April 2022 – Rickaro Books

The study of medieval armour uses many sources, amongst the most informative for fifteenth century armour are principally the sculptured and latten (brass) representations on tombs across Europe. We are also fortunate to have a small number of surviving examples of armour (principally helmets) from the period, many deposited in churches connected to monuments as heraldic achievements or as votive offerings. However, a further highly significant resource are the references to and depiction of armour in contemporary manuscript sources. These have long been used to good effect by writers on armour, a pioneer of this being John Hewitt in the nineteenth century(1). Also from the fifteenth century we are fortunate to have finely detailed examples of manuscript illustrations depicting armour in some intricate detail. Some of these will be briefly discussed below.

The particular subject of this note is a previously un-noted, delicately executed illustration on parchment, showing Gideon and his fleece (sheep-skin), in a small oval topped miniature, surviving from the corner piece of a decorated border of a large choir book or Gradual, a chant or hymn in the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist. It has been cut from the volume in the 19^th century and trimmed down. It shows Gideon dressed as a young man in a detailed and correct representation of late 15^th century armour. He is kneeling and gazing at the sky as a blue-winged angel descends towards him holding a ribbon shaped scroll, his fleece, helm and shield lie before him, behind is a landscape. The fragment now has a thin wooden frame, is rubbed, with small tear to lower left hand edge, six small pinpricks can be seen to the reverse around the angel. The size is small, 134mm by 80mm.

The original substantial manuscript was illuminated for Ferdinand of Aragon (1452-1516) and his wife Isabella of Castile (1451-1504), joint rulers of a united Spain, the ‘Catholic Monarchs’, patrons of Christopher Columbus, founders of the Inquisition. Based on the heraldry on other surviving pieces, the manuscript can be dated to before the conquest of Granada in 1492 and from the style of the armour and by comparison with other objects a date to the late 1470s to mid 1480s appears likely. The original choir book was presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the Dominican convent of Santo Tomás Aquino, in Ávila, in Old Castile, founded in 1478 and still in existence. Ferdinand and Isabella endowed it massively and paid for the construction of the convent’s chapel, built between 1482 and 1493. Their only son, Prince Juan, was buried there and has a splendid effigial tomb, the first Grand Inquisitor, Tomás de Torquemada (d.1498) was also buried within the chapel. The enormous royal Gradual created at this time, probably for the chapel remained on view for almost 400 years at the building.

In the nineteenth century the Gradual came into the possession of Manuel Rico y Sinobias, (1819-1898), Doctor of Medicine and Physical Sciences at the Central University of Madrid and something of a manuscript collector, who dismembered it, cutting out miniatures and distributing leaves. Some cuttings are in the Museo Arqueológico in Madrid (2) Two were acquired in 1918 by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, MS.293 a-b. (3) Another has been acquired by the Pierpont Morgan Library from Professor J.J.G. Alexander, now their M. 1141. Finally, two leaves appeared in Pirages, Cat.51 (2004), no.72, illustrated in colour, sold and cut up by the buyer into smaller pieces. Others pieces have come on to the market at various times and some can be traced in the Museo Arqueológico in Madrid. (4) Bordona, (5) describes the manuscript as “one of the most sumptuous and artistic series of choir-books in all Spain”, and he tentatively ascribes them to the royal illuminator Juan de Carrion, documented in Ávila from the 1470s. Although the present image is rather rubbed and mutilated, the detail of the illumination and the quality of its execution are abundantly clear.

The known provenance of the “Gideon” fragment is as follows:
1 Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile c1482.

2 The Dominican Convent of Santo Thomas Aquino , Avila c 1490.

3 Bought by Manuel Rico y Sinobias 1819-1898 (scientist and bibliophile) who cut up the manuscript.

4 This particular cutting, Pirages Auction House 2004 bought by Bruce Ferrini (dealer of Medieval and Rennaissance Manuscripts, Ohio USA).

5 Auction in the UK to private collector.

The story of Gideon and the fleece comes from the Old Testament, Judges 6,7;

“And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.” Judges 6:36-40.

In the image we can see Gideon kneeling in prayer, looking more like a knight from an Arthurian quest by Malory than an Old Testament military leader and prophet. He is shown clad in full armour, possibly of an Italianate style, although this is obviously a Spanish depiction of the subject matter. In his article on Spanish armour, Mann (6) says that from the mid-15^th century “the tombs of the wealthy show Milanese armours”. Although it must be said that armour in the 15^th century was developed across Europe with much cross fertilisation of styles. Here it is finely shown with pauldrons protecting the shoulders and elaborate couters at the elbow, his neck protected by a dagged edged standard of mail with a further dagged pattern on the mail depending from the bottom of the lower lames of his body armour. These features bear comparison to effigial monuments in England and the continent (7). His hands, which are in prayer are bare although his armoured gauntlets may just possibly be seen on the shield next to the helm. His legs are fully armoured although his feet appear to be clad in soft shoes rather than armoured sabatons. At his belt he wears a sword, rather corresponding to Oakeshott’s (8) Type XVIIIa, especially 6 &7. His helm is a form of sallet with raised visor and small feathered plume, this is placed on the floor before him. He has cast his shield, which is a‘bouché (that is with the cut out for a lance rest), to one side and it lies face down showing the carrying straps to the inside. His Fleece is laid upon the grass as indicated in the account in the Bible. The landscape in which he kneels is surrounded by greenery with a wooded rocky hill to the left, surrounding what seems to be a walled town; in the distance appears a towered building. A blue winged angel finely drawn is above holding a scroll bearing an inscription now too rubbed to read in full.

Despite obviously being from a different national background and artist, in attempting to find comparable images of delicately drawn accurate 15^th century armour one might look to the Rous Roll (9) and the Beauchamp Pageant (10). Both of these manuscripts can be firmly dated to the mid-1480s and both artists show a familiarity with the detail of armour as does the artist of the fragment discussed here. In particular from the Beauchamp Pageant we might look at a detail of fo12b showing Richard Beauchamp being armed in what appears to be a comparable armour. If we look at the Rous Roll we see the figure of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick “The Kingmaker”(1428-1471) but of course drawn in the later 1480s again in a comparable armour contemporary to the 1480s with similar sallet and shield a’bouche. This image was adapted by the Arms and Armour Society for its badge.

As an aside, an Order of the Golden Fleece was established in Burgundy in 1430 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy generally said to be based on the story from the classical period, of Jason and his golden fleece. With its considered pagan origin the Bishop of Châlons, chancellor of the Order, identified it instead with the fleece of the biblical Gideon, that received the dew of Heaven. Mirroring somewhat the Order of the Garter the Order of the Golden Fleece contained a limited number of knights, initially 24 but increasing to 30 in 1433 and 50 in 1516 plus of course the Duke. It had an elaborate collar with a pendant of the Fleece.

References

1 John Hewitt, Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe from the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the end of the Seventeenth Century with illustrations from Contemporary Monuments, 3 Volumes, London, 1855-60.

2 Bordon, J.D., Exposición de códices miniados Española’s, Catálogo, Madrid, 1929, nos. CIV-CVII and fig 68.

3 Wormald and Giles, Descriptive Catalogue, 1982, I, pp.269-70). Leaves appeared in the Mettler sale, Mensing, 22 November 1929, lot 98, with full-page plate, and in H.P. Kraus, cat.112 (1965), no.45, with colour frontispiece. J.D. Bordona, Spanish Illumination, 1930, pl.141, describes one leaf then in private hands in Madrid. There is a cutting in Austria (cf. F.G. Zeileis, ‘Più ridon le carte’, Buchmalerei aus Mittelalter und Renaissance, II, 2002, citing and illustrating examples for comparison on pp.414-5.

4 Exposición de codices miniados Españoles, 1929, nos. civ-cvii and fig. 68) and the Zeileis collection (see Più Ridon le carte, II, 2002, pp. 414-15).

5. Bordona, J.D. Op.cit, p.61.

6 Mann, J.G.: a series of articles in Archaeologia, particularly; Notes on the Armour worn in Spain from the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century, Archaeologia 83 (1933) pp. 285-305, The Sanctuary of the Madonna della Grazia with Notes on the Collection of Italian Armour during the 15^th Century, Archaeologia, 80 (1930), pp.117-142 and ‘A Further Account of the Armour preserved in the Madonna della Grazia’, Archaeologia, 87 (1938), pp. 311-351.

7 For a full account of the detail of the armour from this period see; Capwell, Tobias, Armour of the English Knight 1450-1500, London, 2021.

8 Oakeshott, Ewart, Record of the Medieval sword, London, 1991.

9.Rous, John, The Rous Roll, London, 1859, reprinted with a new Introduction by Charles Ross which makes no mention of armour, The Rous Roll, Gloucester, 1980. The original manuscript Rous Roll is British Library Additional MS 48976. This manuscript shows a number of historical figures including some in contemporary late 15^th century armour.

10 Sinclair, Alexander, (ed.), The Beauchamp Pageant, Donington, 2003. The original British Library MS is Cotton MS Julius EIV. This too shows late 15^th century armour. But f .12v shows Richard Beauchamp dressing in armour, the armour of course an anachronism to the period shown of Henry V, being a later 15^th century armour. Other folios show similar armours, notably see f .4v and f. 25.

The author thanks Geoffrey Wheeler for his assistance.

Richard Knowles FSA.

Incunabula, is the plural of the Latin word incunabulum, a cradle, in bibliographical terms it refers to the cradle of printing, an early printed book, especially one printed before 1501.

It was in 1976 that the Scolar Press produced three facsimile volumes to mark the 500 years since 1476 when Caxton returned to England and set up the first printing shop in England, close to Westminster Abbey. From here he issued over a hundred books between 1476 and 1492, which was the year of his death. Having initially been involved in commerce in London he then moved to Bruges, the centre of the wool trade, where he operated from and had connections with the Yorkist dynasty. It was in fact at the request of the Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV, that he translated The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. Caxton was the first person to bring printing to England, initially having royal and aristocratic patronage that to some extent influenced the volumes that he both edited and printed, however he appears to have had a real eye for sales, being a bookseller as well as publisher and found support from the merchant and ecclesiastical classes.

There were three titles chosen to be produced by Scolar Press in facsimiles and these are indeed handsome volumes worthy of the quincentenary. Significantly limited to just 500 numbered copies each, they have themselves become highly collectable items. They are bound in a rough linen cloth with a brown leather title label that really suits the period feel of these volumes. Of the five hundred limitation fifty copies were bound in full leather by the Eddington bindery.

The three original volumes all date to the 1480s, that period of strife in England between the death of Edward IV in 1483 and the usurpation and death at Bosworth of Richard III in 1485. This period of political turmoil meant that Caxton tended to move away from his aristocratic patrons and operate more independently, creating volumes that were being asked for. Many noble and dyuers gentylmen of thys royame of England camen and demaunded me many and oftymes…

The three volumes are in chronological order as follows:

The Game and Playe of Chesse, 1483 is reproduced in facsimile from the copy at Trinity College, Cambridge. The second edition with woodcuts, the first being dated 1474. Although it bears the title, The Game and Playe of the Chesse it should not be regarded as an instructional book on Chess. It is in fact a translation of Jacobus de Cessolis’ thirteenth-century political treatise, the Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium ac popularium super ludo scachorum (The Book of the Morals of Men and the Duties of Nobles and Commoners, on the Game of Chess).

The History and Fables of Æsop, 1483 is reproduced from the unique copy in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. This volume contains a Life of Æsop and is illustrated with woodcuts, the translation by Caxton from Macho’s 1482 French edition.

This is a facsimile of the Pierpont Morgan Library copy of Caxton’s Morte d’Arthur, 1485, the only surviving complete copy. (A nearly complete copy is kept at the Rylands Library, Manchester and a single leaf was at Lincoln Cathedral.) The facsimile has a preface discussing and illustrating the watermarks in the Pierpont Morgan Library copy. If one wishes to own a copy the facsimile is probably as close as anyone can aspire, unless in an unlikely event, a third copy should be discovered! It was an interesting time for Caxton to edit and print Thomas Malory’s tales of chivalry, a time of political turmoil and conflict, so it is perhaps fitting that in his Prologue he entreats; And I, accordyng to my copye, haue doon sette it in enprynte to the entente that noble men may see and lerne the noble actes of chyualrye, the jentyl and vertuous dedes that somme knyghtes vsed in thos dayes, by whyche they came to honour, and how they that were vycious were punysshed and ofte put to shame and rebuke, humbly bysechyng al noble lordes and ladyes wyth al other estates of what estate or degree they been of, that shal see and rede in this sayd book and werke, thagh they take the good and honest actes in their remembraunce, and to folowe the same; wherein they shalle fynde many joyous and playsaunt hystoryes and noble and renomena actes of humanyte, gentylnesse, and chyualryes.

There is a curious and much debated point contained within Chapter V on the Roman War rewritten by Caxton for his 1485 edition. It has to be stated that there are many academic debates around the text of the rediscovered “Winchester” manuscript and the Caxton edition. The significant point here is that the printing of the Caxton edition was completed on the last day of July, as stated in the Epilogue, seven days before Henry Tudor landed at Milford Haven and just a few weeks before Bosworth. An article by P.C.J. Field in The Arthurian of 1995 on the “Roman War”, the well-known chapter fully revised by Caxton, raises this matter. Field reported an interesting alteration to the text between the “Winchester” and “Caxton” versions, which he states could have been made only by Caxton. The bear –som tyraunte that turmentis thy peplem– in Winchester (Malory, 1976b: 75v) is killed by a dragon that represents King Arthur, but in the Caxton edition, the ‘bear’ is turned into a ‘boar’ some six times. Field states: “The change must have been deliberate, and it created a bold political allusion: the boar was the badge of King Richard III and the dragon that of Henry Tudor. The allusion would only have made sense in or just before 1485 and it is difficult to see who could have been responsible for it but Caxton himself”. (Field, 1995: 37). This particular statement is complicated to understand, why would this only have made sense before 1485, surely it would have been truer and safer to state after Bosworth? The change from “bear” to “boar” is in itself rather strange, but it seems to me rather unlikely that Caxton would make such a “bold” political point BEFORE Bosworth (August 1485) and why? If it was a political point, it dates the writing of it to after October of 1482 and the printing in July 1485. It certainly would have been a risky tactic, perhaps Caxton or someone in the print shop was a Tudor supporter? Field argues that Caxton may have hated Richard III following the execution in 1483 of Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, a Caxton patron and translator with whom he had a particular relationship, indeed it has been suggested Rivers may have aided his move from Bruges to London in 1476. Of course the change to “boar” from “bear” could be merely a co-incidence and have no connection to the badges of Henry VII and Richard III? It must be recalled that Caxton was a man of commerce, a bookseller and publisher and his first instinct would be to protect his business interests, keeping a low profile and printing what he could. However, certainly by July of 1489 when Caxton completed Feats of Arms concluding his epilogue with a prayer for the king’s success in his enterpryses as wel in Bretagne, Flaunndres and other placis, his place at the top of society was re-established. Caxton died in 1492.

See below the 1485 Caxton edition and the 1901 Dent edition.

One further point of interest for us regarding this volume, is that T.E. Lawrence carried a copy of the Everyman’s edition of Morte D’Arthur with him on his desert campaign in WWI and it can be seen represented on his effigy at Wareham. There are also some parallels with Seven Pillars in the academic discussions of the 1922 and 1926 editions in its changed textual versions and the lengthy catalogue of names contained in the text of both Morte and SP. If we wish to further this connection we might briefly consider a book printed by TE’s friend Vyvyan Richards in 1927. This is William Caxton’s Prologues and Epilogues produced by Richards to, as he states in the Colophon, “display the character of Caxton”. TE and Richards first became friends at Jesus College, Oxford and long planned to print together. This never happened and the small booklet was the only work printed by Richards, who became a teacher. One further interesting connection (those things that we so love) is that Robert Graves purchased the printing press and paper from Richards and set up the Seizin Press with Laura Riding in 1928.

Selected further reading;
Richards, Vyvyan, William Caxton’s Prologues & Epilogues, Privately Printed, Oxford, 1927.

Bennett J.A.W. (Ed.), Essays on Malory, Oxford, 1963.

Blake, N.F., Investigations into the Prologues and Epilogues by William Caxton, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Vol. 49. No. 1, Autumn, Manchester, 1966.

Harris, Graham, The Marvellous Dream of King Arthur, The Ricardian, Vol III, No 44, March, London, 1974.

Takamiya, Toshiyuki & Brewer Derek, (Eds), Aspects of Malory, Woodbridge, 1981.

Hellinga, Lotte, Caxton in Focus, London, 1982.

Field, P.J.C. Caxton’s Roman War, contained in Arthuriana, Volume 5 Number 2, Summer, Dallas, 1995. .

Matthews, William, William Matthews on Caxton and Mallory, contained in Arthuriana, Volume 7 Number 1, Spring, Dallas, 1997, Special Issue.

Sutton, Anne, William Caxton king’s printer, contained in Medieval Merchant, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, Volume XXIV, Donington, 2014.