Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Royal MS 17 D XV
- Record Id:
- 040-002107393
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x000218
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165176556.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 17 D XV
- Title:
-
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
- Scope & Content:
-
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, imperfect, including The Cook’s Tale of Gamelyn; Anonymous, Somnium Vigilantis; John Fortescue, The Declaration Made by John Fortescue; The Balet of the King; attributed to John Russell, The Book of Nurture.
Contents:
ff. 1r-12v: Geoffrey Chaucer, General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, imperfect, beginning at l. 69: ‘And of his porte as meke as is a mayde’.
ff. 12v-46v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 46v-58r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Miller’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 58r-65r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale.
f. 65r-66v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Cook’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 66v-79v: The Cook’s Tale of Gamelyn, beginning: ‘Lythen & listeneye & harkeneye aryhte’.
ff. 79v-95v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Man of Law’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 95v-96v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Epilogue of the Man of Law’s Tale (here called ‘the prologe of the squyre’) and introduction to the Squire’s Tale, beginning: ‘Ower Oste uppon his styropes stode anone’.
ff. 96v-106r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Squire’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 106r-123v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 123v-143r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 143r-148r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Friar’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 148r-157v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Summoner’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 158r-176v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Clerk’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 177r-190v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 191r-199r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Nun’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 199r-213r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 213r-217v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Physician’s Tale, with 14-line prologue.
ff. 217v-227v: Geoffrey Chaucer, Introduction to the Pardoner’s Tale, and The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 228r-234r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Shipman’s Tale.
ff. 234v-238r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Words of the Host to the Shipman and the Prioress and The Prioress’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 238r-242v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue and Tale of Sir Thopas.
ff. 242v-261r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue and Tale of Melibee.
ff. 261r-273v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Monk’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 273v-284r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue, Tale and Epilogue.
ff. 284r-289v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Manciple’s Prologue and Tale.
ff. 289v-301v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parson’s Prologue and Tale, imperfect, ending l. 448: ‘[s]odeynly withdrawn ayen, all by’.
ff. 302r-310v: Political dialogue, known as Somnium Vigilantis, beginning: ‘[P]erylle the whiche bene lyke to fall'
ff. 311v-326v: Sir John Fortescue, The Declaration Made by John Fortescue, Knight, Upon Certain Writings sent out of Scotland against the King’s Title of his Realm of England, beginning: ‘A lernid man in the lawe of this lande’.
ff. 327r-332v: The Balet of the King, beginning: ‘Remembyr with reuerens the maker of mankynde’
ff. 333r-348v: The Book of Nurture, imperfect, beginning: ‘Off such thing as here be taught by diligence’; ending l. 1016: ‘Thestate of aprioure dene archdeken a knyght fressh and fayre’. Attributed to John Russell (see Furnivall, The Babees Book, 1868).
Added at a later date:
f. 311r: late medieval inscriptions
f. 332v: a remedy for toothache, c. 1500
Decoration:
Large blue initials with red penwork at the start of each item. Opening initials of verse lines highlighted in red. Running headings and rubrics in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107393 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 17 D XV : Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1552]/040-002107393
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165176556.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper. Unicorn watermark visible on f. 311.
Dimensions: 290 x 210mm (ruled text space 200 x 140mm).
Foliation: ff. 348 (+ 2 modern unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning, 1 modern blank leaf between f. 301 and f. 302, 1 modern blank leaf between f. 310 and f. 311, and 3 modern unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Black leather with gold-tooled royal crest.
- Custodial History:
-
Provenance:
Elizabeth, queen of England, consort of Edward IV (c. 1437-1492): given to her during her crossing of London Bridge into the city before her coronation in 1465, possibly sold in John Multon's shop (see Sutton and Visser-Fuchs, 1997).
John Multon, stationer (fl. 1475): ff. 167-301 probably in his hand (see Christianson, 1990).
John Theyer (bap. 1598, d. 1673), antiquary: in his library left to his grandson Charles Theyer (b. 1651): but not in E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 3 vols. (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?).
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. 62.
Charles II (b. 1630, d.1685), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland: purchased from Scott together over 300 other manuscripts from Theyer's library.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Information About Copies:
- Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History, Composed During the Period from the Accession of Edward III to that of Richard III, ed. by Thomas Wright, Rolls Series, 14, 2 vols (1859-61), vol. 2, p. 271.
F. J. Furnivall, The Babees Book, Aristotle’s ABC, Urbanitas, Stans Puer ad Mensam, The Lytille Childrenes Lytil Boke, Early English Text Society, 32 (London: N. Trübner, 1868), pp. civ-cxv, 116.
J. P. Gilson, ‘A Defence of the Proscription of the Yorkists in 1459’, The English Historical Review, 26, no. 103 (1911), 512-25 (pp. 513-25).
Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, ed. by George F. Warner and J.P. Gilson, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 254-55.
Margaret Kekewich, ‘The Attainder of the Yorkists in 1459: Two Contemporary Accounts’, Historical Research, 55, no. 131 (1982), 25-34 (pp. 25-29).
C. Paul Christianson, ‘Evidence for the Study of London’s Late Medieval Manuscript-Book Trade’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475, ed. by Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 87-108 (p. 107 n. 43).
C. Paul Christianson, A Directory of London Stationers and Book Artisans 1300-1500 (New York: Bibliographical Society of America, 1990), p. 136.
Linne R. Mooney, ‘More Manuscripts Written by a Chaucer Scribe’, The Chaucer Review, 30, no. 4 (1996), 401-07 (pp. 401, 403).
Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard III’s Books: Ideal and Reality in the Life and Library of a Medieval Prince (Stroud: Sutton, 1997), pp. 36, 94 n. 80.
Daniel W. Mosser, ‘The Use of Caxton Texts and Paper Stocks’, in Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake, ed. by Geoffrey Lester (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 161-77 (pp. 168-69).
Matthew Spencer and others, ‘Analyzing the Order of Items in Manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales’, Computers and the Humanities, 37 (2003), 97-109 (p. 101).
Julia Boffey, ‘London, British Library, Additional MS 18752: a Tudor hybrid book?’, in Tudor Manuscripts 1485-1603, ed. by A. S. G. Edwards, English Manuscript Studies, 15 (London: British Library, 2009), pp. 41-64 (p. 60).
The Tale of Gamelyn of the Canterbury Tales: An Annotated Edition with Introduction, Translation, Commentary and Glossary, ed. by Níla Vázquez (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), pp. 13-14, 18.
- Exhibitions:
- Magna Carta and the Changing Face of Revolt, Palace Green Library, Durham, 1 June 2015 - 31 August 2015
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- Exhibited: Magna Carta and the Changing Face of Revolt, Palace Green Library, Durham, 1 June 2015 - 31 August 2015