APPENDIX II—
MS C:
ARISTOTLE, ETHICA NICOMACHEA , FRENCH TRANSLATION OF NICOLE ORESME. PARIS, 1376 (THE HAGUE, RIJKSMUSEUM MUSEUM MEERMANNO-WESTREENIANUM, MS 10 D 1)

Text Divisions

Fols. 1–4, glossary of difficult words (no title): "Pour ceste science plus clerement entendre, Je vueil de habondant exposer aucuns mos selon l'ordre de l'a.b.c." Fols. 5–6, translator's prologue addressed to King Charles V of France: "Ci commence le livre de Ethiques et premierement le prologue du translateur .^[1] En la confiance de l'ayde de nostre seigneur Jhesu Crist, du commandement de tres noble et tres excellent prince Charles, quint de ce nom, par la grace de Dieu roy de France, Je Nicole Oresme doyen de l'eglise de nostre dame de Rouen propose translater de latin en françois aucuns livres les quels fist Aristote le souverain philosophe." Fols. 6–6v, Excusacion et recommendacion de tel labeur : "Prescian dit, en un petit livre que il fist des metres de Terente, que de tous les langages du monde latin est le plus habile pour miex exprimer et plus noblement son intencion." Fols. 6v–7, chapter titles for Book I: "Ci commence le livre d'Ethiques lequel fist Aristote le quel livre contient .x. livres parcials ." Fol. 7, explanatory note added by scribe, Raoulet d'Orléans: "Et pour ce que cest livre d'Ethiques soit plus legier a estudier, Je qui l'ay escript ay mis texte et glose tout en entresuyvant et ay signé le texte a tel lectre T , qui fait texte. Et quant la glose ou exposicion comme ce je y met tel lectre de vermeillon O qui fait Oresme. In nomine domini amen." Fol. 7, incipit, Book I: "Tout art et toute doctrine." Fol. 214v, Book X, explicit: "Or dison donques et commençons." Fol. 215, colophon: "Ci fine le livre d'Ethiques le quel fist faire tres noble, tres excellent et vray catholique prince Charles le quint, par la grace et loenge de Dieu roy de France, et l'escripst Raoulet d'Orliens l'an M.CCC.LXVI. Deo gracias."^[2]

Structure and Layout

Parchment, 216 fols. ii (parchment) + 216 + 1 (parchment). Fols. 4v, 149v, and 216 blank: I (1); II (5) 8; III (13) 8; IV (21) 8; V (29) 8; VI (37) 8; VII (45) 8; VIII (53) 8; IX (61) 8; X (69) 8; XI (77) 8; XII (85) 8; XIII (93) 8; XIV (101) 8; XV (109) 8; XVI (117) 8; XVII (125) 8; XVIII (133) 8; XIX (141) 8; XX (149) 8; XXI (157) 8; XXII (165) 8 + 1; XXIII (175) 6; XXIV (181) 8; XXV (189) 8; XXVI (197) 8; XXVII (205) 8; XXVIII (213) 4

218 × 152 (justification, 146 × 93) mm. Written in 2 columns, 48 lines; ruled in pale brown ink. Text and gloss intermingled. In rubrics, text = T, Aristote , or Texte de Aristote ; gloss = O, Or , or Oresme . Gothic bookhand; one scribe, Raoulet d'Orléans, brown ink. Prickings for rulings visible. Catchwords and signature marks, lower right verso; modern pencil foliation. Book title, prologue, and book numbers centered in upper margin, alternating pen flourishes and red and blue filigrees; chapter numbers in blue Roman numerals in margins. Alternating red and blue pen line endings and paraphs; chapter titles in text in rubrics. Below miniatures beginning each book a 5–7-line gold initial, dentellated and foliated (those of fols. 110 and 170 have an interior motif of a dragon, which appears as an upper terminal on fols. 5 and 63). In glossary of difficult words, 3-line initials, alternating red and blue flourishes. Alternating red and blue, 2-line initials for chapter headings and summary paragraphs. Capital letters stroked with yellow. Diagrams (Book I, fol. 10; Book III, fol. 43v; Book V, fols. 89, 91, 92, and 92v). In the margins the abbreviation for the word note (no .) written by the scribe (fols. 8, 65, 156v, 170, 181, 182v, and 187v). Arms of Charles V effaced, fol. 5 (supporting angels still visible) and fol. 193.

Binding, 18th century, brown calf; spine, 4 raised bands; blue-colored edges, gold tooled. The placement of the glossary of difficult words at the beginning of the volume (instead of the end as in A ) may have occurred when the book was rebound. Otherwise, the text and gloss do not differ significantly from those of A .

Miniatures

Ten rectangular frontispieces, 1–3 registers. Last two illustrations executed by unidentified artists; the rest, by the Master of the Coronation of Charles VI and workshop. Book I, fol. 5, Charles V Receives the Book from Nicole Oresme, above; Félicité humaine, below (10 × 9.3)/Book II, fol. 24v, Excès, Bonne volenté, Vertu, Cognoissance, Deffaute (5.4 × 9.4)/Book III, fol. 37, Oultrecuidance, above left; Fortitude, center; Couardie, right; Désattrempance, below left; Attrempance, center; Insensibilité, right (5.5 × 9.3)/Book IV, fol. 63, Prodigalité, above left; Liberalité, center; Avarice, right; Convoitise, below (5.8 × 9.2)/Book V, fol. 84, Justice légale and the Virtues, above; Justice distributive, Justice commutative, below (5.8 × 9.2)/Book VI, fol. 110, Science, above left; Art, center; Prudence, right; Entendement, below left; Sapience, right (9.8 × 9.2)/Book VII, fol. 126, Raison, Le Continent, Concupiscence, above left; Raison, L'Incontinent, Concupiscence, above right; Raison, Le Vertueus, Concupiscence, below left; Raison, Le Vicieus, Concupiscence, below right; (10.5 × 9.2)/Book VIII, fol. 150, Amistié pour proffit, above left; Amistié pour delectacion, center; Amistié selon vertu, right; Amistié entre prince et subiez, below left; Amistié entre parens, center; Amistié entre mariez, right (10.5 × 9.3)/Book IX, fol. 170, A Ransom Dilemma: Father or Son, top; Father or Friend, center; Friend or Son, bottom (11.4 × 9.3)/Book X, fol. 193, Félicité contemplative (10.9 × 9.1).

The figures are modeled in grisaille with colored washes and frequent touches of gold for accessories. Large spiral or tiny geometric motifs of the backgrounds are painted in contrasting colors for upper and lower registers of apricot, blue, and blue-black, highlighted with gold. The sizes of the miniatures increase dramatically after Book V.

History

A copy of a document dated 10 December 1371 mentions a payment to Nicole Oresme of 100 livres for his translations of the Ethics and the Politics .^[3] Raoulet d'Orléans was paid 5 livres for his work on the Ethiques and the Politiques , presumably MSS C and D .^[4] In the colophon, the scribe states that he wrote the book in 1376. Charles V's signature, noted in the 1411 inventory of the king's library in the Louvre, is now erased.^[5] The manuscript is mentioned in all 4 inventories of this library. After the death of Charles VI, in 1425, the manuscript was sold for 16 livres to the regent, John, duke of Bedford. Following his death and that of his wife, Anne, sister of Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, the manuscript entered the library of that prince, according to inventories of 1467 and 1487. Around 1500 the volume came into the hands of Philip of Cleves, whose signature appears on fol. 215. The next owner of the manuscript to be identified is Nicholas Witsen (1641–1717), a magistrate of Amsterdam. The name Witsen appears on fol. 5, above the effaced coat of arms of Charles V supported by 2 angels. How and when the manuscript entered the collection of another Dutch family, the Meermans, is unknown. In 1824, at the Meerman auction, the manuscript (no. 874) was sold via the auctioneer—who bought it for 75 guilders. The buyer, Baron van Westreenen, paid 84 guilders for the manuscript.^[6]

Principal References[en7]Principal References^[7]

D'Alverny, "Quelques aspects du symbolisme de la Sapientia ," 321–33; Avril, La librairie , no. 205, 118–19; Berliner, "Arma Christi ," 112; Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, La librairie de Bourgogne , no. 4, 19; Boeren, Catalogus , 92–94; Byvanck, Alexander W., Les principaux manuscrits , 110–15; Byvanck, Willem G. C., Twee Fransche handschriften , 5–16; Delaissé, Medieval Miniatures , 81; Delisle, Le cabinet des manuscrits , vol. 1, 36 and 41–42; idem, Mélanges de paléographie , 265–67 and 278–80; idem, Recherches , vol. 1, 252–53; Gaspar and Lyna, Les principaux manuscrits à peintures , vol. 1, 362–64; Knops, Etudes ; Lieftinck, Manuscrits datés , vol. 1, no. 12, 56; Maumené and d'Harcourt, Iconographie des rois de France , vol. 1, no. 35, 48; Oresme, Ethiques , 47; Panofsky, Hercules am Scheidewege , 110, n. 1, 160, and 171; Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum, Verluchte handschriften uit eigen bezit , no. 16, 14; Sherman, Portraits , 22–23; idem, "Representations of Charles V," 90; idem, "Some Visual Definitions," 321.