Walters Ms. W.313, Compilation of Rhymed Proverbs: Proverbs en rimes

W.313

Compilation of Rhymed Proverbs: Proverbs en rimes

Proverbs en rimes

This late fifteenth-century manuscript is one of the earliest surviving examples from a small group of illustrated compilations of proverbs. Each drawing and accompanying verse refer to a commonly known proverb or turn of phrase. The verse does not typically include the phrase, so the combination of image and text is like a riddle that would bring the saying to mind (the proverbs are used in this catalog record as the titles of the images). The proverbs can be both entertaining and moralizing, and they frequently refer to religious life, farming and trades, and acceptable (or unacceptable) behavior. This manuscript originally contained more entries, but several leaves were detached at some point or not included when the book was rebound. Two leaves separated from this manuscript are now in the Wildenstein Collection at the Musée Marmottan in Paris. A third individual leaf (fol.add.1), which has significant damage on one side, was purchased by the Walters Art Museum in the 1990s.

Ca. 1475-1500 CE

Savoy, France

Book

Literary -- Poetry

The primary language in this manuscript is French, Middle (ca.1400-1600).

Paper

Antique laid paper, medium-weight, moderate brown staining and worm holes; recurring watermark, usually truncated at spine edge, a male head in profile with flowing hair and a thin line ending in a star extending from the top of the head

Foliation: iii+91+iii

Two sets of foliations, the first entered ca. 1900 on the lower right of rectos (fols. 1-71, 73-86, 81, 72, 87-91), the second (used here) entered ca. 1940 by Walters staff in upper right corners of rectos, and begins after fol. 71 to reflect current binding order; two leaves separated from this manuscript are now in the Wildenstein Collection at the Musée Marmottan in Paris; a third separated leaf (fol.add.1) was purchased by the Walters in the 1990s; flyleaves likely added by Léon Gruel in the nineteenth or twentieth century; watermark on front and back flyleaves, small heart flanked by "A" and "R" in an oblong outline; front flyleaf i,r and back flyleaf iii,v covered with crimson silk

Formula: Due to tight binding, collation formula is unavailable

Comments:

13.1 cm wide by 19.9 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Written surface and lines varies from page to page

fols. 1r - 91v:

1. Title: Proverbs en rimes
2. Hand note: Littera batarda cursiva by several scribes, capitals with large sweeping curves and extenders, lacking punctuation; some illustrations labeled with early cursive script by several different hands (e.g. "lange" on fol. 6v, "le fo[u]" on fol. 32r)
3. Decoration note: Book has 182 pen drawings, with two additional images on separate leaf, in brown ink by three artists, shaded in fine hatching and occasional use of wash (fol. 3v), sparse use of red (fols. 14r and 55r) and green (fol. 79r); underdrawing in lead visible on several folios (e.g. fols. 31r, 60v, 71r); though executed in a simple fashion, the figures show animated facial expressions and gestures, and a variety of detailed interior and exterior scenes are used as backgrounds; two leaves separated from this manuscript are now in the Wildenstein Collection at the Musée Marmottan in Paris, a third separated leaf (fol.add.1) was purchased by the Walters Art Museum in the 1990s

fol. 1r:

1. 
2. Title: "When I keep most quiet, I am seen by one who gives no good counsel"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 1v:

1. 
2. Title: "To buy a pig in a poke"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 2r:

1. 
2. Title: "In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 2v:

1. 
2. Title: "God is at the lending"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 3r:

1. 
2. Title: "The Devil is at the paying"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 3v:

1. 
2. Title: "If you wrestle with a collier, you will get a blotch"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 4r:

1. 
2. Title: "The big dog with the great collar"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 4v:

1. 
2. Title: "By shaving a fool one learns to shave"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 5r:

1. 
2. Title: "He who dares not cry out is beaten"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 5v:

1. 
2. Title: "Light gains make heavy purses"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 6r:

1. 
2. Title: "One hand washes the other"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 6v:

1. 
2. Title: "No flying without wings"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 7r:

1. 
2. Title: "You should not hang your cloak on a broken peg"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 7v:

1. 
2. Title: "You cannot hide behind a finger"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 8r:

1. 
2. Title: "The colt that does not break his halter is worth nothing"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 8v:

1. 
2. Title: "He that grasps at too much can hold on to little"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 9r:

1. 
2. Title: "He plants needles to grow bars"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 9v:

1. 
2. Title: "There is none so humpbacked in the parish that he cannot find a humpbacked wife"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 10r:

1. 
2. Title: "What the eye cannot see, the heart cannot regret"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 10v:

1. 
2. Title: "Link by link the coat of mail is finished at last"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 11r:

1. 
2. Title: "While the dog relieves himself, the wolf escapes to the woods"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 11v:

1. 
2. Title: "He sees two gods in one Mass"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 12r:

1. 
2. Title: "To bring a florin to nine groats"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 12v:

1. 
2. Title: "He cuts the stick with which he is beaten"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 13r:

1. 
2. Title: "A man must keep one eye on the woods and the other on the town"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 13v:

1. 
2. Title: "Brother Martin can sing only from his book"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 14r:

1. 
2. Title: "Once a woman's brow is broken, she becomes a wanton"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 14v:

1. 
2. Title: "Who speaks of the wolf finds him at the door"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 15r:

1. 
2. Title: "Largesse is stingy only toward man"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 15v:

1. 
2. Title: "An oven and a mill are nurseries of news"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 16r:

1. 
2. Title: "He is wise who is always on guard, for an enemy never sleeps"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 16v:

1. 
2. Title: "Embrace a churl and he will prick you"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 17r:

1. 
2. Title: "Prick a churl and he will embrace you"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 17v:

1. 
2. Title: "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 18r:

1. 
2. Title: "Sick man, would you have health?"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 18v:

1. 
2. Title: "The more the mud is stirred, the more it will stink"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 19r:

1. 
2. Title: "The pitcher goes so often to the river that it is broken at last"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 19v:

1. 
2. Title: "I have no friend but my purse"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 20r:

1. 
2. Title: "He that reckons without his host must reckon twice"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 20v:

1. 
2. Title: "The gosling is unworthy to show the goose where to pasture"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 21r:

1. 
2. Title: "Goslings lead the goose to grass"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 21v:

1. 
2. Title: "After death the doctor is of no use"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 22r:

1. 
2. Title: "A sea voyage will teach you how to pray"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 22v:

1. 
2. Title: "He would bite the hand of a little child"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 23r:

1. 
2. Title: "Still waters run deep"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 23v:

1. 
2. Title: "An old cat does not need to have a straw dragged before it"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 24r:

1. 
2. Title: "Between two friends the spade is lost"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 24v:

1. 
2. Title: "Who keeps company with the wolf must learn to howl"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 25r:

1. 
2. Title: "A friend in need is a friend indeed"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 25v:

1. 
2. Title: "Who lives, sees"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 26r:

1. 
2. Title: "The caterpillar lives on the cabbage and the wise man on the fool"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 26v:

1. 
2. Title: "He who has a ready tongue will get to Rome"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 27r:

1. 
2. Title: "He ill conceals himself that shows his back"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 27v:

1. 
2. Title: "A handful of nobility is worth six pennies a year"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 28r:

1. 
2. Title: "He reaches with both hands and chews with both jaws"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 28v:

1. 
2. Title: "His vain and idle words are flutes in verjuice"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 29r:

1. 
2. Title: "A mighty knave will have a mighty fall"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 29v:

1. 
2. Title: "The Lombards' petitions for grace after meals consist of three dice on the table"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 30r:

1. 
2. Title: "To agree like cat and dog"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 30v:

1. 
2. Title: "He who has no ox lives from day to day"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 31r:

1. 
2. Title: "Piteous mothers make scurvy-ridden children"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 31v:

1. 
2. Title: "The face of a man has great power"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 32r:

1. 
2. Title: "After the feast the fool remains"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 32v:

1. 
2. Title: "There are all sorts of people in the world"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 33r:

1. 
2. Title: "It thunders until at last it rains"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 33v:

1. 
2. Title: "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 34r:

1. 
2. Title: "He who makes crosetz makes lasaigne"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 34v:

1. 
2. Title: "A fool needs no bell"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 35r:

1. 
2. Title: "He is sure of a cat that has her skin"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 35v:

1. 
2. Title: "Too much urging makes a horse restive"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 36r:

1. 
2. Title: "Even the best singing can be too much"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 36v:

1. 
2. Title: "He's a poor guardian of honey who does not lick his own fingers"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 37r:

1. 
2. Title: "Large fish are not caught in small streams"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 37v:

1. 
2. Title: "There is no ascent so great but that the descent is equally so"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 38r:

1. 
2. Title: "All things are at length discovered in raking"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 38v:

1. 
2. Title: "He plucks out good herbs and plants bad"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 39r:

1. 
2. Title: "The wolf knows what the evil beast thinks"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 39v:

1. 
2. Title: "He who kicks against a prick deserves to be twice hurt"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 40r:

1. 
2. Title: "Who loves God loves his saints"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 40v:

1. 
2. Title: "It is wise not to live too high because of the crows, nor too low because of the foxes"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 41r:

1. 
2. Title: "A small pack is fit for a small peddler"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 41v:

1. 
2. Title: "Little by little the ox may catch the hare"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 42r:

1. 
2. Title: "He lives so wisely that he does not gamble, drink, nor give pledges, and yet some other misfortune overtakes him"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 42v:

1. 
2. Title: "Great clamor destroys the castle"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 43r:

1. 
2. Title: "The greedy man loves the wedding feast better than the bride"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 43v:

1. 
2. Title: "The knife should be chosen according to the meat"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 44r:

1. 
2. Title: "It is too late for the rat to repent when the cat has got it by the tail"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 44v:

1. 
2. Title: "No dog wants another dog in the kitchen"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 45r:

1. 
2. Title: "A rolling stone gathers no moss"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 45v:

1. 
2. Title: "God helps those who help themselves"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 46r:

1. 
2. Title: "All that glitters is not gold"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 46v:

1. 
2. Title: "Greedy folk do not care what they spend on their food"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 47r:

1. 
2. Title: "Ease makes the thief"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 47v:

1. 
2. Title: "All can be lost through carelessness"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 48r:

1. 
2. Title: "The cat would like to eat fish but will not get her feet wet"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 48v:

1. 
2. Title: "Who goes to Rome a fool returns a fool"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 49r:

1. 
2. Title: "If it has a beak, call it a sickle"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 49v:

1. 
2. Title: "There is a remedy for all things but death"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 50r:

1. 
2. Title: "Dress up a bush and it will seem a baron"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 50v:

1. 
2. Title: "A deaf man has no need for two Masses"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 51r:

1. 
2. Title: "A friend is better than money in the chest"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 51v:

1. 
2. Title: "He beats the bush while the others catch the birds"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 52r:

1. 
2. Title: "You cannot make a sparrow hawk of a buzzard"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 52v:

1. 
2. Title: "He eats cabbage with a spoon"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 53r:

1. 
2. Title: "He makes broth in a basket"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 53v:

1. 
2. Title: "The love of a great man is like the shadow of a bush"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 54r:

1. 
2. Title: "All rivers run to the sea"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 54v:

1. 
2. Title: "The mortar always smells of garlic"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 55r:

1. 
2. Title: "Strike while the iron is hot"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 55v:

1. 
2. Title: "Patience conquers great anger"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 56r:

1. 
2. Title: "He can pick new spoons out of an old house"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 56v:

1. 
2. Title: "Dame Loyalty sleeps and Truth is dead"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 57r:

1. 
2. Title: "Faith breaks the neck of him who bears her"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 57v:

1. 
2. Title: "Who washes an ass's head loses both labor and soap"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 58r:

1. 
2. Title: "He needs to have his ear pulled"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 58v:

1. 
2. Title: "He who has a bad neighbor has a bad morrow"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 59r:

1. 
2. Title: "Who turns the spit never tastes a morsel"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 59v:

1. 
2. Title: "He heats himself in his armor"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 60r:

1. 
2. Title: "Love lasts as long as the money holds out"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 60v:

1. 
2. Title: "Crooked loaves are made in the oven"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 61r:

1. 
2. Title: "In the oven of a lazy baker the dough freezes"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 61v:

1. 
2. Title: "Who would not resemble the wolf must not wear his hide"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 62r:

1. 
2. Title: "He ill protects himself who makes a coverlet of balls of yarn"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 62v:

1. 
2. Title: "It is well to beware of fools and children for they tell what they hear"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 63r:

1. 
2. Title: "Each priest praises his own relics"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 63v:

1. 
2. Title: "Go to the seashore to find your peer"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 64r:

1. 
2. Title: "A man wastes his worldly goods by seeking St. Peter at Rome and ignoring his presence at his door"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 64v:

1. 
2. Title: "He is not so much the devil as he is black"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 65r:

1. 
2. Title: "Finding a long tail on a false fox"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 65v:

1. 
2. Title: "Necessity is the mother of invention"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 66r:

1. 
2. Title: "Of a little take a little, of a mickle take a mickle"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 66v:

1. 
2. Title: "He carries fire in one hand and water in the other"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 67r:

1. 
2. Title: "He puts at his feet what he holds in his hands"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 67v:

1. 
2. Title: "Falling between two stools"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 68r:

1. 
2. Title: "Let sleeping dogs lie"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 68v:

1. 
2. Title: "If you carry a large bag, I carry the measure"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 69r:

1. 
2. Title: "I must make arrows of such wood as I have"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 69v:

1. 
2. Title: "He winnows his corn in the wind"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 70r:

1. 
2. Title: "A churl should have a churl's fare"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 70v:

1. 
2. Title: "An enterprising fool needs no wit"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 71r:

1. 
2. Title: "He leaps from cock to ass"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 71v:

1. 
2. Title: "A poor man supping cannot reach from one loaf to another"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 72r:

1. 
2. Title: "For want of a wise man, a fool is put in the pulpit"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 72v:

1. 
2. Title: "An ass finds nothing to eat in the hay-rack except thistles"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 73r:

1. 
2. Title: "The ass was beaten for performing another's task"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 73v:

1. 
2. Title: "He puts a stone before the scythe"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 74r:

1. 
2. Title: "To hunt a hare with a tabor (drum)"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 74v:

1. 
2. Title: "He who labors for another labors for himself"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 75r:

1. 
2. Title: "The wolf eats counted sheep"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 75v:

1. 
2. Title: "Let him that has no money in his purse have money in his mouth"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 76r:

1. 
2. Title: "It is useless to send a fool on an errand"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 76v:

1. 
2. Title: "It is good to have two strings to one's bow"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 77r:

1. 
2. Title: "There's many a slip between cup and lip"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 77v:

1. 
2. Title: "Who drives an ass and leads a whore hath toil and sorrow evermore"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 78r:

1. 
2. Title: "To beat the dog before the lion"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 78v:

1. 
2. Title: "The fool must have his club"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 79r:

1. 
2. Title: "He eats his grain in the blade"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 79v:

1. 
2. Title: "Such a cat is not to be caught without mittens"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 80r:

1. 
2. Title: "When there's a will there's a way"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 80v:

1. 
2. Title: "Sated pigeons find cherries bitter"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 81r:

1. 
2. Title: "From ill came the lamb, and to ill goes its skin"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 81v:

1. 
2. Title: "Men take oats or straw from debtors who are poor"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 82r:

1. 
2. Title: "The goat scratches the ground so much that it falls ill"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 82v:

1. 
2. Title: "He is called a rich pinart [selfish, unfriendly person]"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 83r:

1. 
2. Title: "Who has leisure makes a basket"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 83v:

1. 
2. Title: "The mule resembles its father"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 84r:

1. 
2. Title: "Carrying off either the foot or the wing of a bird"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 84v:

1. 
2. Title: "Let another take the snake from the bush"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 85r:

1. 
2. Title: "A man's esteem depends on his land"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 85v:

1. 
2. Title: "Coins that do not ring are found to be best"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 86r:

1. 
2. Title: "He is made to count the pegs"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 86v:

1. 
2. Title: "The house shows its owner"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 87r:

1. 
2. Title: "One knows a workman by his work"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 87v:

1. 
2. Title: "He sometimes laughs who bites"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 88r:

1. 
2. Title: "He that makes himself a sheep shall be eaten by the wolf"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 88v:

1. 
2. Title: "A foolish abbot runs a foolish ménage"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 89r:

1. 
2. Title: "Who cannot grind at one mill must go to another"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 89v:

1. 
2. Title: "If the shoe fits, wear it"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 90r:

1. 
2. Title: "To shoe the goose"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 90v:

1. 
2. Title: "He steps back in order to leap higher"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 91r:

1. 
2. Title: "Trickery turns upon its master"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

fol. 91v:

1. 
2. Title: "The sluggard loves to be done with his work"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

add.1r:

1. 
2. Title: "One must not cast pearls before swine"
3. Form: Half-page miniature
4. Comment:

   The word "marguerites" in Middle French meant both "pearls" and "daisies"

add.1v:

1. 
2. Title: "A good wine needs no praise, and a poor one is not improved because of it"
3. Form: Half-page miniature

The binding is not original.

Rebound in France, twentieth century; crimson leather over boards sewn on five single cords; identical blind tooled design on front and back boards: rectangular sections of intertwining vines at sides and foliate squares at corners, central panel with two columns of three roundels (containing a pelican and chicks, a bird with two eggs, a baboon, a sheep, a feline, and a man) with two confronted dragons at top and bottom; six compartments at spine framed by thin blind tooled borders, "RECEUIL DE PROVERBES" in second compartment, "1470" in third compartment; gold line along board-edges; narrow crimson turn-ins; white parchment pastedowns bordered with three gold lines, stamped "GRUEL" in gold on front pastedown at bottom center; endbands in green, yellow, and red silk worked with edge-bead around two-tiered cord core; modern green silk ribbon marker and gilt edges added in nineteenth or twentieth century

Created in Savoy in the late 1480s

Notes in pencil, "12" on flyleaf iv, "XVᵉ / Le plus ancien connu" on flyleaf ii,r in nineteenth or twentieth century

Léon Gruel, Paris, late nineteenth or early twentieth century; Gruel collection number "12" in pencil on flyleaf iv; Gruel and Engelmann bookplate inscribed "No. 413"

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel on February 17, 1906; receipt housed in museum archives

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p.848, no. 514.

Miner, Dorothy and Grace Frank. Proverbs en rimes: Text and illustrations of the Fifteenth Century from a French Manuscript in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1937.

Frank, Grace. "Proverbs en Rimes (B)," Romanic Review 31 (1940): 209-238.

Foote, Timothy. The World of Bruegel : c. 1525-1569. New York: Time-Life Books, 1968, p. 142, illus. (p. 2).

Zick, Gisela. "Der zerbrochene Krug als Bildmotiv des 18. Jahrhunderts," Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch 31 (1969): 149-150, fig. 100 (p. 19).

Schrader, J.L. The Waning Middle Ages : an Exhibition of French and Netherlandish Art from 1350 to 1500, Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Publication of "The waning of the Middle Ages" by Johan Huizinga. Lawrence: University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1969, no. 16, pls. 56-57 (fols. 10v, 86v).

Bowles, E. A. "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery," Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 32/4 (1976): 719-726.

Zotter, Hans. Bibliographie faksimilierter Handschriften. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1976, p. 36.

Kunzle, D. "Brueghel's Proverb Painting and the World Upside Down," The Art Bulletin 59 (1977): 199.

Schulize-Busacker, E. "Eléments de culture populaire dans la littérature courtoise." La culture populaire au moyen âge. Etudes présentés au quatrième colloque de l'Institut d'études médiévales de l'Université de Montréal 2-3 April 1977. Montreal, 1979, pp. 84, 85, 87, 89, 97, 99, illus. (fols. 15v, 24v, 17v, 39v, 70, 78).

Massing, Jean Michel. "Proverbial wisdom and social criticism: two new pages from the Walters Art Gallery's "Proverbes en Rimes"," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 46 (1983): 208-210.

Russell, Daniel S. The emblem and device in France, French Forum Monographs 59. Lexington, Kentucky: French Forum, 1985, p. 198.

Céard, Jean and Jean-Claude Margolin. Rébus de la Renaissance: des images qui parlent. Vol. 1. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1986, pp. 141-145, figs. 53-59 (fols. 1v, 2v, 4v, 5v, 22r, 26v, 27r).

Vandenbroeck, Paul. Jheronimus Bosch : tussen volksleven en stadscultuur. Berchem: EPO, 1987, pp. 105, 110 (refs. to proverbs numbered I, IX, XLVIII, LIX, LXIV), 127, 220, 221.

Burin, Elizabeth. "Pierre Sala's Pre-emblematic Manuscripts," Emblematica 3 (1988): 8-11, 21-23.

Saunders, Alison. The Sixteenth-century French Emblem Book: a Decorative and Useful Genre. Geneva: Droz, 1988, p. 39.

Edmunds, S. "Catalogue des Manuscrits Savoyards," in Les Manuscrits enluminés des comptes et ducs de Savoie, ed. A. Paravicini Bagliani (Turin 1989), pp. 215, 222.

Jones, Malcolm. "Folklore Motifs in Late Medieval Art I: Proverbial Follies and Impossibilities," Folklore 100/2 (1989): 201, 207, 208, 210.

Jones, Malcolm. "The Depiction of Proverbs in Late Medieval Art," Europhras 88: Phraséologie Contrastive. Actes du Colloque International, Klingenthal-Strasbourg, 12-16 May 1989, ed. G. Gréciano, Collection Recherches Germaniques 2. Strasbourg : Université des sciences humaines, Département d'études allemandes, 1989, pp. 205, 206, 212.

Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 2, Part 2. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, pp. 366-375, cat. no. 176, figs. 307, 308 (fols. 22r, 32r).

Fisher, Carol and Kathleen L. Scott, eds.. Art Into Life: Collected Papers from the Kresge Art Museum Medieval Symposia. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1995, p. 201 (fol. 86v).

Russell, Daniel. Emblematic Structures in Renaissance French Culture. University of Toronto Press, 1995, p. 258.

Burin, Elizabeth. "Of Pigs and Parchment: Reassembling Dismembered Manuscripts". 49 No.1. The Walters. 01/1996:4-5.

Lindahl, Carl. Encyclopedia of Medieval Folklore. ABC-CLIO, 2000, p. 794 (fol. 17v).

Metzger, Wolfgang. Lebensbilder des Mittelalters: Handel und Handwerk des Mittelalters im Spiegel der Buchmalerei. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt ADEVA, 2002, p. 147-149 (fols. 10v-41r).

Noel, William and Daniel Weiss. The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible. London: Third Millennium Publishing; Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2002, p. 88.

Bagnoli, Martina, ed. Prayers in Code: Books of Hours from Renaissance France. Baltimore: The Walters Art Museum, 2009, no. 20, p. 79 (fol. 17r).

Gibson, Walter S. Figures of Speech: Picturing Proverbs in Renaissance Netherlands. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

Bagnoli, Martina. The Medieval World. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2011, p. 153, fig. 137.

Principal catalogers: Randall, Lilian M.C.; Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934

Cataloger: Vinson, Aubrey

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Conservators: Polidori, Elisabetta; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Emery, Doug; Herbold, Rebekah; Tabritha, Ariel; Vinson, Aubrey; Wiegand, Kimber

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.