Collection ID: 0031 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

La cité de dieu (The City of God)

Authors

• Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430 (http://viaf.org/viaf/66806872)

Other related names

• Raoul, de Presles, 1316-1382, translator (http://viaf.org/viaf/46292)
• Orosius Master (Bohemian illuminator, active late fourteenth and early fifteenth century), artist (http://viaf.org/viaf/160471619)
• Berry, Jean de France, duc de, 1340-1416, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/102321347)
• Lothian, Philip Henry Kerr, marquis of, 1882-1940, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/69735789)
• Bishop, Cortlandt F. (Cortlandt Field), 1870-1935, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/4920254)
• Collins, Philip S., 1864-1943, former owner
• Collins, Mary Schell, former owner

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

1945‑65‑1
(Philadelphia, United States, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Philip S. Collins Collection)

Alternate identifiers

• DeRicci: 2323
• DeRicci: 470

Publisher

Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs

Language

Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)

Origin

Place

Paris, France

Summary

This manuscript is a deluxe illuminated copy of the first five books of Raoul de Presles's French translation of and commentary on Augustine's City of God, a theological and historical treatise countering the claim that the Roman Empire fell because of its conversion to Christianity. The French translation, commissioned by Charles V, was completed in 1375, and this copy of the first five books of the text was illuminated by the Orosius Master and his workshop in Paris, circa 1408-1410, possibly for Jean, duc de Berry. The first column miniature in the manuscript, marking the dedication to Charles V, depicts Raoul de Presles presenting his translation to the king (fol. 1r). A three-quarter-page miniature of the City of God and the City of the Pagans marks the beginning of the first book (fol. 5r) and double-column miniatures mark the beginning of each of the following books, as is true for many illuminated copies of this text. In addition, however, the first and second books of this manuscript are extensively illuminated with column miniatures at the beginning of each chapter, often drawing on the commentary for historical and literary source material. The text is written in two columns of textualis semi-quadrata script. At least one leaf is missing at the end of the volume, where the text breaks off near the end of the fifth book.

Notes

• Late eighteenth-century paper flyleaves
   

Extent

Iii+173+iii; 435 x 315 mm bound to 455 x 335 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto

Collation

1-21 (8), 22 (6, -6)

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

Horizontal catchwords, lower right last verso

Binding

Scottish brown Russia leather binding by James Scott of Edinburgh, gilt boards and spine, circa 1790; spine title, Augustin De la cite de Dieu M.S.

Layout

Two columns of fifty-two lines; frame-ruled in faint red ink; written area: 290 x 208 mm

Decoration

One three-quarter page miniature divided into four quatrefoils with an ivy-leaf border marking the beginning of Book 1 (fol. 5r); four double-column miniatures marking the beginnings of Books 2 through 5 (fols. 28v, 66v, 115v, 143v); fifty-nine column miniatures at the chapter divisions in Books 1 and 2; illuminated and decorated initials throughout, five to nine lines in height at book divisions and three to five lines in height at chapter divisions; alternating blue and gold paragraph marks throughout; rubrication in red throughout; line fillers in blue and gold in rubrication and lists of chapter headings

Script

Gothic--textualis semi-quadrata

Provenance

• Possibly made for Jean, duc de Berry (1340-1416); the Marquesses of Lothian, holders of the title Earl of Ancram (armorial bookplate with angel and unicorn as supporters and mottos Nemo me impune lacessit and Sero sed serio, inside upper cover; armorial booklabel with angel and unicorn as supporters and motto Sero sed serio, inside lower cover; 18th-century signature Ancram on occasional leaves), the last owner in that family being Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian (1882-1940); his sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, January 27-28, 1932, lot 10, illustration; Barnet J. Beyer (bookseller), New York; Cortlandt Field Bishop, New York (bookplate); his sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, April 5, 1938, lot 155; Philip S. Collins, Philadelphia (bookplate); given by his wife, Mary Schell Collins, to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1945 in memory of her husband
   

Related resources

• De Ricci, Seymour, with the assistance of W. J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, vol. 2 (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1935-40), p. 2323, no. 56.
• Faye, C.U., continued and edited by W.H. Bond, Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada (New York: Bibliographical Society of America, 1962), p. 470, no. 7.
• Zigrosser, Carl, "The Philip S. Collins Collection of Mediaeval Illuminated Manuscripts," Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 58, no. 275 (Autumn 1962): p. 15-17 (article pp. 3-34).
• "Parish of Newbattle," in The Statistical Account of Scotland, edited by J. Sinclair (1794), vol. 10, pp. 212-217.
• Daivd Laing, ed., The Correspondence of Sir Robert Kerr, First Earl of Ancram, and His Son William, Third Earl of Lothian (Edinburgh, 1875), vol. 2, p. 537.
• The Walters Art Gallery and the Baltimore Museum of Art, Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, exhibit catalog (Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949), no. 82, pl. xxxix.
• The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, The International Style: The Arts in Europe around 1400, exhibit catalog (Baltimore: The Walters Art Gallery, 1962), pp. 52-54, no. 49.
• Catherine Sweeney Scott, "The Collins Cité de Dieu: Ms. '45-65-1, Philip E. Collins Collection,' Philadelphia Museum of Art" (master's thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1967).
• Millard Meiss, with Kathleen Morand and Edith W. Kirsch, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicault Master (London, Phaidon, 1968), pp. 45, 142, pl. 488).
• Millard Meiss, with Sharon Off Dunlap Smith and Elizabeth Home Beatson, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and Their Contemporaries (London: Thams and Hudson for The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1974), text volume, pp. 51, 62-63, 354-355, 399, figs. 218, 277, 665.
• Sharon Off Dunlap Smith, "Illustrations of Raoul de Praelles' Translation of St. Augustine's 'City of God' Between 1375 and 1420" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1974), volume 1, pp. 158-161, 273-280; vol. 2, figs. 111-113.
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Leaves of Gold: Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections, edited by James R. Tanis (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001), pp. 199-202, no. 69.
• Heather Elizabeth Tennison, "Valois Court Politics in the Time of Jean of Berry and the Collins Cité de Dieu: PMA Collins 1945-65-1" (master's thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011).

Keywords

• Treatise
• 15th century
• French
• Illumination
• Miniature
• France
• Church Fathers
• Theology

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs 1945‑65‑1: La cité de dieu (The City of God) 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, Philadelphia Museum of Art has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs 1945‑65‑1: La cité de dieu (The City of God). 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 — [Dedication]
• fol. 2v — [Prologue]
• fol. 3r — [Chapter headings for Book 1]
• fol. 3v — [Retractations]
• fol. 5r — [Book 1]
• fol. 28r — [Chapter headings for Book 2]
• fol. 29r — [Book 2]
• fol. 65v — [Chapter headings for Book 3]
• fol. 66v — [Book 3]
• fol. 114v — [Chapter headings for Book 4]
• fol. 115v — [Book 4]
• fol. 143r — [Chapter headings for Book 5]
• fol. 143r — [Book 5]

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Armorial bookplate, Marquesses of Ancram
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Cortland Field Bishop
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Philip S. Collins
• Flyleaf 3 verso — Label, Bookbinder John Scott
• fol. 1r — Column miniature, Raoul de Presles presenting his translation to Charles V
• fol. 1r — Illuminated initial A with ivy-leaf extensions
• fol. 2v — Column miniature, Raoul de Presles writing
• fol. 2v — Illuminated initial N with ivy-leaf extensions
• fol. 3v — Column miniature, Saint Augustine writing
• fol. 3v — Illuminated initial P with ivy-leaf extensions
• fol. 5r — Three-quarter-page miniature, City of God, pagan city, God the Father, fall of the rebel angels
• fol. 5r — Illuminated initial M
• fol. 5r — Full ivy-leaf border
• fol. 6r — Column miniature, Alaric invading Rome
• fol. 6v — Column miniature, Aeneas sails from Troy; Juno restrains Aeolus from sending a favorable wind
• fol. 6v — Illuminated initial U with ivy-leaf extensions
• fol. 7v — Column miniature, Troy in flames; Panthus, with his grandson, hands Aeneas the city's idols for safekeeping
• fol. 7v (flap open) — Column miniature, Troy in flames; Panthus, with his grandson, hands Aeneas the city's idols for safekeeping
• fol. 8r — Column miniature, Temple of Juno in Troy containing the city's treasure held by Ulysses and Phoenix
• fol. 8v — Column miniature, Marcus Marcellus at the siege of Syracuse
• fol. 9r — Column miniature, Fabius, conqueror of Taranto, gives orders regard­ing the city's treasures
• fol. 11r — Column miniature, Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, offers a purse to free prisoners
• fol. 12r — Column miniature, Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, offers himself as a prisoner to free the son of a widow
• fol. 12v — Column miniature, King Lysimachus threatens to crucify Theodorus of Cyrene
• fol. 13r — Column miniature, A dying man gives his children instructions for burial
• fol. 13v — Column miniature, Arion and his harp on the back of a dolphin
• fol. 14r — Column miniature, Son of Regulus condemns the Car­thaginian prisoners to death
• fol. 15v — Column miniature, Marcus Regulus is put to death
• fol. 15v — Column miniature, Suicide of Hasdrubal's wife at the fall of Carthage
• fol. 16v — Column miniature, Collatinus proud to find his wife Lucretia at home
• fol. 17r — Column miniature, Rape of Lucretia
• fol. 18r — Column miniature, Suicide of Lucretia
• fol. 18v — Column miniature, Jephthah slays his daughter in fulfillment of a vow
• fol. 19r — Column miniature, Theobertus commits suicide after reading Plato's Immortality of the Soul
• fol. 19v — Column miniature, Suicide of Cato in Utica
• fol. 20v — Column miniature, Manlius Torquatus orders the execution of his son
• fol. 21v — Column miniature, Suicide of Sempronia
• fol. 22r — Column miniature, Ypo throws herself into the sea to escape abductors
• fol. 23r — Column miniature, Death of Empedocles on Etna
• fol. 23v — Column miniature, Roman senators entrust the care of idols to Scipio Nasica
• fol. 24r — Column miniature, Phrygian idol of Cybele brought to Rome by sea
• fol. 25r — Column miniature, Romans supplicate gods to avert plague
• fol. 26r — Column miniature, Roman theater
• fol. 26v — Column miniature, Ritual sacrifice of black beasts during Lectisternium ceremony
• fol. 27r — Column miniature, Romulus and Remus in their sanctuary
• fol. 28v — Double-column miniature, Saint Augustine witnessing Lectisternium ceremony
• fol. 29r — Column miniature, Saint Augustine with a disciple
• fol. 30r — Column miniature, Ruse of Hercules and flight of the shepherd Faunus
• fol. 31v — Column miniature, Self-emasculation of Attis before idol of Berecynthia
• fol. 33r — Column miniature, Jupiter and Ganymede
• fol. 34v — Column miniature, Lovers in a garden with a book
• fol. 35v — Column miniature, Plautus turning the mill
• fol. 37r — Column miniature, Naevius writing his retractions in prison
• fol. 37r — Column miniature, Aeschines offers himself to Socrates
• fol. 38r — Column miniature, Labeo talks to the Roman Emperor
• fol. 38v — Column miniature, Dispute on the theater between the Greeks and Romans
• fol. 39v — Column miniature, Romulus and Remus consult the oracle of the birds
• fol. 42r — Column miniature, The Flamen Dialis in the Temple of Mars
• fol. 43r — Column miniature, Three Roman ambassadors journeying to Athens to copy Solon's laws
• fol. 45r — Column miniature, Rape of the Sabine women
• fol. 46v — Column miniature, Insurrection of the Roman populace against nobles
• fol. 49r — Column miniature, Naevius Agrippa calming the Roman populace
• fol. 49v — Column miniature, Fall of Sardanapalus
• fol. 50v — Column miniature, Tiberius Gracchus slain by Roman nobles
• fol. 53r — Column miniature, Gauls attacking the Capitoline with goose sounding alarm
• fol. 56v — Column miniature, Civil war in Rome between Lucius Sulla and Gaius Marius
• fol. 58v — Column miniature, Divination by inspection of entrails for Lucius Sulla
• fol. 60v — Column miniature, Battle of the gods
• fol. 62r — Column miniature, Saint Augustine witnessing lewd rites at the altar of the goddess of chastity
• fol. 63r — Column miniature, Cicero presiding at the rites of Flora
• fol. 64r — Column miniature, The Church
• fol. 64r — Column miniature, Pagan temple and Church
• fol. 66v — Double-column miniature, Founding and destruction of Troy
• fol. 66v — Partial ivy-leaf border
• fol. 66v — Illuminated initial I
• fol. 115v — Double-column miniature, City disasters including flood, earthquake, rain of fire, and swallowing by a chasm
• fol. 115v — Partial ivy-leaf border
• fol. 115v — Illuminated initial P
• fol. 143v — Double-column miniature, left to right: Hippocrates and Posidonius by the bed of two patients; Nigidius proving the fallacy of horoscopes with a potter's wheel
• fol. 143v — Partial ivy-leaf border
• fol. 143v — Illuminated initial P
• Flyleaf 3 verso — Label, Bookbinder John Scott