4— Preliminary Considerations
1. For other aspects of the prologues, see Ch. 1 above at nn. 32-33. [BACK]
8. For short descriptions of seventeen manuscripts, see Ethiques , 46-52. Four manuscripts containing Oresme's translations of the Ethics were unknown to Menut. All date from the fifteenth century: Rome, Vatican Library, MS reg. lat. 1341; Oxford University, Bodleian Library, MS 965a; New York, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Collections, MS 283; and London, Brit. Lib., Egerton MS 737. Only the last has a miniature, a frontispiece on fol. 1. [BACK]
9. "Traducteurs et leur publique," 18. [BACK]
10. Saenger, "Silent Reading," 407. break [BACK]
11. For further discussion of these images in Oxford, St. John's College, MS 164, and Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS fr. 24287, see Sherman, Portraits , 74-75; idem, "Representations of Charles V as a Wise Ruler," Medievalia et Humanistica , n.s. 2 (1971): 87-89. [BACK]
12. For a discussion of this image, see below, Ch. 5 at nn. 19-24. For Saenger's interpretation, see "Silent Reading," 407. [BACK]
13. Ethiques , 99. This phrase also appears in the Politiques prologue, 44. [BACK]
14. The image suggests a parallel to university lectures, at which masters read out the text and then commented on or explained it. [BACK]
15. Vol. 1, 222. [BACK]
16. Fais et bonnes meurs , vol. 1, 47-48.
17. Ibid., vol. 1, 40. [BACK]
16. Fais et bonnes meurs , vol. 1, 47-48.
17. Ibid., vol. 1, 40. [BACK]
18. Le livre de la paix , ed. Charity Cannon Willard (The Hague, Mouton, 1958), 68. [BACK]
19. Prologue, vol. 1, 4. [BACK]
20. Cited in de Laborde, Les manuscrits à peintures de la Cité de Dieu , vol. 1, 65. [BACK]
21. See Astrik L. Gabriel, The Educational Ideas of Vincent of Beauvais (Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre Dame Press, 1962), 45, citing Vincent's preface to the De morali principis institutione ; Gassman, " Translatio studii ," 534. The position continued at the court of Francis I. The title lecteurs royaux , applied to scholars who taught at the institution that Francis I founded, later called the College of France, was apparently unconnected with the earlier title and function. See William Nelson, "From 'Listen, Lordings' to 'Dear Reader,'" University of Toronto Quarterly 46/2 (1976-77): 113-14. [BACK]
22. Fais et bonnes meurs , vol. 2, 62-63. In this account Christine adds the moving anecdote that the accidental death of Malet's young son did not prevent Malet from continuing his daily reading. I am grateful to Joyce Coleman for calling this passage to my attention and for sharing information drawn from her dissertation, entitled "The World's Ear: The Aurality of Late Medieval Literature" (Ph.D. diss., University of Edinburgh, 1993). [BACK]
23. Ethiques , 461-62. [BACK]
24. See below, Ch. 13 at nn. 8-24, for discussion of the lavish illustration of this topic in MS C . [BACK]
25. Bäuml, "Varieties and Consequences of Medieval Literacy," 263-64; Beryl Smalley, Historians in the Middle Ages (New York: Scribner, 1975), 174-75. [BACK]
26. See Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record , 230. break [BACK]
27. V. A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984), 20-58. The following paragraph owes much to his discussion of these topics.
28. Ibid., 25.
29. Ibid., 43-45, referring to Yates, The Art of Memory , Chs. 3 and 4. See also above, Ch. 3 at n. 67; Carruthers, The Book of Memory , particularly 122-55. [BACK]
27. V. A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984), 20-58. The following paragraph owes much to his discussion of these topics.
28. Ibid., 25.
29. Ibid., 43-45, referring to Yates, The Art of Memory , Chs. 3 and 4. See also above, Ch. 3 at n. 67; Carruthers, The Book of Memory , particularly 122-55. [BACK]
27. V. A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984), 20-58. The following paragraph owes much to his discussion of these topics.
28. Ibid., 25.
29. Ibid., 43-45, referring to Yates, The Art of Memory , Chs. 3 and 4. See also above, Ch. 3 at n. 67; Carruthers, The Book of Memory , particularly 122-55. [BACK]
30. For a full description of MSS A and C , see Appendixes I and II above. Henceforth, unless otherwise noted, references to Oresme's translation of the Politics also include that of the Economics . [BACK]
31. The term for the second category of illustrations was suggested by the excellent article of Morton W. Bloomfield, "A Grammatical Approach to Personification Allegory," Modern Philology 60/3 (1963): 161-71. [BACK]
32. Hercules am Scheidewege , 160. [BACK]
33. Delisle, Mélanges de paléographie , 264. Dimensions of manuscripts are given in millimeters; those of miniatures, in centimeters.
34. Ibid., 272. [BACK]
33. Delisle, Mélanges de paléographie , 264. Dimensions of manuscripts are given in millimeters; those of miniatures, in centimeters.
34. Ibid., 272. [BACK]
35. See Appendix II for further details. [BACK]
36. See Ch. 3 above at nn. 60-62. [BACK]
37. For the history of B , see above, Appendixes I and III. [BACK]
38. MS B is usually dated after 1374, whereas MS C was finished in, or by, 1376. [BACK]
39. See Ch. 22 below at n. 6. [BACK]