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Royal MS 13 A III
- Record Id:
- 040-002106815
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000277.0x00038b
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165176165.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 13 A III
- Title:
- Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-133r: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae, including the prologue addressed to Robert, Earl of Gloucester (ff. 1r-v); the prologue to the Prophecies of Merlin and epistle to the Bishop of Lincoln (ff. 68r-v). Book 9, chapter 20 and Book 10, chapter 1 are lacking (after f. 104v).
The following were added in the first half of the14th century:
ff. 133v-136v: Two hymns in honour of the Virgin, the second with musical notation (ff. 133v-135v); the Prophecy of Merlin Silvester (ff. 135v-136r); a hymn in honour of St Peter with musical notation (f. 136v);
Numerous marginal drawings, some with inscriptions identifying their contents and notes in Latin, French and English.
Decoration:
Marginal drawings in leadpoint or sepia, including views of cities and churches, kings, scenes from history and coats of arms (ff. 14r, 14v, 16r, 17r, 17v, 18r, 21r, 21v, 28v, 34v, 40r, 41v, 42v, 44r, 47r, 47v, 58r, 60r, 60v, 62v, 63r, 68r, 68v, 90v, 94v, 95r, 102v, 105r, 107r, 108v, 119v, 120v, 123r, 124v, 125r, 126v, 127r, 128v, 129r, 130v, 131r, 132r, 132v). Initials in red with blue or brown pen-flourishing, or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Paraphs in blue. Line-fillers.
The subjects of the drawings include:
f. 14: London;
f. 16v: York; Maddan, grandson of Brutus, holding a scroll;
f. 17r: ?Edinburgh Castle;
f. 17v: Carlyle and Canterbury (represented by the cathedral), Bath and Winchester;
f. 18r: Leicester;
f. 21v: Rome, with the ?Coliseum and a black banner with an eagle, representing the Holy Roman Emperor;
f. 28v: Caerleon, Billingsgate and St Paul's cathedral, Trinovantium (London);
f. 34r: The battle between Nennius, son of King Heli and Julius Caesar;
f. 40r: The shield of arms of Julius Caesar;
f. 41v: Gloucester, with the banner of the Clare family, Earls of Gloucester;
f. 42v: Marius' stone, the stone set up by British king Marius to commemorate his victory over the Pictish king Roderic with the inscription, Westmorland ('Weste mariland');
f. 47v: Colchester;
f. 58r: Vortigern;
f. 62v: Ronwien (Rowena) carrying a goblet of wine for Vortigern;
f. 68v: A castle with a collapsing tower;
f. 90v: King Arthur;
f. 95r, 108v, 124v: Shields with lions rampant;
f. 105r: A dragon killing a bear in Arthur's dream;
f. 119v: The island of Avalon; a bishop praying;
f. 131r: A King, shields of arms.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002106815 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 13 A III : Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1035]/040-002106815
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165176165.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1260
- End Date:
- 1299
- Date Range:
- Late 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 185 x 115 mm (text space: 130 x 80 mm).
Layout: Written in a single column of 28 lines.
Foliation: ff. 136 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end).
Collation: i-x12(ff. 1-120) xi10 (ff, 121-130) xii6 (ff. 131-136). Catchwords.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. BM/BL in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England, S. E. (London?)
Provenance:
Lodovico da Ponte of Treviso (d. c. 1520), author of an abridgement of Geoffrey of Monmouth: inscribed with his name 'Ponticus Virunius' (f. 1r ).
Added marginal annotations in a 16th-century hand.
John Theyer (bap. 1598, d. 1673), antiquary: his monogram (f. 133)r and notes in his hand (e.g., ff. 1r, 132v-133r); included in the catalogue of his library left to his grandson Charles Theyer (b. 1651): see E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 3 vols. (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), II, no. 6606.
Robert Scott (b. c. 1632, d. 1709/10), London bookseller: included in the catalogue of John Theyer’s manuscripts in his possession, made in 1678 by William Beveridge and William Jane, Royal Appendix, 70, no. 245.
Charles II (b. 1630, d. 1685), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland: purchased from Scott together with other 311 manuscripts from Theyer's library.Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Publications:
-
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, H. L. D. Ward, pp. 237, 315.
H. J. D. Astley, 'Mediaeval Colchester: Town, Castle and Abbey from Manuscripts in the British Museum', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 8 (1903), pp.117-19.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 74-75.
The Beginnings of English Topographical and Landscape Drawing: An Exhibition held in the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, 1949-1959 (London: British Museum, 1949), no. 1.
The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth (Cambridge: Brewer, 1985- ), III: Julia C. Crick, A Summary Catalogue of the Manuscripts (1989), no. 109.
The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth (Cambridge: Brewer, 1985- ), IV: Julia C. Crick, Dissemination and Reception in the Later Medieval Ages (1991), pp. 94, 140 n. 43, 162 n. 23, 178.
Antonia Gransden, ‘Realistic Observation in Twelfth-Century England’, in Legends, Traditions and History in Medieval England(London: Hambledon Press, 1992), pp. 175-97 (p. 191).
C. Barron and M-H. Rousseau, ‘Cathedral, City and State, 1300–1540’, in St Paul’s: The Cathedral Church of London 604–2004, ed. by D. Keene, A. Burns and A. Saint (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 33-44, (p. 34).
A. Wheatley, The Idea of the Castle in Medieval England, (Woodbridge: York University Press, 2004), pp. 71-73, no 145.
Michelle Brown, The Holkham Bible: A Facsimile (London, British Library, 2007), p. 17, pl. 17.
Julian M. Luxford, 'A Medieval Drawing of Leicester', Transactions of the Leicester Archaeological Society,83 (2009), 103-112.
- Exhibitions:
- Picturing places, (online), 27 April 2017-
Troy, British Museum, London, 21 November 2019 - 8 March 2020 - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)