Item Summary

A poem in 9 books by John Lydgate, who adapted Laurent de Premierfait's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's 'De casibus virorum illustrium'.

Descriptive Information

Title
[Fall of princes].
Call Number
South wall 19, Garrett MS. 139e
Identifier
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/gt54kw24g
Publisher
[England], [between 1475 and 1500]
Language
Middle English
Date Created
1475-1500
Extent
419 pages : parchment ; 373 x 255 mm (280 x 178 mm) bound to 387 x 285 mm.
Provenance
Early provenance unknown. In the mid-16th century owned by Richard Reeds. Intermediate provenance is unknown. Later owned by Richard Heber until being sold on 11 February 1836 by the London bookseller and auctioneer Robert Harding Evans. Purchased by John Thomas Payne and Henry Foss for Sir Thomas Phillipps. Later sold at Sotheby's in London on 10-17 June 1896, where it was acquired by Bernard Quaritch. Purchased from Quaritch by Robert Garrett, Class of 1897 on 1 October 1905. His gift to Princeton University Library in 1942.
Source Acquisition
Gift; of Robert Garrett, Princeton Class of 1897, 1942.
References
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.
Rights Statement
No Known Copyright
Notes
Incipit: "He tat whilom dide his diligence, The boke of Bochas in frensh to translate, Out of latyn he callid was laurence, The tyme truly remembred and te date, Yere when kyng John trou3 his mortal fate, Was prisoner brou3t to tis r-egioun, When he first gan on tis translatioun ..."
Explicit: "Now on te whele now set in lowe degree, Who will encres be vertu most ascende."
Ms. codex.
Title from printed catalog.
Manicules (p. 11, 54, etc.)
Collation: Parchment ; iv folios (2 paper, 2 modern parchment) + 419 pages + iii folios (1 parchment, 2 paper) ; catchwords in banderoles ; modern pagination in pencil.
Layout: 47 lines per page in two columns ; ruled.
Decoration: Red initials with green penwork and red highlights.
Binding Note
Later binding. England, early 19th century. Brown calf over pasteboards. Blind-stamped along perimeter and gold-tooled along board edges and turn-ins. Endbands. Marbled paper paste-downs and flyleaves of vermillion. Gilt edges. Blue silk bookmark. Spine rebacked.

Discovery Information

Subject
Literature, Medieval—Early works to 1800
Kings and rulers—Poetry—Early works to 1800
Manuscripts, English (Middle)—New Jersey—Princeton
Manicules
decorated initials
Blind tooled bindings
Gold tooled bindings
Headbands
Gilt edges
Ribbon markers

Physical Characteristics

File Count
436

Institutional Information

Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean Manuscripts
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/4bc2f6b4-7378-4735-867d-f167f5f83ce3/manifest