Harley MS 4197

Contents:

ff. 1r-102v: John Lydgate, The Fall of Princes, imperfect; an English translation [with Latin marginal notes] of Laurent de Premierfait’s Des Cas des nobles hommes et femmes, which is a French translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (‘On the Fates of Famous Men’); beginning: 'He that whilom ded hys diligens / The book of Bokas in frensh to translate'. One or more folios have been lost at the end, and the manuscript now ends with the following lines: 'and Tragedyes in especiall / be rad and song att feestys funerall' [see Boffey and Edwards, A New Index (2005), no. 1168].

Decoration:

1 large initial in colours and gold combined with a partial (three-sided) foliate border including acanthus leaves and besants at the beginning of the text (f. 1r). Numerous initials in blue with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing including foliate motifs (e.g., f. 56r). Calligraphically decorated initials in brown ink. Cadels in brown ink, some with red pen-flourishing added (f. 11r).

Various forms of decoration were added at a later stage:

1 partly-hand-coloured print of a wild man holding a club (f. 34v). The print is 16th century, but may have been mounted and painted with a stem of sweet peas in colours above it in the 17th century.

6 marginal drawings in brown ink added in the 16th century: a hybrid figure (f. 7v); the head in profile of a woman, possibly Delilah (f. 32r); the head in profile of a man in armour identified as Scipio (f. 103v); the head of a king identified as Amulthar (Hamilcar) (f. 104v); a lady in elaborate costume standing on a slug (f. 92r); 2 men playing a ball game resembling cricket (f. 95r).

Red pen-flourishing was added to the cadel on f. 11r and manicules in brown ink were added in the 16th century.