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Add MS 19554

Record Id:
032-002096196
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
032-002096196
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100000000041.0x0001c6
LARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100165145576.0x000001
SLARK:
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Add MS 19554
Title:

Romance of Wigalois; Romance of Iwein

Scope & Content:

Contents:

Two Arthurian romances in German:

ff. 2r-56v: Wirnt von Gräfenberg (here 'Wirznt von Gräfenberg'), Wigalois or Der Ritter mit dem Rade (the Knight of the Wheel), a poem of unknown origin; a French version by Renauld de Beaujeu is known as Le Bel Inconnu or Giglain, fils Messire Gauvain;

ff. 57r-100v: Hartman von Aue (or Ouwe), Iwein or Der Ritter mit dem Lewen, (the Knight with the Lion), adapted from Chretien de Troyes, Chevalier au Lion) in an abridged version in rhyming couplets.

A decorated colophon on f. 56v identifies the scribe and date: '1468. E. Towler'; the latter part, ff. 57-100 is in the same hand, and is of the same date, according to Watson, Dated and Datable Manuscripts (1997).

Decoration:

A full-page added ink drawing with an episode from Wigalois, of a king, seated at a table before a castle, receiving news of his mother's death from a maiden, who gives him a ring from her (f. 1v). A large decorated initial brown at the beginning of the prologue (f. 2r) and an outlined initial in brown with display capitals in red at the beginning of the text of Wigalois (f. 3r). Rubrics and numerous initials in red to f. 38r. Red lines through the initials at the beginning of lines. Spaces left for miniatures (e.g., f. 6v). Cadels and extensions into the upper margin, some with decoration including faces (e.g. f. 84r).

Collection Area:
Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Additional Manuscripts
Hierarchy Tree:
[{ "id" : "032-002096196", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 19554: Romance of Wigalois; Romance of Iwein" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-002096196
Is part of:
not applicable
Hierarchy:
032-002096196
Container:
not applicable
Record Type (Level):
Fonds
Extent:

Paper codex

Digitised Content:
Languages:
German
Scripts:
Latin
Start Date:
1468
End Date:
1468
Date Range:
1468
Era:
CE
Access:

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User Conditions:
Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 280 x 205 mm (text space: 210 x 160/70 mm).

Layout: Written in two columns of 50 lines.

Foliation: ff. 56 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. Tooled brown boards with marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin: S. Germany or Austria.

Provenance:

Inscribed '1468. E. Towler', at the end of the first text (f. 56v); the second text (ff. 57-100) is in the same hand, and is of the same date, according to Watson, Dated and Datable Manuscripts (1997).

Dr Wigaleus Hundt (d. 1588), councilor of Munich: an eighteen-line poem, dated 1541, added by him at the end (f. 100v). It relates that he was sent to 'Kaltenberg' (?Battenberg) as a commissioner in a boundary dispute between Aschau and Kufstein (Tyrol), and fell from his horse, spending three days recuperating at Aschau, during which time he read this manuscript.

Adolphus Asher (b. 1800, d. 1853), Berlin bookseller and dealer to the British Museum 1841-1853 (see David Paisey, 'Adolphus Asher (1800-1853): Berlin bookseller, anglophile and friend to Panizzi', in The British Library Journal, 23 (1997), 131-53); bought from him by the British Museum on 11 June, 1853.

Information About Copies:

Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.

Publications:

H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883–1910, I, (1883), pp. 390-91, 398-400.

Peter Jörg Becker, Handschriften und Frühdrucke mittelhochdeutscher Epen: Eneide, Tristrant, Tristan, Erec, Iwein, Parzival, Willehalm, Jüngerer Titurel, Nibelungenlied und ihre Reproduktion und Rezeption im späteren Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit, (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1977), pp. 69-71.

Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in the British Library, c.700–1600, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, no. 216.

Robert Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften in England, 2 vols, (Erlangen, 1896-1901), II, Das British Museum mit einem Anhang über die Guildhall-Bibliothek, republished in one volume (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1979), p. 181.

Peter Strohschneider, 'Höfische Romane in Kurzfassungen. Stichworte zu einem unbeachteten Aufgabenfeld, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 120 (1991), 419-39 (p. 435).

Keith Busby, 'The Manuscript Context of Arthurian Romance' in A Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur's Court in Medieval European Literature, ed. by Leah Tether and Johnny MacFayden (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017), pp. 97-116 (p. 109).

James Rushing, 'The Pictorial Evidence', in The Arthur of the Germans, ed. Silvia Ranawake and Harry Jackson, (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000), pp. 257-279 (pp. 271-72).

Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)
Names:
Asher, Adolphus, Bookseller, 1800-1853
Aue, Hartman, Middle High German poet, c 1160-c 1215
Grafenberg, Wirnt, poet and knight, fl Early 13th century
Related Material:

ROMANCE of Wigelois, or "der Ritter mit dem Rade." German. The date 1468, and the name, "E. Towler," with his monogram, are inscribed at the end, f. 2; The romance of Iwein, or "der Ritter mit dem Lewen." German, f. 57. Paper; XVth cent.; with a pen and ink drawing at the beginning. Quarto. [Add. 19,554.]