The Monypenny Breviary. by Albert Van De Put, Victori Alberd Aan T Museum
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72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JANUARY 9, IV. THE MONYPENNY BREVIARY. BY ALBERT VAN DE PUT, VICTORI ALBERD AAN T MUSEUM. The perennial attractiveness of the theme of Scotland's foreign relation e lateth rn i sMiddl e Age s recentlha s y been exemplifie ay db French provincial publication, according to which eleven Scots families had houses at Bourges between 1436 and 1500.1 The statement fits admirably inte accepteoth d pictur f contemporaro e y Franco-Scottish intercourse, e.g. as conveyed by Francisque Michel's Les Ecossais en* France—les Frangais en Ecosse (1862), or by William Forbes-Leith's Scots Men-at-Arms and Life-Guards in France (1882); but it likewise suggests the existence of much unworked material for a revision of the subject.2 To the extensiveness of the field for research—and it is recalled that som f theseo e families established themselvee s th als n oi Champagne—is no doubt due the existence of a point at which even famila f baroniayo l rank cease o exercist s e inquire sideon , n eryo e awakening curiosit e otherth n y.o Some such considerations have suggested themselves to the -writer in connection wit s discoveryhhi a manuscrip n i , t lately brought to England from a convent at Los Arcos, near Jerez de la Fronterar n south-wesi t Spain f portraito , e Monypennyth d arm an f so s s of Ardwenny, a family which held lands in the duchy of Berry in France from the mid-fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century. The MS. in question—a thick tome with numerous illuminations—is one of which it is difficult to write exhaustively without the leisure essential to finality from the historical, artistic, iconographical, and heraldic standpoints. The aim of- these remarks is rather to bring so interesting a volume to the notice of Scottish antiquaries, and in some measure to sub- 1 Rene Gordon Ecossaiss Le , Berry:n e Paroisse Saint-Outrillet'de Bourges, Nevers (Impr. de la Nievre), 1919. letters-pateny B 2 10te th hf o Novembet r 1428 , s giveJame wa option na . I s eitheo t n r the duch Berre f countyo th r yf o Evreux yo exchangn i , e countth r f Saintongeefo yo , which, with chatellane th Rochefort-sur-Charentef yo beed ha ,n conferred upo alsm nohi under letters-patent issue Charley db s VII. earliee month o maturt optioe th s n Th i r wa n.e upon Charles VII. recovering witScote hele th parte h th f psth o f Franceso , especiall e duchyth Normandyf yo , then held by Henry VI. An immediate grant of Saintonge had been specially stipulated for e Scotbyth s monarc e returmarriagn hi th e r militarPrincesd th nfo an f eo d yai s Margaret with the Dauphin Louis (under the treaties of Perth and Chinon, July to October 1428). The lapsing of these treaties prevented James from obtaining any of the fiefs in question, but there is evidence that the French anticipated the possibility of a claim to Saintonge as late as 1436; more th e recentlse y publishe . BarbeA d . worL , y Margaretkb f ScotlandDauphine o th d an Louis: an historical study based mainly upon documents in the Sibliotheque Nationals, 1917, pp. 27-28, 107. THE MONYPENNY BREVIARY. 73 stantiate its claim for their consideration as a work of art and a monument to an old, well-nigh forgotten, Scottish worthy and his house. Tha Monypenne th t y Breviary cannot claiScottise b mo t perhaps hi s unfortunate t altogetheno f i , r unusua n suci l e boohcasea a Th s i k. productio e schooth f f Bourgeno o l e earlth f yo s sixteenth centurys it , best miniatures the work of artists who may be counted among the last notable French illuminators a period f o d - whean , n miniature compositions have the pictorial breadth characteristic of works upon a much larger scale than mere book-illumination demands. Both Jehan de Molisson and Jacquelin de Molissoii—the latter of whom was e principath certainl f o e l yon illuminator e Breviary—wereth f o s s a , documentary records testify, decorative painters. Hers hardli t i e y necessar recalo yt l that, sinc exhibitione eth so-callee th f so d primitives of Flemish and French art, at Bruges (1902) and at Paris (1904) re- spectively, gave a fresh impetus to the study of the Northern schools of mediaeval pictorial arte stylistith , c interdependenc f panelo e d an - miniature-painting in those regions has been amply demonstrated; also, and as one of the contributory causes of this, the identity of the practitioner, in some of the principal pictures and manuscripts alike. I. Of Koman usel— Ordo breviarii incipit secund(um) ritu(m) sacro- sancti romane ecclesie,—the Breviary is written in double column (28 lines to a column) of lettre-batarde; its 822 vellum leaves include 49 pages decorated with one large and one small miniature, connected by an architectural framework, upon margin n i colours 1 page1 ; s with smaller miniatures and with broad borders of arabesque or floreated ornament upon diagonally striped fields a 12-pag; e calendar, each page having an architectural framework enclosing as many as five separate miniature designs; and a frontispiece to the text of the Breviary, consistin full-paga f go e compositio e Crucifixionth f no . Shield f armso s , etc., occu s follows:a r — (a) it. 'itec^o. Quarterly:dolphina r o , 4 , 1 haurient embmved azure; . r,a ' > S, 3, gules three crescents, each surmounted by a crosslet 530 r' I fitchy, or; MONYPENNY. '. Per fesse (a) or a dolphin haurient embowed azure, (b) gules three crescents, each surmounted a crosslet by fltchy, or; "MONYPENNY (dimidiated): impaling Or a ! fesse cheeky azure and argent; STEWART (fig. 1). discusses i . revises MS AppendiEelesn r e ha dliturgicai e e o th M d1th f y Th wh ,o b e . xII us l descriptions of liturgical details in the miniatures. 74 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH F O S , JANUAR , 1922Y9 . v 6 31 (c. f ) e quarterlTh / y coa f MONYPEWYo t a crosie d an , r \ depicted elsewhere in the border. r 0 ff47 . 647 v. e quarterlTh y coa f MONYPENNYo t , charged upona 713 r. crosier or. 745 v. v 6 31 . (d)ff womed an Wil n n dme suppor e coath t t (a),upons a e th 324 r. sea f Williao l m Monypenn e introducear r yo , (fig.2) d 647 v. withou armse th t . '.'f* Fig . Monypenn1 . y Arms dimidiated Fig. 2. Wild Men supporting Monypenny with Steward. Arms (with crosiers). r WilliaSi m Monypenn f Ardwennyyo e ambassadorth , , summones da a peer about 1460, quartered the crescents and crosslets fitchy with a dolphin azure upo. or n y ma o s houss o firste hi d amon s th f o e t Thao t , wa first e no e g th th f i , safel surmised,e yb nature quarterine th th t f eo 1bu g doe t appeasno o rt have been determined figure s Breviarye A th . n di arme ,th s suggest that Monypenn received yha augmentation da insignie Dauphith e f th no f ao n 1 Important French, if not the earliest, evidence for the quartered coat, in all likelihood apply- r WilliamSi o t g affordes i ,in e armoriath y db f Gilleo l Bouviere sl , Berry herald, A.D. 1450-55. ed , Stodart, Scottish Arms,r des e Menipenny), (l pi. i 9 .whic, 60 . hp . showii e dolphisth n haurient to the sinister. The seal of "Willelmus Monepeni," of that Ilk, also with the coat quarterly (crest: a peacock in his pride ppr.; supporters: 2 wild men), is attached to Panmure charter of 1468: Laing, 1850, No. 589; Macdonald, Scottish Armorial Seals, No. 2014, gives the dolphin upon it as haurient embowed. It follows that the pose of the dolphin as described in this seal, Berre Breviare th e arm th in yth n i n i armorialsd yan s beinit , agrepaleo n gt i s ea haurient t naiant.no • E MONYPENNTH 5 7 Y BREVIARY. of France. paralleA 1 concessiona s la quarteo t t arme ,bu rth France f so , is found in the grant of 1427-28 to Sir John Stuart of Darnley, who had receive e lordshipth d f Concressaulo s t subsequentl e battlth f o o et y Bauge Aubignf , o 1421 d ,an 1423—botyn i h situate Berrydn i . Monypenny's style—natif d'Escoce escuier descuieres to the King of France, in the safe- conduct issued to him upon the occasion .of his mission in 1447, to conclude an alliance between Eleanor, fourth of James I.'s daughters, and the Dauphin Louis—indicate thed s ha than e alreadh t y received distinction fro e housmth f Franceeo . 2 By April 145 r Willia0Si m Monypenn himseld yha f obtaine lande dth s of Concressault (fig. 3), a possessio3 n which helpe shapo dt e historeth y of his family, as also to connect it with the manuscript in question. The evidences for the acquisition of Concressault may be described as hardly less obscure4 tha e circumstanceth n e dolphith f o sn quartering. Con- cressault, on the left bank of the Grande-Sauldre, a tributary of the Cher, is to-day a modest chef-lieu de commune in the department of that name.