Images, texts, and marginalia in a "Vows of the peacock" manuscript (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS G24): with a complete concordance and catalogue of peacock manuscripts

Abstract

"The "Vows of the Peacock"--Written in 1312 and dedicated to Thibaut de Bar, bishop of Liège - recounts how Alexander the Great comes to the aid of a family of aristocrats threatened by Indians. The poem remained popular throughout the fourteenth century and was soon followed by two sequels. Twenty-six illuminated manuscripts constitute part of a catalogue and concordance of all Peacock manuscripts. One of the most provocative, (PML, MS G24), has twenty-two miniatures which illustrate chivalry and courtly love, as epitomized in the text. An unusually high number of scurrilous marginalia, however, surround them. An interdisciplinary exploration of iconography, reception, image-text-marginalia dynamics, and context reveals their ultimate polysemy as scatological comedians and serious harbingers of sin."

Contents

The Glazier Peacock : texts, authors, and patrons -- The Glazier Peacock : artists -- The Glazier Peacock : miniatures -- The Glazier Peacock : marginalia -- The Glazier Peacock : festivities -- The Glazier Peacock : texts, images, and heresy -- The Glazier Peacock : conclusion -- Peacock cycle manuscripts : a concordance of miniatures -- Catalogue of manuscripts -- Appendix 1. Concordance of tituli -- Appendix 2. Arse-generated humor proverbial phrases -- Appendix 3. Pierart dou Tielt -- Appendix 4. Comparison table for proverbs in the marginalia -- Appendix 5. Comparison table for obscenae in the marginalia -- Bibliography -- Index of marginalia -- Color plates.