- [Fall of princes].
- Extent:
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- 210 leaves : parchment ; 370 x 255 mm (278 x 178 mm)
- Date:
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- 1400
- Language:
- Author:
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- Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
- Abstract:
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- A poem in 9 books by John Lydgate, who adapted Laurent de Premierfait's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's 'De casibus virorum illustrium'.
- Description:
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- Ms. codex.
- Title from printed catalog.
- Script: Anglicana, by at least two scribes who were working concurrently.
- Decoration: Red initials with green penwork and red highlights.
- Binding note:
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- Bound in England in the early 19th century in brown calf over pasteboards, gilt and blind stamped along perimeter and gilt along board edges and along turn-ins; sewn on five raised bands; endbands with secondary sewing of white, yellow, and dark and light green; paste-downs and flyleaves of vermillion marbled paper; gilt edges; a blue silk bookmark; spine rebacked. Spine title (gilt): “The Fall of princes by Lydgate.”
- Provenance:
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- Early provenance unknown. In the mid-16th century, the manuscript was owned by Richard Reeds, whose ownership inscription on p. 45 noted that the manuscript had cost him 50 shillings: “huius libri est possessor Rychard reeds Precium est xxxxx s.” Intermediate provenance is unknown. Later the manuscript was in the collection of the British bibliophile Richard Heber (1777-1833) until being sold on 11 February 1836 by the London bookseller and auctioneer Robert Harding Evans (1778-1857). Purchased by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), of Middle Hill, Worcestershire and sold at Sotheby's in London, at the Phillipps sale, 10-17 June 1896, where it was acquired by the antiquarian bookseller Bernard Quaritch. Robert Garrett (1875-1961), of Baltimore, Maryland, Class of 1897, purchased the manuscript from Quaritch on 1 October 1905 and donated it to Princeton University Library in 1942.
- Source acquisition:
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- Gift; of Robert Garrett, Princeton Class of 1897, 1942.
- Contributor:
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- Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Garrett MS. 139
- References:
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- Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, pages 320-321
- Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, volume 1, page 893
- View in catalog: