Add MS 6796

ROMAN DE MÉLUSINE: Coudrette, 'Le Roman de Mélusine', a verse romance composed circa 1400-1410; late 15th cent. French. Origin: France. Imperfect at the beginning, lacking the first four folios. Missing material is supplied with a title page in a late 17th cent. hand, ff. 1-7v. Beg. 'Le Philozophe fut moult saige'. First complete line of the original text, 'Le mieux enseigne de touz trois'. Printed in Le Roman de Mélusine ou Histoire de Lusignan par Coudrette, ed. E. Roach (1982), where all known MSS. are listed. For other notices of this MS. see: Cat. Romances, i,

pp. 692-698;- E. Roach, 'La Tradition Manuscrite du Roman de Mélusine par Coudrette', Revue d'Histoire des Textes, vii (1977), pp. 185-233. Owned, mid 16th cent., by Léonor de Rohan, wife of Louis de Rohan, Prince de Guémené, whose ex libris occurs f. 8. Memoranda (f. 9) on contents of the missing pages in a late 17th cent. French hand, which also occurs in notes and marginalia, ff. 16-17v. Purchased from William Baynes, bookseller, Dec. 1825, see Add. 62042.

Paper; ff. i+121+60(a)-(b)+76(a)-(b). 280 x 210mm. approx. Gatherings: i6, f. 7 irregular, ii-viii16 (ii lacks 1-4), viii irregular. ff. 1-20, 117-121 are mounted on guards. At the centres of quires v and vi are vellum strips (ff. 60(a)-(b), 76(a)-(b), cut from contemporary accounts, used to strengthen the quires for sewing. Quires marked with small letters, with signatures in roman numerals, i-viii bottom right-hand corner rectos, some cropped. Single columns. One cursive secretary hand. Initials in red and yellow. Watermark: a bull, nr. Briquet 2783, late 15th cent. The ex libris on the extant portion of f. 8 suggests that damage or loss of the early folios occurred before the mid sixteenth cent.