Document Last Modified: October 21, 1993 By Jesse D. Hurlbut (hurlbut@burgundy.hon.uky.edu)
The manuscript of the 14th-century mystery play 'The Day of Judgment,' includes roles for 94 characters, 89 miniatures depicting the action of the play and three neumed musical pieces. Grace Frank gives this plot summary in The Medieval French Drama, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), pp. 132-33:
"After an introductory sermon by Le Prescheur we find Satan and his devils preparing to send one of them, disguised as an elegant youth, to seduce a woman of the tribe of Dan in Babylon. This devil, Angignars, speedily accomplishes his purpose and Antichrist is born of the union. The devils now begin instructing Antichrist in all their arts, and presently he is able to make the blind to see, to cure the leprous, rivive the dead, and heap riches upon the poor. He readily wins over the Jews and grows so powerful that even kings and cardinals pay him homage. Only the Pope himself and Enoch and Elijah who have been sent by God to wage war against the enemy are able to resist the magic of Antichrist.
[. . .] Antichrist is overthrown, Enoch and Elijah who have been killed by his orders are resurrected, and the damned, as in so many poems concerned with the Harrowing of Hell or the Dance of Death, pass in review before us. Here they include an abbess and bishop who have sinned together, a king, bailiff, provost, lawyer, adulterous queen, erring prioress, a usurer, his wife, his servant, and even his small child. Although eight pages of the manuscript are missing, it is obvious that the God of our author was especially condemnatory of all who lived on the fruits of usury and was especially concerned with those who were kind or unkind to the poor . . . . In the final reckoning angels pour out vials of wrath, apostles and saints aid in the task of separating saved from damned, and eventually the just are duly rewarded and the wicked driven to hell by menacing devils. The play ends with a few unique lines of seven syllables spoken by St. Paul, who says that the damned have been taken to hell for eternal torment."
The images in this directory are scans from color photographic enlargements made from 35mm negatives. In most cases, the miniatures occupy less than .5 square cm of negative space and the resulting scans are, therefore, somewhat blurred. Many of the original miniatures are also either dark or damaged. Each of the scanned images has been enhanced to reduce the blur and in some cases lightened. The trade-off is a slight graininess which may be detected on higher resolution monitors. The file en-sampl.jpg includes samples of images before and after enhancement. The file 00-hili.doc lists the most successful scans. All enhancements were made using TIFFany on a NeXT Dimension. The images do not render well on a VGA monitor (256 colors). A 16-bit monitor or better is recommended. [Not even half of the miniatures are scanned in yet. I will eventually put the whole set here. Watch for periodic updates.]
Descriptions of each miniature are from the most recent edition of the play by Emile Roy (Paris: Emile Bouillon, 1902). [Enhancements listed in brackets]:
fol. 2v Le Jugement dernier. [sharp 5%]
fol. 3r Le sermon du Precheur. [sharp 7.5%]
fol. 4v Le conseil des Diables. [sharp 3.5%, Brighter Gamma (RGB=1.1; Alpha=1.5)]
fol. 6r Le diable Engignart et le Matan en vue d'un buisson. [sharp 6.5%, Brighter Gamma (RGB=1.1; Alpha=1.5)]
fol. 6r Engignart abordant la Courtisane dans un jardin (deux arbres). [sharp 6%]
fol. 6v Engignart et la Courtisane dans un grand lit, tendu de drap vert. [sharp 6%]
fol. 6v Le 'jouvencel' Engignart rejoint Agrappart et change de costume. [sharp 7%]
fol. 7r Les deux Diables retournent en Enfer. [sharp 6%, 2xBrighter Gamma (RGB=1.1; Alpha=1.5)]
fol. 7r Ronde des Diables. [sharp 6%, 2xBrighter Gamma (RGB=1.1; Alpha=1.5)]
fol. 7v La Courtisane et sa Damoiselle dans le jardin de Babylone. [sharp 9%]
fol. 8r La Courtisane ou Mere Antechrist couchee. La damoiselle tient un poupon emmaillotte. [sharp 6%]
fol. 8r Retour d'Agrappart aux enfers: danse des Diables. [sharp 8%, Brighter Gamma (RGB=1.1;Alpha=1.5)]
fol. 8v La damoiselle montre a Mere Antechriste son enfant nu. [sharp 8%]
fol. 9v Deux chaires accolees. Sermons d'Enoch et d'Elie. [sharp 6%]
fol. 10r Pres du buisson ou bouquet d'arbres deja vu, Sathan (costume en bourgeois) tend la main a l'Antechrist adolescent, en robe mauve. [Edge Enhancement, 5x5 (10%),Brighter Gamma(RGB=1;Alpha=1.2)]
fol. 10v Satan met la main sur l'epaule de l'Antechrist assis sur un escabeau, reposant sur une tombe. [sharp 7%, Brighter Gamma(RGB=1.1;Alpha=1.5)]
fol. 10v L'Antechrist en robe de Cordelier prechant dans la chaire qui a servi a Enoch. [sharp 7%]
fol. 11r L'Antechrist impose les mains a l'Aveugle-ne. Admiration de la foule. [sharp 7%]
fol. 11r Memes personnages. L'Aveugle-ne s'en va avec une canne presque aussi haute que lui. [sharp 6%]
fol. 11v Un edicule gothique. L'Antechrist assis, entoure de sa garde et des Juifs. [sharp 6%]
fol. 11v Devant le trone de l'Antechrist petit atelier de monnaie. [sharp 7%]
fol. 12r Proclamation du crieur Plito. [sharp 7%]
fol. 12v L'Antechrist assis. Arrivee du Lepreux. [sharp 8%]
fol. 12v Le Lepreux s'agenouille devant l'Antechrist. [sharp 8%]
fol. 13r Arrivee de l'Eveque Mauvais devant l'Antechrist. [sharp 7%]
fol. 13v L'Antechrist au cimetiere avec sa suite: monticules de terre, pierres tombales. [sharp 7%]
![[Sharp 6%]](ftp://slow.inslab.uky.edu/DScriptorium/Jugement/jdj-fol3ra.jpg){kind=link}
