Three new manuscripts added to Rose library

The Roman de la Rose Digital Library team proudly announces the addition of three new manuscripts to our digital library. These additions bring the total number of manuscripts up to 145. This new batch is especially interesting because they are owned by libraries outside of France--we have two new German manuscripts and one from Spain. Each of these were originally produced in France in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Our first new manuscript, BH Ms. 387 comes to us courtesy of the Bibliotèca Històrica of the Universitat de València.  With more than 160 beautiful miniatures, this manuscript is one of the most lavishly illustrated in the collection. Many of the illustrations span two columns in width. Heidrun Ost wrote an extensive essay about the illustrations in this manuscript. While it is not certain who commissioned the work, there is speculation that it was Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The style of illumination is similar to other manuscripts that the duke ordered for his collection. The Valencia Rose contains the usual text plus the "Testament de Jean de Meun", the "Codicille de Jean de Meun", and the "Articles de la Foy".

The second new manuscript, Cod. gall. 80 is part of the collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. This 14th century manuscript has smaller and fewer miniatures than our Valencia example, but they are all in brilliant colors. In addition, there are many decorated initials on every page.

Finally we have Ham. 577, also from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. In addition to the text of the Roman de la Rose, this manuscript has a "mystery" section at the end. This section has many geometric illustrations, and does not appear to relate to the Rose. Can you help us with this? Please post a comment on this blog post if you can help with any information.

We owe a big debt of gratitude to the two libraries that supplied the images for these manuscripts. It is this type of community cooperation that enables us to continue to build this digital library.

"L'art d'aimer du Moyen Âge: Le Roman de la rose"

The Roman de la Rose Digital Library is currently being featured in an important exhibition called "L'art d'aimer du Moyen Âge: Le Roman de la rose" at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris. The exhibition began on 6 November 2012 and will close 13 February 2013. The exhibition displays around 100 manuscripts and a few printed editions.

The exposition is organized according to two approaches: telling the story literally via manuscript images that portray the narrative (featuring "Français 1574"), and allegorically, also using manuscript images illustrative of this important aspect of the work.  Panels of miniatures allow viewers to obtain a synthesis of the work's different sections.

On January 18, 2013 there will be a day-long workshop in which a group of Roman de la Rose scholars will discuss the question "Why should one read the Roman de la Rose today?".  Professor Stephen Nichols of the Johns Hopkins University will close the exhibition with a lecture about how and why digitization makes reading the Rose more meaningful today.

Portrait of Covoitise from Fr. 378

Finally, the newest issue (no. 42) of the journal "Art de l'enluminure" features two articles about the Roman de la Rose. The first article discusses Fr. 378 and Rothschild 2800 and the second covers Fr. 25526.  We are always interested in hearing about your Roman de la Rose scholarship, so please keep us informed via the "contact us" on the website. 

New image viewer supports mobile devices

The Roman de la Rose digital library has added a custom touch-enabled image viewer to support browsers without Flash. Mobile devices which lack Flash support, such as the iPad, iPhone, and some Android phones, can now fully use the site.


In order to use the new image viewer,  turn off Flash support in the left sidebar. Clicking on the "Flash" check box will switch between the new image viewer and the Flash image viewer. By default iPhones and iPads will have Flash support turned off.


The image viewer has been tested on most modern browsers and a number of mobile devices, but undoubtedly problems remain. Please send bug reports and feedback to contactus@romandelarose.org. Bug reports should include your browser name and version.


The new image viewer has three modes, thumbnail browser, page turner, and single image viewer.

General features:

•  Touch and gesture support on mobile devices (iPhone/iPad, Android phones/tablets)
•  Dynamically responds to browser resizing and orientation changes

Thumbnail browser

• Only loads thumbnails being viewed
• Click/tap to go to page turner

Page turner

•  Swipe or use the mouse wheel to flip pages
•  Click/tap to go to detailed image viewer
•  A toolbar provides buttons for navigating through the manuscript.
•  Typing in an image name (e.g., 35r) jumps to that image
•  Due to layout issues, the annotation display has become a draggable dialog

Image Viewer

• Tiles large images to support zoom/pan efficiently
• Mouse wheel or pinch to change zoom
• Tap/click in main image display to zoom in and center
• Tap/click on thumbnail to move view
• Drag thumbnail selection to move view
• Drag to move main view
• Toolbar allows click/tap to zoom in, zoom out, and reset the view.

Known issues

• The page turner displays uncropped images when cropped images are available.
• The help document needs to be updated

First update of the year

It has been a while since our last update, but at long last iPad and iPhone users can view manuscript images! A non-Flash image viewer has been added. Users can now switch between image viewers using the "Flash" check box on the left sidebar. A subsequent post will describe the new image viewer in detail.

New features:

• Added a JavaScript image viewer as an alternate to the Flash based viewer.
• User can switch between the Flash and JavaScript viewer
• Detect iPhone/iPad as not having flash support
• Update JavaScript viewer when orientation or browser size changes 

Content updates:

• Updated National Library of South Africa in extant manuscript list
• Updated Rosenwald 917 image tagging so it is accounted for in the illustration title spreadsheet.
• Added Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Cod. poet. et phil. 2º 6 description and bibliography contributed by Professor Max Grosse

Bug fixes:

• Scroll image descriptions to prevent them from being cut off.

Downtime this weekend (5/19 to 5/20)

The site will be down all of Saturday and Sunday in order to move the underlying hardware to a new data center. We will post here when the site is back up.

Update 5/21: The site is back up.

New manuscript images available

The Roman de la Rose Digital Library has recently been updated with three new manuscripts from two German Libraries. This brings the total number of manuscripts on the site to 142! The three new manuscripts are:

• A.B. 142 is a 14th century manuscript from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. This manuscript contains many especially nice miniatures and decorated initials.
• Augsburg Cod. I.4.2 3 is a 14th century manuscript in the collection of the Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg. While this manuscript has only a few miniatures, it has many beautiful decorated initials.
• Augsburg Cod. I.4.2. 4 is a 14th century manuscript fragment from the Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg.

In addition to the new manuscripts, we have corrected some typos in the transcription of Selden Supra 57. These corrections are from folio 6r.