Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Roman de la Rose
France, possibly Paris, ca. 1405
MS M.245 fol. 1r

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Column miniature:
1) Roman de la Rose: Scene, Lover sleeping -- Lover, wearing scarf, partly nude, with right hand supporting head, sleeps on canopied bed, before couple, the woman wearing pointed headdress, embraced behind by man wearing cap; at foot of the bed woman, wearing garland wreath of flowers, stands amid grass beside city gate tower with two statues of couple flanking portal open to walled garden in foreground;
in foreground, two couples, each wearing headdress and headgear, gesticulate toward the other, behind parapet; to right, woman, wearing headdress, looks at flowering rose bush.
Below miniature in left column:
2) Guillaume de Lorris, wearing cap and academic gown, as scribe (?) , with head bent down, sits on high-backed chair with lapdesk, within decorated initial M at beginning of text, MAINTES GENS DIENT QUE EN SONGES / N’A SE FLABES NON ET MENCONGES / ...
Margins surrounding and between two columns of text decorated with rectilinear bars of ivy leaves and seven escutcheons, all blank.