London, British Library, Royal 19 C XIII
[Part 1]
» Full parent manuscript detail
General information
| Folios | 369 |
| Folio notes: | Two folios left blank, one between f. 166 and f. 167, the other between f. 322 and f. 323 (after the 'Queste' and before the 'Mort'), without foliation. |
| Language | Language object (47) |
| Approx. date | c. 1225 to 1250 |
| Date notes | Written above top line, which may suggest a date before c. 1230. Micha 1963, pp. 54-6, has end of the 13th c. A date in the first half of the century is confirmed by the script, a gothic textualis with double compartment 'a', the upper compartment of which is open, and consistent use of straight 's' in final position. |
| Place(s) of production | EnglandThe BL Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts has 'England or France, N', and refers to early 14th-c. annotations in an English hand on ff. 51v-52r; f. 367r. and Western dialectal features, probably Anglo-Norman. Micha 1963, pp. 54-46 does not specify the provenance, but does refer to annotation 'par une main anglaise'. The linguistic characteristics of the copy are strongly Anglo-Norman, especially the use of [u] for tonic [o] and [ou] (e.g. f. 2 r.), and 'Jo' for 'Je'. Although there appears to be no change of scribe, in the 'Mort' (f. 323 and following) 'ke' is consistently used, whereas in the previous parts this is usually abbreviated as 'q(ue)'; also marked use of 'w'. |
| First words of second recto folio | [f. 2ra] tuz jurz ame si uus comant mun chastel a gard(er) / |
| First words of last recto folio | [f. 367ra] (et) userai lo remanant de ma (u)ie en le hemita / |
| Incipit | [f. 1ra] E / de Gaule (et) de la petite bretai(n)gne auoit .ii. / rois ancie(n)nemant qui auoient .ii. soreurs g(er) / meines (et) estoient frere germein . li uns auoit / non li rois ban de banoic . (et) li autres li rois bo / horz de Gaunes . li rois bans estoit ueuz ho(m) / (et) sa femme estoit bele (et) ioune (et) mut bone / dame (et) amee de totes g(e)nz ne onq(ue)s de lui ne a / uoit eu enfant q(ue) .i. tut seul (et) cil estoit uadlez / (et) auoit no(n) lancelot en surno(n) mes il auoit no(n) / en baptesme Galaad . [...] / |
| Explicit | [f. 367ra][...] si se test / ore a tant mestre Gaut(ier) del estoire de lancel(os) ; / et de la fin lo roi artur si autreeme(n)t <si> cum il / le out troue en anciens escriz de almaire . ne nus / nen purroit plus conter que il ne mentist de / tutes choses . // Ici fenist li contes que en apele la mort art(ur) .// |
Material
| Material: | Material object (4) |
| Watermark: | |
| Condition: | Fair to lower grade parchment, with many holes, also in the written area (e.g. f. 10; f. 36; in writing space: f. 19; f. 23; f. 26; f. 27; f. 78; f. 83; f. 95; f. 97; f. 130; f. 132; f. 147; f. 150; f. 151; f. 161; f. 192; f. 194; f. 259; f. 271; f. 276; f. 281; f. 319), stitched tears (e.g. f. 33; f. 77; f. 87; f. 100; f. 114; f. 158; f. 159; f. 169; f. 231; f. 258; f. 309; f. 315; f. 352; f. 353) and sewn or missing corners (e.g. f. 62; f. 113; f. 143; f. 209; f. 243; f. 259). The scribe flags up holes and stitches with wavy lines. Staining, especially on the first and final folios and in the margins. |
Structure
| Collation: | 1-128 (ff. 1-96) 134 (ff. 97-100) 14-178 (ff. 101-132) 186 (ff. 133-138) 19-218 (ff.139-162) 224 (ff. 163-166) 231 (f. 166bis) 24-288 (ff 167-206) 297 (ff.207-213) 30-368 (ff. 214-269) 377(ff. 270-276) 38-438 (ff. 277-322) 441 (f. 322bis) 45-498 (ff. 323-362) 507 (ff. 363-369), stub between f. 364 and f. 365. |
| Quire structure: | Most of the quires are regular quaternions. Other formats usually accompany changes of scribe or a division between texts. A change of scribe occurs after the ternion, quire 18 (between f. 138 and 139) and before the binion, quire 22 (between f. 162 and f. 163), which also marks the transition between the 'Suites de la Charette' and the 'Agravain'. This is additionally marked by the insertion of a blank singleton. Likewise, the transition between 'Queste' and 'Mort' (between f. 322 and f. 323) is flagged by a blank folio. |
| Quire marks: | MSQuiremarkDisposition object (71) |
| Catchwords: | |
| Catchword disposition: | MSCatchwordDisposition object (20) |
Physical description
| General description: | Micha 1963, p. 55: 'Le ms. contient le "Lancelot", en entier, mais dans une rédaction souvent abrégée.' |
| No. of illustrations: | 1 |
| General illustration: | The copy opens with a historiated uncial initial 'E' (height: 13 lines), gold leaf, on a field of light blue, framed in pinkish red. The initial, field and frame have been traced in black ink. The miniature, in two registers, one above and one below the horizontal stroke of the 'E', depicts two episodes from the life of Lancelot. The upper image represents Lancelot's father, King Ban, falling from his horse; the lower shows the Lady of the Lake holding the infant Lancelot. |
| General decoration: | The 'Agravain' (f. 167r) opens with a large pen-flourished puzzle initial 'with the letters of the first three words of the text arranged vertically in red or blue' (BL Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts). The text is structured by pen-flourished puzzle initials in red and blue (height: 6-7 lines). Smaller subdivisions are indicated by means of pen-decorated initials (height: 3 lines), red and blue, with flourishings in the contrasting colour. Decorated litterae elongatae (e.g. paragraph signs used as overflow marks) flourished with horizontal strokes and floral motifs on f. 18rb, f. 26rb, f. 34rb, f. 58rb. |
| Evidence of readership: | 'An additional passage of the text has been inserted in the lower margin (ff. 51v, 52) in an English hand of the early 14th century. Notes in Latin and numerals in the same 14th-century hand, possibly relating to the collation of the manuscript, have been added on the last page (f. 367).' (BL Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts). |
| Foliations description: | Modern foliation in the top right corner of the recto. |
Mise en page
| Description 1 | Horizontal, double throughlines at the top and bottom of the justification. Additional narrow columns (5mm) next to the writing columns. Inter-column area divided in half. |
| Page sampled | |
| Layout | MSLayout object (3) |
| Page dimensions | 295x210 (mm) |
| Justification | 220x135 (mm) |
| Columns | 210mm between columns Column ruling present in Colours object (4) (RulingMaterials object (3) ) |
| Lines | 48Line ruling present in Colours object (4) (RulingMaterials object (3) ) |
| Rubrication | Red ink is used for decorated initials. |
| Writing above top line? | True |
| Sample page layout: | |
Hand(s)
| Level of Execution: | Execution object (4) |
| Script | Script object (4) |
| Folio range | From f. 1ra to f. 138vb |
| Date | c. 1230 |
| Scribe description: | Compact, slightly vertical, textualis, with connective strokes indicating near currens-level. Double-compartment 'a', the upper lobe of which is open, clubbed ascenders, uncial 'd', tongued 'e' in final position, diacritic on 'i' in minim group, exclusive use of straight 's' in final position, flash-like 'z'. Use of 'st'-ligature. Abbreviations include superscript vowels ('a', 'i'), nasal bar, crossed tironian 'et' which descends below the baseline. |
| Notes | Correction through expungation. After folio 163 this hand takes over again. |
| Level of Execution: | Execution object (4) |
| Script | Script object (4) |
| Folio range | From f. 139ra to f. 162v |
| Date | c. 1230 |
| Scribe description: | |
| Notes | |
Provenance
| Description | The annotations on ff. 51-52 and f. 367 may suggest that the manuscript was already in England in the fourteenth century. | |
| Date | c. 1300 to 1400 | |
| Place | Place object (124) | |
| Ownership | Person object (106) | |