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Harley MS 3943
- Record Id:
- 040-002049780
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049780
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0001c7
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161515602.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3943
- Title:
-
Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-116r: 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 Troilus to tellen / that was kyng Pryamys sonne of Troye / In lovyng how his aventuris fellen / ffrome wo to wele and afftirwarde oute of Ioye'; ending: 'Trine unite us from oure cruel foone / Defende and to þi mercy everychone / Or take us Ihesu for þi mercy digne / ffor þe love of maide and moder þin benigne'. A colophon on f. 116r reads: 'Troilus adest mete / venit explicit ergo valete'. One bifolium is lost after f. 59, causing the loss of lines III.1289-1428.
Decoration:
Large red initials at the beginnings of some but not all of the books (ff. 1r, 1v, 89v). Initials at the beginning of each stanza in alternating red and blue. In the portion written by scribe 4 (ff. 71-116), decorative ascenders extend into the margins at the top of the page, and decorative descenders extend into the margin at the bottom. This scribe also uses large Gothic display script for catchwords (ff. 78v, 86v, etc.).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049780", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3943: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049780 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3943 : Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3936]/040-002049780
- 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_100161515602.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1449
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 260 x 135 mm (text space: 205 x 90 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 116 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); f. 1* is a paper leaf; 1 unfoliated parchment stub after f. 116.
Script: Gothic cursive. The manuscript has been written in 4 hands: scribe 1 (ff. 2-7, 9-56, 63-67), scribe 2 (ff. 57-62), scribe 3 (ff. 1, 8, 68-70), scribe 4 (ff. 71-116). Scribe 1 is the same scribe (active 1420s-1430s) who copied London, Lambeth Palace MS 491 and San Marino, Huntington Library HM 114 (olim MS Phillipps 8252) [see Hanna, 'The Scribe of Huntington HM 114' (1989), 120-33].
Binding: British Museum in-house binding; the previous [? original Harleian] binding (gold-stamped and -tooled red leather) has been pasted on the outsides of the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
Banister of Bramcotte (?), 16th or 17th century: inscriptions in the same hand of the two names 'Banister' and 'Bramcotte' (f. 85v), the latter possibly referring to a town of that name in either Nottinghamshire or Warwickshire (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 80).
Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725), book collector: according to an inscription by Edward Harley on f. 1*r, the manuscript was bought in a sale of Rawlinson's books in 1734, lot no. 653: 'Bought in mr Rawlinsons sale of MSS 1734. pr. No. 653. This has been collated by W[illia]m Thomas esq[uire]' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 282-83).
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 University Press, 1943), no. 3327.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), III (1808), p. 97.
Ralph Hanna III, 'The Scribe of Huntington HM 114', Studies in Bibliography, 42 (1989), 120-33.
Philippa Hardman, 'Chaucer's Articulation of the Narrative in "Troilus": The Manuscript Evidence', The Chaucer Review, 30 (1995) 111-33.
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. 17-24.
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) 107-21 (p. 119).
Troilus and Criseyde, 2 vols, Chaucer Society, 1st series, 44 and 65 (London: Trübner, 1873 and 1883).
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), p. 72.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 63, 80, 282.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)