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Harley MS 1239
- Record Id:
- 040-002047068
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047068
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0002e9
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161513435.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 1239
- Title:
-
Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; a selection from The Canterbury Tales
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a collection of works by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400): Troilus and Criseyde, and a selection from The Canterbury Tales. The latter includes The Knight's Tale, The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Clerk's Tale, and The Franklin's Tale.
Contents:
ff. 1r-62v: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde [see Boffey and Edwards, A New Index (2005), no. 3327; for an edition, see Riverside Chaucer (1987), pp. 472-575]; beginning: 'The double sorow of Troylus to telle / That was the kyng Pryames sone of Troye / In lofyng how hys aventures felle / ffro woo to wele and after owrte of ioye'; ending: 'So make us Ihesus ffor thy mercy digne / ffor love of mayde And modyr thyn benigne'; 2 folios lost after f. 3 [ll. I.379-630 are missing].
ff. 63r-80v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight's Tale; begins imperfectly (Canterbury Tales, l. I.893): 'Thys duke of qwhom I make mencyon / whane he was almost comyne to the towne'; ending with a colophon: 'Explicit fabula militis'.
ff. 80v-88r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale; beginning (Canterbury Tales, l. II.99): 'O hath ful harme condicioun of povert / with thrust with colde withhungur so confundyd'; ending with a colophon: ‘here endyth þe tale Of Custace'; 1 folio lost after f. 85 [ll. II.775-898 are misisng].
ff. 88r-91r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Tale; beginning (Canterbury Tales, l. III.857): 'In þe olde days of kyng Arthour / Of wych þat brythans spake gret honowr'; ending with a colophon: 'here þe gud wyfe of Bath endyth'.
ff. 91r-101r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Clerk's Tale; beginning (Canterbury Tales, l. IV.57): 'There ys right at þe west syde of ytaly / downe at þe rote of vesulus þe colde'; ending with a colophon: 'here endyth þe clarkys tale of Oxenforth'.
ff. 101r-106r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Franklin's Tale; beginning: 'Lystenythe of a knygh of tyme full olde / Off werrys he was wyse and eke ful bolde / A lady to his wyffe for love he chesse / þat ever tyll hys entent wolde hym plesse / he sayd in fayth for non erthly creature / wolde he ne change wyle lyve may in dure / And she to hym wysely gan swere / þat never shuld be deffaut in hyre' [the beginning is different from the version found in other manuscripts, joining the text printed in the Riverside Chaucer at line V.789]; ending: ‘Now tel me or þat þe forth wende / I can no more my tale Is at An ende / vestre magnifice et generosissime dominaciones humilimus serviens / et [?] Orate heremita de Grenewych mundo quasi totaliter / segregatus ac mentibus suorum fortune Amicorum et hominum per / oblitus'; the top of f. 102 is badly torn with some loss of text: approximately ll. V.870-81 (f. 102r), ll. V. 939-51 (f. 102v); 1 folio lost following f. 103 [ll. V.1123-241 are missing]; and another folio lost following f. 105 [ll. V.1453-562 are missing].
Decoration:
In Troilus and Criseyde: 1 large initial on f. 1r with foliate decoration and a coat of arms, perhaps those of Thomas of Horbling (Askins, 'The Brothers Orléans and their Keepers’ (2000), p. 37). Initials in alternating red and blue begin each stanza. Red brackets delineate stanzas on the right. Some decorative ascenders extend into the top margin.
In selection from The Canterbury Tales: Simple border decoration (f. 63r). Large initials in red. Rhyming couplets bracketed in red on f. 73v (ll I.2263-85).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047068", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1239: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; a selection from The Canterbury Tales" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047068 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 1239 : Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; a selection from The Canterbury Tales - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[1239]/040-002047068
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100161513435.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1474
- Date Range:
- 3rd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 395 x 120 mm (text space: 330 x 80) [a 'holster book'].
Foliation: ff. 107 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 1 unfoliated blank parchment leaf between f. 85 and f. 86 (f. [85a]); 1 unfoliated parchment stub between f. 85 and f. [85a]; the upper half of f. 102 has been partially torn off (loss of text) and replaced with blank parchment; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [iii]recto (bibliographical notes).
Script: Written in four hands: scribe 1 (ff. 1-15r); scribe 2 (ff. 15r-33v, 35r-62v); scribe 3 (ff. 33v-34v); scribe 4 (ff. 63r-106v, that is, the selections from The Canterbury Tales).
Binding: British Museum in-house. Gilt fore-edge.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
A hermitage in Greenwich, established before 1403: located at the east end of the Deptford Bridge on the Canterbury Road; one or more of the scribes may have been a hermit here: indicated by a colophon on f. 106v: 'Vestre magnifice et generosissime dominacionis humilimus serviens et [?] Orate heremita de Grenewych mundo quasi totaliter segregatus ac mentibus suorum fortune amicorum et hominum per oblitus' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 171).
The Parker family, 16th century: ownership inscriptions of Raffe Parker, Robert Parker, and Lucas Parker on ff. 21v, 54r, and 107v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 267).
Humphrey Dethicke, 16th century: his name inscribed (3x) on f. 107v: 'houmfraye derike is a knave', 'houmfray dethike is a knave soo god me Save and who so [...]'; ‘houmfray dethike [...]’; and 'houmfraye dethicke dux omnium malorum' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 131).
‘Michael’, owned in the 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed (2x) on f. 107v: ‘mychaell’.
‘Mr. Massey’, early 18th century: probably Richard Middleton Massey (b. 1678, d. 1743) of Brasenose College, Oxford, one of the keepers of the Ashmolean Museum, sold the manuscript to Humphrey Wanley: according to the Harleian Catalogue of 1808: 'Mr Massey (then of Jesus College, Oxford) of whom I [Humphrey Wanley] bought the book' (seeWright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 236).
Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), Old English scholar and librarian: sold the manuscript to Edward Harley (seeWright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 341-46).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish Harley, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), Duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
- Publications:
-
William Askins, 'The Brothers Orléans and their Keepers', in Charles d'Orléans in England (1415-1440), ed. by Mary-Jo Arn (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000), pp. 27-45 (p. 37).
C. David Benson and Barry A. Windeatt, 'The Manuscript Glosses to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde', Chaucer Review, 25 (1990), 33-53.
The Riverside Chaucer, ed. by Larry D. Benson and F. N. Robinson, 3rd edn (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987), pp. 471-585, 1161-77.
Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: British Library, 2005), nos. 3327, 4019.
Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York: Columbia, 1943), nos. 3327, 4019.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), I (1808), pp. 618-19 (no. 1239).
Martin Michael Crow, 'John of Angoulême and His Chaucer Manuscript', Speculum, 17 (1942), 86-99 (pp. 97-98).
Mary Hamel, 'Arthurian Romance in Fifteenth-Century Lindsey: The Books of the Lords Welles', Modern Language Quarterly, 51:3 (1990), 341-61 (p. 352).
John M. Manly and Edith Rickert, The Text of the Canterbury Tales, 8 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago press, 1940), I: Descriptions of the Manuscripts, pp. 189-97.
The Book of Troilus and Criseyde, by Geoffrey Chaucer: Edited from All the Known Manuscripts, ed. by Robert K. Root (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1926).
R. K. Root, The Manuscripts of Chaucer's 'Troilus', Chaucer Society, 1st series, 98 (London: Kegan Paul, 1914), pp. 25-27.
R. K. Root, The Textual Tradition of Chaucer's 'Troilus', Chaucer Society, 1st series, 99 (London: Kegan Paul, 1916).
Michael C. Seymour, 'The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Troilus', Scriptorium 46 (1992) 107-121 (pp. 120-21).
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manusripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), pp. 73-74.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 131, 171, 236, 267, 343.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)