 Hi, I'm Jeannie Gerard. I'm a curator and Manuscripts Librarian in the UCLA Library Special Collections, where we are very proud to be presenting highlights from the Richard and Mary Rouse collection, as well as some other materials from our Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts holdings that the Rouses have taught with since their arrival to UCLA back in 1963. Let's have a look. In the conservation lab, Chela gave us a wonderful microscopic view of the physicality of this manuscript, this one that we call the Matturand Breviary, in terms of what is involved in conserving the work and how it was originally created. She also went into some detail as to what we can learn about the manuscript's history and its creators based on the script, artwork, and the tools that were used to create it. And so now I'd like to talk a little bit about why this particular manuscript was considered for acquisition by the UCLA Library and how it relates to the research and writing that the Rouses have been involved in and produced throughout their careers. This has also defined the nature and significance of the Medieval and Renaissance holdings that they have helped us to build here at UCLA. So a little context and I'll try to make this brief in order to bring us to the manuscript in hand. Well first and foremost, our collection is a teaching and research collection and it's been developed with that very purpose in mind. Going back through the history of our Medieval and Renaissance manuscript holdings, it is notable that in the 1960s our holdings in this area were very few and far between and that what we held was almost exclusively acquired by gift. In 1978, for instance, our holdings were somewhere around 80 to 90 manuscripts. Today the library holds over 360 bound manuscripts and hundreds of individual leaves, documents, and illuminated items. And a little footnote here is that half of those 360 bound manuscripts were generously gifted to the library by Richard and Mary Rouse alone since 2003. And at least an equal number of leaves, documents, and illuminations. The 1960s were a pivotal time here. In the 1960s came the establishment of the Medieval and Renaissance Study Center with its journal for which Mary Rouse served as managing editor for 22 years. And professors such as Richard Rouse who began teaching at UCLA in the History Department in 1963. Paleography became a requirement for graduate students in the Medieval field and Richard began teaching paleography and continued to do so throughout his career at UCLA until very recently. In archives and special collections, we talk of the evidentiary value inherent in primary source materials. The evidence found in manuscripts as archaeological objects is rich and Richard taught in the library and he wanted his students to work directly with manuscripts in hand as authentic witnesses of the history of Western Europe including its culture, literature, the book trade, daily life, all of that. And including the artisans who created the manuscripts. For this reason, both the UCLA library under Richard's guidance and the Rouse's themselves have built collections of manuscripts that provide evidence of the texts people copied and read whether for devotional or other purposes, vernacular literature, and things like land ownership documents reflecting the economic, political, and cultural environments of the people who owned or utilized them from all of the Western European countries across the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Things that provide clues to a manuscript's origin and time and place are found in different types of parchment, choir structure, bindings of course, inks, pen decoration, documentation of ownership, and so on. The Rouses have always been curious about the book trade. Who created them? Where were they created? Whether they were commissioned? Who were the scribes? Were they by and for women or men? How were they bought and sold? And how were they used? And they've looked at the production of manuscripts from written to printed word as a continuum of the book trade. They are internationally renowned authorities on early books and manuscripts and much of their work is centered on the book trade in Paris. So that now brings us to this manuscript connected with the Trinitarian Order of St. Mataren in Paris. It's a ferial salter and breviary of St. Mataren. It is written in Latin and it has eight miniatures by an artist trained in the circle of Jean Le Noir in France around 1335 to 1350. Part of the reason that we can know this is attributed to the Rouses research, the material taught to their students at UCLA, and as is published in their two volume text, manuscripts and their makers. In chapter 10 of this book, the Rouses share documentation they uncovered by researching primary documents, primarily in archives and libraries in France, Britain and others, about the book trade professionals in the service of Charles IV and V. So we're talking about the 14th century. While there were scribes, parchmenters and artists who could be commissioned to make books, only some of them were designated Écrevan du Roy, or scribes of the king, or parchmenters of the king, and even fewer were designated Un lumineur du Roy, illuminators of the king. One such illuminator was named Jean Poussel, and the Rouses point to a document that provides the location where he lived and, in fact, tells us that he and the gifted pen florisher, Jacques Massie, lived and worked in adjoining houses on the west side of the Rue-Erenburg-Debris street of the illuminators and that their working and living in proximity, no doubt facilitated their collaboration on manuscripts. So now we can look at the manuscript and the map and begin to envision the process of making this book. So we can imagine how each of the artisans contributed their part, one person doing the pen flourishing and then passing it on to the next person to do the next step. And here's a map where we can actually see that street where those artisans lived. The Rouses also uncovered a document in their research that tells us that Poussel's younger disciple and closest emulator was Jean Le Noir, who also lived on the west side of this street from around 1330. Jean Le Noir also collaborated with Jacques Massie as Poussel had done, Le Noir as illuminator and Massie as creator of the elaborate filigree penwork for what she became known. Jean Le Noir was known to have served under Charles's reign as Un Lumineur du Roy and also known to have been the principal illuminator of the Brevier of Charles V, held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and to have started the famous Book of Hours of Jean de France, the Duc de Berri. So the technique and style of Jean Le Noir is traceable to Poussel and it's identifiable when we can compare it to other existing manuscripts and we know their origin. Along with the knowledge we have about Jean Le Noir, his artistic style and the time he lived, the manuscript is datable through its liturgical contents. The Church of the Order of the Trinitarians was built by the canons and bishop of Paris on the foundation of the original hospice of Saint Mataranne during the second half of the 13th century. This tells us in part why the name the Mataranne became synonymous with the Trinitarians and the devotion of the Trinitarians to the feasts of Saint Mataranne. Again, this is evident in the text in this manuscript in particular in the calendar. So we can look again at the map which is from the Rouse's manuscripts and their makers and see that the Church of the Saint Mataranne, identified as the Musée Cluny today, is also identifiable on the map and it's also very near the same section of Paris where the artisans worked. We can't know the exact date of the manuscript, but the evidence found in the style of its initials and illuminations, including the colors, the poses of the figures, the drawing of the faces, all of this points to the artist Jean Le Noir. So beside the exquisite artistry, integrity and beautiful binding of this manuscript, which was clearly commissioned as a gift for someone special associated with the Trinitarians of Saint Mataranne, it is a witness of its origins and creation in Paris by an artistic circle very much influenced by Jean Poussel. These are some of the reasons that the UCLA library acquired this very special manuscript and we're just delighted that we were able to add it to our collection in honor of our dear friends and partners, Richard and Mary Rouse.