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Royal MS 18 B II

Record Id:

040-002107496

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002105724

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x0002dd

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Royal MS 18 B II

Title:

Romance of Melusine

Scope & Content:

Melusine, a romance in English prose, translated from Jean d'Arras, Roman de Melusine (ou la noble histoire de Lusignan), composed for Jean, Duc de Berri, at the request of his sister Marie, Duchesse de Bar in 1393 (the date given in this manuscript is 1387).

ff. 1r-3v: Prologue, translated from French;

f. 3v: List of the estates held by the sons of Melusine, inserted by the translator;

ff. 3v-219v: Romance of Melusine.

Decoration:

Spaces left for 47 half-page miniatures and spaces with guide letters for numerous initials, none of which have been inserted.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Royal Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002105724
040-002107496

Is part of:

Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts

Royal MS 18 B II : Romance of Melusine

Hierarchy:

032-002105724[1649]/040-002107496

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Paper codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1465

End Date:

1498

Date Range:

c 1470-1498

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper and parchment (f. i only).

Dimensions: 285 x 200 mm (text space: 200 x 130 mm).

Layout: Written in one column of 37-38 lines per page.

Foliation: ff. i + 219 (f. i is a parchment flyleaf + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end).

Collation: i¹⁰(ff. 1-10), ii-viii⁸(ff. 11-66), ix^8-1(ff. 67-73), x-xvi⁸(ff. 74-129), xvii^8-1(ff. 130-136), xviii-xxvi⁸ (ff. 137-209), xvii¹⁰ff. 210-219). Quire numbering and catchwords at the end of quires i-iv.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. Royal binding of red leather with gold tooling.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

The paper is watermarked with a collared dog, Briquet no. 3635, Brussels or northern France, 1471-1498 (C. M Briquet, Les Filigranes: Distionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600, a facsimile of the 1907 edition with supplementary material, ed. by Allan Stevenson, 4 vols (Amsterdam: The Paper Publications Society, 1968), I p. 233).

A note on f. 219v in Gothic script: 'aspiciens veterem circum qua quis benedicta', a mnemonic for remembering the times of year in which marriages are forbidden.

A price on a note in the margin of f. 71r, 'p[ro] vii s. viii d.' (for 7 shillings and 8 pence).

Henry Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, perhaps made for his wife, Margaret Woodville (b. c. 1450, d.1492) daughter of Jaquetta of Luxembourg, who was allegedly descended from Melusine: partially illegible notes signed by Richard Marshall (b. 1517, d. c.1575), chaplain to Fitzalan in 1553 (ff. 25v and 26r).

John Lumley, 1st baron Lumley (b. c.1533, d. 1609), collector and conspirator, perhaps entered his household on his marriage to Jane, formerly Fitzalan (b. 1537, d. 1578), daughter of the Earl of Arundel and Margaret Woodville: his name inscribed on f. 1r and listed in the 1609 catalogue of his collection, no. 1036 (see Sears Jayne and Francis Johnson, The Lumley Library: the Catalogue of 1609 (London: British Museum, 1956), p. 132); passed to Henry, prince of Wales.

Henry Frederick, prince of Wales (b. 1594, d. 1612), eldest child of James I: his collection became part of the Royal Library.

The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71 (f. 12v).

Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.

A note at the end states that two printed sheets (C3 and D2) of Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Richard the Third, were taken out of this volume and transferred to the Department of Printed Books, 21 Dec. 1870.

Publications:

Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by H.L.D. Ward and J.A. Herbert, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883–1910) I, p. 690.

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, p. 279.

Mélusine, ou, La Noble histoire de Lusignan : roman du XIVe siècle ed. by Jean-Jacques Vincensini (Paris: Librairie générale française, 2003), [an edition of the text].

Tania M Colwell, 'The Middle English Melusine: Evidence for an Early Edition of the Prose Romance in the Bodleian Library, Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing History, 17 (2014), 254-282 (p. 254).

Charlotte R. J. Smith, 'Description and Essay: London British Library MS Royal 18 B II (University College London: unpublished MA research, 2017).

Olivia Colquitt, 'The Paper of London, British Library, Royal Manuscript 18 B II', Notes & Queries, 70.1 (2023), 7–11.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Lumley, Jane, daughter of Henry Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, 1537-1578
Lumley, John, 1st Baron Lumley, 1533-1609,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000454548354,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/159053447
Marshall, Richard, Chaplain, 1517-1575

Related Material:

From the printed Catalogue of Kings and Royal Manuscripts (1921):

'MELUSINE: a romance in English prose, translated from the French of Jean d'Arras, who composed the work (f. 1) for Jean, Duc de Berri, at the request of his sister Marie, Duchesse de Bar, from chronicles which he 'had of hym and of the Erle of Salesbury in England and[from]many other bokes'. He began it on 'Wensday [before] Saynt Clementis day in winter the yere of our lord m^l ccc lxxxvii' [20 Nov. 1387] the word 'before' being omitted here by the copyist (see the French text, ed. C. Brunet, 1854, and also Harley MS. 4418, f. 1 b, Col. 2). Heading (17th cent.) 'A Chronicle of Melusine in olde Englishe compyled by Jhon of Arras and dedicated to the Duke of Berry and Auuergne and translated (as yt should seeme) out of French into Englishe'. For a full description see Ward, Cat. of Romances, i p. 690. Prologue beg. '[I]n the begynnyng of all werkes'. The first heading (f. 16) 'How Melusyne and her two sisters', &c., is misplaced, the chapter to which it refers beginning on f. 114. Text beg. (f. 2) 'Dauid the prophete saith that the juggements and the punysshinges of God'. The romance really ends on f. 217 b, 'Here shal I leue to speke of the King of Armanye, ffor ynough it is knowen that they cam of the noble lynce of the King Elynas of Albanye and of Lusynen vnto this thursday vii day of August, vpon the whiche was ended this present volume. The yere of our lord a thousand [three hundred] lxxx and foureten'. The date 7 Aug. 1094 (sic) is also given in the French text as printed at Geneva, 1475, but is corrected to 1394 in Brunet's reprint, Paris, 1854, p. 420. In Harley MS. 4418 (f. 249, col. 2) it is given as 7 Aug. 1393. The concluding paragraphs (ff. 217 b-219 b) are abridged from the end of the original text. They begin 'Now haue I shewed to you after the very Cronykles'; and end 'And here I Johan of Aras ende the hystorye of Lusynen, beseching God of his hygh mercy to gyue to þem that be passed fro the mortall world hys eternall glorye and to them that be lyuyng prosperous and blessidfull endyng'. Colophon, 'Here fynyssheth the noble hystorye of Melusyne'. A few passages from this MS. have been printed in the preface and notes to The Romans of Partenay, ed. W. W. Skeat, Early Engl. Text Soc., 1866.

A note at the end states that two printed sheets (C3 and D2) of Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Richard the Third, 4to, were taken out of this volume and transferred to the Department of Printed Books, 21 Dec. 1870.

Paper (f. i vellum); ff. i + 223. 111/2 in. x 8 in. Circ. 1500. Spaces left for coloured initials and miniatures. Belonged (f. 1) to [John, Lord] Lumley. Lumley cat. f. 163; cat. of 1666, f. 12 b.'