R. Sale > 12-07-2020, 01:09 AM
I do believe I had read it a while back, but as it didn't apply to my investigations at the time, it didn't stick. Perhaps it is more relevant now, but what does it really say? It says that the Oresme text (BNF Fr. 565) made in Paris c. 1410, owned by Jean de Berry, d. 1416, was found in the Bourbon library in 1523. And it was presumed that it had been inherited? / came into the possession of his daughter, Marie de Berry, married 1401 to Jean de Bourbon,and he was captured in 1415 at Agincourt, and died in London in 1434.
But when her father died in 1416, did she really get the whole libraary? According to her biography, she got 40 books in lieu of 70,000 francs as dowery for husband #2.
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So if there were 300 texts to chose from, would the 'Oresme' text be among the top 40? Of the 300, only 100 have survived. Of 15 different 'Books of Hours', only 6 are known. And two of those: 'Tres Riches Heures" and the 'Turin Hours' both have unusual histories. They did not sit safely on the shelves of the Bourbon library.
You've got to have a fondness for Aristotle if you want to read Oresme's translation.
When Jean de Berry died in 1416, where was the library? Mehun-sur-Yevre?? Where did it go then? Was there an inventory? If Marie took 40 books, that leaves some for others. Forty books to 70K, they need to that the most expensive ones. Does 'Oresme' really qualify?
When Marie died in 1434, she was in Lyon, but both she and the duke were buried in Souvigny. Was that her primary residence? Is that where their books were kept? Was there an inventory in 1434?
And in the end it really is not the text itself that matters to this investigation. It is the set of ideas that the text contains. In this case it is the structure of the inverted T-O cosmos, which can be carried by human agents or by illustrated text - - with 43 undulations.
A second example of a similar cosmic structure also comes out of Paris somewhat later (Harley 334), dated to second quarter of the 1400s, or 1430-1440.
The original comparison of the cosmos (f29) can be supplemented with the comparison of the 'pond scenes' - Harley 334 f57 with VMs f79v. It's not the appearance, it's the 'thing' that is being represented - the pond scene. And what does tradition offer up for the first part of the 1400s? One interpretation is Melusine, mythical ancestress for the four Valois sons of Jean the Good and Bonne of Luxembourg. They inherited the Luxembourg version of this mythology through the mother. If comparison results in a potential connection, the the later date of Harley 334 moves the VMs creation to the latter part of the parchment dates. And it ties in better with events in the Duchy of Burgundy in the 1430s. Both the Golden Fleece and la Sainte Hostie de Dijon occur in the early 1430s.