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Detailed record for Additional 17443
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| Title |
Lancelot-Grail |
| Origin |
France (Paris or Douai?) |
| Date |
2nd half of the 13th century |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic, written below the top line |
| Artists |
Attributed to Douai artist who also worked on Bodleian Library, MS. Digby 223, Le Mans, MS. 354 and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS. fr. 770 (Delcourt, 2009). |
| Decoration |
2 framed miniatures in ink, of a damsel on horseback at the round table and of Walter Map writing for Henry II (ff. 1, 62). Puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing at formulae such as 'Or dist li contes…' (f. 10v) and 'Ci endroit…' (f. 80). One space left for a puzzlie initial (f. 7). Numerous small initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour. |
| Dimensions in mm |
290 x 195 (220 x 150) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 131 (+1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 1 at the end; f. 79 is a half page) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Brown leather with gold tooling. |
| Provenance |
Coat of arms of the Swiss-French Granson/Grandison? family (f. 1)
Louis César de la Baume-le-Blanc (b. 1708, d. 1780), duc de la Vallière, peer of France, governor of the Bourbonnais, and book collector: his sale, 1784, no 4005 (see Guillaume de Bure, Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. le duc de la Vallière (Paris: Guillaume de Bure, 1783)).
Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna (d. 1792) : his sale, Amsterdam, 26th April 1790, no. 5137.
George Galwey Mills of Slaughter House, Gloucestershire, member of Parliament (1807-08): his sale, 24th February 1800, lot 1193.
David Thomas Powell (b. c.1772, d.1848), English clergyman and antiquary: purchased from him by the British Museum, 31st July 1848, lot 220. |
| Notes |
Contains the last 2 parts of the prose Lancelot-Grail Cycle:
La Queste del saint Graal (ff. 1-61);
La Mort le roi Artu (ff. 62-131). |
| Select bibliography |
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1848-1853 (London: Trustees, 1868), p. 17.
H. Oskar Sommer, Le Roman de Merlin or the Early History of King Arthur (London: Privately printed, 1894), facing p. xxiv.
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, p. 348.
Roger Middleton, 'Manuscripts of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle in England and Wales: Some Books and their Owners' in A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, ed. by Carol Dover (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), pp. 219-35, (p. 228).
Peggy McCracken, 'The Old French Vulgate Cycle' in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature, ed. by Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 35-47 [on the text].
La légende du roi Arthur, ed. by Thierry Delcourt (Paris: Bibiothèque nationale de France, 2009), p. 115. |
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f. 1
Damsel enters the hall at Camelot |
f. 62
Walter Map and Henry II |
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