COLLECTION NAME:
Medieval Collection
Record
Image Number:
JRL0927283dc
Reference Number:
English MS 2
Link to Catalogue:
Image Title:
Story of Cadmus
Parent Work Title:
Fall of Princes
Alternative Parent Work Title:
Falle of Pryncys
Creator:
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
Creator Role:
Author
Display Creator:
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
Date Created:
15th-16th century
Page:
11r
Image Sequence Number:
011r
Description:
Fall of Princes. Book one: Apollo tells Cadmus to search for a bull that has never drawn a yoke and to build a new city where he finds the bull. Cadmus does this and names the city Thebes. Cadmus was a wise man who invented laws and an alphabet; he married a woman called Hermione (Harmonia?) and had four beautiful daughters. One of his daughters called Semele had a son by Jupiter. Small illuminated and coloured initials introduce the verses. The written space is 285 x 200 mm in two columns and the script is rather an ugly and unstable anglicana formata.
Language Code:
enm-GB
Subject:
English literature--Manuscripts
Subject:
English literature
Subject:
Poetry, Medieval
Subject:
Mythology, Greek--Poetry
Subject:
Mythology in literature
Subject:
Mythology, Greek, in literature
Subject:
Literature, Medieval--Manuscripts
Subject:
Literature, Medieval
Category of Material:
Manuscripts
Sub-Category:
Codex
Technique Used:
Handwriting
Technique Used:
Illumination (image-making process)
Medium:
Ink
Support:
Vellum
Places Covered:
Greece: Central Greece and Euboea: Boeotia: Thebes
People Covered:
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
People Covered:
Cadmus (Greek mythology)
People Covered:
Jupiter (Roman deity)
People Covered:
Apollo (Greek deity)
People Covered:
Semele (Greek mythology)
Item Height:
417 mm
Item Width:
292 mm
Current Repository:
John Rylands University Library, The University of Manchester, U.K.
Provenance:
Lindsay family Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, former owner
Provenance:
Fairfax, Brian, 1676-1749, the commissioner of customs and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Provenance:
Child, Francis, Sir, 1735-1763, of Osterley Park, Middlesex.
Rights Holder - Image:
The University of Manchester Library
Rights holder - Work:
The University of Manchester Library
Access Rights:
References:
Tyson, Moses, 'Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library' (1928), p.7.
References:
Parts of this catalogue have been reproduced from Ker, N.R., 'Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 400. By kind permission of Oxford University Press
References:
Bergen, Henry, 'Lydgate's Fall of princes.' (London: Pub. for the Early English Text Society by H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1924-27.)
Bibliographic Citation:
Morgan, Margery M., 'A specimen of early printer's copy: Ryland English MS 2', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 33 (1950), pp. 194-6.
Notes:
Ostensibly the work is an adaptation of Laurent de Premierfait's 1409 translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's 'De casibus vivorum illustrium', a collection of moralized tragedies, extending from Adam to King John of France, that were designed to illustrate Fortune's fickle nature and the downfalls brought on by sinful living and unjust government.
Date Captured (yyyy-mm-dd):
2009-08-11
Multi Page Number:
135
Image Creation Technique:
Digital capture by Heritage Imaging, The University of Manchester Library
Date Image Added (yyyy-mm):
2009-10
Metadata Language:
eng-GB
Story of Cadmus
