DescriptionBritish Library Additional 37049 22r St Hugh.png | English: Scan of folio 22r of British Library Additional 37049, an illustrated Yorkshire Carthusian Religious Miscellany. The four drawings have been described as follows: - The four drawings depict the rôle of St. Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, in the founding of the mother-house of the Carthusian Order, the Grand Chartreuse. (From p. 25 of the cited source.)
- In the first image St. Hugh, both mitred and nimbed, sits on his episcopal throne, dreaming about the seven stars. These fall to the ground, dividing the visionary bishop in the visual syntax of the picture from Bruno, in a doctor's cap, and his six companions. In the next scene, Hugh relates the dream to the seven who kneel, now in front of him. He then directs the group to a wilderness place, the desolation of which is indicated by a forest. Finally, the new Carthusian monks, arrayed in their distinctive white robes, enter the monastery they have built, while the bishop presides—whether metaphorically or literally is unclear—in the background. (Quoted from Jessica Brantley: Reading in the Wilderness: Private Devotion and Public Performance in Late Medieval England, University Of Chicago Press, 2007, ISBN 0226071324, p. 19.)
Transcription of the first twelve lines of the poem below the drawings, taken from Jessica Brantley: Reading in the Wilderness: Private Devotion and Public Performance in Late Medieval England, University Of Chicago Press, 2007, ISBN 0226071324, p. 19: At þe begynyng of þe chartirhows god dyd schewe To þe byschop of gracionapolitane, saynt hewe, Seuen sternes goyng in wildernes to þat place Wher now þe ordir of þe chartirhows abydyng has. And when þes sternes at þat place had bene At þe bischop's fete, þai felle al bedene; And aftyr þis visione þe sothe for to saye, þe doctor Bruno and sex felows, withouten delay, Come to þis holy bischop, cownsel to take, To lyf solytary in wildernes, and þis warld to forsake And at his feete mekly downe þai al felle, Praying hymn of informacioun and his cownsell to telle. |
Source | James Hogg (ed): An Illustrated Yorkshire Carthusian Religious Miscellany British Library London Additional MS. 37049, Volume 3 : The Illustrations, 1981, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria, p. 25 |