Manuscript on parchment (poor quality) of 1) Herman de Valenciennes, Bible. 2) Herman de Valenciennes, L'Assomption de Notre Dame. Often found, as here, following the poem on the Bible by the same author. 3) Petrus Alphonsus, Disciplina clericalis, followed by three moral precepts. 4) Poem in Anglo-Norman on Genesis. 5) Robert de Ho, Les Enseignements de Robert de Ho. 6) Extract from the romance Partenopeus de Blois. 7) Vie de saint Eustache. 8) Letter of Prester John to Emperor Manuel Comnenus, tr. into Anglo-Norman verse by Raoul d'Arundel; this is the earliest translation of the letter (ante A.D. 1200), and the only one known in French verse. 9) Guillaume le Clerc, Bestiaire. 10) Notes on the influence of the moon. 11) Le voyage du Chevalier Owen au purgatoire de saint Patrice. 12) Wace, Roman de Brut. Some 15th-century glosses, in Middle English and Latin, occur in the text
Description:
In Anglo-Norman and Latin., Script: Written by 6 scribes in large gothic bookhand. Scribe 1: ff. 1r-75r, 111r-130v, 153r-183v (characterized by decorative descenders in final line of text); Scribe 2: ff. 75r-97v (z with small horizontal crossbar); Scribe 3: ff. 98r-110r, 131r-152v, 189r-201v, 212v-216v (exaggerated ascenders in top line of text); Scribe 4: ff. 184r-188v; Scribe 5: second column of f. 201v (crude script); Scribe 6: ff. 202r-212r, 216v-224v (poorly formed)., 4-line initials, divided blue and red (ff. 111r, 153r, 189r), with penwork in red and blue or red only. 3- and 2-line initials, red with blue penwork or vice versa (quire VI lacks flourishes on initials). Paragraph marks in red or blue; some rubrics at beginning of articles. 1-line initials stroked with yellow or red. Ink drawings in margins include King Arthur (f. 189r)., Early repairs with parchment throughout; no loss of text. Waterstains, ff. 221v-224r. Rubbing on f. 224v has caused some loss of text in col. a., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Diced red/brown calf, gold-tooled.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Anglo-Norman poetry, Bestiaries, Christian poetry, French, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Romances, Anglo-Norman
Manuscript on parchment of Fragments of a Brut Chronicle. Begins imperfectly in chapter 36 (Constantine) and has several lacunae. The work ends in chapter 86 (beginning on f. 11r) with the thirty-first year of Edward III. With art. 3) A note (in Latin) stating that King Henry IV was consecrated in 1399 and documenting his descent from Adam. 4) A list (in Latin) of 86 kings (each numbered) from Brutus to Edward III. 5) Names of prisoners captured and killed at the battle of Poitiers (19 Sept. 1356). 6) Terms of the treaty of Bretigny (8 May 1360). 7) Parliamentary text
Description:
In Anglo-Norman., Script: Written in Anglicana bookhand by one scribe., Decorative initials, blue with red penwork, appear only on ff. 1-12; initial strokes and headings, in red, throughout., and Binding: 18th-19th centuries. Stab sewn to a vellum folder made up of a legal document (trimmed with some loss of text) dated 1766 and involving the manors of Whitechurch and Milbourne in Wiltshire. The outside has an inscription, 19th century, "Some leaves of early English History in Norman French supposed to have come from Malmesbury Abbey." A similar inscription occurs on f. i verso.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
England.
Subject (Topic):
Anglo-Norman literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Geoffrey, of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1100?-1154
Published / Created:
[between 1175 and 1250]
Call Number:
Beinecke MS 590
Image Count:
278
Resource Type:
unspecified
Abstract:
Manuscript on parchment (sheepskin?) of 1) Geoffrey of Monmouth (Galfredus Monemutensis, d. 1154), Historia regum Britanniae. The text, containing the double dedication, to Robert of Gloucester and Waleran Count of Mellent, and wanting the epilogue addressed to Henry of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury, is believed to be the earliest version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's work. 2) Unidentified French poem of which the end is missing (1276 verses preserved), on the vanity and corruption of the world. 3) Le Roman des Romans
Description:
In French and Latin., Script: Art. 1: Copied by one hand, writing a large Praegothica. Art. 2: Copied by a single hand in early Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria. Art. 3: Copied by a single hand in early Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria., Art. 1: The decoration consists of Romanesque flourished (in one or two colours) or plain initials (2 lines, on f. 1r 4 lines), alternately in red and green. Guide-letters in the margins. On f. 55r, at the beginning of the history of Merlin, a male bust is drawn in the margin., and Binding: Original white leather over rounded oak boards; spine with four raised bands. Marks of one strap fixed to the front cover and clutching over a pin in the rear cover. The front pastedown (detached) consists of fragments of a court roll (from a trial of 1334), identified by N.R. Ker (note kept in the documentary folder in the Beinecke Library) and copied in Gothica Cursiva Antiquior (Anglicana).
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Geoffrey, of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1100?-1154.
Subject (Topic):
French poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval, and History
Manuscript, on parchment, in two Gothic bookhands, containig copies of Walter of Biblesworth (Bibbesworth), Le tretiz ff.1-27v; Nicholas Bozon (c.1280-1320), Les proverbes de bons enseignements, here called Liber de proverbiis sapientie, ff.28-40v; Hue de Tabarie, Ordre de la chevalerie ff.42-53v; Le mariage des ix filles du diable, often attributed to Robert Grosseteste (1170-1253), bishop of Lincoln but here described as St Maurice, bishop of Paris's translation from the Latin, ff.54-67. The text of Le tretiz contains numerous interlineations and side notes in Middle English
Description:
In Anglo-Norman French with Middle English glosses and annotations., Ownership inscriptions of Sir Henry Sharington (d. 1581)., Script: Gothic bookhand., Decoration: some rubrication of initials., and Binding: contemporary chemise binding of white leather over corded boards.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Biblesworth, Walter de.
Subject (Topic):
Administration of estates, Anglo-Norman dialect, Chivalry, Conduct of life, French language, Study and teaching, and Manuscripts, Medieval