COLLECTION NAME:
Medieval Collection
Record
Image Number:
JRL0927267dc
Reference Number:
English MS 2
Link to Catalogue:
Image Title:
Prologue
Parent Work Title:
Fall of Princes
Alternative Parent Work Title:
Falle of Pryncys
Creator:
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
Creator Role:
Author
Display Creator:
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
Date Created:
15th-16th century
Page:
3r
Image Sequence Number:
003r
Description:
Fall of Princes. Prologue: Lydgate praises the Duke of Gloucester as a scholar and a wise and pious man. It is at the bidding of the Duke that Lydgate is translating the work of Boccaccio. Lydgate promises to follow the original work as simply and closely as possible. At the bottom of the folio the explicit of the prologue and incipit of the first book appears in red ink. There is ink annoation in a very tiny hand in the margin. Small illuminated and coloured initials introduce the verses. The written space is 285 x 200 mm in two columns and the script is rather an ugly and unstable anglicana formata.
Language Code:
enm-GB
Subject:
English literature--Manuscripts
Subject:
English literature
Subject:
Poetry, Medieval
Subject:
Literature, Medieval--Manuscripts
Subject:
Literature, Medieval
Category of Material:
Manuscripts
Sub-Category:
Codex
Technique Used:
Handwriting
Technique Used:
Illumination (image-making process)
Medium:
Ink
Support:
Vellum
Time Period Covered:
1200 - 1500 CE
Places Covered:
England
People Covered:
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
People Covered:
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, 1391-1447
People Covered:
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375
Item Height:
417 mm
Item Width:
292 mm
Current Repository:
The University of Manchester Library, U.K.
Provenance:
Lindsay family Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, former owner
Provenance:
Child, Francis, Sir, 1735-1763, of Osterley Park, Middlesex.
Provenance:
Fairfax, Brian, 1676-1749, the commissioner of customs and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Rights Holder - Image:
The University of Manchester Library
Rights holder - Work:
The University of Manchester Library
Access Rights:
References:
Tyson, Moses, 'Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library' (1928), p.7.
References:
Parts of this catalogue have been reproduced from Ker, N.R., 'Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 400. By kind permission of Oxford University Press
References:
Bergen, Henry, 'Lydgate's Fall of princes.' (London: Pub. for the Early English Text Society by H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1924-27.)
Bibliographic Citation:
Morgan, Margery M., 'A specimen of early printer's copy: Ryland English MS 2', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 33 (1950), pp. 194-6.
Notes:
Ostensibly the work is an adaptation of Laurent de Premierfait's 1409 translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's 'De casibus vivorum illustrium', a collection of moralized tragedies, extending from Adam to King John of France, that were designed to illustrate Fortune's fickle nature and the downfalls brought on by sinful living and unjust government.
Date Captured (yyyy-mm-dd):
2009-08-11
Multi Page Number:
55
Image Creation Technique:
Digital capture by The University of Manchester Library
Date Image Added (yyyy-mm):
2009-10
Metadata Language:
eng-GB
Collection Code:
Medieval
Prologue
