# The Beauvais Missal > Unknown illuminator associated with the Cholet Group - c. 1270-1300, usually placed within a decade either side of 1290 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/beauvais-missal-illuminator/beauvais-missal/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-01 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Unknown illuminator associated with the Cholet Group - **Date:** c. 1270-1300, usually placed within a decade either side of 1290 - **Medium:** Ink, tempera and gold on parchment, with square Gothic musical notation on four-line red staves - **Dimensions:** Leaves 290 x 204 mm; written area about 195 x 135 mm; 309 leaves when intact - **Object type:** Manuscript - **Period:** French, late thirteenth century - **Current location:** Dispersed. 122 of 309 leaves located in more than one hundred institutional and private collections; a virtual reconstruction is hosted by Fragmentarium - **Attribution:** workshop ## Summary A missal written for the use of Beauvais Cathedral at the end of the thirteenth century, 309 leaves of parchment, the third volume of a set of three. It was given to the cathedral in September 1356 by a canon, Robert de Hangest, in exchange for a Mass said for him every year on 3 November, and it stayed in that library for about 450 years.It no longer exists as a book. In October 1942 the New York dealer Philip Duschnes bought it out of William Randolph Hearst's collection for USD 1,000, through Gimbel Brothers, and had single leaves on the market within a month at USD 25 to USD 40 each. Otto F. Ege of Cleveland, who had published a defence of book-breaking in 1938, distributed leaves as number 15 in forty boxed sets of Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts. The leaf carrying Hangest's donation inscription was lost in the process: the page recording why the book existed was destroyed in the act of selling it.This record exists because biblioclasm is a provenance subject and almost nobody treats it as one. The chain here is unusually complete for a medieval manuscript, and the destructive act sits in the middle of it, fully documented, carried out by named professionals for a return that can be calculated. Lisa Fagin Davis has located 122 of the 309 leaves. One of them turned up framed on a wall at an estate sale in Waterville, Maine, and was bought for USD 75. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1270-1300-by 1356** Unidentified patron, for the use of Beauvais Cathedral `[unknown]` (Written and illuminated, probably in or near Beauvais, as the third volume of a three-volume missal) The liturgy fixes it to Beauvais use. The patron is not recorded. Peter Kidd observes that Robert de Hangest was too young to have commissioned a book of about 1290 and proposes his relative Guillaume de Hangest, who founded a chapel in the Beguine house at Beauvais in 1294, as a possibility. That is a proposal. - **by September 1356-1356** Robert de Hangest, canon of Beauvais `[documented]` (Owned, and given to Beauvais Cathedral in September 1356 in exchange for an annual obit on 3 November, with use reserved for his lifetime) Recorded by an inscription on the blank recto of the first leaf of the calendar, transcribed in the 1926 Sotheby's catalogue, and independently by later transcripts of the Beauvais registers. The leaf carrying the inscription was lost in the dismemberment. - **1356-late eighteenth century** Beauvais Cathedral, Cathedrale Saint-Pierre `[documented]` (In the cathedral library for about 450 years, identified in successive inventories including a seventeenth-century catalogue) Listed as 'Missale Roberti Hangesto; en beau velin et belles miniatures'. - **French Revolution-by 1833** Not established `[unknown]` (Cathedral library dispersed; the missal disappears from the record) A group of Beauvais manuscripts had reached Lyon by 1833. Kidd describes this as the only undocumented part of the missal's provenance. - **by 1843-1843** Didier Petit de Meurville (1793-1873), Lyon `[documented]` (In his collection; his sale, 1843, lot 354. Rebound and gilt for him by the Lyon binder Bruyere) The binding description of 1843 matches that published in the Broelemann catalogue of 1897. - **1843-4 May 1926** The Broelemann family, Lyon: Henry-Auguste (1775-1854), Emile-Thierry (1800-1869), Arthur-Auguste (1826-1904), Albertine (1831-1920), Blanche Bontoux (1859-1955), Madame Etienne Mallet `[documented]` (Held through four generations of one family) Arthur-Auguste published a private catalogue of the collection in 1897. - **4 May 1926-October 1942** William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) `[documented]` (Bought at Sotheby's, lot 161, GBP 970, through the dealer William Permain acting as his agent) Permain's role as agent was established by Peter Kidd. The auction record names the dealer, not the buyer. - **October 1942-1942** Philip C. Duschnes (1897-1970), New York `[documented]` (Bought from the Hearst collection for USD 1,000 through Gimbel Brothers, New York, and dismembered within a month) Single leaves were offered at USD 25 to USD 40 each, priced by the quantity of gold on the page. - **1942-1951** Otto F. Ege (1888-1951), Cleveland, and the trade `[documented]` (Bought many leaves from Duschnes; distributed them as no. 15 in the Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts portfolios, forty sets issued) Ege had published his defence of book-breaking in Avocations in March 1938, four years before this book reached him. - **1942-present** Dispersed: more than one hundred institutional and private collections `[documented]` (Leaves sold, given, bequeathed and rediscovered; 122 of 309 located in the virtual reconstruction) Holders include Harvard Houghton, Cleveland Museum of Art, the Morgan, the Metropolitan Museum, the Beinecke, Boston Public Library, Oberlin, Temple University, Waseda, Oslo Cathedral School and the Australian National University. Boston Public Library bought its two leaves from Duschnes in 1950. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **** , - The intact codex came to auction once, in 1926. The 1942 transfer to the dealer who destroyed it was a private sale through a department store, not an auction, and carries no premium. Everything sold since has been a single leaf or a boxed portfolio containing one leaf among fifty, so no post-1942 price is a price for this object. Ege's set no. 18 was sold at Christie's London on 14 December 2022 as lot 19; the price realised was not obtainable from this desk, and when it is, note that a Christie's published price includes the buyer's premium and the hammer must be worked back from it. - **1926-05-04** Sotheby's, London, - Hammer: 970 - Lot 161. Sold by Blanche Bontoux, Madame Etienne Mallet. Bought by the dealer William Permain acting as agent for William Randolph Hearst. Sources give a single figure and record no buyer's premium; it is treated here as the hammer. This is the only auction of the manuscript as a book. ## Open questions - Where are the first and second volumes of the missal? The donation records a set of three; only the third is known, and no fragment of the other two has been identified. - Who commissioned the manuscript, around 1290? Robert de Hangest was the donor, not plausibly the patron. Guillaume de Hangest is a proposal by Peter Kidd and nothing more. - How did the book travel from Beauvais Cathedral to Lyon between the Revolution and 1833? This is the single undocumented stretch in an otherwise unusually complete chain. - Where are the remaining 187 leaves? The figure is derived from 309 less the 122 located, and it mixes leaves in unrecorded private hands, leaves catalogued once and now untraced, and leaves that may be destroyed. - What did Ege's set no. 18 make at Christie's London on 14 December 2022, as lot 19? The price realised was not obtainable here, and a Christie's published figure includes the buyer's premium. - Which is the fourth historiated initial of the Canon, and where is it? Three of the four are located. - Did Hearst, or the Hearst office, know that Duschnes broke books when the manuscript was sold to him through Gimbel Brothers in 1942? ## Sources - [1] Fragmentarium, 'Beauvais Missal - Virtual Reconstruction', F-4ihz, description by Lisa Fagin Davis, online since 19 November 2019. Gives 122 leaves of 309, 290 x 204 mm, 1270-1300 CE. - [2] Fragmentarium, 'Beauvais Missal', F-3h31, full description by Lisa Fagin Davis: codicology, the Cholet Group affiliation after Alison Stones, the historiated initials of the Canon, and the binding as last recorded. - [3] Lisa Fagin Davis, 'Manuscript Road Trip: Reconstructing the Beauvais Missal', Manuscript Road Trip, 24 March 2015. - [4] Broken Books, 'The Story of the Beauvais Missal', Reconstructing the Beauvais Missal, Saint Louis University Center for Digital Humanities. - [5] Peter Kidd, 'The Early Provenance of the Beauvais Missal', Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, 3 January 2015. A scholar's blog, cited as such; it transcribes the 1926 catalogue's record of the lost donation inscription and the Beauvais registers. - [6] Cleveland Museum of Art, open access API record for accession 1982.141, 'Leaf from a Missal with Two Historiated Initials', share_license_status CC0. - [7] Denison University, Otto F. Ege Collection, biography part 3 ('Biblioclasty'), quoting Otto F. Ege, 'I Am a Biblioclast', Avocations 1 (March 1938). - [8] Boston Public Library, 'Two leaves from the Beauvais Missal', MS pb Med. 110 (formerly BPL MS 1538), Digital Commonwealth record commonwealth:7d279x48j. - [9] Fragmentarium, 'Beauvais Missal - Fragment', F-ul3u, Oslo Cathedral School, description by Lisa Fagin Davis: leaf no. 15 in Fifty Original Leaves set no. 18, Christie's London 14 December 2022 lot 19, acquired by Martin Schoyen and given to Oslo Cathedral School in 2025. - [10] David Dahl, 'Story on discovery of medieval manuscript in Waterville yields even more finds', The Maine Monitor, 1 January 2023. - [11] Wikimedia Commons file metadata for a Beauvais Missal leaf contributed to the Digital Public Library of America by Temple University Libraries. - [12] Wikipedia, 'Beauvais Missal'. Tertiary, and wrong in at least two places: it presents Robert de Hangest as the commissioner rather than the donor, and has been read as putting the 1926 purchase in Otto Ege's hands rather than Hearst's. Flagged for replacement with Davis and Kidd, both used here. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.