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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Mr. Vertue, in his account prefixed to the portraits of our kings, says, that “the picture of that most glorious-“prince, Henry V, is preserved in vellum MSS. of that time;” but does not inform us where he met with them. The accurate researches of an ingenious friend in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, have brought to light a very curious resemblance of that illustrious hero. The generality of illuminated portraits, it is true, are not greatly to be depended upon; they are frequently only the imaginary creatures of the illuminator, drawn; with little skill or truth. The disposition of figures, the drawing, the colouring, of this miniature, all shew the hand of an abler master. It appears also, that the book in which this illumination is preserved was originally presented to the king himself, and was afterwards his property. This is another mark of the resemblance being genuine; for it cannot be supposed that the author would have presented the king with so laboured a miniature of his majesty, if he had not been able to procure a real likeness. Besides these proofs of its authenticity, the profile at Kensington, and the figure of the king in the historical picture belonging to Mr. West, are plainly intended for the same person represented in this MS; and no one has yet called in question the genuineness of the two former.
page 195 note [a] In the plate annexed the figures are inverted.
page 196 note [b] It is engraved in Mr. Bentham's History of Ely, pl. xix. where see an account of him, p. 168–172.
page 196 note [c] We have a similar instance of Jean de Mehun presenting his translation of Boëtius de Consolatione to Philip le Bel, represented in a miniature prefixed to the prologue of that translation in MS. and engraved in Montfaucon's Mon. de la Monarch. de Franc. I. pl. XCV. The address is in the same style; “A la Royale Majesté, tres noble prince, par la grace de Dieu, Roy des Francois, Philippes le quart, je Jehan de Meung, &c. envoïe ores Boece de Consolation, que j' ai translaté en François, jacoit ce que entendez bien Latin. The king, royally habited, crowned with a crown like Henry's, sits on a throne, having, among three persons at his right hand, one in a black cap, and between three at his left, one bearing a mace, much like that in our miniature, but without a sword. The date of the French translation is a century prior to this, Philip le Bel died 1341. R. G.