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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, English MS 1

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • English MS 1
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • Mid-15th century
Language
  • Middle English
Title
  • Siege of Troy (Troy Book | Sege of Troy)
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    174 folios (ii+174+iii) Leaf height: 450 mm, width: 325 mm.
    Binding:

    Purple velvet-covered boards, rebacked in the 19th century in purple morocco; single ornate gilt catchplate on the fore edge of upper board (clasp and hinge missing).


    Decoration:

    Extensive illustrations throughout the Manuscript, 69 marginal and bas-de-page miniatures along with continuous borders. The illustrations have been identified as being painted by an artist stylistically close toWilliam Abell, an important mid-fifteenth century English illuminator.


    Miniatures

    1r: Lydgate presenting his work to Henry V
    3r: King Peleus and the creation of the Myrmidons, with Jupiter looking on
    5v: King Peleus sends Jason to obtain the golden fleece
    6v: The Argonauts in their ship, the Argo
    7r: The Argonauts in King Laomedon's territory
    8v: Jason and Hercules (Heracles) receive the Trojan ambassador
    9v: The Argonauts put to sea from Troy
    10v: Jason is received by King Oetes
    11v: Jason, King Oetes and his daughter Medea at the banquet
    16v: Jason and Medea in conversation
    18v: Medea gives Jason a golden image and other magical gifts to aid him on his dangerous quest. The couple are depicted again in the foreground, Jason with his arm around Medea
    20v: Jason takes leave of King Oetes and sets out on his quest for the golden fleece
    21r: Jason shearing the ram, Jason fighting with the bulls and the dragon. Also depicted are the men that spring from the teeth of the dragon fighting one another and Medea waiting for Jason, praying for his return
    22v: Jason returns with the golden fleece to King Oetes
    23r: Jason and Medea sail away from Colchis
    24r: Jason is welcomed home by King Peleus
    25r: Greeks set sail on their first expedition to Troy
    26r: The battle between the Greeks and Trojans outside Troy
    28v: Fortuna and her wheel
    29v: King Priam and his men attacking a castle
    31v: Priam rebuilds Troy
    34v: Priam holding court in Troy
    36r: Anthenor is shown stood before the Greek Kings
    38v: Anthenor returns to Troy and goes before Priam
    39v: Priam's council at Ilion
    40v: Priam's council with his sons and others
    42r: The vision of Paris
    47v: Paris and Anthenor land at Cythera where Helen, Hermyone, Castor, Pollux and Menelaus are worshipping in the temple of Venus
    50r: The battle at Cythera, Paris and Helen hold hands in the foreground
    52r: The return of Paris to Troy with Helen, greeted by Priam. Also depicted is the marriage of Paris and Helen
    53r: Menelaus hears of the disgrace of Helen and is held up by his friends. Also depicted are Pollux and Castor caught in a storm at sea
    54v: Guido delle Colonne (or Dares) and two others holding books
    57v: Preparing the Greek ships before they sail to Troy
    59v: Achilles and Pirithous (Patroclus?) at the oracle of Apollo
    74v: The battle as the Greeks land, with the Trojan forces pouring out of the city gates
    78v: Hector slays Patroclus, in the background is Troy, and the tents of the Greek camp are represented in the foreground
    83v: Hector kills King Merion and other Greeks
    92r: Achilles and Hector fight
    94r: Hector and Paris fight Achilles and Diomedes
    97v: Centaur archer shoots arrows into the Greeks, Hector kills Alphenor and Cedius
    100r: Achilles and Hector converse
    102r: Cressida (weeping) and Troas
    106v: Diomedes and Paris fight, Achilles slays Hector, and Diomedes and Cressida
    109v: Hector's funeral procession
    112r: Achilles lies wounded in his tent
    114r: Paris and Palamedes
    115r: Achilles and Hecuba in the temple of Apollo
    119r: Paris and Telamon pierce each other with spears and Deiphobus is mortally wounded
    121v: Agamemnon calls a council, Achilles is visited in his tent
    123v: Troilus, Diomedes and Menelaus are pictured
    125v: The combat between Paris and Menelaus and Anthenor and Meneste
    126r: The combat between Troilus and Achilles; Achilles with the headless corpse of Troilus tied to his horse
    129v: The killing of Achilles and Antilochus by Paris and his knights in the temple of Apollo
    130v: Agamemnon and the Greeks hold council
    131r: The combat between Telamon (Ajax) and Polydamas and Philomene and another
    136r: The battle between the Trojans and the Greeks; Pyrrhus is depicted killing Penthesilea(?)
    138r: Priam holds a council
    145v: Horse of brass; the walls of Troy are breached and the Trojans massacred
    149v: Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus) murders Polyxena at the grave of Achilles and the death of Hecuba
    151v: Daniel, Ezekiel and Sedechie
    153r: Murder of Ajax; Ulysses and two figures in bed together
    155v: Palamedes murdered in a well with stones by Diomedes and Ulysses (Odysseus); the false signal fires set on the shore by King Naulus
    157v: Agamemnon returns home, his murder and the marriage of Clytemnestra to Aegisthus
    158v: Assandrus is killed by Thelephus
    161r: Nestor and Menelaus, and also Menelaus at the marriage of Orestes to Hermione. Erigona is pictured hanged in a tree
    162r: Ulysses and King Idomenus
    164v: Peleus and Pyrrhus, Pyrrhus kills Menalippus and Polisthenes
    166v: Pyrrhus is crowned
    168r: The dream of Ulysses; Telamonus (Telemachus) shut up in the tower and the death of Ulysses


    Initials

    6- to 8-line initials (7-8 line) occur at irregular intervals and not always at an obvious point:

    1r: 7-line floriated, illuminated initial 'O'
    3r: 8-line floriated, illuminated initial 'I'
    28v: 7-line floriated, illuminated initial 'W'
    31v: 6- line floriated, illuminated initial 'T'
    42r: 6-line floriated, illuminated initial 'A'
    49r: 6-line floriated, illuminated initial 'O'
    52r: 6-line floriated, illuminated initial 'W'
    59v: 6-line floriated, illuminated initial 'A'
    74v: 6-line floriated, illuminated initial 'T'
    78v: 7-line floriated, illuminated initial 'W'
    83v: 7-line floriated, illuminated initial 'O'
    100r: 6-line floriated, illuminated initial 'T'
    112r: 8-line floriated, illuminated initial 'E'
    151v: 8-line floriated, illuminated initial 'W'

    3- to 5-line floriated, illuminated initials introduce the verses throughout:

    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘A’ on 32 folios. Examples: 22v, 56r, 72r, 102r, 137v, 163v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘B’ on 5 folios: 39r, 44r, 54v, 109v, 121r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘C’ on 1 folio: 5v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘D’ on 1 folio: 119r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘F’ on 3 folios: 15v, 24r, 138r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘G’ on 1 folio: 172v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘H’ on 1 folio: 151r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘I’ on 2 folios: 155v, 158v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘L’ on 2 folios: 92r, 168r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘M’ on 6 folios: 11r, 41r, 45r, 46v, 162r, 172r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘N’ on 4 folios: 10r, 51v, 112v, 164v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘O’ on 15 folios. Examples: 46v, 86r, 123r, 161v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘P’ on 1 folio: 129v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘S’ on 14 folios. Examples: 50r, 113r, 154r, 166v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘T’ on 24 folios. Examples: 6v, 47v, 104r, 136r
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘Thorn (th)’ on 2 folios: 17v, 38v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘U’ on 1 folio: 152v
    Floriated, illuminated initial ‘W’ on 14 folios. Examples: 6r, 25r, 94r, 153r


    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.


    Layout:

    Two columns, 44 lines at first, 43 from folio 89r (beginning of quire 11) and 45 from folio 113r (beginning of quire 14). Ruling is uniform throughout. Single vertical bounding lines extending to the top of the page and into the lower margin; first and second horizontal lines extending the full width of the page, and horizontal lines traversing the central margin; penultimate and last horizontal lines extending into the margin and occasionally the full width of the page. Pricking marks are evident on the external margins of numerous folios, for example on folio 157r.

    Written height: 305 mm, width: 200 mm.
    Collation:
    Quires 1-218
    Quire 226 (folios 169-74)

    Catchwords can be found in the lower, inner margin of the verso of the final leaf of each quire: 24v, 32v, 48v, 56v, 64v, 80v, 88v, 104v, 112v, 120v, 128v, 144v, 152v, 160v, 168v.

    Secundo folio:To bathe


    Script:

    Folios 1r-112v written in anglicana by the first scribe.

    The second hand begins at folio 113r, written in anglicana, column b, line 27, at the words 'And of my herte' (Bergen edition, volume 4, line 189): in this and the next 69 lines (lines 189-257) the new scribe uses the punctus elevatus (inverted semicolon, with the tail going up and to the left) as a mark of punctuation within the line, instead of //.


    Subject(s):
    Literature, Medieval; Troy (Extinct city)--In literature; Mythology, Greek, in literature; English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500; Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
    Abstract:

    A richly-decorated mid fifteenth-century manuscript of John Lydgate's siege of Troy, containing numerous illuminations, with floriated borders, a half-page miniature at the beginning of each of the five books, and 64 other paintings.


    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Parchment
    Provenance:

    Carent family. The coat of arms on folio 173r has been identified as being that of a member of the Carent family, a 15th-century Somerset gentry family of Lancastrian political affiliation. The individual could possibly be William Carent, 1395?-1476, of Toomer in Somerset, who was a retainer of the Duke of Somerset, and served as an M.P. and occasionally sheriff for both Dorset and Somerset. Other possibilities are William's lesser-known brother, John Carent 'Senior', -1478, or in the next generation, William's son John Carent 'Junior', 1425?-1483, who also served as sheriff of Somerset and Dorset. See J.J.G. Alexander in the Bibliography below.

    Sir Humphrey Talbot. Clark-Maxwell (see Bibliography below) argues that this is the copy of the 'Seege of Troy' mentioned in 1492 in the will of Sir Humphrey Talbot (died in 1494) and in 1503 in the will of his executor, Thomas Booth, who left it to his executor, Sir John Mundy (goldsmith and lord mayor of London in 1522), failing the daughter of Dr Roger Marschall, physician of London (Emden, A biographical register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, page 392: he died in 1477), to whom Talbot had bequeathed it.

    On folio 174r is written in a 16th-century hand 'Hugh Morgan of Monmouth in the marches of Walys'.

    Mundy family of Markeaton Hall, Derbyshire.There is an inscription on folio 173v, which, according to Longman's Bibliotheca anglo-poetica of 1815 (see Bibliography below), page 186, reads: 'Mem. that I John Mundy Knight have yevyn to my Welbelovyd Son Vyncent Mundy this p[re]sent booke of the Seig of troy the xxvth Day of May Ao. xxv. nostri Regis Henr. viii. [1533] and delyvred it to him wt myne owne hands wt Godds blessyng & myne.' This inscription is now almost illegible even under ultra-violet light, perhaps due to the application of a chemical reagent to enhance the ink in the 19th century. Also inscribed on folio 174r: 'Francys Mundy of Markeyton, Esquire, September 18th, 1615' [Francis Mundy, great-grandson of Sir John, sheriff of Derbyshire in 1617]; 'Adryan Mundy'; and 'Adryan Mundy is my name and with my penn I writ the same and if My penne had bene anye' (incomplete) [presumed to be Adrian Mundy, 1608-1677, third son of the above Francis]. For the Mundy family see Burke's, Genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland (1833-8), volume 1, pages 25-7.

    John Baron Somers, 1651-1716. Seymour de Ricci and Ker suggest that this is likely to be the copy of the Siege of Troy entered as Poet. 7 in the catalogue of manuscripts of John, Baron Somers, 1651-1716 (British Library, Harley 7191) and sold for £8 15s in the Somers-Jekyll sale, 26 February 1739, lot 416: 'John Lydgate's Poem on the golden Fleece and Siege of Troy, finely written on Vellum, and illuminated, being the original Book presented by the Author to K. Henry V'.

    Thomas Barrett of Lee, Kent. Clark-Maxwell argues that this is the copy of the Siege of Troy referred to in a letter to the owner of Markeaton Hall from Samuel Pegge in 1786, who saw the manuscript in the possession of Thomas Barrett of Lee, Kent.

    Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, booksellers. Described in Bibliotheca anglo-poetica: or, a descriptive catalogue of a rare and rich collection of early English poetry: in the possession of Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown (1815), item 413, £350. According to Seymour de Ricci, nearly the whole of the collection had been obtained by Longman from Thomas Hill, 1760-1840, who had purchased the large poetical library of Thomas Park, 1759-1834. The manuscript may have remained unsold in 1818, for Clark-Maxwell cites a letter to the owner of Markeaton Hall from H. Smedley who saw it in 1818 when it was still with Longman. It appears for sale again in Bibliotheca selecta: a catalogue of the library of an eminent collector [i.e. James Midgeley], removed from the north of England; comprising a rare and rich assemblage of old English poetry, history, topography, illustrated books, as well as splendid, rare, and useful books in general, which will be sold by auction by Mr. Saunders... on Monday, February 16th, 1818, and five following days (London: T. Bensley and Sons, [1818]). This catalogue notes the associations with the 'Munday family' and cites the Longman catalogue above. As was common practice at the time, Robert Saunders doubtless brought together a number of properties for sale under the cloak of a single collection.

    Henry Perkins. Perkins sale at Sotheby's, 3 June 1873, lot 634, sold to Bernard Quaritch, 1819-1899 for £1,320 on his own account.

    Bernard Quaritch, 1819-1899. Catalogues 332 (1880), no. 47, and 343 (1882), no. 7375 (£1,720).

    Lord Crawford. Bought from Quaritch by James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford, 1847-1913, in 1882. Barker, pages 256-257, 278. 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.


    Additions:

    On folio 174r, signatures of various owners, notably members of the Mundy family and Hugh Morgan of Monmouth (see provenance).

    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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