Detail View: Medieval Collection: Narcissus
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Image Number:
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JRL0927321dc
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Reference Number:
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English MS 2
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Previous Accession Number:
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Crawford MS 2
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Link to Catalogue:
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Image Title:
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Narcissus
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Parent Work Title:
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Fall of Princes
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Alternative Parent Work Title:
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Falle of Pryncys
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Creator:
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Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
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Creator Role:
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Author
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Display Creator:
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Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
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Date Created:
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15th-16th century
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Page:
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30r
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Image Sequence Number:
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030r
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Description:
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Fall of Princes. Book one: Narcissus drowns trying to embrace his own image and the gods turned him onto a water lilly. Byblis and her brother Caunus appear to Boccaccio next. Byblis loved her brother incestuously but he rejected her advances and she wept so much that the gods turned her into a fountain. Next came Myrrha who loved her father Cinyras unnaturally and with the help of her nurse she contrived to sleep with him whilst he was drunk. As a result Myrrha becomes pregnant and her father finding out her deception chases her, intending to kill her but before he reaches her the gods turn her into a myrrh tree. From the tree her son Adonis was born who Venus fell in love with. 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.
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Language Code:
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enm-GB
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Subject:
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English literature
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Subject:
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English literature--Manuscripts
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Subject:
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Poetry, Medieval
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Subject:
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Mythology, Greek--Poetry
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Subject:
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Literature, Medieval--Manuscripts
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Subject:
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Mythology in literature
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Subject:
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Literature, Medieval
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Subject:
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Mythology, Greek, in literature
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Category of Material:
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Manuscripts
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Sub-Category:
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Codex
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Technique Used:
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Handwriting
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Technique Used:
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Illumination (image-making process)
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Medium:
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Ink
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Support:
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Vellum
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People Covered:
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Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375
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People Covered:
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Venus (Roman deity)
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People Covered:
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Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
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Item Height:
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417 mm
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Item Width:
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292 mm
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Current Repository:
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The University of Manchester Library, U.K.
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Provenance:
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Fairfax, Brian, 1676-1749, the commissioner of customs and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
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Provenance:
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Child, Francis, Sir, 1735-1763, of Osterley Park, Middlesex.
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Provenance:
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Lindsay family Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, former owner
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Rights Holder - Image:
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The University of Manchester Library
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Rights holder - Work:
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The University of Manchester Library
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Access Rights:
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References:
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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
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References:
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Tyson, Moses, 'Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library' (1928), p.7.
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References:
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Bergen, Henry, 'Lydgate's Fall of princes.' (London: Pub. for the Early English Text Society by H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1924-27.)
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Bibliographic Citation:
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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.
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Notes:
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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.
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Date Captured (yyyy-mm-dd):
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2009-08-11
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Multi Page Number:
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325
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Image Creation Technique:
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Digital capture by The University of Manchester Library
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Date Image Added (yyyy-mm):
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2009-10
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Metadata Language:
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eng-GB
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Collection Code:
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Medieval
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