

When you enter the British Library in London and make your way up a short flight of stairs, you find a dark and somewhat mysterious space called the 鈥淭reasures Gallery.鈥 This ongoing exhibition, described by Time Out听as 鈥渢he holy grail for history buffs,鈥 displays 鈥渟ome of the world鈥檚 most exciting, beautiful and significant books and manuscripts鈥 (鈥淪ights for Sore Eyes鈥 & 鈥淭reasures of the British Library鈥). Alongside national treasures such as the Magna Carta, Shakespeare鈥檚 First Folio, and drafts of the Beatles鈥 lyrics, the gallery includes European masterworks such as the Gutenberg Bible and Leonardo da Vinci鈥檚 notebook. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, also displays stunning items from around the world, including a Chinese star chart, a seven-volume Qur鈥檃n from Cairo, and a copy of Audubon鈥檚 Birds of America (鈥淏ritish Library Treasures鈥).
The scope and framing of this collection raise a number of questions. How did these diverse 鈥渢reasures鈥 come to the UK? Why are these objects so valuable? And what does it mean that they are displayed in a 鈥淏ritish鈥 space?
To begin answering these questions, I offer a case study of one of the most beautiful items on display in the Treasures Galley: Harley MS 4431, commonly known as the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript. This luxurious book is described by the British Library as one of its 鈥渂est-loved (and most-requested) medieval manuscripts鈥 (Biggs 2013). Visitors who are unable to visit the Treasures Gallery or wish to explore the manuscript more fully can peruse the book through an online digital facsimile (鈥淗arley MS 4431鈥).
The Queen鈥檚 Manuscript is visually stunning鈥攊t includes over one hundred colorful illustrations highlighted with gold leaf, and features a complex program of winding scrolls and vines that frame the hand-written text. The textual contents of the book are also impressive鈥攖he book鈥檚 398 folios (about 800 pages) present the diverse oeuvre of Christine de Pizan, a French writer active in Paris between 1394 and 1430 (鈥淗arley MS 4431鈥). The collection contains love lyrics, narrative poems, political manuals, educational treatises, and proto-feminist texts. Christine鈥檚 authorial self-portrait can be found on folio 4r (鈥淗arley MS 4431, folio 4r鈥).
The Queen鈥檚 Manuscript was framed as a prestige object at the moment of its creation and continues to command attention today. The book was produced under Christine de Pizan鈥檚 direct supervision in her manuscript workshop in Paris, and was presented as a New Year鈥檚 gift to Isabel of Bavaria, Queen of France in 1413 (Laidlaw 1987; Laidlaw 2006). This event is commemorated in a large illustration on the opening page of the manuscript. This image shows Isabel in a beautiful bedroom surrounded by a group of courtly women as Christine presents her with the book (鈥淗arley MS 4431, folio 3r鈥). Christine de Pizan thus intended the lavish book to be treasured and displayed although she could not have anticipated that this resolutely French manuscript would become the centerpiece of a British collection.
The placement of the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript in the Treasures Gallery at the British Library prompts a number of questions. Why does the impulse to treasure and display books cross countries and centuries? How do international politics and national identity play into the acquisition, valuation, and display of cultural objects such as medieval manuscripts? What does it mean that a French manuscript is one of the 鈥渂est-loved鈥 books at the British Library? While the scope of this article bars a full consideration of these broad questions, an examination of the circumstances in which the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript and similar books reached England during the fifteenth-century demonstrates how literature and luxury objects structure cultural identity and illuminates our continuing desire to categorize medieval books as 鈥渢reasures.鈥
Completed in Paris in 1413, the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript was transported to England as early as 1435. During the 1420s and 1430s, the English experienced a period of temporary success in the Hundred Years War, a long-standing dynastic conflict between England, France, and Burgundy over control of the French throne. Following a series of victories under King Henry V, many English aristocrats, commanders, and soldiers celebrated their position of ascendancy by seizing and purchasing French books and other valuable cultural objects. The acquisition of these books was a political statement designed to assert English control over both French lands and French culture (Catto 2011).
The epicenter of this transfer was the acquisition of the French Royal Library by John, Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V and recently-named Regent of France. This large cache of books, termed in a later inventory 鈥渢he grete librarie that cam owte of France,鈥 was a repository of French intellectual and literary works, carefully curated by King Charles V of France to include French translations of the classics, French translations of the Bible, and the work of contemporary poets such as Guillaume de Machaut, Eustace Deschamps, Christine de Pizan, and Alain Chartier (Catto 2011; Stratford 1993). Bedford dispersed many of these French books to English commanders in his service, facilitating the movement of French texts across the Channel and expanding England鈥檚 perceived claim to French culture (Catto 2011; Stratford 1993). In addition to the main collection of books held at the Louvre, Bedford also acquired books from smaller royal collections held elsewhere in Paris, including the personal library of Isabel of Bavaria, Queen of France (Vallet, 1858; Adams 2010). It is from this smaller collection that Bedford likely acquired the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript.
At some point between 1433 and his death in 1435, Bedford gave the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript to his second wife, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, a noblewoman from the Burgundian Low Countries. Like the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript, Jacquetta had crossed the English Channel in the context of the Hundred Years War鈥攈er marriage to Bedford was intended tobolster the Anglo-Burgundian alliance against the French (Pascual 2011). As a deluxe book from Paris, the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript was a material symbol of wealth and legitimacy that Jacquetta may have used to preserve and advance her social and political standing in England after her husband鈥檚 death. She was likely aware of the French-royal provenance of the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript and the political meaning encoded in its passage to England. The book was a superb example of the artistic and literary French culture over which the English sought dominance. Jacquetta may have capitalized on this social and political symbolism by sharing the impressive French book at social gatherings or displaying it continuously on a lectern at her London residence.
Jacquetta also ensured that anyone who encountered the manuscript knew that this was her book. Like a modern reader asserting their ownership over a favorite book, Jacquetta registered her possession of the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript by personally writing her name 鈥淛aquete鈥 and her motto 鈥渟ur tous autres鈥 (above all others) on the front flyleaf of the manuscript. Jacquetta also inscribed her name in the margins of three additional pages of the manuscript and placed her motto at the base of a fourth page, further reinforcing her possession of the manuscript and leaving evidence of engaged reading (Watson 2017).
Jacquetta was not the only member of the English nobility to acquire and treasure a French book. John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, Thomas, Lord Scales, and Sir John Fastolf, commanders who served in France under Jacquetta鈥檚 husband the Duke of Bedford, also curated collections of books from France. Sir John Fastolf鈥檚 collection bears a particularly close relationship to Jacquetta鈥檚. Like Jacquetta, Fastolf acquired books from the French royal libraries through John, Duke of Bedford. Serving as the chief steward of Bedford鈥檚 household between 1422 and 1435, Fastolf acquired a substantial cache of continental French books (Harriss 2004). The specific manuscripts Bedford gave to Fastolf were not recorded, but a list of likely candidates can be surmised from a later inventory of Fastolf鈥檚 goods made in 1448. The inventory, found in a small booklet held at Magdalen College, Oxford, includes a detailed list of 鈥淔renshe books,鈥 including translations of Livy鈥檚 History of Rome, Vegetius鈥 De re militari, and Aristotle鈥檚 Ethics, all texts found in the inventories of the French royal library (Beadle 2008; Delisle 1907).
Like Jacquetta, Fastolf used French books to communicate his social standing and cultural prestige. In 1450, Fastolf commissioned a luxurious new copy of Christine de Pizan鈥檚 Epistre Othea, an allegorical treatise that takes the form of a verse letter written by Othea, the goddess of Prudence, to Hector, the young prince of Troy (Christine de Pizan 2017). Now Oxford, Bodleian Laud. Misc. 570, this lavish book was made using a continental copy of Christine鈥檚 text (鈥淥xford Bodleian Laud. Misc. 570鈥). Fastolf had his personal motto 鈥淢e Fault Faire鈥 (I must act) incorporated throughout his new book (Driver 2009). While Jacquetta inserted her presence into the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript through marginal annotations, Fastolf went one step further, asserting his possession of French literary and artistic material by commissioning a new customized manuscript. Through this act of duplication and cultural appropriation, a 鈥淔rench鈥 manuscript was re-made as an 鈥淓nglish鈥 manuscript.
As these examples demonstrate, deluxe manuscripts played a central role in articulating cultural identity and negotiating political ascendency during the fifteenth century. During the Hundred Years War, English aristocrats such as Bedford, Jacquetta, and Fastolf curated a hybrid Anglo-French identity, a posture that underwrote England鈥檚 political claim to France. This self-fashioning was achieved, in part, through the acquisition and circulation of luxurious French manuscripts. English aristocrats personalized, displayed, and gifted these valuable cultural objects, using them to build a cultural identity that reflected their successful military campaigns in France.
So, how does this history illuminate our understanding of how and why medieval manuscripts are displayed today? As we have seen, these literary and artistic masterworks are complex symbols of cultural identity. In the fifteenth century, the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript served as a material indicator of England鈥檚 nascent (and ultimately temporary) Anglo-French identity. In a similar vein, how might the display of the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript in the Treasures Gallery at the British Library speak to the construction of cultural identity in Britain today?
In the Treasures Gallery, the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript is displayed amidst an international collection that reflects Britain鈥檚 engagement with Europe and the wider world. Jane Austen鈥檚 juvenilia can be viewed alongside the musical score of Handel鈥檚 Messiah and a highly decorated Ethiopic Bible (鈥淏ritish Library Treasures鈥). In the same way that the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript enabled English aristocrats to perform an Anglo-French identity in the fifteenth century, the Treasures Gallery speaks to Britain鈥檚 past and current desire to style itself as culturally international.
The mission of the British Library mirrors the Treasure Gallery鈥檚 double focus on national history and international engagement. One the one hand, the BL describes itself as the 鈥渘ational library of the United Kingdom鈥 and notes its aim to 鈥渂uild, curate and preserve the UK鈥檚 national collection of published, written and digital content鈥 (鈥淏ritish Library 鈥 今日看料 Us鈥). At the same time, the BL is dedicated to international outreach and collaboration. The BL notes: 鈥淲e work with partners around the world to advance knowledge and understanding鈥he British Library has a distinctive and important role to play alongside others in this global system, not least as our collection is perhaps the most international of its kind鈥 (鈥淏ritish Library 鈥 今日看料 Us 鈥 International鈥). The British Library thus frames itself as a national entity that is actively engaged in an international cultural network.
The mission of the British Library, the composition of the Treasures Gallery, and the display of the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript illuminate how books can be used to negotiate the relationship between national and international identity. The dual construction of British identity as both insular and international owes much to a medieval history of European conquest, several centuries of global colonialism, and half a century of participation in international communities such as the European Union. The Treasures Gallery at the British Library presents this long history to a national and international public through a curated collection of books and other cultural artifacts. The objects on display have carried different meanings across time. Many items were acquired through conquest and served as symbols of political dominance. Today these items are reframed as examples of international exchange and collaboration. The Treasures Gallery invites visitors to 鈥渄iscover stories that shape the world,鈥 cultivating an enthusiasm for geographically and temporarily diverse literary traditions and framing international engagement as central to the past, present, and future of Great Britain ( 鈥淭reasures of the British Library鈥).
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Sarah Wilma Watson听is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Haverford College. Her research examines the interrelation of gender, book history, and transnational literary culture.听
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Biggs, Sarah J. 鈥淐hristine de Pizan and the Book of the Queen.鈥 Medieval Manuscripts Blog, The British Library. 27 June 2013. 听 Accessed May 25 2019.
鈥淏ritish Library 鈥 今日看料 Us.鈥 The British Library. Accessed May 25 2019.
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鈥淏ritish Library Treasures 鈥 Collection Items.鈥 The British Library. Accessed May 25 2019.
Catto, Jeremy. 鈥淎fter Arundel: The Closing or Opening of the English Mind?鈥 After Arundel: Religious Writing in Fifteenth-Century England. Ed. Vincent Gillespie and Kantik Ghosh. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011. 43-54.
Christine de Pizan. Othea鈥檚 Letter to Hector. Trans. and Ed. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Earl Jeffrey Richards.Toronto: Iter Press, 2017.
Delisle, L茅opold. Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V. Vol. 1-2. Paris: H. Champion, 1907.
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鈥淗arley MS 4431.鈥 British Library Catalog of Digitised Manuscripts. Accessed May 25 2019.
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鈥淗arley MS 4431, folio 3r.鈥 British Library Catalog of Illuminated Manuscripts.
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______. 鈥淐hristine de Pizan: the Making of the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript (London, British Library, Harley 4431).鈥 Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400. Ed. Godfried Croenen. Leuven: Peeters, 2006. 297-310.
鈥淥xford Bodleian Laud. Misc. 570.鈥 The Digital Bodleian. Accessed May 25 2019.
鈥淪ights for Sore Eyes: Alternative Places to Visit in London.鈥 Time Out: London. July 17 2018.
Stratford, Jenny. The Bedford Inventories: The Worldly Goods of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France (1389-1435). Vol. 49. London: Society of antiquaries of London, 1993.
鈥淭reasures of the British Library.鈥 The British Library. Accessed May 25 2019.
Vallet de Vivirille, Auguste. La Bibliotheque d鈥橧sabeau de Bavi猫re, femme de Charles VI, roi de France. Paris: J. Techener, Libraire, 1858.
Watson, Sarah Wilma. 鈥淛acquetta of Luxembourg: A Female Reader of Christine de Pizan in England.鈥 Women鈥檚 Literary Culture and the Medieval Canon. University of Surrey. February 27, 2017.
Acknowledgements:
Sarah Wilma Watson would like to thank Daniel Davies and Erika Harman for reading a draft of this piece and offering numerous helpful suggestions. She would also like to thank Dr. Eleanor Jackson at the British Library for sending her information about the current display of the Queen鈥檚 Manuscript.
Photo: The Queen鈥檚 Manuscript –.听Copyright 漏.
Published on September 10, 2019.