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Manuscripts in the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
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  • Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 061: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 061: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde

Description

Alternative title
Chaucer's Troilus
Type of resource
mixed material
Extent
ff. 151 + 2
Date created
[ca. 1400-1425]
Language
English, Middle (1100-1500)
Material
Vellum
Layout
five stanzas of 7 lines each to a page
Height (mm)
315
Width (mm)
220
Collation
a(2), 1(8)-12(8) (wants 1) 13(8)-19(8).
Writing
in fine upright hand
Foliation
ff. a-d + i-ii + 1-151 + e-h
Research
This is one of the best manuscripts of the poem. It is extensively used in Professor Skeat's edition, and described in his Introduction, p. lxix. Professor Skeat points out that at Book IV, st. 83 in the left margin is a note of ownership in a hand of cent. xv neuer foryeteth: anne neuyll. This, he says, probably refers to Anne Neville wife of Humphrey Duke of Buckingham who was killed at Northampton in 1460: she was a grand-daughter of John of Gaunt, and it seems reasonable to infer that the MS. was actually written for one of John of Gaunt's family.
Additions
On flyleaves: a. daye of may ffor my solas 1546. b. ... uniuersi prop ... t me est gwyn pannarius de. c. Lord god preserve vnder þy mighty handes Oure kyng oure qwene þeyre pepul and þeyre landes. Added: he that thys Boke rentt or stelle God send hym sekenysse swart (?) of helle.

Abstract/Contents

Summary
The copy of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde in CCCC MS 61 was made c. 1415-25, long after the poet's death in 1400. The poem was written at some time before 1385. This copy was planned as a luxury edition to contain over ninety illustrations, but only the full-page frontispiece was painted, with blank spaces left at the positions intended for the other pictures. In that frontispiece Chaucer is shown reading his poem to the English court. The patron of this manuscript is unknown, but it is likely to have been the prominent male figure dressed in a gold-embroidered costume in the centre of the courtly group. The book belonged in 1570 to the author, Stephen Batman, a chaplain of Matthew Parker, and shortly after became incorporated in the archbishop's collection.
Contents
Troilus and Criseyde

Bibliographic information

M.R. James Date
xv (early)
Downloadable James Catalogue Record
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:my627fp1535/MS_61.pdf
Superseded Interim Catalogue Record
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:tk217mq9035/61.pdf
Contains
  • Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde. 1v-150r
    James
    Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. 1v-150r
    Author
    Geoffrey Chaucer
    Note
    On f. 1v is a full-page painting of the most beautiful quality. I take it to be in the very best style producible in England at the beginning of the fifteenth century. There is a solid border of conventional foliage (scarlet, blue, pink) on delicately pricked gold ground, outside this are tendrils, gold besants and coloured leaves. The ground of the picture is gold, wonderfully patterned. In the foreground the poet in a wooden pulpit with scarlet cloth before him is addressing a group of seated and standing ladies and gentlemen, including a prince in gold robe and a lady in a diadem. The listeners are intent on the speaker. Behind him on R. the ground slopes up steeply, with trees. The middle distance is divided off by a ridge of rock sloping up to R. Beyond it in upper R. corner is a gay turreted castle coloured pink. In front of this a group, the foremost figures of which are a crowned queen in blue over white: a noble in scarlet with wreath by her. To them kneels on L. a prince in gold holding a gold cap or crown. He is attended by others. In the distance in L. upper corner is a dark castle on a rock, and some brightly clad small figures are descending the path from it. The picture has suffered to a slight extent from rubbing, but is a very beautiful thing.
    Incipit
    (2r) The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen
    Explicit
    (2v) And how that she forsook hym er she deyde
    Note
    (3r) blank. Doubtless a picture was intended
    Incipit
    (4r) It is wel wist how that the grekes stronge
    Note
    A space for a picture is left on every leaf in Book I, making 23<br />Liber I ends f. 26v<br />(27r) Liber II, spaces for 36 pictures<br />(63r) Liber III, spaces for 13 pictures<br />On f. 63r is<br />Ihesu mercy lady helpe me Dorote Pennell (or -tt)<br />(93v) Liber IV, spaces for 8 or 9 pictures<br />On f. 108r is pencilled Knyvett<br />(119v) Liber V, spaces for 14 pictures<br />On f. 147r is scribbled (xv): notnarf drawde ( = Edward Franton) which also occurs on the flyleaf
    Explicit
    (150r) ffor loue of mayde and moder thyn benigne. Amen
    Rubric
    (150r) Explicit liber Troily
    Note
    (the same scribbled below and erased)<br />(150v) This is my booke / S. B.? Stephen Batman / geven to me by Mr Carr the xvij of Decembre ano 1570<br />(151r) A receipt in English
TJames
17
Stanley
B. 5
Repository
UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library
Location
MS 061

Access conditions

Use and reproduction:
Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
License:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License
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