Accession number
MS M.108
Object title
Bonus socius.
Created
Thérouanne or Saint-Omer, France, ca. 1290 -1300.
Binding
Late 17th-century French calf with tooled back in green morocco case lettered: Treatise on Chess, Backgammon, etc. French Ms. on vellum - saec. XIV.
Credit line
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1902.
Description
182 leaves (1 column, varying number of lines up to 25 per page), bound : vellum, ill. ; 240 x 170 mm
Provenance
Owned in the 17th century by De Vaubouton (signature on fol. 146v); Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753) of Narford Hall, Norfolk; his sale (London, 1902, no. 202) to Quaritch; Richard Bennett, Catalogue of manuscripts and early printed books from the libraries of William Morris, Richard Bennett, Bertram, fourth Earl of Ashburnham, and other sources, no. 110; purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) with the Bennett Collection in 1902; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).
Notes
Ms. book of chess problems; written and illuminated in Thérouanne or Saint-Omer, France, ca. 1290 -1300.
Decoration: upper half of each page has a representation of a chess board or other game board with pieces in position to illustrate the problem described in the text below; pen-flourished initials, some pages with decorative borders containing grotesques.
Chess problems, fols. 1-145v; tieste, barill and minoret played on backgammon board, fols. 147-168v; and merrils problems, fols. 170-182.
The illustrations are related in style to two other copies of Bonus Socius produced approximately at the same time (Paris, BNF Ms. Latin 10286 and Ms. Français 1173) as well as to a Philosophical and Scientific Miscellany (Paris, Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 2200). M. 108 lacks the introduction existing in the other copies of the text.
Revised: 2017
Decoration: upper half of each page has a representation of a chess board or other game board with pieces in position to illustrate the problem described in the text below; pen-flourished initials, some pages with decorative borders containing grotesques.
Chess problems, fols. 1-145v; tieste, barill and minoret played on backgammon board, fols. 147-168v; and merrils problems, fols. 170-182.
The illustrations are related in style to two other copies of Bonus Socius produced approximately at the same time (Paris, BNF Ms. Latin 10286 and Ms. Français 1173) as well as to a Philosophical and Scientific Miscellany (Paris, Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 2200). M. 108 lacks the introduction existing in the other copies of the text.
Revised: 2017
Script
textura
Language
French Picard dialect
Resources
Century
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Classification
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