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Harley MS 2392
- Record Id:
- 040-002048223
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048223
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000384
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161515056.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2392
- Title:
-
Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-145v: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, beginning: 'The double sorwe of troilus for to tell / that was kyng Priam[mes] sone of troie' (see Boffey and Edwards, A New Index (2005), no. 3327; for an edition, see The Riverside Chaucer, ed. by Benson and Robinson (1987), pp. 472-585).
Decoration:
Puzzle initial in blue and red with pen-flourishing in the same colours framing the text (f. 1r). 7 initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour (ff. 20v, 51v, 52v, 84v, 85r, 138r, 140r). A few cadels.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048223", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2392: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048223 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2392 : Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2393]/040-002048223
- 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_100161515056.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1425
- End Date:
- 1474
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 15th century-3rd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper and parchment.
Dimensions: 215 x 145 mm (text space: 145 x 80 mm).
Foliation: ff. 145 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); each quire has been mounted onto a paper guard.
Collation: Mostly in quires of 12. The outer and inner bifolia of each quire are parchment leaves.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum in-house: re-bound on 19 September 1964.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
‘Style’, copied the text in the 15th century: his name inscribed at the end of the text on f. 145v: ‘quod Style’; and possibly also on an erased note on f. 17v that can be read with UV light: [?] ‘style loke west’.
Sir Henry Spelman (b. 1563/4, d. 1641), historian and antiquary: his name inscribed on f. 1r: 'Henrici Spelman' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 310).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (1689-1741), 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 (1694-1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (1715-1785), 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:
-
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), no. 3327.
Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York: Columbia, 1943), no. 3327.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), II (1808), p. 682.
Martha W. Driver, 'Mapping Chaucer: John Speed and the Later Portraits', The Chaucer Review, 36 (2002), 228-49 (p. 230).
S. S. Hussey, 'The Difficult Fifth Book of "Troilus and Criseyde"', The Modern Language Review, 67 (1972), 721-29 (pp. 727, 729).
The Book of Troilus and Criseyde, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited from all the known manuscripts, ed. by Robert Kilburn Root (Princeton: Princeton University Press, [1967]), pp. lvi-lvii.
R. K. Root, The Manuscripts of Chaucer's 'Troilus', Chaucer Society, 1st ser., 98 (London: Kegan Paul, 1914), pp. 29-30.
R. K. Root, The Textual Tradition of Chaucer's 'Troilus', Chaucer Society, 1st ser., 99 (London: Kegan Paul, 1916).
Michael C. Seymour, 'The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Troilus', Scriptorium 46 (1992) 107-121 (p. 121).
James G. Southworth, 'Chaucer: A Plea for a Reliable Text', College English, 26 (1964), 173-79 (pp. 173, 178).
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), p. 73.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 310.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)