Volume 1

Catalogue of romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum.

  • British Museum. Department of Manuscripts
Date:
1883-1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Catalogue of romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/984 page 20
    Royal 10. A. x. fif. i88-i92b. Vellum ; xiiith cent. Quarto ; ff. 5, in double columns, having 53 lines to a column. With 8 initials in red and green, and spaces left for 26 more; and one initial in blue at the beginning of the last section. The volume contains Galfridus de Trano super titulis Decretalium, and tracts of various dates. The present article is followed by the commence- ment of the Commentary on the Ailneid by Servius, left imperlect after the third column. Dares Pheygius. Divided into sections by the coloured initials and spaces left for them, amounting to 35 altogether, the first of which belongs to the introductory epistle. Latin. 1. The epistle, f. 188. Title; “ Incipit prefacio frigii daretis.” Begins: “ Cornelius salusti[o] crispo suo salutem. Cum multa athenis studiose agerem.” Ends : “ nunc ad pollicitum reuertamur.” f. 188. 2. The history itself, ff. 188-192 b. Title: “ Incipit liber frigii daretis.” Begins : “ Peleus rex in peloponenso.” Ends: “ Andromacam et helenum • l • cc • hue usque historia daretis scripta est.” Harley 641. ff. i-8. Vellum ; early xivth cent. Folio; ff. 8, having 49 lines to a page. With one ornamental initial (f. 3), of later insertion, and spaces left for 30 more. The present article is followed by the Chronicles of John Bever (or Castor), in the same hand. On the fly-leaf, now lining the cover, is the inscription (written in the 14th cent.), “ Cronica de edicione domini Johannis dicti Beuere monachi Westmonasteriensis De Libraria Monasterii Sancti Augustini Cantuarie. Distinctio. T. Abbatis ”; by which it appears that this MS. stood in the press of books belonging to Thomas Fyndone, abbat of St. Augustine’s in 1283-1309, or Thomas Poucyn (or Poncy), abbat in 1334-1343. The inscription is repeated at f. 1, and again at the end of the MS. (f. 115 b). This 14th cent. MS. was subsequently bound up with a 15th cent, copy of the Chronicles of Martinus Polonus, ff. 118-206 b. Both boards of the present binding are stamped outside with the arms of Sir Symonds D’Ewes. On the first fly-leaf (f. 1*) is pasted a memorandum by Thomas Hearne the antiquary, that this volume had been lent him by Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, on the 9th of March 1733 [1734], adding a list of the contents. Dares Pheygius. In 31 sections, denoted by the spaces left for ornamental initials, the first space belonging to the intro-
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