Royal MS 18 D VI

JOHN LYDGATE, Troy Book (cf. 18 D. II, art. 2). The present copy (see Bergen, Description of the MSS., 1906, p. xxiii, and cf. Ward, Cat of Romances, i, p. 79) contains an inferior text, wanting the Envoy and Verba translatoris and with numerous omissions including bk. ii, 3405-3466 and 4713-4777. A quire is lost after f. 19, containing I. 2907-ii. 114. f. 4. Beg. 'O mi[]ty Mars þt wt þi steme li[]t In armes hast þe power and þe mi[]t.' Colophon, 'Here endeth the book of the Sege of Troye translated by John Lydgate the monk of Burs, out of Latyn into Englissh at the instaunce of the most excellent and renomyd prince king Henry þe fifte, the yere of the incarnacioun of oure lord a ml.cccc. and xxti and of the reigne of the said king Henry the v. the viii yere'. Prefixed (ff. 1, 2) are two vellum leaves containing 15 x 7 lines of rhyme royal addressed to the King [Henry VIII ?] by 'John of Audelay', probably John Touchet, 8th Lord Audley, whose honours were restored to him in 1512. The verses were doubtless to accompany the gift of the book to the King, and on f. 3 b, another inserted leaf, was some kind of illuminated design of a circular shape, now cut out, only the border of red and white roses remaining. Beg.:-

'As the bryght beames of Phebus illumyneth the wordle vniuersall, And as the vertue of charytye alle vertuous people doth comforte.'

Vellum ; ff. 139. 171/2 in. x 12 in. Late XV cent. Double columns of 52 lines. Gatherings of 8 leaves lettered (but the missing quire is not counted in), with catchwords. Sec. fol. in text 'Be lengthe'; in Audley's verses 'even most'. Illuminated initials with partial borders to each book, but the beginning of bk. ii is lost and those of bks. iii-v (ff. 60 b, 88, 117) had been mutilated (like f. 3 b) before the MS. came to the Museum. Other initials in gold flourished in red. Cat. of 1666, f. 12; not in CMA.