Roman d'Alexandre en prose (BL Royal MS 19 D I)

Meeting of Alexander and Olympias, f. 14r.

Colloquial name(s): Roman d'Alexandre en prose and other texts

Official name(s): British Library, Royal MS 19 D I

Date: 1333-c. 1340 (source)

Origin: Paris, France (source)

Online facsimile available via: British Library Digitised Manuscripts

This manuscript includes eight works which together form a compendium of the wonders of the East combined with crusading texts (source). These eight works are (source):

• ff. 1r-46r: Roman d'Alexandre en prose
• ff. 47r-57r: Jean le Nevelon's (or le Venelais') La Venjance Alixandre in Old French verse
• ff. 58r-135r: Marco Polo's Le devisement du monde (Travels) in revised version attributed to Thibault de Cépoy
• ff. 136v-148r: Jean de Vignay's Merveilles de la terre d'outremer, translated by Odoric de Pordenone
• ff. 148v-165v: Iohannes de Plano Carpini's Historia mongolorum quos nos tartaros appellamus (Travels to the East) in a French translation perhaps by Jean de Vignay
• ff. 165v-192v: Directorium ad faciendum passagium transmarinum (Le Derectoire a faire le passage de la Terre Sainte), translated by Jean de Vignay
• ff. 192v-251v: Primat of St Denis' Chronique, translated by Jean de Vignay
• ff. 252r-267v: extracts of a Bible historiale 

The manuscript is thought to have perhaps been commissioned for Philip VI of Valois (b. 1293, d. 1350), king of France (1328-50), after 1333 and at some time around his proposed Crusade, c. 1334-37 (source). Three of the eight texts are unique examples of the French translations by Jean de Vignay (b. 1280, d. c. 1340), a translator who worked for Philip VI and Jeanne de Bourgogne (source). 

The manuscript contains 2 large miniatures in colours-and-gold and 162 one- or two-column miniatures in colours-and-gold of which 124 are accompanied by preliminary sketches (source). It has been suggested that it was illuminated by two artists: Jeanne de Montbaston, widow of the Parisian libraire Richard de Montbaston (d. 1353), who is thought to have illuminated the majority of the quires and another illuminator who is thought to have illuminated quires v-viii.

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