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Detailed record for Yates Thompson 47
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| Author |
John Lydgate |
| Title |
Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund |
| Origin |
England, S. E. (Bury St Edmunds?) |
| Date |
between 1461 and c. 1475 |
| Language |
English |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Scribe |
The twin of this manuscript is in the collection of the Duke of Norfolk at Arundel Castle (no shelfmark); both manuscripts were copied by the same scribe and follow the same design, though their miniatures were executed by different artists. |
| Decoration |
53 miniatures, half-page or smaller, in colours and gold (ff. 1, 4, 6v, 7v, 10v, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (x2), 17, 19, 19v, 21v, 22v, 31, 32, 34, 34v, 35, 36, 36v, 37v, 39v, 42, 45v, 47, 49, 49v, 51, 51v, 52, 54, 55, 61v, 64v, 65, 65v, 68, 69v, 70v, 71v, 81, 83, 86, 89v, 90v, 93v, 94v, 97, 102, 103). 2 large decorated foliate initials with three-sided foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 1, 5). Large initials in gold on red and blue grounds, with foliate extensions into the margins. Small initials in gold with purple or blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. |
| Dimensions in mm |
245 x 170 (140 x 90) |
| Official foliation |
ff. ix + 111 (+ 1 modern parchment flyleaf at the end) [formerly paginated; page references given in parentheses] |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Burgundy velvet; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
This copy of John Lydgate's Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund is datable after 1461 on the grounds of internal references to Edward IV (1461-1470 and 1471-1483) (see Scott 1996, II, p. 308).
The Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund, Suffolk: their shields, Adam and Eve, serpent, Tree of Knowledge with flag in its branches, in gold and silver, on red ground, with gold estoiles (f. 105v [p. 210]), and azure three crowns or (f. 107 [p. 213]).
? Margaret Fitzwauter or Fitzwalter, second wife of Sir John Radcliffe of Atteleborough (b. 1452, d. 1496), Norfolk: inscribed, adjacent to the shield ‘Thys boke gyften to my lady beaumoun be har lovftng moder margaret ffytz wauter wt all my hart’ (f. 107 [p. 213]).
John Stow (b. 1525(?), d. 1605): throughout annotated in his hand.
Lords Mostyn of Mostyn Hall; his sale, 13 July 1920; bought by Yates Thompson.
Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed 'bbee.e.e [i.e. £1100.0.0] / [bought from] Mostyn / sale / July 13th 1920' (inside upper cover).
Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1941 by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Added table of contents (ff. 109-110). Note that the manuscript includes both pagination and foliation, with the ink pagination in brackets and lined through in pencil: Page 1 is folio 1, but thereafter page 2 is f. 1v, and 3 is f. 2, etc.
The Arundel Castle manuscript is a sister manuscript to this one: see Scott 1982. |
| Select bibliography |
A. S. G. Edwards, 'The McGill Fragment of Lydgate's Fall of Princes', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits (1974), 75-77 (p. 77).
Kathleen Scott, 'Lydgate's Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund: A Newly-Located Manuscript in Arundel Castle', Viator, 13 (1982), 335-66.
Two East Anglian Picture Books : A Facsimile of the Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary and Bodleian Ms. Ashmole 1504, ed. by Nicholas Barker (London: The Roxburghe Club, 1988), p. 10.
Kathleen Scott, ‘Caveat Lector: Ownership and Standardization in the Illustration of Fifteenth-Century English Manuscripts’, in English Manuscript Studies, 1, ed. by Peter Beal and Jeremy Griffiths (London: British Library, 1989), 19-63 (p. 60 n. 58).
Kathleen L. Scott, ‘Design, Decoration and Illustration’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 31-64 (p. 59 n. 51).
Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 144.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), I, figs. 416-19, II, no. 112 pp. 307-09.
The Life of St Edmund, King & Martyr : John Lydgate’s Illustrated Verse Life Presented to Henry VI : a facsimile of British Library MS Harley 2278, introduction by A. S. G. Edwards (London: British Library, 2004) , p. 11.
Sonja Drimmer, 'Picturing the King or the Saint: Two Miniature Programmes for Lydgate's Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund', in Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe 1350-1550: Packaging, Presentation and Consumption, ed. by E. Cayley and S. Powell (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2013). |
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f. 4
John Lydgate |
f. 4
John Lydgate |
f. 5
Illuminated border and initial |
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f. 6v
Alkmund |
f. 10v
Alkmund and Offa |
f. 14
King Offa |
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f. 14
King Offa |
f. 15
Death of King Offa |
f. 15
Death of King Offa |
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f. 16
Offa's coffin and ring |
f. 19v
Miracle of the Wells |
f. 21v
Edmund |
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f. 21v
Edmund |
f. 22v
Coronation of Edmund |
f. 32
Lothbrocus |
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f. 36
Trial of Bern |
f. 39v
Edmund in battle |
f. 39v
Edmund in battle |
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f. 54
Discovery of Edmund's head |
f. 54
Discovery of Edmund's head |
f. 61v
Birth of Fremund |
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ff. 64v-65
Miniatures |
f. 68
Finding of Fremund |
f. 83
Death of Sweyn |
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f. 86
Death of Leoffstan |
f. 94v
London Bridge |
f. 94v
London Bridge |
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f. 97
Infant being returned to its mother |
f. 97
Infant being returned to its mother |
f. 102
Miracle of the drowned boy |
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f. 103
Miracle of the crushed boy |
f. 105v
Arms of Edmund |
f. 107
Arms of Bury St Edmunds |
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f. 107
Arms of Bury St Edmunds |
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