Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Le chemin de paradis (The way to paradise)

Authors

• Germain, Jean, 1397-1461 (http://viaf.org/viaf/10788701)

Other related names

• Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/73979081)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Lewis E 210
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1609892

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Middle French (ca. 1400-1600); Latin

Origin

Place

Burgundy?, France

Summary

This manuscript is a copy of a didactic work by Jean Germain, bishop of Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy, the text originally written in 1457. It illustrates the progress of the Church. The text describes in five parts a planned tapestry showing biblical and allegorical figures pulling a wagon bearing the Church Militant and explains their meanings. Six double-page watercolor illustrations of sections of the tapestry accompany the text, with an illustration for each part plus an extra illustration for the fifth part. The text is in Middle French, except for prayers in Latin, and written in bâtarde script with the first line of each chapter in textualis quadrata; the heavy ink of these display letters has damaged several leaves due to oxidization. Occasional corrections have been made by crossing out words or phrases in red. The first leaf of the table of contents is missing, and there also seems to be text missing in the fifth part (following fol. 175).

Notes

• Written in pencil is the comment, "An extremely important volume. The drawings represent the tapestry which Jean Germain, Bishop of Chalon, had made for his cathedral (? the prologue). It is therefore extremely curious and valuable for the history of early French tapestry. T??." On the back endpaper is written, "Collections sll. i10 ii-xiiii12 xv5
   

Extent

Iii+186+iii; 275 x 195 mm bound to 290 x 215 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, upper center recto

Collation

1 (4, -1), 2 (2), 3 (10), 4-5 (12), 6 (2), 7-10 (12), 11-12 (14), 13 (12), 14 (14), 15-16 (12), 17 (8), 18 (11, +11)

Signatures

Quires 4-16 signed ii-xiii, lower right first recto, skipping Quire 6, which is a parchment bifolium bound in between quires

Support

Mixed

Catchwords

Horizontal catchwords in ink, lower right last verso, underlined or boxed; the last catchword (fol. 175v) does not match the text that follows it

Binding

Eighteenth-century brown calf over pasteboard; "CHEMIN DU PARAD[IS] PAR S. GERMAIN EVESQUE DE CHALONS. MANUSCRIT CURIEUX [P]AR SES MINIATURES DE 1380" stamped in gold on spine; Phillipps label 219 pasted on tail of spine

Layout

One column of twenty to thirty-three lines; frame-ruled in lead; written area: 184 x 107 mm

Decoration

Six double-page watercolor illustrations on parchment, depicting the procession of the Church Militant and interspersed to correspond with appropriate sections of the text; six large decorated initials in red, blue, and yellow at the openings of the first two parts (fols. 6r, 42r); large initials in red at the beginning of the remaining parts (fols. 94r, 108r, 142v); smaller decorated initials in red at the beginning of each chapter; eleven small figures drawn within ascenders; rubrication for chapters in red; initials touched with yellow

Script

Bâtarde

Gothic--textualis quadrata

Provenance

• Early inscriptions crossed out (lower margins, fols. 72v and 168r); the name Jehan in lead (lower margin, fol. 77r); Sir Thomas Phillips (stamp on front flyleaf and number MS. 219 on flyleaf, inside front cover, and on label on tail of spine); acquired from H. P. Kraus, New York (cat. 75, no. 39); Free Library of Philadelphia; inscriptions on front endpaper include "160," "140," "$2,800.00," and "Okay."
   

Related resources

• Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, originated by C. U. Faye, continued and edited by W. H. Bond (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1962), p. 451, no. 21.
• Moodey, Elizabeth J., "Unlikely Heroes in Jean Germain's Vision of Orthodoxy," Essays in Medieval Studies 29 (2014): pp. 106-109 (article pp. 103-112).

Keywords

• 15th century
• French
• Missing leaves
• France
• Allegory
• Biblical
• Illustration
• Theology

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E 210: Le chemin de paradis (The way to paradise) are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Free Library of Philadelphia Lewis E 210: Le chemin de paradis (The way to paradise). This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — [Partial table of contents (begins imperfectly with the end of Part I)]
• fol. 6r — La première partie
• fol. 42r — La seconde partie
• fol. 94r — La tierce partie
• fol. 108r — La quarte partie
• fol. 142v — La cinquiesme partie
• fol. 184v — Symbolum Apostolorum
• fol. 185r — Symbolum Nicenum
• fol. 185r — Symbolum Constantinopolitanum
• fol. 185v — Symbolum Ecclesie Romane

Decorations

• Flyleaf 1 recto — Owner's stamp, Sir Thomas Phillipps
• fol. 4v — Illustration of ecclesiastical procession with author portrait of Jean Germain
• fol. 5r — Illustration of ecclesiastical procession with author portrait of Jean Germain (continued)
• fol. 6r — Decorated initial I
• fol. 40v — Allegorical illustration of the three estates in a wagon representing the Church
• fol. 41r — Allegorical illustration of the three estates in a wagon representing the Church (continued)
• fol. 42r — Decorated initial A
• fol. 92v — Allegorical illustration of the era under Natural Law
• fol. 93r — Allegorical illustration of the era under Natural Law (continued)
• fol. 106v — Allegorical illustration of the era under the Law of Moses
• fol. 107r — Allegorical illustration of the era under the Law of Moses (continued)
• fol. 140v — Allegorical illustration of the era under the Church
• fol. 141r — Allegorical illustration of the era under the Church (continued)
• fol. 172v — Illustration of Church Councils
• fol. 173r — Illustration of Church Councils (continued)
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Owner's stamp, Sir Thomas Phillipps