Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 494: Laurent d'Orléans OP, La somme le roi, translated into Middle English

purl.stanford.edu/dw078wz4948

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 494: Laurent d'Orléans OP, La somme le roi, translated into Middle English

Alternate Title:

[Untitled]

Language:

English, Middle (1100-1500) and French, Old (ca. 842-1400)

Extent:

ff. 117

Dimensions:

200 Height (mm) and 142 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1400 - 1499]

Provenance:

In the cover (f. iv): Ex dono dignissimi viri Johannis Boothe Collegii Corp. Xti in Cant. dudum socii. John Booth was Fellow 1627-40. He bequeathed a printed book to the College and says Masters (Lamb, p. 175) at the same time a MS. of his own was presented, whose contents I could never learn. Probably this is the volume in question.

Table of contents:

La somme le roi, translated into English

Description:

The sole text in CCCC MS 494, dating to the fifteenth century, is a unique translation in Middle English of La somme le roi, a treatise on religious instruction compiled for Philip III of France in 1279 by Laurent (or Lorens) d'Orléans OP. It was given to the College by John Booth, Fellow, 1627-40. The paste downs are fragments of a French romance, the prose Lancelot. The book retains its original medieval stamped binding. As a result of the fragility of this binding it has only been possible to image the exterior and interior of the front cover, the exterior of the back cover, and part of the text pages, ff. 49r-53v.