Then there is a gap in the book’s history, but early in the fifteenth century Bodley 264 was in England, where a second poem about Alexander, this time in English, was added on new pieces of parchment, and soon after this a third and final text was added into the remaining leaves of the second book: a French prose version of the book of Marco Polo.  Both parts were then bound together to make one book.

This new book then passed to a series of owners, some of whom wrote their names in the manuscript to indicate their possession of such a prized object.  Here you can see where Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers, has written his name (‘de Widevelle’, at the end of the first line) and the date 1466 (‘lan de grace mille iiii lxvi’, at the end of the fourth line):

The inscription (in French) by Lord Rivers at the back of the codex, including his name and ‘the year of grace 1466’.

Click here to learn about how this book travelled around.

Click for more on: owners • the making of books

(Images reproduced by kind permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show-all-openings?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msbodl264)

Jehan de Grise’s note marking the date when the illuminations were completed.

Although we now think of Bodley 264 as a single book with one name, it is actually made up of three pieces, made in different places more than 60 years apart.  It began life as a copy of the long French poem about Alexander the Great, called the Roman d’Alexandre.  We can tell from the style of the illustrations that this was made in Tournai, now in the eastern part of Belgium, but then part of the Kingdom of France.  We can also date this part of the manuscript to 1344, the date when an illuminator (?) called Jehan de Grise wrote a note to say ‘Che liure fu perfais de le enluminure / au xviii jour. dauryl . per iehan de / grise.. lan  de grace. m. ccc. xliiii.’ [‘This book was completed with its illuminations by Jehan de Grise on the 18^thday of April in the year of grace 1344’]

The original owner hasn’t left any signs of their ownership, so we can’t tell who it was made for, although it is probable that such a de luxe product was made to commission for a wealthy and aristocratic owner.

A few decades later, with a new owner, the book began to grow.

Click for more on: scribes • owners • manuscripts linked to particular places

(Images reproduced by kind permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show-all-openings?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msbodl264)

Exquisite artwork is a hallmark of this manuscript.

The picture on the right is from one of the most beautiful manuscripts to be found in late medieval England, and which is now kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, where it is called MS Bodley 264.  Yet the extraordinary detail and craftsmanship of its illumination is only the beginning of the story it has to tell, for this is a book made in two countries, in two centuries, and in two languages.

Looking closely at this one survivor from the past is like looking through a window into how books were made, used and re-used in the Middle Ages, and how their ideas of what a ‘book’ or an ‘author’ was differed from, and also helped to shape, our own understandings of the same words.  We can also find tantalising traces of the many individuals – craftsmen, scribes and owners – who each played their part in the life-story of the manuscript, through the marks they have left on it.

But is this one book or several?

(Images reproduced by kind permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show-all-openings?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msbodl264)

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SBB-PK), Ms.germ.qu. 2370

We know the book was a gift – a gift from one noble collector to another. Someone, the giver or the recipient, has done his homework: All the Minnereden were read and, in the 16th century, compared to an existing collection. In some instances a 16th century hand has written corrections on the margin, and it is most likely the same hand that put in other remarks.

Annotation ‘Das hab ich’ in the margin; Berlin (SBB-PK), Ms.germ.qu. 2370, fol. XXX (detail).

Most of the Minnereden in this manuscript have titles, and alongside some of these titles (but not all!) are written remarks like: Den hab ich. Das hon ich, Ich habs – grammatical variations of ‘I’ve got this’ (which probably means ‘I have got this text in other manuscripts in my library’).

Go to the final conclusion of this exhibition room.

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SBB-PK), Ms.germ.qu. 2370

fol. 1r-4v = ‘Lehre von den Zeichen des Hirsches’
fol. 5r-9v = ‘Lehre vom Arbeiten der Leithunde’
fol. 10r-13v = blank
fol. 14r-18v = ‘Was allerlei Blätter bedeuten’
fol. 18v = ‘Wankelmut und Blumenfarben’
fol. 18v-19r = ‘Vergißmeinnicht und Augentrost’
fol. 19v-25v = blank
fol. 26r-33r = Fünfzehn Weingrüße und zwei Biergrüße
fol. 33v-35r = Sieben ‘Klopfan’-Sprüche
fol. 35v = Obszönrede: ‘Von einer schönen Frau’ (‘Der Pfeiffer’)
fol. 35v = Obszönrede eines Klerikers
fol. 36r-37v = Peter Schmieher: ‘Der Student von Prag’
fol. 37v = Priamel
fol. 38r-38v = ‘Das Scheiden’
fol. 38v-39r = ‘Abschiedsgruß’
fol. 39r-42v = ‘Das Meiden’
fol. 42v-46r = ‘Streitgespräch zweier Frauen über die Minne’
fol. 46r-52v = ‘Die Beständige und die Wankelmütige’
fol. 52v-57r = ‘Der Knappe und die Frau’
fol. 57r-59v = ‘Der schwere Traum’
fol. 59v-64v = ‘Die Beichte einer Frau’
fol. 64v-69r = Hermann von Sachsenheim: ‘Die Grasmetze’
fol. 69v-73r = ‘Traumerscheinung einer schönen Frau’
fol. 73v = blank
fol. 74r-80r = ‘Die sechs Kronen’
fol. 80v-84v = ‘Der schlafende Hund’

The first two texts are treatises on the hunt. Even if hunting is often a metaphor for the pursuit of love, these texts were intended as texts on hunting.
The next group brings together texts that make use on allegorical, but also real life properties on plants where love often plays an important part.
The third part is rather bawdy, with texts about wine and beer – and obscene texts about women. The last part is made up of more or less classical Minnereden – and note that tha manuscript contains one text that is also transmitted in the other manuscript in this part of the exhibition.

What do we know about how this book was used?

• The texts in the booklets were quite new at the time.
• They were written by local authors of high standing.
• They were collector‘s items.
• They represent the connection of two noble families (which can be concluded from the names in the manuscript).

Beginning of ‘Die Grasmetze’ by Hermann von Sachsenheim; Berlin, SBB-PK, Ms.Germ.Quart 719, fol. 196r.

It is obvious that the texts are interesting for different readers, catering to all tastes from the didactic to the erotic, and they also are a form of noble self-representation (like status symbols). Maybe not on a material level, since what you see here is the most elaborate page in a fairly average manuscript.

But the content – texts about love – seems to have worked as a means of representation: the texts show the marital and literary conjunction of two noble houses. They fit together well (as does the book). The only puzzling thing in this context are the prayers which seem quite out of place in this manuscript. But there might be one explanation for them which would also help us date the manuscript.

There is another manuscript from the same period that also shows how texts about love could function as a noble representation.