The Medieval Manuscripts blog of the British Library has a post about a particularly splendid Bodleian Library manuscript, MS Bodley 264, which is currently on loan to the BL for the exhibition Alexander the Great : The Making of a Myth.
The manuscript text is the most complete version of the Old French Romance d’Alexandre and was completed in Tournai in 1344. It is a superbly illustrated volume, but for all the splendour of the full page illustrations of how the artist envisaged the life of Alexander the Great it is the margins which today probably attract more attention. Illustrating as they do many aspects of early fourteenth century life and not a few aspects of early fourteenth century fantasy they are a wondrous insight into the mind of the illustrator and, presumably, of his customer.
The post, which has a fine selection of illustrations from the volume, can be seen at Magnificent margins in the Alexander Romance
The digitised copy of the whole manuscript can be seen at MS Bodley 264,
At the end of the blog post are a set of links to other posts relating to the exhibition, including
- Alexander the Great, scientist?
- This includes the letters which were purported to be those written by Aristotle to Alexander which, transmitted by Arab writers, later became part of the tradition of princely education and formation in later medieval Europe.
- And did those feet: did Alexander the Great visit Britain?
- This is a wonderful example of a medieval fantasy history, linking into the legend of Brutus and apparently written to commemorate the marriage of King Edward III to Philippa of Hainault in 1328.
- Alexander the Great versus the elephants
They are all worth looking at and there are more such links on the exhibition website at bl.uk/alexander-the-great
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