Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 061: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde

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Abstract/Contents

Summary
The copy of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde in CCCC MS 61 was made c. 1415-25, long after the poet's death in 1400. The poem was written at some time before 1385. This copy was planned as a luxury edition to contain over ninety illustrations, but only the full-page frontispiece was painted, with blank spaces left at the positions intended for the other pictures. In that frontispiece Chaucer is shown reading his poem to the English court. The patron of this manuscript is unknown, but it is likely to have been the prominent male figure dressed in a gold-embroidered costume in the centre of the courtly group. The book belonged in 1570 to the author, Stephen Batman, a chaplain of Matthew Parker, and shortly after became incorporated in the archbishop's collection.
Contents
Troilus and Criseyde

Description

Alternative title Chaucer's Troilus
Type of resource mixed material
Extent ff. 151 + 2
Date created [ca. 1400 - 1425]
Language English, Middle (1100-1500)
Material Vellum
Layout five stanzas of 7 lines each to a page
Height (mm) 315
Width (mm) 220
Collation a(2), 1(8)-12(8) (wants 1) 13(8)-19(8).
Writing in fine upright hand
Foliation ff. a-d + i-ii + 1-151 + e-h
Research This is one of the best manuscripts of the poem. It is extensively used in Professor Skeat's edition, and described in his Introduction, p. lxix. Professor Skeat points out that at Book IV, st. 83 in the left margin is a note of ownership in a hand of cent. xv neuer foryeteth: anne neuyll. This, he says, probably refers to Anne Neville wife of Humphrey Duke of Buckingham who was killed at Northampton in 1460: she was a grand-daughter of John of Gaunt, and it seems reasonable to infer that the MS. was actually written for one of John of Gaunt's family.
Additions On flyleaves: a. daye of may ffor my solas 1546. b. ... uniuersi prop ... t me est gwyn pannarius de. c. Lord god preserve vnder þy mighty handes Oure kyng oure qwene þeyre pepul and þeyre landes. Added: he that thys Boke rentt or stelle God send hym sekenysse swart (?) of helle.

Bibliographic information

M.R. James Date xv (early)
Downloadable James Catalogue Record
Title
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:my627fp1535/MS_61.pdf
Superseded Interim Catalogue Record
Title
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:tk217mq9035/61.pdf
Contains
Title
Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde. 1v-150r
James
Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. 1v-150r
Author
Geoffrey Chaucer
Note
On f. 1v is a full-page painting of the most beautiful quality. I take it to be in the very best style producible in England at the beginning of the fifteenth century. There is a solid border of conventional foliage (scarlet, blue, pink) on delicately pricked gold ground, outside this are tendrils, gold besants and coloured leaves. The ground of the picture is gold, wonderfully patterned. In the foreground the poet in a wooden pulpit with scarlet cloth before him is addressing a group of seated and standing ladies and gentlemen, including a prince in gold robe and a lady in a diadem. The listeners are intent on the speaker. Behind him on R. the ground slopes up steeply, with trees. The middle distance is divided off by a ridge of rock sloping up to R. Beyond it in upper R. corner is a gay turreted castle coloured pink. In front of this a group, the foremost figures of which are a crowned queen in blue over white: a noble in scarlet with wreath by her. To them kneels on L. a prince in gold holding a gold cap or crown. He is attended by others. In the distance in L. upper corner is a dark castle on a rock, and some brightly clad small figures are descending the path from it. The picture has suffered to a slight extent from rubbing, but is a very beautiful thing.
Incipit
(2r) The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen
Explicit
(2v) And how that she forsook hym er she deyde
Note
(3r) blank. Doubtless a picture was intended
Incipit
(4r) It is wel wist how that the grekes stronge
Note
A space for a picture is left on every leaf in Book I, making 23
Liber I ends f. 26v
(27r) Liber II, spaces for 36 pictures
(63r) Liber III, spaces for 13 pictures
On f. 63r is
Ihesu mercy lady helpe me Dorote Pennell (or -tt)
(93v) Liber IV, spaces for 8 or 9 pictures
On f. 108r is pencilled Knyvett
(119v) Liber V, spaces for 14 pictures
On f. 147r is scribbled (xv): notnarf drawde ( = Edward Franton) which also occurs on the flyleaf
Explicit
(150r) ffor loue of mayde and moder thyn benigne. Amen
Rubric
(150r) Explicit liber Troily
Note
(the same scribbled below and erased)
(150v) This is my booke / S. B.? Stephen Batman / geven to me by Mr Carr the xvij of Decembre ano 1570
(151r) A receipt in English
TJames 17
Stanley B. 5
Location https://purl.stanford.edu/dh967mz5785
Location MS 061
Repository UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Access conditions

Use and reproduction
Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).

Collection

Parker Manuscripts

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