THE FRENCH-LANGUAGE MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS

IN THE KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK

[NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE NETHERLANDS],

THE HAGUE

on 35mm microfilm and microfiche

with a printed guide and introduction by

Anne S. Korteweg, Curator of Manuscripts,

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague

Catalogue published

In early 2003 Moran Micropublications published Edith Brayer’s catalogue of the French-language medieval manuscripts in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague (MMP102). Now the complete collection of 118 manuscripts and four collections of fragments is available for research in microform.

Origin of the collection

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek was founded in 1798 during the French occupation of the Netherlands (1795-1815) as a National library for use of the national assembly of the Batavian Republic. The basis of the library, the book collection of the former stadholders, contained a large number of medieval manuscripts in French from the southern Netherlands and France itself that had been in the possession of the counts of Nassau, ancestors of the present royal family of the Netherlands, the house of Orange-Nassau. Most of these manuscripts were seized by the French and placed in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. Fortunately they were returned in 1816 after the defeat of Napoleon and the creation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Belgium under William I the oldest son of the last stadholder. He had them placed in the Royal Library. Further he donated other manuscripts that had been in his family’s possession and made important new acquisitions in Belgium. With the Belgian uprising of 1830 and subsequent separation from the Netherlands in 1839, royal patronage also went into decline. William himself abdicated in 1840.

Not much was done in subsequent decades to acquire French-language materials until the librarianship of W.G.C. Byvanck after 1895. He acquired several French manuscripts, but also initiated a policy of concentrating on Dutch cultural patrimony. Consequently , there have only been incidental additions to the collection in the twentieth century. The core is still formed by the manu­scripts collected by the Nassau noblemen.

In keeping with the collecting tastes of such noble libraries, the manuscripts cover a wide range of genres and subjects including, for example:

Early literary works

• L'Histoire des trois fils du Roy
• Robert Wace, Le roman de Brut
• Benoît de Saint-Maure, Roman de Troie
• Roman de Lancelot

Late medieval literary works

• Christine de Pizan: Epistre Othea ; Le Livre de la mutacion de Fortune ; Le Livre des trois vertus
• Alain Chartier, La belle dame sans mercy ; Le livre d’ Espérance
• Jean Lemaire de Belges, Généalogie de Madame Anne de la Tour, princesse de l'Écosse
• Guillaume de Lorris & Jean de Meung, Le Roman de la Rose
• Jean Molinet, Le Roman de la Rose moralisée
• Giovanni Boccaccio, Le Décameron (French translation)
• Evrart de Conty, Des échecs amoureux

Religious-didactic works

• Pierre d’Ailly, Le jardin amoureux
• Jean Miélot, Miroir de l'Ame pècheresse
• Gautier de Coinci, Les Miracles de Nostre Dame
• Vie des Pères
• La passion de Nostre Sauveur
• Hubert le Prevost, Vie de St. Hubert
• Alonso de Spina, La forteresse de la Foy

Art of war

• Vegetius, L'Art de chevallerie
• Frontinus, Stratagèmes
• Philippe de Cleves, Instructions sur toutes manières de guerroyer

Political works

• Le livre de l'information des princes
• Huon de Saint-Quentin, Complainte de Jérusalem contre la Cour de Rome
• Le Songe du Vergier

Historical works

• Jean Froissart, Chroniques
• Chronique dite de Baudouin d'Avesnes
• Vincent of Beauvais, Miroir historial
• Histoire ancienne jusqu à César
• Jean de Wavrin, Les chroniques d Angleterre
• Guillaume de Nangis, Chroniques des Roys de France
• Raoul Lefèvre, Receuil des Histoires Troyennes

Historical bibles and other types of French bibles

• Guiard des Moulins, Bible Historiale Complétée
• Bible Moralisée
• Moses Ben Abraham, Chronique de la Bible

Translations of classical works

• Livy, Histoire Romaine
• Valerius Maximus: Des faits et des paroles mémorables
• Cicero, Livre de Vieillesse & Livre d'Amitié
• Virgil, Eneide (translation by Octavien de St. Gelais)

Translations of early Christian authors

• St. Augustine, Cité de Dieu
• Gregory the Great, Omelies sur aucunes evangiles
• Jerome, Vie des anciens saints pères hermites

Genealogy & heraldry

• Généalogie de la Maison de Bourgogne
• Genealogy of the Kings of England
• Traité de la Heraldrie

Encyclopedic works

• Pseudo-Aristotle, Le livre des problèmes
• Le livre de Sidrac

Knightly orders

• Statutes of the Order of St. Michel
• Statutes of the Order of the Golden Fleece