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Add MS 5140
- Record Id:
- 032-003320240
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-003320240
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100034703680.0x000001
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100155064791.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 5140
- Title:
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales; John Lydgate, Siege of Thebes
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 2r–359v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, written in two different hands on alternate sheets of parchment and paper. The arms on the lower margin of f. 2r (three Cornish choughs sable, limbed and beaked gules, impaled with those of the See of Canterbury) are those attributed to Thomas Becket (1119/20–1170), rather than those of Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury (1501–1503), as a former owner has written. The Tales are in the following order:
ff. 2r–14r: Prologus.
ff. 14r–45v: The Knightys tale; imperfect. Two folios, or 140 lines, are wanting between ff. 14 and 15 from v.970 ‘No neer Athenys wold he goo ne ryde’ to v.1102 ‘Ys cause of all my cryeng and my wo’.
ff. 45v–46v: Prohemium Molendinarii (The Miller’s Prologue.)
ff. 47r–57v: Fabula eiusdem (The Miller’s Tale).
ff. 57v–58v: Prologus de le Reeve (The Reeve’s Prologue).
ff. 58v–65r: Fabula Prepositi (The Reeve’s Tale).
ff. 65v–66r: Prologus Coqui (The Cook’s Prologue).
ff. 66r–67r: Fabula eiusdem (The Cook’s Tale).
ff. 67r–68v: Prologus Iurisperiti (The Man of Law’s Prologue).
ff. 69r–87v: Fabula eiusdem (The Man of Law’s Tale).
ff. 88r–102v: Prologus uxoris de Bathe (The Wife of Bath’s Prologue).
ff. 102v–110r: Fabula eiusdem (The Wife of Bath’s Tale).
ff. 110r–110v: Prologus Fratris (The Friar’s Prologue).
ff. 111r–117r: Fabula eiusdem (The Friar’s Tale).
ff. 117r–118r: Prologus Apparitoris (The Summoner’s Prologue).
ff. 118r–128r: Fabula eiusdem (The Summoner’s Tale).
ff. 128r–129r: Prologus Clerici Oxon[iensis] (The Clerk of Oxford’s Prologue).
ff. 129r–149v: Fabula eiusdem (The Clerk of Oxford’s Tale).
f. 149v: Verba Hospitis (The words of the Host).
ff. 150r–150v: Prologus Mercatoris (The Merchant’s Prologue).
ff. 150v–171r: Fabula eiusdem (The Merchant’s Tale).
ff. 171r–171v: Prologus Armigeri (The Squire’s Prologue).
ff. 171v–183v: Fabula eiusdem (The Squire’s Tale).
ff. 183v–184r: Prologus de le Frankelyne (The Franklin’s Prologue).
ff. 184v–201r: Fabula eiusdem (The Franklin’s Tale).
ff. 201r–206v: Fabula Phisici sine Prologus (The Physician’s Tale, without a prologue).
ff. 206v–207v: Prologus Questoris (The Pardoner’s Prologue).
ff. 207v–220r: Fabula eiusdem (The Pardoner’s Tale).
ff. 220r–229r: Fabula naute (The Shipman’s Tale).
ff. 229r–230r: Prologus Priorisse (The Prioress’s Prologue). Another, neater hand commences here.
ff. 230v–234r: Fabula eiusdem de Alma Redemptoris (The Prioress’s Tale).
ff. 234r–234v: Prologus Chauceer de Dono Thopas (The prologue to Chaucer’s Tale of Sir Thopas).
ff. 234v–238v: Fabula eiusdem (The Tale of Thopas).
ff. 238v–260r: Narratio Galfridi Chaucere de Mellibeo (The Tale of Melibee).
ff. 260r–261v: Prohemium fabule Monachi (The Monk’s Prologue).
ff. 262r–274r: Explicit prohemium Monachi de Tragedies, et incipit narratio eiusdem de eodem (The Monk’s Tale, a collection of exempla on the theme of tragedy.)
ff. 274r–275r: Prohemium Sacerdotis Monialium (The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue).
ff. 275r–284v: Narracio eiusdem de Chauntecler & Partelotte (The Nun’s Tale, about the chanticleer and the fox).
ff. 284v–285r: Prologus fabule secunde monialis (The Second Nun’s Prologue).
ff. 285r–294v: Narracio eiusdem de vita Sancte Cecilee (The Second Nun’s Tale, a life of St Cecilia).
ff. 295r–297v: Prologus famuli canonici (The Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue).
ff. 297v–309r: Narracio eiusdem de multiplicatione (The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale).
ff. 309r–311r: Prologus Mancipii (The Manciple’s Prologue).
ff. 311r–315r: Narracio eiusdem de Corvo (The Manciple’s Tale, about Apollo and his pet crow).
ff. 315r–315r: Prohemium fabule Rectoris (The Parson’s Prologue).
ff. 315r–359v: Narracio eiusdem (The Parson’s Tale), ending with the colophon: 'Explicit narracio Rectoris et ultima inter narraciones huius libri de quibus composuit Chaucer cuius anime propicietur deus AMEN'.
This is followed by:
ff. 359v–425v: John Lydgate, Siege of Thebes, beginning: 'Incipit ultima de fabulis Cantuarie translata et prolata per Dompnii Johannem Lidgate Monachii in redundo a Cantuaria'. The ending is imperfect, with the lines ‘Alle clad in blak, with her wymplys white with grete honour and due reverence’.
Decoration:
1 large (6-line) plum-colored initial on a gold field with full bar borders featuring curled acanthus leaves and bell-shaped flowers in colours and gold. In the lower margin is a coat of arms in colours. Medium (2- or 3-line) blue initials with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing throughout the manuscript. Marginal headers and Latin annotations in 2-line boxes or curly brackets in blue or red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-003320240", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 5140: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales; John Lydgate, Siege of Thebes" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-003320240
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-003320240
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100155064791.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1480
- End Date:
- 1505
- Date Range:
- c 1485-c 1500
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Available for research unless otherwise stated
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper and parchment.
Dimensions: 290 x 225 mm.
Foliation: ff. 425 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [i]verso (note on the arms on f. 2r) and f. [426]recto (note of foliation).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Blind-stamped olive morocco with blind-stamped and -tooled green leather pasted on the endleaves and insides of the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: South-eastern England (Suffolk, based on the dialect).
Provenance:
The arms on f. 2r have previously been attributed to Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury (1501-1503), but they do not match with those on his tomb or those recorded in Harley MS 1366, f. 14r.
‘Thomas [?] Curtise [or ‘Curfito’]’, owned in the 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 118v.
‘Thomas Carson’, owned in the 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 118v, but smudged and barely legible.
Anthony Askew (b. 1722, d. 1774), physician and book collector: consulted by the scholar Thomas Tyrwhitt (b. 1730, d. 1786), who refers to it as ‘Ask. 2’; his sale, Leigh and Sotheby, 7 March 1785, lot 322 (see the note on f. 1v: ‘Askew, M. D. [In the Catalogue of his MSS. sold in 1785, N°.322.]’); purchased by George Steevens.
George Steevens (b. 1736, d. 1800), literary editor and scholar: purchased at Askew’s sale on 7 March 1785 for £ 9.9.0 and presented by him to the British Museum on 28 April 1786.
- Former External References:
- Ask. 2
- Publications:
-
'Catalogue of the Additions made to the Department of Manuscripts since the publication of Mr Ayscough's Catalogue in 1782', 2 vols (1831), II, pp. 186–88.
John M. Manly, and Edith Rickert, The Text of the Canterbury Tales: Studied on the Basis of All Known Manuscripts, 8 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940), I, pp. 29-33.
Charles A. Owen, The Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales (Cambridge: Brewer, 1991), pp. 92-3.
Michael C. Seymour, A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts. Volume II, The Canterbury Tales (Aldershot and Brookfield: Scolar Press, 1997), pp. 93-8.
'London, British Library Addit. 5140', in The Digital Index of Middle English Verse, [accessed 6 November 2019]
'Manuscript: Ad1', in A Digital Catalogue of the Pre-1500 Manuscripts and Incunables of the Canterbury Tales [accessed 6 November 2019]
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)