Accession number:
MS M.817
Title:
Troilus and Criseyde
Created:
England, probably London, between 1403 and 1413.
Binding:
Blue levant morocco by Zaehnsdorf.
Credit:
Purchased on the Lewis Cass Ledyard Fund in 1942.
Description:
120 leaves (1 column, 35 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 300 x 200 mm
Provenance:
Belonged to and perhaps commissioned by the future Henry V of England when he was Prince of Wales (1399-1413 - coat of arms on fol. 1: France (modern) and England quarterly, a label of three points argent); Robert Wood, a servant of Cardinal Wolsey between 1518 and 1530 (inscribed on fol. 120v: Iste liber constat Robert Wood qui est servus reverendissimi in Christo patris et domini domini Thome Cardinalis et legati); descended in the Wood family in the 17th and 18th centuries (genealogical and ownership inscriptions on the flyleaf "Richard Wod Edward Wod," fol. 77r "Symone Wood," and fols. 120r-120v); at Campsall Hall outside Doncaster by 1874 when the manuscripts were catalogued by Horwood (most of the collection was acquired by the 18th-century antiquary and recorder of Doncaster Richard Frank (d.1762); stamp of Campsall (Frank) Library on fol. 120); Frederick Bacon Frank of Campsall Hall (d. 1911); his estate sale (London, Sotheby's, Aug. 11, 1942, lot 4), to Quaritch for the Morgan Library through the Lewis Cass Ledyard Fund.
Notes:
Ms. poetry; written and illuminated in England, probably in London, between 1403 and 1413.
This is the earliest securely datable text of this poem and the only extant Chaucer manuscript that certainly belonged to a member of the royal family--Cf. PML files. A royal order from Henry VIII was added in the 16th century in a secretary court hand (fol. 62r), probably by Robert I Wood.
Marginal notes in a later hand have been added and rubbed out on the following folios: 5r, 37r, 40r, 48r, 75r, 90r; these seem largely to be marks of ownership.
Decoration: 1 historiated initial, with full illuminated border; 6 large illuminated initials with partial borders (gilt initial on fol. 105v excised).
Revised: 2016.
Script:
Secretary with textura features
Language:
Middle English
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