Item Summary

Descriptive Information

Title
Fall of princes.
Call Number
South wall 19, Taylor MS. 2e
Identifier
https://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/td96k665h
Publisher
[London, England], [publisher not identified], [between 1475 and 1500]
Language
Middle English
Date Created
1475-1500
Format
Book
Extent
i, 223, ii : parchment ; 428 x 305 mm
Provenance
Taylor MS. 2 has a blank space left for heraldic arms in the vinet border (fol. 1r). The earliest identifiable owner is Sir Henry Willoughby (1451-1528), of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire. The manuscript was offered by the London antiquarian bookseller Bernard Quaritch in a number of catalogues. According to A.S.G. Edwards, the collector Henry Harvey Frost (1873-1969) marked his copy of the 1931 Quaritch catalogue with an "x" in blue crayon to indicate that he had purchased the manuscript. Most of the manuscripts in the 1952 catalogue were from the collection of J.P.R. Lyell. Robert H. Taylor (1908-1985), of Princeton, New Jersey, Class of 1930, probably purchased the manuscript from Quaritch in 1956. Taylor's bequest to the Princeton University Library, 1985.
Source Acquisition
Gift of Robert H. Taylor.
References
Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 1, pages 404-407.
Rights Statement
Copyright Not Evaluated
Notes
John Lydgate's Middle English version of Laurent de Premierfait's Middle French translation (1409) of Giovanni Boccaccio, De casibus virorum illustrium.
Script: Bastard Secretary.
Decoration: Vinet and demi-vinet borders and 4-line initials in gold, rose, pink, blue, and green at the beginning of the text and the first eight chapters; floriated initials with partial borders for prologues to books 2 (fol. 43r), 3 (fol. 71v), 5 (fol. 124v), and 8 (fol. 181r).
Binding Note
England, late 15th century. Blind-tooled brown leather over oak boards (12 mm thick); rebacked with several modern repairs, especially in upper portion of gutter on fols. 1-97.

Discovery Information

Subject
Kings and rulers—Poetry—Early works to 1800
Ethics—Early works to 1800
Fame—Early works to 1800
Manuscripts, English (Middle)—New Jersey—Princeton

Physical Characteristics

File Count
452

Institutional Information

Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean Manuscripts
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/b3ebf761-6bab-4162-828e-56f0a132bd29/manifest