Provenance

UCB 107 was likely produced in Northern France, transcribed by Picard scribes and illuminated and decorated by North French artists. Several manuscript details indicate this provenance. First is the subject matter itself. According to Roger Loomis (1975), the nobility in Northern France had a “special enthusiasm” for Arthurian Legend such that the majority of extant 13th century illuminated copies of Arthurian romances come from Northern France, not Paris as one might assume (p. 89). The reasons behind this fad are worth further scholarly inquiry, but are beyond the scope of this project.

The other indicators of a provenance in Northern France include the calendar that precedes the text of the romance, details of the Gothic script employed by the scribe and the illustration style.

CALENDAR

UCB 107 includes a calendar that was not originally part of the manuscript but that is contemporary with it. The calendar is characteristic of medieval calendars, illuminated with a combination of the zodiac signs for each month of the year as well as depictions of monthly occupations. Only three leaves of the calendar have survived. In addition to the roundels decorated with gold of the zodiac signs and monthly occupations, the calendar also features painted initials decorated with gold on squares of red and blue. Calendar entries are done in red, blue and brown ink.

The deaths and saints’ feast days entered onto calendars vary and often give evidence of origin and provenance (Brown, 1994). While the UCB 107 calendar is done primarily in Latin, the names of the saints are in French and they are particular to northern France, although they do not indicate any particular locality, which provides further evidence of a provenance in Northern France.

In addition to provenance, the calendar also gives us some indication of who owned and commissioned the manuscript. Calendars were usually included with religious works such as psalters and books of hours to help the reader calculate movable religious feast dates such as Easter (Brown, 1994). However, this calendar precedes an Arthurian Romance. Aside from religious works, calendars were often included in private, university and administrative books (Brown, 1994). Of the three, it seems most likely that UCB 107 belonged to a private collection given the degree to which the calendar is decorated. It is illuminated with gold leaf, contains numerous figurative decorations, and makes use of three ink colors. While not as elaborately illustrated as calendars in the most luxurious manuscripts, the expense that went into decorating this calendar elevates it above mere function and would make the most sense in a private library context.

SCRIPT

The script of the main text also supports a provenance in Northern France. It appears to be the work of a single scribe, done in a rounded gothic hand that features flat-headed t’s. Gothic script was fairly standard for manuscripts produced in the 13th century, but there were many possible variations in style. The style in UCB 107 is unlike Parisian script and was therefore likely done by a Picardy scribe (Picardy is a region in the North of France), the main school of scribes outside Paris (Loomis, 1975).



ILLUSTRATION STYLE

We can see one final indication that UCB 107 was produced in Northern France by examining the faces of the figures in the manuscript’s miniatures. They are almost uncolored except for dots of pink in the cheeks, a style which was common among North French book artists at this time (Loomis, 1975).



Less definitive, though worth noting, is the overall simplicity of the illustrations throughout the work. While simplicity alone would not indicate a provenance of Northern France, considered with the rest of the indicators, it is consistent. As Loomis (1975) notes of the artists of the North French school, “they lacked the extreme refinement and sophistication of the best Parisian artists.” At their most mediocre, these artists lacked not only technique but imagination, regularly recycling a set of stock subjects such as a person in prayer or knights fighting to illustrate their manuscripts regardless of textual content. However, at their best, the simplicity of their style could be vibrant and charming.


The illuminator of UCB 107 probably falls somewhere between these two extremes. Examining the miniatures, we see little or no shading, the hands are not modeled or articulated, the faces are expressive but generally do not contain much variation in expression, and there are few details in the images. However, there is a boldness to the lines and colors and a liveliness to the figures that captures our attention and imaginations.

UCB 107 Manuscript images courtesy of the Digital Scriptorium