The Hunterian Museum Library, University of Glasgow, Ms. 60

This de luxe manuscript is a French translation of the Speculum , entitled Le Miroir de l'humaine Salvation . It was acquired by William Hunter's agent at the Gaignat sale held in Paris in 1769.^[24] The Explicit states that it was written at Bruges in 1455. There are sixty-three folios of an original sixty-four, written on vellum, 30.3 × 21.6 cm. in two columns of thirty-seven lines, in a Burgundian Bâtarde. The text is continuous, but at the beginning of each of the forty-two chapters, wherever they fall on the page, there are four narrow adjoining miniatures, the one at the left in color and the other three in grisaille with touches of gold. The skies are deep blue, often with gold stars. All of the four images together are the width of the two columns but occasionally, although they have the same base line, the individual miniatures are made taller to fill in the blank space of the previous chapter ending. The chapter ending text is often carried from the left to the right column to provide a rectilinear area for the miniatures. These do not have captions or titles as do those of the Latin manuscripts and the other French translations. Each chapter text begins with a decorated initial.

On folio 1 (Plate III-1) is a page-width miniature of the scribe kneeling to present the volume to his patron, possibly Philip the Good. Beneath this is a Prologue with decorated margins above and below. Curiously, this text does not contain a dedication to the patron nor does it identify the translator as is so carefully done in the books of Miélot. In the miniature, the Duke is seated on a marble throne within a vaulted and columned structure open on all four sides. The proffered volume is richly bound in blue with gold clasps and bosses. At the left are two standing female figures. The nearest, representing the Synagogue, in accord with medieval symbolism, is blindfolded and has a crown toppling from her head. In her left hand she holds a broken standard with a pennant, and in her right, the Tables of the Law. Beside her a white-coifed nun representing the Church holds a standard bearing a cross, and in her other hand a golden Chalice and Host.^[25] This miniature has been attributed to Willem Vrelant, and the remaining forty-two panels to his atelier.^[26] We know from the list of guild members in Bruges^[27] that in 1454 Vrelant was working there; according to some scholars he and his assistants produced more than all the other miniaturists of Bruges put together,^[28] but currently there is some doubt about the very large oeuvre attributed to his atelier.

[24] Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of the Hunterian Museum in the University of Glasgow , edited by John Young and P. H. Aitken (Glasgow, 1908), p. 68.

[25] Ibid. , p. 69.

[26] For this information we are indebted to Jack Baldwin, Keeper of Special Collections, The Library, University of Glasgow.

[27] W. H. James Weale, "Documents inédits sur les enlumineurs de Bruges" in Le Beffroi, IV (1872–73), pp. 238 ff.

[28] L. M. J. Delaissé, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968), pp. 74, 77.

In the Hunterian Catalogue the translation is attributed to Jean Miélot, but it does not correspond to the wording of either Miélot's minute or to B.N. Ms. fr. 6275. Following the Prologue the text begins on folio 1 verso "Ad ce donques que nous ne resamblons pas Lucifer." This copy omits the last three chapters and the Prohemium of the Latin manuscripts. Chapter 42 ends on folio 61 verso with "le pere et le fils et le saint esperit amen," immediately followed by the Explicit (fig. III-19).

Et ainsi fine ce present proces du myroir de lumaine saluation fait & translate de latin en franchois a bruges lan de grace mil iiij & cinquante cincq.

And thus ends this present account of the mirror of human salvation, made and translated from Latin into French at Bruges, the year of grace 1455.

III-19.
The Explicit with the place and date.
Le Miroir de l'humaine Salvation .
The Hunterian Museum Library, Glasgow, Ms. 60, fol. 61 verso.

III-20.
a. The Fall of Lucifer.
b. The Creation of Eve.
c. The Admonition.
d. The Temptation.
Le Miroir de l'humaine Salvation , Chapter I.
The Hunterian Museum Library, Glasgow, Ms. 60, fol. 1 verso.

III-21.
a. Christ Conquers the Devil.
b. Bananias Kills the Lion.
c. Samson Rends Asunder the Lion.
d. Ehud Pierces Eglon.
Le Miroir de l'humaine Salvation , Chapter XXIX.
The Hunterian Museum Library, Glasgow, Ms. 60, fol. 42 recto.

III-22.
a. The Last Judgment.
b. The Parable of the Ten Talents.
c. The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins.
d. Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin.
Le Miroir de l'humaine Salvation , Chapter XLII.
The Hunterian Museum Library, Glasgow, Ms. 60, fol. 57 verso.