NOWFIRST TRANSLATED FROM THEMIDDLE FRENCH OF CHRISTINEDE PISANWITH AN INTRODUCTIONBY ALICE KEMP-WELCH.THEBALLADS RENDERED INTO THEORIGINAL METRES BY LAURENCEBINYON & ERIC R. D. MACLAGAN
The title on the reverse of thispage, engraved upon the wood,was designed by Miss Blanche C.Hunter, and embodies the onlyauthentic portrait of ChristineDe Pisan, engaged in writing,from the MS. now in the BibliothèqueRoyale, Brussels.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
The only two known MSS., both early fifteenthcentury French, of the love-story here renderedinto English prose, are the one in the BibliothèqueNationale (836), and that in the BritishMuseum (Harley, 4431).
The MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale forms oneof the treasures of the famous collection of MSS.made by Jean, Duc de Berry, the Mecænas of illuminatedMSS. At his death it passed into the possessionof his daughter Marie, who, by marriage, had becomeDuchesse de Bourbon. When, in the reign of FrançoisI., the Connétable de Bourbon, to whom it haddescended, was disgraced, the king seized his booksand MSS., and carried them off to Fontainebleau,well pleased to add by any means, righteous or unrighteous,to the treasures of the royal library. Herethis MS. and others remained until the reign ofCharles IX