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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.

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

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Superseded Interim Catalogue Record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
  Liber I ends f. 26v
  (27r) Liber II, spaces for 36 pictures
  (63r) Liber III, spaces for 13 pictures
  On f. 63r is
  Ihesu mercy lady helpe me Dorote Pennell (or -tt)
  (93v) Liber IV, spaces for 8 or 9 pictures
  On f. 108r is pencilled Knyvett
  (119v) Liber V, spaces for 14 pictures
  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)
  (150v) This is my booke / S. B.? Stephen Batman / geven to me by Mr Carr the xvij of Decembre ano 1570
  (151r) A receipt in English

TJames

17

Stanley

B. 5

Repository

UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Location

MS 061

Use and reproduction:

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License:

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