Royal MS 19 E IV

'LA FORTRESSE de la Foy', translated by Pierre Richard, dit l'Oiselet, from a Latin original attributed to Alphonso de Spina: an unfinished copy very similar to 17 F. VI, VII (see above), but not in the same hand. Imperfect, wanting a quire after f. 42, a pair of leaves after ff. 126, 132, three quires (end of bk. iv and beg. of bk. v) after f. 377, and a leaf or more at the end. The lower margins of ff. 76, 77 have been cut. There is no table of chapters. Translator's prologue beg. 'Tous vrays catholicques fideles et loyaulz crestiens'; author's prologue, 'Turris fortitudinis a facie inimici: Cesparolles sont escriptes en la psalme'; and text, 'Affin doncques que ordre soit donnee'.

Vellum; ff. 387. 181/2 in. x 14 in. Written in Flanders, end of XV cent. Gatherings (beg. f. 3) of 8 leaves (vi missing, x⁶, xvi⁶, xviii wants first and last, xix⁶, xxxiv⁶, xxxvri¹⁰, xlv¹⁰, xlix⁵, l-lii missing, liii¹⁰), catchwords and lettering generally cut off. Double columns of 37 lines. Sec. fol. in preface, 'en aulcuns'; in text, 'seront chains'. Space left for large miniatures and initials at beg. of books; small illuminated initials elsewhere. An old numbering 369, resembling that in 19 E. II. Perhaps (but see also 17 F. VI, VII) no. 22 in cat. of MSS. at Richmond Palace in 1535 (see 15 D. I) cat. of 1666, f. 11 or 13; not in CMA.