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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, English MS 2

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • English MS 2
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • Mid-15th century
Language
  • Middle English
Title
  • The Fall of Princes
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    185 folios (ii+185+ii) Leaf height: 415 mm, width: 295 mm.
    Binding:

    Dark blue morocco, elaborate gilt roll borders, spine compartments richly gilt, 19th century.


    Decoration:

    Rubrication

    Red ink is used frequently throughout the codex:

    Running headers in red ink giving the name for each book, at the top margin of each folio.

    Lines of texts written in red colour introduce headings to mark the beginning of one section of text and/or the end of another.

    Lines of text in red ink in the incipits and explicit of each book, example on folio 3r the explicit of the prologue and incipit of the first book appears in red ink.

    Occasional brief marginal notes in red ink indicate the beginning of some stories, emphasise and highlight the subject matter of specific stories. Examples on both the inner and outer margin of folios: 153v, 162v, 176r.


    Initials

    The Prologue begins with a continuous foliate border. There are partial borders at the beginning of books 1, 2, 3 and 5-8 (the leaf at the beginning of book 4 is not present). These comprise of foliate bar borders in burnished gold, blue and pink, sprouting acanthus leaves, with extensions terminating in acanthus leaves, ivy leaves, flowers and bezants. Numerous large (5- to 8-line) and smaller (1- to 4-line) initials in burnished gold on pink and blue grounds with white pen-work and foliate extensions introduce the verses throughout.

    5- to 8-line initials in burnished gold on pink and blue grounds with white pen-work and foliate extensions:

    1r: 8-line illuminated initial 'H'
    3v: 6-line illuminated initial 'W'
    38r: 5-line illuminated initial 'T'

    1- to 4-line initials in burnished gold on pink and blue grounds with white pen-work and foliate extensions:

    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘A’ on 65 folios. Examples: 9r, 63r, 113v, 167r, 180r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘B’ on 19 folios. Examples: 35v, 138r, 158r, 184r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘C’ on 2 folios: 141v, 170r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘E’ on 1 folio: 177v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘F’ on 7 folios: 64v, 82r, 85v, 104r, 116r, 118r, 139r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘G’ on 1 folio: 43v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘H’ on 11 folios. Examples: 39v, 87r, 126r, 151v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘I’ on 14 folios. Examples: 20v, 74r, 118v, 174v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘K’ on 1 folio: 166r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘L’ on 6 folios: 50v, 54r, 58v, 59v, 177r, 183v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘M’ on 9 folios. Examples: 6r, 78v, 129v, 172r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘N’ on 34 folios. Examples: 17r, 54v, 116v, 175r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘O’ on 14 folios. Examples: 40r, 78r, 152vr, 183r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘P’ on 2 folios: 25v, 41r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘Q’ on 1 folio: 60v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘R’ on 5 folios: 56r, 79v, 89v, 140v, 162r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘S’ on 6 folios: 6r, 75r, 106v, 123v, 163r, 167v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘T’ on 65 folios. Examples: 10v, 48v, 99r, 131v, 182r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘Thorn (th)’ on 6 folios: 7v, 31v, 35r, 89r, 105v, 178r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘V’ on 1 folio: 179r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘W’ on 19 folios. Examples: 10r, 41v, 79r, 169v


    Acquisition:

    Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford, 1847-1913, and later transferred to The John Rylands Library. The inner upper cover (upper pastedown) bears the heraldic bookplate identifying the codex as having once been part of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, the private library of James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford.


    Layout:

    Two columns text, with 43 to 51 lines. The number changes often and is 49 (seven stanzas to a column) only on the first two quires. Written below top line. Frame and line ruling in fine ink: single vertical bounding lines extending to the top of the page and into the lower margin; double horizontal bounding lines extending the full width of the page; horizontal lines not crossing the intercolumnar space; double vertical and horizontal bounding lines occasionally traversing the central margin. No evidence of pricking.

    Written height: 285 mm, width: 200 mm.
    Collation:
    Quires 1-108
    Quire 118 lacking 6 after folio 85
    Quires 12-228
    Quire 2310

    Catchwords can be found in the lower, inner margin of the verso of the final leaf of each quire: 16v, 56v, 64v, 72v, 80v, 111v, 119v, 167v, 175v.

    Signatures:The usual late medieval kind of signatures, but only 't 1' remains intact (folio 144: 191).

    Secundo folio:For. lordis


    Script:

    The script is rather an ugly and unstable anglicana formata, with a change of ink, but perhaps not of hand, at folio 151v, column a, line 27, after the word 'Poncius' (book 8, line 372).


    Data Source(s):
    Description derived from N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 400. By permission of Oxford University Press.
    Subject(s):
    Literature, Medieval; Mythology, British; Authors, Medieval; Lindsay family; Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451? Poems. Selections; Haigh Hall (England)
    Abstract:

    A mid fifteenth-century manuscript of John Lydgate's Fall of Princes. Although there are no illustrations the manuscript has heavily decorated borders throughout. There is some evidence that this manuscript was used as copy for Richard Pynson's printed edition of 1494.


    Foliation:

    Foliated 1-185 (modern foliation).


    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Parchment
    Provenance:

    Brian Fairfax: The manuscript was probably part of a collection brought together by Brian Fairfax the younger commissioner of customs and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who had a specific interest in early English literature.

    Sir Francis Child, 1735-1763: The Fairfax collection was purchased en bloc by Sir Francis Child, 1735-1763, of Osterley Park, Middlesex.

    Earls of Jersey: Sir Francis's grandniece and eventual heir, Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, married the fifth Earl of Jersey and through her the Osterley Park estate, including the collection, descended to the Earls of Jersey. The manuscript carries the heraldic bookplate of the Earls of Jersey from Osterley Park. It remained a part of the Bibliotheca Osterleiensis until the Victor Albert George Child-Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey, 1845-1915, sold the library at Sotheby's on 6 May 1885.

    Bernard Quaritch 1819-1899: The manuscript was purchased at the Osterley Park sale by Quaritch for £234, lot 238.

    James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford 1847-1913: Bought from Quaritch for 5 per cent above the auction price.


    Additions:

    Occasional brief marginal notes aid legibility. Usually one word or short phrases written in black relating to the text emphasise or highlight the subject matter of specific stories. Examples on the outer margin of folios: 38v, 48v, 159r.

    Occasional marginal ink annotations with scholia in a very small hand appear in the outer margin of folios. Examples on folios: 2r, 3r.

    Numbers added in the margins throughout books 7 and 8 correspond to pages of the Pynson edition, the first, 'xiiii' (folio 140r), covering only four stanzas, because only these four are on A7v in the edition. The series then runs xv, xvi, b i-xvi, c i-xvi, d i-xvi, e i-xvi, f i-xvi, g i-xvi, h i-v at intervals of 11, 12, or 13 stanzas, according to the number of stanzas on any one page of the printed edition, A8r to H3r (103 pages), and finally h vi opposite the line 'Explicit Iohn Bochas' (folios 184r-184v) which is on H3v in the Pynson edition. For this and other evidence that Pynson used this manuscript, see M.M. Morgan (see Bibliography below).

    On folio 185r, a late 16th-century owner has written 'a note of all my Bookes' (but not including this one), printed by Bergen, volume 4, page 22. The forty-three titles, all English, include (28) The vysyon of pers plowman, (31) Raynold the Foxe, (32) The golden asse, and (40) Wytegyftes admonysyon (i.e. An answere to a certen libel intituled, An admonition to the parliament (STC 25427-9), which was printed in 1572 and 1573).

    Library information written in pencil and ink on the inner upper cover (upper pastedown).

Place
  • Preferred form
    • England (United Kingdom)
    Original form
    • England
    Other form
    • Angleterre
    • Angleterre (?)
    • Angleterre.
    • Angleterre ?
    • Anglaterra
    • Inglaterra
    • Engeland
    • Angleterre (Salisbury ?)
    • Anglaterra (Salisbury?)
    • Inglaterra (Salisbury?)
    • England (Salisbury?)
    • [Oxford?]
    • [England]
    • England, Norwich?
    • England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's Abbey?
    • England, Cornwall?
    • England, St. Albans?
    • England, North?
    • England, York?
    • England, Witham?
    • England, Winchester or St. Albans
    • England, Reading or Leominster
    • England, Cirencester?
    • England, Sherborne?
    • England, Worcester?
    • England, Bury St. Edmunds?
    • England, Tewkesbury?
    • England, East Anglia?
    • England, Peterborough?
    • England, Mercia?
    • England, Canterbury, Christ Church?
    • England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's?
    • England, Winchester?
    • England, Oxford?
    • Flanders (possibly executed in England)
    • England and Netherlands
    • England, Canterbury?
    • England, West Midlands?
    • England, London?
    • England, Crowland?
    • England, Wessex?
    • England, Reading?
    • England, Northeast?
    • England, Southeast?
    • England, Ely?
    • England, Winchester or Hereford?
    • England, Salisbury?
    • England, Oxford or Salisbury
    • German (but made in England)
    • England, South East (?)
    • England. Peterborough (?) or Lincoln (?)
    • Hereford?, England
    • England, Durham ?
    • England, Durham?
    • England, probably Durham
    • England, Oxford (?)
    • England, possibly Oxford
    • England (?Oxford)
    • England, Durham (?)
    • England, London/Westminster
    • Unknown, possibly London and Cambridge
    • Royal Chancery, London; Cambridge
    • Engeland (?)
    • England (II)
    • I. England
    • [Engeland]
    • see more
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