Keywords: historical literary, prose literaryprose biography flemish manuscript walters art museum waltersartmuseum book codex flanders 15th century 15thcentury history literature, prose literatureprose texture photo border This manuscript represents one of six known copies of Laurent de Premierfait's original French translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's De Casibus Vivorum Illustrium. Premierfait's name can be found in the colophon (fol. 291v). This ca. 1400 translation has a more direct correlation with the Latin than seen in the 1406 version. A printed edition issued by Colard Mansion of Bruges in 1476 survives in over sixty copies. The Walters' manuscript W.315 represents an undecorated version of this text that left space for initials throughout which were never completed. It is additionally written on paper instead of parchment. Scribal features have been identified as South Netherlandish. Possibly French, seventeenth-eighteenth century; green silk velvet, rounded spine with five bands on containing a torn paper label with title in brown ink that reads "Bocc[ac]e/ de cas [des]/ nobles Ho[mm]es/ et Fem[mes]. All manuscript images and descriptions were created and are provided through Preservation and Access grants awarded to the Walters Art Museum by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2008-2015. Access a complete set of high-resolution archival images of this manuscript for free on The Digital Walters (www.thedigitalwalters.org/01_ACCESS_WALTERS_MANUSCRIPTS.html). For a digital “turning the pages” presentation of the manuscripts and downloadable PDFs, visit the Walters Art Museum’s Website (art.thewalters.org/browse/category/manuscript-and-rare-bo...). This manuscript represents one of six known copies of Laurent de Premierfait's original French translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's De Casibus Vivorum Illustrium. Premierfait's name can be found in the colophon (fol. 291v). This ca. 1400 translation has a more direct correlation with the Latin than seen in the 1406 version. A printed edition issued by Colard Mansion of Bruges in 1476 survives in over sixty copies. The Walters' manuscript W.315 represents an undecorated version of this text that left space for initials throughout which were never completed. It is additionally written on paper instead of parchment. Scribal features have been identified as South Netherlandish. Possibly French, seventeenth-eighteenth century; green silk velvet, rounded spine with five bands on containing a torn paper label with title in brown ink that reads "Bocc[ac]e/ de cas [des]/ nobles Ho[mm]es/ et Fem[mes]. All manuscript images and descriptions were created and are provided through Preservation and Access grants awarded to the Walters Art Museum by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2008-2015. Access a complete set of high-resolution archival images of this manuscript for free on The Digital Walters (www.thedigitalwalters.org/01_ACCESS_WALTERS_MANUSCRIPTS.html). For a digital “turning the pages” presentation of the manuscripts and downloadable PDFs, visit the Walters Art Museum’s Website (art.thewalters.org/browse/category/manuscript-and-rare-bo...). |