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Detailed record for Additional 32125
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| Part 1 |
ff. 1-58 |
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| Author |
Wace; Gaimar (?) |
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| Title |
Roman de Brut (ff. 1-57); Description of England, 134 lines (ff. 58r-v) |
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| Origin |
England |
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| Date |
4th quarter of the 13th century |
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| Language |
French (Anglo-Norman) |
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| Script |
Gothic, written below the top line |
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| Decoration |
Initials in red or blue, some with pen-flourishing in the other colour. Penwork decoration and manicules in the lower margins (e.g. ff. 20, 23). |
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| Dimensions in mm |
250 x 170 (215 x 110/20) in two columns |
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| Part 2 |
ff. 59-245 |
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| Author |
Unknown author; Robert de Boron |
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| Title |
L'estoire del Sainte Graal, (ff. 59-205); L'estoire de Merlin (ff. 206-45) |
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| Origin |
France |
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| Date |
1st quarter of the 14th century |
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| Language |
French |
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| Script |
Gothic |
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| Decoration |
Two large puzzle initials in blue and red with penwork decoration and decorated margins in foliate patterns (ff. 59, 206). Puzzle initials in blue and red with marginal pen-flourishing (ff. 69v, 74, 127, 129v, 139 etc.). Small initials in red or blue with penwork decoration, mostly in the shape of a fleur-de lis, and pen-flourishing in the other colour. Marginal pen drawings of hybrid creatures in red (ff. 127,142v). |
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| Dimensions in mm |
250 x 170 (200 x 135/40) in two columns |
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| Official foliation |
ff. 245 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end + 2 unfoliated 19th century paper flyeaves at the beginning and 1 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1971. |
| Provenance |
Manicules and marginal notes in 15th century hands (f. 82, 156).
Sir R. Colt Hoare, second baronet (1758-1838), landowner and antiquary: his former cover and flyleaf inscribed with his name.
Purchased on his sale at Sotheby's (8 August 1883, Lot 1823). |
| Notes |
Part 1 is written in Anglo-Norman French.
After f. 48 some leaves are missing, containing lines 10,807-13,178 of the Brut.
The Description of England (134 lines) is thought to be part of a prologue to the 'Estorie des Engles' by Geoffrey Gaimar, which is missing from this manuscript but is announced in the rubric 'Ci finist le Brut. E comence li Gaimar'. This text may have a common author with the Anglo-Norman Brut in Royal 13 A XXI (Bell, pp. 36-37)
Part 2 is written in continental French.
A leaf is missing after f. 63, containing the end of the introduction and the beginning of the text of the 'Estoire del Sainte Graal', the long prose version of de Boron's 'L'estoire de Joseph d'Arimathie', sometimes wrongly attributed to de Boron (see Ponceau, 1997 and Bogdanow, 2000).
Le livre de Merlin ends with the election of Arthur to the kingdom of "Logres," or England, and has the same colophon as Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, manuscript no 747, in which the name of Robert de Boron occurs as the author. |
| Select bibliography |
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1882-1887, ed. by Edward Scott (London: British Museum, 1889), I, (p. 79)..
H. Oskar Sommer, Le Roman de Merlin or the Early History of King Arthur (London: Privately printed, 1894), pp. xxiv, xxvi, 1-498 [for an edition of the text in MSS Additional 10292-4]
Alexandre Micha, ' Les Manuscrits du Merlin en Prose', Romania, 79 (1958), 78-94 (p. 88).
Alexandre Micha, Etude sur le 'Merlin' de Robert de Boron, Roman du XIII siècle, Publications Romanes et Françaises (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1980), pp. CLI, 17.
Lesley Johnson, 'The Anglo-Norman Description of England: An Introduction' in Anglo-Norman Anniversary Essays, ed. by Ian Short (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1993), pp. 11-30 (pp. 15-16).
Alexander Bell, 'The Anglo-Norman Description of England: An Edition' in Anglo-Norman Anniversary Essays, ed. by Ian Short (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1993), pp. 31-47 (pp. 31-35).
L'estoire del Saint Graal, ed. by Jean-Paul Ponceau, 2 vols (Paris: Honoré Chapman, 1997), I, pp. x, xxvi, xxxi-xlviii.
Ruth Dean and Maureen Bolton, Anglo-Norman Literature, A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), nos 2, 4.
Wace, Roman de Brut, A History of the British: Text and Translation, Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies, ed. and translated by Judith Weiss (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002), p. xxvii (F).
Fanny Bogdanow, ' La Vision d'Histoire Arthurienne selon Robert de Boron' in Fils sans père: Etudes sur le 'Merlin' de Robert de Boron, ed. by Denis Hue, Medievalia 35 (Orleans: Paradigme, 2000), pp. 51-76 [on the text].
Larry S. Crist, ' Les Livres de Merlin' in Fils sans père: Etudes sur le 'Merlin' de Robert de Boron, ed. by Denis Hue, Medievalia 35 (Orleans: Paradigme, 2000), pp. 77-87 [on the text].
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. 223).
Irene Fabry-Tehranchi, Texte et images des manuscrits de Merlin et de la Suite Vulgate (XIIIe-XVe siècle) (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), pp. 75, 77, 79. |
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Part 1
ff. 1-58 |
| Wace; Gaimar (?) Roman de Brut (ff. 1-57); Description of England, 134 lines (ff. 58r-v) |
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f. 26
Text page |
f. 59
Decorated initials |
f. 127
Marginal drawing and decorated initial |
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