Lecture: Edward IV, founder of the Royal Library

 

 This talk was done for a seminar on the War of the Roses ("To uncrown a King") done online.  I was asked to contribute a talk by Guy de Dinan, the organiser the event, and thought that as somebody best known in the SCA for my work with mediaeval manuscripts, this might give an interesting twist to the subject matter.

My personal interest in this subject is practical, in that the books commissioned by Edward IV are in a consistent style, one which I chose initially as my model when I was looking to illustrate a poem of my own as a spoof mediaeval manuscript.  In the event, my own illustrations branched out a bit and I drew upon other Flemish manuscripts from the 1470s, but the books collected by Edward IV were my own starting point.

The claim of Edward IV to be the founder of the Old Royal Library needs a certain amount of qualification and explanation.  Certainly, kings and queens before him had owned books!  But he was the first to systematically assemble a collection of books, many of them commissioned by him.  Other monarchs added to this collection, until the reign of George II when the collection, under the name of “The Old Royal Library” was donated to the British Museum.  A subsequent donation of books collected by George III was subsequently made to the British Museum by his son George IV, but this is classified separately as “the Kings Collection”, not a further addition to the Old Royal Library.  Books collected by the royal family subsequent to that time have not been donated to the British Museum and instead belong to the Royal Collection of arts and antiquities.

The Old Royal Collection is therefore much bigger than simply those books collected by Edward IV himself, and includes books acquired, and indeed created, later than his death.  However, the focus of this talk, given its contest in an event themed on the Wars of the Roses, is to look at Edward IV as a bibliophile.  I will look at how manuscripts were valued as collectable items by those of royal and aristocratic status in the late Middle Ages, how they were produced, the styles of illumination, and why Edward selected the particular books he did.

 

So let us look at the practice of book collecting in the late Middle Ages, particular as it applied to the English royal family and in the wider context of other European royal families.  It is worth pointing out that the popular image of mediaeval books being the products of monks in scriptoria, though not wholly without foundation, is only a part of the truth.  In the early middle ages, it is fair to say that the books that were most likely to be produced with high standards of decoration were indeed those intended for practical use in monasteries or cathedrals.  These might include Bibles (or sections of the Bible, such as Gospels or Psalters).  They might include service books, such as Missals or Office Books, or books of moral instructions such as the rules of the various orders or other devotional books that would be read aloud at mealtimes in monasteries.  And for just that reason, they were likely to be produced in monasteries, since these where the places where learning was concentrated, where the books were needed, and the material and human resources required for what was in fact a major undertaking were available.

 

However, as the Middle Ages progressed, the approach to which books were produced and who produced them changed considerably.  As learning and wealth increased, there was a market beyond the church for attractive books.  Religious books were still popular, but increasingly these were not the communal books intended for use by an abbey or cathedral, but books of personal devotion such as Books of Hours.  And secular subjects also became popular… stories of romance and chivalry and histories were best-sellers by fifteenth century.  The production of such books moved away from the monasteries to the open market, with centres of excellence such as Paris and, as we shall see, Bruges.

The ownership of a fine illuminated manuscript by a private individual was a major undertaking.  In purely material costs, bear in mind that one sheep provides only enough parchment for eight leaves at maximum (fewer if the book is larger).  Books were decorated with gold, but in even this was not the most valuable material… ultramarine blue, available only from the lapis lazuli mines of Afghanistan, was more expensive still.  The labour involved in scribing and illuminating a manuscript was considerable, and the finest scribes and illuminators were in short supply, and could name their price.  Edward IV’s claim to be founder of the Old Royal Library rests on his amassing a collection of fifty books… nothing compared to the number most of us might have in just one room of our houses, but a major enterprise in the fifteenth century.  It is perhaps interesting to consider the our word “archive” comes from the same word as “ark”… a box.  For much of the earlier middle ages, the entire collection of books in, say, a cathedral library, could literally be kept in one box.

 

By the fifteenth century, therefore, a book had value in three respects.  There was the content of its subject-matter… which if religious, rendered it not merely valuable but holy, and if secular, represented the peak of available knowledge.  There was the quality of its decoration and binding, which represented the pinnacle of the arts of the calligrapher, illuminator and jeweller all brought together.  And there was the cost of the item, a product both of the physical materials from which it was made and the man-hours (and yes, in some cases woman-hours) that went into it.

 Little wonder, then, that books were seen as status-symbols.  One of the most famous royal bibliophiles of the fifteenth century, Jean, Duc de Berry, a younger Son of King Jean the Good of France, liked collecting jewels, books and castles.  His account books for one year show that one of the books he commissioned cost about two-thirds of the price of a castle he also had built that year.

The fact that books were status symbols may, ironically, be precisely the reason why no English King prior to Edward IV amassed a very significant library.  There is evidence that the collecting of books by the Royal Family goes back at least to the reign of Edward III, but books seem to have been regarded as ideal gifts for giving out as largesse.  Books came into and went and out of royal hands, they did not stay there.  There were some important royal bibliophiles prior to Edward IV… notably Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who donated 281 books to Oxford University, where they became the nucleus of the Bodleian Library, and the remainder to Kings College Cambridge.  But he was a younger brother of Henry V, not a king.  A third brother, John, Duke of Bedford, commissioned the famous Bedford Hours and purchased the library of the Louvre.

Outside of England, one of the greatest royal Bibliophiles was Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.  Burgundy at this time was at the height of its powers, including the Low Countries amongst its domains, and was a serious rival of France as the dominant power in the region.  Philip’s patronage of the arts helped establish Bruges as one of the main focal points of artistic development outside of Italy… the first place in northern Europe where the developments that characterised the Renaissance would take hold.

Burgundy, and Bruges in particular, had strong links with Edward IV.  His early foreign policy was devoted to strengthening ties with Burgundy as a common enemy of France.  This he achieved by marrying his sister Margaret to Charles the Bold, son and successor of Philip the Good.  Therefore it was to Bruges that Edward fled for refuge when ousted by Henry VI’s brief revival of fortune, and there he took lodging with Louis de Gruuthouse, a bibliophile second only to his late King, Philip the Good, who acquired and commissioned 190 manuscripts.  It seems likely that this was a major influence on Edward IV’s decision that a great king needs a great library. 

In the last ten years of his life Edward also commissioned and collected over thirty expensive and exquisitely illuminated manuscripts and early printed books, histories, chivalric romances and didactic works. All were produced in Flanders but elaborately bound in England. The inspiration for his library, too, was Burgundian – perhaps specifically the library possessed by Gruthuyse, a noted bibliophile. Book-collecting in the fifteenth century was not just a private passion, or designed for impressive display, though both of these motives were no doubt present in Edward’s purchases. The books themselves are large and were probably used for readings from a lectern at court, possibly after dinner, when on other occasions music was performed and dancing took place.

Pollard, A J. Edward IV (Penguin Monarchs) (p. 68). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

The number of manuscripts inherited by Edward IV that can be associated firmly with his predecessors is very small. They include three volumes owned or appropriated by Richard II (Royal 20 B. vi, Royal 19 B. xiii and Royal 20 D. iv), one that belonged to Henry VI (Royal 1 E. ix), and several other manuscripts that may have been owned by Henry V (perhaps Royal 20 B. iv, his son Henry VI (perhaps Royal 13 B. iii and Royal 16 G. vi), or his wife Margaret of Anjou (see Royal 15 E. vi).

Only one volume from the French royal library of Charles V, which was purchased by John, Duke of Bedford, the regent of France during Henry VI’s minority, remained in a continuous possession of the English royal family (Royal 19 C. vi). Three other Charles V’s manuscripts in the Old Royal Library were later acquisitions (the Lancelot-Grail cycle, Royal 14 E. iii; the Histoire ancienne, Royal 20 D. i, and the Bible Historiale, Royal 17 E. vii).

Records show that earlier monarchs owned collections of books, but also document a long-persisting practice of distributing manuscripts among their subjects and religious institutions. As a result, more manuscripts associated with the English kings prior to Edward IV can be found outside than inside the Royal collection at the British Library.

The earliest evidence for storage and safe-keeping of usually sequesterd manuscripts comes from the accounts of John the Flete, Keeper of the Privy Wardrobe for the Tower of London (1324-41). The first mention of a working library for a king is the description of a novum stadium (new study) furnished for Henry IV at Eltham Palace in 1401-1402. Henry V’s last will reveals that the king owned a collection of manuscripts that after his death were distributed between his religious foundations, Oxford University and his unborn child (see Royal 1 E. ix). Henry VI continued his father’s practice and donated over 100 manuscripts to the King’s Hall, Cambridge, and All Souls’ College, Oxford (mostly books sequestered after the capture of Meaux in 1422). The libraria the King inherited from his father was almost entirely dispersed during his reign.

Nearly 50 large-scale historical and literary manuscripts that were commissioned, acquired, or associated with Edward IV (1461-70, 1471-83) survived in the Old Royal library, forming its nucleus. They were all lavishly illuminated by commercial craftsmen, working in one of the most important artistic centres in Europe at the time, the Flemish town of Bruges.

From the beginning of his reign Edward IV had close ties to the Duchy of Burgundy. In 1468 his sister, Margaret, married Charles the Bold, the heir of Philip the Good, and Edward became one of the knights of the Golden Fleece. During his political misadventure and exile in 1470, Edward stayed in Bruges as a host of Louis de Gruuthuse (d. 1492), one of the most renowned collectors of illuminated manuscripts.

The King’s most significant artistic commissions and building campaigns date from the second part of his reign and are doubtless indebt to his Burgundian experience. Edward’s most intense acquisitions of manuscripts in Bruges took place in the last years of his life. Of the twenty-one books that bear his arms, five are dated to 1479 and one to 1480. These dates coincide with documented payments to ‘Philip Maisertuell’ (perhaps the Bruges illuminator Philippe de Mazerolles) ‘for certaine boks by the said Philip to be provided to the kings use in the partees beyond the see’. Heraldic evidence in two of Edward’s manuscripts (Royal 17 F. ii and John Soane’s Museum, vol. 135) suggests a role played by Louis de Gruuthuse in the formation of the King’s collection.

Edward’s manuscripts were probably kept together at his palace at Eltham. The Wardrobe Accounts for 1480 mention payments relating to the transportation of books to this newly refurbished residence.

 

As stated in the above quote, not only was Edward’s exposure to Gruuthouse’s library an inspiration for him to build his own, but Bruges was also where he turned to get the manuscripts produced.  Whilst his strong personal links with Bruges may have been an influence here, it would in any case have been the natural place to look.  Bruges at this time was the major centre of book production for northern Europe.  

Bruges was a commercial hub in the 15th century with trading communities from across the continent of Europe. Here goods from across Europe were traded and this also included manuscripts and books. Bruges was a book producing centre of world renown. The city specialised in the international trade in luxury items and books too formed part of this traffic. Books from Bruges conquered the world as a result of this trade and book-giving by kings, counts and other members of the nobility.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2018/03/25/bruges_printer_conquerstheworld-1-3168305/

Bruges in the fifteenth century had an advanced book-making culture. Whereas in the Northern Netherlands, convents still played a significant role in manuscript production... in the Southern Netherlands, the organized and efficient production of manuscripts seems to have been in lay hands. Or at least, a large number of the resulting manuscripts do not reveal allegiance to a particular patron saint, particular confessor or rule and have not been “branded” by a convent. Important in Bruges instead were the rhetoricians’ guilds, which produced all kinds of texts, including plays and personalized rhyming prayers. These played a role in book culture of late-fourteenth and fifteenth-century Bruges and stemmed partly from fashion at court, which had favoured rhyming texts in the vernacular, because reading such texts aloud formed an integral part of courtly entertainment. Moreover, the strong court culture resulted in plenty of money for experimentation in the arts.

https://books.openedition.org/obp/3286

The books were therefore produced in secular workshops, and it is the case that they are generally secular in content. They are written in French, the court language, rather than Latin, the language of the church, even when the originals were in Latin. At least, that is true of those we have, though this may reflect those that survived… the Reformation brought about a great purging of religious books judged too “superstitious”… which effectively meant anything Catholic, so most liturgical or devotional books!

“Edward’s collection was very homogenous.  All his manuscripts were the work of commercial book producers active in Bruges.  Many of their borders and miniatures were executed by the same artists.  The books… reflect the overall focus of the collection assembled by Edward: each contains historical or instructional texts.  First come parts of lengthy chronicles of England and France that culminated in what was then modern history.  Next are texts focussed on history more distant in time and place that encompasses [sic]  the stories of ancient Rome and biblical times.  In some of these works Roman and biblical stories are kept separate; in others the two are fused to produce a seamless history beginning at Creation.  While most of Edward’s texts have an instructional aspect, [some] are explicit in their didactic purpose.  Several draw on historical and other sources for exempla to support religious or moral themes.  The final work is an important anthology on works of chivalric virtues and military arts.  These luxurious manuscripts each demonstrate that Edward wished his court to be entertained with appropriate reading matter and his leisure time to be well-spent learning from the experience of past rulers and their subjects”

“Royal Manuscripts: the Genius of Illumination”.  McKendrick, Lowden & Doyle 2011

(Exhibition Catalogue produced by the British Library)

The manuscripts commissioned by Edward IV were remarkable homogenous in style, but the style in question had evolved in Flanders and was entirely typical of Bruges in particular.  The texts are written in Batarde hand, a less formal hand than the Gothic Quadrata which was still employed (sometimes, but increasingly rarely) in sacred texts.  

Illumination is sparse, with decorated pages interspersed among pages of text.  However, the illuminated pages, when they do occur, are sumptuous.  The illumination was characterised by borders decorated with stylised acanthus leaves, blue on one side and red or gold on the other, with the blue predominating. Interspersed among these acanthus leaves are paintings of flowers and maybe other motifs… these are often heraldic or among the last flowerings of the tradition of grotesques in mediaeval manuscript paintings, with composite creatures and humans.  The full-page paintings are nearly all on the recto side (right hand when seen as a double-page spread) and their decorative borders are therefore wider on the right hand side, following a convention that such decorative borders are wider on the outer edge, narrower on the edge towards the spine.

Within the border is a frame, rectangular but with a curved top.  This reaches the top of the illuminated section of the page, so that the illuminated border does not, in fact, have a top.  Below the frame is such text as is found on the illuminated pages, but this is not actually very much… the main focus of the page is definitely on the painting, which fills the frame.

The paintings vary in quality as they have been produced by a number of different artists.  All are of good quality but not, in my opinion, the very highest… masters such as Simon Marmion, who was operating in Flanders at this period, are not represented.  They strike me as the work of competent masters of their trade, but not innovators… people who knew that they had a job to do and needed to ensure it was done to an acceptable standard by a deadline.

The late 15th century was a key time in European art, since this is when the Renaissance reaches its high-point.  At about the time Edward was commissioning his manuscripts, Botticelli was painting his “Adoration of the Magi” and Leonardo was kicking off his career with his “Annunciation”.  Bruges had had an honourable role in the renaissance, with Jan van Eyck demonstrating a degree of realism which outstripped even his Italian contemporaries, but by the 1470s van Eyck was long dead and the ascendancy lay with Florence.  The illustrators who worked on Edward IV’s illuminations seem to be aware of the new trends of the Renaissance style, but not to have fully “got it”.  We have moved beyond the typical Gothic illumination in which there is no true background, but rather a decorated backdrop (diapering).  Figures are set in a landscape or backdrop which recedes into the distance, and this recession makes some use of perspective and atmospheric perspective to give it three-dimensionality… however, it is not an entirely convincing use of perspective.  Figures are posed more freely than in a Gothic illumination, but still appear a little wooden.  Shading is present, but shows nothing of the quality of the Italian masters or even of a more local painter such as Van Eyck.

That said, they are illuminations with great impact.  Their luminous use of colour certainly contributes to this.  Gold doubtless makes its contribution, but though it is present, the use of gold is rather subdued compared to earlier manuscripts… by this time, it seems, connoisseurs were looking to impress with the quality of painting rather than the quantity of gold.

Edward IV has another great significance in the history of English book-collecting.  It was in his reign that William Caxton set up the first printing-press in England.  

Caxton had, in fact, already set up a press in Bruges, and in Bruges had enjoyed the patronage of Margaret, Edward’s sister.  In England, he was to enjoy the patronage of Anthony Woodville, brother of Edward’s queen Elizabeth and favourite of Edward himself.  Despite this, the collection assembled by Edward did not contain any printed books.  Apparently, Anthony Woodville did present Edward with a copy of his own English translation of the “Dictes and sayings of the Philosophers”, which he had had Caxton print for him… but the copy he presented was a manuscript, not a print copy.  Printing was apparently still just a little too vulgar for kings!  Henry VII was to be the first king to collect printed books.

 

Edward’s manuscripts, along with other highlights of the Old Royal Library, were the basis of a British Library exhibition in 2011 (“Royal Manuscripts: the Genius of Illumination”) and the catalogue of that exhibition is probably the best hard-copy source available for looking at this subject in more detail.  Much of his book collection has been digitised and so can be seen online at the British Library’s website.