The Coronation Book of Charles V (BL Cotton MS Tiberius B VIII/2)

The Duke of Bourbon (the Grand Chamberlain) vests the King with the royal shoes, f. 48r.

Colloquial name(s): the Coronation Book of Charles V, king of France

Official name(s): British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius B VIII/2

Date: 1365-80 (source)

Origin: Paris, France (source)

Online facsimile available via: British Library Digitised Manuscripts

This manuscript was commissioned by Charles V de Valois (b. 1338, d. 1380), king of France, in 1365 (source). This is known from his autograph inscription of f. 74v:  'Ce livre du sacre des rois de France est a nous / Charles le Ve de notre nom, roy de France, et / le fimes coriger, ordener, escrire et istorier / l'an M.CCC.LX.V / Charles' (source). The oath of the port-Oriflame on f. 74v was added before 1380 (source).

This manuscript was bound by Cotton after 1604 into a composite volume which also contained the Pontifical of Glasgow Cathedral (ff. 3-34 and 81-197) (source). This pontifical was made in Christ Church Cathedral Priody, Canterbury in the 12th Century (source). Both manuscripts were damaged by water in 1731, although this has only affected the outer edges of the leaves (source). The pontifical has since been separated from the Coronation Book of Charles V and is classified as BL Cotton MS Tiberius B VIII/1.

The Coronation Book of Charles V is illustrated with 38 miniatures in colours-and-gold which show stages of the liturgy of the French royal coronation (source). The miniatures have been attributed to the Master of the Coronation Book, who is named after this manuscript (source). This artist was active in Paris c. 1355-80 and was among Charles V's favourite illuminators (source). He also illustrated:

• the illuminations in BL Yates Thompson 10
• the illuminations in BNF MS Fr. 1586 (source)
• the illuminations in the Bible of John the Good (BL Royal MS 19 D II) (source)
• the frontispiece of the Livre des neuf juges (Brussels Bib. Royale Albert 1er, MSS 10319) (source)
• the illuminations in BNF MS Fr. 5707 (source)
• some illuminations in BNF MS Fr. 2813 (source)
• some illuminations in a copy of the Grandes Chroniques de France in a private collection in Britain (source)
• some illustrations in a copy of St Augustine's De Civitate Dei (BNF MS Fr. 22912 & 22913) (source)
• some illustrations in a copy of Aristole's Politics and the pseudo-Aristotelian Oeconomics in a private collection in Paris (source)
• some illustrations in Brussels Bib. Royale Albert 1er, MSS 11201-2 (source)
• some illustrations in a copy of the Grandes Chroniques de France sold by Sotheby's on the 8th Dec 1981, lot 94 (source)
• some miniatures in the Hours of Philip the Bold (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 3-1954; Brussels, Bib. Royale Alert 1er, MSS 11035-7; Brussels, Bib. Royale Albert 1er, MS 13092) (source)

Basic descriptions of the illustrations are provided by the British Library with the facsimile.