Les Chroniques d'Angleterre, Volume IV

This manuscript is volume IV in a set of five from the collection "Recueil des chroniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne," written by Phillip the Good's counselor and chamberlain Jean de Wavrin. It chronicles the history of England from the early years of the reign of Richard II in 1377 to the demise of Henry IV, his successor, between 1400 and 1413. This volume, produced in Flanders between 1470 and 1480, was part of a set of which volumes II, III and V were recorded in the inventory of the library of William III of Orange in 1686, and was later rebound during the seventeenth or eighteenth century. Six three-quarter-page miniatures open the text of each book and depict events documented therein (with the exception of that of Book 1, portraying Richard II's coronation, which occurs prior to the period detailed in that book). The manuscript's margins are wide and relatively pristine throughout the textblock, but show significant signs of use on illuminated folios, indicating that this manuscript was primarily used for display and not as a historical text. Although few volumes of the Chroniques remain, this manuscript is particularly rare in that it is one of the two surviving exemplars of the text of volume IV, the other being part of the complete set in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BN fr. 74-85). Volumes II, III, and V of the set to which this volume originally belonged are now in the collection of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Den Haag, KB : 133 A 7).

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Robert Blathwayt, Dyrham Park, Chippenham, England, 19th century (?) [1]. Sotheby's Sale, London, November 20 1912, lot 125; purchased by Sabin, London, 1912. Leo S. Olschki, Florence [2]; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, before 1914; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

[1] The manuscript has possible evidence of two previous provenance episodes: visible brown ink inscription ("27-6" on fol. 1) possibly indicative of price and related to this volume's separation from the set of three others (II, III, V) mentioned in the 1686 inventory of the library of William III of Orange; ex-libris (cropped, in brown, faded ink) on fol. 2 reads "Philipp. Franc...," ca. 1700
[2] His inventory number 35396 on front pastedown in pencil