD42]; fol. 170v, Hui ha .i. mois [VD48]; fol. 181v, Quant Theseüs [VD56=B34]). Finally, the monogram "R" appears twice, below col. 1 on fol. 172r, and near the bottom of fol. 181v.

Additions

INSCRIPTIONS: Vers françois / Tome Premier / Conventus Parisiensis / Carmilitarum Discalccatorum (fol. iii v at bottom)

Binding

Bound in red morocco, eighteenth (?) century.

History

DATE AND PROVENANCE. A dating ca. 1390 was proposed in Rive 1780, (1). Most later studies, on the basis of the contents of the manuscript, have placed F-G within Machaut's lifetime as the last of the manuscripts prepared under the supervision of the author (Hoepffner 1908-21, 1:xlvi, li; Reaney 1952b, 34; 1967, 88). On art historical grounds, however, Avril (1982a, 129) has again placed it in the 1390s. Readings in the music section indicate that it is closely related to MS A, although not a direct copy; they probably shared the same exemplars (cf. Earp 1989, 488-89; Leech-Wilkinson 1990c, 96-98). The original owner is unknown, but the many representations of a coat of arms in several miniatures may identify the original owner, a member of the upper middle class and not a member of the aristocracy (Avril 1982a, 129). Keitel (1982c, 92) provides a description and diagram of the coat of arms; see also the various heraldic descriptions in Rive 1780, (1); Tarbé 1849, 182; and Guelliot 1914, 299 ("De sable, au sautoir d'or, cantonné de quatre mouchetures d'hermine d'argent"); Cerquiglini 1987a has color facsimiles of several miniatures that bear the coat of arms. MS F-G was apparently first rediscovered by the abbé Lebeuf ca. 1735 in the library of the Carmes déchaussés (Discalced Carmelites), rue de Vaugirard, Paris. Inscriptions in the front of both manuscripts identify them as volumes of that library. Lebeuf, whose work marks the beginning of modern interest in Machaut, first mentioned the manuscript in print in his 1743 mémoire on Philippe de Mezières (Lebeuf 1751), folowed by the mémoire of 1746 (Lebeuf 1753). MS F-G then appeared in the library of Louis-Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), which was catalogued after his death by De Bure (1769, 451-52 no. 1778). It was then purchased by the duke of La Vallière (1708-1780), and again catalogued by De Bure (1783, 262, 253-54 [recte 262-64] no. 2771). It came to the Bibliothèque du Roy after the death of the duke. Perhaps there are some further notes on the eighteenth-century state of MS F-G in an unpublished study by the abbé Rive, "Notice sur des poésies manuscrites de Guillaume de Machau qui sont dans la bibliothèque de M. de La Vallière," preserved in Carpentras, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 1259 (Duhamel 1901). Earlier shelfmarks: La Vallière 251 and 252; 2771 (fol. iir; De Bure catalogue of 1783).

Bibliography