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Royal MS 20 C II

Record Id:

040-002107682

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002105724

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x0003c9

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Royal MS 20 C II

Title:

Cleriadus et Meliadice; Historia Apollonii regis Tyri

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains copies of two French romances: Cleriadus et Meliadice, and the Historia Apollonii regis Tyri (History of Apollonius of Tyre), translated in French as La cronique et historie des merveilleuses aventures de Appolin roy de Thir.

Contents:

ff. 1r-209v: Cleriadus et Meliadice;

ff. 210r-236r: Historia Apollonii regis Tyri.

Decoration:

2 large miniatures in colours and gold with full foliate borders containing spaces left for coats of arms, and foliate initials in colours and gold, at the beginning of both romances (ff. 1r, 210r). 29 one-column miniatures in colours and gold, with partial borders, at the beginning of other major divisions (ff. 15r, 19r, 26v, 38v, 45r, 51v, 56v, 64r, 66v, 73v, 82r, 90r, 105v, 106r, 119r, 136v, 143r, 147r, 153r, 155v, 159r, 165r, 172v, 179v, 187v, 197r, 205v, 217v, 222r). Space left for a miniature (f. 31v). Initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in white.

The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:

f. 1r: King Philip, enthroned on the right between his daughter and secretary, gives a letter to a messenger; in the background courtiers and a fool; on the left, an officer at the door;

f. 15r: The Countess of Asturias, her daughter and ladies, receive the ambassadors of the King of Spain;

f. 19r: The King receives the ambassadors on their return;

f. 26v: Two knights kneel in submission to Cleriadus, one lies dead, and a fourth stands behind with arm broken (off); two ladies and a dwarf stand behind;

f. 38v: Amador and Palixes fight with three knights; man in a shirt tied to a tree behind;

f. 45r: Fight of Cleriadus and the knight on the bridge; Amador and Palixes looking on, and behind, the castle and a loose horse;

f. 51v: Cleriadus playing the harp in his chamber;

f. 56v: The damsel in green gives Cleriadus' challenge to the King;

f. 64r: Cleriadus, in green, jousts with a knight in blue;

f. 66v: Cleriadus reveals himself to his father in the lists;

f. 73v: Cleriadus embarks for Cyprus;

f. 82r: Four executioners carry off Meliadice to a forest;

f. 90r: The Constable received by the King and Queen of France;

f. 105v: The pursuivant delivers a letter to King Philip;

f. 106r: King Philip examines the executioners;

f. 119r: The King and Queen at table, and maidens with peacock, exacting the 'voeux du Paon';

f. 136v: The Northumbrian knight in bed; Cleriadus extracting the arrow, the knight's sister standing with averted face;

f. 143r: Triple coronation (Cleriadus, Amador, and Palixes);

f. 147r: Meliadice in a carriage entering the city gate, a horseman on each side;

f. 153r: Two heralds received by the King of France;

f. 155v: The Constable of France taking leave of the King; courtiers behind and without, a groom with two horses;

f. 159r: Cleriadus and Meliadice seated in centre; in front, three pairs of dancers, two minstrels in a gallery;

f. 165r: Wedding of Cleriadus and Meliadice at the church door;

f. 172v: Fight of Cleriadus and the fifteen knights, the damsels looking on; city in the background;

f. 179v: Cleriadus in his chamber attended by a surgeon, three kings looking on;

f. 187v: Meliadice taken to her chamber;

f. 197r: The Constable takes leave on sailing for France;

f. 205v: Knights jousting; spectators looking out from windows;

f. 210r: King Antiochus assaults his daughter in her chamber; courtiers without in the street;

f. 217v: Archicastres' daughter gives Apollonius a letter to her father;

f. 222r: Hermon finding Archicastres' daughter in the box in which she was thrown into the sea as dead.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Royal Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002105724
040-002107682

Is part of:

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

Royal MS 20 C II : Cleriadus et Meliadice; Historia Apollonii regis Tyri

Hierarchy:

032-002105724[1823]/040-002107682

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Middle

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1475

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 380 x 270 mm (text space: 230 x 170 mm), written in two columns.

Foliation: ff. 236 (+ 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf attached to a modern paper flyleaf and 2 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 1 at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive (bâtarde).

Binding: Post-1600. White parchment; marbled endpapers; spine stamped with gilt crowns and roses.

Custodial History:

Origin: Southern Netherlands.

Provenance:

Edward IV (b. 1442, d. 1483), king of England and lord of Ireland: possibly acquired by him.

The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the list of books at Richmond Palace of 1535, no. 71; and 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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

H. Omont, 'Les manuscrits français des rois d'Angleterre au château de Richmond', in Etudes romanes dédiés à Gaston Paris (Paris: É. Bouillon, 1891), pp. 1-13 (p. 9).

H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, pp. 166-67, 383.

George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 370-71.

C. K. Jenkins, 'Collars of SS: A Quest', Apollo: The Magazine of the Arts for Connoisseurs and Collectors (1949) 60-62 (p. 60, fig. II).

Cleriadus et Meliadice: Roman en prose du Xve siècle, ed. by Gaston Zink (Geneve: Droz, 1984), pp. xi, xxi-xxii.

Janet Backhouse, 'Founders of the Royal Library: Edward IV and Henry VII as Collectors of Illuminated Manuscripts', in Englandin the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by David Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1987), pp. 23-42 (p. 40).

Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard III’s Books: Ideals and Reality in the Life and Library of a Medieval Prince (Stroud: Sutton, 1997), pp. 222-23.

The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H1.65.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Edward IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland, 1442-1483

Places:

Southern Netherlands

Related Material:

From George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 370-71:

Two romances in French prose, viz:

1. 'Le rommant de Cleriadus et de Meliadice' (so colophon). For fuller description see Ward, Cat. of Romances, i, p. 383. Beg. 'Apres le tamps du roy Artus et des compaignons de la table ronde'; ends 'vous auez par deuant ouy. Et atant se tait le conte a parler deux, car icy endroit fine le romant du roy Cleriadus et de la royne Meliadice sa femme, et plus nen parle pour le present'. f. 1.

2. 'Cy commence la cronique et histoire des meruilleuses auentures de Appolin roy de Thir': the French version of Apollonius of Tyre, see Ward, op.cit. i, p. 166. For the Latin (supposed to be derived from a Greek original) see Sloane MS. 1619, &c. Beg. 'Il estoit vng roy appelle Anthiocus'; ends 'et laultre en Tarcye et laultre a Thir. Ainsi est finee listore et cronique de Appolin de Thir'. Colophon, 'Cy fine listore et cronique de Appolin roy de Thir'. f. 210. Vellum; ff. 236. 15 in. x 103/4 in. Written in Flanders or N. France, latter half of XV cent. Double columns of 30 lines. Gatherings of 8 leaves (vi⁷, xiii⁶, xiv⁴, xxviii, xxix⁶), with catchwords. Sec. fol. 'lung contre'. Illuminated initials and borders in Franco-Flemish style, with space for arms. Two large and twenty-nine small miniatures of fair quality.