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Detailed record for Sloane 4031
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| Author |
Giovanni Boccaccio, translation by John Lydgate based on translation by Laurent de Premierfait |
| Title |
The Fall of Princes |
| Origin |
England |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 15th century (c. 1470) |
| Language |
English |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
Large initials in gold on blue and pink backgrounds with white filigree, with sprays with green leaves and gold balls extending into the margins. Paraphs in red or blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
400 x 270 (290 x 200) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 190 ( + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end; ff. 1-3 and 188-189 are parchment flyleaves) |
| Collation |
i-xxiii8 (ff. 4-187) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1957. |
| Provenance |
The Benedectine abbey of St Martin, Battle, Sussex: see Ker.
? John Newton/Neuton( Nuton): see Ker; cf. Huntington Library MS HM 30319 for a manuscript owned by Nuton.
Lord Thomas Dacre (b. 1467, d. 1525), 2nd baron of Gilsland, magnate and soldier: inscription 'Thomas Lord Dacre' with an image of his crest, a red bull in black and red ink outline drawing with a spiked collar with chain (f. 1v), similar to the oak painted beast of c. 1520 commissioned by him (cf. Gothic: Art for England 1400-1547, ed. by Richard Marks and Paul Williamson (London: V & A Publications, 2003), no. 156 [exhibition catalogue]; 'mastres ellenore suster to lord dacres (f. 1v).
? Anne Dacre, daughter of Sir Thomas Dacre (d. 1565), of Lanercost, Lord Dacre's illegitimate son: inscription 'dam Anne dacres' (f. 1v).
The motto 'amor vincit omnia / Metiris quod pecunia' (f. 1v); see discussion Scott.
Inscriptions: ''bone tausse je vaudere (?) /quod W. Fenys'; 'Remember Mowntnay (?) amains (?)'; ellenore goffe; 'A moy le uuisse (?) / Thomas I. lawarr'; Elysabeth lawarr'; 'on heie is god / Anne Oxebrygg'; do to ples qwode / Margaret belknapp'; 'Comfort Au besoyng / quod Thomas lowkenore' (f. 1v).
The Marlands of Kent: their arms quartered with the motto 'repent that will' and a monogram 'RASEM' and the inscription 'Marlande' (f. 188v).
Inscriptions 'Willms Saunder' (f. 189v); 'Wm' Saunder owneth this boke weh wase the lady Elizabeth Carews of Bedyngton' (f. 1).
Inscription 'N. Hern 1687' (f. 3v).
Sir Hans Sloane (b. 1660, d. 1753), baronet, physician and collector.
Purchased as part of the Sloane collection from Sloane's executors and incorporated into the newly founded British Museum in 1753. |
| Notes |
f. 2r-v is an added a poem of moral and political advice; f. 3r-v is an added prayer, and f. 189v is an added a prophecy relating to the events of the Civil Wars in England in verse; see Bergen pp. 59-60. |
| Select bibliography |
Catalogue of Additional Manuscripts: Sloane 4015-4047 (London: British Museum unpublished manuscript of unedited descriptions, no date), no. 4031 [available in The British Library Manuscripts Reading Room].
Lydgate's Fall of Princes, ed. by Henry Bergen, 4 vols, Early English Text Society, 121-124 (London: Early English Text Society, 1924-1927), I, p. xxiii; IV, pp. 4, 6, 8-9, 58-62 (as 'Sl').
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 8.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II, 108. |
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f. 4
Illuminated initial |
f. 12
Illuminated initials |
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