Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 828

[Part 1]

General information

Folios	100 3 frontend papers 3 backend papers
Language	Language object (44)
Approx. date	c. 1300
Date notes	'XIIIe-XIVe siècle' (Micha 1963, 483; cf. Brandsma 2003, 129). 'c. 1300', on the basis of decoration and illustration (Lancelot-Graal Project).
Place(s) of production	Ghent, Northern France 'Thérouanne or Ghent' (Lancelot-Graal Project).
First words of second recto folio	[f. 2ra] seurs fois pour secours au roi artu . /
First words of last recto folio	[f. 100ra] ia m(ou)lt g(ra)nt outrage se ie me arestoie p(our) vo(us) /
Incipit	[f. 1ra] EN la marce de gaules (et) de / la petite bretaigne auoit / .íj. rois ancienement qui a- / uoient .ij. sereurs germai- / nes
Explicit	[f. 100vb] mar fu si beax ch(eualie)rs co(m) cist / est q(ue) onq(ue)s míex taillie ne uí de toutes /

Related MS

RelationshipType object (2)	Manuscript object (123) Manuscript object (252)

Material

Material:	Material object (4)
Watermark:	na
Condition:	Very good quality parchment, with very occasional marginal sewn tears (e.g. base of f. 65). There are numerous material lacunae, f. 7 is mutilated due to an excised miniature, and decoration has sometimes rubbed (e.g. on f. 22vb).

Structure

Collation:	1-8:8, 9:8 (wants 4-5), 10:8 (wants 2-7), 11:8 (wants 4-5), 12-13:8, 14:8 (wants 4-5)
Quire structure:	Originally made up of regular quaternions. Entire quires have been lost between the current 9th and 10th, and between the 13th and 14th. Quires 9, 11 and 14 are each lacking a central bifolium, and only the outer bifolium of quire 10 has survived. The volume is also defective at the end.
Quire marks:	MSQuiremarkDisposition object (74)
Catchwords:
Catchword disposition:	MSCatchwordDisposition object (4)

Physical description

No. of illustrations:	37
General illustration:	One folio-wide miniature on f. 1r, depicting brothers Ban and Bohort on the left, and Ban and Elaine leaving the Castle of Trebes on the right, set against a gold ground and within a pink and blue frame. Each chapter is illustrated at the end with a miniature (column-width; height: 10 lines), with grounds and frames as for the first.
General decoration:	Chapters open with blue or pink initials (height: 4 lines), set against a gold, pink or blue ground, with white filigree. Some have foliate infill (e.g. f. 6va); others are inhabited by animals (e.g. 22vb) or human heads (e.g. 10rb). Extensions to the large initials form partial bar borders in gold, blue and pink, ending in floral or zoomorphic motifs or human heads, and often supporting hunting scenes, animals (esp. instrument-playing apes), hybrids, grotesques, etc. in the upper or lower margins. Paragraphs are marked with smaller gold initials (height: 2 lines), framed blue and pink, and with white filigree.
Evidence of readership:	The first few bas-de-page animals were labelled in brown ink in Latin or Welsh, e.g. 'simia' on f. 7ra, and 'skavernock' (for 'ysgyfarnog', or 'hare') on f. 5ra. On f. 88v, 'Henry The eyg' in a 16th-c. hand.
Foliations description:	19th-c. foliation in black ink in the upper right corner of recto sides.

Mise en page

Description 1
Page sampled	f. 13
Layout	MSLayout object (3)
Page dimensions	340x242 (mm)
Justification	224x167 (mm)
Columns	2 15mm between columns Column ruling present in Colours object (7) (RulingMaterials object (3) )
Lines	42 Line ruling present in Colours object (7) (RulingMaterials object (3) )
Rubrication	none
Writing above top line?	False
Sample page layout:

Hand(s)

Level of Execution:	Execution object (4)
Script	Script object (4)
Folio range	From f. 1ra to f. 100vb
Date	c. 1300
Scribe description:	Two-compartment 'a' (closed upper bow), some forked ascenders, some 'i'-ticks, round 's' in final position, very occasional 'v' in initial position (e.g. f. 3rb, l. 39). Extensive use of tironian 'et' (barred) and other abbreviations, including 'con'/'com'. The hand points to a date of the end of the 13th c. or the early 14th.
Notes