Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Gesta regum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings); Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain)

Authors

• William, of Malmesbury, approximately 1090-1143 (http://viaf.org/viaf/205295992/)
• Geoffrey, of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1100?-1154 (http://viaf.org/viaf/89028232/)

Other related names

• Auchinleck, Alexander Boswell, Lord, 1707-1782, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/244976222)
• J. & J. Leighton, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/263208235)
• Moss, William E., former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/32213772)
• Griscom, Acton, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/66573045)
• Samuel Frederick Houston, former owner
• Mrs. L.M.C. Smith, former owner

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Lewis E 247
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1586227
• deRicci: 6

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Cirencester?, England

Summary

This manuscript contains imperfect copies of Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Historia regum Anglorum" (fols. 1r-25v) and of William of Malmesbury's "Gesta regum Anglorum" (fols. 26r-55v), two important twelfth-century English historical texts. The "Historia" ends part-way through chapter XVI of book VII, and the "Gesta" contains only the first three books (and ends imperfectly). The manuscript was made in England in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. On palaeographic grounds, Cirencester has been suggested as this book's place of production. At present, the book contains only fifty-five leaves. A number of folios and quires have been excised at multiple points in the manuscript (these are accounted for in the collation model), and already when the book was rebound in the eighteenth century at least four quires were absent. The text is simply embellished with decorated initials in red and blue, one significantly larger than the others (fol. 1r). Some of these initials, between fols. 51 and 55, have been excised. Later hands have added a number of marginal notes and annotations, some near contemporary with the manuscript itself and others perhaps as late as the twentieth century. There are also a number of marginal drawings. Some appear unrelated to the text, but others apparently refer to important events or subjects of the histories. On fol. 12v, for example, there is a marginal drawing of a building nearby text mentioning the important towns of Britain. On fol. 40v, there is a drawing of a bridge next to the text describing the brazen bridge in William's "Gesta." Finally, on fol. 48v, there are two crowned heads next to the record of Bertrade de Montfort's repudiation of her husband, Count Fulk IV of Anjou, for King Philip I of France. Most recently, Yaitsky Kertz has dated this manuscript to the years before 1200.

Notes

• Loose flyleaves
   
• A leaf from this manuscript in Columbia University (Plimpton MS 267)
   
• A leaf from this manuscript is in the Free Library of Philadelphia (Lewis Textual Leaf VII:196)
   
• Initials excised from fols. 51r, 54v, and 55r
   
• Early damage and repairs to parchment
   
• Margins trimmed away from a number of folios
   
• Numerous folios missing
   
• Modern collation notes on flyleaf 2 recto
   

Extent

Iv+55+viii; 266 x 171 mm bound to 274 x 191 mm

Foliation

At least two systems of modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto (both incorrect); modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto

Collation

1 (8, -8), 2 (8), 3 (8, -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8), 4 (8, -1 -2 -3 -4), 5 (7, -7 +7), 6 (8), 7 (6, -4 -5 -6), 8 (8, -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -7 -8), 9 (8, -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8), 10 (8, -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8), 11 (8, -1 -3), 12 (8, -1 -6 -7 -8), 13 (4, -1 -2 -3 -4), 14 (10, -1), 15 (4, -1 -2 -3 -4)

Signatures

Occasional contemporary quire signatures, lower verso; modern signatures in pencil, lower recto and verso

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

Occasional early but not contemporary catchwords

Binding

Eighteenth century brown calf over wooden boards; edges of boards gilt tooled; edges of text block stained red; stamped in gold on the spine: "GALFRIDI HISTORIA MS"

Layout

Two columns of fifty-six lines; lead point ruling; pricking visible, inner margin; written area: 211 x 120 mm

Decoration

One large initial with penwork decoration (fol. 1r); numerous red and blue decorated initials with penwork decoration and marginal flourishes throughout; occasional marginal drawings throughout

Script

Protogothic

Change in hand from fol. 26r

Provenance

• Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck (1732; ownership note on flyleaf i); J. & J. Leighton (lot 107 in their 1912 sale); bought by Colonel William E. Moss (nineteenth century); ceded to Acton Griscom, Highpoint NJ (nineteenth century; ownership note on flyleaf i); given to Samuel Frederick Houston (1946); given by his daughter, Mrs L.M.C. Smith, to the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1977 (provenance note inside back cover)
   

Related resources

• De Ricci, Seymour, with the assistance of W. J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, vol. 2 (New York,: H. W. Wilson, 1935-40), p. 1161, no. 6.
• A. Griscom (ed.), The Historia Regum Britannia of Geoffrey of Monmouth (London and New York, 1929), pp. 37-41, pl. 5.
• Review: "A. Griscom (ed.), The Historia Regum Britannia of Geoffrey of Monmouth (London and New York, 1929)," Romantic Review, vol. 21 (1930), p. 354
• Julia C. Crick, The Historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth, vol. 3, A Summary Catalogue if the Manuscripts (Cambridge, 1989), p. 297.
• Siân Echard, "Whose History? Naming Practices in the Transmission of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britannie," Arthuriana, vol. 22, no. 4, Special Issue in Honor of Edward Donald Kennedy (2012), p. 13 (article: pp. 8-24).
• Lydia Yaitsky Kertz, "Fragments of Malmesbury: A Re-evaluation of Manuscript Lewis E.247 Based on Recently Discovered Parchment Leaves," Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing History, vol. 16 (2013), pp. 227-247, 313.

Keywords

• 12th century
• 13th century
• England
• History
• Missing leaves

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E 247: Gesta regum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings); Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

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• Text

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Table of contents

• fol. 1r — Historia regum Britanniae (imperfect)
• fol. 26r — Gesta regum Anglorum (imperfect)

Decorations

• Flyleaf 1 recto — Notations in pencil
• fol. 1r — Decorated initial C
• fol. 12v — Marginal drawing, building
• fol. 40r — Marginal drawing, bridge
• fol. 41v — Marginal drawing, face
• fol. 45r — Marginal drawing, face
• fol. 45v — Marginal drawing, face
• fol. 48v — Marginal drawing, two crowned heads
• fol. 51r — Marginal drawing, head
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Notations in pencil