Royal MS 18 A XII

FLAVIUS VEGECIUS RENATUS, De re militari: an English version made for Thomas, 4th Lord Berkeley, in 1408. Other copies are in Lansdowne MS. 285, f. 82, and Sloane MS. 2027 (imperf.). Attributed by Tanner and others (see Higden's Polychronicon, Rolls Series, i, p. lv, note) to John de Trevisa (and so in Dict. Nat. Biogr.) on no other ground apparently but that he translated other works for the same Lord Berkeley; but Trevisa would in 1408 have been nearly 80 years old, and in three copies at Oxford (Digby MS. 233, Douce MS. 291, and Magdalen Coll. MS. 30) the translator's name is indicated by a rebus or device, which Douce and Coxe read Clef- or Clif-toun, while Mr. F. Madan tentatively suggests Bannerton (Standardton or Pennonton might also be possible), cl. Caley's Cat. of Lansdowne MSS., Madan's Summary Catalogue of Western MSS. in the Bodleian, iv, p. 582, and Macray's Cat. Codd. MSS. K. Digby, p. 244. Translator's prologue beg. 'Here begynneth a short tretise the whiche Vegesius that was sonn to the worshipfull Erle Renate wrote to the Emperour of Rome'; author's prologue, 'In olde tyme it was the maner and the custume'; ch. i, 'How onliche by custumable vsage of dedes of armes the Romayns had the victory'. Colophon, 'Here endeth the boke that Clerkes clepeth in latyn Vegecii de re militari. This boke of Vegecii of dedes of Knyghthode was translated out of latyn in to english at the ordenaunce and bidding of the worthy and worshipfull lord Sire Thomas of Berkeley . . . . This boke was translate in to English in the vigill of all Hallowes, the yere of oure lord God M1.CCCC and VIIIth yere', &c.

Vellum ; ff. 123. 91/2 in. x 6 in. A.D. 1483-1485. Gatherings of 8 leaves, lettered at beg. Sec.fol. 'eldre'. Illuminated initials at the beginning of each chapter, and more elaborate ones with full-page borders at the beginning of the four books. That on f. 1 contains the arms of Richard III, with two boars arg. as supporters, and that on f. 49 the arms of Anne Neville, his wife, marshalled as follows, Quarterly, 1st, per pale Beauchamp and Newburgh, 2nd, per pale Montagu and Monthermer, 3rd, Neville, 4th, per pale Clare and Despenser. Not in the old catalogues.